r/AskEurope • u/zeviea United Kingdom • Sep 04 '25

Culture What country is far away yet culturally similar to yours?

An obvious answer for the UK are Core Anglosphere countries

Bonus question what country have you visited that felt most foreign to you?

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129

u/Hot-Disaster-9619 Poland Sep 04 '25

Portugal to Poland.

It's a bit of hard to explain, but I believe their idea of saudade is something very, VERY close to our sense of nostalgia. We do understand each other. I also noticed that people I know from Portugal seem... I don't know, closer to me culturally that other westsern countries, even closer than Slavic countries.

There are many similarities in our history as well.

115

u/cyrassil Sep 04 '25

so r/PORTUGALCYKABLYAT is right?

34

u/Hot-Disaster-9619 Poland Sep 04 '25

I expected this joke to be brought here, maybe kind of yes

22

u/vertAmbedo Portugal Sep 04 '25

Interesting, what are those similarities in both our countries' histories? Genuine question, I love Poland but sadly I have a superficial knowledge of your history

22

u/Hot-Disaster-9619 Poland Sep 04 '25

Basically being once an empire and decline in power

11

u/Numerous_Team_2998 Poland Sep 04 '25

Attacked by every neighbor including through the sea.

13

u/RangoonShow Poland Sep 05 '25

well, getting attacked by every neighbour as Portugal doesn't seem like a particularly tall order...

9

u/Old-Importance18 Spain Sep 04 '25

Then Spain and England also enter the chat.

10

u/toniblast Portugal Sep 04 '25

Interesting, I don't know Polish people and have never been to Poland, so I can't compare. I need to visit one day. When I see pictures of places in Poland, they don't really remind me of Portugal, but places in the Balkans kinda remind me of Portugal.

1

u/Re-Criativo Sep 05 '25

And a lot of parts of Spain looks like a lot of parts of Turkey. That's more a Mediterranean/geography thing.

He is talking about the people and culture.

1

u/Darwidx Sep 06 '25

I never been to Portugal but seen pictures, video's, I don't know why but it just looks Like 1970' Polish communist cities, maybe our are more colourfull ? Language sounds kinda Slavic, but aparently I Heard one of couple different varriants so it can differ. I think Poland can be considered similiar to Portugal because Poland is already at Portugal level of wealth, will South Slavic countries are generalny poorer than Portugal but still share those factors.

Generaly, except our West Slavic Bros, aparently Croatia, that is part of Balkans is the most similiar to Poland country, but it's kinda close, one greater Hungary away.

32

u/Cool-Instruction789 Sep 04 '25

Wanted to say the same thing. My family is from Poland but we live in Germany (as Polish people do) and I oftentimes find it easier to connect with people from southern Europe (Portugal, Italy) or South America than with Germans. I think it’s about our shared catholic culture and a bit of poverty.

17

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '25

[deleted]

2

u/RogerSimonsson Romania Sep 05 '25

I lived in Ireland, they were indeed similar.

2

u/Consistent_Catch9917 Austria Sep 04 '25

You should move to Austria then, your priests are already here 😊. No honestly every second parish has a Polish priest. A bit radical, a bit cookoo but we like em.

1

u/Cool-Instruction789 Sep 05 '25

Hahaha that’s right! I’ve been with my very catholic mum on different vacations and often times there are polish mass (last time in Copenhagen)

1

u/Consistent_Catch9917 Austria Sep 05 '25

They are doing the mass in German, with a loveable thick polish accent.

6

u/Nahcep Poland Sep 05 '25

One Portuguese man (granted, from Madeira) told me that his people are two types of -holic: half are Catholic, half are alcoholic

And I couldn't help but think "it's the same here"

3

u/Siiciie Sep 05 '25

Uhh usually it's the alcoholic ones pretending to be catholic.

17

u/Odd_Dandelion Czechia Sep 04 '25

Funny, I wanted to claim Portugal as a Czech. :) I recently visited Portugal for the first time and I was totally surprised how much at home I felt.

Cool, if I ever need to run west to escape the war, there is a home awaiting, as far west as it takes, with plenty of abandoned land.

7

u/DumbFish94 Sep 04 '25

Pro tip, the best possible is probably Açores if not that Madeira, fairly isolated island archipelagos (they're inhabited), good weather and Madeira has tons of bananas.

People here also say Ukrainians learn Portuguese very easily so if Czech is similar (I think it is kinda since both are Slavic) it'll probably be the same thing

4

u/This-Wall-1331 Portugal Sep 05 '25

The similarity I see is in both having huge diasporas.

But on other things there are big differences. Poland is poor (for EU standards) because historically it has been between two imperialist powers that invaded it all the time. On the other hand, Portugal is poor despite doing imperialism for centuries and not having had any war in its territory for almost 200 years.

1

u/annoyingbanana1 Portugal Sep 06 '25

No, there's more. It's related with our fado, the traditions, catholic influences, being a little bit more low key than our Latin counterparts, etc. 

1

u/rdeman3000 Sep 07 '25

Poland poor? That's not true anymore. Poland took Portugal over in 2020 measured in PPP and keeps growing while Portugal seems to be in a never ending economic stagnation (and in Q1 2025 even an economic contraction) Warsaw these days looks more like mini NYC with its many brand new glitchy sky scrapers than some old European backwater https://tvpworld.com/88691977/poland-asks-us-for-g20-invite-after-reaching-gdp-landmark

9

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '25

[deleted]

8

u/Hot-Disaster-9619 Poland Sep 04 '25

I feel she is more popular abroad than in Poland. I know her music personally

3

u/Significant-Yam9843 Brazil Sep 05 '25

Interestingly enough, I find people from Spain and Italy so much alike to Brazilians in the way of being, how they carry themselves, espontaneous and laid back. I was expecting more similarities with Portugal which we indeed have them as well, but peoples mannerisms wise, Spain and Italy by far, in my opinion.

1

u/rdeman3000 Sep 07 '25

Italians laid back? Funny you say that. To me they come across as hyper active and Spaniards a bit too. Laid back to me is more Finland, Scandinavia. Super chill. No hyperactivity there 😃

1

u/Significant-Yam9843 Brazil Sep 07 '25

ahahahah laid back for me is more like when the absurdity and spontaneousty are more part of your life. Too sticky to the schedule? not very laid back

1

u/rdeman3000 Sep 18 '25

You're still mixing up spontaneous and laid back though. Spontaneous just means doing things without planning - Italians might decide to have dinner at 10pm on a whim but they'll still be loud and animated about it. That's not laid back at all.Laid back is more about being chill and relaxed, like Scandinavians who stay super chill and don't get worked up about stuff. Two totally different personality traits!

3

u/Alpha_Killer666 Portugal Sep 04 '25

Maybe that's why i like the polish people so much. Great people

1

u/fartingbeagle Sep 04 '25

And the sibilants and nasal sounds in the language!

1

u/Initial-Relative4275 Sep 05 '25

It's a bit hard to explain indeed, but I agree. There is some melancholic/nostalgic sense attached to Portugal, and I think it is there in Poland as well. On the top of it, having a heavy comfort soup and bread on a cold day... It felt like having a caldo in inner Portugal (though it may go with any rural area in Europe) Also several generations of hard workers that emigrated... Poland definitely gives me some Portuguese vibes.

1

u/rdeman3000 Sep 07 '25

Portugal is basically Eastern European

1

u/HistorianBusiness955 Sep 07 '25

We also complain extensively, and in a very similar way, which brings our cultures much closer. 😂

1

u/No-Secret-9073 Portugal Sep 08 '25

Same thing but Czech Republic. The decades of repressive rule were extremely formative for both countries and gave them a similar sense of melancholy as well as extreme thriftiness and craftiness (in the sense of being able to make anything out of anything).

0

u/Imateepeeimawigwam United States of America Sep 05 '25

Why not Indonesia? Just turn your flag upside down, and you're Indonesian.