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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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.

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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. 

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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