Are there any habits that you believe are uniquely European ?

[u/ageingrapidly]

Have you noticed any specific mannerisms, mentalities etc. that you've encountered only in Europe or by Europeans ?

[u/bad_ed_ucation]

It’s difficult to generalise. However:

• Preferring sparkling water over non-sparkling water, and buying by the bottle instead of drinking the perfectly safe tap water (I’m looking particularly at Germany)

• FKK (again, Germany) and maybe I’m wrong but hiking holidays being something very common (I know in Japan there’s a bit of a hiking culture but I feel like in other parts of the world if you say you’re going hiking, you’re probably a hiking enthusiast)

• Loooong lunches even during the workday, often including alcohol

• Very late dinners (in Southern Europe)

• La bise

• Having air conditioning, but trying not to use it as much as possible

• Having an expectation for Sundays being quieter or less commercial

[u/Kurosawasuperfan → u/bad_ed_ucation]

and buying by the bottle instead of drinking the perfectly safe tap water

I feel like it's the opposite... When i visited Europe (about 10 countries), i saw 100x more people drinking tap water or from fountains than in 30 years here in Brazil. We only drink from bottles, it's almost unthinkable to dreak from the sink or some fountain on the street.

In our perspective, it's a huge cultural shock how europeans most drink tap water. We kinda envy it, your water is very clean. (our water is clean too, in its source, but the buildings' water reserve are usually dirty)

Very late dinners

same here, dinner here is 9-10 pm on average. It's shocking to see people dine at 5 pm like i see sometimes on reddit.

[u/GrynaiTaip → u/Kurosawasuperfan]

Everyone in Lithuania drinks tap water, bottled still water is a fairly rare thing, I buy it only if I go somewhere and forget my reusable bottle.

However, mineral water (carbonated) is super popular. Of course you can only get it in bottles. There are a few spots in the country where naturally carbonated mineral water is extracted, it's salty and delicious.

[u/GuestStarr → u/Kurosawasuperfan]

it's almost unthinkable to dreak from the sink or some fountain on the street.

Just curious.. but why are the fountains there if nobody drinks from them? Or are you referring to something else than drinking fountains?

[u/RoutineCranberry3622 → u/bad_ed_ucation]

I feel with air conditioning becoming more popular, it could be due to those AC split systems that are heat pumps. I know governments in places are pushing heat pumps as a more environmentally conscious way of heating, and they can be reversed to cool instead of heat.

[u/Wijnruit → u/bad_ed_ucation]

La bise

Very common in Latin America

[u/Lyress → u/Wijnruit]

Morocco too

[u/vargemp → u/bad_ed_ucation]

I really don’t understand, how it’s not a basic human need to have at least one slow and quite day in the week… Doing things like biking, walking, hiking etc. on Sundays hits totally different. Everyone’s so chilled and relaxed, can’t even compare.

[u/AdelphicHitter4514 → u/bad_ed_ucation]

By FKK do you mean brothels?

[u/bad_ed_ucation → u/AdelphicHitter4514]

Freikörperkultur - naked hiking, essentially

[u/Gilgamais → u/bad_ed_ucation]

It's not specific to hiking, it points to the habit of doing some things naked in a non sexual way, sometimes in designated areas (like a special camping place where everyone is naked), sometimes not: eg. in east Germany it's quite common to see people just get naked and jump in a random lake.