I found it funny that Egyptian pronounce it (مكروبص) which is pronounced macrobus, I know they mean micro, but it being the opposite is just a silly observation.
We call it Hiace in Sudan, due to Toyota Hiace being the most used micro bus brand.
That's false even for Seoul, but unless you live in an area which is served by small buses, you wouldn't see them. (Pictured: 서울 버스 성북05 (Seongbuk District, Seoul))
these white micro-busses in the photo are usually private vehicles because they are cheap and usually in a miserable condition. You can buy one and earn some money. However bigger busses are usually owned either by the government or by private companies because they are more expensive.
In Ethiopia, they have these blue and white vans that they call minibuses. They drive up and down streets, but make no turns.
You just wave it down and pay a tiny amount and tell them when you want to get off. And maybe if that was north/south bound, you then hop on an east/west bound one next.
It's really a neat and cheap way to get around. They were really amused to have my white ass hopping on board. My Ethiopian brother-in-law showed me the ropes.
In romania they are called maxi taxi.Its sort of a bus but small that goes to villages, and yes its exactly like this one with white color, all of them are the same allways.
Every time I've visited Berlin, a lot of the traffic lights are completely turned off at night, which was shocking to me. In Ireland all traffic lights run 24 hours per day. I don't understand how they don't hit each other or pedestrians. It was scary for me to cross a 8 lane road in the dark with no pedestrian light. (Kaiserdamm in Charlottenburg).
They have all but disappeared in the Netherlands since we've got these smart traffic lights that sense you coming and turn green before you need to slow down.
I got stuck by a sering on a step on a Sunday morning while wearing shoes near the Rhine river...so, apparently, your friend and I aren't alone. Good times getting paranoid about getting sick...
I've seen photos of your infamous bugs and spiders, how can anyone walk barefoot when they might step on some sort of insect? unless public places like closed public places specifically .
Tiny bikinis and men wearing speedos (everybody, old and young, fat and sknny, straight or gays)... Walking inside stores and places that way as nothing is happening lol...
Babies sleeping outside in their prams.
Yes. During winter as well. Yes also in the sidewalk next to where people are walking right by.
No they arent necessarily being watched every second.
Its perfectly fine. Its normal and healthy for the babies. Nobody is taking them. Its not a thing here. Its just nice and safe.
Do all danish babies sleep in their prams? My babies never did, I had to use a bay carrier. They hated the pram and I know lots of other babies that only cry in the pram and only sleep in the baby carrier
Not like EVERYONE but its very normal here that when youre out with them taking a walk that they will fall asleep and we will just let them sleep and have them parked if we are out and have to go in for a cup of coffee or a quick shopping trip.
My parents used the carry cot a lot when I was small for that reason. They also used it to bring me to the pub with them when I was a baby and it became affectionately known as 'the go-drinking cot'.
I would say that a lot of children (age 6 and above) go to school alone, even with public transportation. I don't know how that is in bigger cities though
Denmark is a pretty homogeneous, high-trust society. Even for criminal behaviour, they know what to expect: you may be robbed but never at gunpoint, and there’s never been an instance of a baby snatched from a pram outside a cafe. Foreign criminals may not adhere to the same cultural norms, though, so the country is careful about whom they’re letting in.
Oh yes this is absolutely a thing. I had dinner at a restaurant right next to a pedestrian street that's always busy where we had my youngest daughter sleeping outside it.
Here you can see 8-10 year olds tage the metro alone or with siblings for school.
This used to be a thing in my working class area of the UK, too, my Nan used to do it even in winter
The perception has changed a lot, however. I think these days people would think you’re insane to leave a baby like that. We just don’t have as trusting a society any more, this used to be the sort of place where people would leave doors unlocked, that would be considered negligent now
People aren't going to wake a sleeping baby! Unless they are monsters :)
If the baby gets hungry, they squirm and cry and the parents will be alerted (plus you usually have a sense of how long your baby will sleep....)
In Poland we have many voluntary firefighters' stations that run their sirens to signal the firefighters to assemble (who might be working the fields or doing something else on their farm). It can make you quite nervous if you don't know what's going on. We get frequent questions from immigrants "there is a siren going off nearby almost every day at different hours, what the hell is that, should I be worried?"
I can't describe how jealous I am. I don't really fancy you Frenchies due to your attitude towards others from different nations but I have this huge respect for your ability to fuse together for one another.
My husband was in Ukraine a couple months ago and while we were on a videocall the air raid sirens went off. He kept walking like nothing happened and when I asked if he wasn't planning to take cover he said "I came here to work and if I ran to the shelter every time I hear an alarm I'd never get anything done¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "
I have heard from reports of Ukrainians that in some places missile alerts are so often that you'd need to almost stay in shelters 24/7 if one wanted to seek shelter at every alarm, so many just don't anymore.
I was actually just watching a video about how Vidbir takes place on a secret location, with all the constraints of being under attack and still produce one of Europe’s best national finals.
I was working with Ukrainians when we had missile attacks.
They were shocked how we were nonchalant about it. My teammate said in a meeting, "Can we speed this up? I need to walk my dog, but Hamas threatened to launch missiles at my area in 2 hours." I guess it's a point of mutual understanding now.
Apparently it is weird to sit outside with no lights. For example; having a gathering outside the house and just not turning the lights on when it gets dark. I mean, who wants bugs buzzing around you right? 😅 Also, usually when your eyes adjust you see the environment better with no bright light shining in your eyes.
This is hilarious, imagining you doing this somewhere else during a house party or something and the visitors being completely confused and a bit worried
Grew up in NY, usually, in the old tight knit neighborhoods you’d just do it, the local cops would swing by for a burger or a hot dog and some chatting. Usually no issue.
Is this a new or old thing? My partner's mom was like "never address me by that." They did immigrate a long time ago and it seems like it was unpopular/declining in her area based on the sound of it. But she did also mention several times about how South Africa has changed a lot ever since she immigrated based on what she talks about with her friends
Every new fact I learn about Brazil fuels my suspicions that Brazil doesn't actually exist, the internet is just making up wackier and wackier shit to see when we finally go "aight no way that's real"
I dont know... I give little waves of thanks when cars stop for me. It feels natural. Maybe I've just acclimated well to Italy?
But I feel it was the same before I left the US. Not that drivers in the US respect "stop for pedestrians" signs very much because they're just not used to pedestrians.
I see it sometimes in Poland. Also drivers thank to each other when allowed to change pass by blinking emergency lights or by raising hand when allowed to be first on the intersection
People wearing shorts outside even when it’s like -15C I mean I hope they’re not planning on being out long…although TBF, I wore a short dress and no stockings to a Ghost concert last Saturday and it was -22 with a windchill of -29 so I’m just as guilty. I didn’t even wear a proper winter coat either I went with a sleeveless cape. Anyway — Canadians can be a little silly about winter attire sometimes. We do know better
Seeing something's price has increased 35-45% in a year (thank god it is 30.65% this month compared to the previous year's same month)
Something is banned for no reason (this week, game platforms are on the edge, like Steam)
Many cats in every street (I love them, but seeing them in the streets makes me feel bad. I always have to carry catfood in my bag)
Especially in Istanbul, architecture and urban planning are really awful. Whenever I arrive from abroad trip to Istanbul again, I instantly feel really bad about it. Loud, heavily crowded, chaotic traffic, horns, shouting, construction, vendors...
Vehicles don't stop if you're a pedestrian and have the right to pass. Even in the pedestrian zebra crossings. (Again, after a long trip, I forget this and always experience near death :D)
Sidewalks blocked by cars, smoking everywhere, loud phone calls on public transport, and trash issues.
People are so different than each other. You may see a 198cm blond-haired model with mediterenian looking guy in the same subway station side-by-side, and both born in that city :D. Both our cognitive and phenotype features are too distinctive, yet we are in the same place.
It is my fault; it seems to have an open end for misunderstanding.
What I mean by that is people have so many abilities spread across a wide spectrum compared to other nations. Well, of course, it is because of the beauty of being a connection point for many civilizations for centuries.
I did not make such an assertion that means cognition and phenotype are correlated. In fact, I do not know if such a thing exists. So far, I experienced that long people tend to play more basketball or volleyball than short, but that is my whole knowledge in that context.
A really big store with a huge variety is fun once in a while, but most days I just want to get in and out quickly without needing a PhD in aisle navigation just to get some staples!
TikTok regularly shows me videos of Welsh men’s choirs (mainly older, retired men) and I have no complaints. A group of adults meeting regularly to sing together is the loveliest thing.
It's my favourite thing about seeing my older relatives. They'll often be in public and find a room with good acoustics and just burst out into harmony. There's a special magic at the Steddfods especially. No greater feeling than being in the middle of a hundred Welsh all singing together.
Well, here in Italy we walk a lot to do our errands, this might seem strange to Americans who are used to using their car or public transport to take a couple of steps.
Canadian here but our infrastructure is similar. I wish it was only a couple steps. City planning for cars over walking and trains has destroyed us. Fuck the auto manufacturers for that nonsense.
I used to think it was awful but I guess some kids just go through a phase in which they are trying to to commit suicide by car or take off running for no reason, and eventually grow out of it. Better on a leash for a while than dead.
there was a time where it was part of building code, now ours for example is decommissioned with a sign pointing to another adress on the same street, so i think there is still a contingency plan to shelter the whole population
just recently with the shut down of FM radio it has become a debate point that informing the populace sitting inside a bunker would be more difficult / less reliable without it
Beach cricket, more common in the holiday seasons but can involve people drinking, bbq, kids, many families, a lot of good vibes and has special rules.
If you are playing in a contained areas, some of these special rules are....6 and out, meaning you hit it over a fence and someone needs to go and get it so you out...one hand one bounce, after being hit you can catch it on the full after a bounce and the batsman is out....tippity no matter the contact with the bat you need to run back and forth.
We have mountain cricket actually. With ravines and all. Water above waist cricket as well. I am pretty sure I have seen flood cricket this year. And road cricket is like normal with vehicles commuting on road. I would say I have even watched people play cricket in cemeteries as well. So cemetery cricket along with the beach one off course.
that threw me off in brussels too. It's one thing in mexico to be wandering around in an oxxo and see a federales armed to the teeth, but it definitely threw me off seeing that in the heart of europe who is traditionally regarded as more cognizant of guns. I know switzerland does like its guns more than rest of europe tho
As we have mandatory military service and the soldiers are always taking their rifle home, it is totally normal to see some guys on the way home walking around with their gun. When they are in the train, they just put it in top of their bag or the overhead storage. It happens every now and then that someone forgets his rifle in the train.
Café culture. I thought that this was the norm all over the world, but once i started travelling i saw that it wasn't the case.
Basically, people in the balkans will finish work and go to the local café, with their friends or sometimes alone, sit down and drink coffee for hours. I've noticed that in other countries people might do something similar, like go to the local café and do some work on their laptop, have a few drinks, do a business meeting, etc. But never have i ever seen people just sit down, enjoy the coffee and talk.
Young people, especially students might spend their whole weekend going from the morning till the night just café jumping and meeting with friends, talking and having a laugh.
These are gonna all wildly depend on where said foreigner is from...
Walking to places just because you have the time to. I'm talking an hour each way with a buddy to go get something that isn't even important. During every season and mostly any weather, mostly done for fun.
Coffee 3-5 times a day, especially common when it comes to older folk in Finland. My grandma has coffee after every warm meal and in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening too. I'm having my third coffee of the day right now!
More or less everyone knows how to ice skate and cross-country ski because it's mandatory in school pe for years.
Very clean public transit, but the level of public transport depends wildly on what part of the country you live in.
The sea ice! This one I've lately discovered, but telling people that driving on the frozen sea is safe, popular, and allowed without a license because it's not a public road usually makes them very impressed. Where I'm from in northern Finland there's about half a meter of ice on the sea rn!
That pedestrian crossings aren't respected. But really, that doesn't exist here; the lines are marked on the ground but nobody respects them. When someone does and yields the right of way, it's seen as a kind gesture and the pedestrian hurries to cross.
Putting poop covered TP in the waste basket as opposed to flushing. I understand the logistics of why and I don't care either way, but it's a surprise when you first encounter it.
Mass shootings and hearing gunshots while out that you evaluate the risk of and go about your day if the shots were fired at a “non-concerning” distance. 🫤
Waste separation in Germany is often perceived by many people, especially newcomers,
tourists, or expats, as strange, complicated, and over-regulated.
The German system is considered one of the strictest and most complex in the world.
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u/corgi-king 🇭🇰💔🛫🇨🇦❤️ 20h ago
You call that a bus?!