Who Does it Better?
We have been traveling the world for about six months, and we have had our eyes open, observing differences between our homeland of America and the rest of the planet.
This list includes a few, maybe controversial, comparisons of who does it better.
America is the winner when it comes to…..
Free bathrooms
In America, I’ve never had to pay to use a public restroom in my life. I can’t say the same for my experience in Europe. I’ve had to pay to use a bathroom in gas stations, shopping malls, and train stations. Typically, the bathroom door is blocked off, only allowing entrance when inserting a card or cash into the slot. The price has been as high as 1 Euro in some places! In some locations, there is a tiny door to allow kids to go in for free, but that doesn’t grant parents access to go in with them, so you still end up paying for a bathroom. It’s bullshit and I don’t like it.
Store hours
This is a controversial subject, because we all know Americans love consumerism, but the situation in Europe isn’t my favorite when it comes to store hours. Many places close for several hours during lunch time. Even restaurants close between 2 and 3, and then reopen at 6 or 7. If you need to run errands on a Sunday, forget about it. Most places are closed completely. This is a custom I haven’t gotten used to and actually really freakin hate. Being able to go into any restaurant or store basically any time of the day in American is so wonderful, and I didn’t know I’d miss that.
Smoking laws
When I was a kid, I remember “smoking and non-smoking sections” in restaurants. I was very sensitive to the smell of smoke, and hated leaving Pizza Hut with the smell of smoke from the other side of the restaurant on my clothes. In the 1990s, America gradually started implementing smoking restrictions in many public places. Generally speaking, smoking in public is somewhat restrictive in public places in America. Some states even have a law that prohibits smoking within 20 feet of an entry of a building. The UK and Europe seemingly have no such laws. As nonsmokers, most places have been difficult to acclimate to, with Greece being the worst. I saw staff smoking inside of restaurants, and basically everyone smokes anywhere they want. I didn’t see people try to shield their smoke as my kids approached, unlike in America, where smokers generally try to stay away from kids while smoking. Eating outside of a restaurant was worse than eating inside sometimes because everyone around us would be smoking. If you smoke, America must be a terrible place to live. But as a non-smoker, I love the laws that we have in place in the US.
Athens man flicking his cigarette butt as he smokes inside the restaurant.
Washers and dryers
I don’t know why American washers and dyers are so different than everywhere else in the world, but I’m telling you right now…America figured it out. Everything is bigger in America, and our washers are no exception. I could do a week’s worth of laundry for my family of four in one or two loads of laundry in West Virginia. In the rest of the world, you need to wash clothes for a family every day, or at least every two days. It takes forever for the machine to adequately clean clothes (sometimes up to three hours for one load), and the dryers don’t work well at all. We’ve had to hang our clothes dry in most places because the dryer doesn’t do its job. I’ve read that the difference comes down to adequate space in homes to accommodate a bigger machine, but this doesn’t account for the machines not working well. I can’t wait to give my American washer and dryer a big hug when we return.
Doorknobs
I can’t recall ever going to an American house that doesn’t have a doorknob on the front door. Strangely, many homes around Europe and the UK do not have doorknobs. They may have a latch, or a knob that would allow you to pull the door closed, but a knob that turns? Not always an option. This is super annoying because you kind of need to plan ahead when it comes to how you are going to get into the house. You always need to bring your key with you because the door default locks from the inside when you close it, so if you don’t have a key, you’re screwed.
A beautiful Italian door of our AirBnB. I left it cracked so I wouldn’t lock myself out, but there’s no knob. Just a handle to pull it closed.
Screens on windows
I hate bugs getting inside the house, but the rest of the world doesn’t seem to care. American windows usually slide up, having a screen to keep pests out. Everywhere else has a handle you twist to either open the window wide open (like a door), or you crack it to leave a few inches open. But no screen exists. I just don’t like it.
Maintenance of common areas
This is controversial, because some would argue that more wild spaces are better for the environment than mowing the grass everywhere. It’s my observation that Americans value attractiveness over all else when it comes to our parks and common spaces. Our parks and highways are generally well maintained when it comes to grass and overgrowth (within reason). This not a norm in most places we traveled to. In Germany, grass along the sidewalks were over 3ft high because it was May, and the entire country didn’t mow to allow the butterflies to do their thing. It’s their annual “No Mow May” tradition. Parks in Europe didn’t seem to get a lot of love from a lawn mower, either. Noticing the differences in values was pretty obvious right away on this trip.
Spray paint and graffiti
America has our fair share of graffiti, but Europe has us beat by a long-shot. Its everywhere. On beautiful homes in city streets, 1000-year old Medieval ruins, trains, overpasses… everywhere. I’m sure the reasons graffiti exists and isn’t addressed is complex, but I’m grateful the graffiti issue in America isn’t as abundant.
Hate to point the finger at you again, Athens, but the graffiti situation is a situation.
The rest of the world is the winner when it comes to…
Meat quality
We notice a big difference in the quality of meat purchased in stores in the rest of the world compared to America. We know American mass-production of meat is horrific, and we really all should be vegan, but I can tell a difference in how much better the meat is basically everywhere else. I will be making much different choices in where I purchase my food when we get settled again.
Recycling
It seems like the expectation around the world to recycle literally as much as you can. Most houses have a compost bin for food waste, and there are bins for paper, glass, yard waste, and aluminum all over cities. At my house in America, we couldn’t recycle glass because it “costs to much” to haul the glass to a recycling center on a big truck. I could have driven it to a center somewhere out of town, but I’ve heard that it’s not a guarantee that recycling will actually happen once I drop my stuff off. I’ve noticed more accessibility to protecting the planet through recycling in the rest of the world, and I wish America took note.
These little bins are in every house and AirBnB we’ve visited in the UK and Europe.
Traffic circles
Traffic circles are wonderful, They reduce accidents including 90% fewer fatalities, 75% fewer injuries, 30-50% increase in traffic capacity for intersections, which means there is less delay waiting at stops. The rest of the world has many more traffic circles than America does, which means there is also less wear and tear on the breaks and tires. It’s awesome.
Tipping culture
America has gotten so out of hand with tipping culture. You see a tip jar everywhere, and it’s unclear who we should actually tip nowadays. The rest of the world seems much more content with not accepting a tip, probably because they are being paid a living wage and don’t rely on tips to pay their bills. What a concept.
Being bilingual
This isn’t the whole truth. The rest of the world seems to have similar statistics when it comes to bilingual speakers. That being said, far more people speak English than I expected during our travels. Little kids were so inspiring to hear as they, eloquently or otherwise, spoke English to us. Americans don’t value the importance of teaching languages in schools, and I wish we did. I’ve already looked into a Spanish tutor for our family.
Resources for the homeless
At this point, we’ve been to many major cities all over the UK, the South Pacific, America and Europe and the situation with homelessness in America looks much different than the rest of the world. In America, if you are in a largely populated area or in an area with public transportation, you’re guaranteed to see homeless living in terrible conditions. In Europe, we saw maybe a dozen individual homeless people (and that’s probably over-estimating the mark). While America has more homeless than Europe does, the EU has taken a more concerted effort to provide supports to their homeless population. Efforts such as Housing First, which prioritizes housing homeless, gives folks a safe place to live and be part of a larger community. There are even some areas that require apartment buildings to include a few apartments for “low-income” housing. Rather than sequestering our homeless to areas unseen by the rest of society, the EU is making an effort to house their homeless, thus encouraging a meaningful life in the community. Exploring cities without having to explain to my kids why people are sleeping in tents under a bridge has been a nice departure from an American city experience.