7 Differences I Notice As A Canadian Travelling In Europe & Some Are Low-Key Embarrassing

The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.

Travelling Europe as a Canadian is full of adventures, views, good food, and also some hilarious interactions. There is so much that's different from Canada when you fly overseas, and my most recent trip has me ready to share all of the most entertaining ones – including some pretty embarrassing moments.

I've been to Europe a few times, and my partner is from Germany, so I've definitely been exposed to some of the differences, but my vacation in Italy gave me even more insight into the funny things my fellow Canadians might not expect.

So buckle up, and definitely read this before your next trip.

Dinner time is seriously delayed

Hungry for dinner at 6 p.m.? Sorry, everything is closed! Before we adjusted to the late-night meals, on our first day in Italy, we hit up a bar/restaurant at 5:50 p.m. like we were searching for an early bird special.

We sat down and had to request a dinner menu (which, thankfully for our hungry stomachs, they gave us). Then we sat there and ate our dinner while everyone around us stared and had drinks. We left around 8 p.m., and still no one had even looked at the food menu.

The toilets are not the same

Ever tried a bidet? If you're travelling to Europe anytime soon, you'll have the chance. Need I say more?

Good luck finding an automatic car

I travelled with a big group of people on my last trip, and when it came time to rent a car, I was the only one who could drive a stick shift. This meant a week of me stalling on steep hills and cursing Canada for making manual cars basically non-existent.

In most of Europe, automatic cars are few and far between, so you might want to take some driving lessons on a stick shift car before going.

Getting groceries works differently

Me and my girlfriends, who I travelled with, hit up the local grocery store to get supplies. We were excited by all of the different fruits there and loaded up our cart.

All was good until we got to the cash register, and the employee checking us out made an announcement over the speaker in Italian. Unbeknownst to us, she was calling over someone to come get all of our fruit and weigh and label it, like we were supposed to do in the first place.

Now, this might not sound that bad, but suddenly everyone in our line was staring at us, as they all had to wait for a good ten minutes for this guy to come and fix our mistake. The line — and our embarrassment — grew with every passing second.

It's safe to say we didn't make any friends that day. So, pro tip: Use the scales in the fruit section of the stores.

Every beach is a nude beach

Canada had two official nude beaches, and that's it. In most European countries, you'll see some naked people strutting around the sandy shores.

You'll have to flag down the check

At the end of a meal in Canada, a server will come and ask you if you'd like to pay and leave.

You could be waiting for hours, and a server won't come and bother you in most European spots. It's actually really nice because you have these long, leisurely dinners without interruption.

But if you're not in the know, you might be wondering where the heck your server is.

Getting off the plane is different sometimes

I've landed in Europe a few times and have been ushered off the plane onto the tarmac, to then be shuttled to the inside of the airport. In Canada, we land and have to wait for a gate to open up for the plane to then deboard.

I gotta say, Europeans have it right because a shuttle is way more efficient.