Europe
Cultures can be significantly different around the world. Often tourists can come back from Europe and have some pretty interesting stories to talk about.
Certain things can seem unbelievable when going from America to Europe, people drive on the left side of the road, and they use the metric system (along with most of the world). So they're bound to have a lot of other cool differences.
Cleaned At Night
Every night in Spain, around 3 a.m., this MASSIVE fleet of street scrubbers, vacuum mobiles, and water hoses appeared and cleaned the entire city for about an hour.
It was like ~100 people every night just cleaning the city. The following morning, all of Salamanca was spotless. It was really touching to see.
No Threshold
In Italy, there is virtually no threshold for how much distance should be left between a speeding car and any obstacles (including pedestrians) it is zooming past.
A bus driver will rush down a narrow cobblestone street with about a centimeter to spare between the sides of the bus and any parked cars, walls, ancient monuments, or playing children.
Phone Booths
For me, it was old red phone booths in England. Not that I thought they didn't exist, but I'm from Michigan, and I'd only seen them in movies or cartoons. I had no idea how common they were.
But to change my expectations, I've found out that some of them had even been refurbished into other things. I saw one that was an ATM and another that had a defibrillator.
Jumping Into Snow
Saw some crazy teenagers jumping out of windows to land in the snow. They had piled a lot of it where they were landing, but I still wouldn't try something like that.
They were literally falling three stories! They seemed to know what they were doing, so I'd rather leave them to do it instead of me. Still keeps me awake at night.
Giant Birds Nest
We were driving through Spain, and to the side of one of the roads, we noticed these MASSIVE bird nests in the high-power electrical towers. They were at least twice the size of eagles' nests that I had seen. And there were so many of them!
Then we saw these giant birds in them! We stopped by the side of the road and tried to take some pictures (we didn't have a great zoom lens, sadly). But no one else was stopping. It was so odd. We are accustomed to at least a few people stopping to watch the osprey, eagles, or other birds where I'm from.
Recycling On Another Level
I lived in Germany for eight years, from 1992-to 2000 (Ages 4-12). I didn't realize it until I moved back to the states, but there were recycling bins on EVERY street corner.
It wasn't just a green bin, then a trash can. It was a giant blue bin. One section for green glass, one for brown glass, one for clear glass, one for plastic, and one for paper.
Amazing Beer
As an Australian who moved here recently, a small corner shop is like half alcohol, half rest of the stuff. I've found Australian wine in almost every shop I've gone to and checked. Beer is so cheap it's unreal.
What's more, the beer is amazing. In Australia, I drank it socially, but it was always drinking to get drunk and trying not to notice the taste. Here I find myself ordering a single beer when eating out and drinking beer for the taste.
Asking For Ice
The fact that there's no air conditioning. I didn't realize it wasn't standard and was melting in my hotel room.
How uncommon asking for ice is. I've never gotten stranger looks when I would ask for a drink with some ice. One person at the festival had to confirm she understood me, lol.
Tap Water
Spent a summer in Germany. They had the cleanest/safest/best-tasting tap water, but nobody drank it, and they called it toilet water. Also, the older people in the village seemed super grumpy and mean and would never smile or respond if you said hello or good morning.
But if you asked them a substantive question, like how to get to the museum, they would spend 15 minutes telling you the fastest way to get there, the scenic way to get there, everything interesting you should do on the way there, why that museum isn't actually that good and you should go to this other museum instead, all the different ways to get to the better museum, and where their grandmother used to live before the war.
Better Fast Food
The littering in a lot of places really blew me away, especially in France. Part of this is due to the amount Europeans smoke. I guess because, at times in Paris, the cobblestone felt paved with cigarette butts.
The quality of your fast food surprised me. Everything from the street vendors to chain fast food like McDonald's was better quality than anything I'd gotten in Canada.
A Castle!
Went to Dover, England, and saw a castle. The newest section was built 300-400 years before my country was founded. I turned a corner, and the next part was 200 years older than that. Ten minutes later, walk up to a Roman lighthouse built 2000 years ago.
We got inside, and our room was the largest room we had seen at any of our hotels. apparently, the hotel was built by an American company, so the rooms were built as they would be In the US.) I open the curtains to see what is out my window, usually a parking lot, another random building, or something boring. Nope, a castle!
One Umbrella
One time in Rome, it started pouring. As I sought shelter, I saw an older man selling one single umbrella. Strange as it was, I needed that umbrella, so I haggled with him and settled on 3 Euro (he had the upper hand in that transaction).
I wandered over to a coffee shop to dry out for a little bit. When I go to leave, the umbrella is no longer in the bucket by the door. Upset at me for being so trusting, I head into the rain again. Guess who I see? The same old man was selling the same umbrella. I try to confront him about stealing back my umbrella, but he claims not to remember our interaction at all. It's pouring, and I have a number of miles to walk, so I go through the same charade with him again to re-procure the umbrella. At least this time, he took 2 euros.
Seagulls
I went to a small fishing town in England. I think it was Cornwall? Anyway, there were plenty of seagulls, and you could see they were trying to steal scraps from the restaurant or the fisherman.
The way New York has a pigeon problem, that place had a seagull problem. Except these birds seemed to have a love for fish!
Bears
Went to Russia to visit some friends and saw a bear! Not like from afar in the wild. But literally on a guy's property! I thought I was gonna get mauled, but the owner told me to stand still and shouted at the bear.
To my surprise, the bear jumped over his wall and ran away. He just seemed used to it and really didn't care. I guess that's just Russia.