Vancouver 🇨🇦 vs Luxembourg 🇱🇺 - Part 3

Contents:

• Solid walls and drilling holes
• People outside of the city are nicer
• The floors start with zero
• Guest restrooms and tiny sinks
• Cash-only places
• Less obesity
• Dangerous driving
• Customer service is questionable
• Allergies

Solid walls and drilling holes

One of the big differences between European and North-American cultures is how they build residential homes. Canada/USA prefer a leaner and short-lived format with, what people call, "paper walls". You must have seen videos online where (usually) teenagers fool around and end up halfway in a wall 🤣 Looks entertaining, but shows how flimsy typical walls are.

On the other hand, Europe prefers brick and stone to build walls. Maybe, I was  "brainwashed" by the "Three Little Pigs" story, but I prefer more solid and long-lasting structures. I never liked those Canadian walls that can break from a minor impact.

Now, in Luxembourg, the walls are proper, indestructible brick =) But even though I prefer this construction method over Canadian, I quickly realized the benefit of "softer" walls - drilling holes here is a nightmare. I miss my old flimsy walls (only in these moments =)

People outside of the city are nicer

My previous observation about less social warmth in the city has been revised... Now, we live in a suburb-like area, and 99% of the people we pass by on the streets say "Moien" which means "Hi" in Luxembourgish.

The floors start with zero

Canada uses the "Ground floor" to indicate the main level to get out of the building. Yes, the elevator floor numbering convention is a known problem, you can find some inconsistency - "1", "L", "G", "M", "GR", "GL", etc. But in most cases, people refer to the main floor as the first. In Luxembourg, though, they start counting from zero.

Guest restrooms and tiny sinks

When I visited Amsterdam back in 2015, I noticed a peculiar thing - tiny bathrooms and sinks. After moving to Luxembourg and experiencing dozens of bathrooms =) it looks like Europe has a concept of the guest bathroom. Usually, it's located right next to the entrance to the apartment and has only a tiny sink (airplane toilet size) and a toilet. I assume it's for guests 😆

Cash-only places

I was surprised by how many places (especially in Germany) accept only cash. Coming from Canada, I moved away from cash transactions almost completely, and I have no habit of carrying cash. Even my "wallet" is a business card holder now =) In most cases, it would be an opportunity to not spend this money, which is a benefit. But when you can't pay for parking because the pay station accepts only coins, then you may have a costly problem 🫤

Less obesity

Not based on any statistical data, just my observations. It does seem a little surprising, considering that bread and pastry are a huge part of the food pyramid here. Maybe, the quality is better, perhaps with less modified corn starch and other unhealthy chemical compounds.

After a quick search, looks like this (quite old) data supports my observation. Canada should have lower rates than the USA but haven't found recent data.

Dangerous driving

It feels like many people drive faster than they should (e.g. 50 km/h in a 30 km/h zone), some even speed to pass the stoplight to the point that it already turned red 😤 Also, it seems like more than half of all drivers I observed are smoking while driving, and a quarter is also talking on the phone at the same time, either talking or texting. Canadian police would be happy to collect more fines here 😁

Customer service is questionable

This is probably in the top 5 of all "North America vs Europe" comparisons. But they truly don't give a f***. At least, this is what it looks like 95% of the time. Of course, back in the Americas, sometimes, there was too much attention. Too often, the waiter comes back to check on how you like the food right at the moment when your mouth is full, and the only response you can produce is mumbling 😆

Allergies

This is a drastic difference from Canada, where so many things are prohibited because they contain potential allergens. Feels like we heard of many more kids with allergies there, and almost none here. When bringing snacks to school, nobody cares about possible allergens (e.g. peanut-free, nut-free, etc.). Zero guidelines on this. I guess it's not a big problem, or Canada is much more risk-averse.

Read Part 1, and Part 2 of this series.

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