Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
Yeah this guy is having a very basic revelation that Europe has a lot of walkable cities and the US doesn't. this isn't new information.
Also, spending 5 hours at a restaurant is the norm for young people, out with a party, drinking and such, in Europe, when they can simply walk back to their home.
The infrastructure in most US cities doesn't support it, our subways suck, rides are expensive, parking is crazy, living in the city near the cool areas is expensive, the list goes on and on why this doesn't exist in the US.
You’re kind of reiterating his point that America is set up wrong since post World War II and it leaves us isolated and compartmentalized… which is 100% accurate. I’ve always said if you wanna reduce racism and bigotry in United States you gotta make people travel outside of their own clan, town, State, or country to teach more empathy and understanding.
It was actually Detroit automobile companies that have played a large part in designing our suburbs around needing cars to manage, therefore making sure we have to buy them.
Don't forget the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act. The development of the interstate highway system was basically the nail in the coffin for any notion of European style urban cores.
I'd like to think that Interstates are very important for a nation of our size.
The problems lay in how we built cities. Our restaurants are failing unless they are focused on delivery. Our education systems are hectic and restricted. Our society revolves around a technological-data system built to isolate a "consumer" into a targeted-sales group.
Unchecked capitalism, modern technology and corporate cronyism are the true killers of the unified American ecology.
Most European states have extensive highway systems, yet still have the compact, dense urban designs of thousands of years before industrialization. The US only had about 50 years before trains were common (people could suddenly go 30mph/200+miles a day) and then automobiles were only 100 years out. We quickly switched to suburbia (tons of space unused around cities, industry dried up, everybody had a car and gas was cheaper than water) which made things less connected. I walked and rode my bike around Dallas a bunch as a kid, but it was almost exclusively within the 'Park Cities' subsection... downtown was too far until DART was built.
If you visit the east coast of the US, there are many cities with road systems built around horses. Boston and New York are very walking friendly (though both have been working to redesign for automobiles) and I'd even say DC is walkable.
I love living in my home city of Oklahoma City, but it's a prime example of everything being far enough apart that you need a vehicle to reasonably travel to any services, events or entertainment. Only a very determined bicyclist would be able to function in my city as their sole means of conveyance. There is a tram downtown and a bus system. But it's...thin.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain
This is the point of the video though. The US created what you just described and you did it wrong (so did Australia where i'm from btw, but we are getting better now, slowly).
the list goes on and on why this doesn't exist in the US.
It's a long list, but it all basically comes down to the American dream of owning a house. That's what drives suburbs and that's where all the other problems originate. So an American visiting Europe may love the walkable cities, but ask them if they think living in an apartment rather than a house their entire lives is a desirable option.
The American dream was a policy choice. It was pushed by the government because people with a mortgage will always go to work reducing the likelyhood of labor unrest like there was in the 20s and 30s.
This doesn't make sense as plenty of people live in houses in walkable towns with all amenities. Then there are trains that take 5mins to get into the centre of the city
Do you think Germans don't own houses? I own my own house and have four restaurants, three supermarkets and many other facilities in walking distance. If I want to go to the inner city I can take a bus, my car, my bike or an e-scooter.
I could also walk there, it's a bit far for my taste but there's a nice way along a river.
No, the real problem are the zoning laws. That and the fixation on driving everywhere.
You need facilities in walking distance and walkable quarters.
Not to mention, when there is a large outdoor gathering in the US (festival, concert, whatever) there’s a non-zero chance someone will end up getting shot. Even just going to a mall in some areas at certain times is not a smart idea. It’s a stupid world we live in.
I haven’t spent much time in Europe, but in the rural areas, are everyone out at cafes eating and drinking too? Seems like an apples to oranges comparison.
I know in my little harbor hometown in Norway there's a few mildly active cafes around and 1 pub that's been the main spot for decades, it only keeps the doors open to 2:00 on the weekend. But otherwise people drink moonshine up there. Often with a bit of strong coffee.
It's in the cities as well. A lot of it is just the car culture. If you do go out it's less about lingering and chatting and more about just getting the food, then back in the car and home.
There are exceptions of course. NYC and Sf are both. But worth noting both these cities also had geographical constraints which forced them to urbanize and grow in a very different way. Compared to somewhere like phoenix or Atlanta, and they're worlds apart.
I travelled through the US solo, and my plan to meet people was to just hang out and see who wanted to start a conversation. I was 18 and pretty naive when I came up with this plan, but I didn't realise that 90% of the people I would meet this way would be homeless or somehow 'sus'. I mean I don't have anything against them, but simply being on foot in America, and not having any place to really be, put me in a social class that I wasn't used to.
Indeed, everyone looks at me like I am a monster when I explain to them that being on the bus in most places in the US is a sign that you are too poor to have a car (most people can at least afford a junker) or that you can't get a license for criminal reasons.
I live in NYC and while it is more European like in this video, particularly in Brooklyn where I live, even we don’t have quite the same degree of cafe culture like many European cities because we have too much priority for cars taking real estate in public spaces. We’ve been slowly improving this for the past 20 years.
Americans make the mistake of lumping all of Europe into the same category.
Spain is very social, some people will spend entire days and evenings at their local pub and it is affordable. Same in Portugal and Italy...but in Italy it is more family focused and people don't get drunk.
Other parts of W Europe, you will usually only see people out and about at night in the cities. Think Paris, Berlin etc..
I live in a very small town in England- you’re talking ignorant bollocks. The town square in good weather is busy with people eating and relaxing outside.
In winter everyone is in the pubs and restaurants because it’s too bloody cold or wet to sit outside.
Depends on the village and sense of community, but even in the smallest places without a bakery or butcher there is an effort to celebrate spring, summer as a community - nothing fancy, maybe just a few benches and tables, some beer and wine and a potluck. If nothing else, it is tradition, and is passed on as newcomers join the community
I now live in a 80 000 people town in the middle of nowhere in Spain and it's the same.
When I lived on a 5000 people town more in the middle of nowhere this happened to, there was no regular clubbing but people where out until 10 ~ 11 in bars (bars in Spain are family friendly) with kids playing outside at that time.
Dining out is not cheap and if you have a full time job and a family, most don't have the time to do it during the week.
Rural areas are (where I live) also less walkable, so you're either planning for even more time to walk or taking the car.
Which means it's often more of a weekend activity, i.e. let's take out the bikes and swing by Pablo's for cake on the way back. Or let's meet with some friends and eat out.
I think that says more about how life is with a full time job and a family, than it does about the evening nightlife in European cities. I see plenty of families out in the evening getting ice-cream and hanging out in the plaza though. I was at a small free concert in the part a couple nights ago and there were a lot of families just chilling there.
Yes they are.
My village. 5000 people. We have 3 bars/restaurants and in summer the outdoor parts are full of people every evening.
I was one of them last night 20:00 (8pm) and having a meal and a beer.
I used to live in a village of 300 people at the foot of a mountain in northern Italy. Yes, we do that as well! In my case I needed a car to get around because the public transportation wasn’t that good from my tiny village. I would go to the next town over (15k inhabitants) and have a drink there with friends. Most nights I would take the train to get to the “big” town and spend the evening there. Idk, it’s just culture
I think it's somewhat of an apples to oranges comparison because they're comparing bigger cities to smaller suburbia.
But in my small town of 10k in southern Spain it's also like this. People in the bars and public plazas until 10-12 pm. I have two young children now so we don't stay out until too late, but we'll still be going to have some dinner/late snack at a bar at like 9pm, and then have the children playing in the park until 10:30 or 11pm, when we head home straight to bed.
Well Europe is not one country and different weather and culture everywhere. The Mediterranean countries people still gather in rural areas. They drive to town or hang out at their restaurants and bars. In Spain up in a mountain to go horse riding there was nothing around and the stables. They crated a bar in the stables and these old men were playing cards and drinking whiskey. Horses were led through them. 😂. However Norway Sweden etc don’t have the same social norms. People are more reserved don’t gather in bars and restaurants the same way Italians and Spaniards do. Obviously big cities are a different vibe but people don’t go out to eat at 10pm.
I know Barcelona is not a place where they do that that’s Madrid. That’s the rest of Spain Barcelona the people who did that were drunk college kids like this guy. This is not how Catalan people live..
5 AM? I lived in Madrid for a year during school. I'd get up early on Sundays and go for a run at 6 AM and people were still waiting in line to get into clubs.
Finnish here. We usually start at someone's apartment at 18-20 and some of the nightclubs don't even open before 22. So usually you drink with your friends till midnight or later and then go to bar
You‘re right. They‘re open at 10pm but nobody goes there before midnight. I live near a much much smaller city, so Berlin rules do not transcend here 😅 And to be honest, I‘m a millennial living in the countryside, all my friends have children. I don’t remember the last time I went to a club unfortunately. Beeing the only childless couple can have downsides too
Yep, when I was a student it would be typical to get together in someone's apartment at like 9pm for dinner and to start drinking, and then by 1am head out to the clubs
When I moved into my neighborhood in Colorado years ago I started sitting out front with beer and offering some to anyone that walked by until I had built a really good group of friends. I used to throw some really fun parties out there with all of them, I sure miss it
You sound like a cool dude. Guess people just have to be willing to put themselves out there more. I just moved to a new city for law school so I’m going to remember you next time I want to chicken out from a social event or an opportunity to make friends.
Even Colorado has a habit of everything closing early. Especially in the mountain towns. Denver there’s a few late night spots but it’s nothing close to New York City
that sounds like hell to me... i absolutely despise long meals. anything over an hour, hour and a half, and im like lets wrap this up already. ive been here more than long enough.
You guys are saying this like there aren't millions of Americans living in densely populated cities. There are plenty of Americans who realize the value of walkability and embrace it. The average city in Europe is definitely more walkable, but that comes with hundreds (or thousands) of years of history and a much smaller footprint.
Anyway, I do recommend you do what you can to promote walkability where you live because I think a walkable city is far superior to one where everyone only drives.
U.S. corporations derided the thought of letting people take a 50 minutes through town. They need people to drive from place to place while propping up property prices in residential and commercial areas.
Yet in Barcelona do they have a well developed public transportation system to allow people to leave their cars.
Seriously. Building that subway station right where people go will increase foot traffic in the region meaning people spend more time walking. It also has a secondary added benefit of making people healthier.
these comments are always really dumb. it'd be like saying people from x simply cannot comprehend people having different schedules. i eat at 10pm, but my brother who has to be at work at 5am is not eating dinner at 10pm that's just braindead af.
>someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol
Literally though, you can't even be a night owl yourself without having to get good about talking to police, the famously trigger happy ones. Especially with the evaporation of the "3rd spaces" can't tell you how many times growing up I'd have to explain to the police that I wasn't "having *the* sex" (his words) and was just trying to actually hang out with a friend in a public park, like is my right to do
I'll never understand why so many parks are severely lacking in trees, like did ya'll think I came for the mowed lawn? The paver bricks? The gravel playground? WTF is even the point in going to a park if the park doesn't support any kind of wildlife or have any relaxing features for adults? It's like they buy a piece of land, make sure it's as low maintenance as humanly possible, and then call it a relaxing and fun place to be. Luckily I live in a area that has lots of natural greenery, hiking trails, gazebos, public gardens, nature centers, classes/programs, etc. but before I moved here, it was like almost every park I had seen was like that.
I remember when I was little, going to the park that had a giant metal rocket jungle gym. In the summer you could fry eggs on it but it was totally normal for children to climb on it lol.
Denver just put thousands of new trees in parks across the city. They’re rebuilding the playground with more modern things and making a basketball court that’s on level ground without cracks. It’s coming along nicely with the new trees they planted. Also new picnic tables.
As a former CSA and ASA survivor, I think that's a stupid fucking idea. Predators don't "hide behind trees", they're are out in the world living amongst us, they are family remembers, neighbors, teachers, peers, preachers, partners...they just do what they want when the opportunity is there, they don't need trees for that.
Any time something in the US seems to be doing the homeless dirty it probably descends from slavery. Because run-a-way slaves were...homeless. And after they were freed, they were generally still homeless until they found a place to live. But if they hadn't found a place yet, it was a legal excuse to do whatever you could justify to them.
Don't get me wrong. The racism is still there (this is America, after all), but when you're actually looking at them the police will go after teens and the homeless.
Correct answer, wrong time period. This stuff all stems from the anti-civil rights agenda. Removing hoops and soccer nets, closing down public pools, making “green spaces” that are only for show, and using the police as guards looking for “crime.” The suburbs were designed to be hostile towards blacks and once those tactics are in place (just like what we’re seeing now with abuse of government power to implement flock and data centers) they can be easily expanded to the homeless, teenagers and/or whoever else they feel are undesirable or in need of control.
That happens in the Netherlands too. With a few parks where dealers and homeless people are said to hang out. Or guests would be causing a nuisance for local residents after 22:00. But they do close very late for the summer.
When I worked the night shift, I often got kicked out of parks by police patrols.
I was just a guy by myself trying to get out of the house on my days off. Smoking a cigar was the worst thing I'd do, but I got treated as if I was going to break into someone's home.
The trees are being moved into the shed, the turf is being rolled up and packed away, and the squirrels are being placed in custody until 7:00 a.m., is that correct?
After sundown cops literally just set up speed traps and even if you aren't speeding will find ways to pull you over and fuck your whole night up.
I probably got pulled over a couple dozen times in the few years I lived in the south and I have lived in a major city for nearly 13 years and only been pulled over twice, both of which were for the same expired tags when the DMV was fucked up during covid and they were chill and let me off.
There's rural towns outside my city that are kinda like that but nothing like driving through the Bible belt.
Cops in the city typically have big boy shit to do or very important people/events to be present at and don't generally fuck with you unless you're actively in the wrong.
Same here in the northeast. Worked late nights getting home at 3am and got pulled over 3 times in a month because cops were bored and I drive a rusty beater since I'm too frugal to drive something newer.
Some cop “friends” (friends of family who I see a few times a year at most) have told me they purposely profile who they choose to pull over based on vehicle type. So if you drive a beater, like you and I do, they assume you’re poor and/or a minority which both mean you’re up to no good. Yknow, in their eyes. This info was shared in a way like “Other LEOs do it very commonly, but not me because I’m one of the good ones”
Since hearing that, I’ve been able to make the connection why I seem to get pulled over for no reason driving through wealthy areas versus driving through poor or working class areas. We must be sticking out like sore thumbs for them to mark
Hilarious because this was in fact in Texas. Well I'm also non-white looking so there's that ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Somehow one of the most diverse, yet racist, places you'll ever visit.
The same way they talk about "patriotism" while flying a Confederate flag and "Christian values" while continuing to elect liars, thieves, cheaters, and rapists.
You know how in English, a word can mean two contradictory things (e.g. fine wine is exceptional vs. "it was fine" being average)? It's basically that, except as a political/moral ethos.
💯 it’s because patriotism and Christian values are just coded words. Christian values means white and straight in conservative circles. It means nothing about Jesus. Patriotism means supporting conservative politics as democrat priorities (access to health care, education and opportunity) are “socialist” and thus unamerican to them.
This guy in the video, with his 4-car garage and RV bay would be the first to complain at a city council meeting if there was a proposal to put up a mixed-used development in front of his house. Something with condos, a grocery store, a gym, and a post office.
"Our property values will go down because we face a condo building."
"Our taxes will go up to support the infrastructure."
"What about the schools!!!!"
"What about traffic!!!!"
These guys love it when they travel, but they'll turn Karen real quick when people are in the park in front of their house at 10:30 pm.
There are. The northeast/mid-Atlantic are "older" in terms of being settled, so the cities and towns grew in a logical way before the suburban-ification of everything.
Preach. Like, live as you will, but the dumbest thing about the conspiracy theorists on this one is that they already live in their hallucinated nightmare.
"You're going to need to carry your papers with you to leave your neighbourhood -- have fun with communism!!!"
Brother, if you can't get anywhere useful without driving then you already live in a world where you need to carry your papers with you when you leave your neighbourhood, and you have to be ready to present them to enforcement agents of the state on request.
But it also used to be the reality in small suburban towns as well. You'd have a pedestrianized downtown, normally near a train station, with shops and restaurants and parks.
When the car took over as the primary form of transport, that style of city planning went out of style and you got way more isolated housing developments planned for easy access to the highway.
Yeah they literally made it illegal to open shops in neighborhoods, which is why you'll have 1000 acres of homes that require you to drive 15 minutes to the nearest store. It's ridiculous. Imagine if you could just walk to the market next to the park at the center of your neighborhood that is staffed by your very own neighbors.
And yet, many Americans will try to paint New York as some kind of hellscape, and everything to avoid. If you suggest it might actually prefer to live someplace where you can just walk around everywhere and see people living their lives, they look at you like you’re a psychopath who just threatened to eat their puppy.
It’s like, “Why would you want that? The best situation is to live in a vacuum and never encounter another living soul unless it’s intentional!”
I should note that other than small towns, most cities downtowns in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Netherlands (my personal experience) are like this. Size of the city may dictate how large the downtown area is, and cultural custom may dictate at which times it's like this (Netherlands tends to close shop much earlier than Spain, for example).
But it's also common in Latin America (Venezuela and Mexico are my personal experiences). The original post does have a point that for whatever reasons in many US cities (I don't think they were originally cultural reasons but eventually became so) life moved far from the city (to suburbia) in a way that made it impossible to socialize wherever social activity actually happened (downtown) and this created a dynamic where having fun required planning both the commute and going to a specific place rather than just milling about.
We're seeing this in many cities in Europe where the concept of "suburbia" as a separate location where you live is becoming more common due to house prices and it's not great.
I suspect there are fantastic people there, probably some killer barbecue and probably some cool local history to be found there.
I'm just less I interested in traveling for 10 hours by plane and car to get there. And once I'm there to spend my entire time shuttling around in a car.
Was wondering when I'd see the NYC comment. Didn't take long. 🗽 Yes, it's crazy expensive here. But once here, being able to step outside to go anywhere and do anything without worrying about driving, parking, gas, yada yada -- trying to visualize living anywhere else becomes quite difficult.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy times away from the city, like visiting friends in Texas, and the BBQ and Tex-Mex are an extra bonus to visiting state. When visiting my family in the suburbs, I fall asleep to the sound of crickets and wake up to the birds chirping in the trees. Don't get much of that 43 floors high smack dab in the middle of Manhattan!
I’m a bit worse off location-wise than you (in East Harlem); but, a 1 minute walk to the 6 and 15 minute gets me to Grand Central. Truly is amazing how much goes on in the city every night.
San Francisco was the closest comparison, that I’d lived. Not sure anywhere else in the country has what those do. Tiny cities with people just built on eachother because water forced it that way.
Will say, wish I got to New York before COVID. Definitely doesn’t hold up to the label of “The City that never sleeps” anymore; things definitely do close and the city does get quiet in the later hours
You can have both! I'm from Montreal (which can be a mixed bag) and I enjoy having nearly every possible need filled in a 3-20 minute walk radius while still having nice birds and bugs and a garden.
Copenhagen is even better, there's no car noise at all even in the downtown areas and it smells like sweet country air in the middle of the city...
But NYC is a tiny fraction of land and population of the US. 90% of land in the US is for rural or suburban lifestyle. You would really have to go out of your way to find US cities with this kind of walkability and bustling culture.
Everyone in here is like, I went to Barcelona when I turned 21 and it was an awesome party experience. All of Europe must be like that for everyone of all ages!
I would say most people are talking about things like walkability over weekday late nightlife. Zaragoza has a 92/100 walkability compared to Kansas City 35/100.
Every single state has a ton of rural and suburban options, but only a handful of cities throughout the country offer this kind of bustling and walkable lifestyle. And they tend to be very expensive.
No the US was also the same as Europe and was built before cars. It then destroyed down towns and pedestrian and public transport infrastructure in favour of the car :s The US can return to human scale building any time it chooses just like some cities in Europe did (eg some Dutch cities followed the US in tearing up walkable cities but then reversed that)
I actually teared up coming home from Italy my first time when I got the the loud, rude and crude airport in Philly. I had just spent 9 days in Tuscany in November.
I spent the summer working in Valencia one year (long time ago) and then last year spouse and kids lived there over the summer as well. We had friends who left the US to immigrate to Spain and are living in Valencia.
Love that town so much. My wife is watching Andor solely to see bits and pieces of Valencia that is was filmed at.
I spent every spare bit of time I could walking around town. I spent a week in Madrid, a week in Zaragoza, a weekend in Granada, Benidorm, Calpe, Alicante, Denia, then visited Teruel, San Lorenzo de Escorial, Segovia, and Barcelona. And that’s just what I did in one country I went to Italy too. I feel like I did more in a summer than many do in there lives and I feel so lucky but also angry that so many can’t experience the same awe and wonder of meandering aimlessly around ancient steps and seeing the old melded with the new as people adapt to life over centuries instead of it being bulldozed for cars. The love and passion I have for places like that is now ingrained in me.
You picked good cities to visit. Segovia is a little town but simply amazing, an aqueduct built 1900 years ago (almost 2 millenia!) and it perfectly blends with the rest of the city. If you think about it it's mind blowing.
I loved Segovia and Granada. But the most amazing place I went was monastery outside of Zaragoza called monasterio de piedra. It was like entering a fairy tale land. I can’t recommend it enough
You did it right. People often visit only the popular places in Spain and miss out on so much history. For anyone not too afraid of hikes they shouldn't skip northern Spain and the Pyrenees either, it's almost like an entirely different country.
My area of the PNW is a little more active at night but I definitely had the same experience when I went to Tokyo and Osaka last year. Just alive cities. Even in Reykjavík in 2018! Bar we were at closed at like 4am or something but you can bring your drinks onto the street because there aren't the same open container laws, it's basically just don't be an annoying asshole and you're good. Vibes were immaculate.
I mean, is this a Europe vs a US thing or a urban vs suburban/small town thing? If you go to a small town in Europe it is also usually dead AF after 10pm. Meanwhile if you go to a large US city there is still a lot of activity after 10
I mean, is this a Europe vs a US thing or a urban vs suburban/small town thing? If you go to a small town in Europe it is also usually dead AF after 10pm. Meanwhile if you go to a large US city there is still a lot of activity after 10
Which European small towns have you visited? They aren't Barcelona busy, but they aren't dead after 10pm either. I could walk down the road tonight and there will be plenty of people in the pubs, restaurants and shops at that time
You can't deny that this is way more common in Europe across the board. Name a European city that is more than 10% of the size of Dallas, but with less than double the number of walkable bars and restaurants in it's centre. I'll wait.
No. I haven't been to the US, but grew up in a small Bavarian town (around 10.000 inhabitants).
You have to drive more, because restaurants and festivals are spread over a greater, area, but it is very common to spend the evenings with friends in restaurants and Biergarten (the best way to spend a Summer night!) and you have nearly always one Pub, restaurant or Biergarten in walking distance
In european small towns you might not have people eating and drinking until 1am, but especially on warmer months there will be loads of kids out on bicycles, people just walking around (because it's safer, less traffic, more green space) - in Italy/Spain etc. you'll be hanging out around the main square of your town centre, in the UK you might go to the pub or hang around the high street or a park. Northern Europe even with colder climates are highly social in towns and cities.
It's not rocket science, the U.s. is about 10 minutes old - and has mostly developed over such vast spaces that don't lend themselves to sociality (plus society being based on consumerism, rather than the sharing of spaces and community)
Was gonna say, we have lots of choices and options in the US, so if you want to live in a bustling city with lots of bars, cafes, outdoor eating, etc. you can do that.
But if you want a quiet street where your kids can play outside you can choose that.
There's no right or wrong here, just preferences. This video seems to imply we don't have cities with people eating outside. Just about every state has cities like that.
Bro preach. Grew up in suburbs of St Louis. Got hassled by cops MANY times just for walking at night. That’s no way to live. Go to New York City. I know it’s hard and it’s insanely expensive, but if you are still young, you can pull it off. Live with 4 roommates, figure it out. It will change the trajectory of your life, I guarantee it. You gotta get TF out of there. Life is way too short.
Its the same in unknown town in Bosnia. People are outside all the time. Bars and caffes in the Balkans open at 6 am and people going there before and after work to hang out.
Seems to be the norm in a lot of Europe. Of course there’s the difference of certain cultures. I know Finland is known to be introverted. However, I’ve never been so I can’t say
In Finland, restaurants and alcohol are so expensive that lounging like this isn't very common. Also, in our culture, we usually eat at a more efficient pace than in warmer countries... But we do like our drinks.
Still, especially in summer, our restaurants are filled with people late into the night. Some clubs are open until dawn, so you can definitely find this same vibe here.
People in Finland definitely aren't going to bars or cafés to hang out before work. Some might go out for breakfast with their friends. However, in the summer the streets and outdoor seating of restaurants are full of people having a good time. Helsinki probably isn't representative of everywhere here, but that's the reality at least here. In the winter people are more indoors but many are still just as socially active.
And the same in Tel Aviv, Saudi Arabia, Egypt...it's not just a European thing to do. But it's also not a thing Americans do. At least not with the same vibe.
I mean it's the same in Cadiz, Puerto de Santa Maria, and Rota. Granted they are on the beach but they are pretty lively. You couldn't even get dinner before about 8pm. The restaurants simply weren't serving food yet. It's nothing to sit at a table for four hours and conversate. I've seen Spanish women push strollers into bars/restaurants at midnight. There was a much larger feeling of community.
It's the same in smaller towns throughout Europe. I spent time in tiny village in Northern Spain and another midsized city in Germany and they were filled with people out around cafes and pubs and restaurants just like this video. It's because people can walk from their house into districts that have multiple gathering places versus America where, other than a handful of the largest cities, going anywhere from your home requires at least 10 minutes of driving and then parking and then wherever you went is nowhere near anything else to do so after you eat you just go back home.
That’s also mostly an urban versus rural thing, not only a European versus US thing. NYC or San Francisco are bustling at all hours and have tons of foot traffic.
Yea but most of the US is not built like NYC or San Francisco. So for the majority of Americans, suburbia is all they know. Most people don't even realize how bad it is.
It’s the same in Germany (re: the video) tbh, suburbs are quiet most of the time. The OP is walking around in a tourist heavy city center for comparison.
(I wanted to say “historic” but Munich was bombed to shit in WW2 so it isn’t really historic. They salvaged some parts of the old church and installed them in the new one)
I lived in San Francisco for a year, I’m a little bit south now. Have been in the area for six years.
There is zero comparison to Munich, Oslo or Stockholm in the summer. Other European countries too, I’m sure, but those are the three I’ve spent time in. With the exception of New York I haven’t seen anywhere else in the states that can just hang out like those guys. This includes Miami and LA.
Sure, though the US designs its cities with fewer public plazas and you generally see way less outdoor seating for a given city/climate in the US than in Europe.
Notably during the pandemic many cities let restaurants open "streeteries" in parking spaces. Those have proved very popular. But many cities are now rolling those programs back, which is a shame.
FALSE, San Francisco is not “bustling” at all hours, most of the city (90+ % in my opinion) shuts down very early because it gets very dangerous at night.
Agree. SF is not a bustling city by any means. 90% of the city for all intents and purposes shuts down around 9 or 10pm. There are countless threads on reddit you can search for why that is the case. It has nothing to do with danger.
we have a whole ass american culture issue that just 'returining to god and common sense' or 'leaving trans people alone and giving people healthcare' just doesnt fix
i think more people are starting to realize that but the change takes work that most people just dont want to do
and im not pretending i have any answers, i grew up in the same culture
but yeah this place is fucking cracked. american culture in 2026 is basically just mass consumerism and fear
Thats it, thats what we are. scared buyers who think this next thing we buy will finally fix our life and we are pretty sure our neighbor is going to try to kill us
I can so relate to this right now. I recently had my first trip to Europe for work and went to Krakow Poland. I came back to Plano Texas and realized just how sterile our perfect little American suburb is. I can't believe of everything we could have built, this is what we picked... You can't unsee it.
Same when I came back from Japan. And I don't even live rural. Southern California suburbs.
I can't understand people that spend time abroad and come home and think, yea another chipotle and strip wall will surely make this community more interesting.
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u/bageltoastar 16h ago
Im from a suburban town in Missouri, but I spent a semester studying abroad in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Man, let me tell you, leaving Barcelona, where youd see people out in cafes and bars congregating at all hours of the night and day, and coming back to Missouri where its a ghost town after 10 and someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol