What do you miss about Europe?

One thing above all- my family

I miss so much about Europe, and I'm not even from over there.

The cheese...when are we ever going to learn to make cheese in the US?

Gluten Free items in the UK. They make the best breads, cakes, cookies and Hot Cross buns.

Miss the old churches too...
The beautiful churches

Dressing up to go out to dinner..
Too much. You're making me homesick to go back, LOL

Fortunately we can find European cheese here - French brie is everywhere and deli sections at the grocery stores have other European cheeses, and chocolate - what would I do without Toblerone and Lindt?!

In no particular order except the first one:

1. family

• the sense of history as part of daily life, e.g. your own very middle-of-the-road home, built only 5 years ago, might be modeled in the style of chalets built 400 years ago

• urban design and public life on the street and public places

• waking up to church bells ringing on Sunday morning. As a student, after partying on Saturday night, I hated that of course living right next to one in a city that's known as the one where at any given time "it's either raining or the church bells are ringing" (anybody wants to guess?).

• Foods: 100% whole grain rye bread, chocolate (yeah I can get it at astronomical prices), white asparagus and the true seasonality of eating it, smoked eel, buying Dutch licorice at the farmer's market, my grandma's Black Forest Cake

• spring (that's something pretty much everyone living in Calgary misses)

• buying cheap Dutch flowers at any time of the year from a street vendor

• biking anywhere I need to go to

• treating environmental friendliness as a given

• and 100 more things that I'll remember as soon as I finish this post

And before anybody here looks at this long list saying "so why don't you go back?" I could also start an equally long, albeit different list of things I would miss if I moved to Europe!

I miss family, the simplicity of life, Baverian pretzels, church bells, and knowing that a Sunday is a Sunday! A day of rest.

Yes, it is true we can find the French cheeses here, and Lindt, but I do find them much fresher across the pond. Good thing I eat them every day while there.

My kids adore England. They enjoy France, and everywhere we visited, but England seems to have captured their hearts. My son misses Blood sausage, Steak & Ale pies, mash and mushy peas.

I do miss English Cider!

1. German Fruehstueck (breakfast) - w/broetchen, butterkaese, varieties of wurst, Nutella, and of course a cooked egg.

2. 'Kaffee' most every afternoon - whether you have people over your house or you are out and about, you always make time for coffee and cake in a little cafe. At when it's at your house you get out the fine china and dessert silverware, the nice linen tablecloth, and have a freshly baked cake or torte to serve. Favorites: Pflaumenkuchen (plum cake), Black Forest Cherry cake, gedeckte Apfelkuchen (apple cake), and Frankfurter Kranz.

3. The small towns where you live in walking distance of downtown (or can easily take a bus), and where it's all a pedestrian zone and you don't need a car to do your weekly shopping.

4. The Christmas markets during the holidays.

5. 'Schraebergartens', those little plots of land that Germans treasure as their gardens.

6. Wiesbaden - my grandparents' had a beautiful villa-turned-apartment-house that I would love to own one day.

I agree with the church bells! and amazing churches that ring them.

Amazingly good public transportation!

Goulash Soup!

Well, we are lucky to have a German deli/bakery in town (and a Scandinavian bakery and grocery forty minutes away). You should move to the Puget Sound- we have water here!

I miss my family, more varieties and cheaper brotchen, Aldis and cheaper groceries, driving on the Autobahn, cobblestones, frequent church bells, radiators, cappuccino, hearing Grüß Gott, and more...

I like your style, Kaarina! LOL! Good for you (us)!!!

Of course, I have all these things now, in abandon, but here is what I missed the most about Europe when I lived in the USA:

~ my family - of course

~ the rhythm of European life - the church bells setting the backdrop to the course of the day, the unhurridness of life, the simple moments of just relaxing and letting go. I never did learn how to relax in the USA. In Austria we say: 'Seele baumeln lassen' (Let your soul swing free)

~ the layers and layers of history in which we Europeans dwell, connected to the past, yet moving into the future. Surprisingly this was one of the things I missed the most!

~ eating with the seasons, everything so fresh and local - being able to go shopping with my basket, just buying what I need and want for the day. Heading from baker to butcher to farmers market, with almost no waste involved.

~ having to recycle everything, thus having nothing but two small bags of 'Restmüll' left for pick-up every two WEEKS. The amount of garbage I accumulated in the US drove me batty. So much packaging material . .

~ and yes, even though I never thought I'd say it: I missed our European formalities/good manners!! It just takes so much superfluous stuff out of everyday life, and it shows respect to your fellow human beings. I didn't actually realize the value of it until I noticed that my Native American in-laws were living like this as well within their Native American culture. Formality is a way of respect!
And I do not miss the American penchant for small-talk! LOL!

~ living in a real community, with neighbors close by, yet the chance for total privacy when I feel like it.

~ art and culture and music everywhere

~ not needing a car

and so much more - but I am running out of characters

Corinna, thank you for taking me back to Europe with your last post...sigh. Now I need to dream about my next trip.

Thank you Corinna! That's how I feel about formality also - it's about respect.

After reading these posts, I realize that I should have had a longer list but you are adding a lot of the stuff that I omitted. Thank you all for that!

Eli, you are right about the cheese but I can live with what I can get here. On the other hand, there is no substitution for great Euro sausages here. I will suffer till June when I go over for 2 months.

Kaarina--thank you for such a great post! And yes, I agree with all of you...I miss it all!

Yes, like everyone else its Family I miss first.
Then I miss the smell of the bakery ,pastry shop and the flower markets. We have wonderful bakeries ,pastry shop and flower markets here, but Its just not the same.

I love how in London they dont have the same rude Cell Phone culture as they do in the states. The children are better mannered. People on the tube read quietly. If they were riding a tube in the states, it would be full of rudeness, noise, boom boxes, and cell phone yapping. Similar to a city bus.

European children ARE better behaved, and I have been wondering about the reason for it, even though I have a few theories in that direction.

I am enjoying all of your posts, smiling all the way :-))
It is a foggy, icky, wet-cold day here, yet the 1000 year old town of Krems has its own magic even then:
I just came back from shopping, had a quick huddle around the stand selling roasted chestnuts, roasted potatoes (Bratkartoffel) and Glühwein (mulled wine) in the old part of town. The Gozzoburg was shrouded in fog and I could smell the Danube river in the moist air.
I thought of you all while I took in all the sounds and smells, thinking that you would agree that Europe is very sensual place all the way around.

Everytime I have been there I am amazed how clean everything always is. Even the cities are clean and the people respect the land and the beauty. We get that in small town USA but sure not in big towns and cities. Europeans don't trash their country.
I miss the open air markets, cafe's and the music.
The laid back way of living, and never having a feeling of being in danger anywhere I travel.

I'm gonna disagree about European children being better behaved....at least at tourist sites where most of my observations are based. The kids on school outings I see at the big art museums, and cathedrals are for the most part, completely out of control. Also, as a general rule, the kids who wear uniforms and attend private schools are usually more unruly. As a comparison, when I go to the Met in NYC or the National Gallery in DC, school groups are a bit more respectful. Of course US parents fondness of the medication Riddlin might explain this:)

When our family travels to Germany we are also always amazed at how clean everything is. My husband has commented on how it's as if weeds don't even grow in peoples' gardens.

I'd like to comment on children's behavior, as I also have experienced young children, in particular, not as well-behaved as in the US. I have nieces and nephews in Germany who are allowed to run around in restaurants and other public places and the parents don't do much to discipline them. I'm inclined to believe that spanking isn't as common in Europe as it is in the US (although Americans have been told for decades that spanking = child abuse, most parents will admit that they do spank). As a child who frequently visited Europe, my cousins were always verbally challenging their parents, talking back to them, etc.... And yes, of course there are snotty, horrible kids here in the US who don't respect their parents or other authority figure, but generally speaking I think young children in the US are better-behaved.

I am also going to challenge the behavior of children statement. My kids are no angels at home, but they can behave themselves in public (My mother's Oma used to call her a "haus teufel, strassen engel" (house devil, street angel, so it must run in the family.)

My step-Oma, who is honest in a very German way, called my mother after our visit and told her that not only did she think our kids were well behaved (all 4 of them, from 2 to 14), but that the server in our restaurant on Christmas day said that our kids were well behaved and that she always liked waiting on American kids because they were well mannered. This is a restaurant in a small town with a US Army base, so I am sure she has had her share of American kids run through. To be fair, their German step-cousins were being good, too.

My son has declared sausages in Europe are way, way better so we brought some back. They were the dried type, so I hope that was okay? Customs didn't take them from me...

Nutella! We have tried the Nutella here (from C'da I believe), and sorry to my Canadian friends, but it tastes differently. Not sure why. The German Nutella is less sweet than French Nutella though.

Our Euro chocs stay too long on the shelves over here, and I suspect with the heat/cold/travel/warehouse exposure, this tends to take away a bit from the taste.

Fruits. Is it my imagination, or did fruits in France and Italy actually taste like REAL fruits? Sigh...

English style ham..not this water injected stuff we get here..but real off the bone Yorkshire or Cotswold style ham..or a nice piece of boiling bacon, served cold in the morning with some sesame bread toast.
And come to think of it...there is a butchers in Moira, Northern Ireland that did over 35 types of sausage..including a peanut butter sausage for children..now i miss that..(not the pb sausage though!)
My wife (who is Canadian and lived in the UK for 5 years) says she misses Church Bells on a Sunday morning in the UK village where I was born, horses going down the road, pigeons cooing on the tv antenna and .....Thorntons Toffee!
Pete

Eli, no meats... but they ARE good.

Eli, I lived in the Tornado Alley (Springfield, MO) for 4 years and there we had Aldi's and twice a year they had German Knockwursts and Bratwursts there and I always loaded up with them. I've been back to California now for about 5 months with no Aldi around but I can not complain because the weather is fantastic! We just couldn't deal with the drastic weather there - tornadoes, ice storms, extreme humidity in the summer.

You are right about the fruit in France and Italy. It is in a different league. They must pick the fruit more ripe so it has much more flavor.

I also love introducing new things for my daughter. We started going over when she was 9 and now she is 12. She loves all the food, like salted salmon and reindeer and mussels and she even had some snails at my sister's house once and loved them and has been teasing my husband ever since because he is a very picky eater and wouldn't even try any of those things.

History is also something that I value and we visit castles and museums and old churches. I love art and history and architecture and I want my daughter to appreciate them also.

We also walk in the woods and do things in the nature because they were a big part of my childhood and I want her to experience that also. We pick blueberries and raspberries and chantarells.

I am so happy that I can share this all with my daughter and open up the world for her.

Some more things I miss:

Ice cream shops - 'spaghetti ice' (vanilla ice cream pressed through a contraption to look like noodles, covered with strawberry sauce and shaved white chocolate)... every kid's favorite dish.

'Pflaumen in Madeira' - chocolate covered sweets w/marzipan and a layer of plum jam. They also come in 'apricots in brandy', 'cherries in rum', and 'strawberries in champagne'.

Mon Cheri chocolates

... OK, gotta stop with the food.....

How about: Featherbeds with down comforters- the two beds pushed together to make one. Spezzi. Coca Cola made with sugar instead of corn syrups.

oh Alexandra, how could I forget the Italian Ice Cream Parlors in Germany! The gelato might be better in Italy but what is served as special dishes in the German stores (still owned by Italian immigrants) is beyond anything I've seen elsewhere. When I visit my family we never go out for dinner together - we always go out to the best ice cream parlor in town and get our favourites.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b7cf07b3127ccec2e1ea80b53500000040O00AbtG7do2YuWIPbz4E/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

hmmmm, and I always wondered how many packages of Mon Cherie I'd have to eat to get drunk ...

I miss the historical monuments, churches and the incredible permanent collections in the art museums!
The best coffee , cappucino and gelato ever.

Beatrix, I grew up eating those Mon Cheris and no-one thought anything about kids eating them. When I was about 9, I went to Germany with my family - it was a road trip and me and my sister and brother saw some cute little bottles of alcohol with pretty lables at a store there and we bought them and sipped on them at the back seat of the car. It is a funny memory and I wonder if there was any rules those days in Germany about kids buying alcohol.

Anyway, I did not end up an alcoholic, as a matter of fact I hardly ever drink but I still like my chocolates with liquor inside once in a while. As a matter of fact my parents sent me some for Christmas. :)

I brought home a full-color ice cream menu from a trip to Berlin and showed it to all of my friends, who were astounded at all the different ways to serve ice cream. My favorite: Tatufo: hazelnut ice cream, dark bing cherries, drizzled Kirsch, and whipped cream. Why can't they make ice cream like that in the US?

Lindsay,

of course the gummi bears in Germany are different - they were invented there by Mr. Hans Riegel who founded Haribo. Anything else is just a wannabe :-)

My daughter and I did a presentation on German customs once to her Girl Guides Brownie troupe and we included a blind taste test of gummi bears: one bowl of Haribo and one bowl of Northamerican ones. The kids had no problems picking out the German ones!

I used to miss the German yogurt as well. However, I started making my own 15 years ago and don't really eat any other type anymore. Best decision ever.

I am not from Europe, but have traveled there numerous times. Things I miss when I get home:

1. Fabulous public transportation
2. Walkable cities
3. Incredible variety of places within a small geographic area
4. Food as an experience to be savored

This thread is not just for Euros. It is for anyone who misses something about Europe. :)

I'm gonna have to disagree with everyone who said that European kids are better behaved. Are you kidding me?! I was a language assistant in a French high school last year, and I encountered some of the rudest kids ever there. They totally lacked respect!

I'll never forget when I lived in Avignon for my semester abroad and I used to take the bus across town. There were these teenagers who would always listen to their ipods and play them loudly enough so everyone could hear them. I hate that! One time, I was on a bus and the French teens figured out that I was American (because they heard me speak English with an Irish friend) and they started swearing at us. If that's not disrespectful, I don't know what is.

That said, American kids are just as disrespectful. I'm a TA at university, and my students last semester were always very chatty, which for me is also disrespectful. Luckily, the group I have this semester isn't as bad.

What I do miss about Europe:
1) Good food (tasty AND healthy)
2) "Joie de vivre" (ie not working yourself to death all the time)
3) (Affordable) Public transportation
4) Having long afternoons in cafes on the weekend
5) Outdoor markets with fresh food multiple times a week
6) Being surrounded by beautiful and historic buildings

I think kids in America have regional differences. When we moved to Springfield, MO 4 1/2 years ago, we were stunned that strange kids waved at us and kids were really well behaved and respectful. I think back there it is combination of church and stricter upbringing.

When we moved back to California, my daughter (now in 7th grade) was shocked by the diffirence with kids' behavior here. Every other word starts with f and not just boys but also girls. It is a totally different world and my daughter had to grow up in a hurry here to fit in. Although she still does not swear!

I miss being able to talk about religion and politics! Europeans are much more open and embracing of these discussions I have found. Should I say, "in general?"

We are not supposed to talk about politics, religion, abortion etc. in this country because someone's feelings will get hurt. At least that's the reason I am given whenever I open my trap, LOL

Dang, I sure miss the long talks with my German brother-in-law, my UK friends, and my new French friends. They know how to discuss, debate and agree to disagree...sigh.

Kaarina, you're making me long for another trip!!!

I love the yogurt in germany! It comes as a drink! Also the gummy candies are incredible! They are different than any of the gummy candy in America. Anyone agree? Thanks for all the tasty favorites you all have, I am going to Europe in May for a month and can't wait to try Spagetti ice cream, fresh gelato, real french bread, cheese and etc.! Great post! What country has the best food?

Eli, I know what you mean. I can't even talk politics to my husband! He can not have a discussion - he just gets upset! I can do it with his sister and mother though, because they have same views as I do but that is not as much fun as having a conversation with a group of people with different opinions but no-one gets upset. Oh well, I will wait for the summer for that!

I know that it is even more difficult there in the bible belt! I lived there for over 4 years. Black and white world views bother me. Everything is much more complex than that and the more that you see the world and interact with people from different backgronds the more evident it becomes.

Eating all meals outdoors, the food, the history, speaking a different language and actually being understood, raspberry sorbetto, all that beautiful marble, carved or not, the high quality of the ballet and the opera, London's West End, all of London for that matter, I could go on and on. Now I am really homesick for a continent that isn't my home!

1.The People,hands down!I love how you can sit down at a cafe for hours if you want and talk about anything and everything.2.The food!I really miss the great german food.3.The history!I love all the old cities and towns.4. The autobann!Man what a feeling it is to be driving 120 on their freeway and get passed! Great post Kaarina, thanks Monte

OMG, yogurts in even in Mexico are superior to the crap we have here.

We love the drinkable ones, and those gummy bears!! My daughter brings back tons to share with friends.

I think our focus in the US is more on quantity than quality, which is sad. We could do so much better.

Breads!! Did anyone mention breads in Europe?

Eli&Kaarina, I feel the very same way! People around here want to bury their head in the sand when it comes to politics. One of the things I admire most about Rick Steves, is that he's not afraid to talk politics. We sure know this from reading his blog!

I've had the pleasure of living both in Europe and the States...let's see, my favorite things...

The French cheeses, Belgian chocolates, fresh baked breads--baguettes, batards, 100% pupmpernickels; sitting in an outdoor cafe with a perfectly made cup of coffee; the fresh food markets with locally grown produce, meats and fish; the local wines; the creamy rich yogurts that don't become watery once opened; the public transportation....and so on.

I loved all of those in Europe and luckily get every single one here in my hometown in the USA. (including free public transportation.) Our markets carry fresh imported cheeses, we have a specialty food store that carries all types of international foods, including about 100 different types of chocolate bars, fresh bakeries that bake real bread and pastries daily, local farmers markets where the produce has just been picked, the meats and fish without chemicals, local wineries and those yogurts carried in every store and called "Greek" style.

Our coffeehouses and cafes where you can spend a leisurely afternoon or evening with friends over coffee, pastries or a light meal, the free concerts in the parks, the abundance of bike trails, and always a healthy discourse of politics. (Afterall, it is a college town.)

What I don't miss in Europe...the taxes, the beaucracracy (even worse than in the U.S.), the strikes, the fearful rise of nationalism, and the slow destruction of wonderful local culture and tradition by a governing body known as the EU.

Eli, Cate mentioned breads earlier. I love the bread in Europe, particularly those "crusty" Kaiser rolls that are the stable of breakfast in Germany. Over hear the rolls are to soft, limp. I've told the bakers in my supermarket they need to go to Germany to see what a Kaiser roll is really like.

I also miss the challenge of having to converse in a foreign language.

I miss sitting by myself at a table and being joined by strangers who don't mind talking.

I miss the funny pattern of the paving stones on Germany sidewalks.

Some more I thought of:

1. The trains - prompt, efficient, and a great way to travel.

2. Restaurants - they let you stay as long as you want and don't rush to 'turn over' the table to another customer. Downside is that it's often difficult to flag down your waiter when you actually need something.

3. Local city buses are awesome! There's a bus stop at almost every block or two and the buses run every 10 minutes or so; VERY convenient. Not like in my town where the nearest stop is a 1/2 mile away and the bus runs once every half hour.

4. Bringing flowers when you visit someone - I don't know if this is traditional anymore but when we would visit German relatives for coffee or dinner we would always bring a bouquet of flowers. Flower stands are everywhere and bouquets are inexpensive.

5. Flower arrangements - very unique nosegays and bouquets made up of flowers, twigs, cinnamon sticks, dried citrus slices, etc.... I haven't seen these in the US.

6. Christmas trees - having just returned from a trip to Germany/Austria over Christmas we liked the simplicity of how trees are decorated there: white lights, maybe candles, and a few ornaments.... not the 'Kris Kringle overload' like we have in the US.

7. Advent - celebrating Christmas begins with Advent and each Sunday a new candle is lit. Also, a couple of towns we visited featured 'life-size' Advent calendars where a building is decorated and each night the town gathers at 6:00pm to watch a new door open. A vignette is read, special music is performed, and then you walk through the Christmas market.

Eli, so right about the quantity versus quality! Here people spend their lives buying stuff but it is mainly cheap junk. My friends there wear really nice expensive quality clothes and designer means good quality materials and not polyester and plastic.

Off course breads, freash every day, are so much better than , what I call squishy bread, in bags. Is it a week old or a month old? Who knows! I stick to Siljan's crisp bread or bakery breads that are a bit better. Luckily there is a Trader Joe's being built here, but it is delayed since the collapse of the markets in october. There I can buy pretty good bread and other things that you can not get much elsewhere for a good price.

There are too many things to count, but some are:

1) Five weeks of vacation and lots of holidays

2) That unlike in the U.S., none of your coworkers make you feel guilty for taking a month long vacation because they are all taking one too.

3) Restaurants with outdoor tables and restaurants that have blankets and heaters so that you can sit outside even when it is cold.

4) Being able to take public transportation anywhere

5) The Eurovision Song Contest

6) A Swedish TV show called "Så ska det låta" - Kind of like "Name that Tune" with professional musicians. Here is a clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPYBGa_PsLo

7) Pear Cider

8) McVities HobNobs

So many more things ...

I miss seeing dogs sit under the tables in restaurants. I love it that it's legal in Europe!!

I miss the Art and the history. We are lucky enough to have the Philbrook museum in Tulsa which has different touring exhibits every year. Last year there was a Tuscany one and a Victorian Englad one.

I have to add one thing--dogs allowed virtually everywhere. There used to be 2 restaurants here in little Taylor, Texas where I could sit outside with my dogs and have a nice meal, but thanks to the economy one of them has closed. I wish we could go as many places together as we would be able to in Europe.

In Austin we have some places where we can eat with our dog outside too, but I wish we can have them inside as well. Someone was diapering a baby right at the table in an Austin restaurant, and that is so much dirtier than having a dog! I just love it that dogs are treated more like humans in Europe!

I lived in Germany for 4 1/2 years and miss volksmarching, the food, castles and the beautiful towns and forests. The people were also very friendly and helpful. Haven't been back there in nearly 20 years but I'm taking my kids this summer. I can't wait!