Small Traveling Curiosities

When being abroad, several things surprise you, but in this article I'm gonna write about the little details that are so different and unique.

​Obviously, everybody finds it different that British people drive on the left or that coffee in Italy is a vital part of the culture... As you know I hate to write about mainstream/viral/typical stuff and while these curiosities may not be a "secret" they are much less known to the public! 

Kissing/Meeting people

​In many occasions, the first thing you will need to do when you arrive to another country is to meet new people, and here it comes a big difference between cultures: For example, in Spain it is totally ok to kiss both cheeks of somebody of the opposite sex whom you have just met, or even between men if you are family or really close, while in Poland and many other countries you will get a weird look by doing this since everybody just gives you a handshake (my advice is when in Rome do as Romans do...). But that does not end there, as "cold" as the handshake may look, in Slavic countries 3 cheek kisses when saying bye means you consider each other friends. 

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Window Shades

​I find no real excuse not to have this at every home, the shades are widely common in all southern Europe (Spain, France, Italy...) but they seem to be a mythological legend in the rest of the world (or have some weird version of them). These wonderful inventions have many advantages: You can have a nap in darkness, you have more privacy at night and the most important thing is that early sun doesn't wake you up!!

Different kids of ice-creams

​Italian ice creams set the example of what an ice cream should look like but there are many variations of that depending where you go. Of course, the main mass-produced ice-cream companies have their products everywhere but if you would ask a Polish person how the average ice-cream looks like you will see how different it is compared to the classical one! The same with Russian and Ukrainian ice-creams, where instead of being in a cone they mostly come in a biscuit "glass". And finally, Turkish have also an interesting concept of ice-cream that while it looks similar to the classical version, the texture and the making process is much different, plus it is always funny to order one. 

Pizza and Italian nightmares

​If you are Italian and you are reading this, I do warn you, it may hurt your pride. Obviously, pizza comes from Italy, and something outside that country is not a pizza but a "round bread with things", but now here it comes the disaster... In Poland and Lithuania when you order a pizza they always add ketchup or other SAUCES to it!! You go to a pizzeria and each table has its own ketchup/ bbq/ moustard sauce set. Btw I do not consider American bbq or hawaiian "bread with things" anything related to pizza.

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Orange wine in Georgia

​When ordering a Rosato or sparkling wine one may imagine a pinkish coloured wine... Well this doesn't happen in Georgia, where that kind of wine has a very obvious orange colour!! Btw, this country has an excellent quality in food and wine, if you are a foodie this should be your next destination.

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Driving in India

​Ok, India is radically different to anything western but yet one of the things that stroked me the most was the driving... You couldn't pass 80 km/h in highways because cows are allowed to be where they want (guess what, they love to stay in the middle of the road) and also there is a lot of trucks, to pass them you need to horn at them (as their back painting reminds you) 

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Beer in Russia

While Russian beer is not world famous, there is a special thing about them. Specially if we take the most famous brand, Baltika, with several numbers to represent the different kinds of beer it has but the fun part comes with the 1L packaging, which is not a plastic bottle as you may think but a tremendous can, perfect for drunk pictures! 

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​And now I will show you in pictures some other little curiosities!! I hope you enjoyed this article and learned how to appreciate little details more!