Europe: Jay's Tips For Being In Europe - Part I

Welcome to a multi-part series I'll be doing periodically to outline some tips I have for an American living in Europe. Now that I've been here a month, I've put together a list of things I've learned that may be of use to someone who is visiting Europe for the first time. A lot of these things apply to France since I've been here primarily, but consider them if you travel outside of France as they very well may be true in other countries as well. Some may be obvious, and some you may not know, enjoy!

• Toilets have two flush buttons, the smaller button uses less water.
• Remember that €1 != $1. Obvious, but don't forget! You're spending roughly $1.50 (Nov.2009) every time you spend a single Euro.
  
• Electrical sockets are different in different parts of the world, you'll need adapters.
• Food is way better here in general, even things like jam, mayonnaise, etc. because shit isn't made with Corn Syrup, they use actual ingredients. (Novel concept.)
• Clocks use the 24 hour cycle and not A.M. P.M. So 8pm is 20:00.
• Temperature is in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Convert Here!
• European Trains are amazing, travel on one at least once in your life.
• If someone offers to help you find your way, they want money.
• If someone asks if you speak English, just shake your head, they want money. English speakers will just start speaking in English and hope you respond, they won't ask first.
  
• If someone finds a gold ring on the ground and offers it to you for free, they want money.
• If someone talks to you at all on the street, they probably want money.
• If you're under 26 years old, everything is cheaper in Europe. Everything. Travel before 26! Most museums are free, train tickets are cheaper, hotels/hostels, everything.
  
• Don't lie about your age on the train to get a cheaper ticket, it'll cost you. A lot.
• Paris Specific: They have separate stores for everything! No giant Targets and shit. You'll find specific stores for lots of different items. Hard to get use to but quite awesome.
  
• Commas and Decimals are switched. So $1.50 == $1,50 and 1,000,000 == 1.000.000
• Paris Specific: Nothing is in English and nobody will speak it to you, unless you're a pretty girl. If you're a guy, prepare for a pain in the ass if you don't speak French.
• Paris Specific: It rains all of the time in Winter. Get ready.
• Almost all homeless people have pets. They get a stipend to feed the pet from the Gov't so most of them have dogs. It also prevents them from getting arrested since the cops can't leave the pets by themselves. Smart eh?
  
• Hostels aren't dirty and dangerous like in the movie Hostel. That is all bullshit. They are awesome and you'll meet excellent people if you're willing to.
• Cities: Dog shit is all over the ground and all over the place. I mean everywhere. Watch your step.
  
• Paris Specific: Nobody smiles, don't take it personally it's the culture. Just smile at everyone and laugh when they give you a weird look for not looking depressed.
• Learning bits of the the languages can help a lot, but in my experience if you try to speak the language they will respond in their language and then you won't know what they said. If you go this route, it's almost smarter to be obviously bad at it when you try to speak, so they respond in English. Otherwise you're fucked anyway 'cause you'll have to just say, "Sorry I know I tried but I have no idea what you just said, so can we start over in English?". In which case, a Parisian will roll their eyes and be a jerk, and you might as well have said it in English to begin with anyway. Belgians, Italians and Dutch will be nice though so give it a shot and see if your experience differs from mine. Note: Are you a good looking girl? Forget this one. You're all set.
  
• Plan on doing some cooking, going out to eat is big money around here. Some hostels have kitchens, check when you make a reservation.
• Buying a coffee or anything at the bar will be cheaper than sitting down and ordering it. You don't tip servers in Europe so they charge you extra for ordering it from a server instead.
  

That's it for part one. If you'd like to read Part II, check it out here. Enjoy!