Yes, they sure can be!

We certainly saw the trading hours thing in Vienna. Had no idea grocery stores closed early on Saturday night, for every single holiday, and on Sundays the city basically dies.

Lol you guys! Most of the big grocery store shopping carts in Canada are like this too! You pop a coin into it, it unhooks the chain (they’re all chained up), you do your shopping, then yes, return the cart to its place to get either your quarter or your loonie (dollar) back. This has been done for decades here – rationale is to discourage people from randomly leaving carts all over the place and carts going missing. It’s a pain in the butt, but keeps an orderly and clean store and neighbourhood!:)

The small parking spots took getting used to as well!

And if you live away from the States or Canada for long enough, coming back is it’s own culture shock!

That Bangkok toilet sounds like the fancy Japanese ones I’ve heard about. Would be quite interesting.

So not a fan of the squat toilet either. From what I’ve heard Chinese bathrooms are pretty gross so can’t blame you.

I’m not totally sure because I wasn’t aware any of them gave refunds. It’s a similar setup to Europe, so I’m thinking you probably do get a refund if you reconnect the basket.

Very true about meals. In the States, everyone’s meal arrives at the same time. Elsewhere one person might get their dish 10 minutes before someone else. Yeah, waiting until everyone is served will end up with a lot of cold plates.

Transport can really get interesting. lol