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General discussionNational/local weirdness(178 posts)(178 posts)
(178 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted September 22, 2015
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nightcraw1er.488: They are aware that bottled water comes from the tap (directly in cheaper brands!). There's really no difference, its not like Perrier have discovered the fountain of life and only bottle there.
You're wrong about that.
In Germany you can buy bottled mineral water that definitely is not tap water.
Bottled tap water you can buy has to be called Tafelwasser (table water).
Post edited September 22, 2015 by 0Grapher
Posted September 22, 2015
Some of these are more religion and or region / culture based and some are pop culture based but wth, here are some weird practices:

Fish is a vegetarian food.

When you're handing out any item, hand it over with the right hand since it is considered more prosperous. So this includes stuff like handing out exam answer papers and money with your right hand.

If you touch someone with your feet, you have to touch them, then touch your forehead so you won't get a crippling leg injury later in life.

If you touch any piece of paper or a book or any writing with your feet you have to touch it and touch your forehead so you won't experience difficulty in learning.

Take off your shoes before entering someone's house as a guest.

Cut a cat's whiskers shorter so she won't leave you.

Snakes hate garlic, use it to drive them away, don't kill them, if you kill one another one will come and avenge the killed reptilian brother / sister.

Watching a film first time, day one, show one in a theater after the copy of the film is handed over from the distributor to the theater is considered most desirable.

Lamps cannot be allowed to die out. They must be extinguished by hand when the flame is about to die.

Drawing prosperous symbols on newly bought vehicles' windscreen is a thing. Believed to bring prosperity. May have opposite effect.

Discarding a small portion food before eating a meal is considered prudent.

Keeping a peacock feather in a book will multiply it. I tried this by putting a Black Kite feather in a bird guide. Didn't work.

I think those are enough for now. I may post other strange stuff later. Some strange festivals need to be covered.
Posted September 22, 2015
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Telika: In Greece, I love the (evil) "eye". It's the mediterranean-widespread belief, slowly falling out of fashion, that bragging too much, or displaying a too flashy success, or just accidentally provoking envy, brings bad luck, through the magical glance of jealous people. It's unintentionnal, even making a sincere compliment to someone may bring them bad luck. It's usually aknowledged (the compliment is sometimes accompanied by a small counter-ritual, like a pretend spit on the ground, or just a comment of the "but let's not evil-eye it !" form), and most of times it's merely half-serious. But there's also the occasional urbal legend supposed to demonstrate that evil eye exists. And there are many little exorcisms that cure people of the symptoms of having caught the "eye".
It's there in India as well. I've had "evil eye" cured several times in the past by burning cotton dipped in oil when I caught bad fevers as a kid. (They kind of rotate that in front of you 3 times and throw it away, apparently it removes the effects)

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Shadowstalker16: Some of these are more religion and or region / culture based and some are pop culture based but wth, here are some weird practices:

Fish is a vegetarian food.

Keeping a peacock feather in a book will multiply it. I tried this by putting a Black Kite feather in a bird guide. Didn't work.
Haha, first is only for Bengalis though and second one, I've seen some of my classmates do it when I was in school.
Post edited September 22, 2015 by huN73R
Posted September 22, 2015
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Pickle1477: Speaking of water, I just got back from a trip to Germany and found it interesting that they generally don't drink tap water. Supposedly, this comes from the word for tap water, Leitungswasser, is essentially "plumbing water". I think this has changed over the years and you can still be served it in restaurants if you ask for it. Coming from the US where guests are served a glass of water with ice as soon as they are seated, this took a bit of getting used to, especially after a long day of walking around the cities.
That has nothing to do with the name, it's simply not customary to be served water unless you order it specifically. As Crackpot.756 already said, it's perfectly normal to drink tap water in Germany. We actually pride ourselves on the excellent quality of our tap water which has higher quality standards than bottled water.

The term "Leitungswasser" doesn't carry any negative connotation other than it being an inexpensive and ubiquitous commodity as opposed to more "fancy" bottled water (which has, you know, like, a label and stuff). I'm assuming you're associating "plumbing" with the more "dirty" aspects like drains, toilets, sewage, etc. but in German "Leitung" is a generic term referring to any type of tube, pipe(line), electric line/wire and so on.
Post edited September 22, 2015 by Randalator
Posted September 22, 2015
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Pickle1477: Speaking of water, I just got back from a trip to Germany and found it interesting that they generally don't drink tap water. Supposedly, this comes from the word for tap water, Leitungswasser, is essentially "plumbing water". I think this has changed over the years and you can still be served it in restaurants if you ask for it. Coming from the US where guests are served a glass of water with ice as soon as they are seated, this took a bit of getting used to, especially after a long day of walking around the cities.
I don't know where you went to in Germany, but I (and most of my friends) prefer tap water over bottled water. The exception is when I'm at work, because a) I don't have to pay for it, b) my boss carries the stuff into the office and c) a big bottle on my desk doesn't have me run for new water every so often.

From my experience you can get free tap water in most restaurants. It's not explicitly offered by most because they want you to buy the expensive stuff, but in good restaurants you will get free water going with dry red wine, espresso/mocha or a good whisky.

Also "Leitungswasser" doesn't mean "plumbing water", the correct translation would be "line water", and the term has no negative connotation.

There are however some regions where the tap water (coming from natural sources) just doesn't taste very well. If I would live there I would probably go for bottled water or try one of those fancy filtering devices.

Edit: Ha! Of course ninja'd by Randalator... I'm too slow ;-)
Post edited September 22, 2015 by toxicTom
Posted September 22, 2015
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ZFR: In Ireland you almost always get two separate taps in a sink. One for hot and one for cold water. No idea why.
It doesn't help that the water in one is scorching hot and in the other freezing cold.
Both double and single-handle faucets are common in the US nowadays, depending on personal preference. If you're replacing a broken faucet set, but not the entire sink, you buy a replacement that fits the sort of sink you have (single-hole or three-hole). If you're going completely new, you buy whatever sink+faucet combo you prefer aesthetically/functionally.
Posted September 22, 2015
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Elaborigen: I believe this is because, long time ago, only 1 of the sources was actually drinkable.
That makes sense. Thanks!
Posted September 22, 2015
Oh don't get me wrong, I totally drank the tap water there (great stuff), just seemed odd to have to ask for it specifically (as in, I couldn't just say "water" or I'd get bottled, I had to specify "municipal water"). Please don't take what I said before as an insult or anything, everyone was very nice and all the food/drink was fantastic, including the water :)
Posted September 22, 2015
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Charon121: 1) In Croatia people have this irrational fear of draught. Draught as in a current of cool air coming from a small opening into a closed room. Croatians believe it's the cause of at least 50% of the common diseases out there. You may open a window on the train on a hot day, only to be confronted by panicked requests to shut it because of the dreaded draught, otherwise someone may get ill. Mothers and grandmothers drill into children that they should avoid sitting on a draught at all costs; this also includes walking on a cold floor barefoot or sitting on a cold surface.
The fear of draught is part of the Romanian folklore.

Also, if you see a child with 1 or 2 aditional clothes that his/her mother then you can bet that woman is Romanian.
Posted September 22, 2015
With all the discussion about water, I would like to add that in Sweden, if you ask for "still water", or "normal water" at a restaurant, you nearly always get tap water, but if you simply ask for "water", you're just as likely to get sparkling water as you are to get a question for which kind of water you want. Either way, in about half the cases you get a slice of either lemon or - rarely - cucumber hanging on the glass.
Post edited September 22, 2015 by Maighstir
Posted September 22, 2015
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B0SC0: Probably due to early water systems having the water come from two different sources, hot from the immersion/tank in the attic, cold straight from the mains.
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ZFR: But that's the case with all water systems everywhere. Hot and cold from different sources. Why not combine into one tap.
I've seen such old taps once at my grandmother's home, when I was a kid. I thought they were some old thing (you put both hot and cold water to the sink), I'm surprised if even new homes at Ireland still have such.

I couldn't understand in France, why the bathroom floors were not waterproof and there was no drain on the floor. If I happened to spill water from the bathtub to the floor, that was apparently a disaster and the water would go through the floor to the apartment below. Damn great engineering, that.
Post edited September 22, 2015 by timppu
Posted September 22, 2015
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Charon121: then I'll want to hear about Finnish justification for salmiakki. :p
What about it? I think it came to Finland with Dutch traders. It is an acquired taste, somewhat like coffee or beer. If you give any of these to someone who has never tasted it, they will think it is disgusting. People who have used them for years may think differently. I personally like the strong taste of most salmiakki, but only in relatively small quantities.
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Charon121: 2) Croatians love coffee.
I guess Finns love too, considering we apparently are #1 in coffee consumption per capita (e.g. in 2014 apparently 12 kg of raw coffee per capita in Finland, while in e.g.Italy it is 5.7 kg and in Spain 4.5 kg).

In Luxemburg it is actually staggering 24 kg per capita, but that is a statistical anomaly as apparently the Germans go to buy lots of coffee from Luxemburg, as it is cheaper there. So the Luxemburgians are not consuming that much.

The real cultural weirdess for Finnish coffee is that for some odd reason most coffee sold here is mildly roasted (not as black as elsewhere). I have no idea why, deeper roast tastes much better IMHO and is also less acidic, ie. doesn't irritate the stomach as much. Lately Finns have started consuming more deeper roast coffee though, but I think the mild roast is still much more common. Mild roast has more caffeine per cup, maybe that's why, I don't know.
Post edited September 22, 2015 by timppu
Posted September 22, 2015
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B0SC0: Probably due to early water systems having the water come from two different sources, hot from the immersion/tank in the attic, cold straight from the mains.
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ZFR: But that's the case with all water systems everywhere. Hot and cold from different sources. Why not combine into one tap.
Here lad, you know better than to try and explain our logic! It's like that old anecdote:

"One story tells of the two clocks in Padraic Pearse Station, Dublin, which, of course, being Irish clocks always disagree. An Englishman, this story claims, once commented loudly and angrily on how “typically Irish“ it was to have two clocks in a train station that gave different times. “Ah, sure,” a Dublin man replied, “if they agreed, one of them would be superfluous.”"
Posted September 22, 2015
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timppu: What about it? I think it came to Finland with Dutch traders. It is an acquired taste, somewhat like coffee or beer. If you give any of these to someone who has never tasted it, they will think it is disgusting. People who have used them for years may think differently. I personally like the strong taste of most salmiakki, but only in relatively small quantities.
A friend brought a packet of salmiakki from a business trip to Finland once. Most people in the office couldn't fin(n)ish even one piece, but I, ever the gastronomic explorer, ate half the packet. Strange taste for a piece of candy, to say the least, as candy is usually associated with very sweet taste. But the countries in your part of Europe seem to love their ammonium chloride. :)

Speaking of water, I dislike double taps. So much wasted water, as it's difficult to mix the perfect temperature without fiddling with the valves.
Post edited September 22, 2015 by Charon121
Posted September 22, 2015
In Poland. shaking someone's hand without taking a glove off is considered offensive. Yes, this means you have to take your glove off in winter before shaking someone's hand.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionNational/local weirdness(178 posts)(178 posts)
(178 posts)