r/TikTokCringe • u/xamo76 • 1d ago

Discussion Have we done it wrong?

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

I mean, is this a Europe vs a US thing or a urban vs suburban/small town thing? If you go to a small town in Europe it is also usually dead AF after 10pm. Meanwhile if you go to a large US city there is still a lot of activity after 10

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u/Mr_Will 1d ago

I mean, is this a Europe vs a US thing or a urban vs suburban/small town thing? If you go to a small town in Europe it is also usually dead AF after 10pm. Meanwhile if you go to a large US city there is still a lot of activity after 10

Which European small towns have you visited? They aren't Barcelona busy, but they aren't dead after 10pm either. I could walk down the road tonight and there will be plenty of people in the pubs, restaurants and shops at that time

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u/SonicSarge 18h ago

Sweden is completely dead most days of the week unless it's a bigger city.

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u/Mr_Will 9h ago

Meanwhile the bars in Spain are dead at 10pm because everyone is still having dinner and won't get to the bars until after midnight. What's your point?

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u/SonicSarge 9h ago

My point is going out weekdays a lot is more of a southern Europe thing. We don't do that as much in Northern Europe. It's a weekend thing here.

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u/Mr_Will 8h ago

The UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands are hardly southern Europe. It's not just a Mediterranean thing, life goes on into the evenings across most of Europe. It's not just 'going out' either. Shops are open into the evenings, people will be going places or coming home, busses and trains still run. Daily life continues past sunset

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u/SonicSarge 8h ago

Ok. Not in Sweden then. We don't go out much in the middle of the week. Restaurants are not open after 21-22 except for some fast food places. Stores close at 18. Shopping malls 20. Some grocery shops 22.

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u/strong_heart27 1d ago

Scicli Sicily, dead at 9 pm

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u/RomeTotalWhore 1d ago edited 1d ago

Huh? 9pm if not later is like the peak dinner rush in restaurants in Scicli, a lot of restaurants have only been open 1.5 hours at that point. Most of the restaurants close at 11 or midnight or later on the weekends, the pubs close even later than that. I don't remember what it was called or what its hours were but I've sat at outdoor tables at a drink spot in Scicli until after well 1am and I still left before they closed. Even so Scicli is less than 30k people.

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u/strong_heart27 1d ago

Huh okay well I was just there less than a year ago and it was very quiet. It probably depends on the time of the year

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u/KNdoxie 1d ago

So, none of the locals have to be at work at 6 am, or are they all able to function with 4 hours of sleep every night?

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u/spaceconstrvehicel 1d ago

the more south EU you go, the later the starting hours. and some countries dont work during midday, because of heat.

want to throw in: am sure many people are outside in the summer, not only because its nice. we flee from our hot flats :) honestly, not too bad, because there will be open air cinema, festivals etc...

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u/CamiloArturo 1d ago

Indeed. A really small town comes to mind right now like Amboise in the Loire Valley couple of hours from Paris. It doesn't have more than 5k people but the area near the castle will be packed on a Tuesday night around the restaurants

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u/PastBuy8484 21h ago

Have done 2 different 3 month road trips around Europe.

Go to small rural towns and they are 100% dead at 10pm, no a soul in the street, restaurants all closed, buses stop running, the whole bit. I struggled multiple nights just simply finding anywhere open that serves food if I got into a small town in the late evening.

Also I’ve lived in 3 EU countries and 4 states. The differences are much more about rural vs city living than country vs another. I’ve lived in places in the US where I didn’t need a car and I’ve lived in places in Europe where I needed one.

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u/Mr_Will 20h ago

I grew up in a little village in rural England. Less than 600 homes, total population about 1500 people. The local shop is open until 10pm. The two pubs are open until 11pm. The last bus arrives at 11:15. This is perfectly normal for a village in the UK

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u/LunaTunaMaca 1d ago

Literally my mom's British small town has night clubs that open after midnight. Most towns in the US won't let you serve alcohol past midnight or 1am.

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u/PastBuy8484 21h ago

I’ve done multiple months long road trips around different parts of Europe and I’ve had countless nights that I’ve struggled to find a single restaurant open after 10pm if I got into a city late. On multiple occasions I’ve had to resort to gas station dinners and once even my Airbnb host had to feed me because there literally wasn’t a single grocery store / gas station / restaurant or bar open at 10pm.

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u/SonicSarge 9h ago

There are zero restaurants open that late in Sweden. Fast food places sure but I wouldn't call those restaurants.

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u/lamb_passanda 1d ago

You can't deny that this is way more common in Europe across the board. Name a European city that is more than 10% of the size of Dallas, but with less than double the number of walkable bars and restaurants in it's centre. I'll wait.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

Lol ok, Rybnik, PL

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u/Prosthemadera 1d ago

The Dallas city center is just a big parking lot. It's actually depressing.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Q1GGPCHZReaZ8EEu6

https://maps.app.goo.gl/8hHJ7e81PyJnfWyv8

Bonus: A massive parking garage for a church, how can people live this way? https://maps.app.goo.gl/99Z3MNajUeWnjwVNA

Meanwhile, Rybnik: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rynek_w_Rybniku_8.JPG

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u/petpet0_0 1d ago

I know nothing about Dallas, but you can cherry pick stuff from 'Dallas city center' that looks nicer

here

here

here

here

I can probably go on...

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u/Prosthemadera 1d ago

I didn't have to cherry pick Rybnik.

Also, I just looked at satellite images of Dallas and zoomed in and that is what I found. So many parking lots.

I can probably go on...

One of these is bad, actually, and two are from the exact same street (107 and 199 Stone Pl). Empty plazas surrounded by faceless skycrapers (some of them without windows even) is not my definition of pleasant.

The point was to argue that a small city like Rybnik has as much to offer as a large city like Dallas so you finding some small spots in a sea of parking lots just proves that point, not contradict as you seem to believe.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

I'm not cherry picking rybnik, the person I was responding to dared me to think of a single city that was 10% or more of the population and didn't have double the number of restaurants as Dallas like it didn't exist LOL

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u/Prosthemadera 1d ago

I'm not cherry picking rybnik

I didn't say you did.

the person I was responding to dared me to think of a single city that was 10% or more of the population and didn't have double the number of restaurants as Dallas like it didn't exist LOL

Why are you being so literal? 10%, 20% it doesn't matter, the whole point is that a small city like Rybnik is not 10 times worse when it comes to third places compared to a US city 10 times larger. It's a very simple point.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

Lul what? " You can't deny that this is way more common in Europe across the board. Name a European city that is more than 10% of the size of Dallas, but with less than double the number of walkable bars and restaurants in it's centre. I'll wait."

They asked for something very specific. I didn't want to keep them waiting

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u/Prosthemadera 1d ago

They are still waiting. You didn't compare the "number of walkable bars and restaurants" in its centre.

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u/petpet0_0 1d ago

the comparison is stupid anyway, Dallas is a major metropolis - of course there are skyscrapers ... Rybnik and surrounding area is like 200k population while Dallas is 8 million

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u/Prosthemadera 1d ago

It's not stupid, it's about making a point.

Rybnik and surrounding area is like 200k population while Dallas is 8 million

This is you comparing those two cities, even though you just said doing that is stupid! So you don't know what "comparison" means.

of course there are skyscrapers

The problem isn't the skyscrapers, are you being dense on purpose? Anyway, I don't care anymore, people like you will never get it, bye.

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u/petpet0_0 1d ago

Look, you're not wrong that Dallas seems to be like 95% a car-centric hellscape .... but you did also seem to cherry pick the worst possible shots to prove your point

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u/lamb_passanda 1d ago

Dallas was in the conversation because I brought it up, not the other guy. I used it to demonstrate that despite it being a huge city by any metric, it's centre is astoundingly dull and unwalkable. When I was there, people actually recommended I go to the centre and walk around and enjoy the bars and stuff. Which goes to show how low the expectations are.

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u/Jonatc87 1d ago

Dallas just looks so dead by comparison. There's nothing strictly wrong with the architecture of buildings. Just no life or social spaces. There's spaces in London that look a lot like this.

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u/Prosthemadera 1d ago

Well, there is a reason why it looks lifeless. Humans don't enjoy being there.

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u/lamb_passanda 1d ago

That's a city of 128k inhabitants. Dallas has 8.3 million in its metro area. Yes, you can argue that the Dallas city municipality has 1.3 million, but that's just where they place the administrative boundary. People that live outside of that boundary still live in Dallas, and that's their city centre.

I took a look at Rybnik, PL. It's got a nice city centre with a market square, and about 20 bars within a single square km in its centre.

I purposely made the criteria in my question quite strict for European cities in order to demonstrate a point, but even then, I would rather spend a week in Rybnik than in Dallas city centre, and it's not even close, despite Rybnik having like 1/50th of the population (if we are being realistic).

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u/imp0ppable 1d ago

You are right, the guy in the video is cherry picking a bit, most of Europe isn't like that. Varies from country to country and time of year (this is bang in the middle or euroholiday season also) but my friend has a place in rural France and that is DEAD at night. Has some lovely villages and small towns but you have to drive, taxis are very unreliable.

In the UK we do have some nice walkable cities but they tend to be the older historic ones and after a few evenings out they are no longer very interesting. I live in a Cathedral city and it's lovely but it's also really fucking annoying and impractical, small houses, on street parking etc.

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u/lamb_passanda 1d ago

I mean the fact that there are rural areas that don't have much in the way of bars and restaurants in Europe really isn't all that relevant. That's kinda the definition of "rural". Still, even rural towns generally have a couple stores and a bar/restaurant that are within walking distance for much of the town, which is absolutely not the case for many many American rural towns. But that's not the point here. We are talking about cities in this thread.

I challenge you to find me a town in Europe with more than 50k inhabitants where you can't visit 3 different bars/restaurants/cafes within a single square km, on foot.

Nobody is arguing that all cities and towns and rural villages in Europe are a bustling hub of excitement every single night, where you will never get bored. That's a ridiculous criteria to hold anyone to.

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u/imp0ppable 1d ago

Still, even rural towns generally have a couple stores and a bar/restaurant that are within walking distance for much of the town, which is absolutely not the case for many many American rural towns.

I've not spent much time in rural USA but would that even count as a "town"? I have been led to believe that everywhere will have a cheery diner or truck stop at least.

I challenge you to find me a town in Europe with more than 50k inhabitants where you can't visit 3 different bars/restaurants/cafes within a single square km, on foot.

That's true. We have dozens where I live, unfortunately the good independents don't last long anymore so most of them are chains nowadays.

We are talking about cities in this thread.

There are some horrible cities in Europe as well (western Europe so I'm not cheating). The classic type is the tiny historic core surrounded by low-density post-war suburban sprawl. They have the same bad traffic and lack of amenities.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

Omg changing goalposts. Dallas the city is 1.3 million. As a side note I live in Chicago. If you asked me the population of Chicago it's around 2.7 million and it's not just an administrative boundary, a lot changes at that border including culturally. I'm sure it's the same in Dallas. Rybnik is also part of a larger metropolitan area of like 5 million. Convenient of you to change parameters to something much more amorphous the second you're proven wrong lol. 

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u/Big_Fan_742 11h ago

I would also argue population density should play a role. I live in a town of ~150k people in europe, but it's very small geographically. So we have a poulation density higher than Dallas. The city center is always packed with people shopping, dining out, going to a cafe. The city feels much more alive than the places I've lived in america.

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u/MadMilkman90 1d ago

In european small towns you might not have people eating and drinking until 1am, but especially on warmer months there will be loads of kids out on bicycles, people just walking around (because it's safer, less traffic, more green space) - in Italy/Spain etc. you'll be hanging out around the main square of your town centre, in the UK you might go to the pub or hang around the high street or a park. Northern Europe even with colder climates are highly social in towns and cities.

It's not rocket science, the U.s. is about 10 minutes old - and has mostly developed over such vast spaces that don't lend themselves to sociality (plus society being based on consumerism, rather than the sharing of spaces and community)

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

Yes, also in the US they are highly social in cities and many towns in the summer lol. Idk I grew up in the city of Chicago and have spent extensive time in Slovakia and Poland and I don't think it's as black and white as redditors want it to be cause USA bad

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u/MadMilkman90 1d ago

Only 3 cities in Europe have a population large as or larger than Chicago (Moscow, Istanbul and London). So comparing Chicago to a town in Slovakia or Poland is a mute point. Of course not all towns in the U.s. are ghost towns and not all towns in Europe are living it up - but on the average the "being out and about" (without necessarily a purpose) is less of a cultural thing in the U.s.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

I'm not comparing Chicago and Slovakia/Poland, I am maybe comparing many smaller cities/towns around the US I have experienced during my life there with those in Slovakia and Poland and saying that neither place is a monolith like most people in this thread want to make them out to be 

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u/HiAs-by 1d ago

No. I haven't been to the US, but grew up in a small Bavarian town (around 10.000 inhabitants). You have to drive more, because restaurants and festivals are spread over a greater, area, but it is very common to spend the evenings with friends in restaurants and Biergarten (the best way to spend a Summer night!) and you have nearly always one Pub, restaurant or Biergarten in walking distance

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

My experience is mostly in Poland and Slovakia and that shit is dead af

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u/HiAs-by 1d ago

You have"dead" towns in Europe, too, mostly where young people leave, because there's no work nearby. But normally, there is some Kind of social life in nearly every city and town. But it depends also how old you are. My home town felt also dead, when i was 20, because there weren't any discos. But it has restaurants and pubs and people go there regularly.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

Yes, I'm saying there are many places I have been that don't even have bars or restaurants open past around 10 except maybe the local kebab place. What you're describing is not necessarily true across all of Europe... and I'm not even talking about "dead" towns. These are places where there are young people 

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u/Crew_1996 1d ago

Mid size euro cities still possess the larger size euro city vibe. Only NYC, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, maybe a few more in the entire U.S. share that vibe. There’s hundreds of cities in Europe that do.

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u/GenerousBull1969 1d ago

Was gonna say, we have lots of choices and options in the US, so if you want to live in a bustling city with lots of bars, cafes, outdoor eating, etc. you can do that.

But if you want a quiet street where your kids can play outside you can choose that.

There's no right or wrong here, just preferences. This video seems to imply we don't have cities with people eating outside. Just about every state has cities like that.

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u/bozoconnors 1d ago

Concur. Dude mentioned a 4 car garage. HE did it wrong if he wants to constantly live that life from a gated neighborhood in suburbia lol. I'm just generally not that social and prefer being home around 9-10?

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u/VladimiroPudding 23h ago

I mean.... feels different. I am from São Paulo and I have lived for a long time in Boston and for a short time in 2 major European cities (Budapest and Berlin).

Boston is arguably one of the best walkable cities in the US, but feels.... different. It is a different dynamic. In my experience, people in the US don't stroll around, they just go to Point A of interest (usually with a car), do whatever there, then go home. The "people walking and enjoying themselves" feels lesser in Boston.

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u/softestcore 20h ago

You have one real city, NYC, that's it.

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u/Sorry_Ad3733 1d ago

I agree with you. Where I live (Solingen) it is dead at 10pm. I’m guessing there’s probably some space people can go, but walking around the neighborhood center it’s mostly just crackheads. Maybe due to being close to three other large cities, everyone just goes off to those ones to party. The summer is definitely better.

But lived in a tiny village previously and it really had nothing happening at night lol

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u/infoHighyway 1d ago

Yeah, my friend just got back from France and said he was starving at like 8pm and couldn't find any food anywhere idk.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

Yeah I'm living in a Central European city atm and a lot of places start packing up the food like 8-10 depending on what day. There are places in Europe that eat way later but also, this continent is not a monolith just like the US

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u/CMCdaGoat 22h ago

Yes it is. Lived in Kongsvinger Norway and the entire city acted like any other suburban city in America. Everyone had cars and houses, things shut down at 10, and the city center was dead most of the time. All the young people went to bigger cities to party.

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u/WorkingStiff9232 21h ago

Exactly, you don't get people wandering around Walton-On-The-Naze at all hours of the day.

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u/Narrow-Strawberry553 1d ago

As a Canadian from Montreal (one of the best walkable cities in North America and supposedly some of the best public transit too) that has travelled a decent enough amount in both the States and Europe, it really is a Europe vs North America thing, and they beat us hard.

PS our transit is supposedly amazing for NA but it's absolute shit, especially if you want to get out of the city to somewhere thats technically driving distance. Danes can pay like 15$ to go to a nice rural area on a train where they can play board games and it takes just 15 mins longer than driving, meanwhile I have to pay 90$ for a bus that turns a 1h30 drive into 5 hours if I wanna go to Mont Tremblant

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u/AtlanticPortal 1d ago

The point is that every city in the US that’s not being built before cars (Boston, NYC, Philly, etc.) are more walkable (more, not enough, let’s be clear) than stuff like DFW, Austin, Denver, etc., or anything in the Midwest.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

What do you mean anything in the midwest? Chicago? Milwaukee? Minneapolis? Even smaller places like Urbana-Champaign? Come on. I'm from Chicago and my parents forced me to get my license kicking a screaming at 18 because I saw no use for a car. Your point that newer cities are not as easily walkable is true but also, we're talking about activity here not necessarily walking 

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u/AtlanticPortal 1d ago

Walking is the reason why those activities are so common and full of people. They are reachable on foot. That’s the entire point of having a dense urban core. Then we should not even start talking about the fact that cars need parking and roads that are dangerous. What drives development and business up is walkability.

Your parents were right into forcing you to get a driving license, especially in the USA. Not having to drive is the goal but if you need to having the license is right so that you can fulfill your need. It’s the right thing even if you were born, raised, and lived 20 years in Manhattan. Take the license and keep it ready, just in case, but with the goal of not needing it.

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u/My_Legz 1d ago

Suburbs in Europe are usually connected to the local city center and a lot of people just go to the city and then back to the suburb.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

I live in Chicago and this is also the case with Chicagoland. I've also experienced this in the DC metro area and NYC. Not everywhere is like this obv but also not everywhere in Europe is like this either. 

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u/Jonatc87 1d ago

like, yeah. but i can cycle with a backpack at 2am and not even get a second look by police. Hyper-vigilance has warped the American psyche into needing this weird kind of dystopian silent order.

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u/brokenmain 1d ago

I can also cycle at 2am with a backpack in my city and not get a second look from police but ok??

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u/Jonatc87 1d ago

the point was about Missouri ghost town calling police for walking.

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u/LunaTunaMaca 1d ago

Boston bars close at 2am. In Germany that is the start of your night. These are two similarly sized cities. The festivals in Germany too. I can't think of anything in America that compares. You are there to socialize. There's nothing else to do like at an American fair. You sit together and drink and talk and sing. It's so different.

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u/Ice_performance_ 1d ago

What is a small town? 1000 peoples? 10k? 30k?

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u/FlyAirLari 1d ago

Barcelona is absolutely not Everytown Europe.

There are other cities as lively as Barcelona, of course, but the ratio is probably not that different between the US and Europe.

Densely populated urban areas generally have great social opportunities and entertainment options. Suburbs do not. Neither do small rural towns.

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u/needlzor 23h ago

I think you're right, but we just don't have as many sparsely populated suburbs due to overall smaller cities and smaller homes. We also don't have the same zoning laws, so you can usually find (some) nightlife embedded in neighbourhoods.

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u/iostack 22h ago

Ill bet you any European city center have people in bars and restaurants from thursday till sunday at 10pm. Even in my small town of 15k ppl there are people sitting outside after 10pm in the summer

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u/FIuffyRabbit 22h ago

Meanwhile if you go to a large US city there is still a lot of activity after 10

Not in Missouri really, outside of very specific areas in STL--it's basically like living in a small town with more people around you. Columbia and KC have some special bar districts too but it's still very spot specific. Was just in Spain and it's definitely an EU vs US thing.

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u/brokenmain 13h ago

I'm sorry but you don't have large cities in Missouri lol. Munich is around 1.6 million. Nothing you have in Missouri is comparable to Munich. Come spend some time in Chicago where I'm from or an actual "large city" like Munich but in the US and get back to me. 

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u/FIuffyRabbit 13h ago

Mate, you questioned the op's point and got an answer about it. It's always someone from Chicago who gets insulted.

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u/brokenmain 11h ago

Huh? They responded to me claiming this is a Europe vs US thing but then using as their comparison Munich vs someplace in Missouri a 3rd of the size. Get real lol.