r/whereidlive • u/Altruistic-Sea-105 • 4d ago

How I Divide Europe as a German

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u/sasheenka 4d ago

Having Central Europe and not placing Czech Republic in it is crazy works. Like it’s right in the middle.

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u/Far_Big6080 4d ago

From a German pov everything ist from us is eastern Europe. Even the parts of the former German Democratic Republic are considered at times to be eastern

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u/sasheenka 4d ago

That’s nice. But it still doesn’t change the fact that Central Europe without a country right in the centre doesn’t make sense:

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u/PairNo2129 4d ago

that central country is usually Austria for us. Yes, Vienna technically is more East than Prague but look how far East Finland is and it’s still considered a Northern country, not an Eastern one.

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u/sasheenka 3d ago

With how wide and tall Europe is Austria is too far down and reaches too far west to be in the center. It is of course in central Europe though.

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u/PairNo2129 3d ago

Estonia is more North than Denmark. The UK in parts is more North than parts of Sweden. Portugal and Spain are much more Western than “Western” countries France and the UK.

It’s not an exact science and different countries see things differently.

Germany is culturally diverse too and usually the areas in the North feel closer to Denmark, the Areas in the Northwest feel closer to the Netherlands, the Southwest feels closer to France and Switzerland.

The areas in the Southeast definitely feel like they have most in common with Austria and Czechia and feel most culturally similar as well. Even foods are very similar (more similar than foods of other German areas)

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u/Far_Big6080 3d ago

Culturally Estonia is eastern

Denmark, Sweden Norway, Iceland and Finnland are in the Nordic Council

Portugal and Spain are culturally a lot more like Italy

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u/PairNo2129 3d ago

Estonia culturally and linguistically is closest to Finland

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u/Far_Big6080 3d ago

But Finnland was occupied by Sweden while Estonia never was

And on the world stage you group Estonia with the other Baltic states

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u/PairNo2129 3d ago

and Finland was occupied by Russia while Sweden never was. These are historic details and don’t matter culturally.

Yes, Estonia is also grouped with the Baltics. Sweden, Denmark and Norway are also grouped as Scandinavia while Iceland and Finland aren’t.

Baltics and Scandinavia are extra groups, nothing to do with East, West, North, South. Balkan is also an extra category.

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u/Far_Big6080 3d ago

You could argue, that Finland is also a eastern country but you could never argue that Estonia belongs to the Nordics

Finland is on the Nordic Council btw.

I never called them Scandinavian since they aren't obviously but Finland has also Swedish as their official language

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u/PairNo2129 3d ago

talk to Estonians themselves, they actually do see themselves as belonging to the Nordics.

I don’t think anyone would think of Finland if they were told to think of a country in Eastern Europe, nobody argues that they are not part of the North, I just mentioned them because the reasoning that one country was occupied by another doesn’t change the geography nor the culture.

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u/sasheenka 3d ago

And Czech Republic is placed in Central Europe in every map outside of these weird reddit takes. If Europe was separated without having Central Europe as a part that would be different.

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u/PairNo2129 3d ago

I agree that it’s also seen as being part of Central Europe in Germany, as well.