6 Things A Miami Native Learned In Europe

After two weeks in Europe, I cried of happiness landing in Miami International Airport. After two weeks, I had mixed feelings about visiting places I had only dreamed about as a kid. After two weeks, I appreciated America more than ever.

Here are the six things I learned about Europe as a first-time traveler from the States.

1. They also have opposing views about Donald Trump. Everyone who asked us where we were from all had a comment about Donald Trump. Whether it was an in-depth commentary about why he’s terrible for our country or a simple “Oh! Are you voting for Trump?,” it put into perspective the affect it’ll have on the rest of the country.

2. Some also think we love guns. One waiter in Paris got excited when we said we were from Miami and proceeded to tell us how him and his friends sometimes pretend that they are American. He continued to make a gun shape with his fingers and said, “Pew pew pew, I’m going to kill [people]!”

The waiter died of laughter and we didn’t really know how to process this information.

3. For every one nice person we met, there were 20 incredibly mean ones. I’m talking taxi drivers who didn’t want to drive us to our hotel and gave us wrong directions to it (we were walking around lost in Amsterdam for two hours). Bus drivers who scoffed at us in Berlin when we asked where Checkpoint Charlie was; ironically, they had no idea where that, or the Berlin Wall was either.

Fellow train-goers who were talking about my family and I because we were laughing. We also got called Yankees and Mexicans by separate people, all in a span of three minutes.

4. For a place that supposedly hates America, they really love our culture. Before this trip, we were advised to only speak Spanish because everyone in Europe hates Americans. However, unless we went to really tourist-y places, all we heard was American music, saw advertising for American movies and every street had American bars. Okaaaaaayyyy …….

Promotions for Suicide Squad found in Paris, France

5. Saying we were American was the equivalent of ‘Abracadabra.’ More than once the police barged in on us in the trains but we’d oblige and show our passports. We could have had false American passports and still not even given a second look. The other passengers with us? Not so much. We saw individuals get interrogated at 3 a.m. and one was almost taken off the train. Safe to say each time, I was wide awake to see what would happen next.

6. We’re so lucky in the States. We have air conditioning!!! I have never sweat at night like I did in Venice and Paris because the locals just open the windows and they’re good — we even had three fans on at one point and still woke up drenched in sweat.

We have ice!!! Their version of ‘cold’ water, which isn’t free, is room temperature. How am I supposed to combat 80 degree weather with water that felt like I had left it in my car for three days?!

Of course Europe was incredible, but it wasn’t without the eye-opening experience of what’s been mentioned above and all the security and police around. Walking alongside pedestrians were groups of police with guns about the size of a five year old. With such a beautiful place, it brought me to tears to think anyone would want any harm to come to it.

Police walking through the streets of Paris.