European Numbers and Stumblers
By Rick Steves
Europeans do many things differently from the way we do. Simple as these things are, they can be frustrating barriers and cause needless, occasionally serious problems.
Numbers: A European's handwritten numbers look different from ours. The number 1 has an upswing. The number 4 often looks like a short lightning bolt. If you don't cross your 7, it may be mistaken as a sloppy 1, and you could miss your train (and be mad at the French for "refusing to speak English"). Avoid using "#" for "number" — it's not common in Europe.
Counting: When counting with your fingers, start with your thumb. If you hold up your first finger, you'll probably get two; and making a "peace" sign to indicate the number two may get you three — or a punch in the nose in parts of Britain, where it's an obscene gesture.
Dates and decimals: In Europe, dates appear as day/month/year, so Christmas is 25-12-09 instead of 12-25-09, as we would write it. And on the Continent, commas are decimal points and decimals commas, so a euro and a half is €1,50 and there are 5.280 feet in a mile. (Britain and Ireland use commas and decimal points like North America.)
Time: The 24-hour clock is used in any official timetable. This includes bus, train, and tour schedules. Learn to use it quickly and easily. Everything is the same until 12:00 noon. Then, instead of starting over again at 1:00 p.m., the Europeans keep on going — 13:00, 14:00, and so on. For any time after noon, subtract 12 and add p.m. (18:00 is 6:00 p.m.). Remember that European time is six/nine hours ahead of the East/West Coasts of the US. (British, Irish, and Portuguese time is five/eight hours ahead.) Europe observes Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" in the UK), but on a slightly different schedule than the US: Europe "springs forward" on the last Sunday in March (three weeks after most of North America) and "falls back" the last Sunday in October (one week before North America). For a handy online time converter, try www.timeanddate.com/worldclock.
Metric: European countries (except the UK) use kilometers instead of miles. A kilometer is six-tenths of a mile. To quickly translate kilometers to miles, cut the kilometer figure in half and add 10 percent of the original figure (e.g., 420 km = 210 + 42 = 252 miles). Some people prefer to drop the last digit and multiply by six: Quick, what's 150 km? (15 x 6 = 90 miles.) "36-26-36" means nothing to a European (or metric) girl watcher. But a "90-60-90" is a real pistachio.
Here are some easy ways to guesstimate metric measurements: Since a meter is 39 inches, just consider meters roughly equivalent to yards. A hectare equals about 2.5 acres. A liter is about a quart (1.056 quarts, to be exact) — four to a gallon. A centimeter (cm) is about half the distance across a penny, while a millimeter (mm) is about the thickness of a penny.
Temperatures: Europeans measure temperatures in degrees Celsius. Zero degrees C = 32 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use a formula to precisely convert temperatures in Celsius to Fahrenheit (divide C by 5, multiply by 9, and add 32 to get F). If that's too scary, it's easier and nearly as accurate to double the Celsius temperature and add 30. So if it's 27° C, double to 54 and add 30 to get 84° F (it's actually 81° F, but that's close enough for me). Chilly 10° C comes out to 50° F either way, and comfy 20° C is about 70° F (actually 68° F). To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 32, divide by 9, then multiply by 5; or take the easy route — just subtract 30 and divide by 2. A memory aid: 28° C = 82° F — darn hot. And a rhyme: 30 is hot, 20 is nice, 10 is cold, 0 is ice.
Addresses: House numbers often have no correlation to what's across the street. While odd is normally on one side and even is on the other, #27 may be directly across from #2.
Floors: Floors of buildings are numbered differently. The bottom floor is called the ground floor. What we would call the second floor is a European's first floor. So if your room is on the second floor (European), bad news — you're on the third floor (American). On the elevator, push whatever's below "1" to get to the ground floor. On an escalator, keep the left lane open for passing. Stand to the right.
Updated for 2009. For lots more tips, check out our best-selling Europe Through the Back Door travel skills guidebook.