What was the biggest culture shock you ever experienced?

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10 years ago I was visiting friends in Melbourne. They casually proposed going out and hanging out like you would at around 11am on a Saturday. It was 9pm on a Tuesday. Blew my mind that most things were open and operating.
Where I live if you haven’t eaten by 8pm, you better enjoy McDonald’s because it’s the only thing open.
- Lmao I experienced the opposite, also in Australia. I'm from HK and travelled to a small town where nothing was open past 4 pm, barring a couple of dinner places.
- I found the same thing when I visited brisbane recently. I'm from NZ, and virtually everything is closed at 6 or 9, depending on the day & what kind of establishment it is.
  
  Wait are you saying Brisbane is more open than NZ or the other way around? Because Brisbane is my reference point for the sleepy city. Don’t tell me NZ is worse…
  
  AFAIK NZ has no more 24 hour supermakets. I remember brisbane used to, but a quick google search shows that might not be true anymore?
  When I was staying in South Bank, restaurants were regularly open until 9:30/10pm. Finding places like that in christchurch is much harder, outside of thursday/friday/saturday. Auckland might be better, but it's been a while since I've stayed there.
  TBH, maybe it's not that brisbane is good for late night stuff, maybe it's just that NZ is even worse.
  
  To my knowledge only 24 hour one is at the airport because it’s federal land not state, and I think there’s a state law against it.
  Also Southbank is one of about 3 suburbs that don’t close at 8pm.
- It was the opposite for me in Australia, maybe because I was in a smaller town. At least in restaurants, if you got there past 9, chances are the kitchen is closing or about to close. Took me a while to get used to it.

226 comments