I’m an American who spent 6 months moving around Europe. Here are the 5 things that surprised me most about the experience.

• As an American who spent six months moving around Europe, I encountered lots of surprises.
• I learned the hard way that not every country in the European Union uses euros.
• Not being able to understand background conversations was a bizarre feeling.

When I traveled around Europe, visiting places like France, Great Britain, and the Czech Republic, several things instantly stood out about how different living in Europe was from living in the US.

However, there were also some “slow burn” realizations I discovered the longer I was immersed in different cultures. Although some of them were pleasant surprises, others were less-welcome eye-openers.

Here are the five things that surprised me most about life in Europe.