Europe Information

While the United States is more similar to Europe than any other place in the world, they of course do some things differently than we do in America. That is why it is important to have some knowledge of the most common differences. The ability to convert and comprehend that information, while traveling in Europe, will only aid your traveling experience. In addition to the data listed below you will find pages about the:

Abbreviated dates in Europe are written using the day first, the month and then the year. Be very careful when reviewing bookings or tickets on trains, hotels, tours,  events, etc.

	Independence Day	VE Day end of WW II	Armistice end of WWI	Christmas
	July 4, 1776	May 8, 1945	November 11, 1918	December 25, 2011
USA	7/4/1776	8/5/1945	11/11/1918	12/25/2011
Europe	4/4/1776	5/8/1945	11/11/1918	25/12/2011

When traveling, east to west or west to east, one can easily get jet lag. That’s when your body has been condition to eat or sleep at a certain time and your now in a different time zone when those activities are hours apart. Your body is telling to eat and sleep at your normal time but, you are now doing those activities at a different time. You’ll most likely be able to stay up late at night but, getting up in the morning could be a challenge.

As a reference the grid below reflects the difference in hours between Europe and US time zones. When Greenwich or Universal Time is 12:00 noon the corresponding times are displayed for the other US and european times zones. As an example, at that same time New York is 7:00 am (EST), Rome is 1:00 pm or 13:00 (CET)

UTC - Coordinated Universal Time

GMT = Greenwich Mean Time UTC +0 (BST = British Summer Time, WEST = Western European Summer Time, WET = Western European Time)
CET = Central European Time UTC +1 (CEST Central European Summer Time)
EET = Eastern European Time UTC +2 (EEST = Eastern European Summer Time)
MSKS = Moscow Time UTC +3
TRT = Turkey Time UTC +3

Change to Daylight Savings Time at 2 am- March 28, 2021
Change to Regular Time at 2 am - October 31, 2021
Belarus, Iceland and Russia have no time change to daylight savings in the summer months. Autonomous Republic of the Crimea has recently changed their time to MSK Moscow Time

Europe uses a 24 hour clock (military time) for official timetables. Things that use schedules like buses, trains, etc., use the 24 hour clock. Instead of using two 12 hour segments, am and pm, it is one 24 hour segment. After 12:00 midnight hours start from 1:00 to 12:00 noon just like in the US but instead of 1:00 pm it will now be 13:00. The hours go up accordingly until 24:00 or 12:00 midnight.

USA am	/ Europe am	USA pm /	Europe pm
1:00 am	/ 1:00	1:00 pm /	13:00
2:00 am	/ 2:00	2:00 pm /	14:00
3:00 am	/ 3:00	3:00 pm /	15:00
4:00 am	/ 4:00	4:00 pm /	16:00
5:00 am	/ 5:00	5:00 pm /	17:00
6:00 am	/ 6:00	6:00 pm /	18:00
7:00 am	/ 7:00	7:00 pm /	19:00
8:00 am	/ 8:00	8:00 pm /	20:00
9:00 am	/ 9:00	9:00 pm /	21:00
10:00 am	/ 10:00	10:00 pm /	22:00
11:00 am	/ 11:00	11:00 pm /	23:00
12:00 noon	/ 12:00	12:00 midnight /	24:00

To quickly calculate afternoon times just subtract 12 from the time. If the time is 15:30 subtract 12 from that and you get 3:30 pm.

 In the US we use the fahrenheit scale to measure temperature but, in Europe they use the celsius scale. The following table converts Celsius to Fahrenheit.

0º Celsius = 32º Fahrenheit water freezes / 100º = 212º water boils

When shopping for clothes and shoes in Europe you will find those sizes vary in the UK and continental Europe from US sizes. For a conversion table of sizes on our ➾ Shopping page.

Letters...

It is one challenge to read and pronounce another language using the latin alphabet it is another thing when using a different alphabet. Several countries use different alphabets and will be almost impossible for the average person to decipher. Greece uses the Greek alphabet while Belarus, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia, Ukraine use the Cyrillic. Bosnia Hercegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia use both the Latin and Cyrillic. All other European countries use the latin alphabet.

Latin

A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i
J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	Q q	R R
S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z

Greek

Α α	Β β	Γ γ	Δ δ	Ε ε	Ζ ζ	Η η	Θ θ
Ι ι	Ν ν	Κ κ	Λ λ	Μ μ	Ξ ξ	Ο ο	Ρ ρ
Σ σ	Τ τ	Υ υ	Φ φ	Χ χ	Ψ ψ	Ω ω

Cyrillic

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж
З з	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н	О о
П п	Р р	С с	Т т	У у	Х х	Ц ч	Ш ш
Щ щ	Б ъ	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я

Most European countries use the latin alphabet and use all 26 letters as used in the US. However, several countries have extended their alphabets with ligatures, modified letters or digraphs.

Acute	Á á	Ć ć	É é	Í í	Ĺ ĺ	Ó ó	Ú ú	Ý ý
Ash	Æ æ
Breve	Ă ă	Ğ ğ
Caron	Č č		Ě ě	Ň	Ř ř	Š š	Ť ť	Ž ž
Caudata	Ą ą	Ę  ę	Į į	Ų ų
Cedilla	Ç ç	Ģ ģ	Ļ  ļ	Ņ ņ	Ş ş	Ț ț	Ž ž
Circumflex	 â	Ê ê	Î î	Ô ô	Û û
Dot	Ė  ė	Ġ ġ	İ  i
Double Acute	Ő ő
Eszett	ß
Eth	Ð ð
Grave	À à	È è	Ì ì	Ò ò	Ù ù
Macron	Ā ā	Ē ē	Ī ī	Ō ō	Ū ū
O & E ligature	Œ œ
Ogonek	Ą ą	Į  į
Ring	Å å	Ů ů			Ů ů
Slash	Ø ø
Stroke	Đ đ	Ħ ħ	Ł ł
Thorn	Þ  þ
Tilde	à ã	Ñ ñ
Umlaut	Ä ä	Ë ë	Ï ï	Ö ö	Ü ü	Ÿ ÿ

ISO Country Codes are internationally recognized codes for each country. Depending on the situation they can be a Alpha 2 or 3 letter code or a numerical code.

Two letter suffixes like (.fr for France or .de for Germany) are used in top levels domains. Three letter codes are usually used in international events like sports, contests, etc.

 The numerical code is the United Nations M49 for identification of countries, dependencies and other areas.

Country	2 code	3 code	# code
🇪🇺 European Union	EU	EUE	150
🇦🇱 Albania	AL	ALB	008
🇦🇩 Andorra	AD	AND	020
🇦🇹 Austria	AT	AUT	040
🇧🇾 Belarus	BY	BLR	112
🇧🇪 Belgium	BE	BEL	056
🇧🇦 Bosnia Herzegovina	BA	BIH	070
🇧🇬 Bulgaria	BG	BGR	100
🇭🇷 Croatia	HR	HRV	191
🇨🇾 Cyprus	CY	CYP	196
🇨🇿 Czechia	CZ	CZE	203
🇩🇰 Denmark	DK	DNK	208
🇪🇪 Estonia	EE	EST	233
🇫🇴 Faroe Islands	FO	FRO	234
🇫🇮 Finland	FI	FIN	246
🇫🇷 France	FR	FRA	250
🇩🇪 Germany	DE	DEU	276
🇬🇮 Gibraltar	GI	GIB	292
🇬🇷 Greece	GR	GRC	300
🇬🇬 Guernsey	GG	GGY	831
🇻🇦 Holy See	VA	VAT	336
🇭🇺 Hungary	HU	HUN	348
🇮🇸 Iceland	IS	ISL	352
🇮🇪 Ireland	IE	IRL	372
🇮🇲 Isle of Man	IM	IMN	833
🇮🇹 Italy	IT	ITA	380
🇯🇪 Jersey	JE	JEY	832
🇱🇻 Latvia	LV	LVA	428
🇱🇮 Liechtenstein	LI	LIE	438
🇱🇹 Lithuania	LT	LTU	440
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	LU	LUX	442
🇲🇹 Malta	MT	MLT	470
🇲🇩 Moldova	MD	MDA	498
🇲🇨 Monaco	MC	MCO	492
🇲🇪 Montenegro	ME	MNE	499
🇳🇱 Netherlands	NL	NLD	528
🇲🇰 North Macedonia	MK	MKD	807
🇳🇴 Norway	NO	NOR	578
🇵🇱 Poland	PL	POL	616
🇵🇹 Portugal	PT	PRT	630
🇷🇴 Romania	RO	ROU	642
🇷🇺 Russia	RU	RUS	643
🇸🇲 San Marino	SM	SMR	666
🇷🇸 Serbia	RS	SRB	688
🇸🇰 Slovakia	SK	SVK	703
🇸🇮 Slovenia	SI	SVN	705
🇪🇸 Spain	ES	ESP	724
🇳🇴 Svalbard & Jan Mayen	SJ	SJM	744
🇸🇪 Sweden	SE	SWE	752
🇨🇭 Switzerland	CH	CHE	756
🇹🇷 Turkey	TR	TUR	792
🇺🇦 Ukraine	UA	UKR	804
🇬🇧 United Kingdom	GB	GBR	826

As we said to be in Europe is to be in another country in which they will label, say and do things differently from the US. You can find it very helpful to gain a little understanding  on some common everyday uses.

Floor Levels on multiple storied buildings are labeled slightly different. While the ground floor is always the main floor the one above in Europe is the 1st floor, not the second floor as we called it here. This will be good for you to know so you can remember what floor your hotel room is on.

Europe	United States
Ground or Main floor	1st floor or Main floor
1st Floor	2nd Floor
2nd Floor	3rd Floor
3rd Floor	4th Floor

Even when you converse with English speakers you will find they can use different nouns or verbs to describe the same object or action. While we may use multiple words to describe things in the States, there may be only the single use in some areas of Europe. Here are but a few for your traveling terms. 

• An Apartment  is a FLAT
• A Beltway or By Pass Road is the RING ROAD
• A Cafeteria is a CANTEEN 
• Cell Phones are called MOBILE PHONES
• A Collect Call is a REVERSE CHARGE
• A Cookie is a BISCUIT
• When asking for Discounts say Concessions
• Elevators are typically called LIFTS
• Faucet is a TAP
• French Fries are CHIPS (in the UK) and Frites elsewhere
• Gasoline is PETROL
• Garbage is TRASH
• Over Pass on a road is a FLYOVER
• Parking Lot is a CAR PARK 
• To Pass in traffic is to OVERTAKE
• A Pharmacists  is a CHEMIST
• To Pick Up somebody is to COLLECT
• Potato Chips are CRISPS
• To Rent something like a car is to HIRE
• Round Trip Ticket or Journey is a RETURN TICKET or RETURN JOURNEY
• A taxi or car Ride is to get a LIFT
• Sidewalk is a FOOTPATH
• Silverwareis CUTLERY
• Sneakers are TRAINERS
• Socceris FOOTBALL
• Stores are SHOPS
• Suspenders for pants are BRACES
• To Go as food TO TAKE or TAKE AWAY
• Restrooms are TOILETS
• A Truck can be a LORRY
• The Trunk of a car is a BOOT
• A Vacation is a HOLIDAY