Europe is a diversified and sometime complex collection of countries. They are made up of various ethnic peoples and cultures with deep histories for a traveler to discover. Europe’s unique geography also amplifies its natural beauty and wonder.

A little familiarity of the European countries, their cities, history, geography, people, languages and more, will only enhance your travel experience to this continent. 

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:

Dates…

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.

Time Zones…

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)

Times in Major Cities…

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

24 Hour Clock…

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 00:00 to 12:00 noon just like in the U.S. but instead of 1:00 pm it will now be 13:00. The hours go up accordingly, until 24:00 or 12:00 midnight.

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.

Temperature Conversion Table…

 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

Units & Measurements …

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.

Alphabets & 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.Subtitle

LATIN
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg H h Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

GREEK
Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ Ηη Θθ Ιι Νν Κκ Λλ Μμ Ξξ Οο Ρρ Σσ Ττ Υυ Φφ Χχ Ψψ Ωω

CYRILLIC
Аа Бб Вв Гг Д д Ее Ёё Жж Зз Ии Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Тт Уу Хх Цч Шш Щщ Бъ Ьь Ээ Юю Яя

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.

Country Codes…

International Organization for Standardization or ISO 3166 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.
United Nations M49 codes are the numerical codes for identification of countries, dependencies and other areas.

Country	ISO 3 code	ISO 3 code	UN M49 code
European Union	EU	EUE	150
Åland Islands	AX	ALA	248
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	300
Holy See (Vatican)	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
Kosovo	N/A	N/A	N/A
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
Switzerland	CH	CHE	756
Turkey	TR	TUR	792
Ukraine	UA	UKR	804
United Kingdom	GB	GBR	826

European Vernaculars & Customs…

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

Variable Word Definitions…

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.