Saw in another thread that a lot of people view Northern Europe as boring. This got me thinking if this is a general tendency, if people tend to view their own country as boring and romanticise other countries, or what.
I’d say in Denmark, less so than we used to, but we kind of do. We’re a small country, mostly agricultural, not a lot of wild nature, we don’t have any huge cities and are isolated from the rest of the Europe. Our language isn’t very revered among ourselves or others. Weather is considered bad most of the year, mostly our winter isn’t even snowy and beautiful just grey. We consider it a nice place to live but maybe not “exciting”.
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I’d say no.
Italians tend to have a pretty high view of Italy as a country in my experience.It is very romanticised by foreigners and also by most local people.
Not every aspect.The politicians for example are certainly not well loved.
But most Italians like and/or speak highly of the Italian language,the food,the attractions and tourist sites,the major cities like Rome.
The weather is maybe a bit more controversial,depending on which part of the country you live in!
I think my fellow Belarusians do mostly see our country as boring. Except for the political stuff (the regime supporting Russia in the war against Ukraine, or jailing people for years for a like or share on social media). And I guess most of us would rather have the political stuff go away and be boring again.
I feel like at uni there is a relatively large amount of people who act like ‘I’m too big minded/international for this small country’. They’re still quite a minority though. To me that just sounds a lot like their insecurities speaking.
Ironically, nearly all internationals I speak to are very happy to be here. Most dutch people are very content with their lives here too. And honestly the ones that do leave are not necessarily bored with NL, but rather just want to know what it’s like to live in a different place, want to live in the mountains, emigrate for love, get a job offer, etc.
Maybe this is just me; But I feel our country always seems very boring at a superficial level, but to actually live here is quite interesting. Maybe some expats can comment on this. Anyway, I wouldn’t say dutchies generally find our country boring.
At this point, I think Turkish people wish Turkey was boring. Every day, there’s some new shenanigans in the news. No one knows what will happen tomorrow. People are bogged down with too much work, too little income and just trying to survive, really. Not a lot of space left for boredom.
Italians have varied opinions about Italy, however I’d say it being boring is the only one that doesn’t apply at all.
Many hate our government(s) and the widespread inefficiency in all levels of society, from public administration and infrastructure management, to education, healthcare and salaries.
We are “patriotic” in the sense that sometimes we might concede that “L’Italia è tutta bella” (*All of Italy is beautiful*) when talking about where to go during the summer, or that we like our food, our museums, our culture, our literature and our language(s).
This happens also because Italy is generally a pretty famous and well-liked country even abroad (politics aside). However I’d say onlookers aren’t really balanced when talking about it (just like us): it’s either paradise or hell on Earth, when in actuality it’s neither. It’s just a country.
At the same time, when it comes to real structure, which our country lacks, we usually say that “Siamo lo zimbello d’Europa!” (*We’re the laughing stock of Europe*). This is one of the reasons why a big chunk of young people can’t wait to GTFO of here. So yeah we’re fairly patrotic to the same extent that we’re some pretty dramatic and self-loathing folks.
I’m 21 and I don’t really wanna leave as of now, but I know a lot of people who are planning to, or who hate it here. Others don’t. And those who do, still say that it’s a beautiful country. However, no one would ever say living here is boring, imo, for better or worse.
Croatians and honestly it seems most ex Yugoslav countries other than maybe Slovenia – I think that we earn too little to be able to say we’re bored since we’re overwhelmed with stress. The average Croat struggles at work to make ends meet and doesn’t have much left apart for some vices like coffee, booze and cigarettes.
There was a statistic saying that croats are some of least likely to be able to afford a vacation in Europe just because we can’t save money from the miserable wages. So ironic since the country has so much to offer to foreign tourists.
I feel like most people still find a way to somehow enjoy life though and even say that richer nations like Germans, Nordics, etc are boring even with their money in comparison. As stated above we always find a way to add some flavour in our life – be it meeting friends for coffee, for a drink or just going over to someone’s vikendica (vacation home).
I’m from Belgium, you think we are viewed as exciting by the rest of Europe? I’m happy ‘they’ don’t have a high opinion of my country, this way they don’t want to disturb us by coming here and enjoying our way of life so we can be happy without those fools.
You know life is way better in Denmark than in other countries, so let them think what they want : you are winning here, they are losing out on a great country with nice history, (feta) cheese, wealth, Lego, better women than in Sweden (just a joke), …
I always wanted a Danish friend so I could tell people he is my friend/he’s Danish or he did it/the Dane did it (word joke in my dialect: Wien is jen moat? Den Deen is men moat – Wien et gedoan? Den Deen et gedoan).
Be proud of your country, I would be if I were from Denmark.
edit : spelling…
I guess it’s a pretty widespread view, especially among young people. Growing up, many of the kids I knew thought that Finland was one of the most boring places one could live in. A small country in a frozen corner of Europe… As you get older, you start noticing and appreciating things that you didn’t really think about when you were in your teens, but personally, I would still say that Finland is on the mundane side, all things considered.
There definitely is this view in Ireland, although it was probably one that had a lot of justification until quite recently.
Many people who grew up prior to the 1990s will tell you how poverty-stricken, monocultural and fairly insular it was. Rural Irish society in particular has a reputation of being intensely slow, conformist and monolithic, where people who didn’t fit in left as soon as they could. The country has grown a lot richer and more diverse since then but that view of Ireland still exists to some degree. Emigration has always been a cultural phenomenon here, and a lot of it was driven by hardship, but in modern times a lot of people would be driven by a desire to get out and explore the world (they might feel Ireland is too small or suffocating in comparison).
Also because we’re English-speaking we tend to be more exposed to cultural trends in the rest of the Anglosphere. And a lot of cultural comparisons get made by people who hold up American or British society especially as more exciting or dynamic. At the same time that can lead to an intense dislike of traditional Irish culture among some people (Irish traditional music for example is something people either love or hate, in my experience). I think the image of traditional culture has improved a huge amount over the years but it’s still seen as backward or unappealing by a some parts of the population, unfair as it sounds.
I’m Slovak, and people in Slovakia do this a lot. They say that other countries are so much better and that Slovakia sucks and is boring. I think people from smaller countries do this more often I think lol.
I dont think so. Some parts are view as boring, but France is very diverse for his size, there is always new things to discover. We even have part of the country on other continents. We mostly regard higtly our cultural and historical background, or at least we don’t think it’s boring.
Then their is Paris, we critisize a lot the capital, but we never say it’s boring.
I don’t think so, I think many people would even want to our country be a little more quiet and stable. For me, it is just a right mix of crazy/stable. Whether we’re talking about weather, political issues, foreign relations, economy, entertainment and tourism, etc.
Icelanders tend to view the Scandinavians, Dutch and Germans as very square and boring people. They say our Irish roots set us apart.
Iceland can be both extremely boring and extremely interesting – that completely depends on your perspective, personality and lifestyle. But perhaps the same can be said of most places.
Depends. Some people think we’ve got it all here, others think we don’t have anything. We’re not as big as some countries, and we also are pretty homogeneous. I used to think we were a bit boring, and didn’t think much of our culture and customs, but in later years I came to develop a deep appreciation for our architecture, art, design, gastronomy, among other things. I always had an interest in our history, but never really considered other aspects of our culture. Studying at university in another part of the country got me exposed to things I never really knew about, as well as come to appreciate my own region a lot more. Traveling around the country I also realize we have more geographical variety than I realized, whether it be mainland Portugal or the islands.
It’s funny though, my friends and family always turn their nose when I suggest holidays within Portugal (and outside our region).
Bleak and depressing yes, but definitely not boring. There’s always shit happening here, and plenty of stuff to see, too. Russia is also very diverse culturally and linguistically, despite centuries of efforts to russify every last stone here. And I won’t even mention the roller-coaster that is the politics.
In fact, I wouldn’t mind living in a boring Russia for a change. Living in interesting times every time gets exhausting after a while.
I don’t know if it’s a consensus, but I have seen a lot of people in/from England say it’s boring. There is a subset of English people I feel, especially young people, who just love to hate on their native country.
I think it’s total nonsense, though. There’s a lot to discover and explore on your doorstep. We have multiple beautiful national parks often within touching distance of each other, many accessible walking trails, a massive cosmopolitan capital city that is the envy of the world, an interesting and varied landscape, a great diversity of cultures, many historic cities, beautiful country houses, gardens, museums of all kinds (we even have a pencil museum!). And we have all the regular amenities and entertainment options of a modern country – bowling alleys, cinemas, sports centres, nightlife, etc.
I will acknowledge that some of these aspects cost quite a bit of money and therefore may be inaccessible to those lacking means. For example, you have to pay £20.50 to visit the Roman Baths in Bath as a standard adult.
The other argument that it’s boring is the weather – it is said that oftentimes it’s too unpredictable, cold and rainy here to truly enjoy the outdoors year-round. But having lived abroad in hot countries, I’d say this applies to many places. I remember spending weeks in those countries cooped up in my house avoiding the hot summer sun. I didn’t even want to go out and swim, cycle, hike or do anything because the heat was overpowering.
So in my opinion, to call England boring generally is still false. I don’t know what the people who say it is do with their time, but one can’t ignore the wealth of discoveries and leisure opportunities in the country.
very dependent on where you live in England at least.
Above all: the weather is generally boring. Other than the odd heatwave: its usually cold and rainy.
In a big city like Manchester/London/Birmingham: vibrant and always things to do.
In the tory suburbs/villages/general non large city areas: very boring, yes you’ve probably got a nice grassy area/old hill/ pretty view, but how often will you have that before you’re bored? events are limited, the only thing that happens is petty crime, and everyone is usually monolingual and white-English bar the token foreigner. Is it safe? yes. Is it boring? hell yes.
Yeah, less boring in recent years and we miss the good old days. But then we always find something to complain about every place and for most of them its a lot more than in our own country. We are only happy when we are miserable.
With my Republic hat on, I think people look at other European countries and think our nightlife here is great but opportunities for kids to do things are low.
With my Northern Ireland hat on, half the country views the country as not existing flat-out.
It largely depends on where you live, what you want and how you feel about it. You can live deep into the outbacks and find it great as you’re content with the life there and get your needs met. At the same time someone else might feel bored to hell in the same place. I’m living in a “suburb” in the countryside outside of Oslo and find this place utterly boring, but with a lot of potential if several minds came together to make it more exciting.
UK here yep: that (and the weather) is why so many of us are constantly holidaying abroad, buying holiday homes abroad, and generally trying to get away whenever possible.
Having lived in multiple countries however, I think we probably are a little hard on ourselves. It’s mostly a great place to live and has so much to see and do, both in terms of history, and scenery, and has a big blend of lots of different cultures to explore in terms of cuisines in the big cities in particular.
Our main problem is something we just don’t have any control over: the weather.
I don’t know if they see it as boring per say but Iceland is a very small and very expensive island.
For tourists to come here for a week or two can be magical i’m sure but when you have lived here all your life and you’re maybe 30/40/50 ish you have seen and done all that there is to do here several times over.
On a personal level i would say it’s a bit boring here specially because of that and the lack of job opportunities and variety.
I grew up rurally and young people definitely see it as boring, although living in rural Britain has been romanticised a bit thanks to cottagecore but it’s still pretty boring. Asking people from London and you’ll get completely different answers I’m sure. I dunno is this counts as us thinking our country is boring but a lot of us see it as inferior to other countries. Say if an Italian or Australian moved to the UK people would often be like ‘why did you move from THERE to HERE? Are you an idiot or something?!’
of course, it’s probably the most boring country in Europe, and Berlin especially the most boring of cities (unless you’re into this pale commercialized imitation of past good times).
Skandinavia however, is a whole category of desirable vacation targets. There’s that sort of people who prefer a sunny beach vacation, and on the other hand there the people who like a lonely nature hike vacation. So not boring.
The tourists in Berlin however, I feel so sorry for them each time I see them (which is all the time in this shit hole unfortunately). Go look at some stupid boring buildings that you have seen a million times on a screen already, woohoo.