this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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Europeans do be like that.
Just to compare
Sure, "TIL Europe is only seven countries." Try the same but go Amsterdam -> Riga -> Athens -> Lisbon -> Amsterdam it's 8000 km in a straight line. Europe might be smaller than North America, but it's not that small.
In the US, the equivalent would be: Seattle -> Boston -> Miami -> San Diego -> Seattle. That's 8500 miles (~13,000 km), and doesn't even go to Alaska or Hawaii. I don't think you can drive around Alaska, but if you could, it would be a similar distance.
Europe isn't small, but it is a lot smaller than the US.
The US is a little below 10.000.000 km³, Europe is a little over 10.000.000 km³. I didn't go to Russia, the UK, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Huh, I always forget that a large chunk of Russia is part of Europe. I've never understood the demarcation between Europe and Asia, I think it should be considered one continent.
If we only count the EU (which I think most refer to when they say they're visiting "Europe"), it's a bit less than half the area at 4,225,104 km2. Maybe round up to 5,000,000 km and include Norway, the UK, and Switzerland, and maybe some of the Baltic states (would probably push to 5.5M km).
I think the reason it is considered a separate continent is due a western centric view, and not geographically motivated. If you look at it, it's mostly where the white people originally lived.
Also, the EU includes some overseas territories which aren't in Europe like Saint Martin and the Canary Islands.
Quick edit; from Saint Martin to Réunion is 13.600 km, and both are in the EU :p.
Apparently Guam to US Virgin Islands is 9,509.97 miles, or a bit over 15k km. 😜
Meh, same with US folks visiting Europe, which is actually a common movie trope. I'm sure there's also plenty of people on both continents wo will think something through.
Yeah, we frequently get them in Norway. People who want a weekend trip to Oslo and drive to "the fjords" and back one day, or see stuff after 1500 in winter.
According to a map, Aurlandsfjord is about 4.5 hours drive from Oslo. You could probably see two of them in a day, with a fair amount of driving in between. You'd start around 6 AM and be back around 11PM, but it sounds feasible.
That's not that uncommon where I'm from. I've known people to drive up to Yellowstone from my area (Salt Lake City) for a day trip, which is about 5.5 hours each way. It's a long drive, but you could probably get to two different places within Yellowstone and be back by bedtime. Or if you stay over one night just outside the park, you can spend most of the day at the park before coming home.
Growing up, we'd drive from Seattle to Vancouver, CA a couple times a year for a day trip, and that's about 3 hours each way, depending on the border crossing. My parents would routinely drive from Seattle to Portland for tennis tournaments (not pro, just for fun), which is also about 3 hours each way. I sometimes drive from SLC to Cedar City to watch a play, which is about 3 hours each way. My coworkers drive from SLC to Wendover (1.5 hours) or Las Vegas (5.5 hours) to go gambling, though they usually stay 1-2 nights for Las Vegas.
Driving a few hours to see something is pretty common for Americans.