This TikTok Trend Is Uncovering Every Country’s Weirdest Habits

One of the best things about travelling is comparing all the weird and wonderful idiosyncratic habits between your home country and wherever you may be. But when international leisure travel has been mostly shelved due to a pandemic, it’s over to TikTok to provide the cultural goods.

‘What is something that’s normal in your country, but weird for the rest of the world?’ TikToker @nas.alive asks, urging people to stitch his video.

“I’ll start,” he continues, with ‘Canada’ overlaid on him putting a clear plastic bag of milk inside a pitcher, cutting the corner off and then holding the plastic bag up while using the pitcher to pour the milk into a glass.

Yep, Canadians (and apparently Russians, Brazilians and Argentinians) get their milk in plastic bags, known as a milk bladder. Yum.

Here’s some of the best duets from around the world.

Colombians love a salty-sweet hot choccie with chunks of cheese:

Combining sweet drinking chocolate with chunks of salty cheese, this Colombian specialty is known as Chocolate Santafereño. Tbh, would totally try this one.

Over in Trinidad and Tobago, they serve pizza with a trio of burger sauces:

Apparently this Caribbean nation (and its surrounding islands) love their pizza “served with ketchup, mustard and hot pepper sauce, a consequence of introducing pizza alongside hamburgers,” says pmq Pizza Magazine.

In Russia, after a belter, you have to finish the night with tea and cake: 

“In my country, it’s important after everyone is fucked up at the house party to drink tea with the cake,” explains @lisina15.

Apparently, you’d be wrong in thinking vodka is the quintessential Russian drink – they’re obsessed with tea and tea culture and it is used to ‘close’ every meal. Even a belter.

“Tea is usually served after all the shots of vodka have been drunk. Regardless of what’s already been consumed at a birthday party or simple dinner, tea is served at the end of the event. Simply put, drinking tea concludes a get-together,” explains RussianFoodUSA.com.

Aussies have a few to list including Vegemite, shoeys and Troy Candy Snorkels:

“Always having a jar of Vegemite in the pantry, calling McDonalds ‘Maccas’, [blue] skies in the middle of winter, having a shoey with the boys and I’m not sure about this one, but the Troy Candy Snorkel,” says @courtneycrowley1.

Leave it to Australia to list two ways in the one video on how we love to drink booze out of anything but a glass.

And of course, Australia’s huntsman spiders get a mention:

Tbh though, Aussies have so many idiosyncrasies between the fact we put wine in bags and have an obsession with chicken salt, so here’s a separate list of what other countries think is weird about Aus.

Mexicans love their fruit spicy:

If you’ve ever been to Mexico, this sight won’t be so foreign – there are vendors on almost every street corner selling fruits like mango with a combination of fresh lime, Tajin chile lime seasoning and chamoy sauce. This TikToker fixed herself up a nice bowl of spicy watermelon for an afternoon snack.

It’s totally a thing to wear socks and sandals in the Czech Republic:

A quick internet search shows that this is very much a thing. Wow.

Finland locals are living in 2060 with saunas inside their apartments:

We know Scandinavians love their saunas, but we didn’t realise it was common to have one in most homes.

It’s standard in Italy to have a bidet in your bathroom:

Italians love to wash their tushies after a visit to the loo.

And when it comes to Kazakhstan, well, we’re just going to leave this here:

I had to check Wikipedia for this one and um, it’s legit. “Beshbarmak, a dish consisting of boiled horse or mutton meat is the most popular Kazakh dish. It is also called ‘five fingers’ because of the way it is eaten.”

To conclude, I’d personally like to add one for the USA: the fact that Americans don’t really use electric kettles to make their tea. I mean, come on.

Check out the rest of the duets here and for more Aussie expat nostalgia, here are the habits you don’t think are weird until you head overseas.

(Lead Image: Instagram @carolineapestel / TikTok @nas.alive)