Nothing sticks out like an American trying to figure out time and dates in another country. Yup, just like we stick to the archaic inches and feet measurements,  cuz we are Mericans, when you arrive in a country that is like the rest of the world, you need to get in the game and think different.

Time

Even though most English speaking countries will have citizens still saying 2 pm or 2 o’clock, they are really thinking 1400 hours. It’s military 24 hour clock. Now most US citizens don’t refer to or think in this time zone unless they are at university where class times are listed in 24 hour clock time. Staying in hotel rooms with clocks that list 1800 hours can be confusing for us. What, do maths on vacation?

Best thing to do is of course change the settings in your smartphone for the country you are in. Some people I have met don’t do this. Don’t know why, just like their phone to be the same always. The minute I get on a plane I set to time and date modes for the country I will be in, and also learn that temperature thing, cause we don’t do celsius here! Not sure how to cope? There’s an app for that.

I downloaded a fun useful app called Double Time. This app has a very simple display of standard clock time and 24 hour below it. Very useful so you don’t have to think much about it. It’s available in the iTunes app store.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doubletime/id607351164?mt=8

Got Android, there are several apps for military time.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmbapps.themilitarytimeconverter&hl=en

Date

When you are signing at your hotel stay, you will see the date format that the rest of the world uses, the date  first, then month, then year. Yeah, program your brain the think date-month-year. Not that anyone will really give you grief about it, it’s just another thing.

Buying Petrol? Temperatures Got You?

And yes it’s metric. Haven’t seen Imperial Gallons in years. You should probably just get an measurement and all conversions app. Also, petrol prices are very high in Europe, so if you are doing a hire car situation, be prepared for costs. Go for the smaller cars, think like a European. Don’t SUV unless you have more than 4 people and huge luggage with you, or an endless amount of funding. Parking spaces are conservative in other countries. Not to mention narrow streets.

You may never have learned to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius? Don’t want to keep in mind it’s about 32 degs to o celsius? Get an app for conversion.

App of choice, Celsiheit. Plonk in two towns and you have both Fahrenheit and Celsius. Like to compare some of these apps, check out the article for this at, and many other app comparisons at appcrawlr.com