Europe's True Size (Is Smaller Than You Might Think)

Australia is so big compared to Europe! Brazil is so big compared to Europe! DR Congo is so big compared to Europe! - Maybe something else is happening...

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[muelesariocontra]

“Europe is small”
Me, an Italian who can see Switzerland, France and Austria from the balcony: *Yup*

[mastermuffin]

Did you know Australia can fit into Australia ONCE, isn't that just amazing

[thismightbeyou]

In Europe you can drive for 50 minutes and end up in another country.

In Australia you can drive for 50 minutes and just end up being 50 minutes away from the city.

[canwelook]

As Aussies in London, we decided to pop up to Edinburgh for the weekend to go to the Fringe Festival and Military Tattoo. No big deal ... but none of our English friends could imagine going that far except maybe on annual holidays.

[frisianmouve]

Europe being small, but having so many different cultures, languages and history is what makes it interesing to visit. Brought to you by the European tourism board

[jomac]

Fun Fact: More people live on the Indonesian island of Java than the whole of Russia. Java is 133 times smaller than Russia.

[NickJohnCoop]

As someone from Perth I love the idea of travelling from a day on the road and being able to visit multiple countries rather than still being in the same one.

[peteradaniel]

It’s no surprise that Europe is small. It’s some of the most densely populated land in the world. I live in Manchester and within an 80 mile radius I have 4 additional cities with metro areas of over 1 million. We’re packed like sardines in England but I like it that way. Lots of train travel.

[isaks]

Europe is small and that is a good thing. It is very easy to travel abroad and experience new cultures and meet people.

[MVSSENJU]

I'm portuguese, and everytime I travel around the country it looks very big and diverse, as in cultural aspects, nature, climate etc, but then I think that the whole country is smaller than Pernanbuco (a "small" state in Brazil) and that it would fit 14 times inside Angola. That just makes me contemplate and be glad that the world is so big.

[planespeaking]

Distances tend to be measured in time rather than distance these days. Getting from one side of London to the other can take literally three hours or more. A distance of fifteen to twenty miles.

[karenp]

We live in Melbourne too - in tge 70's my Aunt lived in London for a couple of years, working as a temp - on Mondays people in the office would be stunned to hear she had gone to France for the weekend, or Italy, or Belgium - she loved how close everything was!

[Diedela]

Honestly I thought it was well known that Europe is small. There’s just a lot happening because of it’s population density.

[Henrik]

In Scandinavia, we distinguish between geographical and physical continents. Europe, South America and Oceania are geographical continents, while Eurasia, Australia and Africa are geological continents, the latter fitting both categories.

[davidhobbs]

Europe isn't necessarily small, if you look at the states of America's East Coast (similar climate) they are remarkably similar in size. What Europe really is, is extremely habitable, most other places in the world despite being larger tend to have smaller populations (china and the US being exceptions). Most of the places are old colonial territories that are so big because most their borders were drawn by diplomacy, not wars, Europe is pretty normal sized for nation-states, look at a map of languages in Africa and you get an idea of how artificially big most of the world's countries are. That said in a couple 100 years I'm pretty sure balkinatzation will increase the countries around.

[UserWalterbe]

I believe that the perception of what is 'far away' depends on where you are from. I live in Belgium. Brussels is in the middle. The sea is 120km away from it. That is the limit for a day trip. That is a nice distance. You do not travel so far for shopping or work. Because all basic shops are everywhere only a few kilometers away.

[maddie_]

I live in the UK and remember searching online how big the US states were.
Learning that the UK is smaller than Michigan really put into perspective for me how big the world is.

[redangrybird]

Years ago, I invited my brother and his wife to visit me in Brisbane where I live, he told me that he got cheap international flight tickets via Buenos Aires and asked me to pick them up at the airport, he later mentioned that their arrival was going to be at Sydney airport. So there we went, to pick them up and bring them to Brisbane.
After we arrived in Brisbane he commented:
--- "the airport is a little far, isn't it?"
This is a true story.

[c.w.]

As a European: I have to take an overnight train from Vienna to Berlin??? Once in a lifetime journey, might be as well the end of the world.

[caliscribe]

I remember when Pluto was downgraded from planet status. One writer, I imagine with tongue in cheek, suggested that Europe be downgraded to appendage of Asia.