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For me Central Europe is Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourgh, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, and maybe I may add Italy or Denmark. All the countries
by erikb 10y ago
For me Central Europe is Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourgh, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, and maybe I may add Italy or Denmark. All the countries you mention I would call Eastern Europe, and from my Eastern European friends I hear the same opennness about money and friends.
Just out of curiousity. If you call these countries Central Europe, what's Eastern Europe for you? (I'm aware that there's more than one truth to most of these vague terms)
- Blackstone4 10y agoThose countries are conventionally considered part of Western Europe in countries such as the US, France and the UK
- ido 10y agoAt least the German speaking countries explicitly call themselves Zentraleuropa (Central Europe) in German: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitteleuropa https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitteleuropa
- tasuki 10y agoI thought "central Europe" was mostly a label used in some post-communistic countries to feel less Eastern. This "central Europe" thing is very funny indeed. I've lived in the Netherlands - they think of themselves as "Western Europe". In the UK everyone knows Europe is split into West and East by the Iron curtain. For me as a Czech, Eastern Europe is everything East of Slovakia - Ukraine, Romania, Belarus. But try asking a Romanian - they'll tell you Romania is Central Europe! When you ask them what is Eastern Europe then, you'll learn it's Ukraine and Russia.
- oblio 10y agoThe thing is, Europe is has a lot of countries. Except for the Eastern part, where Russia covers 1/3 of the continent. Geographically it would make sense to consider Romania as a part of Central Europe, however culturally or geopolitically few Romanians would disagree that Romania is part of Eastern Europe. Even our manuals say that Romania is part of South-Eastern Europe ;)
- erikb 10y agoAh and in my circles Russia, despite maybe even publicly being considered European (is it?) is considered Asian. There even the political distinctions are completely ignored it seems.
- erikb 10y agoHehe, I'm quite sure though, that none of my Shanghai friends would consider themselves Central European, at least.
- oblio 10y agoIn no way shape or form are Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark or even Italy considered Central Europe. You could maybe consider them the Central Europe of Western Europe, if you want to stretch some definitions :) Central Europe is basically Germany, Poland and the former Habsburg Empire.
- erikb 10y agoReally, never heard that before. In my circles even part of Germany is secretly considered Eastern Europe. Maybe it's more political than geographical. Don't know.
- xor-xor 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_midpoint_of_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_midpoint_of_Europ... (Europe != European Union)
- wst_ 10y agoI wouldn't call it vague. East border of Europe is Ural mountains. I'd say Czech or Poland are in the center. Check the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe