How long do you have to be in Europe before the locals stop resenting you for being American?

I know this is a bit long but here’s the short version. The attitude towards me while traveling in Europe has been a lot warmer since I’ve been here for almost two months.<br><br>I’ve been traveling in Europe for the last 10 weeks. This is my first time here and I’m American. Before getting here, I had a few people tell me that Europeans generally don’t care for Americans, so I was curious to know if this was true. <br><br>I’ve been to 9 countries and have stayed in 14 different cities. I’ve interacted with hundreds of different people and it has been interesting to see the shift in attitude from the locals towards me that I’ve noticed in the last two months.<br><br>In the beginning, I felt like the locals didn’t necessarily want anything to do with me, or at the very least, were apathetic toward my presence. I figured this might not be particularly noticeable to someone that was traveling around Europe for just two weeks or a month, but for a variety of reasons, I have been traveling in Europe for the last two months. This has been an interesting experience because I’ve met hundreds of different locals, and have noticed a marked shift in attitude towards me as a visitor to their country. I believe this is due to the length of my stay.<br><br>Like any traveler, I have a routine of things that I do on a daily basis. I wake up early, usually around 630am because the first thing I do every day is going to the gym. I’m usually there for a couple of hours and then I walk to the grocery store and get food for the day. The employees at the gym obviously notice me while I’m there and I see the same people at the grocery store frequently, and this is where I’m getting at.<br><br>I noticed early on, especially in London and Paris, that if I tried to make small talk with people, they would be fairly standoffish. I’m not sure if it was because I was obviously a tourist or that they didn’t want to be bothered to talk to me, or that they just didn’t like Americans and didn’t want to talk to me. I’ve always been very personable and love interacting with people, so I would always try to be obviously friendly and courteous. I remember multiple times, after I would try to say something as simple as “have a great day” to someone and they would barely look at me and mutter “thank you.” I remember thinking to myself “wow that was cold.” <br><br>I had already been in Europe for three weeks when I arrived in Berlin. I stayed there for 6 days and it was the first time that locals started engaging in conversation with me. I remember this one time I was at the grocery store and one of the employees, who I had already seen multiple times, started talking to me. I was genuinely shocked because it was the first time in a while since a local had even smiled at me or engaged with me. I started going to the same grocery store in Berlin every day and they started getting to know me. They’d be interested in what I was doing, where I was going next, and even ask for recommendations for places for them to visit. It felt like a switch had been flipped and all of a sudden, people were a lot nicer. <br><br>Now, I’m not saying that all Europeans are assholes and then all of a sudden they decided to be nice to me. I’ve met tons of people on the road and have had nothing but great interactions. But what I’m saying is that the people that saw me on a regular basis started treating me differently. At first, we’d just say hi and smile when we saw each other, but they’d slowly start to be more curious and interested. I’ve had entire 20 minute conversations with locals about their favorite places in their city and recommendations they have for me while I’m there. It has been a really great experience to feel like I’m not just a visitor, but an acquaintance.<br><br>I have had this same reaction from multiple people in multiple cities and it’s been really cool to see. And it doesn’t take much to make a person’s day, but I’ve had people smile and say something like “thank you, you’re very kind” after I did something like help them carry their bags or stop to pet their dog. I would have never expected to feel this way while traveling, but I definitely feel a lot more at home now. I’m not a stranger anymore.<br><br>TLDR: I’ve been in Europe for almost 2 months. When I first got here, I got the impression that Europeans weren’t the warmest people towards Americans. After being in the same place for a couple of weeks, locals seem to warm up to me a lot more.