American Helene Sula vividly remembers the first time she discovered tap water was a different ball game in Europe.
Sula, from Texas, was at a restaurant in Germany. When the server asked for her drink order, Sula requested water.
Take TikTok user br3nnak3ough, who in summer 2023 uploaded a video depicting her friends downing large bottles of water, overlaid with the text: “Us the moment we can find water because Europeans don’t believe in water.” 
Others echoed Sula’s experience, adding that while tap water is usually available – bottled mineral water or bottled filtered water is more commonplace in many European countries.／Montana Rural Water Systems
This video been viewed 10.9 million times and attracted 13,800 comments – both from Americans in agreement (“I was so dehydrated when I went lol, the heat + lack of ac and water/ice had me dying..”) and Europeans vehemently disagreeing (“What are you talking about”)
Meanwhile, Rob Murgatroyd, an American living in Italy, recently uploaded a TikTok commenting that the difference between US and Italian water consumption had “blown his mind” since moving to Florence.
“Where I come from, we’re practically wired to drink water non-stop, as if it’s our main gig, while here in Italy, spotting someone with a water bottle is like finding a needle in a haystack,” Murgatroyd captioned the video.
There are TikToks marveling at the size of European water glasses, Instagram Reels chronicling the often ill-fated quest to order a jug of tap water in a European bar and posts on X bemoaning paying for bottled water in restaurants.
Sula, who chronicles her life abroad on the blog Helene in Between, has weighed in on the great European tap water debate a couple of times – including at the end of last year:
“Tap water is not free at (European) restaurants,” Sula asserted in a November 2023 TikTok video. “And if you do get it, it comes in a miniscule glass.”
Plenty of commentators were dismissive: “It’s free. They’ve seen you coming from a mile off,” read one response.
Others echoed Sula’s experience, adding that while tap water is usually available – bottled mineral water or bottled filtered water is more commonplace in many European countries.
“I think it’s a really interesting conversation,” says Sula. “The world can feel very small sometimes, because we’re all online and it’s such a global society now … so I think it’s interesting to have these conversations, to talk about the differences.”
