Ask somebody in Rome to name 10 US states from memory, and see how they do... I did, at a party at which I was the only non-local. Not one person there could do it. If you can, I’d say you aren’t the average European.
Average Americans in my experience have travelled more than the average European and have broader worldwide experience. There are more fluent Spanish speakers in the US than in Spain, for example. What they don’t know as much about as Europeans is that little introspective corner of the world called Europe, which tends to be viewed as a kind of adult Disneyland. There are also a lot of exceptions, like me for example - Europeans have remarked to me that I’ve travelled to more places in Europe and know more about European history and culture than is common among people who live there. There are Europeans who have done the same in the US, and they don’t see Americans like Jan - which is why I suspect he may never have left Europe.
I met a guy on the road in Belgium once and stayed with he and his wife at their house in Gooik, near Brussels. The next morning at breakfast he announced he would ride with me to Calais... his first visit to France
