[Brock Landers]

I can confirm that what Sonera described is fairly common in German and Austrian lakes. Not everyone is as nonchalant as that, but many are, and nobody cares if you just quickly change in the open.

In Germany, Austria, Flanders (in Belgium) and the Netherlands, at least for the 20s-40s crowd I think the following is rather common, even the "norm", although not without exception:

- if friends of both sexes are sharing quarters when traveling, or visiting, it's not a big deal if you change in the same room (ie strip to your underwear) in front of one another, especially if private space is scarce. Probably not "everyone" does that but if you do, nobody makes a big deal (or any deal) of it.

- that extends a bit to full nudity - not in the sense of mixed-sex friends easily getting naked in front of each other, that is not so common. But in the following sense: if you happen to see a female friend naked, in the room or in the shower, if she makes a big deal out of it she'll be the one seen as "too prudish" or "too American". The typical ENF scene in sitcoms where a woman screams "get out!" and covers herself because someone got into the bathroom while she was showering - that doesn't really work in those countries, generally speaking. She'll be the one seen as overreacting.

Again, what I described does not necessarily apply to everyone but it is certainly not unusual.

Once I happened to be attending a social event which a female friend from Estonia would also be attending. To save money we decided to share a hotel room. She was a sauna enthusiast back home and she knew I had been to saunas in Germany. So without even discussing the subject, she had no problem stripping to her underwear in front of me and letting me go into the bathroom to shave while she was in the shower with just a glass door. It was almost a non-issue.