With the milky way it's the same thing as the auroras. I went camping in the middle of nowhere USA, and on a clear night you can absolutely not see the milkyway the way it's portrayed in photos. It looks waaaaaaaaay less clear. You need a very long exposure camera to see it the same way as on the internet. The only difference with Europe is that I saw more stars, but none of those nebulas.
Not entirely true, I was out hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and that was the best Milky Way view I’ve ever seen. It looked just like the crazy photos with millions of stars. Just laid on a rock staring at it for an hour
