When you visit another country there are things that you expect to feel different. Maybe the clothing, the architecture, the language, etc. But after having lived in Germany for about 9 months, these aren’t the things that continue to take me off-guard and manage to continually make me feel like I have two left feet. Except for the occasional pair of lederhosen, people pretty much dress the same, the houses have four walls and a roof, and even the language, while different, sounds remarkably familiar. But there are many other things, often very small that continue to feel very odd. Here are just a few of them.
[My experience is primarily within Bavaria, particularly Franconia; things vary a great deal throughout the rest of the country.]
1. The Post Office Owns Everything
In the US we go to the post office to…send mail–and that’s about it, right? Not so in Germany! The Post here has its own bank–Post Bank. It has its own bus line–Postbus. It offers horse drawn carriage rides at Christmas time. Recently we got a new prepaid phone plan and discovered that our plan needs to be reloaded manually–by the post office.
2. Doors With Handles…That You Push
This one still gets me every time. You go to a business, walk up to a door with a handle and pull…and nothing happens. And then you realize the door says “drucken” or “push”. Why?? It is odd to have business doors open inward to begin with; why add a handle to the confusion?
3. The Most Un-Doggy Dogs
In Germany, dogs tend to be extremely well-behaved. So well-behaved, in fact, that most of them walk themselves. Walking through the city, it is a common sight to see a dog completely leashless trotting ahead of its person. In the parks, the dogs romp free–and occasionally circle back to their owners. Many times I’ve tried to hold a hand out to get the dog’s attention for a quick pat, and the dog blatantly ignores me and keeps going. Not once have I been approached or jumped on by a dog here. Another common sight is a dog patiently waiting outside a business for its person–sometimes tied up, sometimes not.
4. Dogs in Restaurants
You don’t see this all the time, but to an American it can be quite shocking. You are sitting in a nice cafe or restaurant, and, all of a sudden, you notice a furry friend under a neighboring table! But, once again, dogs tend to be strangely un-doggy and incredibly well-behaved here, so they simply lay there quietly without disrupting the meal.
5. Grocery Stores are Madness
When you go to a grocery store in the US, there is normally a long chute at the checkout line where your groceries accumulate so you have plenty of time and space to pack them away. Often the cashier packs them for you, or another employee assists you with the bagging.
Not so in Germany! When its your turn at the cash register you had better be ready to throw all those groceries in bags or shovel them back in your cart (unbagged) as fast as the cashier pushes them through, AND be ready with payment when he or she is finished. No nice chute exists here. You are lucky if there is a foot of counter space. And if you don’t have all those groceries away before the transaction is finished? The cashier will usually start pushing the next customer’s groceries through right on top of yours!
My husband and I usually grocery shop together just so we can appropriately handle this stressful experience. When we are the next customers in line we brace ourselves as if for a race; “Are you ready? You get the money, I’ll bag, okay?”
6. Toilets
Toilets in Europe are generally a little confusing. In the US every toilet is more or less the same. In Europe there might be a handle to flush, or a button. Or there might be a button on the wall, or TWO BUTTONS, and, occasionally, there is no toilet seat. But the most perturbing thing of all is the German poop-shelf toilet.
As you can see, where there should be a basin of water there is instead a shelf. An above-water shelf. I won’t go into too much detail, but I’m sure you can imagine the complications a toilet like this might pose. I’ll just give you three words for the sake of illustration: ODOR, RESIDUE, LODGED.
In every public bathroom, in every stall, there is a toilet brush. And each person is expected to use that toilet brush (on a public toilet!) because, with a design like this, residue is inevitable.
7. Sitting Outside in the Winter
This is one of the odd things about Germany that I really love. Walking through a city on a cold fall, or even winter day, you are likely to see Germans sitting outside drinking a cappuccino while wrapped in a blanket. As soon as the weather starts to get just a little bit cold, fleece blankets and sometimes sheepskins appear on every chair outside of restaurants. It is definitely a little odd to see people wrapped up in blankets while at a public restaurant, but also wonderful!
8. Everyone is Always Eating a Pretzel
This is actually pretty much just relegated to Bavaria, but in Bavaria everyone is obsessed with pretzels. And rightly so–they are amazing. But they seem completely unaware of the oddness of their behavior. You see children snacking on them like candy, businessmen eating them on the way to work; pretzels are served alongside rolls at restaurants for dinner, in train stations you will find them in the form of sandwiches, and the list goes on. Probably the oddest pretzel sighting we’ve witnessed was at the opera during intermission. The opera in Nuremberg is a very formal affair–more formal than most weddings. During the intermission everyone gathers in gorgeous room with gilded decor and massive chandeliers, sipping champagne…and munching on big soft pretzels alongside their bubbly.
Their love of pretzels goes to such lengths that they even apparently find it to be an appropriate form of advertisement for bedding.
9. Beer is Cheaper than Water
When you go to a German restaurant you are not automatically served a glass of water–you pay for it. Germans are not a big fan of tap water (in some restaurants, even if you request it, you will not be given it) and vastly prefer bottled water. In restaurants a bottle of water can easily cost 3-4 euros. Meanwhile, a beer usually ranges from 2.50-4 euros. It is hard to bring yourself to buy that water when you could get a beer instead for the same price or lower…
10. No Open Container Laws
On that same note, you can drink alcohol pretty much whenever and wherever you want. You will see people walking down the street with a bottle of beer, on the subway, settling in for a long bus or train ride, in parks–pretty much anywhere you can imagine. On holidays, such as New Year, everyone takes to the streets with bottles of champagne and plastic flutes to drink and celebrate.
11. Butter on Sandwiches
I was going hiking with some Germans recently and they prepared some sandwiches to bring along. I was confused to see them buttering bread, but decided that they must be making grilled cheese sandwiches. Mid-hike we stopped and they brought out ham and cheese sandwiches. When I took a bite I was confused and then realized they had put butter on them! When I asked about it they replied, “Yes, it is butter. Why, what would you put on a sandwich?” When I said “mayo” they were horrified and said, “typical American.”
12. They Don’t Put Mayo on Sandwiches, but They DO Put it on Fries
So instead of using mayo for its intended purpose, they put it on their french fries! (this is actually done in a number of European countries).
13. They Knock
My husband is attending graduate school in Germany. After his first lecture, the professor wrapped things up and he prepared to grab his stuff and head out. But to his complete surprise, all of the students began knocking on their desks. He looked around in confusion as all of the straight-faced German students knocked on their desks, then abruptly stopped and proceeded to pack up and leave. This occurred in the next class and the next.
14. Waiting at Crosswalks
Germans always wait till the crosswalk light turns green before crossing. It doesn’t matter if there is not a car in sight, or if the oncoming traffic has already stopped for their red light–the Germans wait. I cannot express how painful this is–to be in a rush and get to a crosswalk where it is clearly safe to cross, but everyone continues to stand there motionless. It is very difficult to bring yourself to cross with all of those dutifully law-abiding Germans patiently waiting! (My husband got yelled at once by a fellow pedestrian for crossing before the light changed; “the light is still red, Mensch!”).
15. They Intentionally Deliver Your Mail to Your Neighbors
When we first arrived in Germany I was very confused when one evening I heard my doorbell ring and opened the door to a man in plain clothes standing at my door with a package. He handed me the package and walked away. I shrugged and didn’t think much of it. I received a number of other packages, sometimes from an official post man, and sometimes from apparently random people.
One day I opened my mailbox to find a slip indicating I had received a package. My German was not good enough to understand everything on the slip, but I gathered that I needed to go to the post office to pick it up. So I did.
I handed the slip over the counter and requested my packett. They looked at the slip and informed me they did not have it, but that my nachbar had it. “Who the heck is my nachbar??”I asked. The postal worker looked perplexed, turned to a co-worker, and then said tentatively to me, “neighbor?”
Now, this wasn’t an unusual occurrence where a friendly neighbor who knew me and the postman stepped up and said, “Oh, she isn’t home? I’ll take it for her.” No, this is an official practice commonly utilized, and you are officially notified of it by your postal slip.
Snapshots of a Traveler's Life 