Best 3 things in Germany

Oh god well stop talking about yummy food!!!

Some people only need to look at food to put on weight well I only need to read about it!!!

i am very busy at the moment, but what my bf likes most about Germany ist

1. Edeka aktiv Markt (the real big one which opened finally in our area), cuz he can finally get
2. baked beans for a rather decent price without driving for hours and
3. Cadbury's stuff



Have a nice weekend
Hannah

Hi everyone!
I just found this forum and for the past hour have been giggling away at some of the comments here ... so true really!

I live in Berlin (singe August 2005) and think it is very difficult to find just 3 best things about living here!

Anyway, here's what I like the most about Berlin:

1) Firework displays! They have them almost every week (the best so far during the Festival of Lights in Alexander Platz ... WOW!). Have seen more here in the last 3 months than over the 4 years we lived in China.

2) Hannover Pretzels ... you know the ones smothered in Honey Mustard and Onion, Cheddar Cheese etc? Not very German but once you start you can't stop, they should have a support group because they are truly addictive! I try to run past them in Kaiser's and Rossmans but they are there crying out ... eat me, eat me!

3) That I get to spend the next 4 years here! (I hope)

Welcome to the board kneissl!!

Hi all,

I learned about the BritBoard in Deutsche-in-London, and found it really interesting to get to know your views as expats and particularly your views of Germany (compared to UK). Obviously, your idea of the 3 best and the 3 worst things in Germany interested me most.

It is amazing that hardly anyone mentioned the housing issue in this "best-of"-thread.
I am writing this after having had a telephone call with my shocked husband who visited a few English flats this morning.
(We are about to leave for UK.)

I should stop reading this thread, i am homesick now

I have far more than three. However, I’ll say these
The youngest pensioners
The oldest students
The shortest working week
The most holidays.
There is still a sense of society
The behaviour of young German kids.
The freedom of expression they are allowed.

You have covered many others for me:
Lack of crime
Food
Central location
Scenery
Festivals (especially the Silvester fireworks which leave me speechless every year)
Transport
I find Germans to be very warm and friendly in general. There are exceptions, just as there are in the UK. I work with them all day, and can not really complain.
Yes, you’ve guessed it … I love Germany.

And can I say how glad I was too see that you are mostly being positive, and not using this forum to Slag em off. I mean, fair enough, some occasional winging is to be expected, naturally.
I am probably alone in the idea that I would pay more than my total 46% stoppages, in order to maintain the current standard of living here (public transport etc). Oh well ….

Funny to mention the age of pensioneers and students as an advantage. Usually, the Germans or at least German politicians and managers take these things as disadvantages.
By the way: how long is an English or Canadian working week?

Don't forget to mention the flextime. In GY flextime arrangements are almost standard, at least in offices. In UK flextime seems to be most unusual. Obviously the British can't see the many advantages for both the employees and the employers.


Yes, its nice, isn't it. Just a little bit irritating that beer and autobahns are mentioned so often.
It is like a complement for a young lady which goes like this: "what I like most about you is your neck/earring".

My mentioning of those first three was actually in answer to someone else here who named them as being some of the worst things. I happen to think that reasons such as these help towards the better general standard of living here. Healthy heart, healthy mind etc.

I can work twice the house a week should I care to, but I’m not convinced that making a much longer week compulsory would increase my output. It would probably have the reverse effect.

I’m willing to accept that there is room for change, and there will have to be some, but I think that it needn’t be so severe. It just appears to be that way to many Germans, because they’ve had it so good, for so long. And I really mean “so good�. VW workers would make a good example, if you look into it. I was amazed when I heard what they were complaining about. Really amazed. Anyway, they could take two or three days from my hols, and I wouldn’t really notice, it would save them some money?

As for beer and autobahns. Very important subject  I’m still trying to work out what happens to a German’s mind when they get behind the wheel of a car. It’s as though some sort of aggressive ego-switch is flipped, and off they go, hands on horn, foot on accelerator, eyes fixed on bumper in front? Ooooops, I’m slipping out of positive mode. Driving at a hundred and fifty mph is quite a buzz. Dangerous, but the fact that I can makes me smile.

I wouldn't be so sure that these are all that great. All of them make difficult to maintain a level of luxury attained on credits that couldn't be afforded when everybody was working 48 hrs per week from 16 to 65 with hardly any holidays.

Yeah, you really get a feeling of belonging when you hag around the entrance to the station asking those passing by for money.


All relative. It is just a matter of where you are. Both countries have their plus and minus points on all counts.

If you lived in Frankfurt/Oder you might have a completely different view on centrality and crime. The quality of food in the supermarkets here is abismal in comparison with UK. If you go to a "gut burgerlich" restaurant here, you will find that the food is not a lot different... As long as you like pig. If you go to an italian, balkan, chinese, etc there's not a lot of difference. You really have to search to find a decent curry, though.

If you live in a conurbation, and the transport goes fairly directly from where you are to where you want to go, then it is fairly good, if ungracious. Elsewhere transport can be absolutely abysmal. Okay, there are a lot more motorways here than in the UK, but there is a lot more local and through traffic, and the condition of a lot of the roads is basically shagged-out.


Very probably. The reality is that you can expect to have 92% deductions to maintain this level of inequity in a few years. Mainly because of the pensioner/student demography you thought was so great in the first place.

Tell me where you can drive 150 mph in Germany (= 230 km/h). Most autobahns are either too crowded to drive that fast, or they have speed restrictions or both. So, this is mere theory.

But the theoretical possibility fascinates most foreigners. Interesting. Actually, they don't seem to behave so different from Germans when they get on German autobahns.

By the way, have you ever tried to drive let's say 100 mph on a US-American highway? If you tried it once, you will not do it again because the roads are not fully developed, not to mention the quality of their cars and tires ... So speed restrictions is the one thing, road conditions a.s.o. which allow certain speed, are the other.


Which is the country you compare with?
The public transport in UK is known as "third-world standard at first-world prices". :doh:

In rural areas of Germany the public transport may need improvement - compared with Italy for example. But it would be gorgious if the British or Americans reached the German "bad standard" of public transport.

Drove up the A7 from the Allgäu last week at speeds reaching 220km, not quite 150mph but not bad for a 17yr old BMW driven by a pensioner. Admitted the opportunity to drive that fast doesn´t happen very often but occasionally the roads are empty. :rolleyes
The village where my family live in the Uk have a bus service into Nottingham every 15mins and every hour on Sundays here in the village in Bavaria there is a bus every two hours into Ulm and nothing at all on Sundays, not all public transport here in Germany is great.

Yes, occasionally the autobahns are empty and occasionally you are allowed to drive that fast and it can happen that they are empty AND you are allowed to drive that fast.
But if you drove from Munich any route to Stuttgart and Karlsruhe or to the Allgäu you would be surprised about the number of speed limits, let alone the traffic.
By the way: who forced you to drive 220 kmh?

Remark: old BMW or new, it doesn't matter. Try this with an American car on an American highway and you will have only a very short time to regret it.

My car doesn´t like going slow.

Does it feel offended at a 100 kmh speed restriction?

It´s a BMW, of course it does.

Reminds me of an occasion when I was cut up on the A2 at Hannover, which was its usual busy self. I was in the middle lane overtaking in my biscuit tin of a Daihatsu Cuore, doing about 130 km/h. Some jerk comes steaming down the outside lane in his 4x4 and pulls in ahead of me just centimeters from my front bumper ... and what do I see? (apart from a close up of his exhaust pipe) ...an english number plate.


Can't say I have had any bad experiences in the UK there. The last time we took the bus as a family in the UK (five of us) was in Portsmouth last Easter and my husband couldn't believe his ears when the bus driver asked us for the fare. I can't remember the exact amount but suffice it to say we couldn't have gone on the bus here (where I live) over the same distance for that amount. It costs my daughter 7 Euros a day to travel to her school and back (about 11 km) on the bus.


@jwn: where abouts do your family live? Personal interest here, mine live there too ...

I wasn't, directly... But many other European countries, including UK, have just as good a public transport service as here. They are only organised differently.


Only in the UK... Try going to the 3rd world to see what the standard is there :excl:


I live in a fair-sized town (pop 20 000). You can get a train every hour to Cologne or Düsseldorf, and there is a railbus which goes back and forth to Horrem Junction on the half hour, but doesn't always interface with the S-Bahn to Cologne. There are busses every hour, but the route is round all the housing estates in all the villages between here and there, so they take about an hour and a half to get to a town 8 km away.

If I want to use public transport to do a typical journey, it takes 1hr 45 mins, if both connections work. It can take 3 hrs to get home again, if you work later than 5 pm. The same journey (38km) in the car takes between 30 and 45 min.

When I compare that to the hourly bus service in the village I come from in Scotland, where it takes the bus about half an hour to get to the next major town 20km away... There are other bus services which cover the outlying hamlets.

The villages are covered here, but usually all with one bus crawling round the lanes. There are no real long-distance bus services (like Stagecoach, National or Greyhound).

The trains are not as punctual as most Brits believe, and many commuter trains just don't appear or don't wait for connecting trains, leaving you with a 20 min or 40 min wait for the next one.

Maybe the public transport is relatively good where you are, and gets you reasonably where you want to go, but that is by no means the norm here.

These things are all a matter of your view point and your horizon. I've travelled a lot with public transport in Europe and elsewhere. I know that public transport in UK is not as bad as it is often made out to be, and that public transport here is really good in some places, but generally not as good as it is made out to be elsewhere.

Having commuted into London from the Guildford area for 6 years I can tell you that the Uk public transport system is - in my opinion - rubbish compared to here. This is due to decades of under-investment. But then we paid less personal tax in the uk these same decades. Swings / roundabouts.
I'm flying over to London tomorrow for several meetings in the City, and guess what - its that time of year again - I understand there's a strike on the underground.
For those of you who have not experienced the delights of London when there's a public transport strike on (which is not a totally unusual occurrence) - enjoy what you have here in Germany!
Regarding Autobahns / speed limits - my only criticism is that they should make the speed limits signs bigger - I sometimes find myself going much faster than I should (in a responsible way of course, and not tailgating), then I suddenly spot a miniscule sign telling me I should be doing 120 or whatever.
They should also have a special lane for Drivers Wearing Hats.

Sometimes I think there are already 3 lanes for such drivers !!!

so we should buy you a hat Hubbi?

The signs are more than big enough. :excl:

There are no speed limits faster than 130 km/h in Germany, so you don't need to be able to read the numbers. Just slow down to 130 km/h when you see the signs, then adjust your speed appropriately once you can read the numbers.

If you still can't read the numbers early enough, there is something wrong with your eyes, and you shouldn't be driving at all. The same goes if you can't see the signs in time to slow down to 130 km/h before you get to them, there is no car that fast on the road.


Why, don't you take yours off when you're driving?

The positive comment was all going so nicely, wasn’t it?

"Yeah, you really get a feeling of belonging when you hag around the entrance to the station asking those passing by for money."

It’s you that’s always hanging around the station is it?
The benefit system here is extremely generous, at least for now - unless of course you happen to suffer from mental illness, or have no legal personal identity, in which case begging and drug dealing might seem like a reasonable choice of activity, to some?

I was in fact talking about Frankfurt (am Main), but do you really think that King’s Cross, for example, is a paradigm for paradise?

“All relative. It is just a matter of where you are. Both countries have their plus and minus points on all counts. “

Yes, well, not so sure about the “all countsâ€? otherwise I’d move back to the UK. but I live in Germany … thank God 

�If you lived in Frankfurt/Oder you might have a completely different view on centrality and crime. “

That’s a very astute assumption.

“The quality of food in the supermarkets here is abismal in comparison with UK“

Quality at my local supermarket is far from abysmal, in fact it’s very good.
The staff are even polite, with the exception of one grumpy old bag  It is not Sainsburys though, I'll give you that.

I lived in the UK for over thirty years before I moved here. I’ve lived here for over seven, and I’m afraid that in terms of public transport they don’t compare. In Frankfurt am Main (the clue here is in the name), it is great. In the UK it wasn’t.

“The reality is that you can expect to have 92% deductions to maintain this level of inequity in a few years. Mainly because of the pensioner/student demography you thought was so great in the first place.�

OK, 92% it is then. I just got a rise from my boss yesterday

Well, there's only one of me, and it's only occasionally in Ffm. And when it's on the way to or from a station, it tries to get past the begging hoards as quickly as possible.


So why do you think I chose to mention the other Frankfurt? :doh:

No, didn't claim it was, but neither is the area around Frankfurt Hbf.


Oh! I only lived there for 28, before I came here 22 years ago. I know what it was like here then (that's one of the reasons why I chose to settle here), so I also know how much better it was then. As I am quite regularly in the UK, and work with a lot of UK-based people, I know how it has changed there since then too.


And you are comparing Frankfurt with where exactly? You don't seem to say, but since you mentioned Kings Cross, we'll just have to assume that is where you lived... But there again, London has a pretty good PT system, so it can't have been. Are you comparing Ffm with some village?

Ffm is about as typical for the whole of Germany as Kings Cross is for the whole of the UK. My job gives me the opportunity to travel quite widely in Europe and elsewhere, often with public transport, I haven't noticed that it is significantly worse IN TOTAL in the UK than here. Go and ask someone from the Eifel, or the Hunsrück about public transport.

It doesn't matter where you are, some things will be better, others worse. If you live in the UK, you can choose to live in Kings Cross, or Kidderminster, or Kircaldy, or someplace not beginning with a K. If you live here you can live in one or other Frankfurt, or Friedrichshafen, or someplace not beginning with an F.

If you like where you live then like it and stay, whether it's here or there. If you have a good job in Ffm, you will always find that better than no job in Ffo, and probably better than quite a good job in London...

It is always a matter of how you look at things, and it does work the other way. You should just compare like with like. Ffm is just not comparable with a village, or a larger city like London or Berlin

I remember some years ago, a bloke who came to Cologne to work. He arrived on the Monday and, after work, retired to his hotel room (a cheap one without TV) and stared at the wall until he fell asleep -- He didn't speak any German, so he was a bit shy about going out. He repeated this each day until Friday, whereupon he announced he would be going back to Britain and not returning. When asked if this was because he didn't like the work, he replied that the work was okay, but Germany was so bloody boring...

Id venture to say it was him who was boring, not Germany!

best 3 things,

1; Pretty German girls!!!
2; Pretty non-German girls!!!
3; Just pretty girls all over the bleedin' place...I Love it!

I love this place !!!

3 best Best things in germany? easy !!

3rd place...my job !!!
2nd place...the nachtbar !!!
1st place...PURPLE MUFFIN of course !!!

oh, and the beer !!!
and the adac too, god bless the adac!!!

That was the point... How many people see things is more often a matter of how they want to look at them, rather than a neutral comparison.

I really should be honoured that I come before the nachtbar

I think I answered this thread before but it is harder now since I had 2 new handbags for Christmas cannot narrow it down to 3 any more!

“Griesheim”. There, now I’ve3 mentioned somewhere grim as well. Although, I thought the whole idea was to name things I thought were best in Germany. That’s what I was doing. I didn’t see the bit that said “Start an argument about what’s best in Germany”?

And you assume that I don't?


That would be very hard to do, as I don't know of anywhere in the world as wonderful as Frankfurt.

Look Mike_a, I’m sorry if you are not so happy here, although you seem to like it enough to stay, but I for one love it here, and still – after seven years have nightmares about having to return to the UK of A. I know there are rough areas, but surely these could be covered in the “Three worst things about Germany” thread?

For me these would be, in no particular order of importance:
Inability to avoid pedestrians
Customer Service Issues (which are improving all the time)
Train-door-impatience (I don’t think this needs explanation)

There are others, but I at least can see the reasons behind them, and as I said, I thought this was to be a positive thread?

That’s all you’ll get from me on this one.
Keep it under your frock 

Just for the your record - because you did ask - I previously lived in Scotland, Hertfordshire (couple of miles away form Knebworth park where our man Robbie did the job), Matlock in Derbyshire, Whitchurch in Hampshire, Bishopston on the Gower Peninsular, Bedford, Kingsbury (London NW9), Marlow, and Chipperfield Nr. Kings Langley.

That’s six conurbations to three villages. A nice mixture don’t you think  Well, you did ask.

Good call, Number 10!!

I actually don't find the Customer Service here at all that bad. I don't need to be smiled at every time I go to the supermarket just want to get out of there and home really!!!

I find most of the shops I go to are usually great with customer service.

After Christmas I cannot really say the same for the UK where I found the service in most of the shops I went in just awful really.

oh yes the ADAC I can only recommend anyone that is not a member to join up straight away. I had to use them over Christmas and they were brilliant. Certainly my yellow angels anyway!!

when did we start using this word?

You seemed to assume I didn't. I was just telling you I do. If you only came here 7 years ago, you won't know what it was like here 22 years ago, though.


You made that more than obvious.

I don't know why you think I am not happy here, I only stated that it is not as good as it was 20 years ago, and I think any of the others who have been here that long will confirm this. I can assure you, I wouldn't be here long if I was unhappy here, I know enough other places well enough. I don't have nightmares about going back to Britain, even though I wouldn't really want to.


Yes, not a euphoria thread, or what is shit about Britain thread either

It is also a discussions board, not a statement of opinions board, so it is valid to dicuss points made, or state a differing point of view to bring some relativity into the discussion. A similar discussion occurred in the "dislikes" thread -- All plus and minus points are subjective, it is entirely valid to put them in an other light.

You wouldn't like it if everybody else in the world moved to Frankfurt because you told them how much better it is than anyplace else.

Just for the record: I was born and brought up in Scotland (Perth & Auchterarder, studied in Dundee). Moved to England and lived in London, Slough, Langley, Lightwater, Camberley, Telford, Basildon and Southend on Sea. In Germany I've lived in Ingolstadt, Cologne, Georgsmarienhutte, Saarlouis, Rammelfangen, Kaster and here..


Very definitely! If you only need them once per year, you've got your subscription back. Especially with newer cars, which are more likely to need to be towed to a workshop when the electronics sneeze.

[quote]That would be very hard to do, as I don't know of anywhere in the world as wonderful as Frankfurt. [code]

Ever heard of Sydney, Paris, Barcelona, Christchurch to name but 3,104?

I am also generally a fan of the power of positive thinking to life in Frankfurt, but isnt this taking it a little bit too far? I agree that there is a good lifestyle on offer here and I do like my little corner of Bockenheim with Niddapark and Gruneburg park awaiting me on my daily runs, but a walk around a few other parts of town yesterday almost had me in tears. I was crying out for a nice beach to walk along.

3 best things...um...in no particular order:

* Xmas markets, summer fests
* a sun that shines
* two great parks to run around beside my flat

all combined with a 1hr flight to Blighty to alleviate the cabin fever when it strikes

Is there a special agreement between the bb and the adac ? Because of Neil I joined it, too !
And yes, the advantages seem to be very good, even though I haven't had a breakdown yet. :excl:

Jings, crivvens an' help ma boab! Yer an awfy serious man, Mike.
I never get into debates with people who studied in Dundee - life's too short.
Anyway, you are probably right. My motor's top speed is electronically limited to about 250kph, so its not that quick, and the real reason I sometimes don't see the speed limit signs is that my hat keeps slipping down over my eyes and knocking my specs off the bridge of my nose and onto my copy of the Sunday Post, which I invariably read whilst driving.
Finally, I can excusively reveal the results of a poll of Dundonians taken this week. When asked the question: "What would you like to be the three best things in Germany in 2006?", 100% of respondents answered "Paraguay, Sweden and Trindad + Tobago" (boom boom).

Sweden

“Ever heard of Sydney, Paris, Barcelona, Christchurch to name but 3,104?�

@ Jonnyboy
My brother has lived in Paris for the last 30 years so I know it well enough. You have a point, but I still prefer it here.

However, as the “euphoria� police are out and about, I’d better revert back to being a miserable Scottish sod :-)

@Muffin

I did say it was improving all the time. The young are much better at it I find.

Oooops, now what have I said?

Got a freind going through the 'I'm new to Germany' adjustment phase, the thing he misses the most is chatting with the neibours. that and shopping, funny we've been here going on 7 years (good lord how time flies) and you climatize after a while, whilst it may not be 'home' you do adjust, than after a while you realize you've become German. You get used to the German way of doing things, you learn where to find hard to find stuff, what styles you like etc. A few years ago someone mentioned that the key to adjusting to to realize it not better its not worse just different. Once we made that decision life became much eaiser. If I wanted bland boring I'd move to America.

Top three things

Getting together with other expats to complain about everything (its got to be an expat thing).
Gettting together with other expats to take the mic out of the Germans
Getting together with other expats and commenting how we'd never move back becuase we like it here


Americans work the longest hours and have the shortest holidays and Canadíans aren't far behind.

Away an' dinae talk pish, a'm no serious, jist cynical

Taysiders are always a force to be reckonned with. With MacGonnagle's poetry as an example


Oh, I know I'm right about that, it's part of my job to see that the electronics do it -- It can be removed, though.

It took me years to train my mother not to send the Sunday Post after my Dad's read it.


Naw. Trinidad & Tobago -- Let's see some cool runnings from them...

[quote name='mike_a' date='Jan 9 2006, 03:41 PM' post='68759']

You wouldn't like it if everybody else in the world moved to Frankfurt because you told them how much better it is than anyplace else.
Just for the record: I was born and brought up in Scotland (Perth & Auchterarder, studied in Dundee). Moved to England and lived in London, Slough, Langley, Lightwater, Camberley, Telford, Basildon and Southend on Sea. In Germany I've lived in Ingolstadt, Cologne, Georgsmarienhutte, Saarlouis, Rammelfangen, Kaster and here..

Well! That must surely confuse the germans. They like to be able to "place" people and fix them.

Even though I have lived here a good 15 years I still get people assuming my "home" is in UK. I dont have a house or flat in the UK, I have lived in Germany for 15 years, I am a full adult, I dont live with my parents (who live in UK). My apartment is here in Germany. "Home" is here in Germany. I especially get this at Christmas time: "are you going home". What do you mean - I AM home! Its very irritating. Do other people encounter this kind of thing?

I think it comes down to this "Heimat" thing they have. Being fixed to a specific little spot on the planet that is considered "yours". I find it downright provincial and very limiting. Heimat! Cue accordian music, oompah band, lederhosen and rhythmic handclapping. When I hear the word Heimat I reach for my revolver!

By the way, I was talking to a 16 year old turkish guy at my sports club. Asked him, where do you come from (I didnt know he was turkish, thought he may be eg moroccan or something). He said Turkey. I then said, but were you born in Germany? Answer: yes!

So how come he says he´s from Turkey?!?

For me, when they ask, Wo kommst Du her, Ive started saying, well, for the last 15 years I come from Germany, and before that I came from England...

It surely does, as they surely do.


A previous GF of mine "had" to spend Christmas Eve at her parents. Their attitude was: As long as she had no family of her own, she was to celebrate christmas at "home". Even though she hadn't lived there for 12 years. Her parents were surprised that I didn't do the same.

Obviously he's from from the middle-European part of Turkey...


I always just say [momentary residence], and let them wonder... The estimates are mostly Netherlands -- Comes from being able to pronounce the "ch" in the back of the throat

Mike

this means you must be one of them, who don't complain, that supermarkets and shops are only opened until 8pm and closed on sundays?
Because 20 years ago they mostly closed at 6pm latest and 1pm on saturdays.

Some things are better, some worse I guess

Yes its improved a little since then, albeit at a snails pace. But I have to say, shopping is a miserable experience in Germany. Ive just come back from South-East Asia. What a contrast. Everywhere smiling extremely polite shop assistants. I didnt encounter one single sour-puss. Shops open til midnight and beyond, some 24 hour. One thing I note especially here is that there are no 7-11 stores!

And going into my local supermarket here in Frankfurt first thing next day on getting back..a depressing experience. Lacklustre vegetables - and which mostly have no flavour, long suffering queues - because the stores here make their profit out of our time, so we have to stand and wait instead of them employing enough staff to ensure customers never have to queue. Service-wise Germany is in the Dark Ages!

We are lucky to have a big Edeka aktiv market now about 5 kilometers away from the little village, where we live. Even my boyfriend likes it now. I don't need service really in a supermarket and it bothers me, when I come into a shop and before I can have a look on my own, assistants run at me asking if they can help me.
If I want help, I'll ask them
But in like say Mediamarket it bothers me, if I want help but can't find anyone or they are all busy. And the non busy ones don't know anything

But that is what happens here! Not in the supermarkets admitedly but in clothes shops etc generally! Then when I tell them I am just looking they still feel the need to stand and watch me look!!!

I get this a lot maybe it is because I look so young I am not sure. It really does bug me sometimes!

weird, I think it's just the other way around. Happened to me alot in USA and now in UK also. What kind of shops do you go? I am talking about the common bigger ones like Karstadt etc.
Nobody ever asks me, if they can help me.

Well I guess I am probably talking about more expensive shops really. Ok maybe I do not look really rich but I can afford the things in there - just don't buy them as often as I would like to! And anyway for all they know I could have a rich boyfriend...

Yep in I have the same sort of experience in Karstadt as you either nobody around or an Aushilfe who has no clue!!!

anyone ever been shopping in the Czech Republic or Russia? You get the impression the shop assistants are offended whenever someone is actually wanting to buy something. I have to say that it has improved a lot in Germany. I am from the former East and Customer Service was none existent there for a long time, cos obviously there was nothing really to buy anyway.

I was shopping in a boutique in the Czech Republic once and the sales assistant was pretty useless to be honest.

I wanted to try on a skirt and asked her if she had it in a European size 34. She told me I would not fit into that size and should try a 38 instead and that I was getting confused about European/British sizes. She was pretty indignant although I told her the 38 looked too big she was sure it would fit. Tried it on and it was way too big. She then reluctantly got me the right size but I decided not to buy it in the end as was sure she was on commission.

I mean come on surely I must know what size I am???