Pet hates about living in Germany

Re: RHD cars. Do I have to get my headlights adjusted or put pieces of tape on them to prevent oncoming motorists being blinded? I imagine there is some sort of regulation, right?

Yes you do! You can get those sticker thingies at garages I think!

Or you could do what I have done and just dip them down further with the little switch inside so they point at the ground - assuming you have one. (The one you use when you have a boot full of luggage) Only problem with this is outside the city with no street lighting you can see anything!

They became commonplace within the last 5/6 years.

Ha after my time then considering the car I had when I came here 6 years ago was ready for the scrap heap then

But it still doesn't get round the fact that the locals here include staring as one of their hobbies. Going out in public when my daughter was in bandages was a nightmare. As I've said here before, I started to take photos out with me and ask the staring bastards (and I mean that word will all the conviction I have) if they'd like a photo too. They soon looked the other way.

That is a good idea Luke!

I usually make some sort of sarcastic comment but I only ever get a blank response. Maybe it is not possible to be sarcastic in German

As long as we're bitching about Germans (and I agree with Expat Mat's assertion that the good outweighs the bad), what's the deal with stopping in narrow passageways?

On a daily basis I find myself piling into the back of someone because they have just stepped on or off a bus or train, gotten to the top or bottom of an escalator, or are in the middle of an underpass or overpass and simply stop moving for no particular reason. There are 20 people behind you and you stop at the top of the escalator to have a look around? 10 people want to get on an empty bus and you stand right in the front after you've paid? 15 people are trying to get off a train and you stop to check your watch after taking one step off? Does this make sense?

I know this seems like an odd thing to get worked up about, but it really bothers me when I'm tired and trying to get to work in the morning.

Fraid not, PM. Basil Fawlty-style withering comments just go straight over their heads and miss the target completely. I've tried it on many occasions but you'd be better off going straight for the jugular. That's something they can deal with. They know you're angry and you get your response.

Thats brilliant!!! I think we should start doing that with our car!!!

Ami, I think you are probably spot on. I would bet large portions of money that there are more LHD cars in the UK than RHD in Germany.

Now, if only we could train them not to just stop randomly and then put on there right indicator and get out of the car leaving it blocking the road

I read somewhere recently that there are 58 countries in the world where cars are driven on the left, a lot of these countries are highly populated (UK, India, Pakistan, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia to name a few) so lefties are not really such a small minority and didn´t the British forces bring their cars to Germany with them? so Germans should be used to lhd.
When I first came to Germany many years ago I thought I was only going to be here for one year and did not want to part with my English sports car so I brought it with me. I got lots of stares, sometimes when I had a passenger I told them to read a large map or newspaper, at a glance passers by thought the driver was reading, that really caused a reaction.

When we were in the UK last year my husband made the FATAL mistake of driving into a yellow box at a junction when the lights turned red. He wasn't actually blocking those needing to turn right across the back of our car, but everyone of those friendly, understanding motorists looked at ME (sitting in the passenger seat on the right of the car) and either shouted abuse at me out of the window, or showed me a middle finger. After about four cars I'd had enough of this and let my window down and shouted some obscenities back, much to the delight of the kids who were sitting on the back seat.

This happened on the tourist-reliant island of the Isle of Wight. Certainly made our stay very memorable.

I've got to admit I used to be a staring German too
I was in love with everything English and thought that if only I stared at RHD cars long enough I might get a chance to actually speak some English. Growing up in the German countryside, I didn't actually get to see many RHD vehicles at all - most of them were the milk lorries that collect milk from the farms, and it took me a while to realise that they had the steering wheel on the "wrong side" to make it easier for them to park in the right place for loading the milk and that they weren't actually British at all. I stopped staring then.

Hey, same thing with the little cars mail carriers drive in the US!

I have a stupid question for the Brits (we should start a weekly segment: Ask A Brit!).

In the US everybody walks on the right side, that way people don't run into each other on sidewalks and staircases (this concept doesn't seem to have made it to Germany). Is it the same in Britain, but on the left?

That would really confuse me and I imagine that when you Brits travel to the US you must run into people constantly.

AFAIK no. There is no designated side for walking - that would be too organised...
19k.

Yes indeed. Unless your vehicle is over here for a temporary visit, in which case the tape will do, you will need to get continental headlights. (You should have had the tape on leaving the port/tunnel exit.)

OK, it's taken me almost two years here to get to this point but that's it! I have had it with Germans and the trains in the mornings and at all other times!

This morning was the biscuit. I got up out of my seat to get off at my stop and there was a bloke at the top of the stairs to the door. As he saw me coming to get off, he put his arm across to the barrier so I couldn't get past and he could get off before me! Git!

Then, as I was TRYING to get off the train, a whole bloody crowd of people got on through one side of the door and blocked the way out. It was all I could do to stop myself shouting in English, "FFS! Learn some patience and some manners!" Did mutter it under my breath though. When will they ever learn if you leave the way off free it will be quicker to get on the train once everybody who wants to get off is off? For God's sake, the train isn't going anywhere until you get on anyway! And if you are trying to rush on to get a seat, don't bother - there aren't any left anyway cos they're all taken up by other people's bags, briefcases, gloves (!) etc.

I hear you on the people rushing to get a seat thing. I once nearly didnt get off because of a big crowd of football supporters pushing to get on. Now I just make sure I elbow people who push past me to get on.

Yeah, I've developed sharp elbows too

Since the introduction of trams around here there hasn't been a single time when I used a tram and people didn't push to get on before everybody had left. I know it's only Croydon, but it makes you wonder if Britain really is as polite as you remember it to be.
I'm just saying that because almost every time I go to Germany for a holiday (doesn't happen more than once a year) I notice that something I imagined was perfect over there isn't actually as I remember it at all.
At aleast the trains in Germany move. http://www.deutsche-in-london.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7273

I had the same problem last month, trying to get off the train at Düsseldorf airport. It's difficult enough when one isn't hampered with luggage, but if one is it can be a nightmare. I was travelling with an oversized sports bag and a day sack. Commuters were crammed in the carriage, shoulder to shoulder as is to be expected during the morning rush. I usually position myself near to the door anyway to give myself that valuable few more seconds to alight from the train.
Usually I'm quite polite !! but my flash to bang time is very short. Like when I've asked people to move in my best German, I hate apologising for getting off, and in good old English tradition hate to draw attention to myself. When these f%ckwits just stand there though, as if they expect you to levitate over their heads so as they aint inconvienieced in any way then I resort to barging through with my grip over my shoulder. The effect, and I say so myself is self satisfying...not only do I get out at my stop, but I literally drag about ten of these gits with me. If you also snarl and curse in English it averts any backlash.

But to counterbalance, this tactic was perfected over the years I was based in London and had to navigate the public transport system to get down south for the weekend. The tube has always been a nightmare whilst carrying large, bulky and heavy military baggage. I know that London is a cosmopolitan city, but I've encountered just as many ignorant Brits, guilty of the same.

I think the only way to combat this problem is to sit in the centre of the carriage. wearing a shemagh, reading from the koran and muttering to yourself in arabic. If it's summer and you're also wearing a thick coat/jacket... I imagine you could soon have the whole carriage to oneself

Very good Gilly but have you any hints for clearing a carriage when you are a blonde woman (Not so young any more) I have to tackle the train, Munich SBahn and London underground with a big case in the next few weeks.

garlic

Have taken note, thanks

Hallelujah! Another expat who lives in Berlin and hates almost identical things about here as me. But because I live here and I can't let myself get wound up about everything, i'll have to single out: the Punks (Punk died in the early 80's, get a fucking life you green haired dog home loving spoonfed dorks). German TV, if I the GEZ ever catch up with me, i'll just laugh in their faces, do you seriously expect me to pay for this drivel?
Grrrrrrrrrrr

Well done on finding this 2 year old thread and re-animating it.

I hate, the stabbings, the gun crime, the binge drinking, the Friday and Saturday night brawl that is guaranteed after midnight in every town centre...eh, oh...sorry, wrong thread (and wrong country)

I will start again. I hate whinging foreigners who will never be happy wherever they are and take every opportunity to bitch about their host country whilst extolling the virtues of their home country(the very country that they chose to leave to live here). The worst type of this personality type is the one whereby they have too keep renewing their visa to stay but continue bitching.

Err, cats, cannot abide the damn things

Better than starting a new one. (btw, I just came home on the UBahn, and the entire train carriage was subjected to aforementioned punks shouting at their dogs and abusing people)
Wankers.

well I certainly hope you told them what they are

I may have mentioned this before, but I get so pissed off by germans standing on escalators, especially DOWN escalators!!!
I have missed several trains because of this, so f***ing annoying. Even when you loudly say "entschuldigung" they sometimes don't move.
There could even be a lovely rhyme in german - Links gehen rechts stehen - but NO, they have to stand there looking gormless as if they have all the time in the world. Twats.

I love this "gormless looking" BG!

But here's a correction to your rhyme in German:

"Links ist cool, und rechts ist schwul" Got it?

Amazing that all of these complaints are unique to and no one has experienced them anywhere else in the world.

Seems to me that some people just aren't happy unless they're unhappy.

Amen!

Happens in every country, there will be people who have no upbringing


My boss does that too. yes, he is German.


I asked to remove my radio and not pay instead. Was told that without a radio, i'll still have to pay.GOONS.


Thats why i keep a #1 Glof Driver in my trunk.


Dont tip.


Lazy shop employees./ Miserly Shoppers


u can run from everywhere but kinda impossible to run anywhere in trains?

On the whole though, I think of these as quirks that are just different to the UK and I think the good outways the bad. :-)

I lived in German for decades before moving to the K in 2001. And the thing that bugged me the MOST over there was the absolute disregard for recycling. People just threw everything in the same rubbish bin. And at the supermarkets they gave you any number of plastic bags for free at the checkout. All this bugged me no end. I used to take the trouble to sort my own rubbish and take it to the tip! In the last few years things have changed and now they are starting to separate over here too, thank goodness, and encourage people to take their own bags when shopping. In that sense the UK is far behind Germany. It is really only a matter of habit and you will get used to it.


I always wondered about driving a German car in England. I never saw those tapes for LHD cars, or any rules for using them. For instance, they sell the tapes for UK drivers in Europe on all Channel ferries, but not the other way around. What's up?

I used to have thousands of pet peeves about Germany when I lived here. After moving to the UK I began to get pet peeves about the UK and the ones I had about Germany began to lessen, and now I actually see more of the good points about life in Germany than the bad ones.

One of my worst pet peeves in England is carpets in bathrooms. In every single house I moved into here (a total of three) the bathroom had wall to wall carpets... unbelievable! yesterday a family member who is ill had diarrhea all over the bathroom floor. We have since changed it to tiles, but imagine if it were still carpeted!

Anyway, I have now figured that wherever you live there are goig to be things that annoy you, so better just not get annoyed. Nowhere is perfect.

Thank you for sharing.

You're welcome. Glad you appreciate it. You're also welcome to clean it up next time it happens.

Wouldn't want to deprive you of the pleasure. You seem extremely well suited to the task.

Aaanyway, back to topic...

I was once on an escalator in a train station with my 5-year-old, and I was standing beside her. I noticed a man coming up behind us, obviously in a hurry, so I picked up my daughter and moved us both over to the RHS of the steps. As the man went by he thanked me profusely ("Vielen Dank, dass ist aber sehr nett").

I got the impression he'd never had anyone move out of his way before.

Admittedly I do enjoy a good moan, however I genuinely haven't experienced this phenomenon in any other country.
I am from London, and blocking an escalator there is likely to earn you a slap at best!

Its just how rude some, but not all of public officials are, it is just unbelievable how unhelpful some are.

I went into a shop to buy weed killer about 10.30 in the morning. They said I would have to come back about 3 pm that afternoon when the man with the key to the cupboard where it is kept comes in. Go into french supermarket and weed killer is on open shelves self service.

The list is endless it is quite a shock just how inefficient Germany is compared to what people believe, they are stuck in a 1950/60 time warp.

Sometimes staring is a good thing: Are you the girl on line 18 in Cologne?

The escalator thing makes my blood boil. That and the total lack of innovation, creativity or appreciation of quality in so many areas...food, tv, fashion, to name a few. They may know how to make a quality automobile but why so little regard for the everyday things that make life more pleasurable? It's also utterly maddening to go food shopping and find half of the shelves empty or blocked by cartons still waiting to be unpacked. (Or there IS food on the shelf, but it's either already expired or will be by the time you get it home.) Having to go to 3 or 4 different shops to find everything you need, unless you are happy eating the same old crap day in and day out, which most of them seem to be.

Having to find some special after-hours Apotheke and pay a surcharge for a freakin' aspirin which is already way overpriced (have learned to stock up on trips abroad since then, but still...). This is a country with fairly liberal attitudes about drug taking and possession (in terms of weed and other "party" drugs) but when it comes to taking medication that isn't "natural" people are so hypocritical and self-righteous one can only laugh...
Possibly a Berlin-specific thing but for a country so obsessed with the environment, why doesn't anybody know how to throw their disgusting cigarette butts in the trash bin?? And then there's the dog crap...
Construction works that start at the ungodly hour of 7AM.
The perpetual fixation with Depeche Mode and other 80s bands...

I used to also really dislike the shopping experience here and long for something more like at home but now I guess I'm assimilated . If instead of relying on public transportation you bike around a bit it takes no time to do most of your shopping at a cheap discounter (Aldi, Lidl). It takes some time to even realize where everything is crammed in the stores, but once you get the layout down etc I have no real complaints with the selection. It's way less personal and you feel rushed, but it's pretty awesome sometimes to be able to grab all the food you need in 5 minutes and be out of the store and on your way. You can then also stop by drink stores, or whatever other specialty stores.

Biking also removes the chance most Germans have to stare at you for more than two seconds. Name a problem you're having and we can find a way that a bike will fix it!

And yeah people in Europe in general I guess don't take Aspirin, so if there's almost zero demand for it...

And not all parts of Germany are that "party drug" friendly

This is due to an ingrained & widespread belief in Germans that weeds & pests are "good" and getting rid of them is "bad". Hence anything effective has either to be kept under lock & key (you have to run the gauntlet to get at them) or you have to bring over from UK in your car... Do if you want any effective selective weedkiller for your lawn...

Major pet hate - smoking. Don't Germans know that smoking is bad for your health? Also, virtually nobody bothers to observe the new smoking bans. You stand in a fug of smoke at every tram stop or bus stop or sit in one at most cafes or bars. I went for a job interview in Berlin last week and nearly everyone in the office had an ashtray on their desk and half the staff were puffing away. It's bad enough when the windows are open in the summer but what would it be like in the winter? Is this even legal?

@matthewsmith, all I can say is I hear you! I DETEST smoking. Even my mum who is a smoker was shocked at the amount of fag ends on the floor of my street, and by the amount of people smoking walking down the street (which she was brought up to find uncouth).
Whats worse, is Cologne doesn't have the ban yet Roll on 1st July!! (although as you say they probably will try to ignore the ban).

I was in London recently and discovered that smoking is now also banned at bus stops, at least at the ones where there is a shelter.

My pet hate has to be German supermarkets, ok I know that one has been done to death on TT, but my specific gripe is how they never employ sufficient check-out assistants, so you have one slow long-suffering queue moving forward at a glacial pace. I dread going to supermarkets here. Actually its all the big stores here as well, not just supermarkets.

M & S Simply Food, Tesco Express etc in London impressed me - they also have centralised queues now (which theyve hardly heard of here in Germany - the Post Office and Deutsche Bahn have only these last few years suddenly discovered them, but Ive never seen a supermarket with a centralised queue here). London also now has supermarkets with self-service checkouts, which made it even faster. I never had to wait more than a few seconds, you could get what you wanted and get out - fast. And great convenience food too - of the kind you just dont find here in sausage land.

Okay, what's so unappealing about credit cards, depositing your cash into the ATM after the bank has closed or evening deposit drops (litterally like a mail chute that leads into the bank), and employees taking separate lunch breaks so that the business can stay open during lunch hours, that Germans here don't think to make them readily available?

Yes, my office must be closed quite often during odd hours of the working day, but that is because the employment laws make it unaffordable for me to hire employees (pet hate numero uno).

RE: Smoking

I am a smoker, but only around other smokers (the flesh is weak); however, I always hated going into restaurants/bars and choking on the trapped smoke due to poor ventilation, not to mention the stale smokey scent that lingers on your hair and clothes like a foul demon.
What I hate even more is the government telling people what they can and cannot do almost to the point of going up their asses. WhyTF can't Jim-Bob open a restaurant and have people eating fried baby cows dipped in bread crumbs whilst they sip on a Riesling and puff on a cigarette? If I detest indoor smoking so much, then I can choose not to enter his restaurant. If Jim-Bob wants me to enter his establishment so much, then he can choose to restrict indoor smoking to designated areas or disallow it completely.

I understand that it can be very frustrating to some people when they simply cannot escape the second hand smoke (tip: stand upwind), but there are many things that you cannot always escape (ie - smelly farts, Mediterranean BO, dog poo, Dior perfume, diesel fumes, etc . . . But how much civil liberty should we surrender to the government when all we really have to do to avoid stuff like second hand smoke is by walking away from it (when possible), or asking the person to NOT blow smoke in your face (coughing really loud next to them works too, but don't cover your mouth).

I am from California, the land of sunshine and cause-o-the-weak activists. The last person I heard complaining about smoking was a buxom blond who bitched for about as long as this post on how second hand smoke was harmful to her children . . . Then she got in her V8 German automobile and sped off, leaving me and the polar ice caps to enjoy her "second hand smoke".

The weedkiller you buy in the shops sux anyway. I tried on my lawn and it was useless. Had to get a man round with "proper" agricultural weedkiller instead. I suspect the poster (HEM) above was correct and you need to import from the UK if you want it to actually kills weeds.

whining ppl on the trains, everything its sooooo expensive, its raining, the sun shines, its too hot, the rolls ain't crunchy enuff, shite politics, too high taxes, how much better life was 10 years ago (usually said by whining 20 something ones!!!)

oh and my fav is: ppl at the pub complaining that its too expensive to go to the pub nowadays thats why they gotta stay in all the time and wouldnt ever be able to go to the pub. EERRRRMMMMM they are saying shite like that while being at the pub, but they just cant afford to go there EVER! hm, whatever.

Im so sick and tired of all those whinners!!! why cant they try to enjoy life or at least stop crying about fuck everything, and hey if ye gotta whine, could ye at least do it at home???