Pet hates about living in Germany

Hi there,

After living in Germany for over a year now there are still some things I will never ever be able to get along with...

The "GEZapo" has already been mentioned in this forum.

"Mulltrennung" is probably another of my favourite pet hates. When the mother of a German friend proudly showed me the 6 (that is SIX!) bins in her tiny kitchen which she had to use for different types of rubbish I first could not believe it - and still can't.

So... what are your favourites?

Can someone close this thread before it even starts!

You might be able to find a few old threads on the subject if you do a search ben.

What would the Britboard be without a Germany-dislikes thread every now and then?

People saying hello and goodbye to me in the lift at work.

Oh, where do we start ...

Since it's pet hates, I'll start with pets, as in dogs and them being in inappropriate places doing inappropriate things.

Customer Service, as in there is none.

Opening Hours.

Being expected to wash garbage before throwing it away.

'I'm in a restaurant/shop and you are seriously telling me you don't take credit cards?'

Grafitti and the notion that there is nothing that can be done about it.

Come to think of it, the notion that there is nothing that can be done about any number of problems.

Punks asking me for money.

Sanctimony in everything regarding America (Dear Germans, it is actually possible that BOTH George Bush and Michael Moore are idiots).

German TV.

There are plenty of pet loves, too.

It stands to reason!!!


WOW you beat me to it!!!

you can quit doing that, you don't have to anymore, they figured that it created more polltion washing the things than it was worth. (See grüne punkt website for info)

Thanks. (Between you and me, I never did it in the first place, anyway). I will thoroughly enjoy telling my stepmother this, though.

Oh, and I believed you did!


Get it in writing too, that really helps, avoids stupid discussions.

Something thats always confused me is car washing.

Ok, I was told by my Neighbour while washing my car outside my house on Sunday that it was VERBOTEN!

OK... Fine,I can live with that..."but why" I asked her.
"My car shampoo has the Grunerpunkt on it,and if it was verboten,why do they sell car shampoo in the shops?"

She explained that when I rinse the car off,all the muck goes down the drain.

So heres my question...WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT RAINS?

Secondly,due to the natur of my car( fiberglass) I cant wash it in a car wash or peel the paint of at the steam cleaner...what to do...what to do

...not that I am a tree hugger but the Grünepunkt refers to the disposal of the bottle /container and not the contents

Tell her that harassing her neighbours is VERBOTEN!

Ha...thanks neil, :$

I suspect though that my list of Pet-Hates for the UK would be longer than that for Germany! So on balance Ill stay here!

ah...go on Rick,give us just your top five pet hates of the UK

Heres mine:

Yob culture
Chavs
Price of petrol
Price of Houses
Our government entering an illegal war.

Pet hates in the UK - now that's more like it. I'm actually pretty happy in Germany & try & avoid thinking about the negatives. This list is neither exhaustive or unique to Engalnd!

UK:

-The complete lack of respect people have for each other & bad manners
-Pretty much everything the current govt has ever been involved in, especially when it comes to the US or our pathetic rolling over whenever the EU tells us to.
-House prices
-constant adverts for debt management on TV (is EVERYONE in England heavily in debt??)
-70mph speed limits on ALL motorways
-overly sensored porn (someone had to say it!)
-forcing the majority to adopt/accept to the whims & ways of minorities
-Lager (After German Pils, who wants Fosters!)
-Football louts

Can't see me ever going back!

(Before any clever dick posts that Fosters are Aussie, I mean the lager sold in Pubs, I don't care where it was invented or brewed!)

Some petrol stations have separate places where you can hand wash your car. Washing your car in Germany at home is not allowed...

Isn't it just a fact that where ever you live you will have some pet hates. You could live in Germany and not have the same pet hates as somebody else living in Germany in a different town...and the same in UK. I mean if I was living in the middle of a council estate in East London I'm sure I would have a lot more pet hates than I do where I'm living now.

Very true Andrea, I'm sure a lot of things would annoy me in GB if I lived there too - the postal system for example, it takes 2 days for a first class letter to get from London to Wales and a letter from Hagen to GB often gets there in 2 days too.

Actually this is untrue. You can wash your car in a private driveway, (preferably your own ) and you must use biodegradable soap, we usually wash our cars in the drive (try finding a car wash that will take an F150!!), as do the neighbors.

I too heard you cant wash your car at home, not because of the soap but because things like oil from the engine etc get mixed in the waste water. The only time you can is if you have a special drainage system like my neighbour has.

That only applies for motor cleansing with high pressure pumps... :$

Pet hate no 1 in Germany (might just be Hamburg)
People who dont let you off the S bahn before piling on themselves. Ive never seen grannies run so quick to get a seat. I barge into them on purpose. I once saw a guy get back on the s bahn to shout in a womans ear who hadnt let him off first, it was rather amusing.

Pet hate no 1 in UK
Mums with naughty kids in shops and me having to watch while mum beats the living daylights out of the kid and screaming to get attention. Ive never seen this behaviour anywhere else

Pet hate no 2
People with a Uk passport that dont even speak english as a first language even though someone I know had hell getting one even though both parents were british. He was born in Malaysia because his dad was serving in the RAF there. Go figure???

I could go on forever, Im a moaner at heart, it makes me feel soo much better!

Where can I find this information???
so that I can ram it down the neighbours throat next time!

That is the disadvantage of indipendance... ( Who would want to send a letter to wales anyway - I didn't know that sheep could read ... )

My pet hate is that when Germans are in the audience they have to show the artist/artists that they too are blessed with a musical vein by clapping along in time with the music.

WHY

I have just paid good money to see some show and what do I hear forking clapping.

just google 'autowaschen verbot' plenty of info that you cant just wash your car anywhere including a private driveway.
not even with boidegradeable soaps or clear water. If you are caught then it can be very expensive.

Oh dear...This could prove...mildly disheartening for mentally deranged car fanatics such as myself.

Germans

My neighbour washes his Porsche on the road outside our house all the time.

Do you know exactly how much the fine is BB?

Just that I washed my car in the street on Sunday and a neighbour reported me the
Police

I dont know if the police came cos I went out after half an hour.
Is it her word against mine...still I left a wet street

My manual says clearly NOT to wash the car in the car wash,also defiantley no steam cleaning.

Are these laws just sent to test us I wonder.
For all Germanys unflexible grüne laws,(i seem to remember from an earlier thread) they still only came 23rd in the world for being tree huggers

No wonder everyone drives "Silber Kombis" ...easy to clean

Shame the police didn´t come round when I reported my vandalized car and broken window with missing stereo

I was born in Malaysia too, and the same happened to me. I had some guy with a foreign accent telling me I wasn't British as such. Had to get all sorts of paperwork together, it was a nightmare. But that was when I was in the UK so not really a "germany pet hate". Wouldn't have minded, but it cost me a bloody fortune to get my eyes straightened

German rules and regulations, they can be annoying at times, but if you choose to live here you have to abide by them, most of the time anyways.

Yeah, the police have a strange set of priorities here.

I had the same happen to my car one night - about ten other neighborhood people also. The police had no time for anything but taking statements - at their office. As a matter of fact, they continuted to harass me by mail, telling me I had "promised" to give them the most minute information ( like stereo serial number, information about an expired Canadian driver's license that was taken, etc. etc ) that I had already told them I didn't have. Filing of this information was quite critical, just looking at the scene of the crime was not important!

A year later, on a humid night, my car stopped at the approach to an autobahn on-ramp. Hours after ADAC had removed the water from the fuel and I brought the car home, two police officers came to my apartment to wake me up because they needed to know why my car had been at the side of the road!!

why r the Jerrys either pink or orange and pluck there eyebrows (the men)?

its antics like this that make living here funny, im frequently laughing at them

Same thing hapen to me years and years ago exept they didn't wake me up, I had sold\given my Green Datsun 510 (I'm aging my self on that one) to my brother in law, and I guess he never registared the car becuase the cop rang my door on a pleasant Sunday afternoon to ask why my car had been sitting on the side of the road for a week. I told him I had no idea

I drive a uk right hand drive car here and I hate the way all the Germans stare at me like I'm some kind of freak. They crane their necks and look behind them whilst driving, I'm just waiting for the day one of them has an accident 'cos they're too busy looking at me and my car instead of at the road. I was in McDonalds car park the other day and almost everyone that walked past stopped to look at the car and peer inside. If it was a Ferrari or something i could understand but it's only a Clio!!!

Oh, and what's with this right before left crap! Just asking for accidents in my opinion.

I also hate the way people just shove me out the way in supermarkets - what happened to excuse me!

It is truley amazing how many people do this to Charlie and I! I have now got in the habbit of waving at them. Even as a passenger it is truley bizzare feeling!

I have to keep reminding her that the last time most of these people saw a right hand side drive vehicle in this part of Germany it weighed 20+ tons, was green and carried a big gun on the front of it

Bless our little black Clio ...

Nothing, actually. They've never used it and never will.

I understand completely why they stare.

1. Holding the door open for people and getting no response.

2. Having to shake hands with everyone in the office every morning.

3. Having to get a license for my car radio.

4. Staring in general.

5. Poor service in restaurants, shops.

6. Shops closing at midday on Saturday.

7. Smoking in public absolutely everywhere, except trains for some reason!

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. :-)

which is???

Reminds of me of an ad I seen somewhere.
While driving along side a German have the person in your passenger seat pretend they are driving and stare at the other driver. When they look have your passenger look like they are making a dangerous swerving manouver towards them

To Germans (and to me), you're driving on the wrong side. That is quite a novelty and worth taking a look at, in my book.

I never thought of doing that! I have made out I have an invisible stearing wheel a couple of times though never had the balls to swerve .. hehehe ... Maggie, Simpsons anyone?

1. Yep, but thats politeness ! Stick to it !
2. Get in the office early, and then they all have to come to you...
3. There is no way around that !
4. People in the UK stare too, when I drive over in my LHD Car !
5. You're right there. Germany is 20 years behind !
6. Not where I live - Shops are open till 18/20:00 hrs...
7. They are clamping down on that. Smoking on trains - yuk !!

You could always get yourself a toy steering wheel for your passengers to play with.

I can understand that it may warrant a double take but to stare so much you don't look where your going!Coming from London, I see left hand drive cars frequently and really can't see what the fuss is about!
:$

All this staring at cars coz its "the wrong way round" is very, very, very odd to Charlie and myself. Even in the UK we would see LHD cars all the time and would take no notice of them.

I wonder if its because we live(d) near Heathrow and the Thames IT corridor that we have grown used to it years ago?

edit: I know you don't often fly cars in hehehe - but there are a lot of BIG international IT companies around it. Stockley Park for example, you will often see LHD cars there.

Maybe it is because we as Brits were always told not to stare?

I used to get it as well when I had my RHD car over here as well I just learned to ignore it.

If you are in the minority (the UK is with RHD cars), when you see the majority it is not as big a deal as when they see you. I have nothing to back this up, but I'm guessing that there are a lot more LHD cars on the roads in the UK than there are RHD cars on the road in Germany (I don't recall every having seen one).

Also, I think that most Brits are fully aware that most of the world drive on the other side, when most Germans will only be reminded that Brits are different when they see them.

I'm not saying it's nice that they're staring at you, just that I understand why they are doing it.