Allegro.cc - Online Community

Allegro.cc Forums » Off-Topic Ordeals » Germany

This thread is locked; no one can reply to it. rss feed Print
 1   2   3 
Germany
Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
avatar

Hallo! So I just got back from Germany.

Do Germans eat anything other than sausage and bread? Every second store was a bakery in every city I visited. And what is up with their fascination with bottled water? And not just plain water, but carbonated water! That is disgusting. :P

You get taxed on the bottles, and you must bring them back to the store to throw them in a machine that spits out a refund receipt, that evidently is only valid for that exact same store. It's a great system, because it means everywhere you go, you get assaulted by homeless people trying to steal your bottles.

Restaurants want to serve you 0,33 liters of undrinkable gassy water for like 3,50 euros. What a racket. No wonder everybody over the age of 7 drinks beer.

99% of the places want you to pay to use the bathroom. No thanks. I'll just pee on the street corner.

Everybody smokes. Even ALDI sells cigarettes! And just in case you cannot make it to the store, they sell them in machines outside. Some are these high-tech touch screen systems that spit out packs as fast as you can tap.

The city transit systems were all pretty nice and inexpensive compared to Chicago. It's even cheaper considering it's basically the honor system. Since I'm white and look employed, I guess I probably wouldn't be bothered very often to produce a ticket.

The city-to-city trains were a mess. Always late. Was riding on one that got delayed (while in route) and sat on the tracks for over an hour. I was able to get in and out of Austria without having to show a passport. (Although getting back almost turned into an adventure because scheduled trains were canceled and none of the ones going back were marked accordingly, although I guess that's a complaint for Austria.)

The nicest thing (and I assume this is true of Europe in general) is that the prices include tax and were (almost) always in even amounts. Curses to those stores that still went with the 1,99 pricing. WHY DO I WANT A SINGLE PENNY BACK?

Paying by credit card was amusing. The cashier usually would pluck it out of my hand as if I wasn't capable of swiping it myself. That is, if the place was even capable of accepting Visa. Didn't strike me as a very technologically advanced shopping experience. (Other than the cigarette kiosks.)

Anyway, the history and architecture is fascinating. And the people were generally nice.

type568
Member #8,381
March 2007
avatar

The city-to-city trains were a mess. Always late.

As a proud Russian patriot, I can't imagine a German train to ever be late. I mean it. There's barely any sarcasm.

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
avatar

Oh, I forgot the nicest thing about the trains: the seat reservation. I paid for a 5 day pass; I'm not going to then pay additional just to reserve a seat. >:(

It turns into this musical chairs game. Everybody is scanning for a seat that isn't reserved in the segment they are riding. But the truth is most of the reservations are a lie. :P I got bumped one time out of seven rides.

Thankfully the Germans seemed to be more obedient than me. I just pick the first seat that nobody was sitting in while everybody else just looks around meekly for a seat with no reservation marked. I'm pretty sure it's a scam just to get people to pay to reserve seats.

Elias
Member #358
May 2000

The problem of travelling between Austria and Germany might have to do with the current influx of refugees.

And I think you're right about the price of water, they are afraid people would drink less beer if they could have free water :)

The carbonated water is just something to get used to - over there we carbonate water, over here they put ice in it (I find the ice thing disgusting myself). Still, carbonating as well as ice are better than plain water.

--
"Either help out or stop whining" - Evert

Bruce Perry
Member #270
April 2000

type568 said:

As a proud Russian patriot,

I somehow saw the word 'Prussian' in there.

Do Germans eat anything other than sausage and bread?

Döner springs to mind. Also Schnitzel. But yes, there are a lot of bakeries, and I end up missing those when I come back to England.

Quote:

And what is up with their fascination with bottled water?

It does taste better than tap water, but I think there may be a belief that tap water is bad for you.

Quote:

And not just plain water, but carbonated water!

In my experience, you always have a choice. I haven't particularly noticed people assuming I want sparkling, but it could be because I'm already in the habit of being specific. I can't stand that sensation either.

Quote:

99% of the places want you to pay to use the bathroom.

I came from a frugal family and always thought that didn't make sense, but when you think about the terrible state that free public toilets can get into, it's not hard to begin thinking it's good to have one that requires you to pay. Or did you pay for one and find it was disgusting inside? Look on the bright side: our leaders at work just climbed Kilimanjaro, and came back with some rather disgusting accounts of the 'toilet' situation (if you can call it that). :)

Quote:

Everybody smokes.

THIS. If there's one complaint I have, it's that. :(

Quote:

The city-to-city trains were a mess. Always late.

Well hey, at least we (Europe) have trains! ;D;D:P

England is pretty good in this regard, but it used to be terrible. I don't really know the story in Germany, but I think every country must have its ups and downs. Japan used to be very tight with train times, until an accident in Osaka in May 2005 (during my first visit to Tokyo :o) where a train came off a bend and smashed into some flats. After that, they started putting safety first and punctuality second.

Quote:

the prices include tax

I guess we've come to be used to that :) Some online shops still list ex-VAT prices, and it's always a turn-off. One shop I've used asks you whether you're a business or private customer; turns out businesses often want prices quoted excluding VAT. I do think I remember my parents having to be careful with this in real shops, so it's obviously something that improved with time.

Quote:

Curses to those stores that still went with the 1,99 pricing.

Bet you still bought those sweets you wouldn't have bought otherwise ;) I think I've seen a trend towards round numbers in England too, but not so consciously; and I pay with a card anyway in England so I don't notice the change situation. In Germany it's a different matter of course, since many shops can't take my card.

Quote:

The cashier usually would pluck it out of my hand as if I wasn't capable of swiping it myself.

Some pubs and restaurants tend to do that here, but it's not the norm, and we're generally trained not to feel comfortable with it. Cards can be copied; you do not give someone else control over them. I've learnt to try and have cash with me whenever I go somewhere that might behave like that.

Now, native Germans tend to have their own kinds of card for paying with. Some technology is certainly there, it's just not yours or mine.

Quote:

And the people were generally nice.

Where in Germany did you go? I've found Berlin full of stressed, impatient, rude people, but other places like Aachen, Wolfenbüttel and Bielefeld[1] much nicer.

the seat reservation

You know, I wouldn't bother. In England, where trains have seat reservations at all, it's free. But we found a nasty-looking boy sitting in one of our seats, and his father in the other. The seats were opposite each other (good for shared legroom) and with power sockets and a window, so naturally I was going to fight for them on principle. The father ceded one of them, but I felt this was a matter for the train staff, and it escalated quickly ;D But never mind. In the post-mortem discussion, we found out that the boy's father may actually have been the boy's mother. So there's that. Anyway, conclusion: just choose your seats when you board, because then, if you don't like the look of people near you, you can sit somewhere else.

This logic might not apply to trains that are jam-packed, where you really want a guaranteed seat; but I haven't seen one of those in Germany yet. Their long-distance trains are huge double-decker affairs. With flights, I always aggressively reserve a window seat if I can :)

References

  1. video

--
Bruce "entheh" Perry [ Web site | DUMB | Set Up Us The Bomb !!! | Balls ]
Programming should be fun. That's why I hate C and C++.
The brxybrytl has you.

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
avatar

Elias said:

The carbonated water is just something to get used to - over there we carbonate water, over here they put ice in it (I find the ice thing disgusting myself). Still, carbonating as well as ice are better than plain water.

While challenging yourself to accept the customs of another culture is a good thing, I hope you don't begin to find yourself too comfortable in adopting American customs - probably not an ideal exercise for your acculturation. ;)

In China, it's not uncommon to use toilet paper instead of napkins. :-X Always seemed a little odd when I needed to "wipe my face".

--
Visit CLUBCATT.com for cat shirts, cat mugs, puzzles, art and more <-- coupon code ALLEGRO4LIFE at checkout and get $3 off any order of 3 or more items!

AllegroFlareAllegroFlare DocsAllegroFlare GitHub

Bruce Perry
Member #270
April 2000

Mark, this one's for you:

video

--
Bruce "entheh" Perry [ Web site | DUMB | Set Up Us The Bomb !!! | Balls ]
Programming should be fun. That's why I hate C and C++.
The brxybrytl has you.

Elias
Member #358
May 2000

In China, it's not uncommon to use toilet paper instead of napkins.

One thing I haven't figured out here is tissues. Over in Europe I'd always carry tissues around and blow my nose when it got runny - over here I rarely see people blow their nose. Plus tissues are really expensive. In Europe I got a 250 pack (25 pocket size boxes with 10 tissues) each for like 1.50€... here I get 3 pocket packs for $2. So costs about 10 times as much. All you seem to have over here is those big Kleenex boxes which seem kinda useless as I won't carry them around.

--
"Either help out or stop whining" - Evert

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
avatar

My dad would carry around a handkerchief; a perpetually germ-infested rag that you keep to your now snotty pocket.

--
Visit CLUBCATT.com for cat shirts, cat mugs, puzzles, art and more <-- coupon code ALLEGRO4LIFE at checkout and get $3 off any order of 3 or more items!

AllegroFlareAllegroFlare DocsAllegroFlare GitHub

Elias
Member #358
May 2000

Hm, I assume that's not what people do either :P Maybe they are just outside less and therefore don't get a runny nose.

--
"Either help out or stop whining" - Evert

Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
avatar

Welcome back!

You get taxed on the bottles, and you must bring them back to the store to throw them in a machine that spits out a refund receipt, that evidently is only valid for that exact same store. It's a great system, because it means everywhere you go, you get assaulted by homeless people trying to steal your bottles.

I've always wondered why we don't do this. It makes me so angry that we've already built containers that are inherently re-usable and the only reason we don't is... political B.S. and apathy.

-----sig:
“Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.” - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
"Political Correctness is fascism disguised as manners" --George Carlin

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
avatar

Living in Canada has given me an appreciation for separating trash and recycling. Once you get used to it it's not that hard. Should probably do it everywhere. :-/

--
Visit CLUBCATT.com for cat shirts, cat mugs, puzzles, art and more <-- coupon code ALLEGRO4LIFE at checkout and get $3 off any order of 3 or more items!

AllegroFlareAllegroFlare DocsAllegroFlare GitHub

Bob Keane
Member #7,342
June 2006

Welcome back!
Matthew Leverton said:

You get taxed on the bottles, and you must bring them back to the store to throw them in a machine that spits out a refund receipt, that evidently is only valid for that exact same store. It's a great system, because it means everywhere you go, you get assaulted by homeless people trying to steal your bottles.

I've always wondered why we don't do this. It makes me so angry that we've already built containers that are inherently re-usable and the only reason we don't is... political B.S. and apathy.

We have it in Boston, we call it a deposit. Someone I work with spent some time, probably years in Germany. She said it took a while to get used to the warm beer but when she came back, she had to readjust to cold beer. Maybe the carbonated water is the same.

By reading this sig, I, the reader, agree to render my soul to Bob Keane. I, the reader, understand this is a legally binding contract and freely render my soul.
"Love thy neighbor as much as you love yourself means be nice to the people next door. Everyone else can go to hell. Missy Cooper.
The advantage to learning something on your own is that there is no one there to tell you something can't be done.

Arthur Kalliokoski
Second in Command
February 2005
avatar

everywhere you go, you get assaulted by homeless people

What? I keep hearing how Europe is so great with the socialism thing, say it ain't so!

They all watch too much MSNBC... they get ideas.

pkrcel
Member #14,001
February 2012

Late trains and warm beer in GERMANY ?

...pfffft ahahahhaha ;D;D;D;D, c'mon guys now you're just trolling around.

It is unlikely that Google shares your distaste for capitalism. - Derezo
If one had the eternity of time, one would do things later. - Johan Halmén

Polybios
Member #12,293
October 2010

And what is up with their fascination with bottled water? And not just plain water, but carbonated water!

;D Not long ago, a friend who just had been touring the USA told me incredulously: "We were in this vast American supermarket, and, imagine, they didn't have a single bottle of bottled water without flavor!" :P
There are many Germans who usually prefer (self-carbonated ;D) tap water, though.

Quote:

The city-to-city trains were a mess. Always late.

If you, too, have come to dislike and complain about "Deutsche Bahn", you have adopted German customs very quickly. :o

Quote:

That is, if the place was even capable of accepting Visa.

"EC" debit cards (and cash payments) are more common here.

Quote:

warm beer

What? ???:-X

Edit:

Quote:

that evidently is only valid for that exact same store.

I think it's often per-chain.

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
avatar

Polybios said:

I think it's often per-chain.

Well, one REWE wouldn't accept another's, although there may have been a slight difference between which exact variant of REWE it was.

Quote:

We were in this vast American supermarket, and, imagine, they didn't have a single bottle of bottled water without flavor!

There definitely would have been bottled "still" water, but yeah, nobody here drinks plain carbonated water on purpose. (Flavored sugarless carbonated water is terrible too.)

OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
avatar

nobody here drinks plain carbonated water on purpose.

And that purpose is?

Anyway, it's a funny reading about the culture clash - mind you, I'm living like next door to Germany and I used to visit it a lot over the years.

You are right, Germans really have some fetish about sparkling water. On the other hand I wouldn't expect them to smoke that hard. Sure, I remember smoke machines on the streets but it never seemed so bad with smoking as in here. Hell, here you can still find restaurants that allow smoking inside...

I can't believe what you said about Deutsche Bahn though, I've always thought that Germans were punktlich. As far as credit/debit cards are concerned, I've had problems with my VISA and MasterCard in Netherlands and Italy, never in Germany though. On the other hand, the reason for not accepting VISA is simple - the fees the shopper has to pay to to company are simply too high.

And yeah, public toilettes 0.50 EUR, it will teach you to keep some pocket money on you ;) on the other hand I've seen this almost everywhere around Europe. By the way, what's so wrong about bottles with deposit on them?

[My website][CppReference][Pixelate][Allegators worldwide][Who's online]
"Final Fantasy XIV, I feel that anything I could say will be repeating myself, so I'm just gonna express my feelings with a strangled noise from the back of my throat. Graaarghhhh..." - Yahtzee
"Uhm... this is a.cc. Did you honestly think this thread WOULDN'T be derailed and ruined?" - BAF
"You can discuss it, you can dislike it, you can disagree with it, but that's all what you can do with it"

Bruce Perry
Member #270
April 2000

"On purpose" = "deliberately"; he means that no one would choose it, and everyone who drinks it does so accidentally.

I'm sure the Germans used to be punktlich :)

Also, I have a Romanian friend who says Romania is worse than Germany for smoke. I'm sure it's all relative. Sorry to hear you have it worse than Germany :(

--
Bruce "entheh" Perry [ Web site | DUMB | Set Up Us The Bomb !!! | Balls ]
Programming should be fun. That's why I hate C and C++.
The brxybrytl has you.

Elias
Member #358
May 2000

OICW said:

Hell, here you can still find restaurants that allow smoking inside...

Same in Austria :/ I'd say most of them have smoking inside still - technically there needs to be separate smoking and non-smoking rooms but that rarely works in a way that you don't get the smoke smell - maybe because the entrance room is the smoking room, or because they leave the door to the smoking room open, or because people smoke in the non-smoking area and waiters don't care. Also, smoking is generally allowed outside and in the summer restaurants usually do outside seating, and it's just all in a cloud of smoke.

--
"Either help out or stop whining" - Evert

Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

It's good that the people were nice. That matters more than most things. And I'd be disappointed if sausage and beer did not run rampant. Paying to use a restroom is heinous, however.

Water heaters in America are in the basement and will flood your house when they break, which is also heinous.

Elias
Member #358
May 2000

I always thought the paying for restrooms also has to do with beer... if you go to any pub and drink a beer, you can use their toilet for free. So they actually want the public restrooms to be as expensive as possible so people instead choose the beer option.

--
"Either help out or stop whining" - Evert

Bob Keane
Member #7,342
June 2006

Water heaters in America are in the basement and will flood your house when they break, which is also heinous.

Yup, I replaced a water heater due to flooding. We now have tankless heaters with hot water on demand though. If someone has one, how are they for performance, cost, convenience, etc?

By reading this sig, I, the reader, agree to render my soul to Bob Keane. I, the reader, understand this is a legally binding contract and freely render my soul.
"Love thy neighbor as much as you love yourself means be nice to the people next door. Everyone else can go to hell. Missy Cooper.
The advantage to learning something on your own is that there is no one there to tell you something can't be done.

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
avatar

I think in Germany that all restaurants that serve beer have to have a free restroom even to non customers. That's what I was told, but I didn't try it.

I just peed on the streets.

Ariesnl
Member #2,902
November 2002
avatar

Over here that would cost you a fine ;D

Perhaps one day we will find that the human factor is more complicated than space and time (Jean luc Picard)
Current project: [Star Trek Project ] Join if you want ;-)

 1   2   3 


Go to: