Different in Germany!

During the 18 months we’ve lived in Germany, I kept a running list in my phone of things that are different here.  After typing up the list, I asked my fellow ex-pats living here what they’d add to the list.  The list kept growing!  Below is our list of things noticed by about 30 wonderful women living for now in Germany:

Different in Germany!

Gas station pay–very few stations let you pay with a card at the tank.

Recycling–paper, wet waste, cans and plastic, separate glass into white, green or brown.

TP and tissues –bathroom hand towels are softer than TP, which is made from recycled plastic instead of paper. Tissues are also thick and heavy.

Small containers of food–people buy daily or weekly. Limited storage space in kitchens and refrigerators, so packaging is small.  Milk cartons are small. Staples are small. Costco products would never fit in German kitchens.

Grocery bags–bring your own, they are not provided. You can buy re-useable ones at the checkout.

Grocery cart wheels move in all directions. You insert a coin to take a cart. The coin is returned to you when you return the cart.

1.5% milk is the lowest fat content milk you can buy. Unrefrigerated shelf-life milk is commonly used.

Most people sleep under Federdecken (feather beds).  You only use a bottom sheet.  We sleep under 2 comforters and air them out.

Pillows are large and square or long and narrow.

Cold cereal–very limited choices. Maybe 10. Compared to 100s at home.

Chocolate aisle–100s of choices, compared to maybe 10 at home.

Cheeses, meats–oh, the variety!

Breads–excellent bakeries in most grocery stores, bread must be eaten fresh,  it has no preservatives and it doesn’t stay fresh long.

Grocery stores –in many , products are not organized by product types. It feels random. It’s often hard to find things.

Eggs are not refrigerated, even colored hard-boiled eggs sold year-round.

You seldom see brown dirt–grass fills every inch of ground. You only see brown dirt in a newly cultivated field.  Even along roads or freeways, the grass grows up to the pavement.

Lots of graffiti.

High walls along the Autobahns make it hard to see the countryside.

Bikes and bike lanes everywhere make driving difficult.

No grass turf–grass here is a wild variety mowed down.

Wildflowers come up everywhere.

Police and emergency sirens sound just like they do in WWII movies.

Crooked teeth–seeing someone with braces is uncommon. Dental hygiene seems poor.

Walking sticks are commonly seen, used by older folks.

Parking pay–it’s hard to find free parking anywhere. Most places require you to pay in advance (kiosks on the street), or pay when you leave (parking garages).

No right turns on red lights.

Blitz cameras catch you on film when you speed by. Traffic tickets come in the mail.  You can’t argue with the traffic department!

Streets and freeways are not lit at night. It’s SO dark!

At any given time you can look around and see someone smoking or vaping. They didn’t get the memo that it’s bad for you.

Checkers at stores sit.

Lights—up is off.

People love to honk.

Watch for cars coming up fast on the left lane on the autobahn.

Bikers popping out everywhere.

Mail delivered by postmen on pedal bikes.

No customer service.

Three-position doors and windows (closed, regular hinged opening or  vented from the top that tips open).

Many, many yogurt choices.

Veggies go bad faster (probably because they are usually local and fresher).

No garbage disposals.

Doors automatically lock behind you.

Biking in freezing cold weather.

Air conditioning is rare.

No regular Cheerios.

Lots of round-a-bouts and one-way streets.

Parking is horrible.

Dishwashers pop open to vent when they’re done.

Parking on the sidewalks or half on the sidewalks are very wide.

Muesli comes in many varieties and is the main cereal.

No screens on the windows. Fabulous windows that open 3 ways.

Appliances are narrower. Washing machines and dryers hold about half as much as American ones.  They have really long cycles. Dryers don’t vent so one must dump a water basin after each load.   Ovens: one cannot cook both cupcake pans side by side.

Caps on milk cartons are attached. And that’s an awesome thing.

There is shelf stable milk (H-Milch) and whipping cream (H-Schlag Sahne) which can be stored in the cupboard for 3-4 months.

Radiator in bath room doubles as heated towel rack. Love this.

Most businesses closed on Sunday, holidays, Saturday afternoons. Respect for workers and family time.

Gray haired people on bicycles.

Celestial room is quiet.

No tax on receipt because it’s included the sticker price.

Little tipping and it’s not a given.

Graffiti is mostly sports teams and political and not painted over.

Narrow parking spaces.

Small living spaces but lots of open or green space.

Wall flushes for toilets, with toilets mounted on the wall so you can mop all the way under them.

Fantastic water pressure.

Businesses take a “Winter Pause” for a few MONTHS after the busy Christmas market season.

Lots of hikers and wandering.

Contact with strangers involves negotiating which language to speak.

No teenaged drivers.

Unlimited speed on the Autobahns.

Some TP rolls have no core.

Doggie hook-ups out side stores.

People come to church on time and meetings start on time.

Most rent rather than owning their homes. Most use public transport rather than owning cars.

You have to pay for water at restaurants, and it costs about the same as a carbonated drink.

No ice!

Chocolate chips are hard to find and are a different shape.

Usually hot water is HOT!

Automatic blinds on the windows that go up or down or let a bit of light in between.

Baking powder, vanilla and sometimes baking soda come in small packets.

Kohlrabi is not only in the produce aisle, but also found at the checkout.

In narrow streets, you can park on the sidewalk. Some streets are so narrow you have to take turns with other cars to pass through them.

In the fall in the produce aisles, you can buy soup vegetables bundled together: celery root, carrots, leeks, other root vegs.

There is a lot of tea drinking and varieties of tea here.

Some grocery stores (like our Rewe) have a separate store just for the drinks.

Lots of varieties of bottled water. Lots of regional water.

So many choices of  fruit juices in cartons.

Agricultural areas are right next to residential areas.

Europeans eat with their fork in the left hand.

After an afternoon walk, bike or hike, you stop for Kuchen and beverage with friends.

People rent garden plots in specified areas away from their apartments and they spend lots of time there. The garden plots usually have a structure, sitting areas, water faucets and trees as well as vegetable and flower beds.

People purchase and display cut and living flowers in their homes year-round.

Self-pick flower fields with the honor system payment.

Fizzy/carbonated water is available from the tap at the office.

No Costco or warehouse stores or case sales.

Actually grocery sales are rare.

Germans will never take your credit card. They bring the machine to you.

There are bread slicing machines in grocery stores. You can pick the thickness you like.

In some parking structures, cars are parked in bunk beds to save space.

Apartments come with a caged room in the cellar for extra storage.

Buildings are constructed with concrete rather than wood. The blocks are so well insulated that you have to “vent” or open windows twice a day to refresh the air and prevent mold.

Stop lights turn yellow before they turn green. Stoplights are on the side of the road instead of above and in front of the car.

Sidewalks have 2 sides–a pedestrian side and a bike side.

Butter isn’t served with bread a restaurants.

Most houses and apartments do not come with a kitchen installed. You must install your own. The same with built-ins or closets. When you move out, you strip the house down to the bare walls.

Food like cereal or packaged items gets an ABC nutritional rating on the packaging.

Most foods do not have preservatives in them.

Cars have only one reverse/back up light.

There more than 20.000 castles in Germany!

Miss GPS will tell you to turn “half right” or “half left.”

You have to pay to pee. Most public restrooms require payment to open the stall door (up to 1 Euro = $1.00+).

Trucks that have a gross weight of over 7.5 tons (most semi trailer trucks) cannot drive on Sundays or holidays. So driving on those days is delightful.

German doctors spend more time with you, generally and they listen carefully to your concerns. They usually have you go into their office and after discussing your issues, then you move to a patient room. They feel this calms you down a little. Doctors also do more procedures like Ultra sounds, x-rays and drawing blood. You don’t see as many nurses or technicians.

The rotating toilet seats in the Autohofs along the Autobahns are amazing. We don’t have anything like that in the US.

There over 1,000 German traffic signs. In the US there are in most states only about 600.

Water fountains are non-existent, even in Phoenix Haus. There are two in the Frankfurt Temple, though. Most LDS chapels do not have a fountain.

Most LDS chapels in Germany have lots of windows, especially in the chapel.

If you want your whipping cream to whip and stay stiff, you need to add Sahnesteif (cream stiffener).

Italian food in Germany is much better than Italian food in the US, but not as good as in Italy.

Prescriptions come down a chute in little boxes, prepackaged in 30 or 100 punch out tablets. The boxes also have braille on them.

Every town has a church with a tall steeple, easily seen from a distance. Homes cluster around these churches. Often the church is in the oldest part of town.

In apartment buildings, the heat is turned off or down on a specific date in the spring and not turned back on until October 1st. Most homes and apartment buildings don’t have A/C.

Wherever you go you can usually hear church bells ringing.

Paper sizes are metric. 8.5″ x 11″ is not metric.

There is every kind of sausage imaginable, including cheese sausage.

There are grocery stores in malls.

Every car has a clock in the glove compartment that you put on your dashboard when you leave your car in designated parking lots, telling what time you started parking there. These lots have time limits and if your clock time runs out, you are ticketed.

When you go for a doctor’s visit, you are not given a cover-up for modesty. If you want to be modest, you have to take your own. (One of our Sisters sewed hospital gowns for every couple to keep in their car.)

At Christmas markets, you can buy a hot drink in a mug. If you return the mug, you get some money back. Every stall in a market uses the same themed mugs. Many collect them.

For Germans, wishing someone Happy Birthday before their birthday is bad luck (or opening a birthday card). When you have a birthday, you, the birthday girl, have to bring the treat to share with others.

There are fields of wildflowers all around us.

If you park in a way that annoys others, they will lift up your windshield wiper.