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Lots of Germans seem to think that their country is the Land of Politeness. Alas, this is certainly not true, as there is plenty of rudeness to be found here. Take buses, for example.
But before I go any further, here's a little common sense quiz.
If you have a standard double bus seat at your disposal (as pictured above), where is it logical to sit?
A) Next to the window, thereby leaving the aisle seat free for someone else to take.
B) Next to the aisle, thereby obstructing the passage to the empty window seat and making people feel guilty for wanting to sit next to you.
In an amazing display if stubbornness and lack of manners, a great number of Germans -- whom I like to call the Dreaded Seat Hoggers -- choose option B. This behaviour can be seen in men, women, young and old alike. By occupying the aisle seat, they make a clear "Sit next to me only if you really must" statement, which, sadly, seems to be effective, considering how many times I've seen empty window seats on crowded buses.
Of course, there are some brave individuals out there who dare to disturb the Seat Hogger's peace by asking to sit next to them. But how do you think the typical German Seat Hogger reacts in such a situation? By moving over perhaps? NEIN! They typically just nod grudgingly to indicate that the adjacent seat is indeed free to take, and continue to sit in an obstructive position while the brave individual steps over their legs.
In the worst case scenario, the Seat Hogger puts their jacket/handbag/shopping on the free window seat next to them, thereby strongly discouraging any potential invasion of their hogged space.
Apart from the Seat Hogger, another notorious creature often found on German buses is the Aisle Hogger. These selfish human beings seem to think that it's perfectly acceptable to continue standing close to the bus doors even if a large number of people is trying to squeeze onto the same bus. They simply won't move further down the aisle to make room for the new passengers. Ever.
Why are so many people so rude? I mean, I learnt my moving-down-the-aisle manners way back on the school bus. It really ain't so hard.
Last Friday night I finally mustered up the courage to try something I'd been hesitant to do for about a year: visit a German sauna. My boyfriend and one of our male friends had been nagging me to come along with them for ages, but I didn't have the guts to do it. And why, you ask?
You see, German sauna complexes are unique in one special way: they are mixed gender, and no clothing whatsoever is allowed to be worn inside. As far as I know, not even super-liberal Scandinavia has unisex public saunas of this kind, so it's something truly rare.
So you can imagine the mental struggle that I had to endure: burning curiosity mixed with awkward visions of suddenly sitting nude in the company of our equally-nude male friend, having a casual chit-chat about the weather like everything's totally normal. In the end, though, my curiosity won (as tends to be the case with me), and I went.
Amazingly, I adjusted rather quickly and painlessly to this weird, new environment. And very soon I became rather indifferent to everything around me, regardless of how many breasts and private parts I pretended not to see (I am blessed with good peripheral vision  ). At first I just hung around with my boyfriend to get used to the place and checked out the various facilities -- steamy saunas, dry saunas, spa baths and a heated outdoor swimming pool. And in the end (after a beer and a strong shot) I was fine with the idea of sitting around together with my boyfriend and our friend, rubbing special salts into my skin and sweating like a pro.
Admittedly, there were a few moments where I did feel awkward. Like getting in and out of a hot tub occupied by four strange men. And considering that this hot tub was outdoors and that it was about zero degrees outside, there was more than just one odd thing about the whole situation. But I refused to let that trouble me, and actively stopped my brain from analysing whether it was weirder to have four naked men looking at my naked bottom, or to be naked and dripping with water in icy temperatures.
Final verdict? I would do it again! It's definitely a very relaxing and healthy way to spend the evening, or even a whole day. And naked people somehow all start looking the same after a while...
Recently, new information from the 25th annual Data Report from the Social Science Research Centre revealed that Germans are more pessimistic about the future than other Europeans. Allegedly, their main worries are in relation to things like earnings, pensions and education.
What's more, the recent financial crisis didn't even play a role in these results, as the data comes mainly from 2006.
Now, why doesn't that surprise me?
Admittedly, not everything has been happy and rosy in the German economy in the last years, with the gap between the rich and poor steadily increasing.
However, I still had to smirk when I read this report, because I have seen with my own eyes what a bunch of whining malcontents Germans are.
They sure do enjoy making complaints about every aspect of life -- ranging from the weather to the fact that their friends pay 10 Euros less for their internet connection per month (and oh, what a tragedy that is!). It's like complaining is a national sport.
I've even met Germans who complain about the fact that Germans complain too much! Now that tells us something, doesn't it?
The restaurant's name is a play on words. 'Unsichtbar' means 'invisible' in German, but the syllable 'bar' is emphasised to indicate the fact that it's an eatery.
For my birthday, my boyfriend took me on a surprise dinner date to Unsicht-Bar -- the relatively famous restaurant where you eat in complete darkness. Yes, complete darkness. What makes it even cooler is that all the waiters who work there are blind, so it's a fantastic employment opportunity for blind people, as well as an environment where they are superior to normal people.
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Why is it that Germans are not known for their great dress sense? Maybe it's because they don't have a great dress sense. Simple, huh?
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Maybe I'm writing this post a bit late, but it's still relevant because the merry month of May hasn't ended yet.
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Today I wanted to attend a fun-sounding exhibition in Bonn, which was supposed to feature over 300 live reptiles (including freaky things like anacondas) and other scary creatures, such as scorpions and two-headed turtles.
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Last Saturday (March 1, 2008), a huge low pressure storm system called Emma brought gale-force winds to Germany and Central Europe, causing widespread damage and killing several people. Most notably, it wreaked havoc on the nation's roads and railways, with fallen trees leading to numerous accidents.
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I took a little trip to Düsseldorf this week -- a relatively large German city on the Rhine river. I went there with the intention of exploring the "Japanese area", since Düsseldorf has the third-largest Japanese community in Europe after London and Paris. Many Japanese companies and banks have their branches there.
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Comment by Eva W.
on The joys of public nudity
Life in Germany
Germans tend to go one way or the other -- they are either super-uptight, or super-liberal. (Mind you, there are also those who are liberal in some ways, but still manage to be uptight at the same time.)