It’s been a low-key week here in Leipzig. We returned home from Bavaria and had some catching-up to do. You know: laundry, groceries, homework, etc. So there’s not a lot to report. But we are planning a trip for this coming week to Cologne, then we will celebrate Thanksgiving, then we are scooting off to Berlin, so there are exciting things coming!

For this week’s post, I thought I would share a few things that are different and cool about Germany and a few things that are different and questionable.

Different and Cool

Public transportaion here is awesome. One really different thing is that the Subway stations are completely open–no turnstiles. You do need a ticket to ride, but there is nowhere to scan it or punch it or anything like that. You just walk into the station and onto a train–easy! You do have to prove that you have paid your fare if an employee is checking and the fine is steep if you don’t have a valid ticket.

They are so environmentally-concious here. Almost all products are packaged in recyclable packaging, there are lots of places to recycle glass bottles, and everybody composts here. They are sensitive to conserving energy and water. I like it.

Mineral water is a thing here unlike you can even imagine. Where our grocery stores have a whole aisle for soda, the Germans have a whole aisle (sometimes two) for different mineral waters. Super sparkling, sparkling, flat.

Different kinds of yummy food in the supermarkets here: feldsalat, many delicious cheeses, great bread, great chocolate.

Different and ?

Here in Leipzig, parking on the street is kind of funny. In the U.S. we wouldn’t be able to park everywhere, like within so many feet of an intersection. Not so here. There are cars parked along every inch of the curb at night. It’s kind of a hoot.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ll put it in again. Smoking is more prevalant here. There are way more people who smoke and it is totally acceptable to smoke on the terrace at a restaurant or on a busy train platform.

Imagine a Super Target. Now break that up into three different stores. That’s what you get here in Germany. If you want groceries, you go to the supermarkt, but you can’t buy much else but food and a few household goods there. If you want something like costmetics or lotion, like a Walgreen’s or a CVS, you go to a drogerie. But the drogerie doesn’t have the pharmacy part; you have to go to an apoteke for that stuff. And even “over-the-counter” medications that we would just choose off of the shelf, like cold meds, are behind the counter and the pharmacist has to get it for you.

Bedding is weird. The bed pillows are huge, square, and squishy. They have a fitted sheet on the bed, but no flat sheet, just a duvet on a down comforter.

Customer service is a lot friendlier in the U.S. Be nice to the people that are serving you, because they are awesome!

We miss nut butter, bar-b-q sauce, rootbeer, and easy access to great Mexican food. 🙂 Many of the desserts here are not that good.

The leaves here are finally really falling and the temperatures have dropped a bit. Skies are generally gray and cloudy, but we haven’t had any really cold nights yet. The one thing this week that I will mention is that November 9 is a significant date in Germany. You would think there would be huge parties because it is the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. However, it is also the anniversary of Kristallnacht as well as some other more difficult events, so things are more low-key. That’s why they celebrated the falling of the Berlin Wall and reunification in October. In remembrance of Kristallnacht, Nathan took some photos of flowers and tributes at some of the stumbling stones in the neighborhood. The brass had also been polished up.