nearly done

[deird1]

Five weeks to go before we're back in Australia.

I'm rather keen to go home (and show off the kidlet), but there are some things I will miss here.


German Things I Will Miss

- the snow
- the lockers everywhere, useable with a 1 Euro coin (which returns to you when you re-insert the key)
- traffic lights that turn orange before they go green
- the road signs saying "Stadtmitte", giving you a handy guide to where the local shops (etc) will be
- the bakeries and their wonderful pastries
- crepe stands in the street
- having France a few hours' drive away
- buskers who really know how to play the piano accordian
- squirrels
- little old ladies who stop me in the street to admonish me to put a hat on my son (yes, this is annoying - but I still find it rather sweet)


German Things I Will Not Miss

- the ice
- having to pay to use the loos
- traffic lights that only sit on one side of the intersection, making it impossible to see them if you're at the front
- freeway exits that seem designed for maximum chaos
- bakeries that DON'T HAVE MEAT PIES (oh the humanity!)
- all the food using pork instead of beef
- driving on the right side of the road


Aussie Things I Really Miss Right Now

- summer!
- cafés and coffee shops
- pies, sausage rolls, dim sims, thai food, hamburgers with the lot, flake, pavlova, lamb, and fruit that doesn't go off within a day
- magpie song
- footpaths that don't have cobblestones (prams are a pain to use in old towns)
- houses without steps up to the front door
- shops that are open on Sundays and in the evenings
- my family
- my cat



...so there's that.

Comments

[vass]

Thai food? That's... well, it makes sense, but I was surprised anyway. My fave Thai place just reopened after their summer holiday, and I'm so glad. I missed their curry puffs and pad see ew!

I'm actually having takeaway right now, because it's too hot to think about cooking. I'll eat a dim sim for you.

Today was a top of 29. It is still 28.5 out there right now, after 9. By the time you get back it should be starting to get nice again, not unbearable and gross.

[deird1]

The thing about "international" food is that in Australia you get Greek restaurants that might also sell Turkish and Albanian food, and separate restaurants for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian...

In Germany you get separate restaurants for any European country, and one "Asian" food place selling all rice-containing dishes (except Indian, which have their own restaurants). So you don't really have things like chicken satay, or beef with cashew nuts, or proper curries*, or roti bread.

(BRB, making myself drool...)


*Germans don't really "get" curry. Their spicy is something we'd consider mild enough for ten year olds.

[beer_good_foamy]

Germans don't really "get" curry. Their spicy is something we'd consider mild enough for ten year olds

Yeah. I love currywurst, but it has as much to do with curry as hot dogs have with actual dogs. (Hopefully.)

[immer_am_lesen]

How weird will it be when you return home with a new sproglet, after having left as a newlywed? :-)

I'm nodding along as I read your list...and would like to add

Won't Miss:
- Smoking! Oh my god EVERYWHERE. In restaurants, newsagencies, blah. Yuck. We were shown to a non-smoking area...an odd little glass room which supposedly kept us away from the floating smoke. Mm-hmm... :-/

- the huge temperature difference between outdoors and in- twenty layers to go out into the snow, and then having to peel off every last one when entering any building, as the heating was cranked up. Then pile it all back on when you want to leave.

- the notion that ordering tapwater with your meal is odd- Asking for 'just water' with our meal, we were given (small and expensive) opened bottles of sparkling mineral water, which we don't drink. Why would you want water from a tap? You can't drink that. Now you have to pay for the bottles, we've opened them.
Arghle.

-fresh produce including meat being imported from other countries.

- a cleaner stationed in the public toilets, who stands there kinda stalkery, closing the cubicle door right after the person in front has left, so you then have to pay her to unlock it for you. o_O

I also found myself missing Aussie television, even though I don't really watch any 'Aussie' shows. Just not hearing the accent, or even American shows, was a bit odd after a while.

Definitely still missing the food, though. Also, the extremely friendly French country folk- complete strangers (including surly-looking teenagers) greeting you as though they know you.

Looking forward to having all three of you back in the country soon! :-)
Have fun being THOSE people on the plane, who travel with a screaming baby... :-D

[deird1]

Yes to all of those. :)

The tapwater thing: there's this ad they've got here, for a drink carbonator. It shows one family struggling inside with tonnes of drink bottles in crates, and the family next door feeling smug because of their new carbonator. With commentary: "Now you can drink water straight from the tap!" *facepalm*

'Twill be nice to be home.

[jesuswasbatman]

German people in general don't like drinking tap water, it's not just a restaurant thing. I was once visiting a German friend, and when she saw me about to fill a drinking glass from the kitchen tap, she was visibly horrified and ran to get a bottle out of the fridge.

One theory I've seen is that the German for tap water, "Leitungswasser", has an "industrial" connotation that isn't appetising.

[ruuger]

a cleaner stationed in the public toilets, who stands there kinda stalkery, closing the cubicle door right after the person in front has left, so you then have to pay her to unlock it for you

I'm Finnish, and when I visited Germany that was one of the biggest WTFs. I called them Toilet-Pointer-Men, because in most places the only thing they did was to point at the door and then hold out their hand for the tip.

[beer_good_foamy]

In Sweden I've heard them called piss-gnomes. I'm just as baffled as you are.

[curiouswombat]

- little old ladies who stop me in the street to admonish me to put a hat on my son

I do hope you listened to them - really, in northern European winters, no child under 4 or 5 should be outdoors without a hat, even if they are in their pram or wrapped in a blanket. You know all that stuff about the amount of heat you lose from your head...

Prams and cobblestones are not a good mix.

It is interesting to see that there must be quite a few differences between Germany and the UK - things like shops open 6am - midnight 7 days a week, sausage rolls and the availability of Thai food!

[deird1]

The hat thing's happened in two different situations.

1) The kidlet has once again managed to rip his hat off and throw it away, and the husband is on hat-retrieval duty while I hold the baby.

2) 10 degrees outside (milder than Melbourne winter), and we're trying to cool the kidlet down enough to rouse him from a comfy sleep so he can get a passport photo.

Other than that, we're very good, really...

[ruuger]

the lockers everywhere, useable with a 1 Euro coin (which returns to you when you re-insert the key)

traffic lights that turn orange before they go green

o_0 You don't have those in Australia? It always fascinates me how things you take for granted are totally different in other countries.

(I'm still amused by your reaction to the squirrels - I'd just always assumed that squirrels were everywhere, like rats)

Also, what's the deal with Australian meat pies? I just saw a Simon Baker interview where he was lamenting the fact that his children failed to get excited when he bought them meat pies. Is it like salmiakki and ryebread are to Finnish ex-pats?

[deird1]

Meat pies are... well, having never been to the US, I'm not sure if hotdogs are a good comparison, but... yeah, they're like hotdogs. As in: standard yummy lunch you can get anywhere, and ALWAYS buy for ball games, and a place that doesn't sell them is like WHY WOULD I EVEN GO THERE? THEY HAVE NO PIES! because meat pies are just the epitome of normal and life without them is rather incomplete.

[beroli]

We don't have the orange lights or the lockers in America, either. Our traffic lights have five settings:
Green. Go.
Yellow. If you're already in the intersection keep going. If you can avoid getting into it, do so.
Red. Don't go.
Flashing yellow. The control system for the lights at this intersection is busted; pay attention to the other cars and drive carefully.
Flashing red. The control system for the lights at this intersection is busted; pay attention to the other cars, drive carefully, and people going the other way (who have a flashing yellow light) have the right of way over you if it's otherwise unclear who should go.

[deird1]

We're like you, but with only the first four.

[ruuger]

Finland has green (go), orange (light is about to turn red), red (stop), red and orange both (light is about to turn green), and flashing range (lights are not working, so give way to right hand traffic). Pedestrians only have green, red, and flashing green (meaning that the light is about to turn red).

[deird1]

Germany has those, plus white flashing on the right-hand turns, to point out that the side road has a green pedestrian signal, so you know to look out for people crossing.

[velvetwhip]

I sort of know how you feel because there are things I took for granted in California that you can't get for love or money in Idaho... *sobs*


Gabrielle

[deird1]

The worst ones, I think, are the ones you don't realise won't be there until you suddenly go out to find them and THEY'RE GONE.

[velvetwhip]

YES!!!!



Gabrielle

[petzipellepingo]

So... just out of curiousity, what kind of squirrels do they have in Germany? Are they all the same color? Here in Michigan we have : brown squirrels, grey squirrels with white tipped ears and jet black squirrels.

[deird1]

All the ones I've seen are red.

[frayadjacent]

Wow, you're coming back already! I think I'd share most of your likes/dislikes, besides the squirrels. I think I'd be just fine to never see another.

Paying for loos (and, in the Netherlands and Belgium, drinking water) offended me to my soul. Also Dutch train station toilets were the nastiest flush toilets I've ever seen, despite having paid for them.

The lockers sound awesome though!

[deird1]

Yep! Back at the start of March!

Squirrels are CUTE.