Journeys in Germany: The Not so Good Stuff
An outlook shown through short stories about food, culture, travel and humor.
Cigarette machines
I had heard Europeans liked to smoke, this opinion or fact, whatever you may call it, was underrated. The Germans in particular love to smoke cigarettes. It’s not uncommon to be standing outside at 7am at the train station with someone lighting up next to you. I find myself more times than not surrounded by smokers. There is even a smoking box at the airport-a room with glass walls where the smokers hang out. Bars and clubs sometimes allow it too. At the train station you’ll find an area as well, without walls. If you already think this is too much or can’t be true, it gets better. There are cigarette machines everywhere, in neighborhoods, at train stations, etc.
Shisha Bars
There are many bars dedicated to shisha: It’s an extremely popular activity, and you’ll see big groups of people taking puffs of fruity smelling smoke. It’s also common to see people own their own shisha-they’ll frequently be sitting on their balcony smoking away.
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Imagine this: you walk out the door and feel hot humid air surrounding you. It’s only 9:00am in the morning and you already feel the beads of sweat rolling down your back. There is not a single breeze in the air, all you feel is the warm sticky air circulating around you. You’re hoping once you enter your office you’ll be in the comfort of air conditioning. Wrong. Germans are not fans (haha) of air conditioning. Not sure if it’s because they’re old school or more importantly care about the environment, but it’s extremely rare to have air conditioning anywhere. Literally-unless you buy your own unit or go to the grocery store. It makes things very uncomfortable in the middle of summer when the temperature is in the high 80’s plus humidity is close to 100%. It’s quite unbearable and difficult to work productively when all you feel is humidity. If you unfortunately have to go to meetings, it’s even more uncomfortable because you’ll be worrying and most likely sweating throughout the meeting due to the lack of AC.