Went to Germany for work....my impressions

[method115]

I never take these threads seriously. Internet personas making up personal anecdotes about countries they may or may not have visited.

Same. I travel a lot and I never experience issues anywhere I go. People are very polite to me. Maybe my appearance leaves people not wanting to mess with me. My wife does say people are intimidated by me but I don't see it. I've also had people tell me I'm so nice they can't imagine me angry so I don't know.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I think they have that impression because they really are more progressive in just about all other political issue like the economy, the environment, gender relations, religion, drug legalization, etc.

But when it comes to multiculturalism, I think they're more bigoted. I mean, they have far-right parties rising in power everywhere. As racist as Republicans in the US are, they're nothing compared to what these guys advocate for. They have entire parties made up of Steve Kings over there.

And all this because they can't stand their populations being 5-10% foreign or non-ethnic German/British/French or whatever. I mean, Britain chose to leave the EU and tank their economy because too many foreigners were being let in. Oh no, London is now 30% non-white British!

Meanwhile, just about every big city in the US has been less than 50% white for a couple of decades now.

This illustrates very well that murrkans are unqualified to analyse and understand european countries. Seriously how can you guys be so clueless about stuff and still speak with authority about it?

 

[Satur9]

Same. I travel a lot and I never experience issues anywhere I go. People are very polite to me. Maybe my appearance leaves people not wanting to mess with me. My wife does say people are intimidated by me but I don't see it. I've also had people tell me I'm so nice they can't imagine me angry so I don't know.

I travel a lot and experience bad shit everywhere. It is humans being human. We sometimes have bad days or accidentally snap at those we shouldn't.
I will say many times visitors overreact to the locals. Sometimes the cultures are just different, and whereas we would say please, they might not ever really say it, and that gets misconstrued as the local being a dick, but it is just their way of being. Just a small example

 

[Fergelmince]

What a shit hole. Europe has gone down the drain.

 

[Hyperglide]

Just start singing Rammstein tracks like Du Hast or Feuer Frei, they will love you.

 

[Contempt]

Yeah, Americans aren't as cultured as the rest of the world but in our defense, USA is so big that it's hard to keep track of our current events here. I think some European countries are smaller than the state of Texas (it has 2 time zones).

Yes Texas is bigger than a bunch of them at just under 700,000 square km... I give you one of our states Western Australia at just under a million square km.

There's probably larger ones still in Russia, Oblasts I believe they call them? Siberia probably dwarves both our states in size.

 

[tomjones]

Taxi men at airports are known as money grabbers.

 

[method115]

I travel a lot and experience bad shit everywhere. It is humans being human. We sometimes have bad days or accidentally snap at those we shouldn't.
I will say many times visitors overreact to the locals. Sometimes the cultures are just different, and whereas we would say please, they might not ever really say it, and that gets misconstrued as the local being a dick, but it is just their way of being. Just a small example

The closest was in Costa Rica a guy tried to get me to take his "taxi" at like 10:00pm to my hotel. I realized we were moving to airport parking lot, grabbed my wife's hand, turned around and went back to the taxi line. He tried to tell me to come back and it would be more expensive but it was actually half the price he told me. I still gave the actual taxi double. I always read about local scams before I visit a country and this was one of the top things people listed.

I do agree humans are humans and even if I did run into issues I wouldn't blame it on the whole country. Just IME I've had none. It's always been a pleasant experience everywhere we go.

It's funny cause I ran into a couple in Jamaica and the guy said they only go to the resorts in Jamaica and they are scared to go anywhere else. I told him all the countries we've been to and how safe it is. His first comment was just "Man I don't know. It might be safe you" till this day I really don't know what he meant by that. I just laughed it off. Even my wife didn't know what he meant and she just leaned back on her thoughts that I look intimidating to a lot of people.

 

[Satur9]

The closest was in Costa Rica a guy tried to get me to take his "taxi" at like 10:00pm to my hotel. I realized we were moving to airport parking lot, grabbed my wife's hand, turned around and went back to the taxi line. He tried to tell me to come back and it would be more expensive but it was actually half the price he told me. I still gave the actual taxi double. I always read about local scams before I visit a country and this was one of the top things people listed.

I do agree humans are humans and even if I did run into issues I wouldn't blame it on the whole country. Just IME I've had none. It's always been a pleasant experience everywhere we go.

It's funny cause I ran into a couple in Jamaica and the guy said they only go to the resorts in Jamaica and they are scared to go anywhere else. I told him all the countries we've been to and how safe it is. His first comment was just "Man I don't know. It might be safe you" till this day I really don't know what he meant by that. I just laughed it off. Even my wife didn't know what he meant and she just leaned back on her thoughts that I look intimidating to a lot of people.

Maybe we are just on different wavelengths. That shit attracts. I travel more for work, so been to many countries where it’s not about fun and games. I need to get somewhere or have something now, and without attitude. Also, I’m naturally a bit prickly, so maybe that gets returned. Not really sure. Though most of the colleagues of mine who travel a lot say the same thing about many places. That cannot be 100% just posting my experiences in general.


Definitely don’t be afraid. That’s what I say. It’s always weird hearing folks scared to go somewhere, but they are also from a sort of shitty area of USA… Same thing happens where you live everyday, only its neighbor against neighbor. Makes no sense

 

[tomjones]

Another trick that Taxi drivers use at airports is that they've no change.

 

[MichiganMMA1978]

Yes Texas is bigger than a bunch of them at just under 700,000 square km... I give you one of our states Western Australia at just under a million square km.

There's probably larger ones still in Russia, Oblasts I believe they call them? Siberia probably dwarves both our states in size.

Texas population is 30 million, western Australia is around 2. Siberia has slightly more than Texas, which I found surprising, until I looked at the size....
5 million square miles compared to Texas and it's 268,000.
I knew Siberia was big, but JFC.

Your post got me curious, thanks

 

[Slothbroth]

This explains it.
As progressive as European claim to be, they’re every bit as racist as us Americans.

Aren't they being forced to accept a lot of immigrants and pay for them and then catch heat for being 'racist' if they say anything that could be construed as negative over the inevitable culture clashes?

 

[Possum Jenkins]

This illustrates very well that murrkans are unqualified to analyse and understand european countries. Seriously how can you guys be so clueless about stuff and still speak with authority about it?

I backed up my arguments, feel free to back up yours

 

[Busgosu]

Some time ago I mentioned in this forum that on a couple of trips I found that in some places in Germany (not the bigger cities) I found a lot of non-English speaking people and nobody would believe me, lol.
The service there is atrocious, that is true as well. Most places in Europe are customer oriented while in Germany they are only focused in getting their job done ASAP. No smiling, no eye contact, if you take an extra minute to make your order or ask something regarding the menu they start rolling their eyes or sighing, which is very rude pretty much everywhere, but in Germany

 

[Sobek]

Taxi drivers lol.

I remember my first trip to the big city (in Sydney) decades ago. I came out of the airport and not knowing the taxi ettiquette I got in the last taxi (or maybe the 2nd one, I'm not sure, but not the first cab in the rank like I was meant to).

It nearly caused a fight between drivers and my driver quickly jumped in my cab and sped away angrily screaming 'FUCK YOU MATE!' at the other drivers out of his window.
My driver was Greek by the way. He then went on to inform me of his unsolicited positions on federal politics.

Of course now I know now what I did wrong. I think I was still a teenager too lol.

 

[650lb Sumo]

Yes Texas is bigger than a bunch of them at just under 700,000 square km... I give you one of our states Western Australia at just under a million square km.

There's probably larger ones still in Russia, Oblasts I believe they call them? Siberia probably dwarves both our states in size.

Texas population is 30 million, western Australia is around 2. Siberia has slightly more than Texas, which I found surprising, until I looked at the size....
5 million square miles compared to Texas and it's 268,000.
I knew Siberia was big, but JFC.

Your post got me curious, thanks

The biggest subdivision within a country is the Sakha Republic, in Russia (Russia has different kinds of subdivisions, not just Oblasts).

(square miles)

Sakha Republic: 3,083,523
Western Australia: 975,685
Alaska: 665,384 (of which 14% is water)

Soviet Union: 8,649,500
Russia: 6,601,670 (not including recent acquisitions)
Canada: 3,855,100
China: 3,705,410
USA: 3,677,647

The Sakha Republic is 84% the size of the USA, or bigger than the USA without Alaska. Russia is 80% bigger than the USA.

If you want to play bingo when a US American is talking to another nationality (other than Russian/Canadian/Chinese), it won't be long before you are ticking the ''America' is so vast, you guys just don't get it! Europeans only need to take ten steps to be in another country but we can drive 18 hours and still be in the same state!' box. On the other hand this can morph into ''America' is so huge and diverse, you guys just don't get it! California and Texas have totally separate cultures! 'America' has the same culture as 50 normal countries!' when required.

 

[fica]

I don't think they claim to be less racist. They are progressive in the sense that they provide sane social services and don't let big business destroy peoples lives/rule over them. But that's where it ends.

Most of the world is racist, and they don't see anything wrong with it, unfortunately.

Racist because why. I have no interested in knowing you or giving a fuck about you. Trust me when you realize you are nothing special in this world or you are owed something you will see world less racist

 

[Aegon Spengler]

Racist because why. I have no interested in knowing you or giving a fuck about you. Trust me when you realize you are nothing special in this world or you are owed something you will see world less racist

I never said I was anything special. You are just a weirdo

 

[Kratos94]

I went to Berlin in January and loved it. In a few weeks i'll visit Hannover and Cologne.

 

[HHJ]

In norway they do the two single beds thing alot too. Its a thing. I havent been to Germany but its low on my list of places to go. Germans ive met are pretty rude about cutting you completley out of a group conversation where they will just speak german even though they know you cant understand and dont care. Never was a thing I experienced so utterly in any of my other travels anywhere else.