What’s different in Germany?

It’s been over 8 months since I moved to Germany for work and I experience a lot of difference here.

• Restaurants don’t offer you Water with food. You should buy one! or can ask for tap water explicitly although that is uncommon.
• Sparkled (carbonated) water is common here. Most of the Germans prefer drinking sparkled water. Tap water is as clean as bottled water.
• It’s totally uncommon to walk barefoot inside one’s home. Walk in with your shoes or socks.
• They walk fast. Whenever I wanted to walk with my colleagues, I literally jog to catch up with their speed. I’ve missed trams and buses many times because Google Map suggests me to walk for 7 minutes and it will be 10 minutes for me.
• Beers and alcoholic beverages are incredibly cheap! Sometimes cheaper than bottled water.
• It’s uncommon to lift the bottle upright and drink without the lips touching the brim. They can only sip. You can find them staring at you when you lift your bottle and drink without sipping ;)
• They expect you to know and try to speak in German though they speak English.
• When you go out to a restaurant in a group, be prepared to pay for yourself and others will pay for themselves separately.
• Menu cards are displayed at the entrance of most of the restaurants, so that you can choose if it fits your budget.
• Table manners: Germans consider it highly impolite if you burp, but it’s totally fine to blow your nose in public. I personally feel the other way around — blowing the nose is impolite.
• It’s illegal to work on weekends. All the shops are closed on Sundays except restaurants.
• Do not buy laptops here. It’s usually costlier and mind you, their German keyboard layout is different!
• Germans have eye color in all variants but black. When I had to choose my iris color while filling an official form, I was surprised to find no option left for me.
• European numbering is different. Decimal numbers have comma as their decimal point.
  Eg. 7,99€ implies 7.99€ and 10.000 implies 10,000
• The address format is different here. My street name is followed by door number and my city name is followed by pin code. Whereas it’s the other way in India.
  Eg: Behlerstrasse 16
  14489 Potsdam
• In malls, expect people being kind enough to hold the door open until you pass the door. Remember to thank them and do the same to other strangers too who follows you.
• Sometimes, you get to see random people smiling at you and I personally love that. Smile back at them.
• Do NOT talk about Hitler. Germans are very sensitive about it.
• Totally bicycle friendly. We have a dedicated lane alongside the road to ride.
• Honesty, punctuality and discipline — Can’t beat them on that.
• Remember to show your thumb when you represent ‘one’ in quantity and not your index finger. They will be confused if you show your index finger.
• Most of them in Germany are not religious.
• Fluorescent Lights in houses are always yellow and white ones are so rare. It is so dull and annoying sometimes.
• Transportation is the best and are mostly punctual! It connects to almost all possible streets. Although, I still complain that buses come late by 3 mins sometimes.
• The Weather here is unpredictable. You must check your weather app before you leave home. It was 23 degrees yesterday and it is 12 degrees today (Spring season it is!) and it rains more often than in India.
• You are granted with lots of vacation days than in India. Sick leaves are not considered asindependent from vacation.
• They use Tissues(/Napkins?) for everything in contrary to what we do.
  Eg: They use a kitchen napkin to clean the kitchen tiles, whereas we use a recycled cloth. They use tissues to blow their nose when they catch cold and we use a hand kerchief.
• It is extremely impolite to address someone by their name. This is so American way. We should call them Mr. last name until you get close to them.
• There is no concept of arrange marriage, which is obvious and expected in any western country!
• Majority of Germans are pretty straight forward when it comes to conveying something. They don’t mean to offend, but that’s how they are.
• Their economy is almost stable that you can’t expect a salary raise every year like you get in India.
• They panic easily if things are not happening as planned or not as on papers. I tell this out of my own experience many times.
• You cannot be loud after 11 PM. Your neighbour will knock your door to remind you to keep it low.
• Petrol is expensive than in India due to heavy tax.
• Don’t be surprised to pay the tax of 30–40% of your salary!
• School students don’t have to wear uniforms like in India.
• German mobile phone numbers are 11 digits. Some landlines are just 9 digits.
• Medication is extremely expensive. You cannot (afford to) visit a doctor without a health insurance.
• Making an appointment to visit the doctor is mandatory and it might be weeks to get an open slot sometimes. This is particularly annoying when you want to get something fixed soon.
• Time shifts back and forth by 1 hour due to Daylight savings. This means that one will have to manually update their analog watch every 6 months.
• Missed calls can be so expensive. You will be charged if you hit a voice mail after 3 rings or when turned off or when they reject your call. I hate that voice mails can’t be deactivated (at least that is the case with my operator — Ortel)
• You get insurance for everything — even for your furniture. My landlord wanted me to insure my room, which I did.
• There is no MRP (Maximum Retail Price) mentioned in any of the items you purchase. You might find slight variations in price in different shops.
• Huge variety of Liquors are found in every single supermarkets.
• Recycling is considered so seriously that you have different trash bins at houses and public for Plastic, organic, glass and general waste.
• You have Plastic and glass bottle recycling machines at most of the supermarkets and you get paid for them accordingly.
• You can find a wide range of varieties on Milk, Cheese and Bread in supermarkets.
• There is a law for almost everything. If not one, they make one and follow.
• They measure mileage by liters per 100 km.
• Get used to driving right.

Before I move here, I was told that they might not be so friendly and approachable. My experience has been the other way around so far. They are incredibly friendly in general and yes, there are always exceptions. They all insist you learn German.