Everyday German Norms That Tourists In Germany Struggle With🇩🇪

hey guys welcome back to my channnel and if you're new here it is so great to have you I'm Antoinette a New Zealander living in the beautiful M region of lower Franconia Germany so just the other day I was catching up with a friend of mine from New Zealand who visited Germany last summer with her husband she was actually doing a European summer tour with her husband and they spent a little bit of time in Germany I only got to briefly catch up with them but it was so amazing to see them we were reminiscing about her time and Germany and she was telling me what an amazing experience it was how much she loved Germany she just loved the landscape the architecture she really loved the German food we also got on to the subject of culture shocks and she was telling me about some of the little things that she struggled with when she came to Germany these things had just become so normal to me as a New Zealander who has been living in Germany for many years now and it made me reminisce about when I first moved to Germany I've made so many videos talking about German culture so most likely I have already talked about some of these things but I thought why not make just one video talking about some really normal German things that tourists or foreigners who visit Germany struggle with so I will be jumping into that really soon but first I would like to give a huge thanks to today's sponsor zizo specializes in luxurious highquality cotton bedding made from 100% pure cotton with a soft satiny feel the moment I opened my Zeo bedding set I was blown away by the stunning packaging each item was presented with such care and detail making it feel like a special gift just for me zizo offers a wide selection of stunning bedding sets and a variety of colors and sizes personally I fell head over heels for this gorgeous cream and sage green four piece set I opted for the New Zealand style KingSize duvet cover instead of the two separate duvet covers popular here in Germany I also went for the standard New Zealand size pillow cases and I love that zizo gives you the option to choose this set comes with two pillow cases a KingSize duvet cover in flat bottom sheet oh my goodness this cotton is just so high quality and it feels so soft and luxurious it feels like a mix between satin and cotton but it's actually 100% cotton so this is what it looks like on our beard I am absolutely obsessed with everything about it it fits so beautifully with the whole minimal Earth Vibe of our bedroom Rob and I have been sleeping with this bedding set for the last week and we both agree that having high quality luxurious bedding makes such a difference in our sleep quality this cotton is so soft and breathable and it's been keeping us nice and cool during these hot summer evenings so if you're ready to elevate your sleep game for a limited time you can enjoy 20% off your purchase with my discount code anon2 just click the link in my description below to shop zeso bedding okay guys so let's jump into it this first point is one that my friend was talking about the other day and she was telling me that this was one of her biggest struggles when she came to Germany I had to laugh because this was something I struggled with too when I first came to Germany this is the way German beds are set up and this is actually I've realized not just a German thing it's more of a European thing so here in Germany and many other parts of Europe I've talked about this before I need to talk about it again so almost impossible to find something bigger than a double beard which doesn't have two separate mattresses pushed together and for me coming to Germany I found this really weird having to sleep with a big crack in the middle of the beard in New Zealand if you have a queen or a king-sized beard then it's just one big mattress and in Germany it's just almost impossible to find that and not just that Germans sleep with two separate duvet most Germans do and they have big Square pillows I've talked about this before I know but it is just so appropriate for this video because it is a real culture shock for many non- Germans to come to Germany and realize this is how you sleep here so if you're a couple staying at a Holiday home a hotel if you're staying at a German person's house more likely than not you'll be sleeping in a bed with a big crack in the middle like two mattresses pushed together and you will have your own duvet you're not going to have a top sheet like we have in New Zealand you will have a bottom sheet mostly a fitted sheet and you'll have two separate duvet this is how they sleep in Germany and honestly it's not a bad way of sleeping I actually grew to really like sleeping this way even though I did get used to the German Way of sleeping I recently switched back to having a big Queen actually king-sized duvet and I really like it and I don't really miss the German Way this is something really unusual for non Germans at least non Europeans and also the way that beds amaz in Germany so for a couple you usually see the bed made up with a bottom sheet usually a fitted sheet in Germany they have a lot of those really stretchy kind of spandex Cotton Bottom sheets and the big Square pillows and then it'll just be the do like both duvet just kind of folded over and it's the same in hotels that's how the bed will be made up but as I said you do get used to it and having the separate mattresses means you can customize your mattress to suit you the same goes with your separate duvet you're able to customize your duv if you like a big fluffy one and your husband likes just a thin one then you can do that okay so moving on to something else that many tourists struggle with when they first come to Germany and this is something that I did definitely struggled with it took me a while to get used to it and now I really love it that is the way Germans have breakfast I asked my friend what she thought of German food and she absolutely loved it but she said to me she struggled with having salami and ham and you know lettuce and things like that for breakfast and yeah I completely understood where she was coming from because it's just something so foreign to us as new zealanders you don't have this kind of food for breakfast in New Zealand this is lunch food and in Germany it is very normal to have salami and sausage and cucumber and things like that for breakfast and honestly it's really delicious and I don't see anything wrong with having that for breakfast but it's just something that we are not used to going back to all those years ago when I first arrived in Germany I arrived in the evening and I stayed at my husband's parents place and in the morning my in-laws put on a really beautiful amazing breakfast spread and it was these like cold cups of meat and you know salami ham and you know boiled egg and cucumber and things like that and I was like wow this is very different but you know I embraced it and actually I can't say that I struggled with it but I just found it really unusual but my friend visiting Germany she struggled with it she felt a little bit oh I don't know the hotel where she was staying they had inclusive breakfast and the breakfast consisted of you know this typical German style of breakfast so just warning anybody who is coming to Germany that is a typical German breakfast and yeah it might be a little bit unusual but you need to just give it a try honest ly just embrace it and I can pretty much guarantee that you'll learn to love the style of breakfast something else my friend struggled with a little bit was going to restaurants in Germany and ordering water and receiving uh glass bottle of sparkling water when she actually expected to have just a regular glass of tap water and I have talked about this before like tap water is considered I don't know like socially unacceptable it's not normal for people in Germany to order tap water you'll be looked at kind of weirdly and it's just not something done even though the tap water here in Germany is perfectly fine to drink most Germans the majority of Germans do not drink the tap water and they certainly don't order tap water at a restaurant and most Germans will drink bubbly water so water with gas rather than just still water and this was bizarre to my friend also I found this very very unusual when I first came to Germany and so a lot of the time in New Zealand restaurants people will just order tap water and it's free and you just can't do this in Germany I guess you can but it's just not socially acceptable she was like if I had known that I was going to have to pay like €4 for a glass of fancy water I would have ordered something else something like a nice freshy squeezed orange juice or like a soda or something like that but no you have to pay for water in restaurants in Germany it's usually a really tiny little bottle as well that you have to buy again because it's not enough um and it will be just as expensive as buying another type of drink like a juice or a soda or something like that so yeah just letting you know if you're order water just don't expect to be given tap water and don't expect for it to be free something else my friend mentioned that she struggled with in Germany was having to pay to use the restroom and this is the case in Germany for most public restrooms you're going to have to pay around 50 cents sometimes even €1 to use a public restroom this is not counting restaurants where you're paying to eat there you don't have to pay for the restrooms there but if you're out in public maybe at a train station or an airport actually at airports I don't think you have to pay for the rest rooms no you don't but I know at our local train station you do have to pay to use the restroom and also in Germany this is on a different subject but you need to be carrying around cash wherever you go because in Germany cash is K I've talked about this many times you just need to be carrying around cash not every place excepts a debit card or a credit card in New Zealand we pay basically everything with our debit cards or credit cards and so my friend was not used to having cash on her she desperately needed to use the restroom at a train station and she did not have the 50 cents that she needed to use that restroom she had actually other coins on her but she didn't have the 50 cents and nothing else was working and yeah she really needed to go toilet she didn't speak German I don't even know what she ended up doing in the end but she did find it pretty annoying that she couldn't use the restroom because she didn't have the desent okay guys so last but not least something that my friend really struggled with when she was in Germany was what she considered the rude restaurant staff yeah Germany is not known for the best Hospitality when you're out at restaurants and cafes and bars and things like that but I have to say like I have to defend Germans by saying that they're not meaning to be rude this is just how it is is in Germany my friend said that her and her husband were waiting for what seemed like hours after they' finished their meal to actually pay for their meal and they had to end up trying to like track somebody down to come over and serve them and this is something pretty common in Germany I have to say you can't just expect somebody a waitress to come over and clear your table or ask if you want your table cleared that is actually considered rude in Germany for the waitress to actually ask you have you finished your meal can I take your plates away they're actually waiting for you to tell them that you're finish and you would like the bill I have to be honest from previous experience it can sometimes even be hard to trap down the waiters and waitresses at restaurants in Germany when you're finished and you're like waving your hand to say come over it's really hard to get them to come over I don't know what it is about German restaurants and the service it's not as good as the restaurant service in New Zealand definitely not I really don't think they're trying to be rude it's just how it is in Germany and yeah my friend just said the service was not what she was used to and she had actually been to Italy and Spain and it was completely different there but yeah I've talked about this a lot Germany is famous for many amazing things but their Hospitality in restaurants is not something they famous for it is something that I think needs to be worked on and needs to be improved so anyway I don't like making these really sort of wiy videos because I absolutely love Germany I live in Germany by choice and I love it here please don't get me wrong my friend and her husband really enjoy their time in Germany and whenever I have visitors in Germany they always just love it these were just a few little things that we were talking about and I thought why not mention them in this video this might be an interesting resource a little bit of uh heads up to anybody planning on traveling to Germany so anyway guys I really hope you enjoyed this video thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed it then don't forget to give it a big thumbs up this is one of the biggest ways you can support my channel it really helps to get my videos out there and noticed also if you haven't already subscribed to my channel I would love you to consider subscribing I know that so many of you who watch my videos and not actually subscribe so if you would consider subscribing oh my gosh that would mean so much feel free to connect with me on Instagram and I will see you again really soon bye