It goes without saying that German pedestrians always stop for red lights (even interminable red lights with no visible traffic), but I've been struck by the way they organize their traffic lights. Wide streets often have several lights that govern different parts of the street -- you might have as many as 4 lights to deal with to cross a multi-lane street. Each segment will have an elevated section to wait at till you can cross to the next segment. However, they don't all turn green at once. It's common to get half way across (having left when the first segment turned green) and have to wait a minute or more till you can cross the rest of the way. My favorite example has 3 lights (there are actually 4 road segments -- I have no idea why one is not considered worthy of a light; it's just as busy at the other parts), and often the first and last are green, while the middle one is red (in the picture below, apparently the far one turned red just as I snapped it. Sorry. The yellow boxes on the lights are used to invoke the pedestrian green -- not every segmented street has them, but on this one you really could get stranded.
I've bought a pair of eyeglasses here -- eye exam, frames, bifocals, and transitions auto-darkening lenses -- which cost me less than half of what Jay paid for a similar pair in the US this year. Since we no longer have vision insurance, I guess I am now a medical tourist.
My other odd experience was also medically related. One of the things in my stolen purse was my NSAIDs -- I take Aleve, which generically is Naproxen. So I needed to get more. In Germany, anything remotely medical has to be bought at an Apothek, where you talk to a human, as all the merchandise is in the storeroom. Even something as simple as aspirin or antiseptic creme. So I find on the internet that it is called Naproxen in Germany, but I went to the Apothek on Saturday, when most everything closes at 1 or 2pm (and I had other shopping to do first). Apparently, naproxen is primarily used in Germany for menstrual cramps (the internal literature was all about that), so they looked at me a bit funny. The first place wanted to sell me some special product (nothing in it but naproxen) that would cost 7 Euros for 10 pills. I passed. The next two were closed, and the last one I tried that day didn't have any at all. I survived on ibuprofen from Jay's stash for the weekend (nothing is open on Sundays, certainly not an Apothek; I have no idea what sick people do) and went hunting again on Monday. What I found wasn't cheap (7 Euros for 20 pills), but better than the first. However, apparently US naproxen is coated with something to make it go down without predisolving, and the German stuff isn't. It's very nasty tasting stuff (somewhat like old aspirin, before there were coated aspirins). I have to say, I thought it started to work faster, but that could be my imagination.
My other Apothek experience was after I cut my finger with my microplane grater (yes, I should know better). It bled a LOT, and I ran out of bandaids. Even bandaids have to be bought at the apothek. I also wanted an antibiotic creme, like Bacitracin. They knew what that was, but I would need a prescription to get some! Instead they could sell me an antiseptic creme. Not really knowing the difference, I let them suggest something. It was called "Jod" (I think a generic name). A tube of bright purple stuff (the older among you know where this is going). Hurt like hell when I put it on (and it stains). So I looked up Jod in my translation dictionary -- this was iodine creme (Jod == Iod). Worse than putting nothing on it.
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