After 2,5 months in Berlin I have collected numerous impressions which I am willing to share with you. Most likely, global culture shock doesn’t affect me that much anymore after many moves to other countries (about the experience of my cultural shock in another country, you can read here): the level of your adaptability to many important moments at the beginning of your new life increases. However, some trivial points caught me off guard considering I had lived in Germany for 1 year before. Probably, such trifles are forgotten most quickly, and you look at them differently as time passes, because you are used to different options now.

So, which details of everyday life were the most difficult to get used to:

1) In Germany they don’t use the apartment numbers but only last names.  At first, when I was looking for an apartment and went to viewings, I wondered why they didn’t tell me the number. It seemed to me that I was going nowhere. Often it was the case, because the name on the doorbell could be different from the name of the person who wrote to me. Frustration on the 80th level. I couldn’t receive my packages from Amazon the first month at Airbnb apartments, because the doorbell didn’t have my last name on it. I had to call to customer service later and specify which surname will be on the call, since, of course, there is no separate field for this in your order process. When I moved into my long-term apartment, I specifically bought stickers so that I could write my last name and stick it near the name of the landlord on top of it. In lecithin a month Hausverwaltung, the house management, printed my name for a more aesthetic look.

2) I have already mentioned the delivery of packages to your apartment: it turns out that the last name on the doorbell is not the only obstacle for couriers. Couriers work during your working hours (from 9 to 6), and not a minute more, no deliveries are done at weekends. Well, people don’t overwork in German ever. Work / life balance is perfect here unlike in London or Moscow, and, quite frankly, I really like the idea, but only for my own work :) Do you know which solution to the problem of deliveries have they found here? Couriers leave the package at any neighbour's who happens to be at home at the moment and is willing to take it. How do you know where has your package disappeared? The status on DHL site has been changed to “Delivered” some time ago, and you start to doubt whether you have a split personality :) A few days later, you get a letter from DHL with a number of a house and last name of a neighbour and you go there to get acquainted with your “neighbors” forcibly. 

3) A washing machine is very rare occurrence in apartments of Berlin: at best, it will be in the basement for general use, or you will need to go to the laundry room. I would never have thought that this criterion would be the first in my apartment search, but it is exactly what happened, and now I have happiness in the form of a washing machine and dryer in the house. The dryer is a bonus, but, it is very convenient, by the way :)

4) Mail correspondence is the same hang-up for German people as straight queues for British people:)  It seemed to me that we stopped it about 20 years ago, but no, there is a lot of waste paper in the form of letters  on my shelf that doesn't not have any practical application. Once my insurance company needed a filled-in form from me. Their office is located five-minutes walk from my home, but they didn’t want to accept it even personally, not only by email as a scan - only as a  letter sent to a specific address. Of course, I cannot complain as  the insurance pays you 100% of your salary rate for your sick days, but the procedure is quite peculiar.

5) Another moment of "Back to the past" - Germany remains a country of cash. It is easier to name the places where Visa and Mastercard cards are accepted - these are large supermarket chains and international brands of clothes, household goods, etc. In other places, even in restaurants and cafes, you can pay only in only cash. Sometimes they accept the German Maestro cards, but rarely somebody has it. My bank issued the usual Mastercard for me, as it is more universal. They say that the reason for this conservatism is that you need to pay a substantial commission to banks for each transaction. Such a system can not be reformed even in a few years and such procedures takes some time in Germany. The very first metro station in Berlin was opened for 10 years due to bureaucratic delays.

6) The fact that all the shops here do not work on Sundays and close at 8 pm every day has stayed in my memory since Hamburg times. NO SHOP works, except for a supermarket and a pharmacy at the central station. In Berlin, there are also on-duty pharmacies in each district, but you have to look on a special website which pharmacy is open this Sunday. What did I say about work / life balance above? :) It has a flip side with inconveniences. It's almost impossible to go shopping after work: when you reach your destination - everything is already closed. My personal finding of the month is  The Mall of Berlin which is open until 9:00 pm and you have a couple of hours to go shopping on weekdays. 

On Saturday, the apocalypse is coming to all stores where people with insane eyes try to buy everything they need before closing of shops. However, on Sunday, the city is plunged into silence as after an invasion of locusts. The empty streets immerse you in a certain Zen: you know that today you cannot buy anything, and this day without the usual consumerism of the crowd somehow frees you mentally. This is felt especially acutely after Saturday fuss. By the way, today is not such a day yet, and it is time for me to run to the grocery store:)

Tell me what surprised you most out of these everyday German realities? Which moments did you have to get used to in another city or country?