Mum, Weddings and good ol' fashioned German customer service

I've been off the blogging radar for a while as my Mother came over to visit to kindly help me go wedding dress shopping. This is not an easy feat here when 80% of the shops didn't speak english (and my German is admittedly pretty bad), customer service is usually average and what is in style here, was in style everywhere else in the 90's.

What I found most intriguing was that wedding dress shops here all have yellow interiors. Walls are painted yellow, floors are often yellowy wooden and even the lighting has this yellowish glow. I'm not quite sure what they are trying to achieve. I thought maybe it makes you look more tan if you try on a bright white dress, or it has slimming properties… but neither of these seemed to work for my pasty skin and newly chubby figure (thanks to german salami, wurst, cheese and chocolate).

Returning to my point above, customer service here has never had a good reputation. I read about it before I arrived, I've experienced it whilst living here, and most of the time just put up with it. Its like they are stuck in the 50's when products were gleaning things that all consumers want - and if you don't want to buy the thing the sales person tells you to buy, you can just piss off.

Wedding dress shopping was no exception. To be fair, most of the time the ladies were lovely, understanding with my slow broken german and friendly towards helping us find a dress. On other occasions, sales ladies were slightly more bitter and less willing to help if we didn't like the first dress they pulled out as a suggestion. But I did have to mention here my favourite low point was when we emailed one shop to make and appointment with them. My man wrote the email in german to them saying nicely that I found some dresses on their website and would like to make an appointment to try some on. Also, I don't speak very much german and my mother joining me doesn't speak any. They responded a few days later - directly translated "All our discussions are conducted in German, so you should brides who do not speak the German language, make an appointment elsewhere. For this reason, we cannot make an appointment with you"

There was no polite "could you bring a translator" or "we'd be happy to try with the little german you speak although none of us speak english" … but no, please take your business elsewhere (even though in the other 80% of wedding shops we went to I managed fine to communicate only in german).

Surprisingly and luckily, we found my wedding dress a few days later (also at a shop that only spoke German but were more than happy to do business with me). We decided to ring around just to check prices before purchase. We rang the shop with the terrible customer service to compare prices, and the same dress to purchase from them was 500euros more. Double glad they didn't get our business now.

Seeing I can't exactly put photos up of my dress, here are a couple of photos from my mums visit that she took whilst we were traipsing around looking for the dress.

(Also, a special shout out to my mum, thanks for coming to help me buy a dress! Couldn't have done it without you!)

My street with all the leaves out

At the Graduation Tower (wikipedia that)

In france for the day

Little french river

Worlds biggest wine barrel (never used for wine... tourist trap mainly)

At the castle in schwetzingen

The garden in Schwetzingen

Cute cafe seating

The stairs up to the Heidelberg Castle that mum will tell you aren't fun

At the Heidelberg Amphitheatre after a long walk up the hill to get there

Instant reaction

I've come to realise that unless I'm in a situation where I've mentally prepared myself to use the German language (or if I'm spoken to first in German), even after living here for 6 months my instincts, naturally, still kick in to speak english.

These situations aren't so often, but I've noticed at times, it could be important to change this instinct. For example…

When someone bumps into you in the street, and I exclaim "oh I'm sorry", not quite correct…

When you need to get past people in a hurry in a big crowd, automatically the words "excuse me" come out of my mouth, not so understood….

And finally when a car stops and waves you to walk past first, I always mouth "Thank you" instead of "Dankeshone" which look nothing alike when moving the lips.

I'm assuming most people understand and although I'll be working on this downfall, I'm super glad that I can use the international communication of waving, and I never had to use the also internationally known gesture (and not phrase) 'giving someone the bird'.

Salzburg - the engagement...

We took a trip out to Austria recently. Partly to get a mini holiday for ourselves and partly to go on a ski trip organised by my boy's work colleagues.

The first part of the trip was a little romantic getaway to see Salzburg. We toured the old town, went to Mozart's birth house, toured a lovely VERY old & giant church and even went on a horse and carriage ride (with champagne!)… and oh yes... WE GOT ENGAGED!

Such a beautiful town with pretty scenery. Although wearing thermal underwear, wearing 16 layers on top, giant coats & accessories, we were still cold (was definitely a few below 0). Definitely have a trip planned to go back there in the summer to see the fortress and other lovely spots it has to offer.

Below are a few little snippets from the first part of the trip (the second part was skiing in Schladming which is pretty much self explanatory without photos - cold, fun, tiring and mountainy).

Mozarts house

Where we got engaged.

Playing with the horses.

All the locals at dinner - all in traditional Austrian dress - I couldn't stop looking!!

Crossing skin boundaries

This discussion has been raised before in conversations with friends around the world, but I feel the need to bring it up again. The contradiction of nudity and conservativeness amongst the Germans.

The conservativeness. Since being here I haven't seen one girl with a low cut t-shirt, slightly revealing shirt or even a glimpse of a heaving bosom that you see in all the ads for German women at bars! Go to any bar or friends b'day party in Aust, Canada or UK and women are bound to be wearing dresses or little going out tops that have some sort of femininity about them (especially even in the UK/Can winters when its freezing and clothes are still minimal at best - often involving some décolletage exposed to air). Yet here, its the opposite.

If I'm even wearing a singlet top 10 centimetres from my neck (no cleavage present), I am still the most revealing. The standard uniform here day and night is a high neck t-shirt/long sleeve top, jeans and sneakers/boots. Variations on this are only in colour and adding a coat/hat or gloves. I have still not yet seen one german wearing stilettos or pointy toed patent leather heels. Maybe this is reserved only for summer months? I hold my breath (and my wonderful shoe collection) in anticipation…

Then we get to the contradiction.. nudity!

The first issue is with nudity in saunas - it being not an issue. Actually wearing a swimming costume in, you'll be asked to remove it. This also means if your in there with your family, everyone gets their gear off… and when I've asked, they don't find this strange - not even if they have to get their kit off in front of their parents! (Steph - for you and all the germans I know out there defending this!).

Next is the press. In newspapers women are topless, on billboards and posters around town, women are advertised to be at clubs half naked and some even make ME blush! There are more exposed women in pictures in public than you would get in a Ralph/Maxim monthly magazine.

Below I have two pictures that I have managed to snap up whilst taking tourist pictures around town...

And then we get to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. One moment she is being photographed bare back-sided and no one really cared, nor did she even take legal action to the newspaper who printed it (The Sun - UK) - and I quote from German newspaper - Spiegel Online "Had that happened in the States, though -- George W. stripping down in the Rose Garden after a particularly strenuous mountain bike ride, for example -- the outrage would have been two-fold. Disrespect for the country's leader on the one hand. But on the other, folks would be asking themselves what the hell a president was doing disrobing in public. The Merkel photos, though, triggered no such questions. "

Then the same leader goes to the opera with a plunging neckline, and everyone is up in arms!? http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,547512,00.html

I'm unsure if its the German social circles I run in, the cities I have taken habitat in in Germany, and a paranoid mind to show some skin here but from now on I have taken to wearing skivvies/turtle necks, and anything with a high round neck. If there is a slight v-neck present, be sure I'll whip out a scarf to cover up any forbidden skin. Summer shall be very interesting.

Survival of the coldest

The usual things you use to keep warm are jackets, thermals, a beenie/touque and house hold heating units. Since coming back to Germany from warm Australia, the weather has been around the balmy -1 mark with not much chance of warming up soon. So sitting in the house doing my studies, I've gotten inventive to stay warm without having to permanently sit in 16 layers of clothes or burn through what will be a high heating bill. I will expand here on other useful necessities that I have come across to keep my blood moving:

Running the dryer in the house with all the doors open whilst your there to compliment to the household heating.

Leg warmers - let it be said by me who wouldn't be caught dead in them previous to Nov 2010!

Sitting next to the oven when its cooking something, and after. Might look like a 4 yr old having a tantrum on the kitchen floor, but ohhhh so warm.

Ear muffs - totally underrated.

Hot Water Bottles - and if you put them in good a beenie - they last double as long as a normal hot water bottle cover!

Sitting the laptop on your lap - rather than a table… probably not the best for the old laptop, but great for warming my thighs! (it does have 'lap' in the title after all!!!)

Wearing a one-sie (I'll admit it - these are mine http://www.jumpinjammerz.com/blue+ducks/product-9-pajamas/)… covers me neck to toe (including incased feet) and is roomy enough to fit extra layers of clothes underneath just incase someone rings the door bell and you need to pull it off to look slightly more respectable when answering the door.

Meanwhile, on my hunt for warm things, I found you can buy electronic socks…. that may be my next investment!

And that my friends has been how I've maintained blood movement for the end of January 2011!

Australia - and its quirks

I've been off blogging for a while as we took a trip back to Australia for the month of January to introduce my german to the aussie way of life and get a little bit of much needed sunshine. Sadly… the sunshine part wasn't as much as predicted. We were based in Sydney for our trip with a few trips out to the hunter valley & central coast. We also had a week long visit up to Brisbane… just when the 100 year floods were on - so with endless rain (though still hot warm temperatures so you weren't to fussed about getting wet), we didn't have the best experience Queensland could offer up normally.

Usually I comment on the strange things I find whilst overseas and quirks I can't get my head around. But this time its my boyfriends turn… Here are a few things he has observed whilst "down under".

- Its' such a big country but you never get a parking spot (we have LOTS of space, but it seems we spend forever driving around in shopping malls to find a car spot - I concur). Every time we went to the shops, he would groan and moan. Thankfully, it distracted him from my awful parking skills.

- Washing your hands in public toilets is often annoying. The taps that you use you have to hold a button down to get water out at the same time as washing your hands (quite awkward and you can only wash one hand at a time). These are for water preservation - but now we don't have a drought, think its just to piss off the tourists.

- Aussie skin is lovely! Due to all the moisture in the air, our skin went from hard cold leather to soft baby skin within a few weeks (now sadly it's quickly reverting back).

- People are much more friendly than expected. This is something I've also encountered as a surprise - forgetting what its like. One example is at the beach our sunglasses got washed away when a massive wave up the shore and someone picked them up and came looking for the people who lost them (rather than ignoring it, or stealing them). In queues a the bar, if people saw you were there first, they actually gesture for you to move forward rather than rushing into the spot to get served first (both a survival tactic the germans and canadians use to get booze).

- The surf is a little harder than expected (the waves are more powerful than tourists believe.. and after being 'dumped' by waves a few times the realisation kicks in that you really need to know what your doing)

- In brisbane the air-conditioning is out of control cold - especially when you dress for 30 degree weather outside, but walking inside a shop its about 18 degrees.

- Australian dialect is easier to understand than he thought (times excluded when there is background music pumping out speakers at bars)

- They weren't joking when they say everything will kill you or hurt you. In the time we were there, we encountered the biggest spider I've ever seen, a death adder (snake), bluebottles (nasty nasty jellyfish) and what I thought was a funnel web spider (I killed it before we had a chance to find out the hard way).

It was a good learning experience for the both of us - and spending 24/7 together for 4 straight weeks without killing each other, was also a great bonding experience.

And yes, in coming back to the cold and not my own language, I am home sick / sun sick.

Below are some of our shots. The video is from up the top of one of the pylons on the bridge.

At the opera house looking back at the bridge

At the giant pineapple

Eating kangaroo pizza

Holding a Koala

What happens when you hold a koala

Wine tasting

Beer, giant beef steaks, wife beater (singlet top) and bbq (converting the german)

New years day on the beach - out of control busy!

Skiing in Austria before surfing in Australia!

Just a few snaps and a video from skiing up in Austria late december 2010. We ski'd at Kaltenbach and stayed in Krystalhutte which was ski in / out on the top of a mountain (pretty cool). The rooms were nice, quaint and 'ok' but the food more than made up for it! 5 course detestation meal every night followed by heavy dreams from all the different types of food consumed.

For this video below - you should go about 30 seconds in for the highlight...

where we stayed (our room was the top balcony)

break time

in the gondola

out the front of our accommodation

view from our room