Friday, October 13, 2006

Confirmation of the niceness of Germans

I talked about before how when I twisted my ankle, no one offered to help me or ask if I was okay when we were in England. I said this was the opposite of my experience in Germany. Well, I had that confirmed again last night.

I was walking down towards the central pedestrian zone in Munich, right near Marienplatz. I was talking to G. on my mobile and wasn't paying close attention to where I was going. Or rather, not paying attention to where my feet were going. I stepped on an uneven grate and fell down. Fortunately not twisting my ankle, but going down pretty fast like a sack of potatoes. I wasn't hurt, and as it was a busy street, I picked myself up pretty quick. But even as I was getting up, about 3 people out of the dozen right near me were already rushing over, to see if I was okay. Several others were hovering, making sure I got up. I was still on the phone to G., so I smiled, said I was okay and kept walking, with nothing more than a scraped knee and a blown dignity.

This isn't meant as a dig at the Brits, but rather as proof that the Germans are friendly and helpful, something I don't think they are often credited with being. Hopefully next time I fall over in England (which is bound to happen, knowing me) I'll have better things to report.

As an aside, G. says the baby will have to learn walking from him, since I'm obviously not very good at it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Zbride,
a local is a Cookhamite!
And a furnace is called a boiler here.
Sounds as though you are living in Cookham Dean.?

ZeeBride said...

Thanks, now I know what to call myself!

Actually, we live in Cookham Rise.