Not for the thin-skinned

Germans have an entirely different demeanor than Americans. No smiling, no waving, they cut in line, etc. They say exactly what they think and don't think twice about hurting your feelings or offending you. Much more gruff than we're used to.

Line cutting gets on my nerves. I am easily agitated. These Germans easily get my blood boiling..

For example, traveling to inter-Europe via RyanAir. RyanAir is a budget airline. GREAT for European travel. My flight to Ibiza was only 40 euro roundtrip. It's a steal. However, there are catches. One, you never want to check luggage. It is the most unorganized catastrophe you could imagine. Two, there are no seat numbers on the plane. Unless you pay for priority boarding, it is first come first serve. People start waiting in line about 45 min. to an hour out. If my flight is over an hour, I am not sitting alone, without Alex, and beside some smelly German. So we wait in line with the rest of the folks. Slowly, you see people behind you creeping up. All of sudden, without even blinking, those line creepers are in front of you. How the heck does this happen? They have TONS of practice line-cutting, tons. After being passed by 3 different people, I decide, this is it, nobody else is passing us. I see a family of 5 start creeping. Not this time, no sir, they are not passing us. Just as they get behind us (by sneaking their way past gobs of other people), I start knocking them out, one by one, with my ginormous backpack (like I said, we do NOT check bags). I'm getting pissed. I don't know how, but the FAMILY OF FIVE got past us. Turns out, joke was on them. First ones in line were first ones on the BUS TRANSFER to the plane, making them LAST ONES off the bus and last ones on the plane. As we're sitting in our seats on the plane BESIDE each other, the German family of five passes us. HA HA - beat ya.

This line-cutting and passing and trying to go first even if they were there last happens everywhere, the gas station, grocery store, bakery, restaurants, etc. It takes some getting used to. And you can't be offended when you smile and wave at someone you pass and they frown, ignore you, and keep on walking.