Advanced (Perth XII (Kinda))

OK, finally this post is to come...

Is Germany „advanced“?
We had some discussions about it in Perth – I was astonished there is this opinion about us because all we get seems to be available elsewhere since a long time.

Take cellphones for example, headsets, I saw them in Australia in 1999 everywhere.
Germany? Just if you were important. Took us some years.

Yes. If you need a trolley, you pay 50 cent or a euro. Since ages.
Hence people bring them back.
Australia – you find them “everywhere”, at least at our Caravan Park there were always at least three.

Also here...

Plastic bags at the grocery store cost money – people buy them anyways, many, it surprises me.
But true, in Australia you get them per se and for free – we never had to buy rubbish bags. And we had way too many.
But people start getting their own bags in Australia to do grocery shopping, too.
In 2006 we came home with Whoolie´s green-colored shopping bags for sure - way more practical than ours - naturally!

Not just a "sheet", a real bag! Easy to fill, stands on it´s own... whereas with ours you need a third hand.

Can you pay in Germany at a machine as self service?
Yes. At IKEA. And only there.
Australia? Everywhere! Well, at least at Whollies, Big W, K-Mart and such.
Not that we even had stores like that!

Food courts? Sloooowly they arrive, yes.

You have junk to get rid of?
Perth gives a date and everyone puts it out.
Germany? You have to either bring it to the waste dump and pay or ask the city to get it – and pay.

Recycling. Yes, we´re a true master in this one.
We have to sort paper, glass, plastic, compost, and, well, “ordinary rubbish”.
We used to have containers for the first three more or less near where you live – often full to the brim.
And even more so often you read/see in the news it all gets in one big bin and is burned.
Bummer, that motivates for sure.
Also to see how little Germany makes such a big deal out of this whereas China, India and all the other big ones don´t.

Yes, you need someone to start. But, gah.
Try to get rid of glass in summer with wasps circling the container.
Flies circling the stinking plastic container.
Get frustrated with the containers being full or burned down by frustrated people.
All the time you spend. All the space you provide for it! The smell in summer.
Now we have containers for plastic in front of the house. Large bins, ugly ones, and I bet too small after all.

Escalators. They´re fast and effective in Australia.
Wheeeee and there you go.
Germany? Oh, come on. Nice side-effect, though: I take them only when having something heavy with me.
Escalators – unwritten rule: Stand to the side if you wanna stand and let others walk.
Germany? Stand, block and when you arrive – stop and orientate yourself, no matter others get blocked...

Shopping centres… I couldn´t believe it when I saw them in 1995.
We have some of those sizes like that by now, too.
But parking is certainly not for free!
And look at for example Joondalup… you can get lost there! Awesome!

DVD - see first pic – you just get them anytime – it´s a slot machine.
Germany???? Will take some years, I bet, so far you go to shops, closed on Sundays and at night, often still called "Video-Store" (and yes, often "Store").

We may be a pest being so much on time accurate.

But we are not advanced at all - that´s what I learned in Perth - just yet again!

"Rant" over ;-)
No, really, I find it weird people from other countries think of us being so much advanced when reality is really different.

Where does the opinion come from?

I guess, dear Australian friends, you have to make your way to Frankfurt and take an ever-lasting, slooow escalator up to the level where I can pick you up (or where you please take the train to Braunschweig, where I happliy pick you up at the train station) and I show you around in the land of yesterday...

Perth XI
Perth X
Perth IX
Perth VIII
Perth VII
Perth VI
Perth V
Perth IV
Perth III
Perth II
Perth I