When I first got here I asked what this meant and was told it is sort of like "on your marks, set, go." (I guess since a lot of people drive sticks here they do it for that reason so people can shift into gear and then go on green).Another thing that is different: back home when you pull up to a set of lights you have lights on both sides of the intersection (on the same side as your car at the intersection and then on the other side, where people coming at you would be stopped. So you have two sets of lights, or if there is only one it is usually across the intersection so it is easy to see). Here it is a little different. Most interesctions, almost all, have the lights on the same side as your car. There is a white line where you are supposed to pull up to and stop when waiting for lights. Just like back home you are supposed to wait behind this line. Well back home it doesnt really matter if you cross the line and I think almost everyone does. Here if you go past that line it is very hard to see the lights directly above you or on the side of you. Even if you stop at the line, many times you are looking out the top of your windshield to see the lights.
Also here there are a lot of bike paths and a lot of people that ride bikes.
One thing they have here that they dont have back home is the autobahn. The autobahn isnt just one road, every big highway is an autoban and even some of the back roads dont carry a speed limit.
So far both Katy and I have been on the autobahn a number of times. The fastest I have been in a car was 220 km (just under 140 mph) and I think Katy has been almost to 200 kph (125mph), but it was in a nice car and when you have a nice car it doesnt seem like it is really fast (it is quite smooth). When you are driving though you have to check your review mirror quite often, even though you think you maybe going fast, as people still come out of nowehere. When we went to Oktoberfest we were going about 160 kph (so about 100mph) and people were flying by us like we were standing still. If someone is coming behind you they flash their highbeams and that means move over, and you should move over soon as they might be coming very fast. Even though people can drive really fast there arent as many accidents as you would think.In our apartment building we also have a garage in the basement of it. You pull your car in-need your key to open the door-and then pull into a spot. Each spot is actually 2 as where you park is on a hydraulic lift. The lift can be raised or lowered depending on if there are already people parked in it. The first time I parked in the garage I had no trouble getting in, but when I left to drive out I could not find a button or a spot to put my key into to open the garage door. As I had to get to practice and could not figure out how to open the door, I had to walk around and open the in-door with my key and drive out quickly that door. Needless to say we have since figured it out, but I was a little worried that first time that I might have to call coach and tell him I was stuck in my garage. What a call that would have been. :)
It is a little bit different than back home but a lot is the same. There are difference but some of the differences make the experinece that much better.
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