drugs! the legal kind...

Germanic pharmacies are different than American pharmacies in many many ways.

1) They are everywhere. In the small city i live in, there's one nearly every 2 blocks or so.

2) They are not open late. but one pharmacy per city is open 24 hrs... but which one it is changes every night. TO find the one that's open you need to drive to one, check the list on the door and find the new one. Not so user-friendly if you are too sick to drive or are having an emergency.

3) There is no such thing as over the counter. All drugs from cough drops to aspirin to codeine is brought through a pharmacist.

4) You don't get a specific dose when you fill a prescription. They just give you the whole box- this includes antibiotics, so you better remember how many they told you to take.

So I managed to spill an entire cup of coffee all over my khaki pants the other day at work and was talking to a coworker about how to get out the stains. She suggested I get backing soda... which I find out is not available in grocery stores here like in the states, can can only be found behind the counter at the pharmacy.

Whaaa? I mean what do they think people are going to do with baking soda? Besides you know, make model volcanoes for their kids science projects? Has there been a Baking soda overdose epidemic?

I dont get it. I guess one good side-effect is that kids need to be more creative with their science projects... and their Robitussin habit.