My biggest struggle so far with living in Germany? Parking. My apartment has this stacked parking system similar to the one pictured above, and my spot happens to be one of the smallest due to a ledge that’s above my spot. What’s the problem with that?

Well at first I was given an SUV. Didn’t know they had SUVs in Europe? Me neither. I think they searched all of Germany to find me one… Then they gave me a VW Passat. Which is a normal sized car in the US, but in my parking spot it’s too big unless I back in (due to the weird ledge). But if I back in then I have to park where my bumper is 2 inches from the wall in order to fit my wheel in the place where the wheel is supposed to go. Now backing in isn’t the issue, it’s that my spot is fairly slanted, and reversing backwards you have to kind of get a head start… A head start when you need to park that close to the wall is a little scary!

In addition to my parking struggles in my spot, the parking ramp’s button to lift the gate (and therefore leave the garage) wasn’t working Saturday. So I had to flag down someone in the street and have them open the garage from the other side with the key just to get out.

Hopefully I will get used to the parking system… and soon!