Let me explain….it’s more that I hate my actual shower here in Germany. Yes, I am seriously writing about this. Why? Because I just took a shower and I am so annoyed for about the 500th time that I just have to vent about it and what better place than here….right???
Let’s start off with a fab picture of the place where the most annoying task of my day happens.
What do you think of that blue? Awesome isn’t it? I even got a loofah to match. {Yes that’s sarcasm and someone really needs to invent a font style for that.}
Anyway, I digress as while blue is not my first choice for stylish bathroom colors, it is far from the reason for my daily dread. You see, in Germany, while some apartments are similar to apartment living in the U.S., others are not. Many “apartments” are actually built inside one large multi-family home. In our case, we live with two other families; our landlords on the second level and another family on the first. We share a basement where our laundry facilities are located and we each have a separate, locked, storage room. Now that you can somewhat picture my living arrangements in your head, let’s get on with the complaining.
Water Pressure
Dear God of all that’s holy all I want is a little water pressure! This is by far my number one reason behind times I have actually screamed in the shower. No matter what time of day I attempt to take a shower, the pressure almost always sucks. One day, and of course the day I was washing my hair, I was literally standing under the shower head praying for water….ANY WATER! Why? Because it had completely stopped and was just dripping. I will admit that it is not always quite that bad, but usually the pressure drops significantly enough that I find myself standing there waiting for it to come back to a level that will actually get the shampoo out of my hair.
Temperature
In the summer, you would never hear me complaining about this one bit. We live in the roof so it gets hotter than Hades up here so I usually took a cold shower by choice. But it’s winter! Aside from some hot tea, a hot shower is about the only way I can defrost my bones. I tend to get very cold living here and a hot shower is just what I need to resolve that problem. Well, not in this apartment and not in this shower. I have two options: scalding or lukewarm/cold. On a really good day, I get the perfect hot temperature and just as I’m enjoying it, I lose pressure and then it goes to lukewarm and it’s over. And I cry.
Size
This really isn’t a huge deal, but while I’m complaining about a shower for crying out loud, I might as well get it all out. I’m all for utilizing space well and it’s one of the things I love about German homes. They utilize small spaces very efficiently! But this shower just drives me nuts! The little shelf they actually built into the wall is only big enough for a single person’s items if you don’t want to play Tetris and Jenga every time you want your soap. It’s pretty difficult to turn around and definitely not big enough for two people {not that we do that in our house!} 
The only plus side to this small space is that now that it’s winter, we have been completely wiping down the shower after each use to prevent mold. German bathrooms don’t have ventilation aside from the windows. We were opening them, but that wasn’t helping, so we just completely dry it off and being small helps this happen quickly. Although, I also have times like the other day where I was drying it off, hit the faucet with my arm turning the shower back on and spraying myself and the wall of which both were dry already. It was great.
Well, that’s pretty much my venting session for today. I will say that this has been far from my experience with other showers in Germany. I’m just lucky enough to have this one as my own.
Anything about where you live now that drives you nuts?
Seriously- this is too funny. I despise our shower too. And what’s really funny is we have the same setup- except it has oval doors, but it’s in the corner too, with that awful ledge that catches water. Additionally the drain is old, so when it’s cleaned it stinks. Oh the joys, right?!?!
Haha! It’s funny how even bathrooms can be so different! Thankfully, ours doesn’t smell, but we had a place like that in the states once where every time you would run the washing machine it would smell in the laundry room. Ugh. Can’t plumbing just not smell?
Hah! I have hit the faucet before too. Drenched myself AND my towel! That was awesome.
Oh isn’t that so annoying?!
Yeah, I love it!
Ugh German showers!! Ours is tiny too and having to squeegee the doors every day is beyond annoying. And what’s up with no ventilation?? How are they surprised they have mold problems when they build houses like this? Rant end
Exactly! We squeegee and dry them off. Such a pain! I never had the mold problem in my last German house but it was a shower/tub combo so I’m guessing more air got it. Thanks for venting with me.
I couldn’t function without a decent shower in the morning so I know how you feel! For us in rural France the problem is random power cuts. It happens when it storms in the summer and when it’s too cold in the winter and other random times. It’s our first winter here and as our heating is mainly electric I’m terrified of it going when it’s minus degrees outside!
Oh no! That sounds scary and frustrating! Hope it doesn’t happen! Thanks for stopping by
Ha ha, poor you! Have you considered shaving your head?
With about 5 hours of daylight at the moment, it’s more annoying!
I got everything in my flat fixed up when I moved in so there’s nothing that really drives me mad. Apart from the fact that we have a motion sensor light outside that goes off after around 3 seconds, so you have to fumble for the correct key, dash to the door and try to get it in the lock before you’re plunged into darkness. I haven’t managed it yet
Haha! I have actually,especially in the summer. M gave me the death stare when I even mentioned cutting it! Oh come on….you’re just a little thing! You must be fast!
It started snowing today. I’m worse than an arthritic 90-year old in snow
You should see the showers we have here! LOL I hate cold water, when it get’s too cold (far from what’s cold in Germany I believe), I boil water in a pot and add that to water in a pail and viola, perfectly warm water! It’s a do-it-yourself shower though. You have to use a dipper
Well now you have me curious! What do the showers look like there?
Depends on the kind of house
Though showers in metro cities and most areas are similar to the rest of the world, but we do have bahay-kubo popular in provinces, so they have makeshift shower rooms outside the house 
When I first moved here, I lived in the uni dorms which only had a shower. Everywhere else I have ever lived has had a bath tub. I even think the hostel I lived at in Australia had one too, not that anyone ever used it as such. However, I really liked the shower, which used a LOOOONG shower curtain. A friend’s shower did not have a long enough curtain and she got water everywhere every. single. time. she showered. It seemed awful.
My family has been lucky enough to find apartments with tubs, not that we probably use them enough though.
It is funny though, in Germany, in my opinion. So many people seem to have crappy bathroom and kitchen stories. Usually the bathroom is too large and the kitchen too small, both being oddly equipt, or seriously lacking.
Actually, the living arrangements I’ve seen in general seem to too often just be odd. Like, “hey let’s convert this office building into WGs” (shared apartments, often for students)” or “this single family home that would fit a family of 4-6 comfortably, lets convert it into 3-5 apartments, yeah! And then thinking more about the size of the bathroom (but not what goes into it) but not the size of the kitchen. This is of course unless you can build your own home or are allowed to remodel your own apartment.
Oh god….don’t get me started on my kitchen! Lol That’s exactly what we live in! This used to be a business and he turned into a home for 3 families. It’s kind of why I get so irritated because while he did do a great job on some things, on others it just seems like they pushed too hard for this 3rd apartment. But truly, I’m not complaining. I’m grateful for a decent roof over my head. Some days though, a girl just wants some hot water with good pressure!
That shower is teeny-tiny! At least Russians like a pretty decent sized bath to accompany their shower so there’s usually room. The problem I have is that the shower heads are ALWAYS. TOO. LOW. Who are all of these tiny people who are installing the plumbing?!
Oh dear, I guess you can tell we’ve all got some hidden shower rage going on here.
There is a separate bath tub but it is long, deep and narrow too. Lol I don’t find it to be comfortable so it’s only used for my son.
Haha! Really? That’s pretty funny too and yes, I had no idea so many others out there shared in my shower rage.
I hate that European tubs and showers require you to step so high into them; so low out of them. But I do love the extra height on the toilets, since I have long legs.
I feel the exact same way! Four years/ three houses in France and not a decent shower to be had… or bathtub!
I have to laugh! European showers are so different than American showers when you get down to it. And forget about a bathtub, you’re lucky if you find one in NL. One unique feature about our shower is that it literally has a round hole and a square peg for the drain cover. I have no idea why, but it irritates me anew every time I have to clean out the drain. =)