RX IN GERMANY

Everyone in Hamburg/Germany seems to have been sick this February. On the news they were telling people to avoid the U-bahn (subway) and other impossible things. 

The good thing about Germans is that they have A LOT of ideas about how to heal you without the help of modern medicine, which is great, because I hate medicine.  Unfortunately, these things cannot be tried once and then discarded as uncomfortable or disgusting/painful.  The chosen methods must be oft repeated for positive results to occur. 

Everything my colleagues told me when I was sick with a bad cold:

Drink lemon juice and ginger in hot water

Drink massive amounts of thyme/peppermint/chamomile/herbal tea....with honey, because without the peppermint and honey it’s just disgusting.

HOT WATER BOTTLE

Heat up a pot of boiling water, put salt, chamomile or thyme in it and then cover your head and the pot with a towel and inhale the steam.  Warning:  This burns, and you need to wash your face with cold water afterwards to close up your pores.  For less pain at the beginning, don’t cover all the way. Don’t go outside for a half hour afterwards.

HOT WATER BOTTLE!

Eat lots of onions, garlic and ginger. And fruit. It is possible to fry the onions, garlic and ginger together.

Drink massive amounts of water in addition to “lutsching” massive numbers of cough drops.

HOT WATER BOTTLE!!

Lower yourself into a bathtub full of water just under scalding and then go to bed and cocoon like an onion in many blankets.

(speaking of which...)  “What are you doing here, go back to bed!”

Hot sauce from Togo, and grape Schnapps are not part of the German “Heilprogramm” ……. And they didn’t help that much anyway.

“hmmmmmm Maybe you should see a doctor…?…”

“There’s a practice right nearby, if you call now you could still get an appointment this afternoon.”

Whelp,  “Viel Glück” (good luck) fighting The Cold, everybody!