Speaking of driving in my previous post, I’d say, driving in Germany is a whole new experience to me. It’s true that there are no speed limits on the German highways (Autobahn). In a country well-known for its high performance car, it’s absolutely unthinkable for the rule-makers here to impose speed limits on highways. Imagine driving a Porsche at a mere 120km/h. It’s like drinking teh tarik without teh.

Honestly, I haven’t had the luxury to put the above advantage into practice because with due respect, the fastest that I’ve pushed my boyfriend’s 10yo Fiesta, is 140km/h. I don’t dare to crank up the speed any more than that because I could feel that the poor thing was pushed to its limit.

After driving here for some time, I still can’t say that I’m thrilled with the idea of driving on the German Autobahn. I still cringe inwardly each time my boyfriend toss his car keys at me when he doesn’t feel like driving to force me to practice my driving skills. I’ll made up some excuses eventually when it’s my turn to drive home from work. Any lame excuses just so that I can skip driving .

The Autobahn here are actually very well maintained and driving on the Autobahn can be a very pleasant and exhilarating experience. Most of the drivers here are polite but not always and most of the time they’ll stick to the rules because committing traffic offenses can be quite costly or might result in a few months suspension of your driving license and risk yourself some extra points added to your driving record. Every driver can ‘earn’ up to 18 points before his/her driving license will be revoked and he’ll have to do his driving test, compulsory driving lessons from scratch, etc. to get a new driving license again. Yea, rules are tough here.

However those pleasant and exhilarating moments can suddenly turn into some scary and frustrating experience when you are unlucky enough to encounter some jerks on the road. For example, before pulling out onto the left lane to overtake a truck, you’ll have to be very careful to look over your left shoulder and also to look at your rear mirror to see as far back of the road as you can to make sure that it’s safe to pull out. NOW when you see a car that looks like it’s still WAY back, you’ll still have to gauge how fast the car is moving.

Don’t think that the car is still WAY far back, you can take your own sweet time on the left lane to overtake because when the approaching car is moving at 160-180km/h, it’s just a matter of seconds before you check back your rear mirror to see that the car now is just a few meters behind you. And if you pull out onto the left lane when you see such cars approaching, chances are, you’ll get some angry headlights flashed at you from the approaching jerk behind or the asshole will tailgate (with bumper inches away) to pressure you to give way.

So, how do I gauge the speed of the approaching car before pulling out onto the left lane? Easy, as a rule of thumb, when I see cars like *MW, *ercedes, *orsche, or *udi approaching, I’ll usually stay put and let them pass.