So I've been hit with a cold this week. It's not a pleasant thing, and if you've forgotten the stages, they are sore throat, general tiredness, stuffiness, then getting rid of the stuffiness (ugh) and residual horribleness. I'm at the stuffiness part but what this has been is a lesson in buying medicine in Germany. Over the counter medications are just that. You get them by going into a pharmacy (called an Apothek -- how sweet is that) and talking with someone who gives you the appropriate medication. This, in my opinion, is much better than wandering down isles of medicine labelled in German, trying to guess what I should have. I'm also now the proud owner of Mucoangin and Rhinospray. Mucoangin is a sore throat reliever. It is a local anesthetic that you suck on. Rhinospray helps unclog your nose. It's a spray that works by contricting (loosening? someone with an MD help me out here...) the blood vessels in the nose. Both work quite well. This makes me much happier than going to a Canadian drugstore where I can only buy cough syrup for "sore throats, coughing, and phlegm in the lungs" or "sore throats and headaches". I like the specialized medicine approach.
And I'm not going to post a pic of me looking crappy, so I thought I'd post one from my archives of the cheapest Scotch I've ever seen. 8 EUR for that bottle. Don't worry, liver, I'm not going to subject you to that. Although someone did recommend a warm beer to help a cold...
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