Conflicting ideas

I'm sort of confused on the German sex/love culture now. The one article stated that German flirting is very subtle, so subtle you wouldn't even know it was flirting half the time unless they had a sign around their neck that said "Hallo, ich bin mit Sie flirten." They use subtle glances that a person would most often miss, unless they were equally interested in the other person, to indicate interest. A discussion of politics over tea sounds more like a story of how a couple broke up rather then a hot flirtatious date. Even though this all doesn't make sense to me, the part that confuses me most is how un-subtle they are about sex shops. They'll have them in the middle of malls, displaying their wares for all to see. I don't have any problem with that per se, but the existence of both this subtle-barely-there flirting culture and very open sex shop culture seems incredibly paradoxical to me.

As far as the book readings go, Hamburg sort of reminds me of Seattle, it has that sort of sound to it, especially with the large fish market. Port cities are often the most interesting cities historically, and it sounds like Hamburg is no different. The friendship distinction in Germany I think is interesting, and it does make sense to have it divided this way, although I think Americans just find it simpler to clump everyone into a group of friends and then if pressed to label acquaintances versus close friends or clarification was needed would rather do it then.