It's June, which means my allergy season is in full effect right now. This was something I totally…read moreneglected to think about until it was already upon me, and I realized I only had a few weeks of Allegra-D left.
After finding out the German name from a doctor friend, I decided to see an allergist. Need allergy medicine? See an allergist. Makes sense, right? Except that every English-speaking allergy doctor I came across was booked for months. That wouldn't do.
Instead, I decided to see a regular practitioner. Of course, I encountered a similar problem. All the doctors were either booked for months, or on the other side of town. I, for one, would like to be able to walk a few blocks or take a short bike ride to see mine.
Well thank goodness for aerzte-berlin.de - I was able to put in advanced criteria and when looking for English-speaking doctors in my neighborhood, came across one just a couple blocks away. I quickly called and was told to come in and wait.
The reception area is super small and it took a while to be helped, although I don't think that was any fault of the people working. Once I registered, I waited in an adjoining room for maybe 5 or 10 minutes before I was seen. The wall is covered in (faded) reprints of Van Gogh and Monet paintings - a nice touch when compared with some of the awful art I've seen on office walls elsewhere. The seats were multi-coloured with shiny plastic shells - they reminded me of M&Ms...
I can't say anything about Dr. Cotanidis, but as for Dr. Engert, he was great. I immediately told him that I heard he spoke English, and he switched right away - and speaks it well! He sat down with me, took the time to not only hear what I needed but also ask the appropriate follow-up questions, and then accompanied me to the front and waited until my prescription was given to me.
All in all, the experience was about 30 minutes. I got what I came for and left with a good impression.
Extra note: In addition to speaking English (and German), Turkish is also spoken here.
