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.

I don't know where I would be without these two wonderful doctors. The first Praxis I experienced…read morewhere I felt honestly listened to, rather than some automated, chit chat "clinic of the future" type expensive thing. The waiting times are also surprisingly short, considering the amount of people they have to see (As it's a Drop-In Praxis). Thank you Dr Engert and Cotanidis, I'm doing much better now. Your neighbour, Robert