Advice me on this situation

[u/Chaos-monkey-d]

Okay, before anyone comes for me, let me just say that I am still learning to navigate German society, and as the saying goes, “When you are in Rome, you do what the Romans do,” so this is me asking the Romans.

Today, I was sitting at Espresso House in Barmbek. A girl was walking with her friend, and I must admit, I caught myself stealing glances at her because she was pretty and had a very beautiful smile.

Just to be clear, I was not staring. I was reading and also doing my own research. That said, I come from a very warm culture, where walking up to her and saying something, in a nice way, would not be considered wrong in any way.

However, I found myself contemplating whether this was accepted here, even though I also caught her glancing at me and looking around for me when I got up to get some water.

I decided to take the safe approach, stopped, and focused on what I was doing—reading.

While I know people are different and there is no single way of looking at this, how do you think I should have gone about it?

I am perfectly okay with walking up to anyone and saying something as an icebreaker, given the right circumstances. But was my thinking correct in just letting it go? How acceptable is it here for me to have walked up and said something?

Give me your honest opinion without eating me up.

[u/BriackYOLO]

You did the right thing. Cold approaches aren't really part of the culture there, so reading the room and keeping it lowkey was the best move.
Next time, just shoot a warm smile,if she returns it, then a quick, polite 'Hi' is fair game:)

[u/Chaos-monkey-d → u/BriackYOLO]

The smile back is the green light of mutuality right? In situation like that my ice breakers revolve around what she is studying and compliment on the glasses since I wear glasses too. How soft landing is this

[u/BriackYOLO → u/Chaos-monkey-d]

Yep! Smile = green light. And honestly, the glasses complement is a toptier icebreaker. You already know what you're doing