One of my funnier experiences with the (generally awesome) German postal system was sending a gift package to my god-daughter over there... except it didn't arrive... instead, the mother got a notice to pay up... long story short, the Droid at the customs hall took a look at the contents listed on the customs form, noted "gift", read it in German (in which case you're shipping 'poison') even though the package came from a English-speaking country and items shipped internationally are always declared in English, and decided that a duty applied.
A terse letter from the mother regarding the English-reading skills of the droid in question unlodged the package without the need for duty payments. Naturally, without comment.