Archive for May 14th, 2008

How to travel in Germany without being bothered by German culture

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

When you travel to Germany, you are on a mission to accomplish the following tasks:

  1. Go to the Hofbräuhaus: If you are female, to get a picture of yourself dancing to polka music with a guy wearing lederhosen with a huge mustache. If you are male, to get a guy wearing lederhosen with a huge mustache to share their schnupftabak with you. Both males and females must buy either a Hofbräuhaus sweatshirt or t-shirt to indicate their success.
  2. Drink a beer out of a 1-liter glass, which you can steal as a cool souvenir. Extra points if this is stolen from a beer garden. Also gives you the chance to say things like, “I don’t like beer, but in Germany I do,” to further propagate the idea that mixing water, hops, and barley produces a delicious concoction only when it is done in Belgium, Ireland, or Germany.
  3. Visit the castle Neuschwanstein, take a picture, and exclaim, “It looks just like Disneyland!!!”.
  4. See really old stuff.
  5. Tell everyone you meet how everything is bigger in America.

Unfortunately, German culture might get in the way of you happily carrying out your tasks, and since you have probably only alloted 1 day of your trip to Europe for Germany, you’ve got to be quick, and more importantly you need to plan ahead. Here are some tips:

  1. Don’t give up on coffee. You don’t have to suffer through European coffee anymore in Germany, now they have Starbucks in Germany, too. Try to go to the inner city of any major town to get your daily tall skinny double decaf latte. Germans will try to tell you to try a cafe macchiato or something. Don’t listen to them.
  2. Bring your own nonperishables. If you don’t have American snacks with you, you might be forced to sample local products. You might not enjoy these local treats as much as the ones you are used to, so don’t take any chances. (Snickers is available if you run out and need to buy some good chocolate.)
  3. Use the Embassy. Travel by car, not by train, so that you can tour the country at your own pace, and you can stop at the golden arches along the highway to compare the Big Macs to Big Mäcs.
  4. Make sure the one day you spend in Germany is not a Sunday. Germany is mostly welcoming to tourists, but there is one thing they aren’t flexible on, and that is letting you do stuff on Sunday. Be prepared for a boring day of museums if you make this mistake.
  5. Plan to be in Munich for dinner. There is a Planet Hollywood there, so not only are you going to get some food you actually like, you can also get another cool t-shirt that says “Munich” on it, so that you can let your friends back home know that you have also done the whole Europe thing, too.

deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden

Aussicht von Neuschwanstein

When the sun shines in Germany

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

The absolute best time in Germany is a summer day when the sun is shining, which doesn’t often happen. Actually, God himself even tried to convince all the atheists in the country of his existence by making the sun shine throughout the entire month Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006, a more impressive feat than parting the Red Sea.

You see, to really enjoy something, you need to endure its opposite. For every sunny day in Germany you have 2 days where the skies are a mix of grays and have this constant drizzle that makes you cold and miserable. And that makes the sunny days that much better. In Germany you never take sunshine for granted; you must cherish every single ray.

On sunny days you can enjoy the lush beautiful green landscapes, from amazing Alpine vistas to yellow rape seed fields sprinkled with giant windmills, working to save our planet through biodiesel and clean electricty. You will see the roads filled with motorcycles and the sidewalks full of families riding bikes or roller blades, all gleefully enjoying their good fortune. Even the guy who normally wouldn’t take the time to grunt at you in passing will offer up a friendly reminder of the beautiful day.

You, of course, will notice things Germans do differently when it is warm and sunny. First of all, Germans don’t own shorts, unless they are for playing soccer in. So when the sun comes out and a German decides to lay out in the park, they will first put on 7 layers of clothing until they reach their tanning destination, at which point they will take off the remaining 6.5 layers.

Our idea that you should run around in the summer time in flip flops, shorts, and a t-shirt is completely foreign to the Germans, they never leave home without long pants and a jacket. Perhaps it is a side effect of all Germans having circulation problems so bad that they have to call in sick from work on such days.

deutsche Übersetzung für Astrid ein/ausblenden

sunny day