I loved Germany. I was there for three weeks last March and it was an opportunity of a lifetime, since the only reason I got to go was that my rich aunt and uncle were traveling through it and they wanted me to translate for them :P
Frankfurt was awesome. I just really enjoyed the atmosphere of that place, even when it was raining. And the shopping there was great.
Berlin had a shocking amount of graffiti, but was also beautiful. Although the weather was surprisingly miserable the whole time we were there, so that kind of put a damper (ha! ha ha! No pun intended!) on things while we were there.
Munich was cool, but packed with other tourists. The Glockenspiel is seriously neat.
Bavarian accents are hard to understand, and Bavarian men in small towns are sometimes uncomfortably friendly and welcoming.
All the small towns we were in were just amazingly beautiful. When you come from a place where driving on the highway means just going in a straight line past a whole bunch of flat fields, you really come to appreciate all the little settlements to look at as you drive through 'em.
Neuschwanstein is beeeeeeeeautiful!
I also ate obscene amounts of Schnitzel while I was there. And beer was amazingly cheap, delicious and plentiful.
What do I think of Germany?
Honestly, I'm not sure but I'd love to visit to learn more via first hand experience. I'm sure there's a few things different culturally but I'm not sure that it's really any different than living here in the U.S. (besides hearing/seeing the German language more than I'm used to).
I really like Germany, and think it would be a great place to live if not for the weather. Munich has to be the greatest city to live in I ever visited, but just the thought of the winter over there makes me stick with Madrid as the best city to live in.
I have quite a few German friends and I think that the younger generations, the ones that lived mostly on a post cold war world, are among the most friendly people in Europe. I spend a couple of weeks over there, 6 days in Berlin, 3 in Osnabrück and 4 in Munich. I liked Berlin a lot, I felt right at home when I was there, even knowing only about a dozen of words in German and most of them being bad words (thats all I managed to learn after having a German roommate for 4 months). Even tough there was not a lot to see and I was only there to visit a friend I also liked Osnabrück, and I guess I have already said how I feel about Munich...
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WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
edited January 2007
I have a German uncle, and two of my aunts lived there for a while. The meatstuffs they bring home are divine.
I don't know much about the country, though. Is there a generation gap of sorts in there?
MorgensternICH BIN DER PESTVOGELDU KAMPFAFFE!Registered Userregular
edited January 2007
Being German, I can tell you a few things that go against some of the things said in here so far...
a.) Reunification with the East was never as easy as someone made it out to be. There's still a fair amount of tension between East and West regions on a social basis.
b.) Far right groups are on the rise as of late and racial tensions are growing, no matter what the government tries to tell you. Where are they growing? Yes, in the former East Germany.
c.) Our porn isn't that weird. Most of the time.
Morgenstern on
“Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war.” - Loren Eiseley
I, my self, am mostly of German and Austrian Descent, and I would absolutely LOVE to travel to Germany. I'm friends with a German Exchange student at my school, and she's probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. Oh, and German food is excellent.
The Hoff was more or less a one-hit wonder here in Germany, one of his singles did really good and boosted the sales of his album and subsequent singles never really matched that.
He has not had a hit in Germany for at least 15 years and he is not adored by the German public.
I am pretty sure that every country has their share of crappy one-hit wonders though.
Excellent beer(lager), arguably the best and most diverse in the world.
Great food, although any attempt to eat truly traditional german food more than once a week would result in gravitational collapse of the person doing so. All that cabbage, dumplings and pork is delicious, but by God is it heavy!
Coke in glass bottles
Insane cyclists who are so determined to observe the laws of the cycling lanes that they would crash into a car and kill themselves just to show how right they were.
The EU
Bread which is fantastic for 6 hours, and is then totally stale. However their sandwhich bread is awful, but that is true of every country in the world except the UK.
Nice cars
Delightful people, provided you dont try to discuss Iraq or the Enviroment. "When will your people end your illegal war in Iraq!"
Coalition government
Strange freedom of speech regulations.
tbloxham on
"That is cool" - Abraham Lincoln
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DynagripBreak me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPAregular
edited January 2007
I will make a Texas version of this thread in a week or two. Just you know, to fit in.
I've just found an interesting website - the Germany Survival Bible. This site has explanations for all kinds of details of life in Germany - including reader stories.
Juergen Hubert on
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Things I particularly remember from visiting Germany:
Schneeballen
Excellent meat and bread everywhere
The mountains around Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Giving a hot cafe waitress an incredible tip because I wasn't really paying attention and Euros are coins
KZ-Flossenburg
Castle Neuschwanstein
Another gorgeous cafe waitress in Heidelberg that I'll be looking for the next time I'm there
Using my extremely rudimentary language skills to get around
Some guy peeing on the side of a porta-potty
Aside from the last entry on my list (funny but disturbing), these are the things I absolutely loved about Germany. What a fun country to visit, but I haven't determined if I'd like to live there. Great people.
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MorgensternICH BIN DER PESTVOGELDU KAMPFAFFE!Registered Userregular
Are there, emotionally unstable redheads who pilot giant organic robots in Germany's military?
How does an organic robot even work?
Morgenstern on
“Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war.” - Loren Eiseley
Interestingly Germany has been off our grid for some time lately. The last news I remember reading was about Merkel's election and that was awhile. Not much entertainment from Germany either, except for gaming. Remember the 80s new-wave of the 80s? Awesome stuff!
Like Germany and the people. Find the history fascinating (not just WWI and II but influence of Prussia and formation of the nation in the 1850's-1870's). Been to Bavaria and Dresden (Dreseden had a lot of hotties). Random stuff that comes to my mind.
1. Insane work rules / benefits and ridiculously powerful unions (which can be traced back, ironically enough, to Bismarck).
2. Sky-high unemployment (see #1).
3. Turkish immigrants
4. #1 exporter of hard goods in the world by a giant margin (much bigger than China).
5. Franco-Prussian War
6. "This is how we say good-bye in Germany!" *crack*
On a more serious note, Germany obviously lost a lot of territory (including areas that had traditionally been strongly German) during the two world wars. If you will indulge me, how do Germans feel about the fact that Prussia (sort of the "birthplace" of modern Germany) now lies completely outside its borders? Are there any strong German areas still in that region or did they all flee the Soviets in 1944-45?
You should read Reuters' Oddly Enough page. Germany is mentioned almost weekly for someone doing something hilariously stupid.
replace 'weekly" with "daily" and we'd be talking about Florida here
naw man, I read that at work for, like, a year.
Germany got a lot more coverage than florida. See... you have to kinda be able to laugh at it, and most people don't find the horible shit that happens in florida funny.
See... someone driving through a construction sight at 120 KPH because thier TomTom told them to, funny.
Somone driving thier car into a lake with thier kids in the back seat, because god told them to, not funny to people outside of this forum.
I would just like to say I like Germany very much. Their position on violence is a bit wonky but I enjoyed my time there and I am currently looking for work over there.
Oh yeah...lots of hot chicks. At least...where I was.
It's where I'd live if I won the lottery. A nice small house near Adenau and a big garage.
I just want to jump on the bandwagon and heap mounds of praise on Berlin. I really enjoyed Munich as well, but it did seem like a bit of a tourist trap.
But Berlin. Fuck I loved that town. Not only did it seem very open and green-friendly (I mean, look at the size of the tiergarten) but it seemed to me to be by far the most vibrant, diverse and friendly city I've ever visited. I will make another trip before I die.
Well, since I just visited Germany last summer (first trip overseas) I should probably give a little before/after impression of Germany
before: I always had the impression that Germany was rather urbanized and that the "traditional" german village had gone by the wayside to make way for industrialization. As far as people go, I must admit I had bought into at least some of the stereotype of Germans being rather serious and practical all the time, even while drinking or partying.
after: I have to say that those thoughts were totally incorrect about most of the people I met in Germany (I was mostly in the south near Trier with a stop near Frankfurt and one near Munich). The countryside was absolutely beautiful. Trier was especially terrific. The people were also very friendly as well. The lady who ran the inn near Aschaffenburg where I stayed really was exemplary of the kindness I found all around Germany. She just gave me some tea for free when I came in early to check in and I'm pretty sure I over heard her tell the maids to get my room ready (my German isn't very good, so I could only pick out some of the words). She even gave me a ride back down to the train station the next day (even though it was only a couple blocks down the street).
My only complaint was that nobody bloody let me practice any of my German! Virtually all my conversations were like
Me (In my horrible german): Gutentag. Konnen Sie...
Person: Hi, do you speak English?
Me: *shoulders fall* Yes. Is my German really that bad?
chrono_traveller on
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
Ha, I lived in Erlangen for a few years before the US Army base closed - 1992 to 1994 (6th through 8th grade). Went to visit one of the local schools one day. Beautiful city, I really loved it. Then I moved on to Giebelstadt - my main memory of that place was the two-story mural of Hasselhoff in the town square (no joke - this was 1995, so probably the zenith of his popularity).
Thinks that I relate to modern Germany:
Turks
McCarthief
Overpriced, overrated cars
Discotheques, Discotecas, whatever they're called
Gay porn, and other strange processed meats
Dubious censorship
and Merkel . . .
I once went to Switzerland. I would like to retire there. How do Germans view the Swiss? Der Schweitze.
ps. Declensions are so 1000+ years ago. Tell your language to get with modern trends - right now German is on par with Romanian and Icelandic. (Declensions are the reason why I'd study French over German if I go for a third, otherwise I'd pick German though o.0)
ps. Declensions are so 1000+ years ago. Tell your language to get with modern trends - right now German is on par with Romanian and Icelandic. (Declensions are the reason why I'd study French over German if I go for a third, otherwise I'd pick German though o.0)
German doesn't arbitrarily assign gender to nouns though, right?
edit: also, Russian declines as well. I believe that most if not all Slavic languages do.
Posts
Frankfurt was awesome. I just really enjoyed the atmosphere of that place, even when it was raining. And the shopping there was great.
Berlin had a shocking amount of graffiti, but was also beautiful. Although the weather was surprisingly miserable the whole time we were there, so that kind of put a damper (ha! ha ha! No pun intended!) on things while we were there.
Munich was cool, but packed with other tourists. The Glockenspiel is seriously neat.
Bavarian accents are hard to understand, and Bavarian men in small towns are sometimes uncomfortably friendly and welcoming.
All the small towns we were in were just amazingly beautiful. When you come from a place where driving on the highway means just going in a straight line past a whole bunch of flat fields, you really come to appreciate all the little settlements to look at as you drive through 'em.
Neuschwanstein is beeeeeeeeautiful!
I also ate obscene amounts of Schnitzel while I was there. And beer was amazingly cheap, delicious and plentiful.
Basically, I give it an A+
Honestly, I'm not sure but I'd love to visit to learn more via first hand experience. I'm sure there's a few things different culturally but I'm not sure that it's really any different than living here in the U.S. (besides hearing/seeing the German language more than I'm used to).
Settlers of Catan FTW
LQTM
Seriously. Explain this one to me.
Explanation
I have quite a few German friends and I think that the younger generations, the ones that lived mostly on a post cold war world, are among the most friendly people in Europe. I spend a couple of weeks over there, 6 days in Berlin, 3 in Osnabrück and 4 in Munich. I liked Berlin a lot, I felt right at home when I was there, even knowing only about a dozen of words in German and most of them being bad words (thats all I managed to learn after having a German roommate for 4 months). Even tough there was not a lot to see and I was only there to visit a friend I also liked Osnabrück, and I guess I have already said how I feel about Munich...
I don't know much about the country, though. Is there a generation gap of sorts in there?
a.) Reunification with the East was never as easy as someone made it out to be. There's still a fair amount of tension between East and West regions on a social basis.
b.) Far right groups are on the rise as of late and racial tensions are growing, no matter what the government tries to tell you. Where are they growing? Yes, in the former East Germany.
c.) Our porn isn't that weird. Most of the time.
That's pretty much all I got.
Check out my art! Buy some prints!
The Hoff was more or less a one-hit wonder here in Germany, one of his singles did really good and boosted the sales of his album and subsequent singles never really matched that.
He has not had a hit in Germany for at least 15 years and he is not adored by the German public.
I am pretty sure that every country has their share of crappy one-hit wonders though.
Great food, although any attempt to eat truly traditional german food more than once a week would result in gravitational collapse of the person doing so. All that cabbage, dumplings and pork is delicious, but by God is it heavy!
Coke in glass bottles
Insane cyclists who are so determined to observe the laws of the cycling lanes that they would crash into a car and kill themselves just to show how right they were.
The EU
Bread which is fantastic for 6 hours, and is then totally stale. However their sandwhich bread is awful, but that is true of every country in the world except the UK.
Nice cars
Delightful people, provided you dont try to discuss Iraq or the Enviroment. "When will your people end your illegal war in Iraq!"
Coalition government
Strange freedom of speech regulations.
Schneeballen
Excellent meat and bread everywhere
The mountains around Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Giving a hot cafe waitress an incredible tip because I wasn't really paying attention and Euros are coins
KZ-Flossenburg
Castle Neuschwanstein
Another gorgeous cafe waitress in Heidelberg that I'll be looking for the next time I'm there
Using my extremely rudimentary language skills to get around
Some guy peeing on the side of a porta-potty
Aside from the last entry on my list (funny but disturbing), these are the things I absolutely loved about Germany. What a fun country to visit, but I haven't determined if I'd like to live there. Great people.
How does an organic robot even work?
really long extension cords.
The answer to both questions is... not yet!
You should read Reuters' Oddly Enough page. Germany is mentioned almost weekly for someone doing something hilariously stupid.
1. Insane work rules / benefits and ridiculously powerful unions (which can be traced back, ironically enough, to Bismarck).
2. Sky-high unemployment (see #1).
3. Turkish immigrants
4. #1 exporter of hard goods in the world by a giant margin (much bigger than China).
5. Franco-Prussian War
6. "This is how we say good-bye in Germany!" *crack*
On a more serious note, Germany obviously lost a lot of territory (including areas that had traditionally been strongly German) during the two world wars. If you will indulge me, how do Germans feel about the fact that Prussia (sort of the "birthplace" of modern Germany) now lies completely outside its borders? Are there any strong German areas still in that region or did they all flee the Soviets in 1944-45?
replace 'weekly" with "daily" and we'd be talking about Florida here
naw man, I read that at work for, like, a year.
Germany got a lot more coverage than florida. See... you have to kinda be able to laugh at it, and most people don't find the horible shit that happens in florida funny.
See... someone driving through a construction sight at 120 KPH because thier TomTom told them to, funny.
Somone driving thier car into a lake with thier kids in the back seat, because god told them to, not funny to people outside of this forum.
Oh yeah...lots of hot chicks. At least...where I was.
It's where I'd live if I won the lottery. A nice small house near Adenau and a big garage.
But Berlin. Fuck I loved that town. Not only did it seem very open and green-friendly (I mean, look at the size of the tiergarten) but it seemed to me to be by far the most vibrant, diverse and friendly city I've ever visited. I will make another trip before I die.
Please, think of the children.
before: I always had the impression that Germany was rather urbanized and that the "traditional" german village had gone by the wayside to make way for industrialization. As far as people go, I must admit I had bought into at least some of the stereotype of Germans being rather serious and practical all the time, even while drinking or partying.
after: I have to say that those thoughts were totally incorrect about most of the people I met in Germany (I was mostly in the south near Trier with a stop near Frankfurt and one near Munich). The countryside was absolutely beautiful. Trier was especially terrific. The people were also very friendly as well. The lady who ran the inn near Aschaffenburg where I stayed really was exemplary of the kindness I found all around Germany. She just gave me some tea for free when I came in early to check in and I'm pretty sure I over heard her tell the maids to get my room ready (my German isn't very good, so I could only pick out some of the words). She even gave me a ride back down to the train station the next day (even though it was only a couple blocks down the street).
My only complaint was that nobody bloody let me practice any of my German! Virtually all my conversations were like
Me (In my horrible german): Gutentag. Konnen Sie...
Person: Hi, do you speak English?
Me: *shoulders fall* Yes. Is my German really that bad?
Ha, I lived in Erlangen for a few years before the US Army base closed - 1992 to 1994 (6th through 8th grade). Went to visit one of the local schools one day. Beautiful city, I really loved it. Then I moved on to Giebelstadt - my main memory of that place was the two-story mural of Hasselhoff in the town square (no joke - this was 1995, so probably the zenith of his popularity).
Thinks that I relate to modern Germany:
Turks
McCarthief
Overpriced, overrated cars
Discotheques, Discotecas, whatever they're called
Gay porn, and other strange processed meats
Dubious censorship
and Merkel . . .
I once went to Switzerland. I would like to retire there. How do Germans view the Swiss? Der Schweitze.
ps. Declensions are so 1000+ years ago. Tell your language to get with modern trends - right now German is on par with Romanian and Icelandic. (Declensions are the reason why I'd study French over German if I go for a third, otherwise I'd pick German though o.0)
German doesn't arbitrarily assign gender to nouns though, right?
edit: also, Russian declines as well. I believe that most if not all Slavic languages do.
I believe they do.
da.