I'm glad you said ''they're all taught the same language at school'' rather than ''they all speak the same language'' because in many ways Bavarian German differs more from Hochdeutsch than Afrikaans from Dutch.
On the subject of withdrawing cash at a supermarket: In most cases this is only possible using a German bank card ("Girokarte"). However, some chains (e.g. Aldi Süd) will let you do this with a credit card.
I never knew the later. As somebody living in germany that does _not_ have german bank card, it is sometimes cumbersome. Especially if you have cash and want to put it into your bank account. For example, as far as I know, in Berlin, there is _one_ ATM that lets you deposit cash for free onto a DKB account.
I'm going to test this for you this afternoon when I go to Aldi in Kulmbach. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they take my Visa. Regarding "credit" cards in general, I've asked Germans if they've ever considered why they're called "Kreditkarten" to begin with. In my experience, most aren't even aware that you can build up a line of credit with them, and are shocked when I tell them about the exorbitant interest charged for the privilege. We pay our Visa monthly, as do all Germans that I'm aware of.
Honestly, I loved the service on Amtrak trains. I travelled twice from Miami to New York City, and I found the service better thanon many European train services.
I wasn't aware it's supposed to be bad. I took the North Eastern Regional twice. NYC - DC, DC - NYC. It was... unremarkable? Could have been a German IC, really. Guess I picked the one line with decent service. 🤷♂️
@@vrenak Correct. I didn't look up the "biography" of Elbphilharmonie, and I seem to be, after all, under the influence of the myth of German efficiency and perfect organization. Perhaps because I live in Zagreb - our new shiny concert hall stayed half completed for a decade (it finally turned out quite nicely.)
~ 3:05 - Having originated from the very south, that "traditional German dress" is actually more common in Austria. I _have_ seen dirndl-clad ladies in Vienna metro on workdays, and whole families in traditional dress (although male dress does not include lederhosen) on Sundays.
"germans don't usually dress up in Lederhosen and Dirndls" is a bit of an understatement lol i guess less than 10% of germans wear them on like 2 days per year. besides the very south of germany it's basically just as much a foreign tradition as it is in the US. people don't even wear the local variant of traditional dresses and instead wear the bavarian ones.
@@robertwilloughby8050 i had to google what that is lol well.. it seems to be a thing is parts of bavaria and austria but it's definitely not commonly worn in most regions of germany.
@@robertwilloughby8050 It is a bit more common in Bavaria. Especially if people want to dress nice for an event with local flair. If you are living in the US: What do people wear when watching a rodeo? What does the mayor or the Senator visiting his constituency wear? (Yes, I know, most people in the US never have seen a rodeo. But it is a very local tradition)
Great video as always, danke! I loved the "they're taught the same language in school" 😅 but expected you to follow up with something like, in daily life, not many Germans actually speak that version of the language and visitors will be confronted with a massive variety of dialects.
"the one thing they have in common, they speak the same language - this is the original, very definition of being german: our own word for "german" is "deutsch", from the ancient german word "tiudescu", which means "one who speaks the common language"".
I would say the most common thing to realize is "Germany is heterogenous." Landscape, dialect, words, tone of voice, temperature/weather, reliability of public transport are all very much regional. If you like flat landscapes go to the north, if you like mountains go toward the south, if you like industrial areas go west, if you like vast landscapes of agriculture go east, if you like dialects go anywhere but north-east or west, if you like traditional dresses go far south, etc. Or for cities: if you like cultural pluralism and huge cities visit Berlin, if you like mid-size cities that look like from the middle age visit Heidelberg, if you like skyscrapers visit Frankfurt am Main, if you like maritime flair visit Rostock, if you like ancient Roman history visit Trier, if you like waterways visit Hamburg, etc. Germany is very diversified in about everything.
4:10 at "Konsum" stores (most likely found in east germany, i think) you can withdraw cash no matter how much you buy, just take a pack of chewing gum or something. A life hack i did not know until i worked there.
"who are taught the same language in school" is so important too. If you put one person each from the far noth, the east, west and south of Germany in a room and expect them to talk about something, you may not believe them to use the same language. (And they may not believe it either, one of the German national sports is debating what the proper name of common food items are. We have at least a dozen terms for breadrolls 😂)
@@johnhockenhull2819 my comment was supposed to indicate that people some people from Hamburg, Leipzig, Mainz and Munich would be better equipped to talk in English than German
@@johnhockenhull2819 for the word "bread roll" itself, not for all the different types of bread rolls !? many decades ago when i was a little child, i went to play with other children on a (mostly german) capsite in italy, when all the german states had summer school holidays. when i returned to my parents in the evening, i told them (of course in german, as a child): "that must all have been foreigners. i couldn't understand anything."
It is sad to see Germany in decline these days. Ideology rules over reason. I was proud to have studied in Germany many years ago, loved their punctuality, especially the trains.... but today I don't know if I would choose Germany again. And honestly.... Some of my old university friends (Germans) have left the country.
@@hassanalihusseini1717 Idealogy? The real answer is much simpler: It is all about money. The decline of some areas started when they had been privatized. It is just a silly expectation to earn a bunch of money with public transport but they still try it with minimum staff, reduced maintenance, low wages etc. Almost everybody knew the bad example of British Railroads but Germans obviously thought they are smarter and started the same mistake during the 90th.
@@coffeecigarettes9422no, it’s obviously because you don’t support open bigotry. If you just went back to wild discrimination, the trains would run on time. Yeah. Sure.
Love your videos. How about eating out. Breakfast ideas, lunch and dinner. Maybe even get to show off a good restaurant or two.What to order what not to order. Tipping, drinking customs, etc.
Good points! Contactless payment is making strides here, "thanks" to the recent pandemic. Still, I'm repeating my advice that you should have some cash (say, 10 to 20 Euros) at hand BEFORE you leave your point of entry (train station, airport, public border station). It will spare you the surprise to be unable to buy a bottle of water or similar at the "wrong" grocery store.
4:59 no need to compare it to Japanese trains. just have look over the border to Switzerland and despair when you compare DB with the very punctual, clean and efficient SBB
I left the U.S. for a trip to Germany 4 or 5 years ago with only credit cards--no cash. I had a very hard time with our chip-enabled but signature verified credit cards. 80% of the time, as the PIN verified cards used by the rest of the world were expected, my cards failed. Plus, I found no ATMs or banks that would give me cash for my credit cards to solve my problem. If not for Euro cash loans from my German friends, I would have been returning early. For Americans, cash is still required, unless things have changed since then.
I guess the problem was your card not being compatible with German checkout systems. I go around using my debit card only most of the time, and that works fine almost everywhere.
Absolutely. Cash is really important here. Germany is completely backward in this regard. It's definitely not improving but still very spotty and arbitrary. I would never just assume that a place will take a credit card. Our German EC cards are taken virtually everywhere these days, though, and that's what we use most of the time.
@@xaverlustig3581 I don't remember fully, but I think I had left my debit card at home on that trip. It may have been the solution if I had brought it. My mistake!
Even if you plan the trip badly and drive from here to there, just imagine though, you are still seeing more of Germany along the way. As a tourist when you are driving in Germany do play German folklore songs. It'll make your fun trip through Germany even more fun.
From the Autobahn? If that's all you see, you're going to get the impression that Germany is just ugly and boring. Now, if you take the Landstraßen, you might get a much better idea of what there is to see, but you're also going to make extremely slow progress getting from A to B
1:01 instantly recognized Emden! I didn't expect to see it in this list at all. Fun fact: Emden had the most civilian air-raid-bunkers per capita of any city in Germany during the second world war. Some of them still exist, one of them is a bunker museum now which is worth a visit (once it re-opens later this year)
Since Andrew didn't label them I would expect a kind German to provide the list of places for the photos he chose. My limited knowledge of Germany only allows me to say number 3 is Hamburg... with a 90% chance of certainty.
@@soundscape26 As far as I can recognise: 1:01 - Emden city center, looking at the Rathausplatz, the old city hall, and the former lightship "Deutsche Bucht", now a museum and restaurant. Photo taken around christmas time, that's why the trees are covered in lights 1:04 - Pottenstein in northern Bavaria 1:06 - Hamburg, at Landungsbrücken looking towards the Elbphilharmonie 1:08 - I don't know where this is. My guess is that it's somewhere in Brandenburg or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They are famous for lakes like this. For example near the city of Potsdam, and the Mecklenburger Seenplatte/Mecklenburg Lake Plateau 1:10 - This one feels like I should recognise it, but I don't 1:12 - Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen 1:14 - I don't recognise the city 1:16 - Chalk cliffs on the Baltic Sea coast, probably on the island of Rügen 1:18 - I don't recognise the city 1:20 - "Zeche Zollverein" in Essen. A defunct coal mine, now an industrial heritage museum. While you're in the area, there is another museum of an old steel mill in the Landschaftspark Duisburg
@@namewarvergeben 1:10 is Paderborn, but by far not the most iconic spot we have. It was taken on the Domplatz (cathedral square), but it shows the Gaukirche (some other church). Looking to the left you'd see the Paderborner Dom (Paderborn cathedral).
Well, here in Upper Austria I would advise carrying enough cash to pay for your breakfast. We took a couple of friends - visiting from England - to a lovely riverside café in Salzburg, and our friends very kindly offered to pay for breakfast for the four of us, using a bank card. Which is fair enough, this pretty much always works in England. But it turned out that this café accepted payment in cash only. Fortunately, I had a wad of cash with me so I paid with folding money and everybody left the café full and happy.
To be fair though, the few times that I did not have cash on me and they did not accept cards, it was not an issue to run to an ATM and withdraw some cash and then come back and pay. People are pretty used to that I think :)
You forgot to mention that cashless payments are often done with either domestic Maestro cards or contactless through phone. International credit/debit cards like MasterCard and Visa are not accepted in many places, or even most.
All places I've been to in the major cities I've visited seemed to take MasterCard and Visa just fine (and contactless primarily). Not sure about smaller towns. I've been to a coooooouple smaller towns and they seem to, at least. Only seen one or two places thus far which seemed to only take Maestro or EC.
Right now I am in Germany for holiday. Just today, I saw some children play on the tracks in Jünkerath (Vulkaneifel) which makes me suspect that the floods of summer 2021 are still being dealt with.
From my personal experience in many places there is a minimum amount for card payments, usually 10 Euros, so when having to pay less than that you have no choice but cash.
That's true, although many shops having those kind of rules are starting to change. The main reason for the minimum amount of 10€ is that small shops and restaurants don't want to pay fees to banks when accepting card payments. Especially large supermarkets stopped with this "10-€-Rule" years ago and (for German standards) many small shops are following this trend 🎉😂
It is now easy to forget that Berlin was once very central in Germany, almost half way between Strassburg and Koenigsberg, both of which I have managed to visit even though they are no longer in Germany. The dialects are also very different and it was Martin Luther who brought many of the dialects together into the printed bible.
Thanks for your entertaining video which was interesting to watch also for me as a German native. By the way, why can I understand your English so well?
Because this man is a British-born immigrant to Germany who has archieved double citizenship. He's happily married to a Bavarian woman and living in a rural area wthin commuting distance of Aschaffenburg
#5 definitely got me. I'm a New Zealander and I was taking a 1 month train tour around Europe by myself. I came to Germany from the Netherlands, where everything pretty much felt like easy mode. I bought a bike in Arnhem and tried to take it between Bonn and Hamburg. Got stopped from boarding at 10am and told I needed a bike reservation, which surprised me as the S- and U-bahn had always let me on with my bike. Paid 15 euros to get the next available one - 6 hours later. I decided to try hide my big bag so I didn't have to carry all my spare clothes and heavy gifts around while I got something to eat. It got stolen. Turns out, crime is more common than I thought. This included my medication. I was pretty distraught, but I made it back to the train platform 15 minutes early, put myself and my bike right at the position indicated on my ticket and the overhead displays. The train pulls up a couple minutes late and sails right past the point it was meant to stop at. The bike carriage is about halfway down the platform from where I am, and there are people pouring out of the train that just stopped. I rush as fast as I can down the platform carrying my bag and pushing my bike through the throng, and within 30 seconds or so I make it there as the train starts to call for doors to close. I shout out to beg the door lady to hold the door. She flatly declares I am too late. I descend into a dark state of panic and rage. I have lost everything. I am going to be stuck in Bonn overnight and there's no way DB will refund my reservation on the basis that they pulled up at the wrong spot and didn't let me board. I have no cash to pay for the toilets so I have to piss in the street. My AirBnB is already booked in Hamburg. I decide to give in to my primal need to lash out. I drop my bag and begin to march my bike ahead of the now-accelerating train. I yeet that fucking bike with all my might onto the tracks at the end of the platform and force the train to stop. Needless to say, I was not taken aboard, and was in fact taken to hospital for psych evaluation and an interview with the police. I ended up getting off without charges. Frankly, I think there was a cultural understanding of how enraging the Bahn can be, especially for a lone tourist out of his depth. Do I regret it? Well, I wouldn't try travel with a personal bike by train anywhere in Germany that I've been. Hamburg has free 30 minute city bike rentals, ironically provided by DB, so use those instead of carrying an albatross around your neck.
Ooh, you don't have to go to Japan to have awesome train systems. Just take a trip to Switzerland. Agreed, the Swiss trains may not be as fancy as the Japanese, but the reliability is usually off the scales good. Greetz from a German in Hamburg, which has essentially been shut down today due to the general strike by Ver.di and co. On Saturday a few jokers from the Klimakleber glued themselves to the Elbbrücken, which are THE central bridges into the east of Hamburg. If they do that again today, the traffic jam is going to reach historical proportions.
@@ppd3bw Yes, I think he did a good job with the current lighting setup, it gives the videos a more moody vibe but I'm sensible to the reasons that forced him to go with artificial lighting instead of natural one. That said, I will remember the good old window from time to time.
I would like to remind you of the strike next Monday 27. March If you then try to take the bus and train, good luck. If you want to take the car, be patient.
Oh shoot, I just realized something when you said our rail networks are running less optimal: I feel bad for the families that decided to have a visit in Germany starting this Monday... Must have been fun for them...
AFAIK it's not true that you can get cash at the supermarket checkout if buying enough stuff and paying with credit card. This is only true for Girocard, a German debit card system. And some German direct banks (which have less ATMs) have their system for their customers e.g. with showing a code in an app at the supermarket checkout. But as bigger the supermarket is, as more close is usually the next ATM by a bank that is well known in Germany. Careful, their're also ATM obviously not operated by such a bank. Usually the fees are extremely high then. But it must be possible to see the fees before actually getting money.
@@rewboss Which supermarket chain? I didn't do much research now, but I can only remember signs at supermarket checkouts only mentioning Girocard in that context. E.g. Kaufland and Edeka are clearly saying on their websites "only with Girocard" (just paying the stuff is ok with credit card). I just found Aldi Süd also saying "Debit- oder Kreditkarte (MasterCard, VISA, Diners Club, Discover)" in that context. But I'm usually not even one time per year there. PS: Usually that's limited to 200EUR cash. But it's hard to create a situation where an average tourist has to pay immediately 200EUR and credit card is not accepted :-)
@@rewboss just as with everything else (dialect, culture, landscape) everything else also can be quite different from one location to the next, also from one supermarket to the next, and even in the same city and even if they belong to the same chain. to be "better safe than sorry", ask about payment/withdrawal and credit/debit card use on entering a shop that you don't know already.
i tried to make a list where to go in Germany to show around family from the USA, Schleswig-Holstein and Niedersachsen would be 3 weeks and you wouldnt see everything... and there would be Hamburg between them...!
So many Americans think, "Germany," and think, "Beer! Hofbrauhaus!" [misspelling intentional]. And they think "wine==boujie". But they also know _nothing whatsoever_ about Jungwein and how Absolutely Hammered you can get in that stuff if you're not careful!
2:03 Yes, European countries are small on a worldwide scale but Germany is one of the biggest countries on a European scale. European countries aren't super tiny but about equal to US States.
@@RustyDust101 Ne Schweizer, der sich durch das vorhanden sein der Alpen im Heimatland über Deutschland lustig macht, da ihr kaum Berge habt. Mehr so ein Witz ist nicht ernst gemeint
3:25 the modern version of the dirndl with the bigger neckline was by the way designed in Nazi-germany. Because symbolization of fertility of the german mother or something, totally not out of other more profane reasons :D
"not everything in Germany runs smoothly" - uploaded about 5 hours before the start of one of the largest strikes in the history of German traffic infrastructure.
I must confess, I often say that the Deutsche Bahn makes you reconcile with the SNCF :) (I'm french with a german mother and I live near Strasbourg, I used to think "germans do better" but not anymore)
a refreshingly traditional expat video. German trains have been better in the past, and trains are better in most neighbouring countries. the big minus is mobile internet availability. Better than in the US worse than in China, a lot worse, Austria, Switzerland. my mobile experience on the go in these countries is worse than that of Wifi in the home of German friends. that's my rant.
Free wifi has been a thing, but mobile subscriptions now include really a lot of data and it no longer is worth logging into possible free networks. That data packages are also valid throughout the EU and some other countries with no extra cost. Mobile service in urban areas is usually not too bad, even though 5G is not available everywhere.
"Most neighboring countries" is a bold claim. France is pretty much the only neighboring country with a large comprehensive high speed rail network in which trains can travel at speed for considerable distances.
@@ohauss The problem isn't so much the existence of high speed rail, but the quality and frequency of service, not mentioning punctuality. German trains are becoming worse and worse in those domains.
As a german I sadly have to correct you on the point of the Lederhosen and Dirndl. This is occuring in Bavaria and maybe Baden Würtemberg. I think no other region is doing this at all or even wearing any traditional clothing for any special date except your are maybe a member of a traditional costume association and even there, these Lederhosen and Dirndl's are absolute fixed to the southern parts of Germany or maybe even Austria. I think this missconception is coming from Bavaria being a part of the american occupied zone after the end of WW2 and has spread with them all around the world.
As a foreigner who is interested in Germany, I find this informative! I wasn't planning a trip, but if I ever do, I'll find it useful! After all, just as a drive from San Diego, California (my home city) to Arizona would take a few hours, so too would Berlin to Hamburg be a few hour drive. I'll also remember the variety. Thanks for the video!
Though it's also fun to note that's is a very reasonable trip from Hamburg to Berlin. I take both bus and train back and forth between the two about every other week. It's about 2 hours by train (ICE, which is the high speed rail, but also Flixtrain, which is slightly slower, still only adds about half an hour). By bus it's about 3 hours 45 minutes. Very doable, particularly if you plan it right, even for just a day trip. Personally I'd recommend a weekend trip for anyone taking that option though, as you'll likely feel you spent a little less time crossing a country instead of actually seeing it.
How much Steuer do you pay for after TH-cam monetises you? I am just curious about Steuer in general Do you do your Steuererklärung by yourself or you pay someone to do it? How many Steuer Klassen are? How they differ from each other? Danke!
Most people forget that Germany is a rather new country, ~100 years younger than the US, for example. At the end of the 18th century there were the "Germanies", dozens of bigger or smaller kingdoms and principalities, independent cities and abbeys - and you can still clearly see that today in the language and culture.
I would estimate that more than 95% of Germans have never worn a (Bavarian) Lederhose in their entire life. Also, I'm such a German who will say German railway services suck so bad, I stopped using it whenever it is avoidable. And I say that as someone who doesn't own a car or any other motored vehicle. German railway was ok, but since the privatization it is becoming worse each year. My recommendation: Rent a car, as sad at it is.
Have the migrants from a few years ago all settled into German life? NYTimes does not print any stories on ethnic relations in Germany. Do Germans talk in public forums about immigration and its affect on social cohesion?
Migration has always been a topic in German discourses, beginning at the arrival of the first "Gastarbeiter" post WWII from Italy and Turkey till the recent migration of people fleeing Ukraine. Many regions and cities in Germany, especially high populated and economic powerful ones in West Germany like Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg have always been multicultural hotspots with a wide mixture of native Germans and people migrated from other countries. Regarding refugee migration, mainly from Syria in 2015 and Ukraine in 2022, those multicultural hotspots didn't change much, while some residents of rural areas, especially in the former GDR, are raising concerns about migration and integration. It is interesting to see that discourses about migration mainly rise in regions in Germany where there isn't a history of migration, mostly due to historic differences between the FRG and GDR and differences between rural and urban regions, as well as the economic gap between West and East Germany.
Me: "Mh, maybe he's right. Maybe the train situation isn't the worst here." My girlfriend: "Babe, I'm not gonna go to uni tomorrow." Me: "Oh no, what's wrong? Are you sick??" My gf: "Trains are striking, randomly." Me: "......welll."
@@Alias_Anybody In German and European terminology it is a mountain. Mountain ranges from around 200 to 1000m are called "Mittelgebirge" in Germany, literally medium mountain range. In German geographic terminology these are not hills, but mountain ranges.
Cash, yes or no. One thing most people are not aware of: How can you teach children a) what money is b) how to handle it .?? - Children more & more are the victims of modern life...
Unfortunately the train services are declining in Germany (may be you could compare it a little bit to British services after privatisation). But comparing German Railways to Japanese Railways is a little bit unfair. The High Velocity Trains in Japan have their own network, not to be disturbed by local or godds trains.
Beware, that cash is still king when it comes to nightlife, there are a lot of bars, even in big touristy cities, that don't accept cards. In theory they are obliged to inform you about that via a sign at the door, but in practice they don't care ;)
The thing about stereotypes, is that they're based on reality. They may become outdated, but they are or were true at one point at least from a certain point of view. And yes, Germany is very big.
yes, and besides all the regional stereotypes that we have ourselves (poking fun at all the other regions), there are the general stereotypes that many tourists have and that mostly are wrong since most of them originate from "after war times" when americans had occupied mostly bavaria, and thus spread their knowledge from that time about that culture and landscapes as "german culture", which most germans don't agree with.
Ahm, not quite. They may have been true for some regions, but that doesn't mean they have been true for everywhere. E.g. when Texan "Germans" celebrate their German heritage with lederhosen and Oktoberfest, despite the fact that many of the German settlers in Texas didn't come from Bavaria, these "traditions" aren't really based on the real traditions of their ancestors.
I hold to the 30% rule. Roughly 30% of people will fulfill the stereotype, another 30% will be the exact opposite and the final 30% will land somewhere in the middle. Totally unscientific and possibly pure bollocks, but it works for me.
How do you see it? Are you happy about going cashless? (A little intelligence test, since today's world is obviously not in a good state in this respect either.)
Why? Having been born and raised in Germany, I found all of his information accurate. For example, my favourite spot in terms of language and culture is the Baltic Coast, even though the Alps are undeniably more famous.
I've still got my 40 year-old "Kenner Rauchen Württemberger" decal on my guitar case, right next to the priceless "Oinr isch emmr dr Arsch" sticker from Schwoissfuass, who would never have been caught dead wearing a Lodenjacke while munching on factory chickens at the local Gummi-Wald.
I'm glad you said ''they're all taught the same language at school'' rather than ''they all speak the same language'' because in many ways Bavarian German differs more from Hochdeutsch than Afrikaans from Dutch.
On the subject of withdrawing cash at a supermarket: In most cases this is only possible using a German bank card ("Girokarte"). However, some chains (e.g. Aldi Süd) will let you do this with a credit card.
I would avoid using a credit card to withdraw cash. I would use a debit card... Credit cards can be a bit expensive for cash withdrawals...
I never knew the later. As somebody living in germany that does _not_ have german bank card, it is sometimes cumbersome. Especially if you have cash and want to put it into your bank account.
For example, as far as I know, in Berlin, there is _one_ ATM that lets you deposit cash for free onto a DKB account.
@@chapmanvernon999 Get a different cedit card; mine offers free cash withdrawals, in Germany and abroad.
I'm going to test this for you this afternoon when I go to Aldi in Kulmbach. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they take my Visa.
Regarding "credit" cards in general, I've asked Germans if they've ever considered why they're called "Kreditkarten" to begin with. In my experience, most aren't even aware that you can build up a line of credit with them, and are shocked when I tell them about the exorbitant interest charged for the privilege.
We pay our Visa monthly, as do all Germans that I'm aware of.
@@chofmann I'm curious to why you wouldn't have an EC card?
Indeed, the advantage of being used to Amtrak is that _anything_ is an improvement in quality of life and service.
Speaking as a Canadian, VIA makes Amtrak look good.
Honestly, I loved the service on Amtrak trains. I travelled twice from Miami to New York City, and I found the service better thanon many European train services.
I wasn't aware it's supposed to be bad. I took the North Eastern Regional twice. NYC - DC, DC - NYC. It was... unremarkable? Could have been a German IC, really.
Guess I picked the one line with decent service. 🤷♂️
@@gesamtszenario The DC - NYC corridor is the best case scenario for experiencing Amtrak.
@@pooki-dooki And the second-best is Amtrak California, the Cascades, or the Illinois or Michigan services.
1:06 - Ah, Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall in Hamburg built atop an old warehouse. Even some cranes were retained. Spectacular!
And definitely, thanks to German engineering and efficiency, was completed on time and on budget....
@@vrenak Well, look up the sad story of Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
@@bazoo513 I take it you didn't catch the sarcasm.
@@vrenak Correct. I didn't look up the "biography" of Elbphilharmonie, and I seem to be, after all, under the influence of the myth of German efficiency and perfect organization. Perhaps because I live in Zagreb - our new shiny concert hall stayed half completed for a decade (it finally turned out quite nicely.)
And there are many other traditional clothings in other areas outside of the south of Bavaria that are worth to take a look at.
~ 3:05 - Having originated from the very south, that "traditional German dress" is actually more common in Austria. I _have_ seen dirndl-clad ladies in Vienna metro on workdays, and whole families in traditional dress (although male dress does not include lederhosen) on Sundays.
It was known from the beginning that express trains ICE were not part and won’t be part of either the 9 Euro or the 49 euro ticket.
"germans don't usually dress up in Lederhosen and Dirndls" is a bit of an understatement lol i guess less than 10% of germans wear them on like 2 days per year. besides the very south of germany it's basically just as much a foreign tradition as it is in the US. people don't even wear the local variant of traditional dresses and instead wear the bavarian ones.
British don't normally dress as Morris Men either :-)
What about the Loden jacket then? Is that a bit more common?
@@robertwilloughby8050 i had to google what that is lol well.. it seems to be a thing is parts of bavaria and austria but it's definitely not commonly worn in most regions of germany.
@@robertwilloughby8050 It is a bit more common in Bavaria. Especially if people want to dress nice for an event with local flair.
If you are living in the US: What do people wear when watching a rodeo? What does the mayor or the Senator visiting his constituency wear? (Yes, I know, most people in the US never have seen a rodeo. But it is a very local tradition)
@@Steve14ps No?
Great video as always, danke!
I loved the "they're taught the same language in school" 😅 but expected you to follow up with something like, in daily life, not many Germans actually speak that version of the language and visitors will be confronted with a massive variety of dialects.
"the one thing they have in common, they speak the same language - this is the original, very definition of being german: our own word for "german" is "deutsch", from the ancient german word "tiudescu", which means "one who speaks the common language"".
Yes, but there are also austrians and swiss people and some minorities in other countries.
Hmm… ok. But like, I’ve met people from Bavaria, and they didn’t sound like they were speaking German at all.
1:04 Tüchersfeld, Fränkische Schweiz Museum. Nice!
I would say the most common thing to realize is "Germany is heterogenous." Landscape, dialect, words, tone of voice, temperature/weather, reliability of public transport are all very much regional. If you like flat landscapes go to the north, if you like mountains go toward the south, if you like industrial areas go west, if you like vast landscapes of agriculture go east, if you like dialects go anywhere but north-east or west, if you like traditional dresses go far south, etc. Or for cities: if you like cultural pluralism and huge cities visit Berlin, if you like mid-size cities that look like from the middle age visit Heidelberg, if you like skyscrapers visit Frankfurt am Main, if you like maritime flair visit Rostock, if you like ancient Roman history visit Trier, if you like waterways visit Hamburg, etc. Germany is very diversified in about everything.
@5:12 Everybody's experience is different and it is nice that it is still manageable for you.
Like you, I have lived in Germany for many years. I find this list to be very informative and thorough.
4:10 at "Konsum" stores (most likely found in east germany, i think) you can withdraw cash no matter how much you buy, just take a pack of chewing gum or something. A life hack i did not know until i worked there.
"who are taught the same language in school" is so important too. If you put one person each from the far noth, the east, west and south of Germany in a room and expect them to talk about something, you may not believe them to use the same language.
(And they may not believe it either, one of the German national sports is debating what the proper name of common food items are. We have at least a dozen terms for breadrolls 😂)
English classes are pretty solid these days
@@fionafiona1146 But we also have many names for bread rolls in the UK
@@johnhockenhull2819 my comment was supposed to indicate that people some people from Hamburg, Leipzig, Mainz and Munich would be better equipped to talk in English than German
@@johnhockenhull2819 for the word "bread roll" itself, not for all the different types of bread rolls !?
many decades ago when i was a little child, i went to play with other children on a (mostly german) capsite in italy, when all the german states had summer school holidays. when i returned to my parents in the evening, i told them (of course in german, as a child): "that must all have been foreigners. i couldn't understand anything."
@@Anson_AKB Yes. Bread Roll, Cob, Bap, Barm Cakes, Bun and many more. They all mean bread roll. Different words with the same meaning.
@4:50 "the railsystem is running ... let's say 'less then perfectly' .." british way of politely saying 'bad' 🤣
Would have been worse if he said "the rail system is not a disaster" which means, yes, it's not a disaster, it's much worse than that
It is sad to see Germany in decline these days. Ideology rules over reason.
I was proud to have studied in Germany many years ago, loved their punctuality, especially the trains.... but today I don't know if I would choose Germany again.
And honestly.... Some of my old university friends (Germans) have left the country.
@@hassanalihusseini1717 Idealogy? The real answer is much simpler: It is all about money. The decline of some areas started when they had been privatized. It is just a silly expectation to earn a bunch of money with public transport but they still try it with minimum staff, reduced maintenance, low wages etc. Almost everybody knew the bad example of British Railroads but Germans obviously thought they are smarter and started the same mistake during the 90th.
@@coffeecigarettes9422no, it’s obviously because you don’t support open bigotry. If you just went back to wild discrimination, the trains would run on time. Yeah. Sure.
Love your videos. How about eating out. Breakfast ideas, lunch and dinner. Maybe even get to show off a good restaurant or two.What to order what not to order. Tipping, drinking customs, etc.
Thank you very much about this clarification!🙂
A funny video to watch while travelling from Berlin to Munich :)
Good points!
Contactless payment is making strides here, "thanks" to the recent pandemic. Still, I'm repeating my advice that you should have some cash (say, 10 to 20 Euros) at hand BEFORE you leave your point of entry (train station, airport, public border station). It will spare you the surprise to be unable to buy a bottle of water or similar at the "wrong" grocery store.
Pandemic? You probably watch too much TV.
@@worldhello1234 dont be so open minded that your brain falls out
4:59 no need to compare it to Japanese trains. just have look over the border to Switzerland and despair when you compare DB with the very punctual, clean and efficient SBB
I left the U.S. for a trip to Germany 4 or 5 years ago with only credit cards--no cash. I had a very hard time with our chip-enabled but signature verified credit cards. 80% of the time, as the PIN verified cards used by the rest of the world were expected, my cards failed. Plus, I found no ATMs or banks that would give me cash for my credit cards to solve my problem. If not for Euro cash loans from my German friends, I would have been returning early.
For Americans, cash is still required, unless things have changed since then.
I guess the problem was your card not being compatible with German checkout systems. I go around using my debit card only most of the time, and that works fine almost everywhere.
"with our" -> "without", I guess?
Absolutely. Cash is really important here. Germany is completely backward in this regard. It's definitely not improving but still very spotty and arbitrary. I would never just assume that a place will take a credit card.
Our German EC cards are taken virtually everywhere these days, though, and that's what we use most of the time.
@@xaverlustig3581 I don't remember fully, but I think I had left my debit card at home on that trip. It may have been the solution if I had brought it. My mistake!
You can almost pay anything by card (debit) , even the hairdresser (visa /mastercard I tested). Not sure about credit cards, I don't use them
Even if you plan the trip badly and drive from here to there, just imagine though, you are still seeing more of Germany along the way.
As a tourist when you are driving in Germany do play German folklore songs. It'll make your fun trip through Germany even more fun.
Hoch auf dem gel-ben Wa-a-gen
sitz' ich beim Schwager vorn...
Auf der schwäb'sche Eisabahna gibt's gar viele Restauratione..
To be fair, the Autobahn is probably where you'll see least of Germany, unless you like noise screens...
@@barvdw *German noise screens!
From the Autobahn? If that's all you see, you're going to get the impression that Germany is just ugly and boring.
Now, if you take the Landstraßen, you might get a much better idea of what there is to see, but you're also going to make extremely slow progress getting from A to B
I found this year that lots of places including many Edekas don't let u use Visa cards and mostly demand some EC one.
1:01 instantly recognized Emden! I didn't expect to see it in this list at all.
Fun fact: Emden had the most civilian air-raid-bunkers per capita of any city in Germany during the second world war. Some of them still exist, one of them is a bunker museum now which is worth a visit (once it re-opens later this year)
Emder represent. Had the same reaction as you
That one was a bit of a surprise. Not a sight that comes up often outside of East Frisia.
Since Andrew didn't label them I would expect a kind German to provide the list of places for the photos he chose. My limited knowledge of Germany only allows me to say number 3 is Hamburg... with a 90% chance of certainty.
@@soundscape26 As far as I can recognise:
1:01 - Emden city center, looking at the Rathausplatz, the old city hall, and the former lightship "Deutsche Bucht", now a museum and restaurant. Photo taken around christmas time, that's why the trees are covered in lights
1:04 - Pottenstein in northern Bavaria
1:06 - Hamburg, at Landungsbrücken looking towards the Elbphilharmonie
1:08 - I don't know where this is. My guess is that it's somewhere in Brandenburg or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They are famous for lakes like this. For example near the city of Potsdam, and the Mecklenburger Seenplatte/Mecklenburg Lake Plateau
1:10 - This one feels like I should recognise it, but I don't
1:12 - Porsche Museum in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen
1:14 - I don't recognise the city
1:16 - Chalk cliffs on the Baltic Sea coast, probably on the island of Rügen
1:18 - I don't recognise the city
1:20 - "Zeche Zollverein" in Essen. A defunct coal mine, now an industrial heritage museum. While you're in the area, there is another museum of an old steel mill in the Landschaftspark Duisburg
@@namewarvergeben 1:10 is Paderborn, but by far not the most iconic spot we have. It was taken on the Domplatz (cathedral square), but it shows the Gaukirche (some other church). Looking to the left you'd see the Paderborner Dom (Paderborn cathedral).
Come to visit Switzerland! It's a kind of a performance here!
Well, here in Upper Austria I would advise carrying enough cash to pay for your breakfast. We took a couple of friends - visiting from England - to a lovely riverside café in Salzburg, and our friends very kindly offered to pay for breakfast for the four of us, using a bank card. Which is fair enough, this pretty much always works in England. But it turned out that this café accepted payment in cash only. Fortunately, I had a wad of cash with me so I paid with folding money and everybody left the café full and happy.
To be fair though, the few times that I did not have cash on me and they did not accept cards, it was not an issue to run to an ATM and withdraw some cash and then come back and pay. People are pretty used to that I think :)
You forgot to mention that cashless payments are often done with either domestic Maestro cards or contactless through phone. International credit/debit cards like MasterCard and Visa are not accepted in many places, or even most.
Maestro is being phased out and replaced by Mastercard debit cards. And actually most places in my experience do accept both Mastercard and Visa.
All places I've been to in the major cities I've visited seemed to take MasterCard and Visa just fine (and contactless primarily). Not sure about smaller towns. I've been to a coooooouple smaller towns and they seem to, at least. Only seen one or two places thus far which seemed to only take Maestro or EC.
What do you think people are using for contactless payment...? Just set it up, should be rare to have a phone that doesn't support NFC these days.
I recognized Franconian Switzerland. I think the town of Pottenstein was depicted.
Right now I am in Germany for holiday. Just today, I saw some children play on the tracks in Jünkerath (Vulkaneifel) which makes me suspect that the floods of summer 2021 are still being dealt with.
From my personal experience in many places there is a minimum amount for card payments, usually 10 Euros, so when having to pay less than that you have no choice but cash.
wrong
@@weinhainde2550 Correct. Perhaps not many but still enough. And some will only take Bankcard(Maestro...) and no Creditcard.
@@reinhard8053 🙂
That's true, although many shops having those kind of rules are starting to change. The main reason for the minimum amount of 10€ is that small shops and restaurants don't want to pay fees to banks when accepting card payments. Especially large supermarkets stopped with this "10-€-Rule" years ago and (for German standards) many small shops are following this trend 🎉😂
10€? That seems high and maybe a little outdated to me. But it's all so arbitrary and regional so could well be
What I did not know how hilly, sandy and swampy Berlin is before I moved here from Southwest Germany. Now that is the reason why I love it here.
0:40 i only saw the south germans as that. the rest i think of them as urbanised and industrialised
Such a vigorous hybrid comic, love it!
The key take away is: Germany is about average. Many things are quite good but there are others that should improve.
I always sound ethno nationalist when I try to express that
@@fionafiona1146 If you say that about another country, you are. Better to shut up, especially if you are coming from a former or falling empire.
It is now easy to forget that Berlin was once very central in Germany, almost half way between Strassburg and Koenigsberg, both of which I have managed to visit even though they are no longer in Germany. The dialects are also very different and it was Martin Luther who brought many of the dialects together into the printed bible.
Thanks for your entertaining video which was interesting to watch also for me as a German native.
By the way, why can I understand your English so well?
Because this man is a British-born immigrant to Germany who has archieved double citizenship. He's happily married to a Bavarian woman and living in a rural area wthin commuting distance of Aschaffenburg
Hey Rewboss,
How did you end up in Aschaffenburg?
I love this city! ♥️
1:04 Tüchersfeld!
#5 definitely got me. I'm a New Zealander and I was taking a 1 month train tour around Europe by myself. I came to Germany from the Netherlands, where everything pretty much felt like easy mode. I bought a bike in Arnhem and tried to take it between Bonn and Hamburg. Got stopped from boarding at 10am and told I needed a bike reservation, which surprised me as the S- and U-bahn had always let me on with my bike. Paid 15 euros to get the next available one - 6 hours later.
I decided to try hide my big bag so I didn't have to carry all my spare clothes and heavy gifts around while I got something to eat. It got stolen. Turns out, crime is more common than I thought.
This included my medication. I was pretty distraught, but I made it back to the train platform 15 minutes early, put myself and my bike right at the position indicated on my ticket and the overhead displays.
The train pulls up a couple minutes late and sails right past the point it was meant to stop at. The bike carriage is about halfway down the platform from where I am, and there are people pouring out of the train that just stopped.
I rush as fast as I can down the platform carrying my bag and pushing my bike through the throng, and within 30 seconds or so I make it there as the train starts to call for doors to close.
I shout out to beg the door lady to hold the door. She flatly declares I am too late.
I descend into a dark state of panic and rage. I have lost everything. I am going to be stuck in Bonn overnight and there's no way DB will refund my reservation on the basis that they pulled up at the wrong spot and didn't let me board. I have no cash to pay for the toilets so I have to piss in the street. My AirBnB is already booked in Hamburg.
I decide to give in to my primal need to lash out. I drop my bag and begin to march my bike ahead of the now-accelerating train. I yeet that fucking bike with all my might onto the tracks at the end of the platform and force the train to stop.
Needless to say, I was not taken aboard, and was in fact taken to hospital for psych evaluation and an interview with the police. I ended up getting off without charges. Frankly, I think there was a cultural understanding of how enraging the Bahn can be, especially for a lone tourist out of his depth. Do I regret it? Well, I wouldn't try travel with a personal bike by train anywhere in Germany that I've been. Hamburg has free 30 minute city bike rentals, ironically provided by DB, so use those instead of carrying an albatross around your neck.
If that story is true, please do not ever visit again.
You're too naive, hahaha. If you ever plan to visit a developing country, please don't do so with this unprepared mindset
@@jonas_serafin I think I sort of understand what you mean but would you be kind enough to elaborate?
I believe it
That sounds like a Nightmare, sorry for your bad experiences in Germany. Some DB workers are very helpful, others can bei really horrible.
Ooh, you don't have to go to Japan to have awesome train systems. Just take a trip to Switzerland. Agreed, the Swiss trains may not be as fancy as the Japanese, but the reliability is usually off the scales good.
Greetz from a German in Hamburg, which has essentially been shut down today due to the general strike by Ver.di and co. On Saturday a few jokers from the Klimakleber glued themselves to the Elbbrücken, which are THE central bridges into the east of Hamburg. If they do that again today, the traffic jam is going to reach historical proportions.
What do you mean by fancy?
Speaking of windows, good opportunity to say I miss seeing your other window on camera. Ok... I'll shut up for some months now. 😄
Just my thought. The lighting is OK and everything but yes, the view was great and is missed. Glad it's not just me... 🙂
@@ppd3bw Yes, I think he did a good job with the current lighting setup, it gives the videos a more moody vibe but I'm sensible to the reasons that forced him to go with artificial lighting instead of natural one. That said, I will remember the good old window from time to time.
I would like to remind you of the strike next Monday 27. March
If you then try to take the bus and train, good luck. If you want to take the car, be patient.
1:06 von den hamburger Landungsbrücken kann man bis zur Nordsee gucken. Zumindest von Brücke 1.
Otto's lighthouse 😃
Oh shoot, I just realized something when you said our rail networks are running less optimal: I feel bad for the families that decided to have a visit in Germany starting this Monday... Must have been fun for them...
AFAIK it's not true that you can get cash at the supermarket checkout if buying enough stuff and paying with credit card. This is only true for Girocard, a German debit card system. And some German direct banks (which have less ATMs) have their system for their customers e.g. with showing a code in an app at the supermarket checkout. But as bigger the supermarket is, as more close is usually the next ATM by a bank that is well known in Germany. Careful, their're also ATM obviously not operated by such a bank. Usually the fees are extremely high then. But it must be possible to see the fees before actually getting money.
I used a credit card to withdraw cash from a supermarket just yesterday.
@@rewboss Which supermarket chain? I didn't do much research now, but I can only remember signs at supermarket checkouts only mentioning Girocard in that context. E.g. Kaufland and Edeka are clearly saying on their websites "only with Girocard" (just paying the stuff is ok with credit card). I just found Aldi Süd also saying "Debit- oder Kreditkarte (MasterCard, VISA, Diners Club, Discover)" in that context. But I'm usually not even one time per year there.
PS: Usually that's limited to 200EUR cash. But it's hard to create a situation where an average tourist has to pay immediately 200EUR and credit card is not accepted :-)
@@rewboss just as with everything else (dialect, culture, landscape) everything else also can be quite different from one location to the next, also from one supermarket to the next, and even in the same city and even if they belong to the same chain.
to be "better safe than sorry", ask about payment/withdrawal and credit/debit card use on entering a shop that you don't know already.
@@youtubekommentar5494 Aldi Süd, yes. It hadn't occurred to me that this wasn't the norm.
@@rewboss Well, "again what learned" to say it in Denglish ;-)
i tried to make a list where to go in Germany to show around family from the USA, Schleswig-Holstein and Niedersachsen would be 3 weeks and you wouldnt see everything... and there would be Hamburg between them...!
Maybe a couple days on a North Sea island? Baltrum, for example
The Harz is a good place to learn about Germany. And it's not too far from Hamburg.
So many Americans think, "Germany," and think, "Beer! Hofbrauhaus!" [misspelling intentional]. And they think "wine==boujie". But they also know _nothing whatsoever_ about Jungwein and how Absolutely Hammered you can get in that stuff if you're not careful!
1:00 Well, Emden was unexpected
2:03
Yes, European countries are small on a worldwide scale but Germany is one of the biggest countries on a European scale. European countries aren't super tiny but about equal to US States.
The best match for Germany would be California. Slightly smaller, but with twice the population.
When you mentioned mountains and germany in one sentence, I was like: wich mountains?😂
The hills Flensburg is built upon?
@@KaiHenningsen yeah hills, not real mountains. But was more of a joke anyways
Norddeutscher? 😂😂
Norddeutscher? 😂😂
@@RustyDust101 Ne Schweizer, der sich durch das vorhanden sein der Alpen im Heimatland über Deutschland lustig macht, da ihr kaum Berge habt. Mehr so ein Witz ist nicht ernst gemeint
3:48... if you're going to Berlin and plan to spend any time outside of the most touristy places... you'll need huge wads of banknotes.
I would suggest to use the term, suboptimal with the deutsche Bahn. 😂
3:25 the modern version of the dirndl with the bigger neckline was by the way designed in Nazi-germany. Because symbolization of fertility of the german mother or something, totally not out of other more profane reasons :D
"not everything in Germany runs smoothly"
- uploaded about 5 hours before the start of one of the largest strikes in the history of German traffic infrastructure.
I must confess, I often say that the Deutsche Bahn makes you reconcile with the SNCF :) (I'm french with a german mother and I live near Strasbourg, I used to think "germans do better" but not anymore)
a refreshingly traditional expat video. German trains have been better in the past, and trains are better in most neighbouring countries. the big minus is mobile internet availability. Better than in the US worse than in China, a lot worse, Austria, Switzerland. my mobile experience on the go in these countries is worse than that of Wifi in the home of German friends. that's my rant.
Free wifi has been a thing, but mobile subscriptions now include really a lot of data and it no longer is worth logging into possible free networks. That data packages are also valid throughout the EU and some other countries with no extra cost. Mobile service in urban areas is usually not too bad, even though 5G is not available everywhere.
"Most neighboring countries" is a bold claim. France is pretty much the only neighboring country with a large comprehensive high speed rail network in which trains can travel at speed for considerable distances.
@@ohauss The problem isn't so much the existence of high speed rail, but the quality and frequency of service, not mentioning punctuality. German trains are becoming worse and worse in those domains.
As a german I sadly have to correct you on the point of the Lederhosen and Dirndl. This is occuring in Bavaria and maybe Baden Würtemberg. I think no other region is doing this at all or even wearing any traditional clothing for any special date except your are maybe a member of a traditional costume association and even there, these Lederhosen and Dirndl's are absolute fixed to the southern parts of Germany or maybe even Austria.
I think this missconception is coming from Bavaria being a part of the american occupied zone after the end of WW2 and has spread with them all around the world.
As a foreigner who is interested in Germany, I find this informative! I wasn't planning a trip, but if I ever do, I'll find it useful! After all, just as a drive from San Diego, California (my home city) to Arizona would take a few hours, so too would Berlin to Hamburg be a few hour drive. I'll also remember the variety. Thanks for the video!
Though it's also fun to note that's is a very reasonable trip from Hamburg to Berlin. I take both bus and train back and forth between the two about every other week. It's about 2 hours by train (ICE, which is the high speed rail, but also Flixtrain, which is slightly slower, still only adds about half an hour). By bus it's about 3 hours 45 minutes. Very doable, particularly if you plan it right, even for just a day trip. Personally I'd recommend a weekend trip for anyone taking that option though, as you'll likely feel you spent a little less time crossing a country instead of actually seeing it.
How much Steuer do you pay for after TH-cam monetises you?
I am just curious about Steuer in general
Do you do your Steuererklärung by yourself or you pay someone to do it?
How many Steuer Klassen are?
How they differ from each other?
Danke!
Most people forget that Germany is a rather new country, ~100 years younger than the US, for example. At the end of the 18th century there were the "Germanies", dozens of bigger or smaller kingdoms and principalities, independent cities and abbeys - and you can still clearly see that today in the language and culture.
Montana: 380.838 km², population 1.084.225. Germany: 357.588 km², population 84.270.625. Guess where you can find more places worth visiting?
Where?
That depends if you prefer places with lots of people or a lot of landscape with a lot of wildlife and no people...
In rough numbers? Germany of course.
You better compare Germany to California: 423.970 km², 39.538.223 people.
I would estimate that more than 95% of Germans have never worn a (Bavarian) Lederhose in their entire life. Also, I'm such a German who will say German railway services suck so bad, I stopped using it whenever it is avoidable. And I say that as someone who doesn't own a car or any other motored vehicle. German railway was ok, but since the privatization it is becoming worse each year. My recommendation: Rent a car, as sad at it is.
Have the migrants from a few years ago all settled into German life? NYTimes does not print any stories on ethnic relations in Germany. Do Germans talk in public forums about immigration and its affect on social cohesion?
Migration has always been a topic in German discourses, beginning at the arrival of the first "Gastarbeiter" post WWII from Italy and Turkey till the recent migration of people fleeing Ukraine. Many regions and cities in Germany, especially high populated and economic powerful ones in West Germany like Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg have always been multicultural hotspots with a wide mixture of native Germans and people migrated from other countries. Regarding refugee migration, mainly from Syria in 2015 and Ukraine in 2022, those multicultural hotspots didn't change much, while some residents of rural areas, especially in the former GDR, are raising concerns about migration and integration. It is interesting to see that discourses about migration mainly rise in regions in Germany where there isn't a history of migration, mostly due to historic differences between the FRG and GDR and differences between rural and urban regions, as well as the economic gap between West and East Germany.
Hallo, Andrew
Me: "Mh, maybe he's right. Maybe the train situation isn't the worst here."
My girlfriend: "Babe, I'm not gonna go to uni tomorrow."
Me: "Oh no, what's wrong? Are you sick??"
My gf: "Trains are striking, randomly."
Me: "......welll."
👍👍
Maybe 5-10% of Germany has "mountains". 60% has hills, rest is flat as a board.
Seems to be that you ignore any mountains, which dont reach say 1000 m above sea level, and and hills below say 200 m
@@ReinhardHahn-vs2dh
1000m is not a mountain, unless it literally rises from the sea.
@@Alias_Anybody In German and European terminology it is a mountain. Mountain ranges from around 200 to 1000m are called "Mittelgebirge" in Germany, literally medium mountain range. In German geographic terminology these are not hills, but mountain ranges.
Cash, yes or no. One thing most people are not aware of: How can you teach children a) what money is b) how to handle it .?? - Children more & more are the victims of modern life...
Unfortunately the train services are declining in Germany (may be you could compare it a little bit to British services after privatisation).
But comparing German Railways to Japanese Railways is a little bit unfair. The High Velocity Trains in Japan have their own network, not to be disturbed by local or godds trains.
Beware, that cash is still king when it comes to nightlife, there are a lot of bars, even in big touristy cities, that don't accept cards. In theory they are obliged to inform you about that via a sign at the door, but in practice they don't care ;)
They are not obliged to inform you. Please stop spreading misinformation on the internet.
They're not obliged to inform you they don't accept cards. They _are_ obliged to inform you if they don't accept cash, however.
Nein! Nie!
The thing about stereotypes, is that they're based on reality. They may become outdated, but they are or were true at one point at least from a certain point of view. And yes, Germany is very big.
yes, and besides all the regional stereotypes that we have ourselves (poking fun at all the other regions), there are the general stereotypes that many tourists have and that mostly are wrong since most of them originate from "after war times" when americans had occupied mostly bavaria, and thus spread their knowledge from that time about that culture and landscapes as "german culture", which most germans don't agree with.
Stereotypes are popular statistics. Which means it's still unfair to apply them to individuals.
@@HotelPapa100 not all stereotypes are popular statistic
Ahm, not quite. They may have been true for some regions, but that doesn't mean they have been true for everywhere.
E.g. when Texan "Germans" celebrate their German heritage with lederhosen and Oktoberfest, despite the fact that many of the German settlers in Texas didn't come from Bavaria, these "traditions" aren't really based on the real traditions of their ancestors.
I hold to the 30% rule. Roughly 30% of people will fulfill the stereotype, another 30% will be the exact opposite and the final 30% will land somewhere in the middle.
Totally unscientific and possibly pure bollocks, but it works for me.
How do you see it? Are you happy about going cashless? (A little intelligence test, since today's world is obviously not in a good state in this respect either.)
Condescending
Why?
Having been born and raised in Germany, I found all of his information accurate.
For example, my favourite spot in terms of language and culture is the Baltic Coast, even though the Alps are undeniably more famous.
Erster 😎
Tut mir sehr leid für deine Freundin.
Kriagst a Stollwerk, Bua
Boring Germans is a reality
If you got used to something, everything is boring.
.... as are boring, stupid commenters ....
You are heartily invited to stay the eff away from our boring country.
I've still got my 40 year-old "Kenner Rauchen Württemberger" decal on my guitar case, right next to the priceless "Oinr isch emmr dr Arsch" sticker from Schwoissfuass, who would never have been caught dead wearing a Lodenjacke while munching on factory chickens at the local Gummi-Wald.