I’ve Been Published!

A few weeks ago Erin from Blogexpats asked me to write out an interview in either German or English for their special online edition of how expats live overseas. Since I couldn’t decide which language to choose, I simply answered the questions in both German and English.

Sometimes you cannot express some ideas and opinions as well as you could in your native language. But describing life in New York has proven to be difficult in German because my life style has become so more American than European. Therefore, it just had to be two different views!

Please see the bilingual version below

or go to www.blogexpats.com .

Hi, I am Laura from Germany, and I now live in the Big Apple. I moved to Brooklyn but work in the Empire State Building in the middle of Manhattan. So much to leaving a small German village for the American Dream!

1. Why did you move abroad?
I wanted to take a time out from school, as I had finished my Bachelor’s but was almost certain I wanted to get it on with my Master’s. New York seemed like the right place to go to get my head straight after the stressful student years, to experience an adventure, and to distract my mind from the rigid system in Germany. I had planned on being away for six months to a year – max. That did not work out as planned…

2. How do you make a living?
I’ve had three jobs in New York so far. Right now I work for an Austrian company in Midtown: In the Empire State Building. Yeah – it IS actually pretty awesome to be greeted by guards every day but in the end, a job is just a job, no matter where you work. Before this, I was employed by a non-for-profit organization on the other side of Midtown. I was working there for an hourly pay and I had never been as poor as during that one year I was employed with them. My very first job was a two month stint as a waitress in the Lower East Side. After figuring that this was indeed not what I had come to New York for, I decided to look for more serious employment (which I eventually found).

3. How often do you communicate with home and how?
My communication with my parents and also friends went down after a year of being here. I talk to my parents maybe once a month over Skype, if even. My friends re-connect via social networking sites, e-mails, or when they read my blog. It may sound sad, but you actually get used to it once you immerse in your busy life in the City.

4. What’s your favorite thing about being an expat in New York City?
The City. The opportunities you have here, and which you would have nowhere else. Being able to walk down the street in PJ’s and not being looked at like a freak. Dressing up after work just to hit up happy hour in the City. Brunch on the weekends. The free things you can do every single day, no matter what the weather is.

5. What’s the worst thing about being an expat in New York City?
Healthcare, quality of life in the sense of healthy food at a reasonable price, and not knowing if your milk and eggs truly don’t come from cows that had hormones injected. The competition between everything and everyone.

6. What do you miss most?
My friends and the experiences we shared. The food and the fresh air. A pretty normal life in suburban Germany with my own car and places to be at (relatives, friends and so on).

7. What did you do to meet people and integrate in your new home?
I met my first good friend because she was my roommate. Other people I met at work or at random concerts in Central Park. New York is pretty straightforward about who she wants you to meet and who not, so I am not too worried about how my social life develops.

8. What custom/ habits do you find most strange about your adopted culture?
I found it hard to adapt to the level of rudeness New Yorkers show towards you in the city. It draws apart at times. And I have a problem with the racism that still separates blacks and whites and will probably not be resolved in the near future. I am also repulsed at times at the social gap in between city parts and how uncaring people trample upon each other.

9. What is a myth about your adopted country?
That everything in New York is glamorous, exciting, the core of the world, and therefore will bring happiness.

10. Is the cost of living higher or lower than the last country you lived in and how has that made a difference in your life?
It depends. Apartments and housing are definitely higher in New York (they are cheaper in other parts in the US). Costs for healthy food are higher here. It makes me want to re-evaluate if it is even worth buying the good cheese/groceries/veggies or to just go with the second-best option (buying produce of unknown origin). Half of my paycheck goes to my apartment in a good area in Brooklyn. Then I spend about three times as much on groceries I could buy at an inexpensive price in Germany. I have changed my eating habits in the way that I only buy the things I really need and not because of luxury.

11. What advice would you give other expats?
To explore New York to the fullest and not get blinded by its so-called glamorous sides, events, and anything that attracted them because of a famous TV show.

Most Europeans who come here do so through their own protected agency or university. They are put in nice housing in safe areas and don’t have to worry about walking past people in the ghetto or getting to know folks from cultures they never expected to meet. Manhattan is not all New York has to offer. I highly advise newcomers to seek out all parts of this city (yes, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx …) and to see how the socially disadvantaged live to get a better picture of how the gap between rich and poor developed in this country. And to see how beautiful New York can be even aside from its treacherous glamour!

I also advise to not compare this city to Europe or their home country. You cannot compare a dime to a penny!

12. When and why did you start your blog?
My original intent was to keep in touch with family and friends from overseas (Germany). I was honestly sick and tired of writing one e-mail after another and always discussing the same events, topics, or occurrences. It didn’t really work out, as now everyone BUT my friends reads my blog, and most of these people I have never met in my life. I started the blog last May, so a good year after I had been in New York already. However, I also wanted to use it as a credential in case I was seeking writing gigs (which it did help me in getting my first journalism job).

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Hallo, ich bin Laura aus dem Südwesten Deutschlands. Vor 2 Jahren habe ich mir einen lang-gehegten Traum erfüllt: Ich bin spontan nach New York gezogen und habe jeden Tag soweit genossen!

1. Warum bist du ins Ausland umgezogen?
Eigentlich wollte ich einen „kurze“ Studienauszeit von einem halben Jahr bis maximum einem Jahr machen. Aus dieser Auszeit wurde dann schnell etwas mehr und nun bin ich schon 2 Jahre hier im Big Apple. Es ist eine Frage der Zeit wann ich mein Masterstudium in Psychologie in Europa wiederaufnehme.

2. Woher beziehst du dein Einkommen?
Ich habe drei verschiedene Jobs in New York gehabt. Zuerst musste ich mich 2 Monate als Kellnerin in der Lower East Side durchschlagen – kein Studenlohn und nur Trinkgeld, das wurde mir einfach zu unsicher nach 2 Monaten. Dann arbeitete ich für einen Hungerlohn ein ganzes Jahr lang bei einer Wohltätigkeitsorganisation in Midtown. Die Erfarhrung dort war sehr lehrreich aber chronisch unterbezahlt. Zuletzt habe ich ein Jobangebot bei einer österreichischen Firma angenommen: gutes Gehalt und tolle Aussicht. Sie ist nämlich im, tada, Empire State Building! Und somit bin ich dem amerikanischen Traum schon ein gutes Stück nähergerrückt.

3. Wie oft kommunizierst du mit deiner Familie und mit deinen Freunden, die noch in Deutschland wohnen? Und wie (Skype, Facebook, usw… )?
Nach einem Jahr nahm die Kommunikation sehr ab – von beiden Seiten, wie ich zugeben muss. Momentan telefoniere ich vielleicht einmal im Monat mit den Eltern, wenn überhaupt. Die Freunde halte ich durch Facebook, E-mails, und meinen Blog auf dem Laufenden.

4. Was liebst du am meisten an New York?
Die Unaghängigkeit, mit der ich mir hier ein neues Leben erschaffen konnte ohne an alte Werte oder Vorstellungen gebunden zu sein. Das Abenteuer, mit dem ich die Straßen gemeistert habe. Die Neugier auf den Rest der Welt, den diese Stadt und sämtliche Bekanntschaften in mir geweckt haben.

5. Was ärgert dich am meisten an New York?
Die Arroganz mancher Leute, die sich für was Besseres halten aufgrund ihres Einkommens, ihrer Hautfarbe, oder ihrer Herkunft. Die Scheinheiligkeit, die dies mit sich bringt. Die traurige Erkenntnis, dass Rassentrennung und Diskrimierung immer noch ein großes, unterschwelliges Thema hier sind.

6. Was fehlt dir am meisten?
Die gute Lebensqualität, für die man hier ein halbes Vermögen ausgeben muss um nur ansatzweise an den europäischen Standard heranzukommen. Krankenkasse, gutes (biologisches) Essen – das alles ist in Deutschland wesentlich geschickter gehandhabt und kostet nur einen Bruchteil von dem was man hier hinblättern muss.

7. Was hast du getan, um neue Leute zu treffen und dich in dein neues Zuhause zu integrieren?
Ich habe mir eine WG gesucht, in der ich meine erste gute Freundin getroffen habe. Dann natürlich durch die Arbeit. Durch einen anderen deutschen Bekannten. Durch spontane Bekanntschaften bei Konzerten im Central Park. New York hat ihre ganz eigene Art dir verständlich zu machen, dass alle neuen Freundschaften entstehen, wie und wann SIE es möchte. Daher fühle ich mich gut aufgehoben.

8. Welche Gewohnheit findest du am seltsamsten in deiner Wahlheimat?
Die Unhöflichkeit, mit der man einfach so aus der U-Bahn geschubst wird und dann die unerwartete Freundlichkeit, die einem auf einmal auf der Straße von einem Fremden entgegengebracht wird. New York ist immer eine Überraschung wert!

9. Was ist ein Mythos über deine Wahlheimat?
Das alles an New York pompös ist mit einer tollen Portion Glamour. Nein, nein, und nochmals nein!

10. Welchen Rat würdest du anderen Expats geben?
Mit offenen Augen durch diese Stadt zu wandern. Sich auch mal in die Ghettos zu wagen und sich anzuschauen, wie die Fußabtreter der Reichen leben um ein repräsentatives New York zu sehen. Nicht nur in Manhattan bleiben, sondern sich alle fünf Boroughs anzusehen und sich einen Gesamteindruck zu schaffen. Mal von den Touristenpfaden abschweifen, denn die Stadt hat soviel mehr zu bieten.

11. Wann und warum hast du dein Blog begonnen?
Etwas mehr als ein Jahr nachdem ich hergekommen bin, habe ich mir endlich einen Ruck gegeben und angefangen, meine Erlebnisse, Reisen, und Eindrücke von dieser Stadt mit anderen zu teilen. Ursprünglich war er für Familie und Freunde gedacht, damit ich mich nicht todschreibe an den ganzen E-mails, die eh alle gleich aussahen. Das hat dann aber nicht ganz so geklappt wie ich es geplant habe.

12. Wie ist dein Blog nutzbringend?
Ich mag es, zurückzublättern und zu sehen, wie ich das Ganze vor einem Jahr betrachtet habe, welche Träume ich gehegt habe, und wie es nun weitergehen soll. Viele Leute, die über den Blog gestolpert sind, finden die Restaurant-Tips ganz praktisch. Mittlerweile habe ich sogar regelmäßige Leser, die mit Spannung verfolgen, was mir als nächstes in New York geschieht. Ausserdem habe ich durch diesen Blog meinen ersten Jouranlistenjob bekommen bei einer Brooklyn-Zeitschrift, das war schon sehr praktisch und lehrreich.

Germany – The Diversity of this Country is Highly Underestimated

As you can tell from my last few posts, Germany is a pretty diverse country. It always astounds me how many different cultures live together and how they manage to do so. The highest percentage of immigrants most likely comes from, tada, Turkey. As far as statistics go, there are more than 1.5 million citizens of Turkish descent living in Germany right now. I once heard that Berlin and Cologne are the cities with the highest Turkish population outside of Turkey. And wohaaa, while researching into this matter, I also found that the Turks are actually DECREASING in this country, even though it does not feel that way. Apparently they are making their way back to their home country (where economy and tourism is getting better and better).

I am always quite blown away as soon as I get off the plane in FRA and meet a big bunch of Turkish guys/ adolescents just standing around. Being in a different country for so long has almost made me forget how many of these actually live in Deutschland. It also makes me want to buy the food I have ever since desperately looked for but never found: Their Döner! Americans might call it Kebab, even though a Kebab is what Germans name the restaurant at which the Turkish specialty is served. Döners are very tasty and made differently than they actually are in Turkey – the land they originally come from. It turns out that Turkish immigrants have invented their own little recipe as to how compose this type of food and have added their own little variety of spices. One thing that can never be amiss: the sauce! A white sauce that contains a ton of garlic but which makes this dish so tasty. The meat itself comes from lambs and is mouthwatering, too, of course. I always go with the vegetarian option, so I am sticking to defining the sauce as the best ingredient. And this sauce is not Zaziki sauce, by the way. That’s for Greek food, not Turkish!

A Döner has been a part of my life ever since I used to get it during lunch breaks in high school and it is one of the first things I try to eat while spending time back home. It is just too hard to find this type of food abroad. And yes, I have tried several spots throughout Brooklyn but have always been severely disappointed (wrong sauce). So a Döner proved to be a good midnight snack during the bachelorette party in Cologne –a good city to try out this Turkish specialty. Another great choice you have is to order a Turkish pizza, also known as Lahmacun. Lahmacun is pita bread that contains onions, tomatoes, and beef on top of the bread, and is traditionally baked in the oven.

A Doener with meat

Now, another high immigration group are the Russians in Germany. And they are actually higher than the Turks, with a good 6 million people speaking this language in our country. However, it is hard to specifically call them just Russians, as a good amount of them are an in-between-group: They are neither Russian nor German but so-called Russian-Germans. These Russian-Germans are originally Germans who have emigrated to Russia a century back. After the wall came tumbling down, they decided to go back to Germany in order to pursue a better standard of living and education than in the old Soviet Union. And here is where it gets tricky: They are not accepted as German in Germany and they are not accepted as Russian in Russia. They compose their own cultural group, which is a mix between both countries and traditions. Most speak Russian. They learn German but they still pronounce it with a heavy Eastern-European accent. I went to one of those few integration high schools in Germany. Integration in the sense that Russian-Germans are being integrated into the German system. So my school was half German and half, well, Russian-German. My class consisted of 45 hardcore farmer kids from the German country side and 45 Russian folks who stayed at a boarding home and travelled to their families every other weekend (usually they were one to two hours away by car).
A friend once told me that our Russians are more integrated than the Russians in, say, Brighton Beach (read more here) but that they have been able to preserve their culture a lot better than Russians in the US. That’s a great compliment for our Easter-Europeans and I hope they know it!

And another group of cultures worth mentioning are the Italians. Following Argentina, the second highest number of Italians live in Germany (aside from Italy themselves). They compose the oldest group of immigrants living in this country. All I know of Italians living in Deutschland is the good amount of pizza restaurants they opened up. Their gourmet pizza and pasta specialties make out for some delicious teenage memories. I also started working for an Italian guy as an adolescent in a, you guessed it, pizza place. He was not very nice and I left the location after a weekend. So much to good memories.

Every time I hear a different language spoken in Germany, I am reminded at how diverse this country is. I am also reminded at how much less difficulty a German has when accepting a different culture and its traditions than the standard American does (as far as I have been able to tell). It is truly the country where black and white can walk the streets together without being stared at, cursed at, or where it is seen as something unusual to be of different nationalities. So yes, sometimes it does want to make me vomit when I see at how blindly racist people are in the country that is supposed to embrace the high diversity it has (America) and how they hate each other for what one another does not have. Be it education, skin color, or opportunity – its’ time to get it straight, USA!

One Russian-Italian Wedding (II)

After a group picture outside, it was time to celebrate the wedding. The couple’s family had organized a little after-party in the ballroom of a small village close-by. For this type of region, these rooms are common to celebrate a wedding, birthday, or other bigger parties in. Since neither the bride nor the groom could have provided enough space at their homes, they decided to go with this option. Other times you see the event take place in a ballroom of a hotel.

A catering group provided the necessary food which was served pretty soon after the guests showed up. First a few appetizers. Then a speech by the bride and groom thanking everyone for showing up and wishing an eventful rest of the day. Meanwhile, we are talking about 12:00 PM noontime, there is still plenty of time for games, dances, and fun. A toast to everyone. A few glasses of champagne are flowing. Then the big meal starts: Tasteful salmon and beef dishes combined with thick veggie layers. All flavored in just the right way and served in juicy sauces.

After a small interlude of eating, it’s time for the first game. Well, first the bride’s mother has to come up with a toast. She hands another Russian girl a script. Together they perform on stage. The girl first reads it down in Russian. Half of the guests laughs and oohs and aaahs. Then the mother recites it in German so that the other half of the guests can understand it. It is a traditional Russian poem with funny anecdotes about a husband who has to accept certain things about his wife (such as he shall not become angry with her in case she spends half of his income on nice tights).

Then my friends start searching for a bunch of party guests who want to pose a question on stage. The bride and groom are asked to be seated in a chair opposing each other. They are both equipped with a sign in her name and a sign in his name. Whenever a question applies to one of them, they are supposed to hold up the right sign. The guests ask questions such as “who made the first move when they first met in their favorite dance club” or “who utilizes their gym membership more often.” 12 different guests ask each of those 12 different questions. Surprisingly to us, the bride and groom get almost all of the questions right, meaning they apply the answer to only one person. Most of the time it is his name held up in the air. Whenever this tide is reached, the guest who asked the question has to throw some coins into the piggy bank.

People are starting to open up the vodka bottles which were nicely placed on the tables. All of a sudden the Russian table screams “Vojlra, vojlra!” which means “Kiss!” in English (native Russian speakers – please correct me!). The bride and groom fall into a ten second long kiss, as the Russians are counting down from ten on. Then they can finally let each other go. Ten minutes later the same bizarre scenario is repeated. And throughout the entire day and evening.

Time for our next game: A Russian tradition during which the bride’s shoe is being stolen by gypsies and therefore has to be won back. The gypsies are dressed up wedding guests who enter the room, swaying from side to side and holding a few bottles of vodka in their hands. Every guest is being forced to take a shot of the clear stuff and to pay a few coins for this shot. Only if the piggy bank carries enough money in it, can the shoe be released to the bride. The gypsies manage to get a total of €150 for the shoe, which equals about $200. Not bad for those 50 something remaining guests, eh?

These are just a few of a total of 10 games played throughout the day. In the afternoon the groom and bride become serious again and stand motionless next to each other. A waltz is sounded and they start their first dance as a couple. Soon thereafter the bride’s mother and father join in.

Then everyone is being invited for a photo session outside. We are still in April, which means Germany is cold. It can still have winter temperatures, but luckily the 7th was not too bad. Only a jacket was required, no mittens and scarfs. Everyone is thrilled to be a part of different groups that are shot with the couple. Some try to hide in the crowd. The children are excited as a playground is close by. This is also where we shot a few good portraits after the guests were back inside.

It’s time for a sweet break, so a few cakes and chocolates are served with coffee. Not yet a big wedding cake, and some are wondering what is up with that. All of a sudden a lot of wild dancing is happening on stage. The bride and groom are supposed to pick up coins that the relatives have dropped in fake hay. Everyone is trying to make their collection of the coins as hard as possible and steals some cents here and there only to throw them back on the ground. I guess another Russian tradition?

After this the flower bouquet is thrown. It lands right in my friend’s hands, who “just happened to be there,” as she likes to put it. Since she has neither a boyfriend nor any intentions on marrying soon, she thinks it a funny piece of coincidence that she caught it. The evening goes on. A game worth mentioning is something my friends and I have come up with. I believe it could have been very very good if only the guests had not been so drunk at 9 o’clock at night. Sigh. It is about painting pictures with people. Such as a girl who stands on a chair and has to extend her arms in front of her. This picture is called the long drought. In German, the word drought can mean either someone who is tall and thin or a fruitless period of time. Unfortunately, no one was willing to participate and the guests who eventually did were either too drunk to sit for long or they ruined the entire game. Fail, I guess! Next time it will be played earlier.

The game no one was capable of understanding...!

And now to the cake: At 10 PM, when some guests have already left, a gorgeous cake is being wheeled in by the bride’s family. It has three different flavors and is decorated by a bird. Supposedly another Russian tradition is to serve the cake at the end of the day and not, as in other cultures, after the main course.

And the wedding ends with one final ceremony: A circle of candles is being arranged in the middle of the room. The bride is seated in between it. Her mother takes of her veil while sad music is being played. The female guests are slowly walking around the outside of the circle (and trying to not get burned). This is the mother who is letting her daughter go and giving her up for the wife she now is.

So as you can tell, the wedding was a success for everyone. It was fun, it was serious, it was sad, it was goofy and it was definitely anything but boring. And I don’t know which impressions I like to keep most: My friend helplessly being swirled around by an old Russian guy. My other friend struggling to catch the audience’s attention during the game. Whichever one, they both make for two great memories of a truly amazing day!

The End!

One Russian-Italian Wedding (I)

The main reason for my trip back home was not spending time with my family in the countryside. It also was not seeing my friends back in Heidelberg. Although I gladly did both.

The main reason for this trip was a wedding from my two close friends. After seven wicked years of being together they finally decided to tie the knot and became engaged last September. And no, they are not one of those couples who are engaged for five years straight. They are one of those couples who know fairly well what they want. So they planned on having their ceremony pretty timely and the date was set for April 7, 2012. Therefore, I decided to combine a few purposeful visits and other necessities in one and to book my flight back to Deutschland in spring of this year.

An interesting fact about this wedding is that SHE is originally from Russia, although whereabouts I do not know. She claims it is five hours from Moscow and not worth knowing the name of the town. HE is fully Italian, with both of his parents having immigrated to Germany in the late 70ies. He was born in Germany but grew up bilingual and still has a big Italian family in the center of Bella Italia. This mix of Russian and Italian being wed in Germany definitely made for a quite unusual ceremony – not all too common for us folks, either.

After our bachelorette party (see more here) and some other preparations the week before the Big Day, my friends and I excitedly packed our utensils together and made our way to the official wedding ceremony held in a small town in the middle of the Eifel.

In Germany, you have two different types of weddings: One is held at the civil registry’s office. The other is held at a church. Couples can choose to either do both or only one. The one at the registrar’s office is required in this country, so it is of utmost importance to have this one done first. Sometimes, lovers choose to first go with the official one and then go with the church wedding two months later. Other times, spouses-to-be follow up on these two dates fairly fast, such as only a few days or weeks apart.

In my friends’ case, they decided to go with the official ceremony first and have not yet planned when they want to be wed in a church. I assume that fiscal reasons have played a big role in their decision-making – she is a student and he is the only breadwinner of the family. For whatever reasons – they were planning on a rather small and intimate party on their big day. Their close friends and family were the only ones invited. All in all, the group still composed a merry 60 people – so not as small as they had originally intended.

Everyone met in front of the civil registry at 10:30AM on Easter Saturday (you know, the Saturday before Easter Sunday but after Good Friday). The couple was invited in first, as they still had to discuss certain details with the registrar. Questions such as who keeps whose name and who hands over the rings are probably usual for this type of occasion. Then we were invited to join the couple in the room it was all scheduled to take place. Since they only had a mere 40 seats, some people stayed outside and watched the ceremony unfold. I had a good view, as I was supposed to take some good shots, and was therefore located right behind the registrar. She had already jokingly told me that as long as I do not sit on her lap she does not care what I do and how I shoot. I promised that would not be of necessity and was able to keep my promise throughout the following half hour.

The groom’s best man is usually the person to hand over the rings. But in this case, the registrar invited a small 8-year-old girl to do the honors (for whatever reason I do not know, maybe she wanted to include everyone in the room). So the girl sat next to the groom and held the rings while the standard questions where being asked. After accepting each other as husband and wife, they both kissed. Then the little girl handed them the rings and they both put them on each other’s hands. Then, the newly-weds were invited up front where they had to sign a sheet together with their best man and maid of honor. This sheet symbolizes the day they both were married and it is handed to a couple together with a leather portfolio. Other witnesses and guests traditionally sign the sheet, which the couple gets to keep as a record.

Lots of hugging and kissing happened hereafter. The bride and groom were congratulated by each guest individually, starting with their family and ending with their friends.

[For more pictures on the Wedding, go to A Picture Every Day: A Wedding – The Official Pictures]

Time Spent Up North

Between all the get-togethers and the wedding, I had one full day at my grandparents’ house to catch up with stories unheard of in the last 24 months. I hadn’t seen them once ever since I left for New York. So two full years had indeed passed until I got to visit them in their home up north. They live a good 4 ½ hours from us – depending on car and autobahn traffic. I was fascinated by the places we drove by. Cologne, for one, and its well-known telecommunications tower Colonius. Then the industrial area of Germany called the Ruhrgebiet. More of my relatives actually live here, but we didn’t have time to stop by and say hello.

The further up north you drive, the flatter the land becomes and the greener it seems. We drove close to the Dutch border, as my grand-parents live less than an hour from it. It is also here that I passed signs to a water-castle and indications pointing out that the prairies used to be duff. Gloomy moorlands that turned into wonderful green grass over the course of centuries. I can imagine pictures from my old history book in which people were bent over sticks and picked duff to make a living.

The time spent at the house was a trip back into the past. My grandfather had stacks and stacks of old pictures from the 19th and 20iest century. We weeded through them and I found an interesting photograph from 1911 (estimated time), supposedly an aunt of my grandfather’s mother. Isn’t she beautiful?

I can basically see how an old movie would convey the way of living way back then, before both wars and before technology came around. I sometimes contemplate how life had been on both continents – how it had been similar and how it had differed.

In our quest to create an old family tree we ran across many more of these. I really hope that my mother one day completes her book on her father’s side of the family and I hope her good intentions will not be forgotten in the depths of procrastination…

During the talks about old times and life in Deutschland during a difficult era, it sorta hit me. Being apart from my country for so long has made me forget the obvious. Experiencing firsthand how Germans are still viewed among foreigners and also among Jews has sometimes made me feel rather ashamed of my heritage than proud of my country. But we cannot be misled by false thoughts and by misrepresented views of small-minded people or folks who have never left their own country to get to know other cultures. And life back then was not how life is right now. Most of my generation will never be able to comprehend the mentalities, the personalities, and the motives of the people that have lived 100 years ago. So judging these events from a perspective of today will always be shadowed by the obstacle of time and change.
I am just glad I never had to experience a war up front and that most of my family is healthy to a point I don’t have to worry about them. And that is the most important thing you can hope for in life.

Aside from an old-school-evening filled with memories, we also ate splendid food and drank good wine. My grandmother still cooks wonderfully well, even at a high age of 77. Her green bean salad is one of my favorites. Her cake is also indescribable. I told her that she could open up a cake shop in New York and make a lot of money off of her cheese cake and Black Forest Tart. She just laughed and probably thought I was joking. Maybe one day I will do it for her!

Despite a short time planned from the start, those 24 hours went by way too fast. I hope to see them sometime soon. Most likely back at home, in good old Germany!

To Lose Your Heart in Heidelberg

Second destination: Heidelberg. Some two and a half eventful days in the medieval city of Germany and still enough time to see a handful of friends – I am very proud of myself!
I used to live here for roughly two and a half years when I was a student and before I moved to New York. One thing I can definitely say is that I have lost my heart in Heidelberg. Its old buildings, its peaceful but refreshing vibes when walking in the Altstadt and its interesting events still capture my interest from so far away.

It is also close to several bigger cities, such as Mannheim (20 mins drive), Frankfurt (1 hour by car), Speyer with its Dom and famous wine fest in September (30 mins drive), and Strassbourg/ France (1 ½ hours by train, possibly less by car). It doesn’t take too long to hit up Paris when you use the ICE, as I had a great 3-hour-ride once on the train from HD to the French capital.

Heidelberg came into existence around 500 A.D. It has a castle, which I have talked about extensively in my last post back in September (read more here). It also has an old bridge which was, sad to say, destroyed during the big wars in the 20iest century but has been rebuilt thereafter. From the Philosopher’s Way you have a splendid view on Heidelberg. The city looks just like a doll house – as I have heard a native tourist guide describe it to his faithful sheep listeners.

Even though I already took a good amount of pictures the last time I was there, I just couldn’t help it but shoot an entire new batch in April. The city has its own appeal during spring. The flowers that have just started blooming. Then the gorgeous weather, which I was lucky enough to have. A warm 21 Centigrade/ 70 Fahrenheit during my stay there, what more could I wish for?!
Supposedly, there is something new coming up called the Heidelberger Frühling – the Heidelberg Spring. I guess it is competing with the Heidelberger Herbst, which is the annual Heidelberg fall fest each September. My friend says it is mostly about all the stores being open until midnight but she does not know for sure if bands are playing in the old part of the city. Guess I will have to wait for her to tell me once it comes around. We already saw a bunch of green banners surrounding the bridges and advertising for this event.

Heidelberg's main shopping and bus center, the Bismarck Platz

Heidelberg is a student city. A high percentage of people (temporarily) living there are between the ages of 19 and 29 when walking the streets. It has several campuses and numerous universities, schools for higher education and private institutions – it is quite insane for a city of that size. The main university has been around since 1386. It is also considered an elite school and well known throughout the country because it is the oldest university of Germany. I know that parts of its campus is in the old part of town called Altstadt and in the Neuhenheimer Feld, which is an area across the bridge and kind of isolated from the rest of town. Since some of the dorms are located there it has become rejuvenated because of the high amount of students. The zoo is close to all of this, as well. Although the college kids, I am sure, can pose a zoo of their own, if they want to.

During those two and a half days I got to finally see my friend’s newborn child. Her five month old son is as gorgeous as she and a very active fellow. It was just the right weather to take a stroll down to the Neckarwiese. This is the lawn beneath the bridges and along the river Neckar, which flows through Heidelberg. As soon as the weather changes to spring and summer, people bring their picnic blankets and BBQ with them to have a good time here. My friend lives about five minutes walking distance away from one of the bridges – truly an ideal place to have a child with a baby buggy.

Gorgeous tree at the Neckarwiese

I also got to see some old folks I used to study with and people I used to work with during my innocent student years.

And then, surprisingly, I had a good talk with another blogger, who happened to move to Heidelberg just in November of last year. Amanda and her husband took the time to meet up with me at Café Gecko and stayed for a very long time considering the waking hours her hubby has to endure. This had been my very first time I met with someone I had only known through the virtual world and it was nice to see how they had adjusted to the new language/ country/ world. I hope you get to do some more fun traveling during your time there and that you also get your passport before you leave again, Amanda… 😉

A drunken night followed at the popular bar mile called Untere Straße with friends and acquaintances, which made us stay out until 2 AM. So far the longest I’ve managed to stay out on a Tuesday night in HD. The evening was well spent at a joint called the Reichsapfel. They offer a shot called Apfel Apfel – apple liqueur served with a slice of apple on top of it. The Untere Straße is a street where you can find one bar next to another. They are open every day, mostly until midnight or 2 AM (longer during the weekend and on Thursday). Bar culture in this town is very specific as you don’t find the usual drunk heads you would in smaller German villages, but a mixed crowd of (how could it else be) students, suit guys, and tourists trying to have a good time. Aside from two Irish pubs further down in the Altstadt, you also find a good deal of Americans here. Mostly GI’s or their spouses and family, who want to enjoy their time in Deutschland. On the weekends it can get out of hand with several dangerous bar fights and other happenings, that’s why you find many police cars patrolling the streets and being on a watch.

Us with our Apfel Apfel

Altogether I would say I had an eventful time, but I probably would like to be there for at least one additional day. Even after having lived there and just coming back for a visit, there is still so much to see and many more people to catch up with. A short trip is almost impossible to digest.

Viva la Heidelberg, you will most likely always be on my list of places to visit whenever I am back home.

[For more pictures, go to A Picture Every Day: Beautiful Heidelberg.]

First Stop: Cologne!

I first stayed with my family. My friends from high school and I pretty much live in the boonies. Or country-ville. Call it whatever you want. And Saturday was my first big event: My friend’s bachelorette party in Cologne. She had planned on taking five of her girlfriends with her and having a good time in Germany’s media capital. The plan was to rent out a room for all of us, so that we could party until the morning and then ride home after having slept and eaten breakfast somewhere.

Since none of us wanted to take a car, we decided to rely on Germany’s transport: Die Deutsche Bahn (see more stories on this “reliable” mean of travel here). So we took a train from the small town of Bitburg to the big city of Köln. Because of miscommunication, the girls failed to mention to me when exactly this train was taking off from Bitburg. All of a sudden one of my friends calls me in the early afternoon on Saturday, my second day home. “What do you mean you are still having breakfast?,” she practically yelled into my ear. “Don’t you know that our train is leaving in half an hour?” The bun I was munching on fell out of my hand and I didn’t know what to grab first. Completely jet-lagged from the night before I hadn’t communicated with anyone yet aside from my family and thus was not in the clear as to when everything was going down. I had a good 15 mins to take a quick shower, throw a decent party dress and make-up into an overnight bag, and to look halfway awake until my friend’s car held outside of our house. So much to having a good welcome back home!

We still made it all on time to the probably smallest train station ever invented in history and nothing else too eventful happened aside from the RE being only 2 minutes late. Two short minutes sound like a joke to other countries, I know. But times to transfer are very tightly defined in Europe; therefore we were lucky that we did not have to switch trains at any other station.

Two hours later we made it to Cologne’s main train station.There is nothing too extraordinary to see inside the station but once you step outside you’re almost hit with the epitome of this city: the one and only Dome. The Kölner Dom is a roughly 800 year old cathedral symbolizing Roman Catholicism. Its impressive height and black color are the two features that stand out as it towers over the Midtown Köln. I was once “forced” to walk up all of those 533 steps to the top when we did a school trip to this wonderful city and cathedral. I know it took us quite a while until we stood at the very top, completely out of breath, but we had a nice view over the town. It supposedly is the third highest church building in the world and it well deserves this title.

The six of us made our way to the hotel the best friend of the bride-to-be had booked. One thing I found after living in New York for so long is that getting around in other cities becomes less and less difficult. It didn’t take long at all to navigate through the small streets of the city. Distances on the map looked further apart than they actually were. So 7 minutes later we looked up and were in another typical place for Germany: A Turkish Viertel. Yup, our country has a high percentage of Turkish immigrants who all came here from the 60ies on. Initially they were supposed to help out the Germans during the economy bloom that happened in the late fifties, but of course most of the Turks decided to stay for good (not surprisingly, coming from poor parts of Turkey they had a much better chance to raise their families in a healthy and wealthier way than in their home country). Cologne has the reputation of being the city with one of the highest population of Turkish immigrants. We ran across a good amount of them during our stay. I guess my friend had not really considered the “foreign” names of shops and stores surrounding the hotel as “awkward” or out of the ordinary when she booked the rooms. Well, it was a decent spot to be as the rooms offered enough space, enough bathrooms, and even a TV in one. Looking at the cost-product relationship, we had made a pretty sweet deal.

After getting ready and pre-gaming a bit, we made our way towards the inner city of Köln. Past the Dom again. Stopping for some pictures and laughs. Then right into the pedestrian zone, which offers one store next to another. One girl was convinced that we ALL had to wear red roses in our hair, so the rest of us four bachelorette party helpers stopped at an accessories boutique to get some overpriced cute-looking red flowers to clip on our heads. There, first mission accomplished!

Us at dinner

Since the bride was in the mood for Chinese food (for whatever reason I do not know), we wandered around and found one in a small side street away from the commercial zone. The food was good, the portions were huge, and they were served on a wheel, which made everyone want to spin it and try each other’s food. One girl had come up with funny games she wanted everyone to play. One of mine was to dial a random cell phone number and tell the person who picked up about the wedding. After three tries I got a tired male voice on the phone who hung up after ten seconds without saying another word. Fail!

My second role was to convince the bride-to-be about how great her husband-to-be is – constantly. Another friend had to find a total of ten guys throughout the night who were willing to take a picture with her. Both of us got a chance to improve during the game, since we ran across a bachelor group roaming the streets of Cologne. One of the guys humorously proposed to our bachelorette, causing a lot of laughs and giggles from both sides and also forcing me to interfere, as I had to convince her how great her fiancé really was. The other girl shot six guys at once, which was good from her side.

Then we strolled on to the subway station and took it two stops down to an area called “Friesenplatz”. It is here where you will find most of the bars and clubs, one next to another. After a quick hop into a bar where we waited almost forever for our drinks (but we weren’t the only ones, the staff had everyone’s order confused, it appeared) and cheering the group up, we ended up in a club called Club einundfünfzig (Club 51). Here, another girl fulfilled her chore: Buying a cute guy a drink. A different friend had to constantly accompany the bride to the bathroom whenever she felt like she had to go. The music was good, the crowd was fine, and we spent a good 2 hours over there.

Around 2 AM we went to a joint next door called Klapsmühle, roughly translated to “nuthouse” (in the sense of mentally disturbed). Half of the group did not enjoy the time there, as we were first rudely pushed out of the way by the employees who were trying to dump some empty glasses at the bar. And then some other guys just pushed another girl out of their way without even a word of excuse, which really ticked her off. So it happened to be a bad start and only the bachelorette found some good entertainment in the music and the people. Which was fine, it really was her night. At the end, around five o’clock, they started playing old school German songs which only exist during Fasching and that’s when we started rocking the dance floor. I hadn’t had so much fun in a long time. It really makes you appreciate another country’s culture when at least the music is not overgeneralized English trash but simple folklore in native language. We snuck out afterwards and had a late-night snack at a Kebab house. Döner for us, before we took the subway back to our hotel. Supposedly it starts running again at 5:30 in the morning, and we were just in time to catch it. After a couple of hours of sleep, we had a decent German breakfast consisting of yogurt, buns called Brötchen, and delicious cheese before it went back to the Eifel via train.

Kölner U-Bahn aka Subway

An eventful first weekend with a fun bachelorette party had passed and it was one more week to the big wedding.

Here I Am!

Back again! From the land of volcanoes, duff, and mysterious moorlands. Past those historic maar lakes, wine regions, and asparagus heartlands towards dark medieval castles and knight tales.

Yes, I am back again from a wonderful time spent at numerous places all over Germany. From North to South, from top to bottom – I’ve done my own little share of traveling during the voyage. And I’ve also discovered that, albeit Deutschland does not appear to be exotic in the traditional sense, it has many cultural places to offer that can still blow me away. Especially after being gone for so long. Where else would you run across signs for bell-founding? Or an excursion to a water castle? I wish I only had the time to check out more of those fascinating things to do. Well, I guess 10 days had to be enough this time around.

So I found myself at:
A bachelorette party in Cologne, a short visit to the city of Heidelberg, a drive up to my grandparents’ house in Niedersachsen.

And, of course, the ultimate reason for my trip: A beautiful Italian-Russian wedding that ended my stay in a bang. Many memories and pictures later I can say: I’ve probably done the most out of my time there. Now let me share the joy with you and start from the beginning…