The Dentist in Germany

My earlier posts referred to the importance of learning German. One of the most important reasons to know German (if you live in Germany), is when you go to the dentist. At least you have to know the basic terms, you migth be lucky and your dentist might be able to speak English, but it is good to know the basic words or terms.

First of all, the Dentist in Germany is not cheap, like in the rest of Europe. Besides, you definetely need an Insurance. I cannot speak from the point of view of a tourist, but more from a resident in Germany. Still, I am not sure if you will be received by the dentist if you dont have an insurance.

Depending on what you want to have done in your teeth, the services might be cheaper or costlier. If you are just checking your teeth, the services will be free and you have to pay only 10 Euro. If you want something more elaborated, the insurance will cover something and you will have to pay the rest. And some other services won't be covered by the insurance at all and will be very costly.

So, first thing to know, How to say dentist in German? "Zahnarzt" for a Male Dentist, "Zahnärztin" for a Female dentist. Appointment in German is "Termin"; and Insurance is "Versicherung".

The most important word, believe me is important! , Anesthesia, in German is: "Betäubung".

My experience with Dentists so far has been great. Nothing to complain about. My dentist speaks some English, which comes handy as in some situations it is good to fully understand what's happening when you are there with your mouth open for 30 mins.

Learning German: A never ending story?

I've been living in Germany almost for one year and a half now. And each time I find people of my own nationality, we exchange experiences and opinions about the German language. I always say that: "I am still learning German, as it is a difficult language".

What they always answer is: "you never really stop learning German". Which is something that worries me a little bit, makes me wonder how difficult the language really is; but at the same time calms me down, thinking that everybody has the same difficulties as me, and that it is just normal that it takes so long to really speak German.

Still, one must make efforts and really dedicate yourself to speak it, read it and get used to the sound of the language. In my opinion, t is better that you get to used to the "Hochdeutsch", or Standard German; I really have difficulties understanding the German from Leipzig for example, sometimes I just don't understand anything.

You must hear the radio in German, which is a very good exercise. I am proud to say that I can fairly understand German pretty well, when I hear it. I have attended German lectures and I've been able to understand a 90% of what was spoken. At work, I really don't have any difficulties.

For reading German, you can try magazines, or comic books. I recently got some Ilustrated books in German and I did not have much trouble understanding. At the same time, you will discover the different pronuntiations from Germany, and how, for example: "Ich habe etwas" turns out into " 'ch hab was".

Speaking German is a little bit more difficult, and your progress depends a lot on the people with whow you are on a daily basis. You must commit your partner to speak to you in German only or must of the time. You have to be strict and make the effort. At the same time, your colleagues at work or at the university make a big difference.

If they are used to be with foreigners, they will help you out and won't be afraid to correct you, which you should appreciate and ask for more corrections. Unfortunately, most of the time you will find people who are not at all used to be with foreigners, and instead of helping you out, will look at you each time you make a mistake and don't say anything. This is not typical of Germans, but from all nationalities, it happen to me in Ireland as well. Good friends tell you when you make a mistake and correct you, the rest just don't care, mostly because they have never been outside their own country, and very likely they don't speak another language but their own only. So don't worry.

The very hard part is to stop hanging out with people of your own nationality and hang out only with German speakers, or with friends that are also learning the language and that will speak to you only in German. If you hang out only with your nationals, you risk creating a subworld in which you will unlearn everything you have learned so far, alienate yourself from the rest of the world and start hating the language. This happens more often than you think, and it is very easy to get to this point, so avoid the easy way and make the effort. It won't be ease but the rewards are great.

Last but not least, written German. I honestly believe this will be one of the last things I will learn. I've tried to write some emails in German, but just short sentences come.

I am proud to say that I just passed the B1 Prufüng with a Sehr Gut note. The test included a written part, which was way too easy.

Unfortunately, a foreigner will never really stop learning German. Still, I am happy I am on the correct road. And soon I will begin again with German courses.

Going to the movies in Germany? English? or German?

One of the things that surprised me, the first time I arrived in Europe some years ago is that in all the big European Countries (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc) movies are dubbed. Whereas in my homecountry (not a small one!), films are shown with subtitles.

Germany is the case. And the smaller the city, the harder is to find a theather that will show the film in the original language. In Berlin, is relatively easy, you go to Potsdamer Platz and for sure you will find something; or go to Alternative Cinemas, and they will show the film in the original language (likely not to be English) with German subtitles. I remember once watching a Kurosawa film with German subtitles, it was good that I knew the story in advance.

Now, if you are not in Berlin, you are likely to have a hard time trying to find a cinema where you can watch your Hollywood flicks in English. If I remember well, in Stuttgart there was (at least) one cinema in downtown. In Münich, I've got no idea at all. In Cologne there was the Metropolis Cinema, where you coul watch movies in the original language, but that was years ago, I am not sure if this is still the case.

In Hamburg, there are 3 cinemas. One for Holllywod flicks called Streit's Kino (pictured above) (http://www.cinestar.de), located in Jungfernstieg. The other one is for more alternative films, called Abaton (http://www.abaton.de/). Consider that if you want to watch your latest Almodovar film, it will be in original Spanish with subtitles in German. The Abaton is located in the Grindelalle, the Jewish Quarter.

Last but not least, the 3001 Kino (http://www.3001-kino.de), located in the Schanzenviertel, where I've honestly never been.

Very important to look for when looking for an specific film and for a cinema:

engl.OmU ---> means Englisch Original mit Untertiteln, or Film in English with Subtitles
span.OmU ---> means Spanish Original mit Untertiteln, or Film in Spanish with Subtitles
dtF ---> means Deutsche Fassung, or Movie in German or dubbed in German.

One more thing, Germans like their popcorn sweet. Don't be surprised if they ask you if you want your popcorn sweet or salty. If they ask at all. Better be sure to say that you want "Salzig".

And yes, you can drink beer inside the cinemas in Germany. Welcome to Europe.

Paperwork for your life in Germany

Once you have decided to move and live in Germany, you need to consider that sooner or later you will have to do the following:

Registration. regardless of your status in Germany, if you are a citizen of the EU or not, you need to register at the local "Anmeldeamt". In most of the cases, if you want to rent an apartment, open a bank account, etc, you will need this document.

The document is to proof that you live in Germany.

Get a Health Insurance. If you don't have an international insurance, you will have to get a German one. I highly recommend you do some deep research on these matters as there are many options, prices, etc. For example, if your husband/wife is working and you are not, you are entitle to share the insurance in the time you are unemployed or if you earn less than a certain amount of money per month.

Get a Tax Card. To start working you will need to get a tax card. This goes beyond my knowledge still about how and what are the uses, and, very important, about all the kinds of taxes there are. If you are employed by a company, you need to choose which class of tax you are, in relation to, for example, your marital status. I've heard, that if you are single, you are likely to pay more taxes. Again I have not lived in Germany long enough to have much experience in this area.

And more depending on what you plan to do. If you want to get a loan, you need to have a Schufa documentation on your credit background; if you want to rent an apartment, you are likely to be requested a recommendation letter from your previous owner; etc etc.

Note please that I am in no way a legal advisor, I am just telling from experience what an average person needs to settle down.

Life in Germany, in Hamburg, a new start

After many months, I have decided to re start (yet again) writing about my life in Germany. For many reasons I haven't continued with this blog, but I have decided now to give it another try.

Today I want to talk about, because it was in fact a question left by one of the readers, how and where to look for a job in Germany and Specifically in Hamburg.

A good place to start, even if you don't speak German, is on the internet of course. These are one of the most popular websites to look for work in Germany, and many of them are in English as well:

http://www.monster.de
http://www.stepstone.de
http://www.jobscout24.de
http://www.meinestadt.de
http://www.jobs.de

If you are already in Hamburg, you can give a try to buy the Hamburg Abendblatt on the Weekend, and you will find also some postings there. Consider that the postings will be almost the same as what you will find in Jobscout24 in Hamburg.

You can also try the normal agencies for part time jobs like Adecco, Manpower, Kelly Services, etc. Notice that in some cases they will publish a Job like: "Do you speak English and have experience in logistics? Our client is looking for someone like you and...."; and in reality the job does not exist, they are gathering the data of people to present to their customers.

This is not so bad, as their clients my actually be interested in your profile. But I should mention it so you don't get high expectations if you get call for an interview at an agecy with a description like the one above. Still, perhaps it is a real job.

I must underline, you don't necessarily need to speak German when looking for a job, or even for the interview. Your contract however is very likely to be in German, and you want to be sure you know what you are actually signing; your duties, salary, etc. And don't forget that you will have to do your tax declaration and you will have to get yourself a health insurance, these documents won't be in English. You need at least someone willing to help you in these matters.

Germany on Sundays

Hello again. It's been a while since the last time I posted about my life in Germany, but I will try now to post more often. Many things have happened since my last post, and I will try to let you know about it in the next days. One thing is that I have been very busy, one of the reasons why I have not posted anything recently.

Anyway, what I wanted to talk about today is about what happens on Sundays in Germany. If you live here already for years, you probably are used to it; if you just arrived recently it might be one of those things difficult to understand of the German traditions; and if you are about to come to Germany, please pay attention to this:

In Germany almost all shops are closed on Sunday.

Supermarkets, malls, bakeries, shops, bookshops, etc, etc. I was not used to it at all. Some years ago, during my first days in Germany, I wanted to exchange some traveller cheques. Oh surprise, American Express closed at 17:00 and also on the weekend.

Back in my homecountry, supermarkets and malls are open the whole week and some even 24 hours. 24 hours convinience stores are a rarity in Germany. The only option you have is a "Tankstelle" or Gas station or the Supermarkets in the TrainStations. Obviously more expensive and with limited choice.

First I thought it was something stupid and very unconvinient. Now however, I think it is a very good idea. People should be able to rest, even if it is an obligation. It is something very difficult to get used to however.

But don't worry, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, kiosks, hotels, Kneipen, bars, etc, DO open on Sunday. A especially good tradition is Brunch, on Sundays. But that is a subject for another post of my life in Germany.

From Hamburg to Amsterdam

The last days of Summer in Amsterdam

Me and the flag of Holland - The Netherlands

Some weeks ago, I visited Amsterdam for a business trip. The last time I was there was more than 5 years ago, so I was looking forward to it. But I did not remember how different big important cities in Western Europe are. Space is precious. You really take advantage of every piece of space you have. My hotel room, a central, 4 stars hotel, was the smallest I have ever stayed in in my life. My hotel however was well located.

I left from Hamburg around 7:00 to arrive in Asmterdam 40 mins later. That was by plane. I believe it takes 6 hours to get from Hamburg to Amsterdam by train. Depending on the train you take of course. When the taxi driver told me that it was 50 Euro for the trip from the airport to the hotel I instantly thougth he was trying to cheat me. But when I asked at the hotel, I was astonished to know that it was the normal fare.

Fortunately the hotel was well located and I did not need to take a taxi again. Except on the trip back to the airport. When two motorbikes in front of us had an accident and crashed with a car. Nothing happened, except some brushes, but as we were on a highway, if the traffic would not have been so slow, something worse could have happened.

Businesswise, the trip was good for me. I learned a lot and was a good expirience. I did not have much time to walk around the city except on the last day. I bought some gifts for my wife and souvenirs. I did visit the red light district, but just as a tourist. I am not that kind of person anyway.

I was very lucky with the weather, as it was sunny the whole time and not so cold. It is really impressive how many people in Amsterdam speak English and how often you hear English spoken in the streets. Normally I always ask politely if someone can speak English, but here it seemed not necessary. Still, I believe you get a better treatment if you ask wether the person knows the language.

Amsterdam is indeed a beautiful city, beautiful canals, nice buildings, etc. But you can feel as well the business minded attitude or their inhabitants. To my surprise, the shops were opened on Sunday. Something not common in Europe. And after almost a year in Hamburg and in Germany, the bycicle paths and traffic is not an annoyance to me. I am used to to look for bycicles coming from the bike paths, the bellrings, etc. But perhaps if you are not used to it, it can be an special experience. With the locals screaming at you to move out from their way.

It was a nice trip.

The Queen Mary 2 in Hamburg, Germany

The Queen Mary 2 in Hamburg, some months ago

The Queen Mary 2 in Hamburg now, in october, for repair

When the Queen Mary 2 was in Hamburg some months ago, I thought it was something extraordinary, that only happened perhaps 2 or 3 times per year. We took our bycicles and rode them to the Hamburg Cruise Center. This was during the Cruise Days Hamburg I refer to in a previous post. Again, another reason why I thought it was special.

Well, it turns out that the Queen Mary 2 comes to Hamburg more often that I thought. In fact, right now, as you can see in the night photo above, the famous ship is in the city again for some repair. And it will be here for some days of november as well.

Still, it is an impressive artifact to watch. It is definitely huge and impressive.

It is 345 meters long and 45 meters wide. It was interesting to see how many rooms with a view have and probably you all know that it has a cinema, a theatre, pools, etc.

A regular visitor of Hamburg but an impressive visitor nevertheless.

German food in Germany

Wondering what to eat in Germany? You must search hard to find the right place!

I am a fan of good eating. I must enjoy my meals, and the food must have a real taste. And sometimes I find it hard in Germany, because some Germans (some of them only) cannot care less about food and taste. As long as it is a bread and has something inside, it is enough.

On the other hand, it was in Germany where I learned about flavour enhancer. Not because Germans use it, but because it is a sort of a law that restaurants that use Monosodium glutamate or other sorts of enhancers in the food they prepare, they must indicate it on their menus.

Now at least I am aware that when I am in a asia restaurant, the food I am eating tastes good mostly because of the flavour enhancers. Nothing to do with quality food.

Going back to the food in Germany, in specific about restaurants, it is not as easy as when you are in France, Italy or Spain (Europe is where I've lived in the last 8 years, my home country is similar), if you walk for 10 minutes, sooner or later you will find a restaurant with the typical food: tapas, pizza, moules, etc.

That won't be the case in Germany.

If you walk around, you will find Döner Kepab, Asia Imbiss (asian fast food, mostly noddles), Pizza, and Gyros. Also depends in which city you are, you will find more of each one of these. In Köln for example, there are lots of Italian restaurants. In Berlin, many Turkish Imbiss. In Hamburg, Asian Imbiss as well as the already mentioned Portuguese coffees.

But then comes lesson number one: do you see the bakeries? Well, that's a good starting point for German food. German bread is amazing. Germans have as many sorts of bread as French have cheeses. Not only the famous bretzel, but many more sorts. And like in any new country where you are, you must experiment.

Lesson two: the language. You must at least know some words in German when looking for a restaurant. If you see Pizza on one side and "Frische Pfifferlinge und Salat", I wouldn't blame you if you would go for the pizza.

In this case, Frische Pfifferlinge und Salat, is fresh small mushrooms, called chanterell in English, with potatoes. That's the first picture above. If you, just like me, are a fan of mushrooms you don't want to miss this.

Then again, if the Pizza is 6 euro; and the Frische Pfifferlinge und Salat 12 Euro. Again, the Pizza is a very good and safe option. That's lesson three: genuine German food is relatively expensive.

Lesson 4: ask a local. Normally they can tell you what to eat and where to eat it. In the second photo you can see: "Matjes mit Sahnemeerettich und Bratkartoffeln". If you like fish, you will love: "Soused herring with a horseradish cream".

Guten Apetitt!

From Hamburg to Leipzig in Germany, three months later

Well, it's already been a couple of months since the last time I wrote something here, in my blog about my life in Germany. I apologise, since I have met interesting people through the blog, and probably some of them are not returning to read it anymore. It is not entirely my fault I must say, I've been busy. It has to do a lot with my new job and my workload. Besides, I want to make a good impression and dedicate myself as much as possible to my new work.

Still, I'll try to post as often as I can. And reply to the questions of my new virtual friends.

First of all, I want to tell you about my experience in Leipzig. At the Games Convention. It was an incredible experience. With so many big companies: nintendo, microsoft, activision, konami, midway, sony, etc, etc etc.

We took a train from Hamburg, around 18:00 if I remember well. One day before the beginning of the Games Convention. The train was the same train we took one week before, that goes directly to Berlin and then goes further to Leipzig. Please take the opportunity to see where Leipzig is. I believe it is the second biggest city in former East Germany, after Dresden.

We arrived there around 20:30, and went directly to our hotel. It was not spectacular but not bad either. Bigger than most of the previous hotel rooms where I have been recently. In fact, I think I've never been in such a big hotel room in Europe before. It was extraordinarily big.

We were tired but still had time for some dinner. I went to bed around 24:00, thinking on the first meeting I was going to have around 08:30.

I took a taxi to the convention center, and had my first encounter with the difficult German dialect from Leipzig. The way people speak in Leipzig is especiall difficult, even if you are a native German speaker. At least that's what the German themselves say. For me it was difficult as well. I could only catch some words.

The Games Convention was amazing. I did a lot of contacts, I got to know loads of people and I worked a lot. It was one meeting after the other. Sometimes you only had time for a cup of coffe between meetings. I believe I was a bit dehydrated on the third day. I needed to drink more water.

You know already that my German is not great. So, it might be, or not, a surprise for you that most of the meetings were conducted in English. In just a couple of occasions I had to address people in German. But it was almost not necessary.

And about Leipzig, I did not know anything about the city. Nothing at all.

What a surprise was for me to know that in the church some meters away from my hotel Johann Sebastian Bach was buried. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to take my camera, and I did not have the chance to take photos of the church, the grave or anything from Leipzig. Except with my mobile. The photo above, from the Games Convention, was not taken by me. I took it from the internet. The following ones as well.


Behind the hotel, was a monument to the Holocaust. I remembered having seen a photo of the monument some years ago in the newspaper. But, not many people paid attention to it. Here is a photo of the place I found on the internet:

The city is nice to visit. There are some passages that are very nice to walk by, and more monuments that I did not have the time or chance to visit. We will probably return to the city later.

Our last day in Berlin, Germany

View from the Fernseheturm in Berlin, Germany

After our visit to the TV in Berlin (the view was astonishing!) we were considering visiting the Museum of German History or one of the several Exhibitions related to the history of the Stasi in Eastern Germany.

We were tired already and a visit to the German History Museum needs time, strenght and state of mind. We then decided to go and see an exhibition about the Stasi, around Unter den Linden in downtown Berlin.

This exhibition was almost empty, when we arrived, the person taking care of it was outside having a cigarrette. The entrance was for free, but few material was available in English. And my german is not yet good enough to understand this kind of exhibitions, with German history I am not familiar with, characters I am not familiar with, as well as places I am not yet very familiar with.

But my wife helped me to understand a lot of the material presented. Whole folders and files with information (very detailed) of citizens of former East Berlin, and how the government used to spy on them. I have never experienced such feelings. Perhaps only in an exhibition in Barcelona, about the Civil War in Spain and what the prisoners went through in the jails in the Franco era. Still, there was a small booklet with information in English, which I really took my time to read.

You really cannot believe how this sort of things happen. There were uniforms of policemen, which I imagined then, coming to knock to your house to detain you for whatever reason, made me feel really really frightened. Or, as in the movie "The life of others", that depicted how the Stasi used to keep the smell of the sweat of people inside bottles in handkerchiefs, there were some of these on exhibition as well.

The exhibition had loads of stories: double agents, spying for both sides; sad stories; funny stories (the DDR trying to portray a type machine as East German, but with a made in Japan sign that someone forgot to remove), and loads of documents, clothes, and stuff from these years.

Sadly, we could not get through everything, we were at the middle of the exhibition but it was time to close. And we had to leave. Again, Berlin should be an obligatory point to visit for everybody. Loads of 20th century history in this city.

Later on, we went to enjoy a nice coffe and a delicious piece of cake at the Opera House Coffe. See the photo below. It was nice, not so expensive, and a good place to relax.

Before we came to Hamburg, we considered Berlin as an option for us to live. But after our trip to Berlin, we are happy that we chose Hamburg. Berlin is too big, noisy, crowded and a little bit dirty. Berlin is cool, great if we would be 20 or 25 years old. But the unemployment is high and salaries are not that good either. Berlin is great, if you are young and you are looking for art, new ideas, trendy bars, bohemian life style. Which would have been great for me, 5 years ago.

Hamburg is a better option, if you want to start a family, a steady job and start a carreer. That's my opinion and my experiences.

Still, we will be going to back to Berlin often. Myself, I will be back again in october. And I am already looking forward to it.

Days in Berlin, Germany

I just returned from Leipzig, from the Games Convention. I am going to put together in a third and last post, what we did in our visit to Berlin during a couple of days some weeks ago. Then I will write about the convention in Leipzig.

In our past visits to Berlin, we never visited the sections of the city where you could still old parts of the Berlin Wall. We decided to look for them, with the help of our Lonely Planet. Outside the tourist path in Berlin East, using the Tram, you can get to one area where there is a monument, a rebuilt church that used to be the middle of the wall, and a museum.

This is the view of how the division was in the middle of the Berlin wall. It is not a nice story but it is good to get to know, to read about and to see and feel. If you stand next to the wall, see how big it was and get a small feeling of how it used to be, when Germany was divided in two.

As I mentioned previously, my wife likes to see the cities from the buses, the trams or metro that does not go underground. In Lisbon, we used to take the tram very often, with no intention of going anywhere, just for the feeling and to see the city from a different perspective. In Germany is the same. In Hamburg we try to avoid going underground, and we like to take the bus whenever we have the chance. In Berlin we took the bus several times. As I mentioned before, the 100 and the 200 line buses.



Here is a video of the bus driving out of Unter den Linden, and we can see the Berliner Dom, the TV Tower (Fernseheturm) of Berlin and where the palast der republik used to be before it was demolished. I still got to see it some years ago. An ugly building.



And here is a video of Potsdamer Platz. At the end of the video you can see the reflection of our camera.

For the next day, we choose to go up to the top of the Fernseheturm. We were not thrilled by the long cueues to get into. But we could not do much. We had to wait around 30 minutes, but it was worth it. The decoration inside, is very 60's-70's as you can see with the diagram of the Tower, that indicates how fast the elevators go, if they go up or down, or where in their way they are.

More about my last day in Berlin, in my next post.

Life in Germany: Hamburg to Berlin part II

The next day of our stay in Berlin, we went to visit the cemetery where two famous Berliners are buried. It was located a bit outise the major tourist attractions. It was not even in the map we had. If it would not be because of the Lonely Planet guide of Berlin, we would not have known about it. Before we reached there, after taking some S-Bahns, we noticed one street with a funny name: Fehlerstraße. Roughly translated is: the street of the mistake.

We entered the cemetery and it took us few minutes to find the grave we were looking for: the Marlene Dietrich grave. Honestly, I was expecting a bigger and extravagant grave. But, as you can see above, what makes it different from the graves around is that is shiny and been take care of. You can also see a stone of the city of Berlin that states the grave as a monument of the city.
And just some meters away, it was the grave of the famous photographer Helmut Newton, who died just recently. Again, nothing extravagant or out of the ordinary. Except the stones from the city of Berlin. My wife told me that Newton was jewish and fled from Germany in the 40's. He might have been very young then I guess. He had Australian citizenship and was an amazing photographer.

Days later, we went to the recently opened museum of Helmut Newton and his work, around the Zoologischer Garten, where you can get to know more about his life and photos. And a great bookshop where I got some photo books for my collection. I did not take photos there as it was not allowed.

Before we left the cemetery, we saw some graves (around 100) that did not have any gravestone. Only something small stating names (sometimes only mentioned "unknown" instead of a name), and 3 dates. Normally you see two dates in a grave, when someone was born and when s/he died. In these case, the third was the year 1944. It was not hard to guess they were victims (Jewish probably) of the Second World War. It was rather sad and very touching.

We decided then to go back to downtown and take one of the buses that take you through Berlin and that are part of the city system and not only for tourists. These buses are the 100 and the 200. They take you from west to east Berlin and viceversa. Must of these buses are double deckers and if you are lucky enough you seat in the floor above and at the front and you have an incredible view of the city. We took the bus that passed nex to the Reichstag, German Parlament. Here is a small video:

Small video of the Reichstag in Germany

As you can hear and surely guess, many tourists opt for the 100 or the 200 bus. As the Italians speaking in the background of the video.

For lunch we decided to try again a recommendation of the Lonely Planet Berlin guide: a Vietnamese restaurant called Manngo. The food was great. I found out that a "Poh" is a kind of a soup in Vietnam that you will certainly find in several Vietnamese restaurants. And it can be with chicken, beaf, tofu or only vegetables. I am sure there are more varieties and probaly the orginal Poh in Vietnam is even better or perhaps different. I went for a small with chicken and my wife for a big one with Tofu. Both very good.

I had then some Rolls (forgot the name, sorry about that) that were delicious. Inside they had mint leafs, which I did not really liked. But overall, a very good dish that I might look for here in Hamburg. But the best was the coffee.

I have read that Vietnam is one of the world's biggest producers of coffee. But I never thought of how different they could serve/drink coffee in Vietnam. I had an iced coffe, which was good and strong. But my wife had it warm and it look something like this:

It was amazingly good. I guess, and it is only a guess, it is a sort of italian machine like, but put directly over the cup. We even considered going back to the restaurant later only for the coffee.

That's it for today's post about our trip to Berlin, come back later for the third part. I am going to Leipzig in three days. I will try to finish the posts about Berlin, because I will be away for some days.

Travelling inside Germany: Hamburg to Berlin

Last week we travelled inside Germany. From Hamburg to Berlin. I am going to include in this post the story of our whole trip. It will be a long post.

We have been in Berlin before, but it is amazing how much changes and how quick. The last time we where there was went we got married, some years ago. Now there is a new main train station, Potsdamer Platz has more buildings and there are many more tourists. But Berlin is and will be always an incredible place to visit. Positively and negatively as well. I personally believe it is the city of the 20th century. It should be an obligation for people to visit.

The view inside a train in Germany

We took a train from Hamburg to Berlin, an ICE. Perhaps the fastest train in Germany, to get to any city. In my last trip to Frankfurt, I also took an ICE, and it took me 3 hours to get there. The ICE from Hamburg to Berlin, took us 1 hour and a half. My wife said that we were travelling at more than 200 km/h.

We were in Berlin before 11:00. We arrived to the new train station in Berlin, it has 5 floors!! I was used to the ugly Zoologischer Garten and now you have this huge train station. Not only is big, it has loads of shops. It is like a mall. We walked up to the first floor where the S-Bahn was and we left for the hotel.

Old and not refurbished building in East Berlin, Germany

We checked in then and off to explore the city again. We wanted explore more from East-Berlin, we took a Tram, my wife loves trams, and we walked a little bit later. Among the things we saw, was the building above. If you look close, you can click on the photo for a larger version, you can see that it has bullet holes. There are many buildings in East Berlin like that.

Normally, when we visit other cities, we buy a Lonely Planet guide of the place we travel to. For Portugal it worked very well and for Andalucia as well. This time it was no exception. The guide recommended a sort of a restaurant with Jewish food. I say sort of a restaurant because is a Church or Convent (sorry I am not a very religious person) that serves Jewish Food to support the Synagogue and the Jewish community providing the food their religion mandates. At least that's how I understood it worked.


This photo is inside the patio where the restaurant is. I took only one photo, because later the waitress told me it was not allowed to take photos. It was also not allowed to make phone calles with the mobile or smoking. The food was great. That day was very warm, and the food was very refreshing. I had first a potato soup and later my wife and me later had a plate with: tabbouleh, hummus and many things more that I just did not how they were called.

The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany

Later we walked and took a bus to downtown Berlin. We walked in Unter den Linden, we saw the new American Embassy next to the Brandenburg Tor (It is huge!), took some photos, and saw the Siegessäule from the distance.

View of the Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany

Later on we went to Potsdamer Platz, to enjoy a drink inside the Sony Center. And prepare for the next day. We wanted to see new things, that we hadn't seen before. Yes, perhaps I am going to divide the post in stages. It is a bit big.

Have a nice day.

First day at work in Germany

Well, today was my first day at work. My first day at work here in Germany. It does feel special. It is this feeling you have, nervous, when you meet your colleagues. Plus the fact that all speak a language that you do not understand 100%. And sometimes when they make a joke, you have to pretend to laugh, even though you did not understand a word of what they said. But it is a nice feeling after all. Everybody was nice.

And then they show you where to get some coffee (a cheap machine where you pay 10 euro cents for a cup), where to order good food to be brought to work (I ordered Chinese food and for tomorrow I am taking some food from here, which I have not prepared yet by the way). When they prepare your computer for you, you download the software you like (Firefox, Skype, etc). But this time, it has to be in German, which makes it three times as difficult if you have problems.

I rode my bike to work this morning, and it was very nice. I tried to dress nice, but perhaps was a bit too nice. Still, I think I gave a good impression, and first impressions always count. In some days I am going to be doing contact with some potential customers already, the people at the company are expecting a lot from me. That makes me nervous a little bit.

At the moment, with the people I have to the most, I speak in English mostly. I try to speak in German, but then there is important stuff that needs to be spoken in English. With the other colleagues however, is only in German.

On the other hand, my wife is giving me great help with all the paperwork. If it wouldn't be because of her, I would be lost. The card for taxes, the insurance, the banks, etc. Calculations for the taxes (which are huge in Germany by the way, half of your salary goes to taxes, and changes according to your civil status), reading and understanding the work contract, etc. She also helped me when we went to the Government offices, etc. I hug her each time I can. =)

The photos above and under, are at the Alster. And loads of ducks.

Hamburg Cruise Days and the Aida Cruise

Last saturday, around 7:00 in the morning, a loud sound that we have never heard at this particularly time of the day woke us up: a Ship horn. It lasted around 5 minutes (that felt like hours at that time of the morning), but we fell asleep again. Later that day, I asked my wife if she had heard the sound as well. Yes she had, she told me. It was strange, as we do not live near the port and it was the very first time we have heard that, since we arrived in Hamburg. Of course we have heard the ship horns when we were around the port area, but not when we were at home.

On saturday night, we went to the port to see a parade of ships, part of the Cruise Days event. In fact, days before, the Queen Mary 2 was here, and I got some photos of this huge cruise, but that's a subject for another day. Anyway, the parade included 2 or 3 of the bigger cruises from Germany: the Deustchland (which my wife told me appears in a TV program in Germany), and the AIDA, the biggest cruise from Germany.

We left a bit late from our place, and when we arrived at the Port, it was crowded. People from everywhere wanted to see the show. (In fact when the Queen Mary 2 arrived, at 02:00 in the morning, around 20,000 people were there to see it). But we managed to get a relatively good place to see the parade, almost at the front.

It started 15 minutes after we arrived. First a Russian Ship (old style, very nice), the Deustchland, later, and in-between, smaller ships. And then we heard it again: the ship horn from the morning. My wife and myself look at ourselves and said: aaahhh!! that was it!!! It was the Ship Horn from the Aida.

But this time was different. I realised how much I liked the sound. It was loud but really nice. It gave me goosebumps. I have never thought of the power of such a sound. At least for me. It felt like something huge, majestic, omnipotent. I don't know, it makes you think of the sea, of sailing long distances, I just can't describe it.

I did record a small video of the Aida Cruise and the sound of the Ship Horn. Up there it is.

Another bicycle tour around Hamburg, Germany

From Hamburg, Germany, a bicycle or walking road all the way up to Denmark

Having a snack next to the Ochsenweg to Denmark

Two weeks ago we did our 4th bicycle tour since we got our bikes 3 months ago. As I mentioned in my previous posts, we bought a guide with tours around Hamburg: we have done the tour around the Altes Land (check previous posts for this), along the Alster down to the lake, around the Hamburg port and now from Elmshorn to Pinneberg. It was suppossed to be a nature tour, going through several forests.

Different from the past occassions, we left late for the tour, and even worse, we had to take 2 trains in order to get to our starting point. 15 minutes after we rode our bicycles, we were hungry already. We were not lucky later, as the guide had some mistakes, it took us around an hour to find the correct way to follow the tour. We almost gave up.

But once we were on our way, it got very nice and interesting. I just cannot remember the last time I was inside a forest like the ones we saw, and for your information, you can cultivate maiz around Hamburg. Just in case you ever wondered.

My wife explained me later that one of the roads we were driving through, was an ancient way that used to be for commerce between Denmark, middle Europe and Southern Europe as well. You can see in the photos above, an illustration of the road to Denmark and the road next to were we had our second snack.

Later on we saw a Hare, a Deer and what seemed to be a Squirrel to my wife, but it looked to me like a monkey. I know, no monkeys in Germany, but that was not a Squirrel either. Anyway, sadly, the guide had more mistakes and we ended up taking wrong directions and not findind what we were supposed to find. And it was already 20:00.

It was not dark, but I did not want to risk getting lost in the forest. We saw some directions to Pinneberg, our destination, and we were lucky enough to get on a bus to get there. My wife was thinking later that we were a bit of losers, because we failed to do the tour and we cheated with the bus, but I did not care. When we saw how far still Pinneberg was and how late already was, we thought it was the best decision.

Next time we are going to get started earlier, buy a map of the surrounding areas of Hamburg or perhaps a new guide. Still, the tour was nice and interesting.

We rode for 40 km. Including (many) wrong turns.

I have a job! I found a job in Germany

Finally, it happened, and I can say it: I have a job!!

The company where I had the interview last week and that it is only 20 or 25 mins walking from where I live, called me to tell me that they wanted to meet me again to talk about the contract and about my position.

I am very happy and enthusiastic now.

As in some weeks is our aniversary (when my wife and me got together some years ago), we are going to Berlin next week, before I start to work. I am already a little bit nervous, as the person who is my boss gave me some (loads of) things to do.

I apologise, as I have not posted often lately, but it's been a bit hectic recently, and it is going to be worse in the next weeks. But I promise to keen on writing.

Have a nice weekend.

The photo above is by the Alster Lake, at dusk.

About my job interviews here in Germany

Finally, I got the answers from the two companies. And both were negative.

One hand, the job from Frankfurt did not come out. I had two interviews and relatively good impressions, but they gave the job to another person. I must say, I was a bit relieved, as the stress of moving down to Frankfurt was driving me mad already. The job could have been great and very demanding, but the stress and been away from my wife during the week, made me wonder if it was a good option at all.

And the other job, I got the reply just yesterday, and, after almost two months of waiting, they did not chose me. I am not sure if they went for another person anyway. It was not here in Hamburg either, but not as far as Frankfurt. It could have been a great job as well, but the fact that they still have not paid me the travel expenses plus the fact that it took them so long to decide makes me wonder if they are well organised or if they have some problems internally.

It was not that bad as just yesterday got another invitation for another job interview here in Hamburg today. I must say, I was surprised, as I'd just sent my application last monday. First I was a bit sceptic, but it went well. Different from Frankfurt or any other city far from Hamburg, this company is around my place. Around 30 mins walking. Instead of 3 hours by train.

But I am still working on setting up a company here in Germany. More on that later.

On the other hand, the weather here in Hamburg, and perhaps in the whole Germany, is getting better. Last week was raining a lot, but today was sunny and warm. Tomorrow will be good as well, and the weekend looks promising.

I used my 200 Euro from the Spanish Taxes for clothes, and perhaps I will buy some books. And next week I will get a reply from the job interview from today.

Fingers crossed. Ich drücke die Daumen.

The photo above, is one of my favourite spots in Hamburg.

From Hamburg to Schwerin, Germany

Last friday we visited Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

The highlight of Schwerin is its castle, with nice gardens and great views to the lakes surrounding the city

Last friday we visited Schwerin, a city two hours away from Hamburg. We left early, to try to catch the train at 08:30. But, as we wanted to take a ticket that entitles you to travel in all the regional trains of a designated "Bundesland", or Federal State, we had to wait until 09:30 because these tickets are not valid before 09:00. These "Länder-Tickets" are an excellent way to travel and get to know Germany. (http://www.bahn.de/p/view/preise/regional/laendertickets.shtml)

The problem sometimes are the stops you have to do, in order to get to your destiny. I remember once, I travelled from Berlin to Munich, it took me 8 hours, for a trip that with a normal train would have taken perhaps 3 or 4 hours. But I saved more than 50 euro. In this occassion, we had to change twice, once in Lübeck and the other time I just don't remember where. It was interesting, as the last train we took, a Regional train, was crossing the whole Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state, to a small town in Poland, in the border with Germany. In our wagon, there were Polish people, on their way home.

That been said, Schwerin is a city located in what used to be Eastern Germany. You can tell by the look of some of the buildings, only some, as other ones, as the castle above, are been rebuilt. What you will notice, if you are a foreigner as me, is that there are no many foreigners there. Or, put it the other way, here in Hamburg, specially in the center of the city, there are a lot of us. Here in Hamburg you have Portuguese, Turkish, Italians, Polish, Russians, Iranians, Indians, Pakistani, Afghans, Arabs, Africans, Arabs, etc, etc, etc. In Schwerin is not that often that you see non white people. I correct myself then. There might be many foreigners in Schwerin, most of them are perhaps from Eastern Europe.

In fact, we had lunch in a Yugoslavian Restaurant. There might be no Yugoslavia, but the restaurant was there, and the food was excellent!! I ate some meat (sorry Jordi), loads of it. And I regretted it later. I wasn't sick, but I did not feel well. But before the restaurant, we had a walk around. Schwerin is a really nice city. Nothing spectacular like Berlin or München or any other large city in Germany, but its situation, located around lakes, makes it a very nice place to visit.

After the restaurant then, we went to the highlight of Schwerin, the castle "Schweriner Schloss". That's the first photo above. I really liked it and enjoyed it. The place actually houses the seat of the parlament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and we could listen to some people (politicians maybe?) applaude as we were walking inside. The castle is open to tourism, at least one part of it. You can see some rooms of the ex-owners (no photos allowed, sorry), antique crafts and furniture, old paintings, etc. And then the views from theses rooms. Excellent and beautiful views. As the last photo above.

Afterwards, we walked around, in some of the gardens. The weather was not particularly good, but we still could enjoy the walk. Later on, we went to downtown again, and we had some ice cream. My wife was in the mood for an ice cream she had seen in an Italian gelateria.

We left then for Hamburg.

View of the stairs of the Schwerin Castle in Germany