Life in Germany | Living in Germany | Germany life | German life | Life in Hamburg | Living Hamburg

The Dentist in Germany

2009-08-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-08-26T01:19:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-08-18T00:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-17T00:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-26T06:20:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-14T06:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T14:13:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

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

German food in Germany: Currywurst

2008-07-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you might be thinking what I thought the first time I saw written in some streets in Germany the words "Currywurst": "That can't be German food! It has curry, and curry is not German!".

Well, it is not Indian nor Asian. Currywurst might be the most representative German food you can get in the streets in Germany. But first a small German language lesson: Wurst is sausage in German and Curry is, well, curry. (For the advanced German connoisseurs: how come Curry is not written with "K"?).

As you can see in the photo above, the sausage is cut in pieces and then mixed with a sauce (that is suppossed to have been mixed with curry powder already), and then you get some more curry powder over the mix. Normally you get the Currywurst with bread (as I did) or with some french fries (Pommes). It all depends where in Germany you are, or if you eat it in a restaurant, in the street or at home of course.

People who like to drink beer, will argue that is best to enjoy a Currywurst with a good German beer. Well, I know nothing about beer, so I let you to choose your option. Now, I read in wikipedia that people in Germany still cannot agree on where the Currywurst came from. Some people say it came from Berlin and some say from Hamburg. I like both cities a lot, so, I don't really care.

What I can do is recommend here in Hamburg where the best Currywurst is suppossed to be. And is not me saying it, as I am not a sausages fan, but the local people from Hamburg. In the main shopping street in Hamburg, the Monckebergstrasse, there are two stands, just around Karstadt. Both stands are called Mö, and are located in both sides of the street. Loads of Hamburgers (yes, that's how the people from Hamburg are called) come here to get their Currywurst. Silly joke: The Hamburgers come here to get their sausages. =)

I did like my Currywurst, and I was suprised to see, besides the locals (it is almost always crowded), some tourists came to eat some authentic German food. Don't worry, is not a tourist trap. It is genuine.

Now, the Currywurst is the beginning of the long list of sausages in Germany, you have then: Bratwurst, Weisswurst, Thuringer, Nurnberger, etc. Some of these have designated "Appellation d'origine contrôlée" as in France or Protected designation of origin.

The sausages can be a start point to get into the typical German food. Or, if you are vegetarian (Jordi!), you have the Bread. Your will get a headache with all the different kinds of Bread in Germany. But that's subject for another day.

French food in Hamburg, Germany

2008-07-07T14:42:00.000-07:00

We had on saturday some nice Crepes (Galettes?) in a nice French restaurant here in Hamburg

The restaurant has a nice terrasse in the back, that floats in one of the canals of Hamburg

Yes, I am sorry to say. Since we have arrived in Germany, we have not been in a German Restaurant, having real German food. I promise that we will soon. But last weekend we went for a French Restaurant that is in the famous Deichstraße here in Hamburg. We had already seen the restaurant before, and we saw that the food was not expensive. At least not as expensive as in France (Strange, no?).

The first dish you see is the crêpe my wife had with some champignons, cheese, ratatouille, egg and ham. I had one only with ratatouille and cheese and some salad. The second photo is my crêpe. The best of all was the view we had, in the third photo you can see the plataform of the French Restaurant.

The last photo, is the facade of the Restaurant.

A job interview in Frankfurt, Germany

2008-07-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

The European Central bank in Frankfurt in Germany

The buildings of Commerzbank and Deustche Bank in Frankfurt in Germany

I apologise that I have not written anything recently about my life here in Germany. But this week I had to go to Frankfurt twice for a job interview. And took me around 7 hours in a train each time, plus the stress, being nervous, preparing myself, considering the implications of moving to Frankfurt in case they offer me the job, etc. My head was somewhere else and I just was not in the mood for writing about it.

Right now I am a little bit better, but still a little bit in deep thoughts. Anyway, everything turned out like this: two weeks ago I got a call from one of these job agencies (a good one) and they asked me if I would consider moving to Frankfurt, because there might be a company with a job offer that might be interested in my profile. I said, yes, I would. At first I did not take it seriously, as I got a similar call and interview from the same agency in march, and is still time that I have not heard from them.

Well, on wednesday I got a call again from the same guy from the agency and he told me that the company was interested on my profile and that the director of the company was going to call me on thursday or friday. I was astonished, but still a bit sceptic. But a little bit nervous. On thursday, I wait for a while and nobody called. I was a little bit angry then. But on friday morning, I did receive the call and an invitation for an interview for tuesday (last tuesday).

I prepared myself very well then, I had the name of the company and time enough to do some research about it. The trip to Frankfurt went really well, and the interview as well. I think they did like me. And I got an invitation for another interview for friday, in Frankfurt again. On that day, the weather in Germany was particularly hot. Very hot. I had a suit and everything and I was very warm. I just had time for a small walk in the center of Frankfurt (I'd been there already in 2001), take some photos for the blog, eat some pizza in Pizza Hut (sorry Sascha, I don't know any restaurant in Frankfurt), and go back to the Hauptbahnhof. The trip back to Hamburg was longer.

In Germany you have the ICE (Intercity Express) and the IC (Intercity). The ICE is faster, which is the one I used to go to Frankfurt, and the IC is slower, but still faster than the regional trains. With the ICE it took me around 3 hours and 25 minutes to get to Frankfurt, and with the IC it took me 4 hours and 25 mins to get to Hamburg. I left for Frakfurt at 8:30 and I was back in Hamburg at 21:00.

And then I prepared myself again for the second interview, as I had some days to think about it. On friday, I left at the same time, but then I bought an ICE ticket for the return trip. Now, in these trains, if you want to be sure you have a seat, you need to make a reservation (2 euro). But for the trip back, there was no possibility to make one.

I had a bif of delay (Verßpätung) and I arrived around 13:10 to the interview, but I called them before to let them know about it. The second interview did not go as well as the first one. I am not saying it was bad, it just was not as good as the first. And that let me thinking about the job offer in general again, about moving to Frankfurt, the stress, etc. My wife and me already spoke about it, and until the end of the year, if I get the job, we would visit each other each weekend, some times in Frankfurt, some times here in Hamburg.

The job offer is very interesting and the company is very interesting as well. And last week I sent an email to the other company where I had an interview to ask if there had been any progress, and they told me that (leider - unfortunately) the are no news yet, and that I still need to wait a little bit more. Both jobs are very interesting, but both are not here in Hamburg. Is strange that, so far, there is nothing for me here.

And that's it. Well, in the trip back to Hamburg, I went into the train really fast and managed to get a seat. The train later was packed. Old ladies standing in the aisle, and as usual, nobody got up to offer them a seat. Younger people than me did not get up, I did not either. I slept for around an hour and arrived in Hamburg around 19:30. It was raining a lot, but we decided to go to an Spanish restaurant (Catalonian in fact), in Altona called (how else!) "Barcelona Tapas", and had some "Pan con tomate", "Pimientos de Padron", etc. For the old times. Not so old. Just last year.

Next week I will get some feedback about the interviews. I'll let you know then if this is the beginning of several trips to Frankfurt or not.

Forgot to mention, both interviews were in english.

Jugendstil in Hamburg or Art nouveau

2008-06-25T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Stella Haus in Hamburg, Germany, might be one example of Art Nouveau buildings in the city

The examples of Art Nouveau or Jugendstill in Hamburg are not so obvious as in Prague or Brussels, but you there are all over the city

Don't forget almost all of Hamburg was destroyed during the second world war, few Art Nouveau buildings survived and most of them are reconstructions

I am not going to deny it. I am a fan of Art Nouveau. I lived in Barcelona for more than 4 years and walking through the Eixample during sundays, when everything was almost empty, was one of my hobbies. Here in Hamburg, as you have seen in previous posts, my eyes are always looking for Art Nouveau or Jugendstil architecture, paintings, furniture, etc.

But as I mentioned above, it is not as easy as in Barcelona or Brussels or Prague to find this kind of architecture. You really have to look for it or pay attention to details and use your imagination.

Here are my previous posts about Art Nouveau in Hamburg:

Hidden Jugendstil in Hamburg or Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau in Hamburg or Jugendstil

My life in Hamburg: an update

2008-06-23T04:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend a friend of my wife came to visit us here in Hamburg. Yes, we had another visit, right one week after our last one. It is summer, and I guess everybody wants to take advantage of the weather and the fact that we are here in Hamburg. In a good way of course. The photo above is inside the Hamburg Rathaus (city hall), and the fountain and the nice windows and towers. I wish I had a reflex digital camera, in my photos the shadows and contrasts could be much better. I will buy one soon for sure.

I am looking forward for the reply for the last job interview I had. Some of you have wished me good luck and I thank you for that. It helps to hold on better and be patient, they told me to wait for some weeks. It is already almost two weeks tomorrow. Let's see. Meanwhile my wife is still looking for another job, she has had some offers already which she has declined. She wants to be sure that she has a job where she is happy and comfortable. She does not want to make the same mistake again, to be in a company where she is frustrated, she does not like the product they sell, and the load of work is huge.

Me on the other side, I am already working on a project for a start-up that I am planning to create here in Hamburg. Regardless if I get a job or not, I am planning to go ahead with this. I'll let you know more about this project in some weeks, but it thrills me, as I believe it has huge potential. Of course it is related to internet. Sometimes I believe I should not wait for a person to have an idea for a company and then later to hire me. It is better if you have the control, don't you think?

And the Euro 2008 is still going on. At least in 6 countries in Europe. And here in Germany specially as the German team is now on the semifinals. I am following the event with great interest. Here in Hamburg there is place - public viewing - where you can go and see the game with more people. But I just don't want to go. Specially now when Germany is playing against Turkey. Things might bet a bit difficult among the fans of both teams. I hope not of course.

I am for Germany of course, but it won't be that bad if Turkey wins. The last games of Turkey have been spectacular.

My German course finishes this week and I am not sure whether I will go on with another two months of the course. I hope the I get news about the job this week, so I can make some decisions about the German classes and other stuff. And I got 200 euro taxes back from Spain.

200 euro for books? a wii? savings? a short trip to Barcelona? I'll let you know.

Peterstrasse in Hamburg, Germany

2008-06-20T06:08:00.000-07:00

Peterstraße street in Hamburg, around Der Michel, around St. Pauli

Don't you just love when you walk around a city you think you know and suddenly you find streets and places you never thought existed? I think it is one of the reasons why I love to walk in the cities where I live. To explore and be surprised. And that's the case for Hamburg as well.

Some days ago I got that feeling when I was walking around Der Michel and the St. Pauli neighborhood and I found myself in front of the image of the first photo above. I thought to my self: didn't the Britsh and the Americans destroyed all the old buildings in Hamburg? during the bombing in the Second world war?

Yes, they did. And probably this houses are all rebuilt years after the bombings. But what a suprise the buildings were. They are so unique and different. Since I "discovered" them, I have been back a couple of times.

This area of old (rebuilt) houses is located on the Peterstraße, north of Der Michel. There are some shops and a restaurant. And when the weather is good, you can sit outside and enjoy some drinks. So far, I have seen 3 of these areas with this kind of old architecture in Hamburg: behind Der Michel, around Gänsemarkt and this one in the Peterstraße.

I will keep on walking a lot, waiting for more suprises around the corner in Hamburg.

Am Kaiserkai 56 Hamburg architecture

2008-06-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

Am Kaiserkai 56 building in the Speicherstadt in Hamburg

The building is very futuresque, perhaps the most singular in the Speicherstadt in Hamburg

Today, as in many posts of the life in Germany blog, I want to refer to another peculiar building of Hamburg, Germany. Many of the posts of this blog refer to Architecture, as I believe is a strong characteristic of the German culture. In most of the German cities you will find new buildings with futuresque and modern design. In Stuttgart you will and in Berlin as well as in München. And Hamburg is no exception. The building "Am Kaiserkai 56" is a living proof.

In the southern area of Hamburg, behind the Speicherstadt, were loads of new buildings are being built, the "Am Kaiserkai 56" has already people living in it. The architect behind it is Scaven Hütz, and houses not only departments but also offices.

We walked around the area some months ago, when there were still cranes around "Am Kaiserkai 56" and I took some photos of it. And when we returned some weeks ago, it was already finished. I really like the balconies, and the perspective of the photos seem to show how the balconies aim to the sky.

Here is the photo of the "Am Kaiserkai 56" from some months ago:

The Reeperbahn in Hamburg

2008-06-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

It is already almost half a year since I've been living in Hamburg and I have not had the change of writing about the Reeperbahn, the most famous street of Hamburg. We visited because the friend that came to visit, and we wanted to show her the area. And no visit is complete to Hamburg without a visit to the Reeperbahn. Regardless if you are interested on nightclubbing or not.

The Reeperbahn is THE place where Hamburgers (citizens of Hamburg that is), Germans, and tourists come to party and to get drunk. You will hear several languages while walking on the street: German, English, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, Polish... And that day particularly Russian was spoken because they had defeated Greece at the Euro 2008. And loads of people were celebrating: Russians and no Russians as well.

What does the Reeperbahn has to offer? Music, Nightclubs, Sexshops, Cafes, Bars, Theaters, Museums, Live music, Restaurants, Table Dance, Strippers, Prostitutes, and many many etceteras. Don't worry, eveything is heavily regulated. Don't forget! You are in Germany. You won't get in any trouble only if you are looking for it.

The Reeperbahn was one of the first venues (international as well) were the Beatles played. And it is here from where the people go after drinking the whole night, to the Hamburg Fishmarkt around 06:00 or 07:00 in the morning.

To get to the Reeperbanh you must take the S-Banh and get down at the station of the same name or take the metro and get down in St. Pauli. Around the corner is the begining of the Reeperbanh. You can say the the Reeperbanh is sandwiched between St. Pauli and Altona.

Here is a small video of the Reeperbahn:

The Euro 2008 in Hamburg: Portugal celebrates

2008-06-13T00:20:00.000-07:00

As everywhere in Europe, almost everybody in Hamburg is watching the Euro 2008 football championship in Austria and Switzerland. And when Portugal was playing we decided to visit the Portuguese quarter in Hamburg. Besides, a Portuguese friend of us is here in Hamburg to visit us and we wanted to show her the atmosphere of the area. She was surprised to see so many non-portuguese people (Germans mostly) with t-shirts of Portugal, flags, hats, etc.

The atmosphere was very nice, specially as Portugal defeated the Czech Republic. Sometimes it was raining a little bit, as the weather is not as good as it had been in the last days. But at the end it did not bother the celebration.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, I had a job interview in a very important company. One that it is 3 hours by train from here. More or less. I cannot tell you which one is as I would like to keep it secret until I know whether I am going to get the job or not. The only thing I can tell you is that I am very interested.

The problem is that it will be far from Hamburg and I will have to come each weekend to be with my wife. Mmm. But I honestly believe the job is worth some sacrifice. We have already talked about this, my wife and myself, and we agree we can give it a try. Let's see.

Now, the celebration was nice and interesting. Our portuguese friend was translating some of the comments of the people around us to us. And she told us as well about one woman who was all dressed with the colours of Portugal and that I was sure she was Brazilian that she was from one of the excolonies from Portugal in Africa. I am aware of the fact of the colonies, but it never crossed my mind that she could have been African. Always when I see someone black speaking in Portuguese I instantly think s/he is from Brazil.

And besides Portugal, the Turkish also celebrate big in Hamburg when Turkey won; yesterday some Croatians were celebrating yesterday; and some more immigrants that live here in Hamburg as well. Very interesting and nice as well. The Germans on the other hand, had something to celebrate after their first game, but yesterday the lost against Croatia. I would like to see Germany winning to experience the atmosphere here in Hamburg of Germans celebrating.

Finally, here is a video of the celebration of Portugal:

Hamburg view and update of my life in Germany

2008-06-04T14:15:00.001-07:00

Today I begin with a photo of the view of Hamburg (my favourite view of the city) and a small video I did. I was standing at the Lombardsbrücke, facing the center of Hamburg. The view was peculiar today because of the sun and becuase of the rooftop of a building was shining, and the reflection on the water was special.

I am happy because my German is getting better. I feel very comfortable now in our German class and I can now see my improvement. I still have to work a lot on the declinations and the articles of the words, and the new German gramatic we are taught each week. But I feel better. I now feel confident enough to apply to some jobs that I did not consider before.

The job seeking is still slow, I am still waiting for some responses. And yes, sometimes I get a little bit desperate. But I am sure it is going to come, sooner or later. I hope is sooner than later. Sometimes I see too much the differences of cultures (between mine and the German culture) and that makes me think whether I would be able to stay long in Germany. And some other times I just think I should adjust myself.

One small but special example: Most of the Germans, when you are walking in the street and they are behind and want to walk ahead of you, won't say anything and they would walk without saying Pardon or Excuse me (Entschuldingung). It was one of the first things I noticed on my early visits to Germany in 2000. But I could compare it on our last trip to France some weeks ago. People would say "Pardon", when they want to pass in France. Here they don't say anything.

Or even worse, if you are about to go out from a store or the train or any building, when you are at the door, there will be very few occasions when Germans will give the way to each other. Here is more like: I am first, no matter what. No matter you are pregnant, you are in a wheel chair, you have children with you. Nope. I am first and the rest of the world does not exist. At least that's how the Germans in these situations appear to me.

Should I adjust? Normally I don't. I am still polite and give way when I must. But sometimes you are like the looser in the situation. You open the door to an old lady for example, and then behind come 4, 5 or 6 persons before they let you in finally. I know, sounds stupid. But then I think: Forget it, let's just be arrogant like everybody.

Ok, these are "Kleinigkeiten" (or small details), but then you sum things up and makes you wonder. My wife meanwhile listens to me complain and then tells me: what can I do? what can I tell you? Nothing I guess.

Other than that, our new life in Germany, like everybody when arrive in a new country to live, has its ups and its downs. For example, and I would love to argue about this in another post: does our behaviour change dependent on the language you are speaking or the country where you live? Is it stupid or it actually happens? I more or less know myself when I speak on my own language and I have more or less an idea on how much my behaviour changes when I speak English, but what it is going to happen when I speak German? Can you actually control it?

Anyway, if you have any idea about this, please share it. Here is the video of Hamburg and the alster:

The Eppendorfer Landstrassenfest in Hamburg

2008-06-03T01:58:00.000-07:00

The Eppendorfer Landstrassenfest in Hamburg

As I am from a country where the most of the time the weather is warm, and when it is so, it is no news, I have forgotten to mention how warm at the moment is in northern Germany. I believe in southern Germany is raining and in southern europe is not as good as here in Hamburg. Right now it is almost 30 degrees celsius. That would be around 86 degrees fahrenheit.

So, on saturday we went for a walk. I could not believe it. Just less than two months ago I was still wearing a coat and a scarf. Now I am too warm and I am frustrated I can't find my sandals, perhaps they are still in the last boxes from when we moved to Hamburg, or I just left them in Barcelona.

Anyway, we decided to visit the "Eppendorfer Landstrassenfest". It was a street festival in the Eppendorf area in Hamburg. The neighborhood has very nice houses and interesting shops. Looks like it is one of the expensive areas of Hamburg to live. Not the most expensive, but probably, among the top ones.

The festival was nice. It was a line of stands set up in one street that crosses Eppendorf. You could find from your average stand that you find in each German festival (selling sausages or sweets), stands promoting political parties, cars, banks, home made products (food, handcraft), restaurants, and best of all: a fleamarket.

Looks like the neighbors of Eppendorf take advantage of this special day to get rid of the stuff they do not need anymore, they never needed, or they don't like. Stuff like clothes, electrical apliances, books, furniture, etc. Even children set their small stands to get some money for their used toys or stuff they got from their parents.

And at one end of the street there was a stage where some groups were playing. And just when we were leaving there was some blues music. I loved it and I stayed for around 30 minutes. I recorded a video and here it is for you. The name of the musician is Abi Wallenstein.

Hamburg Japanese Cherry Blossom fireworks on the Alster

2008-06-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Kirschbluetenfest in Hamburg is on the last days of may

Waiting for the firewors to begin during the Kirschbluetenfest 2008

Last friday we were going to go to the cinema. My wife called me earlier to cancel because that night the "Kirschbluetenfest" was going to be celebrated on the Alster. I had seen some advertising but I did not pay much attention to it. I imagined some sort of fireworks with no special importance. But when my wife told me about it, then I decided to give it a try.

The fireworks were suppossed to start around 22:30, on the Außenalster or Upper Alster. We arrived around 21:00 and the areas around the Alster Lake were already full with people. It was not as irrelevant as I thought. We found a small place were we sat and waited for the fireworks to begin. Not only there were loads of people around us, but loads of small boats on the Alster as well. I guess the view from the boats was even better. We were siting two meters away from the Lake, but the view from the boats was much better I suppose.

My wife told me something about the history of the Cherry Blossom fireworks festival in Hamburg or as it is called in German the "Kirschbluetenfest". The Fireworks is a present from the Japanese society of Hamburg to the city of Hamburg. In fact around where we were sitting, some people were dressed in Kimonos and some stands were selling Sushi. My wife told me it has something to do with the famous Cherry Trees in Japan, and that some decades ago, some Japanese brought Cherry trees to Hamburg and gave them as a present to the city. Or so the story goes.

The fireworks began on time. We thought that a boat was going to be doing the show, but it was not like that. The fireworks were fired from the left side of the Upper Alster, around the area where the Consulates are.

Anyway, we had a nice view and as we were on a first row we could see everything pretty well. Here I leave you some photos of the 2008 Kirschbluetenfest in Hamburg.

Hamburg from the other side of the Elbe

2008-05-28T01:38:00.000-07:00

This is the view of Hamburg from the other side of the river Elbe. I took 8 or 9 photos of the view of Hamburg and then I put them together. It is not perfect but at least it gives the whole picture of how nice Hamburg from the other side of the Elbe looks.

To see this view, and as I mentioned on my previous post, you have to cross the Elbe tunnel from Landungsbrücken. Once you are on the other side, there is a small path on your left that turns back to the Elbe. There is where you can have the nice view above.

You can click on the photo of course for a larger version of the view of Hamburg. Here is also a video of the view.

Elbe tunnel Hamburg (the tunnel under the river)

2008-05-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

Old style design of the doors

Crossing the Elbe tunnel in Hamburg

Yesterday we decided to do a small bycicle tour around the Port of Hamburg. The weather was not that good, it was cold in fact. But what called my attention of the bike trip, was that we were going to go through the Elbe Tunnel. I did not know that such a place existed until some weeks ago. I had seen photos of the tunnel already, but I was really looking forward to it. Thinking on crossing the Elbe like that, really really excited me.

The entrance to the Elbe Tunnel (if you are on the side of Hamburg) is on the Landungsbrücken buildings. The tower with a sort of golden roof, is where the entrance to the Elbe tunnel is. I don't know how it is for cars, looks like cars can only drive in one direction and have to pay around 3 or 4 euro to cross. And in fact there is a bigger and newer tunnel somewhere else in Hamburg to cross the Elbe. But for pedestrians and bycicles crossing the Elbe Tunnel is free. And during the weekends is closed to autos.

You enter the building and you must take a lift to get underground. According to wikipedia, the Elbe Tunnel is 24 meters deep. Once you are down, you go out and you have the two tunnels in front of you. One is for pedestrians and another one for cars. The road is very narrow. just one car can go trough.

We rode our bycicles and we crossed the the Elbe Tunnel. According to wikipedia, the tunnel is almost 500 meters long. It is cold inside, I suggest you take a pullover when you visit the Elbe Tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, you take again the lift up and you are on the other side of the Elbe. Ther is a very very nice terrace where you have a wonderful view of Hamburg and the port. I will post the photo tomorrow.

Bottcherstrasse in Bremen

2008-05-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

The entrance to the Bottcherstraße in Bremen coming from the Rathaus

Buildings in the Bottcherstraße in Bremen

My last finding in Bremen is the Böttcherstraße. As I said in my previous post, I can't believe I missed it in my previous visits to Bremen. This was at least my seventh or sixth visit, and I was astonished by the beauty of the buildings. For me, the Böttcherstraße, is like a German Line of Buildings designed by someone with the talent of Gaudi.

Sadly, the man that had the initiative for the Böttcherstraße was a nazi sympathiser. This makes it somehow difficult to truly enjoy the beauty of the buildings, the street and everything as a whole.

The Böttcherstraße has gone through several owners since 1992, when most of the buildings were built. Right now it is owned by a Foundation of the Sparkasse of Bremen and houses a museum, shops and some restaurants. All this information I got it from Wikipedia, I advice you to go there if you want more information about the Böttcherstraße.

If you go to Bremen, go directly to the Rathaus. Stand with your back to the Rathaus and then you will see a small street at the end of the Platz down. This small street leads you to the Böttcherstraße.

From Hamburg to Bremen part 1

2008-05-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

Die Stadtmusikanten or the Town Musicians of Bremen

Some days ago, we visited Bremen because there was an Outlet on the outskirts of the city where we went shopping. We have been in Bremen several times, mostly in Winter, and I must say, I think I know the city, but each time I visit, I discover something new. I know, that was just like the advertising of a magazine, but I am honest. I find the city small and a little bit boring, but each time I visit, I ask myself, how come I did not see this before? And not only one or two buildings. But complete neighborhoods!!

I am dividing the post of our visit to Bremen in two parts. Here I will refer to the city in general, and in the second post to one of my new findings of the city.

Bremen is one hour and a half away from Hamburg, if you take the Regional train, which is the cheapest way to visit Bremen on a weekend. In a car or a normal train, it can be quicker of course and more comfortable. Be careful not to take the regional train when the fans of Werder Bremen are coming back from a game, as they can be very very noisy and a little bit annoying or agressive if they are drunk.

Downtown Bremen is at a walking distance from the train station, just walk straight and you are in downtown. Here in Bremen is also an airport from where Ryanair flies to several cities in Europe. Just in front of the main train station is where you can take the Tram or Strassenbahn that will take you to the entrance of Bremen Airport. And the other way around.

Not to be missed in Bremen are the Cathedral, the Rathaus or City Hall, the Schnoor (a little bit difficult to find but 100% worth it), the Hachez Chocolates shop and, what every tourist comes to see in Bremen: the Statue of the "Die Bremer Stadtmusikante" or The Musicians of Bremen, from the tale of, who else?, the Brothers Grimm. Above are two photos. I was lucky I did not include a tourist on the photo, as loads or people wait to get their photos taken next to the statue.

One more place not to be missed, and that I had not seen before, been this my seventh or eight visit to Bremen, is the Böttcherstraße. Please come back later for my post about this place, or read my next post. It was one of those moments when you see something totally absolutely new, that you were not expecting.

Hamburg Port's Birthday or Hafengeburtstag

2008-05-15T03:51:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was what each year the people of Hamburg celebrate in their Port: the Hafengeburtstag or the Birthday of the Port of Hamburg. The celebrations last 4 days in which around 1,5 millon people visit the port. We where there on sunday morning, and it was crowded.

Normally there is a program of the activities for the Hafengeburtstag for this days, which you can find in any tourist office in Hamburg. For example, each hour, there are air shows with old planes flying over the Elbe river. You can see some of the planes I managed to photograph under.

We went there to have breakfast at the Portuguese Quarter and then we walked along the Elbe, where all the amusements and stands of the Hafengeburtstag were. You can find stands selling beer of course, sausages of course, pickles (very tasty I can say!), smoked fish, German sweets, cocktails, more amusements, french fries dutch style, etc.

We visited then a Russian Ship that was anchored in the Port. Different from other ships that we did not visit, you had to pay 3 euro for visiting this ship. It was interesting though. You can see the photos under. Later there was yet another Russian ship anchored. Perhaps it had something to do with the Hafengeburtstag or perhaps it did not. (photos above)

Normally there is also a big firework display on one night of the Hafengeburtstag but we were not in the mood of watching it. We already saw several in Barcelona and in Las Fallas in Valencia. But perhaps it can of interest of you. Besides, fireworks are not allowed in Germany except on special ocassions such as the Hafengeburtstag or in New Years (Silvester).

At one stage of our visit, loads of small boats sailed along the Elbe and let go hundreds of small ballons and honked their horns. It was a nice spectacle. I am trying to upload a small video of this, let's see how it looks like.

Here are the photos of the Air show in the Hafengeburtstag:

Gruner und Jahr Hamburg building "G+J-Pressehaus"

2008-05-14T04:58:00.000-07:00

Some weeks ago we decided to visit a photo exhibition at the Gruner un Jahr building here in Hamburg. As I mentioned in my previous posts, I believed that the building around the Portuguese Quarter (portugiesisch viertel) next to the Elbe and with the shape of a Ship, was where the Editorial Gruner un Jahr had their German offices. And I was not wrong.

You can see in the first photo above, the view of the building behind, from the point of view of the "Der Michel" church of the central offices of Gruner un Jahr (G+J) in Hamburg. The company belongs to Bertelsmann, one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world. Gruner und Jah, according to wikipedia, is the biggest and most important magazine publisher in Europe.
Bertelsmann is also behind RTL, one of the most important broadcasters in Germany, and, again, according to wikipedia, the most important of Europe. Random Hause, a book editorial is also part of Bertelsmann, and the conglomerate has important deals with Sony as well.

Gruner und Jahr is behind more than 250 magazines around the world and employs currently more than 12,000 people. The building that houses Gruner und Jahr is called "G+J-Pressehaus", and I could not find much information about the architect who designed it.

You might be thinking now: I have never heard of this editorial or company. Is Gruner und Jahr really that big? Take a look at the next photos, and you might find your favourite magazine produced by Gruner und Jahr or at least a magazine you are familiar with.

The building of Gruner und Jahr is indeed interesting and the more you look at it the more is obvious the intention to make it look like a ship. Next time you visit Hamburg, don't miss and opportunity to visit the building of Gruner und Jahr, they might even have a photo exhibition that you can visit. And later you can have a galao at the Portuguese Quarter around the corner.

Living in Germany: 4 months later

2008-05-13T02:54:00.001-07:00

Today I am going to do a sum up of what has happened in the last weeks in my life here in Germany. I arrived on the last days of January and now, mid may, is perhaps time for looking back to see what has happened in the last months. First of all, I must say, I don't regret at all coming to Germany to live. Perhaps I have had my moments of wondering, was it the best moment to come? was it the correct city? Should I have had waited a little bit more before coming to Germany? I have the answer now. It was the right moment and it was the correct city.

First of all, if I really wanted to learn German, there was no better way to do it. Come here to Germany to learn the language. I am already on my third course of German, I forgot to mention that recently. Last week began my new German class. Luckily enough, I have the same teacher as the previous cours and three of the classmates from the last course kept on as well. My level of the language is progressing, now I can watch the TV and understand, something I would not have imagined in January.

As I mentioned on my previous posts, I was able to speak some German at the bank, in some Government offices, in some restaurants, and, most of important of all, at some job interviews. I had my first job interview, part in German part in English some days ago. Last friday I had a second one, where the person spoke only in German and some small bits in English and I spoke 65% in German I could say. Just the thought of this, assures me that it was indeed the best decision to come here. As I said to some of my friends, I just don't want to be one of those persons who are planning and planning of coming to Germany to improve the language but never do.

Something some of the people who know me and read this blog, may have noticed that I picked up again the camera and started taking photos again. Somehow Germany and Hamburg (Berlin is also a city that pushes me to take photos), motivate me and inspire me to go out and take photos. That did not happen in Barcelona, and in Dublin I was going everywhere with my camera. Here in Hamburg, I have so many photos waiting to be published on this blog!!

And the weather keeps getting better. One big big advice: if you plan to visit Germany, do it in summer. Germany is specially nice in summer. If you plan to come to live in Germany, come during winter, don't come before winter if you can. Otherwise you are going to experience deep depressing Germany during the first months of your stay, which, no matter in which country you are, will be difficult to get used to. But if you come in mid winter, you will experience the christmas markets and the new year.

You will also witness the change of threes with no leaves, as the ones in front of my house, to their full blossom and green colour. You will experience Germany in winter, when around 17:00 is dark alredy, and in mid spring now, when around 21:00 is not dark yet. The life in Germany is good.

And it migth get better!

Altes Land Hamburg: fifth and last part

2008-05-09T03:36:00.000-07:00

This is the last post about our visit to the Altes Land around Hamburg.

After some hours riding and pedalling the bike, I started to think, is it long before our tour is finished? We had a small tachometer which indicated around 30 kilometers already, and I was getting tired. My wife told me then, we just have to do a small round here and then we can take the ferry to cross the Elbe to Blankenese, to then take the S-Bahn home.

We went through some small nice towns, and then we reached the spot where the ferry was supposed to leave from. But there was a long queue of people with their bikes waiting as well. After waiting for some minutes, I suggested us to go back to Finkenwerder, the beginning of our trip to the Altes Land, and take the ferry there. I was sure there was not going to be enough place for everybody in the ferry.

That was not the best decision.

On the way to Finkenwerder we crossed again a bridge we had crossed before. As you can see in the photos above. And now it was opening to let a small yatch to pass under. It was impressive as it was such a huge bridge. Everybody, locals and tourists as myself, was looking at the big machine with the mouths open.

While waiting for the bridge, I took a photo of a factory of cruises that was just next to it. I am sorry, it is not such a good photo, but you still can see the shape of a cruise been built. I was once in another factory around where the parents of my wife live and it was impressive.

Anyway, we kept on and kept on and kept on. I did not remember at all how long the way was. And when we finally were in Finkenwerder, the tachometer indicated more than 40 kms. My legs were hurting a lot, not to mention other parts of my body. We had an ice cream waiting for the ferry. Once it came and we went inside, I took a last photo of our tour to the Altes Land. The photo on our way home, on the ferry, on the Elbe.

But it was not the end of the pedalling. We decided then to ride the bicycles home and once we were here, we noticed we had rode 50 kilometers with the bikes, most of it on the tour around the Altes Land. Let's see where we go next.

Once again, I thank the reader who suggested the trip to the Altes Land. The spring this year is wonderful in Germany, the birds are singing, everybody is happy, I have a job interview today and this weekend we will have some typical German asparagus. More about that later.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for reading!

Altes Land in Hamburg part 3

2008-05-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

The houses of the Altes Land are beautiful

Must of the houses have written something on the Facade.

Some houses of the Altes Land are hotels, restaurants or small shops selling the produce of the region

I am going to be honest with you. After visiting several cities in Germany, I did not expect I was going to find old houses like the ones I saw in the Altes Land. I have been in the major cities in Germany and I had alredy given up my unconscious expectation to find old buildings typical of Germany, like in Ireland, Portugal, France or Spain. But I was surprised some months ago in the areas around Stutgartt, and this weekend I could not come out of my astonishment with all the beautiful houses in the area of Jork and the Altes Land.

Is that kind of feeling you have when you see something totally new, that you have never seen in your life and, the best of all, you were not expecting. And you just don't care looking up, and the rest of the people (locals) notice: That's a tourist! That look in your face of amazement.

The rooftops of some of the houses in the Altes Land are made of an special material. Don't ask me what, but to me looks like it is not warm enough for the winter. But what do I know. I am sure I am wrong.

Most of them, have the dates when they were built and/or rebuilt if that was the case. Don't forget the total devastation of the Hamburg area caused by the heavy bombing during the Second World War. It is evident here when you see the dates when some of the houses were rebuilt: at the end of 1940 or during 1950.

Besides the dates, the houses of the Altes Land, have often something written on the facade. I am going to be honest, I did not even try to read what was written on them. Half of these houses are hotels (Gasthauses), restaurant or businesses of some sort. You see often rooms for short stays offered or apartments for short stays as well (Zeitwohnung).

Something that called my attention as well, but did not surprise me, was how many Fire Stations are in the Altes Land area. I saw at least 8 fire stations. It is not a surprise, looking at the material used to build the houses: wood and this special material for the rooftops, and how close sometimes this houses are next to each other. Not to mention the crops, trees and plants all over the Altes Land. Aware of the story of Hamburg and the fires that have devastated the city, including the fires during the bombing in the 40's, is obvious the firemen are always important for the area.

Last but not least, most of these houses in the Altes Land, have two big sticks crossing at the top, with an special symbol. Some were very elaborated, some were simple. But I still can't figure out the meaning. Here is a photo:

Hamburg Altes Land Bike tour part two

2008-05-06T03:36:00.000-07:00

The blossoming apple trees in the "Altes Land" and myself

Local houses selling produce of the Altes Land

The view of the blossoming apple trees is amazing and the air is so pure you try to inhale and inhale like trying to believe you are here, that you are in Hamburg, in northern Germany and there are loads of plants, a blue sky, no rain and that the sun is shining (I actually got sun tanned). But once you see how organised the bike tour is, how good the roads are (the bicycle path I mean), you know you are in Germany.

The Altes Land, in April-may is beautiful. I really thank our reader for the recommendation. As I said in previous posts, I am not normally a nature person, I feel more comfortable in the city, but our trip to the Altes Land was something very special. The fact that we rode with the bikes around 50 km made it even more special.

Once we entered the fields, we found ourselves in "Königreich" (literally "The Kingdom") one of the 7 districts of Jork, capital of the Altes Land (you can see the sign in the photo). Then we kept on pedalling until we reached Jork itself. The houses are very nice and interesting, but you can notice they are recently renovated and I did not like them that much. There was a festival and one band was playing AC/DC's "Highway to Hell".

We crossed a few more small villages where I caught a glimpse of the typical houses of the Altes Land (more about that tomorrow) and then we rode through some fields of apple trees and some houses built between small canals (small I mean between two and 5 meters wide), and some of them had home-made bridges to cross to get in and out of the house. After some more pedalling with the bikes, we decided to stop and have lunch. In the path where we were, we found a small bench and we sat to unpack our sandwiches and fruits (that's me in the first photo with the bicycles and my mask).

It was amazing, how, around 15 people, when they passed next to us with their bikes, said to us: Moin! ("good morning" in the dialect of Northwestern Germany) or "Guten Apetit!" ("bon appetit!" in German). One woman even took our photo as she rode next to us!

Once we finished and we took a small rest, we continued with the tour around the Altes Land.

Hamburg Altes Land Bicycle tour part one

2008-05-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

Wilkommen im Alten Land

Airbus is located around the Altes Land area

Myself, with my Astro Boy mask =) ;) and our bikes around the Altes Land

One of the readers of this blog, suggested us to take a trip around the "Altes Land" in the southern areas of Hamburg, with our recent acquired bicycles. And yesterday that's what we did. We bought a book last Friday about Bicycle tours in Hamburg, and the tour around the "Altes Land" was included, and after the suggestion of our reader (Thank you very much!!) we decided to give it a go. I am going to divide the trip to the "Altes Land" in 4 or 5 posts, as there is too much to talk about. Here we are with the first one then.

After we had a small breakfast, we left from our place around 11:00. We drove our bycicles to "Landungsbrücke", where you take the ferry to cross the Elbe river to get to the south. The ferry must be the one direction "Finkenwerder". If you are interested in doing this bicycle tour, that's what you must do, if you plan to do the whole tour with the bike or you just drive with your car down there. This option might be better as the ferry gets packed with such a lot of people and their bikes with the same intention. The ferry is a city service and is not expensive.

I should not forget something. A map to drive around the Altes Land is absolutely necessary. Forget to visit the area with no map. And bring along someone that speaks good German, whereas you may find yourself with directions (in German) "next to" or "crossing and turn left" or "pass by", etc, which makes a difference between getting lost and getting the correct way. If it would not be because of my wife, there is no way I could have done this bike trip.

That been said, and once you get to Finkenwerder, ride your bicycle and you are on your way to the Altes Land. Finkenwerder is a normal German northern city with some interesting old houses which, I could dare to say, resemble some influence of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil.

After 4 or 5 km, you leave the city and you find yourself on the auto road and a plain with some nature. But after some minutes pedaling, you are at the entrance (one of them) of Airbus (the second photo above). Now, I know Airbus is in many cities in Europe (Toulouse, somewhere in Andalusia, Bremen, etc...), but this area is quite big and impressive. During our trip around the Altes Land, we saw often several kinds of planes doing tests, big planes and small planes. It was not annoying at all, perhaps because it was Sunday.

We kept on with the bicycles for some kilometers more, with the Elbe River on our right side. And then, the Altes Land began: the first trees with white flowers blossoming.

From Hamburg to Niedersachsen-Lower Saxony

2008-05-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Hamburg

Canals of Lower Saxony villages

Yesterday was first of May. There were some problems in Hamburg (as normally each year in Germany are) and some radicals burned tires and cars and the police had to intervene, I will talk about that in my next post.

Today I want to talk about our visit to the parents of my wife. They live in a small village in the northern part of Niedersachsen or Lower Saxony. It is nice to visit as it is very quiet with loads of nature. It is not the first time I visit them, we have been there several times, perhaps 3 or 4 times for Christmas.

They are giving us two bicycles for us to move around Hamburg. One is a Dutch bicycle, very very nice one. We went there to pick them up and to bring them to Hamburg. On the way there we had to change trains in Bremen. One day I will do a post about Bremen, as we have been there a couple of times and it is indeed a nice city to visit. But it is rather small.

Where the parents of my wife live is very plain, you can see loads of wind turbines and loads of canals like the ones above. I like to spend some time there, but after two days it gets very boring. Specially in winter and specially if you are a city person like myself.

I was once in the north sea, around September, and it was very windy and rainy. It was interesting to visit, but just for some hours. I am sure in summer it is much more interesting. You can also go and visit the Netherlands, just some minutes away. We visited once Groningen and it was a nice small city.

On the way back, we took the bicycles on the train and we had to use the first wagon. It was very nice as it gave me the opportunity to take a photo of the moment when we were about to arrive in Hamburg.

Hamburg Karoviertel part 3: the buildings

2008-04-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

I noticed walking around the Karoviertel what I have noticed already around northern parts of Hamburg. The buildings (some) are built thinking on a possible flood. As you can see in the two photos above, there are some stairs (at least one meter and a half high) that lead to the main entrance to the buildings.

And as I said, this is not only present in the Karoviertel, but in several neighborhoods around Hamburg. I might say around 15 % of the buildings have these characteristics. I wonder why they did not built the rest this way, as floods are not uncommon in Hamburg.

However, it is funny (or ironic) how under the stairs are sometimes shops, restaurant or even apartments. I remember when we were looking for an apartment to rent, one of the options was to live in one of this places. I could not even think of how dark this place would be.

If you are in the Karoviertel and you see this kind of entrances, try to catch a glimpse of the inside entrance. I did and it was wonderful decorated. Again, art nouveau / jugendstil style.

Karoviertel Hamburg second part: the shops

2008-04-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

You could spend a whole evening going through the shops in the Karoviertel in Hamburg. You can buy shoes, clothes, underwear, furniture and weird stuff. Each time you enter a shop, I guarantee it will be a different experience. It is not that I am a shopping addict, but the clothes they have here, are almost unique and not so expensive.

And if you are not in the mood for shopping, or you are not that kind of person, at least you can come around the Karoviertel to see weird shops such as this one:

This shop is called "Galerielokal Senator Watrin" and is an art Gallery, a coffee shop, a delicatessen, an indoors small flea market, among other stuff. I might call it the most interesting place in the Karoviertel.

Karoviertel in Hamburg - first part

2008-04-28T03:50:00.000-07:00

The Karoviertel begins, coming from the Schanzenviertel, from Marktstrasse

Around Karoviertel there is a Fleamarket (are there more Fleamarkets in Hamburg?)

I am back from France, it was a very very stressy weekend. I almost did not sleep on Thursday and I slept on the whole way from here to La Rochelle. We did have some time to walk through Paris a little bit, and to revive some old memories. But we are back in Hamburg, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. At least for me.

Today I am going to talk about the Karoviertel, another alternative area / neighborhood of Hamburg, just as Schanzenviertel. In fact, they are so close to each other, that if it would not be because the names change, you could not tell you are in different areas. The best option to visit the Karoviertel is to go there on a Saturday morning and start with the Flea market. Just next, there is an interesting bookshop with a relatively big selection of books in English, art books, architecture books, etc. In the building that houses the Flea Market there is an independent records house as well as restaurants, etc.

Walk then to where the Markstrasse starts, and you will see in the Karoviertel the characteristic signs of alternative areas in Germany: nice and stylised graffiti, stickers all over the place, alternative shops selling alternative clothes, shoes, furniture, etc; all kinds of street art, trendy coffee shops, etc. In fact, you might say the Karoviertel is more "IN" than the Schanzenviertel.

I took many photos in our visit to the Karoviertel, please come back tomorrow for the other posts. Or visit post two and three to get to now more about this alternative are of Hamburg.

Update on the life of a foreigner in Germany

2008-04-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

So, today I had a job interview. I was not expecting it, as we are leaving tomorrow for France, for a long weekend. A friend of my wife is getting married. I had my mind more on the wedding, what I was going to wear, the dress of my wife, etc.

But all of a sudden, I received an email yesterday for an appointment today. And there you go. I had to cancel, again, meeting my tandem partner yesterday, and I practised a little bit with my wife the questions and answers of a job interview. Which by the way, they did not ask.

I will let you know in the next days how it is going with all this. I apologise in advance that I am not going to be able to post anything from tomorrow until Sunday. I want to disconnect a little bit. The hotel has Internet access, but I will try to stay away from connecting. I hope we have a nice weather down there.

And I bought two more books from Zweitausendeins! They have very good books at very good prices! I leave you with a nice view of the Alster and the Hamburg city center.

Remains of the war in Hamburg "Heiligengeistfeld"

2008-04-23T03:40:00.000-07:00

Front side of the Heiligengeistfeld tower

The firs time I saw this building in Hamburg, around the Schanzenviertel, I was astonished. It is very very ugly. And it is located in the middle of the city. As the first time I was around there I did not have a clue in which area of the city I was, I wondered if it was a prison. But then I asked myself, could it be a remain of the second world war? The government would not let that happen? Would they? Oder??

As everyone in these days, when I have doubts about something I just google the concept, the person, the movie, the country, etc; and I instantly get my doubt solved. With this building I did not have a clue how to start looking for information about it. But one day, with google maps, looking for an address in the Schanzenviertel, I found it by pure coincidence. And then I googled the name of the street and finally got to know what this ugly building is.

The building above is a Flak bunker or a Flak tower. As I am not a native English speaker and I do not have any familiarity with war terminology, I really could not understand what a flak was. I could imagine though. Having a building so huge and with so thick walls, it could only be for defense.

The name of the building, I guess, is Flak Turm Heiligengeistfeld. According to wikipedia, this sort of buildings were anti air-craft built to prevent attacks on certain areas of the city. At the same time they worked as air-raid shelters for people.

According to the book of Keith Lowe, Inferno: The devastation of Hamburg, Heiligengeistfeld was built to be indestructible, that's why it is still there. Hamburg is not the only city that still houses this kind of buildings. It seems that Vienna also has tome Flak bunkers today.

What do you think should be made with this building? The Heiligengeistfeld flak tower? Now it houses some apartments and businesses. I wonder who would like to live or work here.

Spring has come to Hamburg

2008-04-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

The canals of Hamburg, Germany

The Alster in Hamburg

I don't know if it is like that in the rest of Germany, but here in Hamburg the last two days have been wonderful. Spring has finally arrived to the Hanseatic city. The view of the canals around the city center is beautiful, as you can see in the first photo.

The fountain in the middle of the Alster creates a rainbow, when viewed from some specific points. Besides, due to the construction of a new metro line in Hamburg, currently are only 3 lines, a platform was built in the middle of the lake. Now people can see the lake and the city from another perspective. In the third photo you can see this platform.

Let's see how long lasts this lovely weather in Hamburg.

Hamburg Fischmarkt or the fish market in Hamburg

2008-04-21T04:05:00.000-07:00

A view of the Fischmarkt and the Hamburg port at 08:00

Buying fruit for 10 euro at the Fischmarkt in Hamburg

A seller trying to lure customers, yelling at people

Having breakfast at the Fischmarkt in Hamburg, a Fischbroetchen

A friend of my brother came to Germany yesterday Sunday. When she called me, to arrange a time when we could meet, she said: I am going to be in Hamburg only from 06:00 to 08:00. That was a bit strange. But then she told me she was going to come to visit the famous Hamburg Fischmarkt or the fish market of Hamburg. And as we (my wife and myself) hadn't been there, we agreed to meet there around 07:30.

The best option to get there is to take the S-Bahn station Reeperbahn, and follow the signs pointing the direction of the Fischmarkt. Don't mind how dirty the floor might be, remember the area is popular among teenagers for nightclubbing. Just keep on walking and follow the rest of the people who, just like you, want to visit the famous market. It is a 10 minutes walk.

Now in April, around 08:00, is not dark anymore in Hamburg, as you can see in the photos. But dress yourself warm, as it is still very cold outside and specially at that time of the day. The Fischmarkt is supposed to run from around 05:00 to 09:00. But my tandem partner said that if you go around 10:00 you can buy really cheap fruits and vegetables.

Once you are there, you will notice a big red-brown building in the middle of the stands. Be advised, inside is where restaurants and bars are. You can eat there in an all you can eat buffet of fish for 14 euro. If you can stand drunk people and loud music, that is your place. Some people is what they come for to the Fischmarkt. After a long night of clubs and discos, they end the night here. But don't worry, there is loads of security in the place.

On the other hand, if you want to see the real thing, the Fischmarkt is in the stands, the people yelling and selling their produce. Fish, fruits, vegetables, plants, pasta and many more things you will find here at a very good prices. You can have a good breakfast here. Not only fish, but sausages (Wurst), warm coffee, pastries, etc.

The trip at that time of the day on Sunday, (the Fischmarkt runs only on Sundays) is totally worth it. I saw a different side of Germany that I did not believe existed. I could imagine this in Spain or Italy, but not here. This was our first visit to the Fischmarkt, but I am sure it won't be the last one. We will be surely coming back to buy fruits and to take more photos.

Be sure, the Fischmarkt is a must on your visit to Hamburg.

View of the inside of the Fischmarkt building in Hamburg

The Speicherstadt in Hamburg

2008-04-18T04:42:00.000-07:00

When the friend of my wife visited us, one of the first places she wanted to visit in Hamburg was the Speicherstadt. One of Hamburg's must famous landmarks, the Speicherstadt is a warehouse complex in downtown, built with distinctive red-orange slightly burned bricks typical not only of this area but of some other buildings of the city.

The Speicherstadt used to be the area where ships loaded and unloaded their cargo. Someone told me that it used to be outside of the customs area, and was tax free; but I honestly don't understand 100% the benefits of this privilege. I could imagine that it motivated commerce somehow, though.

Currently, there are few companies who still use the spaces in the Speicherstadt as a warehouse. You can still see some companies selling tapestries, but some important companies have their offices here. Walking around, we found that Warner Brothers Germany has offices here in the Speicherstadt, as well as Timberland, software company SAP, etc. And of course, several trade companies who buy and sell commodities from all over the world have the main offices here.

In the Speicherstadt there are also some nice restaurants, coffee shops, some museums and galleries. My wife told me that some people even have their apartments here. But what makes the Speicherstadt one of the most interesting walks in Hamburg, and in Germany, is the canals, the bridges, the views, the tall buildings and the distinctive red-orange colours. You can see some of this in the photos above.

And just behind the Speicherstadt, as I mentioned in previous posts, a huge complex of apartments and offices is built. It is very exciting to see how quick everything is growing as weeks pass by. I will show you some of the photos I took in the next post.

Walk in downtown Hamburg, a nice evening

2008-04-17T03:55:00.001-07:00

Yesterday my tandem partner cancelled, because she had a party, which she invited me to but I told her better to meet next Friday. I went then for a walk in Hamburg, it was a nice sunny evening. Not like now, rainy and cold. I live near the Alster, but I just realised yesterday how near. I just had to walk around 10 minutes to get to the lake, and breath pure air.

I went for a walk trough the bridge that divides the Binnenalster (or lower-inner part of the Alster lake) from the Aussenalster (higher-outer part of the Alster) in downtown Hamburg. The bridge is called Lombardsbrücke, and as it was a very nice clear sunny day I thought the view was going to be great for photos. And indeed it was.

The first photo is before you get to the bridge. You can even see the shape of Der Michel, and the fountain in the middle of the Alster I recently spoke about. The third photo is the view of downtown Hamburg almost in the middle of the bridge, with that view and the sunny day, who won't like to sit there and do some reflections.

I met my wife just some minutes later, as she had already her first job interview. The position does not sound that bad, and it is very central. Today and tomorrow she has two more job interviews. We went together to Moenckebergstrasse, we had some delicious Curry Wurst (the best in Hamburg they say) and slowly walked back home.

Architecture Hamburg: the Deichtor Center

2008-04-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

On my first visit to Hamburg, around two years ago, I remember very well this building. It was a grayish day, rainy, as many days in Hamburg are, and the structure, the shape, and its characteristics caught my attention. As I said before, many buildings in Hamburg are designed intentionally to look like, or inspired by, large ships. This triangular-shaped offices building is located some meters away from the main train station is called the "Deichtor Center".

The Deichtor Center houses big shipping companies, the northern Germany offices of ZDF, a TV channel, some marketing agencies (in fact, one of my classmates from my German class works here), and the buro of the Architect Hadi Teherani. I spoke about him in past posts, as the designer of the Berliner Tor building and the Dockland Offices by the Alster.

As you can see in the next photo of the Deichtor Center, there seems to be a relatively large area with trees inside the building, which makes it yet more interesting. I am also including a photo I found on the internet of the place where it was built in 2001. I am no architect, but I really find this buildings very very interesting.

Today I am going to meet my tandem partner again, in the area of St. Pauli. I will take more photos to post in the next days. I still have to call the other girl who is interested on doing the tandem as well. Mmm.

Hidden Jugendstil in Hamburg or Art Nouveau

2008-04-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned previously, and much to my surprise, Hamburg has a large amount (and tradition) of Jugendstill (or Art Nouveau) in architecture, decoration, posters, furniture, etc. In several Antique stores in downtown (not to mention the big antiques auction warehouses around Blankenese) have some really beautiful Art Nouveau / Jugendstil objects.

In the photos above you can see the ceiling of a passage located some meters away from the Hamburg Rathaus. It depicts some sort of Art Nouveau / Jugendstill painting, and I guess it used to be the advertising of a bakery or a pastry shop. It is always good to remember, when you are visiting a city and doing some sightseeing, to look up, and you might surprise yourself.

Opposite to the Art Nouveau / Jugendstill plates, posters, furniture, etc for sale in the Antique stores I mentioned, it is very probable that the painting on the ceiling is just a reconstruction and it is no older than 30 years old. Whereas this sort of art goes back perhaps even to the late 19th century, or, at the latest, 1940.

However, sometimes it is better to have the illusion that it is indeed old. When we visit Barcelona, Paris or London, we (naively) expect that all that we see is just as how it was 50 or 100 years ago. And if we don't, we don't even consider that the building we are looking at, was just refurbished last year or that it had to be adapted to have emergency exits or toilets for tourists.

The painting and the passage is one of my favourite places in Hamburg. It inspires you to dream how it was when Art Nouveau / Jugendstil was all over the place: in buildings, furniture, posters, clothes, book covers, etc. If you are in Hamburg and you want to visit this passage, go to the street called Neuer Wall and where the number 13 is supposed to be, there is the passage.

And don't forget to look up!

Small talk in German

2008-04-14T01:01:00.000-07:00

As I said previously, this weekend a friend of my wife came to visit us from Köln (Cologne). The city is around Bonn, the previous capital of (Western) Germany before reunification. But that's not what I am going to talk about. Is about doing small talk in German.

First of all, I am happy. Before, months ago, when we met her friend, we were speaking in English the whole time, and when she was speaking in German with my wife I was missing 90% of the conversation. And now, I hardly miss a bit of the conversation and I am even able to take part in my broken German. And that feels really good. I feel I am making progresses in the language.

On the other hand, when learning German, there are some things that come along. Such as doing small talk with people. Normally, I don't like doing small talk, I prefer saying nothing than saying something stupid, irrelevant or superfluous. But when I have to, I do, much to my dislike. And now, I must do small talk in German. What a horror! I must think of something irrelevant to talk about, and then the correct grammatical structure in German. And then later expect the reaction of the people: are they not answering because what I said was stupid? because they did not understand what I said? should I care and do more efforts when I don't really care about this conversation?

Anyway, I tried my best, and I think it went pretty well. On the other hand, if you are wondering what is the best subject for small talk in Germany? Don't doubt about it: the weather. It is perfect and it is taken very seriously.

The photo above, is my coffee machine.

German Magazines: Der Spiegel

2008-04-13T02:58:00.000-07:00

One of the most important news magazines in Germany is produced and based in Hamburg: Der Spiegel. (meaning "The Mirror"). Just around downtown, sandwiched between Mönckenbergstrasse and the Speicherstadt.

A friend of my wife came to visit, and we went for a long walk around the Speicherstadt (more photos tomorrow) and finally I managed to take a good photo of the buildings that house Der Spiegel and other magazines that are produced by the same editorial house. In past days the sky was gray and/or it was raining, and finally the days now are sunnier and longer in Germany. Around 21:00 you can still see some light. In winter, around 17:00 is already dark.

Der Spiegel is published weekly and, according to wikipedia, is not only one of the most influential magazines in Germany but in Europe. It has a circulation of more than 1 million per week, and almost 6.5 million readers on average per week as well. As my German is very far from been good enough to read Der Spiegel, I cannot give you a first account whether the magazine is left-leaning or right-leaning.

However, according to wikipedia again, Der Spiegel has been considered sometimes right leaning or/and a harsh critic of any sort of Chancellor or government or party (SPD, CDU, Grün Partei, etc) in Germany. The magazine has a very good website which I believe is a good source of information for many Germans living abroad. My wife for example, used to read Der Spiegel a lot when we were in Spain. It also has videos that are produced 3 times a day, with the most recent news of Germany and the World.

Luckily, the Website also hosts an English version that opened recently, with news of Germany and the world as well. It can be a good source of information for the first-time comers to Germany, but once you are here, it is better to try to read the German version. From time to time, Der Spiegel produces special issues on specific topics, and sometimes this issues are in English as well. Which gives you a very good insight into German journalism.

There is also on TV a Der Spiegel channel, but I am not sure how it works.

Hamburg also hosts more big printed media German companies, such as Gruener und Jahr. They are behind magazines such as Stern, View, and they just recently bought the Financial Times Deutschland from the British original owner Pearson and producers of the London based newspaper.

More architecture in Hamburg

2008-04-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Some buildings in Hamburg, as the one above, are particularly designed to look like boats or ships. I don't know the name given to this group of buildings, but it is located near the Portuguese Quarter, and just next to the Hamburg Harbor.

Perhaps the offices of one of the most important editorial agencies in the world G&J are located in this buildings, however, I am not 100% sure about this.

Buildings as the Chile House, and where the offices of the famous Iranian Architect that has built so many buildings in Hamburg, are also designed inspired by the ships of Hamburg. Or at least that's what I believe.

Looks like this weekend will rain here. I hope your weekend is better.

Another day in the life of a foreigner in Germany

2008-04-10T02:54:00.001-07:00

Well, here is an update on what has happened in my life here in Germany in the last days:

The German language is difficult. I know, this is not new news. But after all the energy and enthusiasm I had when I arrived here, I found that it is not going to be easy. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I want things to go quicker, and learning a new language (regardless if it is German, Polish, Chinese or Japanese) takes always time.

Yesterday I was again with my tandem partner, and it impresses me how fast she speaks German. Then I realise that it is not that she speaks fast, that's how everybody speaks. At the same time, you realise that Germans don't really pronounce the words properly, for me it sounds like they skate with the language and that they drag the "ssss". My wife speaks German like that as well, is not a problem of my tandem partner. I guess I don't pronounce the words properly in my own language either.

The good news is that a friend of my tandem partner is also interesting on practising the language with me as well. I am sure that will help me even more. However, I don't discard a little bit of desperation coming from my in the next days, as I am going to realise how far I am from speaking a reasonable level of German.

On the other hand, I still have not received any news from the jobs I have applied to. And that does not help and pushes a little bit more the feeling of desperation I have. However, in my German class, one of the classmates sent my CV to his bosses in the company where he works (yet another good reason for studying German at the Goethe) and it is not a small company. That was just last week, so I guess I still have to wait a little bit before I hear from them. If I do anyway.

When I see that perhaps in other countries I could get a job in important companies, in Ireland for example, it makes me wonder if I should give it a try. But I just should not forget that we came to Germany for improve our standard of life, which we did; we came to Germany for me to learn German, which I am; we came to Germany for my wife to get a better job, which she did, but she is not very happy; we came to Germany for me to get a better job, which I am not getting; and we came to Germany for us to have a family and this we can not do until we have a solid base where we can build our lives (ours and the baby(ies)) on.

But we cannot do anything but wait. In the next months we will analyse how things develop and then we will we able to take decisions. In two weeks we will go to France, for a wedding, and that will clear my head a little bit.

Thanks for reading.

The photo above is a ship at the top of a mast located in front of the Hamburg Rathaus.

More Architecture in Germany in Hamburg

2008-04-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

As I said before, I find the Architecture in Germany very interesting. I am not an architect myself, but the contemporary buildings I have seen throughout the German (Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart) always call my attention.

The building of the photos, the Copper House, is located around the St. Pauli area of Hamburg, some steps away from the famous Reeperbahn. Looks like it also has a Restaurant in the building. I could not find any information about the Architects.

There are more buildings that I find interesting in Hamburg, and I will be speaking about them soon. So far, I have spoken about these:

Taking photos around the Alster

2008-04-07T04:21:00.000-07:00

On our last walk around the Alster, I took these photos. It is nice to see Spring is here, but the cold weather is still with us. The walk around the Alster is relaxing and I am looking forward to summer when we plan to take one of the ships that take you from one extreme of the Alster to the other one.

Just recently in the lower part of the Alster, there is a platform where you can walk some meters inside the lake. I do not mean into the water but as if you were walking over it. I also noticed something I hadn't before, the spring of water coming out from the middle of the lower Alster. I saw this first in Zurich and I came to relate these kind of springs to boring cities that don't have much to show and must create something artificial for the tourists.

I hope this is not the case for Hamburg. You can click on the photos of the Alster if you want a larger format.

Inside the Rathaus in Hamburg - The Cityhall

2008-04-06T06:31:00.000-07:00

Some days ago we were walking in downtown Hamburg on our way home. We noticed that the courtyard of the Rathaus (City Hall), was open. We went inside and we noticed it how beautiful it is. It has wonderful balconies and windows, and a nice fountain as well.

We were lucky as we were the only ones in the courtyard of the Hamburg Rathaus and the sky was specially nice for taking photos. As I mentioned in a previous posts, looks like the Hamburg Rathaus has more rooms than the Buckingham Palace, and it has open doors each day, with tours in German, English and French.

We are planning to go soon, before the tourists come to Hamburg in summer.

I took several photos of the figures in the fountain, but I did not manage to get a sharp photo. It is a bit difficult, as the texture of the statues is very difficult to focus. But I did like this photo here:

Der Michel in Hamburg

2008-04-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Last week, in our walk around St. Pauli, we passed next to Der Michel, or the St. Michaelis Church. It is the most representative building of Hamburg. I will be visiting it several times, as the inside is beautiful and the view from the top of the tower is supposed to be fantastic.

The book I am reading, Inferno: the devastation of Hamburg, mentions that this is one of the few buildings not destroyed by the British and American air raids during the second world war. This picture here, I was not able to find more, can show that perhaps it is true.

However, in wikipedia and in the website of Der Michel, they do mention something about the church been partially destroyed by the raids. What called my attention is that there is few information about it - what happened in the 1940's to the church - in both websites. I do not think this is good.

Here is a closer look at an statue they have over the entrance to Der Michel. I am not very religious, but I guess it is the Archangel Michael.

Learning German in Germany; tandem partners

2008-04-04T15:40:00.001-07:00

Today I am going to speak about a very important thing to do when you learn German in Germany: getting a tandem partner. A partner for exchanging the language that is. Normally it works as follows:

You put up a notice in a board in the school or institute where you attend the German course (they always have one) that you are looking for a tandem partner for learning German. You describe yourself a little bit: your hobbies, where are you from, and the most important thing: your language. If you speak Japanese, you write: I am looking somebody who speaks German that wants to learn Japanese. You can also go to the city university and look for the faculty of languages, I am sure they have something similar. Of course, don't forget to write how they can contact you: email, telephone number, etc.

The best part, is that this is free. They are as interested as you in learning the language, that's why nobody has to pay anything. And you can make good friends as well.

Well, today I met my tandem partner for the first time. I put up my notice two weeks ago and I got an email last Monday. We spoke for almost two hours. Sadly, we spoke more in my language than in German. But that was my fault. I also noticed that my German is not as good as I thought it was and that when German people speak normally, I understand less than usual. In the classroom I understand almost 100%. With my tandem partner sometimes I was understanding 50% or 40%.

I am going to meet her again next Wednesday. I am going to try harder to speak in German this time.

I got several conclusions then:

German in the real life is different from the classroom (you may think it is obvious, but it was not for me)
The tandem partner is going to help me a lot
As I mentioned before, I must seek the occasion to speak German and not wait for the occasion to come to me

Schones wochenende!! Have a nice weekend!!

Architecture in Germany in Hamburg: An der Alster 1

2008-04-04T05:53:00.000-07:00

An der Alster 1 photo A

An der Alster 1 photo B Entrance

An der Alster 1 photo C

In our walk by the Alster last Saturday, we passed near this building. The street address is " An der Alster 1", something like "On the Alster 1". I thought about looking on the internet for information with this data, the address.

It turns out that is the name of the building as well. It was designed by the Architects J. Mayer H., a group of architects from Berlin.

I find very interesting the design and I really like it.

Good Restaurants in Hamburg or where to eat in Hamburg

2008-04-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

This restaurant is by far our favourite in Hamburg: The Bok Restaurant in the Schanzenviertel. They have Japanese and Thai food mostly, and at a very good price. You can get there with the S-Bahn (regional train) and U-Bahn (metro) as well, look for the Sternchanze station.

But we did not find this place by ourselves. A friend of my wife who used to live here in Hamburg showed us around this neighbourhood a year and half ago, told us about this restaurant, the other two in the area and the story behind Wok. Looks like the Wok began as an Imbiss (roughly translated, a fast food stall or eatery), which is not the one in the photo.

The original is 4 0 5 streets away and it is in the semi subterranean lower part of a building. There you must order and eat standing and it is a little bit small. That's why we have never been there. It was so successful that they opened more and a little more sophisticated. Just a little. Currently there are 3 in the Schanzenviertel, one more in Altona and in some other places that I don't remember. However, we are very traditional and we always go to the one in the photo.

Now, be careful. Some, only some, dishes are spicy. They might tell you that it is mild spicy, but sometimes that means very. The best thing to do is to ask for your dish, when is the case, not to be spicy. I like spicy food, that's another reason why I am such a fan of this place. But last time we where there, I ordered a dish that was supposed to be mild and it was not. I did not care, as I normally put more chili on it, but for the average German, I am sure it would have been difficult to eat.

Another good point of Wok is that around 13:00, they put some fresh food in boxes outside for the Homeless people of the area. It is the first time I have seen this. And I did see some people coming to get the food.

Life in Germany: Movie rentals in Hamburg

2008-04-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

This is the video shop where we do our movie rentals. We don't do it often as it is very expensive and the system they have is strange, not to say a rip off. I don't know how it is in other cities in Germany, but here in Hamburg and particularly in this shop (there are several in the city), they charge you "pro Kalendar Tag" (per calendar day).

We did not understand at the beginning what that was and as you only pay when you give back the movie, we just understood one day later. Put it this way: if you rent the movie today at 11:00 and you give back the movie at 20:00 you pay one day. Fair enough. But if you give back the movie tomorrow, you pay two days. If the rental costs 1 euro and 80 cents, and you rent the movie today and you bring it back tomorrow, you end up paying 3 euros and 60 cents. Don't even think on keeping the film for long.

On the positive side, you do find all kinds of films and movies. Your average Hollywood movies, the classic films, TV series (careful, they don't have all the series and not all the seasons), European films and German movies as well. And all of them, but the German ones, are in the original version. When you are lucky enough, you can get a German movie with subtitles in English.

Ask beforehand how the rental works. And, of course, you need a "perso", or Personalausweis,
(ID card) to be able to get a film. I don't know if they will accept a foreign passport as a valid ID.

Learning German: the classmates

2008-04-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

As I said in previous posts: the classmates of the German courses are a very important issue on your leaning process, but also on sharing experiences as a foreigner in Germany, and to get to know other cultures and countries.

When I started the German course last month, as soon as I arrived I instantly made myself an idea of the people in the class. I was wrong, we always do this, but we are normally always wrong. I consider myself an open minded tolerant person, but after some weeks, when I got to know my classmates, I realise how wrong I was. And that I still have my cliches and prejudges, no matter how much I try to avoid them.

Let me explain myself. The first day I came into the class I saw 6 or 7 people and I instantly thought, they are all of Turkish origin. Two weeks later, yes, two weeks later, I got to know that just one of them is indeed Turkish. Two are Iranians, one is Syrian and another one is French.

And just recently I have been talking to them. You can't believe how interesting the conversations are. I am not saying that Turkish people are not interesting people to talk to. Not at all. But I created an automatic barrier, and I totally regretted it.

One told me how much he prefers to live in Germany and that he does not misses his country at all. On the other hand, the Turkish, she is a woman, she told me that back in Turkey she cannot go the university because she cannot wear the headscarf while attending classes. And that that's a problem for her. What could I say??? Should I be impolite enough to say, why don't you remove it altogether??

No matter how different the cultures and traditions are, it is very likely you end up sharing with them much more than you think. And even better, you communicate in German, not in English. Which is great for practising and correcting mistakes.

Today's class was about what we missed from our countries. The Turkish woman answered just some words and she did not want to be asked more, as she said that she was sure she was going to start crying.

Art Nouveau in Hamburg or Jugendstil

2008-04-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

Art Nouveau in Hamburg. Click on the photo for a larger format.

In our walk last Saturday, we came across this mural in the Schanzenviertel. Before coming to Hamburg I had no idea that Art Nouveau (Jugendstil in German) was of any importance in the city. Once you start looking for apartments however, you notice how some owners describe their houses "jugendstil style".

Sadly, most of this houses are not authentic, as I said, and according to the book I am reading (Inferno: the destruction of Hamburg), no house or building in Hamburg is older than 70/60 years old.

Anyway, it has a huge surprise finding this mural. I have no idea what it represents or why is there. I can tell you only that it is located in the Schanzenviertel in the Margaretenstrasse.

Some museums in Hamburg claim to have collections of Jugendstil part of the "Hamburg Sezession" group. Again, I have never heard of this. I have read a little bit about Art Nouveau and I have heard of Viennese and Parisian Art Nouveau, in Prague, Barcelona, Brussels, some Baltic cities and small french cities as well. I read as well about some southern German cities that had Jugendstil, but never Hamburg.

I am going to read more about it. Looks interesting.

My life in Germany in the last weeks

2008-03-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

I took this photo last Saturday, when we decided to walk around St. Pauli and we ended up walking around Hamburg's harbor. However at this stage, I would rather to sum up how things have been going on in the last weeks in my life in Germany. I will refer to our walk in tomorrow's post.

I can feel that my German is getting better. I understand the TV and the Radio a little bit more, of course not as much as I would like, but a little bit better than when we arrived two months ago. However I still don't dare too much to speak to people. I did not have that problem with English when we lived in Ireland, but perhaps I had more vocabulary and self confidence then, because I was more familiar with the English language. Besides, it is only two months since I've been here. But sometimes it does annoy me that I don't dare to go and speak German. In the next days I will put some pressure on me to look for the conversation instead of waiting for the conversation coming to me.

It is not that I am not trying, but perhaps I am not trying hard enough. Two weeks ago I put up an advertising on the board of the Goethe that I was looking for someone to exchange languages, and finally someone replied today. I will tell you more in the next days about how it went.

On the other hand, I got my job permission around 3 or 4 weeks ago. Funny, now I would know the word to write in German better than in English. Anyway (Trotzdem), I may have sent already 20 CV (Lebenslauf) to some companies. For these 20, I have received around 10 replies saying that either currently they are not looking for someone with my profile now, or that my languages skills are a problem (lack of German that is), or that unfortunately (leider) I did not made it to the interview.

Of course this situation makes me a bit desperate. But 4 weeks is not too much time, I know. It is just that I hate this feeling of uncertainty. There are some companies that have not replied yet and I am crossing my fingers. (Ich drücke die daumen).

Additionally, my wife is not very happy at her current job. And my mother would like us to spend sometime with her back home. I have told her that, no matter how much we would love to go (which we do), we cannot. If we go I am sure I will undo all the progress I have made with the language and it will break our rhythm. Besides, it is not cheap going home. But we are planning to to in winter for sure. For my brother's graduation from University.

On the positive side, Spring is here and the weather is getting better. Much better. We walked 7 km around the Alster last Sunday, and it was wonderful. I will show you the photos tomorrow.

Internet providers in Germany II: more options

2008-03-31T04:39:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the subject of Internet providers in Germany, I found these:

Alice (photo above). It is not a woman's name, it is an Internet provider called Alice. They use a model to promote the advertising of the service and recently they have used Brad Pitt in their TV commercials as well. I am not sure, but it can be that is the same company as HanseNet.
Kabel Deutschland. Honestly, I have never heard of them. Looks like they have good prices and they claim to offer a high speed access.

Now, as in other countries, and specially in Germany where each Bundesland or region has its own laws and peculiarities, the internet providers may be different in each one of them. My in-laws have a regional internet provider, which seems to work just fine.

These are some issues you must consider when deciding yourself for one of these companies:

Does it include fix telephone services? Festnetz, is a normal land line telephone. Sometimes you can call for free to your friends or family who are customers of this company. And sometimes it is also free to call people who are customers of other companies. Be careful on this point.

Does it have special rates for calling abroad? If you are reading this blog, is very likely you will be making international phone calls. Either in to other European countries or to America, Asia or Africa. Sometimes they have special rates for international calls as well.

How long does it take to have the service running? In our case it took around 4 weeks until I had the telephone line and the Internet running. You must be patient.

Do I have to pay for the Modem/Telephone/WLAN Modem? We bought the telephone in Saturn (more about this shop in another post soon), and we were never offered one when we did the contract. The normal modem for the Internet was free, but we wanted a wireless one. In Spain we got it for free, here we had to pay around 40 euro. The first three months of the Internet service is free, so it makes it up.

What about this all inclusive offers? In some cases, some companies offer: mobile services, telephone services, tv services and internet services in one whole package. I would not know how good or bad this is as we have not tried it yet.

If you want to know more about the internet providers in Germany, I strongly suggest you to take a look at the STIFTUNG WARENTEST website. If you are in Germany already you might be familiar with the logo of this association or company, I am not sure what kind of organisation they are.

What they do is testing all sorts of products and services in Germany and awarding points to them in relation to quality. I will speak more about this later, but it does pay to take a look at their website, and even pay 1 euro for the results of their test on internet providers. It is a very serious test as very important brands and companies carry this logo on their products, when the review is good of course.

Reviews of services with TV, land line and internet:

http://www.test.de/themen/computer-telefon/test/-TV-Telefon-Internet/1558073/1558073/1561871/

Internet providers:

http://www.test.de/themen/computer-telefon/test/-Internetprovider/1538762/1538762/1539381/1539994/

Flatrates:

http://www.test.de/themen/computer-telefon/test/-Internet-und-Telefon/1512047/1512047/1527502/

Hamburg streets

2008-03-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Today we walked a lot, around 7 km. I am very tired to go on with the post from yesterday. However I do want to share with you the photo of an interesting shop we found.

Hope you had a nice weekend

Internet providers in Germany I: your options

2008-03-29T03:53:00.000-07:00

The (larger) Internet providers (Internetdiensteanbieter in German) in Germany are as follows:

Deutsche Telekom (picture). It is the national telephone, Internet and mobile telephone provider. It is a big company, the biggest telecommunications company in Europe. 30% of the company is directly/indirectly owned by the German government.
Vodafone/Arcor. It is the second biggest fixed telephone provider in Germany. It was the first company to offer a flat rate service. (I have this provider!)
1&1. This is a company that belongs to "United Internet", a group of Internet companies (portals, mail providers, online marketing, etc). Claims to have more DSL clients after Deutsche Telekom.
Strato. Is part of "freenet AG" group of telecommunication companies. Bought some months ago the German Business of Tiscali, the Italian Telecommunications company.
Versatel. A Dutch company sold to Tele2, but the German branch is independent. Looks like it only operates in southern Germany mostly.
O2. Part of the Spanish own Telefonica group. Known more for the Mobile telephone services. Used to be VIAG Interkom.

These are the ones I have found information about. I will cite more in my next post. It is a bit difficult as there is no much information in English and with my limited German my research is slow. Please read my second post, I will give you the information you must consider when you take your decision of which Internet provider you go for.

Speaking German when you have no other choice

2008-03-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Three days ago, we woke up with no telephone connection and no Internet. We did not know why. After three or four phone calls to our Internet provider and a visit of a technician, we got online again.

I was proud as the technician did not speak English at all and I had to communicate with him in German only. I got desperate sometimes as I felt I could not understand much, but luckily and gratefully, the man was very patient and insisted on us speaking. It was more me getting nervous than not us able to communicate.

Finally I did understand what I needed to do and here we are again online.

And I got a good idea, I am going to explain you the process or the steps you need to get a telephone line and an Internet connection in Germany. As it is long and I am going to compare it to my previous experiences in Spain I will divide it in several posts.

The good news is: my connection is the fastest I have ever had. Even faster than the connection I used to have at work in Spain; is not so expensive; so far we are getting good customer service, even if I am not a native German speaker.

The bad news: if you are starting from zero, the telephone company might take 4 or 5 weeks to get you a connection. But once you are on, looks like there are no problems. We did have to pay for our wireless router though.

The Fleetschlösschen in Hamburg in the Speicherstadt

2008-03-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went to walk around Hamburg. We do that often in the cities where we have lived. We explore the city by foot. That's a very good way to find things you would otherwise miss. We started with a walk around our home, and later we walked to the Speicherstadt, or the old warehouses of Hamburg. You can see how the buildings look in the first 3 photos above.

The Speicherstad is surrounded by water, as is just next to the Elbe river. It is here where the next opera house will be built, and a massive project for houses, departments and offices is taking place, as you can see above.
We were happy to see the first coffee shop we visited in our first time in Hamburg: the Fleetschlösschen, pictured in the photo above. Is a wonderful, quiet, family run place where you get coffee, home made pastries and food. It is excellent for taking a rest after a long walk in Hamburg. Highly recommended!!

Before we left the Speicherstadt, we tried our luck tossing a coin to this big stick coming out of the river. We both missed it.

Easter in Germany or Ostern

2008-03-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

I am not very religious, that must be the reason why I totally forgot to mention the traditions in Germany in these days. Yes, we are in Easter (Ostern in Germany) and rabbits (Ostern Hase) and eggs (Ostern Eier) are everywhere. I got my rabbit and egg chocolates as you can see. Perhaps next year I'll try to dedicate more time to explain this festivities.

Frohe Ostern!!

Snow in Hamburg

2008-03-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

Finally, after some weeks in Hamburg, Germany, I get to see some snow falling. I am not used at all to snow, so it was a joy for me to see the flakes falling heavily for 15 or 20 minutes. It did not last long however, and it did not cover the floor in white. I really could not stop looking at the snow falling.

A walk in the Alster and in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst

2008-03-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

While in southern Germany snow is falling, here in Hamburg the sky was clear. We had 2 or 3 degrees over zero though. But spring is here and we decided to go for a walk around the Alster. Normally, we go for a walk around the lower part of the river-lake, but this time we made it up, opposite downtown Hamburg.

The Alster is a river-lake right in the middle of Hamburg. You have the lower Alster or Bienennalster, which is some meters away from the City hall or Rathaus. And then you have the upper Alster or Außenalster. The first photo above, is a view from the Außsenalster of Hamburg. You can see the churches of Hamburg, including the "Der Michel" and the Rathaus as well.

It was the first time we were in this part of Hamburg, which we got to know later is called Uhlenhorst. As I said, is in the north of the Außenalster, and of Hamburg of course. It has a very good view of the city and of the lake. It has lovely canals and bridges. We really enjoyed it.

The Aquarium in Hamburg, is snowing outside

2008-03-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

In the whole Germany the temperatures are going down, and Hamburg is no exception. As you can see in the first photo, the snow has come to our city. The whole day has been with us. And is not alone, the wind has come along as well. What best solution but going to the Aquarium? where is warm and there is no wind.

As we did not go anywhere for Easter (Ostern in German), we decided to go and visit the Aquarium of Hamburg. It is just next to the Hagenbeck Zoo. The entrance was 13 euro per person. I guess it is cheaper for children, as there were many.

We really had a good time. You almost forget how cold and windy is outside. I got the chance to take some good photos of the Aquarium. You can spend around two hours in the place, is big enough. The ticket includes the entrance to the "Tropen", where they have tropical animals: crocodiles, big snakes, birds, monkeys, etc.

It is really worth it.

Beckstrasse and Sternstrasse in Hamburg

2008-03-20T04:37:00.001-07:00

The very first time we visited Hamburg, a friend of my wife took us for a walking tour of the Schanzenviertel or Schanze. And she took us as well through the street you can see above. I am sure she explained us the history behind this sort of narrow streets and lined up houses, but I honestly don't remember.

I have been looking on the Internet, but I just cannot find much. I am sure there is information, but my German is still not good enough to know where or how to look. Either the key above has a special significance, or, probably, refers to a guesthouse in this building. The streets parallel to Beckstrasse are similar but not as nice. And if you still have not noticed, Strasse is German for street. Anyway, I will try to get more information about this particular area and nicer photos.

Right now is very cold here in Hamburg and is raining. It doesn't look like the weather is going to be better in the next days. Outside we have 6 degrees. And today I have my German language course.

A walk through the Schanzenviertel in Hamburg or Schanze

2008-03-19T04:33:00.000-07:00

Before we were at the Hamburger Dom last Saturday, we walked through Schanze or the Schanzenviertel in Hamburg. This "viertel", or neighborhood, is one of the alternative areas of Hamburg. Just as Mitte in Berlin and the eastern neighborhoods.

You may like it or you may not like it. Depends on what you are looking for. If you are more for the normal shops (The Zaras and the Nikes), this is not for you. On the other hand, if you love to explore new and independent brands, try new food, relax and have a good coffee and walk through independent art galleries and street art, Schanze or the Schanzenviertel is for you.

Is not even spring, and people start to sit outside and relax, as you can see in the first photo. It was cold, perhaps 8 or 9 degrees, but it was not raining. The coffee shops and restaurants, took out some tables and chairs and everybody took the opportunity to relax outside. I should not forget to mention the new law that forbids to smoke in all the restaurants in Germany, and the only place where they can smoke is, well, outside the restaurant.

In this area, there is a famous (or infamous) building called "The Rote Flora". I will refer to it in a future post. But I can mention is an squatted former theatre, with some controversy surrounding it. Is the second photo above.

In the third photo, you can see how Grafters and street artists love Schanze or Shanzenviertel. Even in the trucks they do their art. I have seen this in Barcelona as well. The highlight of the photo is a stencil. A kind of street art that is becoming more popular in the world. You can read more about it at: http://www.worldofstencils.blogspot.com/.

I am sure you have heard of the Montblanc pens, or jewellery just recently. Well, it seems that the Montblanc company started its business in this area. I believe that the building with the name Montblanc, might as well be the place where everything began.

At the end of the walk, the best thing to do is to have a "Galao" or milchkaffe, in one of the several Portuguese coffee shops in Hamburg. Even with a typical Portuguese bolo de arroz.

The Hamburger Dom or Amusements in Hamburg, Germany

2008-03-18T03:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, just by pure coincidence, we went to the "Hamburger Dom". We were walking in the northwestern area of Hamburg, and we found ourselves at the entrance of this amusement park. The Hamburger Dom is three times a year: in spring, in summer and in winter.

There are stands were you can find: typical German food, such as sausages, mushrooms with garlic cream, the Lebkuchen (or heart shaped honey cakes), etc; amusements where you pay for a gift (I am not sure how can I describe these, but they are a rip off. You buy a dozen of small papers, that you can later exchange for a "gift"); amusements for children, amusements for teenagers and amusements for people over 18.

I have never been a fan of this kind of places, nor of the amusements. However, we decided to ride one of the ones for children. The one you can see in the photos. Well, we are getting old. We are in the early thirties and already this was too much for us. We thought it was going to be light fun, but nope. It was stronger that we thought.

We are getting old. I cannot imagine how it would be when we are 50. I still enjoyed the place. It is very similar to the atmosphere you might find in the Volksfest in Stuttgart or the Oktoberfest in Munich (without the drunk people of course) or the Weihnachtsmarkt (no Gluhwein, or warm wine, though).

The weather and learning German

2008-03-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today I left for my German course, and it was very cold outside. Some minutes before, it was snowing and the wind was very strong. When I returned, it was 3 degrees outside. And tomorrow is supposed to be worse.

I guess is not motivating going to the language course with this weather, but what can I do. If I want to learn, I must attend the classes. Tomorrow, I have classes again. I am having fun, as I AM learning a lot.

Reading "Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg"

2008-03-17T04:32:00.000-07:00

Last year I read about this book in the Financial Times: "Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg" by Keith Lowe. As we were planning to move here, it called my attention and, even better, it had very good reviews. However, each time I visited Hamburg, after I read about the book might have been at least 4 times, I could not find it in the bookshops in the city. I found that very strange.

This weekend, we went to my favourite bookshop for books in English, and I had in mind a book about the Italian Mafia. To my surprise I found "Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg" and I instantly grabbed it. I bought it then on Saturday and I have been reading it for the last days and is better than I expected. Don't get me wrong, I am not interested on destruction or any other sort of similar subjects. I just like reading about history a lot. Specially when you live in the city the book is referring to.

Of the very first things that surprised me, was to read that not a single building in Hamburg is more than 60/70 years old. I remembered then the signs in some houses and buildings around the city, as the photo above, where you can read: destroyed in 1943 (or one year before or after) and rebuilt years later.

The most shocking part was to learn that, according to Keith Lowe, the destruction of Hamburg in 1943 can be compared to that of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I have only started the book and I can already strongly recommend it.

"The Pfand" in Germany part 2

2008-03-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Finally. Do you remember the plastic bottles we had? waiting to be given back? I referred to them in the post "The Pfand" in Germany some days ago. I mentioned I was going to post later about the machine where you give back the plastic bottles, the cans, and the glasses of beer, etc.

Here it is. Above you can see in the first photo the hole where you, one by one, place the objects you want to give back. Once inside, there is a machine looking for the bar code, to read how much Pfand each bottle or can has.

In the second photo, sorry is a bit blurry, you can see how many bottles or glasses you have put into the machine and how much money you are getting back for each one. In the photo you can see, we gave back 10, and we had 2 euro and ten cents.

Once you are finish, you press the green button you see in the first photo. And you get a printed receipt, a "Gutschein" (voucher) for the amount stated. Later you can either cash it in at the tills of the supermarket where you are or you can use in the next occasion you go shopping (in the same shop of course) and you get a reduction for the amount in the Gutschein.

Ganz einfach! Very easy!

Der Michel in Hamburg and the two euro coins

2008-03-14T04:25:00.000-07:00

One of the most representative buildings of Hamburg, if not the most, is "Der Michel" (St. Michaelis Kirche). The church of St. Michael, I guess, in English. You can catch a glimpse of the church' tower in the two first photos. However, I will refer to it later, in another post.

Today I want to write about the 2 euro coins that were issued just recently in Germany with the image of the "Der Michel". We are collecting the special 2 euro coins (only when they get to our hands by pure luck) of Europe. We already have a pair from the Quixote from Spain, the Treaty of Rome and some of the Lubeck Tor (you can see 4 of them in the photo above).

So, my wife was really happy when she got, by pure luck, of one the "Der Michel" coins. It is really nice as you can see above.

The "Pfand" in Germany or levy, recycling plastic bottles, cans, glass

2008-03-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

Of the very first things that called my attention in Germany was how clean the country is. After some days later, I began to understand all the efforts and work behind this. One German I know, told me that Germany is clean because of the rain. I assumed that he meant that the water of the rain took all the dirt, plastics, papers and cigarette butts... somewhere under the earth.

But no. Not at all. When you go shopping, you start to understand. First of all, at the supermarket, you pay when you want plastic bags. Around 10 cents of euro per bag. That's why you will see many Germans with cloth bags, for carrying stuff from the supermarket home. Then you have the "Pfand" or levy.

For every drink in a plastic bottle you buy (that is: water, soft drinks, all sorts of juice, etc) you have to pay an small amount of pfand or levy for it. Can be from 5 cents of euro up to 25 cents. This applies as well for glass, and canned drinks: as in beer or soft drinks. Once you give back this plastic bottles and/or glass bottles or cans, you get your money back.

In the first picture above, we have a can and 2 plastic bottles. What do they have in common? A little icon meaning you must pay Pfand, and that when returned you get the money back. In the second picture you get a closer look at the icon I mean.

Now, be careful. Normally in each supermarket there is a machine (I will post a photo of it another day) where you can give these back. But in theaters, cinemas or restaurants, it works different. You have to ask how does it work with the "Pfand". In some places they charge you the pfand and when you give back the bottle they give you back the money. If some other places they just don't give you back anything.

Additionally, the pfand can be 5 cents or 25 cents. In some bottles you can see how much money you will pay, and you will get back later. You can see an example in the bottle of water above. The pfand is 25 cents of Euro.

I am sure this "Pfand", has a huge effect on the people. When you see the queue in these machines, you can only believe it works. On the other hand, sometimes you will see people looking for plastic bottles, cans and glasses in the trash cans on the street, to get some euros. Is not such a good feeling, as must of them are homeless or drunks looking for easy money to buy more alcohol.

As for you, as you can see in the picture above, you might end up with a dozen plastic bottles and cans at home, waiting to be brought back to the supermarket. But better that than polluting a river or the ocean.

The Berliner Tor in Hamburg

2008-03-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

Of the first things that called my attention on the first time I came to Germany, was the architecture of the new buildings. In Berlin, Potsdamer Platz of course, the embassies area and the building of the CDU (the right wing party in Germany).

In Köln some buildings in the a Media center; in Stuttgart some buildings of offices and what soon will be the BMW museum. I did not get to see the Mercedes Benz Museum however. On the other hand, the building of the Staatsgalerie is bit ugly.

Here in Hamburg is not different. Just as the Dockland Building, there are loads of modern buildings with interesting architecture. One of this series of buildings are the ones located in the S-Bahn (or regional trains) station, Berliner Tor. The translation is "The Berlin Gate", as it refers to an old station from where all the trains to Berlin used to leave.

In the photos above, you can see this buildings. In some of them you can find the German offices of IBM and AOL.

The Galao Strip or Portuguese Quarter in Hamburg

2008-03-10T05:04:00.000-07:00

My wife and myself like Portugal a lot. When we heard that in Hamburg there was a "Portuguese Quarter" (in German "Portugiesisches Viertel" or also called "Galao Streifen") we were looking forward to visiting it. At first we did not have a clue why the people called it "Galao Streifen". We understood Streifen, as in Line. But Galao?

We were in Portugal twice already and we have never heard the word. It is not that we can speak Portuguese, but we really could not figure out what it was for. Finally we asked in a Portuguese restaurant what it was.

Galao is a word for "cafe au lait", or something like that. I am still not sure, as when we were in Portugal, we heard more the words "Meio de Leite" for this kind of coffee. Anyway, we were in the Galao Streifen this Saturday.

As you can see in the pictures above there are several Portuguese restaurants. The owners do speak Portuguese but we believe they are second or third generation Portuguese Immigrants to Germany. The food was indeed very good, the best meat I have had in Germany. And, after the dessert, we asked for a Galao. If you still wonder what a Galao is, I took a photo of the coffee for you to imagine.

And the best advice I can give you if you love coffee and you are in Hamburg. Don't go to Starbucks or Balzacs or any of the big coffee chains, or you will be disappointed, with 3 euros less in your pocket and with a disgusting taste of milk.

Go to a Portuguese coffee place (they are everywhere in Hamburg) and enjoy a Galao. The people preparing the coffee will be experts, they will be very nice to you and it won't be as expensive as in the chain coffee shops. And I can guarantee you that the atmosphere will be much better.

The Dockland building in Hamburg

2008-03-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

It is strange. There is no much information in English about this wonderful building in Hamburg.

This is the Dockland building (in German "Dockland Bürogebäude", something like the Building of offices Dockland). It was designed by the Iranian Architect Hadi Teherani. It is just on the right side of the Elbe river, after St. Pauli, going in the direction of the sea.

I guess it was intentionally designed to look like a ship in motion. It is quite high, around 30 meters and has 6 floors. I took several photos from different points of view, to see from several angles how impressive the building actually is.

The Lange Reihe in Hamburg and Sankt Georg

2008-03-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today we went to take a walk in the Lange Reihe in the area of Sankt Georg. The Lange Reihe is a nice street in Hamburg where there are some Bars, Coffeshops, Alternative shops for clothes, Fast food restaurants (Subway is here), Italian and Portuguese restaurants, bookshops, etc. It is also known as the Gay Area of Hamburg.

On Fridays there is a Bio Markt where, naturally, you can buy all sorts of bio products: vegetables, fruits, sausages (of course), cheese, bread, etc.

It is a very nice area. And it is just some streets away from the Alster Lake/River. It is also some meters away from the Hauptbahnhof (the main train station). The photo was taken at the beginning of the Lange Reihe coming from the Hauptbahnhof.

Learning German in Germany

2008-03-07T02:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was a little bit relieved that the German course I am attending is not as difficult as I had thought. It is a feeling that sometimes you get when you go to this kind of courses: How come that guy there knows so much and I don't? Well, probably it is because he or she is doing the course again and they know must of the things already.

Anyway, what we are learning is not easy, definitely, but I hope with some practising with my wife, I will get along. You might want to know however about learning German in Germany. I have had some experiences. All of them positive.

I have always studied at the Goethe Institut. Which you can say is the official school for learning German and sponsored by the German Government. Kind of the Alliance Francaise for France, the British Council for Britain and so on. I have to say, it is not cheap. But you get to know interesting people with the same interests like you and you might get the chance to do some networking.

While taking the course I met someone who used to work in finances in Switzerland, someone working in British American Tobacco, someone studying a Master in Amsterdam of Yugoslavian origins, a Consultant from Chicago, someone from Kuwait, a businessman from Poland doing businesses in Germany and Ukraine, to name a few. Apart from the basic knowledge of German, most of them speak good English and is easy to enter into conversation with them. So, don't worry about the people you will meet.

About the city, I was in Berlin and now in Hamburg. Personally, I like big cities. Berlin, Hamburg and München are the biggest cities in Germany. And I know that Köln or Düsseldorf it is already small for me. Not to mention Bremen or Bonn. But if you prefer to live tranquil and easy, you may opt for the smaller cities.

The way they divide the knowledge of German is as follows:

A1 You can introduce yourself and ask simple questions
A2 You can describe your everyday life
B1 You can take part in a discussion
B2 You can understand current news programmes
C1 You are competent in the German language

Now, the are intermediate steps. In February I was in A2.1 and now I am in B1 (.1 I guess). I did not do A2.2 as I wanted to get a bit further. I'll let you know if it was a correct choice.

However, as you go to different schools, you will find different kinds of levels. When I was in Berlin some years ago, everything was about Grundstufe, Mittelstufe and Oberstufe. I was taking a look at another school last Friday and all of a sudden they speak about Aufbau 1. For my wife it made sense, for me it did not.

Besides the differences on levels, there are differences on schools. I visited 3 schools in Hamburg before returning to the Goethe. I guess all depends on what you are looking for and how much you want to pay. Be careful tough, some schools are more expensive than the Goethe and I don't think they are as good.

Finally, learning a new language is always difficult. German might be not as easy as learning English or Spanish. But is not as difficult as, I guess, Chinese or Arabic. But be sure of something, you won't learn by just going to the course, you must practice.

I love it when things start making sense in German. At the beginning, you just see big long words, but later, you understand them and even use them. It is a satisfying feeling.

You can visit the website of the Goethe in:

http://www.goethe.de/ins/de/enindex.htm

Viel Spaß!!

The bookshop Zweitausendeins in Hamburg

2008-03-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

Before I came to live in Germany, it was a bit difficult to find books about photography at a good price. Normally this kind of books are very expensive. From 25 Euro upwards. The other option was Amazon UK, where the prices are very good, but I had to wait up to 4 weeks for the books to arrive. However, each time I visited Köln (Cologne), Stuttgart or Hamburg, we were going back home with an extra bag with two or three (heavy) photography books.

I still have to find a bookshop with books as affordable as in Köln (where the Taschen editorial is by the way). But the bookshop above, the Zweitausendeins, is a very good option. I bought there last week a Phaidon book that before was 50 Euro and I got it for 6. No, the books are not second hand. They are new.

The photo above is the bookshop that is in the Colonnade. Next to the lower Alster. Each time I am around there, I take a look to see what they have. Most of the books are in German but they do have some in English and in French. There is another bookshop from Zweitausendeins around the are of Grindelhof, which I expected to be bigger, but looks like it is not.

And a big surprise! I got my books from Amazon today! I ordered them last Sunday and here they are. God bless the marvelous German post!! As I said, where we used to live before, I had to wait for at least 4 weeks.

Strikes in Germany

2008-03-05T08:46:00.001-08:00

Today morning, I heard on the radio (what I could understand with my basic knowledge of German) that there was a strike and that was affecting the Airport, the long distance trains, and the regional trains. Honestly I did not pay much attention as later they referred to the elections in the United States and how Hillary Clinton was back on the competition.

However, later when I read some international newspapers I got to realise how grave the situation had been and still is. Looks like in the biggest cities in Germany there were big problems. Specially in Hannover where the CeBit is taking part.

You can read more about it in

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,539494,00.html