Tschüß, Germany

Well, I’m sitting on my final train ride here in Germany – at least for this trip… We just left Hannover and now I have five hours to kill before arriving in Amsterdam. How will I use up this time? I guess I’ll write a blog entry. Heck, I’ve been getting a bit behind on writing up blog entries (you can blame Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’07 for that…) so I think I’m a bit overdue…

I guess this is the perfect opportunity for me to basically write up a final summary of the nine months that I spent living in Braunschweig – you know, the whole “things I learned” type of summary. I’m not going off of any notes here (nothing new there) so you will have to bear with me if this article starts deviating courses rather randomly. It seems that there was quite a bit that I wanted to mention on this blog but I’m positive that I won’t hit everything. I’ll try to do my best…

I’m sure most of you have seen the movie Pulp Fiction, right? Do you remember that scene where Vincent is talking about the time he spent in Europe (Amsterdam, I believe) near the beginning of the flick? He mentions how it’s basically the same as the states however it’s the little differences that seem to stand out so much. I always liked that scene however I now appreciate it at a much deeper level. According to Vincent, a Quarter Pounder is called a Royal in Europe. This is true – of course … metric system and all – however in Germany, if you order a Royal (actually called a Hamburger Royal) the default sandwich that you are actually ordering (at least currently) would be a Hamburger Royal TS (the TS stands for Tomato and Salad – the German word for lettuce). If you want the equivalent to a standard Quarter Pounder in the states, you need to order a Hamburger Royal ohne TS (without TS). There’s no need to worry about the “with cheese” addendum as cheese is also the default. The Hamburger Royal TS also comes with mayonnaise instead of ketchup … it’s not bad, but it’s just not the same… A Big Mac is a Big Mäc and no, they don’t have Whoppers at their Burger Kings.

Another interesting thing about the McDonald’s is the way they do the “value meals”. They’re called “menus” and, if you want large fries (Pommes Frites) and a drink, you order a “maxi menu”. The thing about the menus is that they are the same price (not much of a bargain, either) for whichever of the six sandwiches you choose – Big Mäc, Hamburger Royal TS, McRib, McChicken, 6-piece McNuggets or McFish. The price also remains the same regardless of the drink – one of the various sodas or even a shake. To give you an idea of exactly how much of a bargain these menus aren’t, a “maxi menu” with an additional sandwich on the side runs €8.18 (I placed this order quite often to use up the 70-some Euros of change that I acquired). That’s about $10.88! And to me, the beef just wasn’t the same quality as the beef used in the states. (Now there’s something I never would have imagined saying – a ringing endorsement to the American McDonald’s beef…)

I believe that I may have briefly alluded to the next little difference in at least one of my earlier postings; however I do think it is worth revisiting – the population density. No matter the time of day – or even the day of the week (except Sundays) – the main city squares are teeming with people. It’s pretty much like you are constantly living at some sold-out event at a major American sports arena. I guess this all ties in with the more laid-back work ethic and the lesser dependency on automobiles for transportation (bikes and feet seem to be the predominant transportation modes) yet I was always amazed at the number of people that were out and about. I suppose it’s a much healthier lifestyle as I did lose quite a bit of weight living here; it just seemed so interesting to me – a guy that’s lived his entire life hopping in a car to pretty much go anywhere (regardless of the distance…).

I suppose one of the negative little differences is the amount of graffiti. Sure, America has its own graffiti problem however it seems to be limited to the large cities and slums. Over in Europe, the stuff is everywhere! Not that it’s all bad – some of these masterpieces appear to be works of some pretty decent artists. It just soils what is still a beautiful countryside enough to stand out to me. I guess this could be no more than a byproduct of the large population densities however the multitude of idiots creating this graffiti aren’t really showing too much respect for their own homelands…

Smoking is most definitely much more accepted in Europe. You can smoke in any restaurant or bar and very few of them even bother to have a non-smoking section. The number of smokers is also much higher than you would find in any American city these days. Heck, I would say that, overall, the smokers appear to be the majority. It definitely wasn’t a positive aspect for me as I must admit that I’ve actually started smoking more than a pack a day since moving here – I guess that’s something I’m going to have to work on a bit when I return home…

It’s a bit strange in a way because (at least in Germany) the price for cigarettes is rather high. A pack (sold only in boxes – you can’t get soft pack cigarettes) will run you €4 (about $5.32) and there is absolutely no discount for buying in quantity – a carton (which, interestingly enough, doesn’t come in a box) sells for €40. Not only that, but the packs only have 17 cigarettes in them as opposed to the 20-cigarette packs sold in the states. So you end up paying $53 for 170 cigarettes. If I remember correctly (and it’s possible that I don’t), a 200 cigarette carton sells for $30-$35 in Colorado. I guess this is a pretty good counter-argument for raising the “sin tax” on cigarettes in the states – apparently the die-hard smokers (no pun intended) have no problem paying the higher prices. Many over here choose to “roll their own” cigarettes (in fact even I was doing this for a little while … until I got sick and tired of the hassle) to save some money as you can pick up a canister of tobacco (about one carton worth of pre-rolled cigarettes) for about €30. That’s still close to $40 American…

As far as sporting events in Europe, I only have to say one word – soccer. Soccer is HUGE in Europe! I mentioned in an earlier article that you could always find a large number of fanatic soccer fans at pretty much any train station on any weekend and this is absolutely true. Most of the yelling and screaming fans that you find at the train stations are the younger adults (I would say late teens to early twenties) but, upon living directly above a sports bar, I also discovered that this fascination with soccer is not only limited to the kids. It was common on a soccer night to have the yelling and serious noise making continue very late into the night – sometimes until 4:00 in the morning… Hindered my sleeping a bit, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it … I guess soccer fans will be soccer fans…

Recycling is big in Germany and the people living there seem to have no problem going through the efforts required to facilitate this. At several places throughout Braunschweig they have these recycle bins where you need to separate your recyclables into their correct categories (clear glass, brown glass, green glass, cardboard and some other ones that I never bothered to figure out) and deposit them into their corresponding bins. No “reward” is dulled out for going through this effort (although I do believe that you could get money back if you returned the recyclables to the stores – much like several places in the states) however these bins were often times seen full to capacity. The reason behind this, I suppose, is my next topic of discussion – German people always follow the rules.

I heard it said several times that when you are in Germany, you need to follow the rules. This statement is absolutely true and it appears as though the German citizens have taken the “rule following” to heart. Countless times I would notice people waiting at a crosswalk for the crossing signal to turn green. It didn’t matter whether there were any vehicles around at all, they would always obediently wait for the signal to cross. I attempted to wait with them, most of the time; however I will admit that there were several occasions where I just crossed the street leaving the crowd behind me. I realize that this is not proper traveling etiquette (when in Rome…) but standing there waiting for the light to change when no traffic was even visible just seemed silly to me. I actually almost got run over by a tram a few days ago due to my impatience, but that’s just because I’m an idiot and forgot about the added danger that the trams provide…

This brings me to my next topic – walking in Germany can be dangerous. Not quite as dangerous as Athens where the people seem to have a rather bad habit of driving on the sidewalks; however there are many more things to watch out for than one would find in a typical American city. You’ve got the horde of people, a lot of bikes (they ride in the same territory as the walking pedestrians most of the time), automobile traffic and trams. You basically need to keep on your toes at all times to assure that you make it to your destination safely. Perhaps this is why the crowds constantly wait for the crosswalk signals … yeah, it’s starting to make sense now…

One thing that actually surprises me a bit is the difficulties involved in dealing with German banks. And it wasn’t just the bank I used (Dresdner), two other contractors had similar experiences and all three of us were using different banks. I could understand a time delay for international transfers and such, but even transferring funds to German banks became multi-day (if not multi-week) ventures. And there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having funds withdrawn from your account and spending a few days in some unknown void before arriving at their destination. The worst part about it is, even if you go to your bank and enquire about the transfer in progress, the only thing you’re ever told is to wait because they apparently can’t tell you where your money is. When I tried to pay my German accountant her fee for my tax preparation, it wasn’t until a week later that I noticed the money somehow returned back to my account. I was never notified of the problem and actually needed to go back to my bank and re-send the funds. It’s a good thing I was able to check my account online (oh yeah, the website is only available in German so you can image what a hassle that can be) and notice the returned funds or I guess my accountant never would have been paid…

And get this – I closed my Dresdner account yesterday. There was €5133.24 in it, so I brought along my Wells Fargo checkbook expecting to have the funds transferred to my American account. Unfortunately Dresdner Bank doesn’t do that. Sure, there were several occasions in the past where I was able to successfully transfer funds between these two accounts; however when an account is being closed, the funds can only be transferred to another German bank. The result of this is that I ended up walking out of the bank yesterday with €5133.24 in cash! I also received my €900 security deposit back from my landlord yesterday which brings the total that I am currently carrying with me on my trip home to well over €6000! That’s damn near $8000!! I sure hope I don’t get robbed or anything…

Well, my train is currently arriving in Amersfoort which means the next stop is Amsterdam Centraal Station. I suppose this is a good point to stop writing and start preparing for the assuredly difficult task lying ahead of lugging my two wardrobes, an extremely over packed suitcase (it weighs about a ton…) and a very large notebook computer (and case) from the station to my hotel (it’s across the street – kinda – from the station however it’s a pretty long walk…). Thanks for reading my blog – hopefully you found it a little interesting…?

bis später,

Coriolis