Homer Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Because why not. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Piotrek Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Pssst... "Ask a ...." was a thing a few months ago. Now it's "The things you find weird" Anyway, I went for the first trip to Germany a few months ago, and expect to go for some more in 2020, so I'm going to bookmark the topic One minor thing that I think of off the top of my head as peculiar was people soliciting used-up plastic bottles to be able to sell them later. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Muledeer Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 How fast can you drive on the Audobon? Are you concerned about rising right wing extremism or the return of Nazi ism? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kelly Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 1 hour ago, Muledeer said: How fast can you drive on the Autobahn? As fast as one can, yes? I spent a lot of time over many years working in Dresden, in Saxony (former East Germany). I love the city. It has so much culture, art, and music to offer. But I also spent a lot of time working in the Medieval city of Regensburg, in Bavaria. I love that place, too. Do you have a favorite German city? If so, tell me about it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Grimalkin Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 What's the weather typically like where you live? How warm to the summers get, how much snow in the winter, etc.? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
communityabed Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 How do I be like you? Generally knowing the right thing to say and oh so always calm and kind. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted December 25, 2019 Author Share Posted December 25, 2019 2 hours ago, Piotrek said: Pssst... "Ask a ...." was a thing a few months ago. Now it's "The things you find weird" Yeah you can state things you find weird if you like. I'll probably agree 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kelly Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 42 minutes ago, Grimalkin said: What's the weather typically like where you live? How warm to the summers get, how much snow in the winter, etc.? Something interesting is that in Bavaria, the further south one goes, the colder it gets (because one is approaching the Alps). 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thyristor Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 2 hours ago, Muledeer said: How fast can you drive on the Audobon? I can go 120 km/h with my car, regardless of whether that is in Sweden or on the German Autobahn... =P Tbh, I borrowed my ex's car but couldn't go much over 80 km/h anywayz because of all the heavy repair sites these years. I even happened to brake a bit too late and got fined, for driving 126 km/h (yes, o n t h e A u t o b a h n). So, free speed, forget about it for the time being.... =P 2 hours ago, Muledeer said: Are you concerned about rising right wing extremism or the return of Nazi ism? There are so many anti-right movements... I'm irritated about the AFD ("Alternativ efor Germany" right wing populist party) or stupidities like the PEGIDA (something about "against Islamification of the Occident", and I always wondered why no one protests against the Americanization of Europe, anywayz.... 😛 ), so, irritated, but 'concerned', no, not really. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted December 25, 2019 Author Share Posted December 25, 2019 5 hours ago, Piotrek said: One minor thing that I think of off the top of my head as peculiar was people soliciting used-up plastic bottles to be able to sell them later. They don't sell them, but return them to the shops. There's a small fee on a lot of glass and plastic bottles, ranging from 8 to 25 cents. Super complicated system. They collect the bottles to get those few cents. 5 hours ago, Muledeer said: How fast can you drive on the Audobon? There are sections with and some without a speed limit. Where there is one, the limit usually is 130km/h. 5 hours ago, Muledeer said: Are you concerned about rising right wing extremism or the return of Nazi ism? I don't really think it's rising - to me it seems more like people are more open about their thoughts and now that the AFD have established themselves as a right wing party, they also have someone to vote for. People are idiots though, so I do wonder where this will lead. 3 hours ago, Kelly said: Do you have a favorite German city? If so, tell me about it. Ooft. I travel a lot and for me it highly depends on which aspect you're looking at. I look at three different factors - the city itself, the ground and the club. Personally I find Dresden to be overrated tbh. Yeah it's nice and all, but it never actually floored me. Then again, my ex best friend lives there and also, Homertown FC playing at Dynamo Dresden has always been an annoying headache for "security reasons". I'd much rather take the train to nearby Pirna. Regensburg is great though. Then there's the city of Bochum, whose sheer existence is unnecessary on every level imaginable - but I love their ground and we have a boatload of great football memories connected to it. (A few years back there was a public talk titled "This is how un-nice Bochum is", basically a talk about all of Bochum's lowlights and downsides ). The Ruhr valley is Germany's real life equivalent of "People of Walmart". I like Hamburg, which is where I have lived for nearly 10 years now. Fucking hate Berlin and their natives with a burning passion. Lübeck and Lüneburg are really nice. Goslar is amazing and nobody knows it. Lots of nice spots along the Rhine valley, like Bingen. I'm not sure whether I have that one city I like best. Lots I like to go back to every now and then though. Edit: Dang, I forgot Freiburg. If it only weren't so hot during the summer. 3 hours ago, Grimalkin said: What's the weather typically like where you live? How warm to the summers get, how much snow in the winter, etc.? Theoretically there can be snow in the winter. That's how it's supposed to be, but we haven't had a proper winter in years and summers have pulled off some crazy unnecessary 35° C shit over the last few years. As @Kelly indicates, YMMV depending where you are. You can freeze your butt off in the Ore Mountains and I always joke that Hamburg gets 400 days of rain a year. I'm heavily biased though - if I had a say, we'd never ever have more than 15° C. The southwest gets the hottest - the black forest regularly passes 40° C during the summer. I lived existed in Stuttgart for three years, where wind is basically unheard of. Fuck that shit. 3 hours ago, communityabed said: How do I be like you? Generally knowing the right thing to say and oh so always calm and kind. Be a northerner (I can be a stubborn arsehole though. But thank you ) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thyristor Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 14 minutes ago, Homer said: They don't sell them, but return them to the shops. There's a small fee on a lot of glass and plastic bottles, ranging from 8 to 25 cents. Super complicated system. They collect the bottles to get those few cents. Super complicated, yes, I believe so. Since I left Germany, this deposit system apparently has gotten the restriction that you can only hand back bottles to a shop where you buy that beverage. When this started, my mum even claimed, that it had to be the exact same shop where you bought that very bottle, but I wonder how the machine could tell it from the barcode. I realize there might be quite a lot of beer brands that are local and only sell to a few shops, obviously those bottles, if re-filled as are (instead of being melted down), need to be returned to the shop that has the brewery truck coming, but the usual nationwide stuff?? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted December 25, 2019 Author Share Posted December 25, 2019 4 minutes ago, elisabeth_II said: When this started, my mum even claimed, that it had to be the exact same shop where you bought that very bottle, Stores bigger than XYZ m² (200m²? Not sure) have to take back every bottle. Smaller ones likely refuse to take back bottles of brands they don't have in stock themselves. The "exact bottle at the exact same store" thing is false. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Visenya Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Do you have a hard time understanding other German accents (especially Bavarian German)? And, in your opinion, what are the major differences between Germany's regions? I've heard that some people (non-Germans) had a very strong culture shock after moving from one region to another, despite the fact that they had been living in Germany for quite a while. I had no idea that Germany was so diverse, tbh. 15 minutes ago, Homer said: Fucking hate Berlin and their natives with a burning passion. Why? I've always wanted to visit Berlin, but I know some people who have been there and didn't like it very much. One of them said it was a boring city (she thought the same about Vienna) and ugly. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted December 25, 2019 Author Share Posted December 25, 2019 42 minutes ago, Visenya said: Do you have a hard time understanding other German accents (especially Bavarian German)? Some are easier, some are worse. Most are okay once you get the hang of it. Rural Bavarian is particularly bad, same goes for the Ore Mountains. The worst must be Alemannic, which is spoken in the very south west. I'm convinced that they just pull the words out of various orifices on the fly. 42 minutes ago, Visenya said: And, in your opinion, what are the major differences between Germany's regions? I've heard that some people (non-Germans) had a very strong culture shock after moving from one region to another, despite the fact that they had been living in Germany for quite a while. I had no idea that Germany was so diverse, tbh. Oh boy, where to begin. The further you go south, the less relaxed it gets. Us northerners tend to have a rather dry sense of humour which can come off as harsh every now and then. Fellow northerners will laugh along, southerners will turn into offended snowflakes yeah the general mentality varies greatly. Then there's the climate. Boy did I hate existing in the south (or in the southeast) during the summer. You can cut the air into handy cubes. No idea what there's to like about this. Language. Take Swabians, for example. They don't use our word for "leg". For them, it's all "foot". I remember attending an amateur football match where a spectator claimed that a player had commited an "outstretched foot" foul and I spent the next two minutes staring at my feet, trying to figure out how they could possibly be not stretched out. Or go ask people what a pancake is and you'll get varying answers depending on where you are. Or "Jägerschnitzel". 42 minutes ago, Visenya said: Why? My Grandpa used to say "they act like they invented hot food". Captures it pretty well. I don't know if it's a "capital thing", but many of them seem to think that they're special. Also their dialect makes me want to punch a kitten. Oh and I had to spend NYE there once, which was disgusting. (Who in their right mind thinks that Vienna is boring? ) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted December 26, 2019 Author Share Posted December 26, 2019 32 minutes ago, Moonman said: Is it a similar situation with Bayern? Exactly the same. Supporting Bayern is the easiest thing in the world. 33 minutes ago, Moonman said: Is Oktoberfest as I imagine it; people getting really really aggressively drunk? I imagine that I would last an hour and need tucking into bed if I tried drinking with you Germans 😆 I'll be damned if I ever go there voluntarily. Still have vivid memories of a night shift that had me go there and it was disgusting. When you leave the Oktoberfest area, you have to walk down a little hill. It's commonly referred to as "Kotzhügel" ("barf hill") and YT has some rather interesting highlight videos. Personally I want nothing to do with any of that, Oktoberfest, Carnival... just go away 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
scarletlatitude Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Can I move there? I want to move there. If I were an independently wealthy person I would totally have a house in Germany. Or maybe Austria. (Or both!) 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ortac Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Why do you hate the inhabitants of Berlin so much? Have you had any personal bad experiences with them? Without taking into accounts its inhabitants, why do you hate Berlin so much? (personally I really like the place - if you compare it to Paris, London, Rome and even Brussels, it feels much less chocked and much less claustrophobic) Is it common for Germans who are not from Berlin to hate Berlin, or are you part of a minority in that regard? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thyristor Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 I find Berlin quite ugly form an aesthetic point of view. Going by S-Bahn you see many large buildings that are kind of "kleinkariert" to me, erm, meaning, one big facade with hundreds of small windows, like a wallpaper with a smallsized pattern. But from what I've heard from my cousin who is from Oldenburg (Northwest) and deliberately moved to Berlin, as for the inhabitants, it's like this: there is no typical Berlin-citizen. Up to '89 it was only special people who lived in Berlin: in East-Berlin, only those were allowed who were trusted by the DDR-regime, and in West-Berlin (which was an isolated part of Western-Germany) only those lived who weren't really tolerated in the rest of Western Germany (as in: weirdos). Now it's mixed up and I found the city to be, well, ugly: yes, but vibrant and cool and sort of full of contrasts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
communityabed Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 1. Why are the T3I (The Three Investigators) so popular in Germany? 2. Why haven't the Germans taken to cricket yet? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted December 26, 2019 Author Share Posted December 26, 2019 34 minutes ago, communityabed said: 1. Why are the T3I (The Three Investigators) so popular in Germany? I have no idea what that is. 34 minutes ago, communityabed said: 2. Why haven't the Germans taken to cricket yet? Probably because it takes 8 months to play 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Piotrek Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Continuing with the theme of sports, what is it with Germans and team sports? I swear whichever one you look at, a German team (national and/or club) is either at the top or close to it. Football, volleyball, handball, hockey (mostly field and indoor, but ice is strong too), basketball... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
communityabed Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 38 minutes ago, Homer said: Probably because it takes 8 months to play Oh come on. It's only 5 days. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LeChat Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 1 hour ago, communityabed said: 1. Why are the T3I (The Three Investigators) so popular in Germany?... 1 hour ago, Homer said: I have no idea what that is... Hmm...I'm not sure, either, but it seems to be a book series first published decades ago that has been given a recent reboot in Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Investigators#Germany Quote ...The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators"...The Three Investigators books have always been very popular in Germany. They are known there as Die drei ??? (Die drei Fragezeichen, meaning "The Three Question Marks")...In 2006, following the example of “Die drei ???”/"The Three Investigators", a detective series specifically for girls titled “Die Drei !!! [de]” was launched by publisher Franckh-Kosmos. In a similar way as the original, the book series contains stories about a teenage detective trio, only this time consisting of three girls; the stories take place in a big German city... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted December 26, 2019 Author Share Posted December 26, 2019 Aaaahhh... those! I never really got into them, but they seem pretty popular and have been around for several centuries 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
communityabed Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 They are pretty darn great mysteries...wonderful for teens at the very least. They colored my childhood. The Germans are keeping their legacy alive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Skycaptain Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Is this a Würst weider Würst thread for all the others? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ben8884 Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 Are David Hasselhoff and ALF legitimately popular in Germany? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 1 hour ago, ben8884 said: Are David Hasselhoff and ALF legitimately popular in Germany? 2x yes The Hoff used to be the shit. Source: My own childhood and ALF gets rerun after rerun. I actually watched an episode last week or so. Never gets old. Not sure about the youngsters though - they probably grew up seeing more of the not so heroic side of Hasselhoff. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Homer Posted January 21, 2020 Author Share Posted January 21, 2020 On 12/26/2019 at 3:42 PM, Piotrek said: Continuing with the theme of sports, what is it with Germans and team sports? I swear whichever one you look at, a German team (national and/or club) is either at the top or close to it. Football, volleyball, handball, hockey (mostly field and indoor, but ice is strong too), basketball... First I spend days to come up with an explanation, then I forgot about it Hazard guess: Most sports aren't popular all over the country, but they have their hotspots. (Ice) hockey wasn't much of a thing in the GDR (we only had two teams who kept playing each other something like 20 times a season and that was it. Homertown's (ice) hockey club has basically been revived by a bunch of 40+ year olds who kept destroying the opponents on a local level. Homertown used to have the best handball club team in the world though, 50 years ago There are very few "handball cities" that come to mind. Kiel, Flensburg, Gummersbach (which is a ridiculously tiny town). But if you look 80km further south from Kiel... meh. Field hockey is the same - Hamburg has a bunch of super successful clubs, but I have never seen a hockey fan in my life. Winter sports are an entirely southern thing. I heard that 90% of all the luge courses in the world are located in Germany. So when it comes to football, you probably have a large enough pool to pick from (which wasn't really the case 20 years ago though) and when you look at the rest, they might form some kind of microcosm where people end up doing what everyone is doing. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest xAveryx Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 On 12/25/2019 at 10:52 PM, Homer said: Fucking hate Berlin and their natives with a burning passion. I think it's the first time I ever met someone who also hates berlin. Don't know why everyone loves berlin.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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