Category: Life In Germany

Wurst Wurst In Regensburg

On By StevenIn Life In Germany3 Comments

The weekend before last,I finally got around to trying the historic Wurstkuchl. Founded over 500 years ago, the Wurstkuchl is generally regarded as the oldest fast food restaurant in the world.

The restaurant is right on the banks of the Donau river, right next to the Steinerne Brücke (Stone Bridge). There is a small seated area outside, and an even smaller seating area inside. In between, there’s a tiny doorway right next to the grill where you can get some food “mitnehmen” (to go.)

I tried their standard takeaway, which is a Bratwurstkipferl, a small curved sausage, on a semmel (bread roll), with a helping of sauerkraut and the Wurstkuchl’s famous sweet mustard. The mustard is a family recipe passed down for generations, and they still produce it themselves. In keeping with modern times, however, you can now order their mustard through the Wurstkuchl’s online store. That’s progress!

I didn’t have the foresight to take a picture of my Bratwurst, but I did take a picture of the Wurstkuchl itself. The place is pretty much always busy, because a lot of tour groups stop in for lunch.

Oh, and the subject line of this post, “Wurst wurst in Regensburg?” Don’t believe it for a second; It was delicious. I just used “wurst wurst” for the subject because I like the way it sounds.

Buying Things Is Hard

On By StevenIn Life In Germany5 Comments

The process of acculturation in Germany, for me, has been particularly challenging.   Every time I start to feel like I’m making progress, I encounter things which are enormously difficult for me, despite being rudimentary and simple for a native.

Purchasing concert tickets, for example.

For most of the concerts I’ve gone to this year, I’ve used eventim.de for my purchases.  Eventim is a great deal like Ticketmaster, except easier to use.  It also allows you to select English for the Website, so I’ve been able to get by.  However, sometimes the concert I want isn’t available through Eventim and I have to go a different method.

This is where I start to have trouble.  My command of the language isn’t very strong yet, so I use Google Chrome, which translates German to English on the fly.  The only problem is that the translations aren’t always precise, so I really have to employ some educated guesswork.

The word Karte can be a problem.  Karte can refer to a map, a card (such as a credit card,) or a ticket. You can imagine the confusion when you’re being asked to put enter payment information.

Dates are reversed here.  Using the first day of summer as an example, when I arrived, I thought the first day of summer was written as June 21st, 2012.  Here in Germany, it’s written 21 June 2012.  This is also true on Internet forms.  This leads to still more confusion: Is my card’s expiration 11/2 or 2/11?

Many of the line items on order forms don’t translate very well to English.   The idea for this post popped up while I was fighting with an order form for a concert ticket in Mannheim.  It took me three tries to successfully navigate the form to completion.   I was ultimately successful, but I would not have been able to place that order without help a year ago.

On Packing

On By StevenIn Life In Germany6 Comments

I tend to overpack for trips.  I always pack more socks and underwear and t-shirts than I could ever possibly wear for the number of days I’ll be gone.  I always have more stuff than I will ever need.  “It’s a three day trip in the dead of winter?  I’d better pack my swim trunks. And I really should bring a pick-axe, a compass, and night goggles.  You never know!”

When I was asked last fall if I wanted to move to Germany for a few years, my belongings were already in storage. I had been selling a condo, and part of that process involved getting me and my stuff out of it. I placed almost everything I own into two storage units, one large and one small, and I moved into my brother’s spare bedroom for the (theoretical) short term. My goal was to find an apartment once the sale was complete, but my focus changed to Germany before I ever had a chance to lease a new apartment.

When I knew for certain that I would be going to Germany, I started to offload a lot of my possessions- particularly the big furniture. A co-worker in the Florida office had moved to Florida with his wife a short while earlier, and they didn’t have much in the way of furniture, so they took the bed-frame, night stands, dresser, couch, dining room table off my hands.  They had instant furnishings, and I had less to store. Another co-worker took a deliriously comfortable mattress off my hands, and some smaller things went to other folks.   Before long,  I only had an ancient desk chair and my beloved coffee table remaining.  I was able to downsize from two storage units to just one, and soon after that, I moved to an even  smaller one. During that time, I also made choices about what to ship and what to store.

I brought a few things with me, but for the most part, my lifestyle here is pretty austere.  I travel a great deal, so most of my extra cash goes into that.  What can I say?  I’m an inveterate overpacker in life as well as on trips.  Ryan Bingham is kind of my hero.

I wish I had the experience then that I have now, however, because my ship-or-store choices would have been very different.

  • If I had a do-over, I would have shipped my books. With the exception of three or four technical tomes, my hilariously outdated guide to London, and my Kindle, all of my books are still in storage in Florida.  My signed Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams are there, along with dozens of paperback novels, cookbooks, reference books, and more.
  • If I had a do-over, I would have shipped my DVDs, because even though I rarely watched them at home, there are times that I miss the movies in my collection. I have Netflix, but the selection there is utter rubbish these days.  Netflix has primarily been good for watching old How I Met Your Mother episodes, and not much else.
  • If I had a do-over, I probably would have shipped my coffee table. I worry that being in storage for three years will destroy it, and if it were here, I would have less shin pain than I do now from smacking my legs into the evil bastard of a table currently filling that role.
  • If I had a do-over, I would definitely have shipped my Rollerblades. I sometimes think it would be fun to inline skate around this town.  Regensburg is really a bike city, but I do see inline skaters from time to time.
  • If I had a do-over, I… well, I probably would still have put most of my kitchen goods in storage, but I would have shipped my knives. Good kitchen knives are a vital cooking tool.  I had to buy a few pieces when I got here even though I have a great set of Henckels knives in a box back at home.  I really didn’t think that one through.

Here’s the real problem: Despite the fact that a still-fairly-large storage unit is full to brimming back in Florida, the items listed above are nearly all that I can remember from it.  It’s only been eleven months and the rest of the contents have fallen entirely out of my brain.  Nothing else in there is memorable.

For clutter, out of sight really is out of mind.  The less I remember of my belongings back in the US, the more unmoored I feel.    It’s an alarming sensation, to feel so adrift, so homeless.

Oh sure, I know there’s a box of photos and a some old paper files, but that’s just two boxes. What else is there? Old bedding and cushions that I should just give to charity? Glassware and plates that would be cheaper to replace in three years than to store?  I don’t really know.  I’m pretty sure that there are at least two pieces of cookware in there that have actually never been used. (Long story.)

I think I need to revisit the storage unit when I go back next month, even though I can’t really bring the do-over choices back with me.  It would be much too expensive to consider shipping anything else over right now.   I might be able to get rid of a bunch more crap and move to a still-smaller storage unit, though.  Maybe some of my Florida friends would be interested in dishes, glassware, pots and pans, and whatever other mystery items turn up in the storage unit.

Maybe I can whittle it down enough to really be Ryan Bingham.

Things You Can Do With A Pfand Chip

On By StevenIn Life In Germany3 Comments

I have this little blue Pfand chip.

These chips come in all shapes, sizes, materials, and colors, but this one is pretty simple.  It’s the same size as a one Euro coin.  At outdoor events, you pay an extra fee for your beverage, and these chips are commonly handed out at the same time.  When you finish your drink, you bring the empty back, along with the chip, and you get your deposit back.Some people collect the chips from different events.  That’s another story, though.

Grocery stores use them also-  the shopping carts are locked together outside, and you need a one Euro coin to unlock a cart.   Grocery stores sometimes sell their own little chips that are the same size and shape to fill this function.  When you re-lock the cart to its brethren, your original coin or chip pops right out into your hand.

Those are some of the most common uses for a Pfand chip.  I use it differently, though.  Since my arrival in Regensburg, I’ve dined out quite often with Jenny- she rapidly became my closest friend in Germany.  In the early days, we would forget pretty easily who payed for the meal last because it’s just easy to lose track.

Enter the chip.

We have joking nicknames for it: The Debt Chip.  The Payment Turn Designation Device.   We use it as a marker-  the person holding the chip pays for the meal, and the chip changes hands when we’re done.  There’s a mild amount of silly pomp and circumstance to the handing off of the chip at the end of a meal, but it’s all in good fun.  We don’t include other people in the hand-off of the chip.  If her boyfriend is with us, we pay separately by unspoken agreement.

I’ve always believed that when you’re friends with someone, you eventually forget who has paid for more of your shared meals.  This little blue chip is challenging that long-held belief, but I don’t think I mind.  Our friendship isn’t ever diminished in the slightest by knowing who paid last.