From Practical to Cultural

At one point in history, great caves underneath the ground were needed to keep beer cold. These caves were covered with dirt and had trees planted upon them. All of this in an effort to provide as much insulation and shade for the beer as possible. When the breweries started selling beer directly, people started noticing the nice parks that had sprung up nearby. Shady grassy spots are just as nice for family picnics as they apparently were to keep beer cold. Thus began the biergarten(beer garden) concept.

The idea has developed from then a fair amount. Biergartens attached to breweries traditionally allow food to be brought from outside although no beer(understandably). So bring a picnic and buy the drinks there. Nowadays, the beer gardens I have seen do definitely offer food for sale, although sometimes a fairly limited menu.

Here we are talking about the beer gardens that are traditionally attached to breweries. In an odd twist for Germany, apparently the name is not regulated so almost any outdoor place with beer service will be called a Biergarten. Most pubs label their seating like that and don’t really like the bringing of food. But definitely seek out the “real” Biergartens attached to neighboring breweries. These are special.

Communal Drinking

Germans are really into nature and being outdoors. They open their windows to get fresh air and sit in the last patch of sun in autumn. Beer is of course a popular thing as well, so beer gardens, the ability to be outside with beer, are very popular and will be full on a nice day. The Biergarten is however also a family thing. Far more so than other places with outdoor seating. It is a communal place to hang out with other people.

Traditionally an open park feel and often next to a river (breweries use a lot of water), this is just a perfect recipe for a nice place to sit outside in the summer. Every one that I have been in has the really long picnic tables and benches, so you can’t avoid being shoulder to shoulder with others. Add the social lubricant of beer and it becomes a place to be out in society enjoying both the outdoors and being around people.

The European Cup football(soccer) championship is coming up this summer. Every spot with a power plug will have a TV attached to it will people watching. I like going to the biergartens for this kind of thing too. Places to sit and more communal feeling and with better bathrooms than the open air public viewing.

Biergartens In Freiburg

Although started in Munich, they are not exclusive to breweries in Bavaria. Freiburg has several really great ones and all close to the center.

Feierling Brewery

I have mentioned Feierling several times on the blog and for good reason. It is my favorite brewery in town. It is small but great. The small two level garden backs up to Augustiner Museum and is across the street from the restaurant-brewery with its great copper brewing vats. Large trees shade the many large tables in the small garden. Waitresses offer table service for their own Inselhopf unfiltered beer and other drinks. The food menu in the garden itself is pretty limited, but in traditional fashion outside food is allowed. You can also order from their restaurant across the street and bring it back. No food delivery for that unfortunately.

Ganter Brewery

Ganter is the largest brewery in Freiburg. Their logo is on most pubs in town. The brewery is not far from where I live and I bike by the river to work and back. As the weather gets sunnier and warmer their biergarten becomes much more active. The space is large and open and attached to the back of the brewery (the entrance is near the Aral gas station if you happen to be in Freiburg). There is no table service so go stand in line for the beer window. Food is basic German pub style sausages, schnitzels and fries with the odd salad thrown in. There are grills for your own food and a playground for the children.

This is my favorite place to watch the national football games for things like World Cup and European Cup. Ganter also does a 4th of July party that is neat. To see the German interpretation and summation of all of American culture is a sight (I’ll try to do a post on it this year.)

Kastaniengarten

Ok, Kastaniengarten is not a traditional beer garden. It is on top of Schlossberg and not near a brewery. Though it has some of the best views of Freiburg. Head up Schlossberg at Schwabentor and take the steep paths and stairs to the garden. It spans both sides of the narrow mountain giving views over the town. Again no table service, order everything up at the window. Though they give you the beer direct and a little buzzer to call you for your food. Food options are standard German pub fare, but decent. Despite not having an attached brewery, this is still built in the beer garden style and will fill up in the summer months easily.

Beergardens Mean Summer

I have been in many a beer garden with and without attached brewery all over Germany. Pretty much no matter where, you will see someone out on a warm summer day enjoying a beer or two with friends. Adding outside to drinking seems to be natural for the German culture interested in doing both. A word on opening times, they are seasonal things, so rarely if ever open in the chill winter. Though they will often open on warm spring days and then close again if it gets cold. So even if it feels a little early, definitely check them out on a warm day and see if you are in luck.

Check out the rest of the Blogger Stammtisch group on the topic of Parks.

Biergartens – From Practical to Cultural is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

So, yeah I like to try non-German beers around the world as we travel. Most beers taste pretty similar to me, but it nice to experience new things.

Tui, New Zealand

I was asked in a bar in Auckland if I wanted a big beer. I said yes and got a 700ml bottle. Looked like a 40ounce from college days. Kiwi friend of mine sent me this link of a Tui ad about why sexy women brew their beer. (Youtube)

Brauhaus, Liechtenstein

“One Country, One Beer” From our weekend in the small alpine country. Nice beer, but remarkably similar to German.

Kirin, Japan, by way of the US

Ok, I have never been to Japan. My only far east claim was a day in Hong Kong. But I did try the beer at a Japanese steak house in Atlanta with Ali, when I went back to marry her.  It was export quality, but ok. Will have to compare when I actually make it to Japan.

Mythos, Greece

I was oddly surprised to see so much beer in Greece, but also happy for it. Mythos was my favorite. My first night I got it in this nice frosty glass. What a great thing against Greek heat.

Karlovacko, Croatia

Croatia was a life changing week on a boat for me. It was before I started blogging and it was a wonderful week of just enjoying pure travel goodness. Of course I had to add beer goodness. Karlovacko was one of two common beers in Croatia, but I only have pictures of this one.

Efes, Turkey

Turkey was Ali and my honeymoon trip. We had been planning and thinking about it for nearly a year. I was so surprised to see a beer in a nominally Muslim country, but Efes was everywhere. It shares the name with Ephesus the ruins. That was an awesome day at the ruins and this was a great light beer.

Cruzcampo, Spain

We were in Spain last year for Tomatina and had an apartment in Valencia for a week. It was hot so we naturally had beer. So what if Cruzcampo isn’t the national beer (I have no idea if it is or not), but it was cold and beer-like. And it was 50cents a can, and still not the cheapest at the grocery store. I called it Waving Man Beer and enjoyed it right from the can all week.

And yet….

Despite everything, I still run into German beer all over the world. I guess there is an export benefit for being known as the country with the best beer. Here we found Paulaner at an Oktoberfest in Valencia.

Bonus: Washing Machine Cooler

While at home in the US, my father in law showed me this way of cooling large amounts of beer. It wouldn’t work with our front loader in Freiburg, but I loved the ingenuity of it. A washing machine full of ice then add beer. The ice melts into something that already is setup to drain away.

7 Beers And A Washing Machine is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Although I admire them, I am not interested in becoming an eternal nomad that travels from place to place eternally. I want time to rest and feel at home. If I was even to contemplate that movement lifestyle, it would have to be very slow. As in several months in a place. I need that time to let my mind absorb everything and let the creative juices flow in purposeful directions instead of outward everywhere.

Hyperactive Mind

Peace and quiet in the physical realm does not mean for me to stop thinking either. I am constantly in motion mentally. It is one of the reasons that things overwhelm me. The mind overheats and spins too fast. I seek out quiet to let that spinning take in everything. So after a few weeks of high octane experiences like travel, I need some time to just sit and absorb what has stuck. To contemplate that which has been seen.

My mind is always moving and going in usually a dozen different directions. This is true even on routine days. Travel fuels this to an extent. There is something wondrous about walking through a completely overwhelming thing like the spice market in Istanbul. Though it runs the edge of getting to me. That edge gets too keen sometimes. So that always-on mind needs a time of routine to cool off and allow the new ideas to be worked through.

Seeking Peace

I definitely fall on the introverted side of the line and need my quiet and space. I find that I crave that peace. Not just that I get overwhelmed by going to a new place, but that once I get settled, I kind of regret moving on before I can dive deep and really feel connected to a place. To get to know the people there takes time.

This is not to say that I want to stop traveling. Of course not, that is one of my life’s passions. Ali shares this passion and we enjoy traveling together a lot. So we will still strive to go out and see things, break up the pattern and experience new places. We will however likely always keep a home base somewhere. A place with a comfortable bed and a solid wi-fi signal.

And this leads back to Expat

One of the main things I like about the expat life is that I have a home base and have carved out a refuge to be in. And yet the travel and the new experiences are just outside of my door. I need the fuel for the ideas as well as the time to let them grow and lead in good directions. The balance is the thing as always though.

This post came up in my head after some reading other posts this past week.

• One of my first and favorite guest posts was at Dangerous Business. Stability versus Freedom.
• Justin wrote about the Need to Travel and starts out talking about how routine vs excitement work out in the brain referring to another interesting article.
• I met Juno in Hong Kong last winter and ran across one of her older posts about when did it get so hard to find silence.

No Nomad Here is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

I’ve gotten a lot of odd questions over the years of living here. It is interesting to see what people know or think based on their experiences. It shows to an extent that although the American culture is fairly well known in movies and TV shows, the details are not. The interplay between expats and locals is complex sometimes and it is nice to be able to share back as well.

Doctor Seuss

I have taken it upon myself to start to explain Dr Seuss to anyone that will listen. Especially parents who want to help their children with English. There is no complex language and yet the depth and engagement of story is there.

Dr. Seuss wrote some of the greatest whimsical English language children’s books I have ever read and I loved then as a kid.  Despite him being of German heritage, the books are nearly unknown here. I know it is a small survey of just the people I have mentioned it to, but I have not yet talked to someone that knows them. This is odd given that a few of the movie versions have indeed made it to Germany. I don’t know how well the movies have done, but apparently not running on nostalgia’s sake. I guess it is just hard to translate the goofy rhymes into German and keep the sense of things, though there definitely have been some attempts when I do some Amazon searches.

English Phrases

An awful lot of what I get asked are pure language questions. Germans on average seem to have a pretty good command of English, most likely owing to school and university requirements. Mix that with a cultural bias to “genauigkeit” (exactness) and I get a fair number of questions of how I would say something in English. The odd part is that I haven’t lived in an English speaking country in a while, so often my brain gets confused and falls into the same traps as a German speaker. Even weirder is when a question requires a longer culture explanation to understand, like the greetings and signature line of a letter depending on who you are sending to.

I do get to share some good English phrases that don’t seem to have German cognates. These are two of my recently explained quotes.

• Like water off a duck’s back.
• Enough rope to hang himself with.

Do Americans…

The other type of question I get involves direct questions of American culture. Though so much is exported in TV and music, but that is the flashy stuff, not the daily life details. I was asked the other day if we had sausages in the US. The answer is “of course, but not the same.” I got to explain about hot dogs, delis and enormous grocery stores. Although I only very rarely miss hot dogs, (they have them at Ikea if I ever get a real craving) I would really like a more New York style deli here.

The subtype of this is the “why do Americans do…”. These I find almost more interesting. The most common one involves cars and driving. I like this question as I get to compare the size of the countries and tell stories about driving 45 minutes each way to work and that being a relatively short commute. Or the 5 minute drive to the grocery store “next door”.

Politics

I try to ignore and avoid politics as much as I can. Not just national ones, but also office politics and the like. Though I have learned that Germans in general are far more aware of the American politics than even most Americans. When it gets to be around election time, this will likely be the most common topic to get asked about. I don’t watch German TV either, but even glances at the newspaper headlines show how interested they are here. And seriously, again, the average(from my experiences, including random people on the tram) German seems to know more about the political system and candidates in the US far more than even I did when I was there.

So beware if you, like me, has no real interest in politics and finds both choices (pretty much no matter the race) to be poor. You will get asked your opinion. Be ready to have an answer and know that “I don’t really know or follow it” will be seen as odd.

Ambassadors

When I went for study abroad in both high school and university, they made us go through orientation each time. The one point that gets harped on a lot in this sessions is that “you go as an ambassador of culture to these other lands.” I think they try to make it a point so the students are less likely to be an ass while out on a study abroad program. I would like to think most people don’t need it in those terms, but culture shock does wacky things to the brain.

As an expat living here long term, I have become a representative of the American culture in a similar way. This even though I am definitely not a typical (statistically or culturally) American. I still try to show the good bits and step around the less good ones.

Culture Flows Both Ways is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Sweet vs Salty

One of the big popcorn differences comes as the debate between sweet and salty popcorn. I don’t mind caramel corn or the like, but to sprinkle sugar instead of salt on a movie style big bowl of it, seems wrong. I am definitely in the salt and butter category. Even microwave popcorn is available at most grocery stores in both a sweet and a salty variety. Though only one brand and individual packaging instead of the vast array of brands, flavors and packs at home.

A Note on Butter

Butter in the US is very often salted. It lasts longer this way apparently. You can buy unsalted butter, but you have to search for it. The big piles are usually salted.

This is not the case in Germany. I have not seen salted butter here. (I also haven’t dug too much for it either.) The upshot of this is two fold. First, butter tastes slightly different here. Secondly, I find I need more salt on my popcorn in order for the buttery taste I am looking for to come out.

Melting Butter without Microwave

Microwaves are not unknown in Germany, we just decided we don’t need one. The hardest part has been figuring out the melting of the butter. We are both used to having a microwave to melt butter back home. The solution has been a measuring cup (thanks Mom for bringing me them a couple years ago) in a bowl that has very hot water in it. It takes some patience but works pretty good. Adaptability is the hallmark of a successful expat.

Another option is apparently to pop the popcorn and melt the butter in a frying pan with the popcorn. This is how my roommate used to do it to get the sugar on it. It seems like it might coat the popcorn better, but with a lot more work. And really I don’t want sugar on it, so it would really only be for the butter.

Popcorn in Photos

Again the nice popcorn bowl comes from home. We packed it in one suitcase or another. Filled with clothes it doesn’t actually take up much room. The cleverly crafted foil shield is a new trial. We were having issues with the popcorn going all over the kitchen. Seriously I find kernels, both popped and unpopped, all over and under things. I fashioned this shield to see if it worked. It seems to help a lot. I didn’t see so many flying kernels this time.

So really, not as easy as just tossing a bag in a microwave but it feels better making it. I remember the sound of the popcorn machine from Sunday afternoon childhood. Having the smell and taste of freshly popped popcorn is something I am quite happy to be able to get here in Germany. Pretty much the best 25euros we have spent in a while.

Popcorn without a Microwave is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Sometimes nothing seems to go right and it seems like the society and culture is crushing. Sometimes I feel like breaking down and crying. Sometimes I wish I was not here. Although often wonderful, living as an expat somewhere, especially in a different language, does indeed suck.

Not a Pity Party

I am not writing this as a rant or searching for pity. I know I live a great life. I definitely choose to live here and really wouldn’t have it any other way. It is that sometimes I have a few days where everything gets to me, and I want to share that frustration to show that living as an expat is work. Life can be challenging anyway with a few bad days, but add another culture that takes energy to live in and the overwhelming factor can be high. Maybe others can see this and know that it is ok to be frustrated sometimes and it is normal to have bad days.

This week was a great example. Ali and I spent the past few weeks in Turkey and Italy. We had a great time, though it was tiring. Especially the trip home on Monday was pretty trying for me. In total six trains and a flight encompassing nearly 13 hours home. (We could have been better on the train, but whatever.) The flight was fairly smooth and yet I had a panic reaction. I’m fine, but exhausted. I still had to work on Tuesday, so no rest for me. By the end of the week everything seemed to be against us and it just felt overwhelming. Even for me with my years of experience here.

When Energy Runs Out

Living in another culture from that familiar one that you grew up with is energy intensive, especially at the beginning. You offer the brain no comfortable routine to fall into and yet change everything. Eventually you learn a pattern in your new home and things get easier. You build a home to take refuge in and perhaps a job or some friend to hang out with that all make it feel more like home. “Home” being that effortless state of being.

Yet that culture that takes energy is still out there. Especially when I am tired I definitely get annoyed at the Germans around me far easier. I’m sure this sort of annoyance at life happened in the US as well, but here it seems that the points that come through the most are cultural ones. It leads me to being annoyed at them in a way that I am normally not.

..there was none to be found..

Missing Cheddar Cheese

Germany has pretty good food. The concept of freshness and eating local products is strong, especially around here in Freiburg. That means the veggies and meats are usually local and high quality. The flip side is that the selection of things that come from far away is lean to say the least.

After a long week of poor rest and readjusting to the routine, we just wanted to make our favorite “home-like” meal of Fajitas. We went to the store looking to buy cheddar cheese. Nope, they were out. Nothing even similar showed up in the case, only all kinds of things only labeled by the valley in the alps it was made in. Our tired brains had retired to American mode and we couldn’t recognize anything.

Normally we like the block to shred for the tex-mex-y goodness. Though they had nothing in the case we thought maybe slices down in the case. Again no, at this point the annoyance was getting going. “Why can’t I just find normal cheese?” the brain screams inside. “What is with all of these cheeses we don’t understand?” We know the cheese here is odd and have known it for a while, but in this state of mind the detail becomes so much worse. It somehow gets blown up into a symbol of annoyance for the culture.

I kind of just wanted to cry. “I just want a nice quiet evening with normal food and not have anything to do with Germany,” I was thinking. Was I really losing it over cheese?

The cheese thing was a “last straw,” not a reason in itself. The half annoyances of the week, the feelings coming down off of a vacation high and readjusting to a routine without a lot of rest all rolled up and got sparked off by the “one thing” that felt familiar that I was being denied. In the end with the cheese, we were disappointed, but it wasn’t tragic. They will restock the block of cheddar and we will buy more next week. We sat together watching TV and it was a good night anyway.

This Too Shall Pass

Most of these feelings are transient. Things get overwhelming and I just want to cry, but I don’t. I play video games or watch American TV with some popcorn and try to get some sleep. Things will look better in the morning.

This sort of frustration is normal. The brain gets overwhelmed and can’t handle it anymore every so often. It is to be expected when you ask it to rebuild an entire lifetime of cultural knowledge. The key is to be patient with yourself and with others, especially the host locals. They have no clue what you are going through.

Sometimes it DOES suck, but it will be awesome again soon too. Just try to be patient.

It is never about just the cheese.

Sometimes it sucks is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

You buy for your friends

Maybe this is the consumer driven “me” culture of the US. There, when your friends go out to celebrate your birthday, it is pretty common that one person picks up your tab or they all chip in a few bucks. “It’s your birthday, you shouldn’t pay.” This is normal in the US and in addition to giving gifts. You just get taken out for drinks or dinner.

In Germany it is the reverse. It is normal  to pay for your friends. This comes in varying degrees, but the most common seems to be paying for the first drink of everyone that comes to hang out. I’ve seen this several times. At our office, it comes in the form of the birthday celebrator bringing cake or other baked goods for the entire office. This can be nice for the rest of us as it means a fairly even distribution of birthdays means a steady stream of afternoon cake breaks.

This can lead to some cultural misunderstandings I’m sure, though I have thankfully not run into any problems myself. It does feel awkward to go to a party and have drinks paid for instead of the other way around. And for the outsider to not bring anything may seem rude. I constantly forget about it until my birthday comes around and then I scramble.

Difference in Cake

Cake, especially birthday cake, in the US is light and fluffy, usually bright yellow, and under a half inch of buttercream frosting. Add candles and something written on it in even more frosting. The whole thing is mostly butter and sugar in some form or another. The happy joyousness of the party is often fueled by the sugar high. This is far more common with children, though if an adult gets a birthday cake that is what you expect.

German cakes are different anyway. For one thing, Coffee and Cake is almost a fourth meal, so cakes in different forms are far more common. Cake is usually fruit based in some form and less sweet. Frosting is nearly unheard of on cake. You might get streusel with powdered sugar or today I saw one with meringue. There is nothing light and fluffy about cake either. It is usually drier and more solid. A nice practical German cake often with fruit suspended in a custard.

I have never seen candles in a German cake, though I have seen them in the store, so perhaps it is just a dangerous thing to bring to the office.

Language Class : How to wish a happy birthday in German?

Happy Birthday is a perfectly normal German phrase that I have seen on cards and heard. You see, English is cool and hip. Though the most common greeting to wish someone a happy day of oldening is “Herzlichen Glückwunsch” or “heart-felt wish of joy”. Although the word for joy here could also be “fortune” in the sense of “good luck”.

The well known birthday song is sung to the same tune, but with different words. “Zum Geburtstag, viel Glück” meaning “for (your) birthday, much happiness/luck.” It is unfortunate though that such a nice set of words to be friendly is so hard to pronounce with so many umlauts.

Otherwise much the same

So the birthday is still celebrated here. Gifts are still given and cake is still served. Friends come together to celebrate and toast your good health. It is a social occasion just like back in the US, though with a few changes.

Germans and Birthdays is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Graffiti

I like finding interesting graffiti. Not the random tagging and defacement of buildings, but something unique that just shows some creativity. It gives an idea of the feeling of a town. A place with that random destructive graffiti all over the place is going to feel different than one with colors or these little things. A cool little bug on a parking barrier and this rather quizzical face. Obviously both done with stencils, but cool anyway.

Food

Places of beer and sandwiches. These little sidewalk cafes were all over Valencia. Cerveceria means place “to get beer”. Bocateria was a place to get small sandwiches. The kind with a few slices of ham in a roll, usually all cold. They always had tables out front and one or two people just lounging and watching the world go by.

I know Jesus is a pretty common name in Catholic countries, so this shouldn’t surprise me. But still the idea of “fruits by Jesus” sounds interesting in my brain. This was just one of many vendors in the market building in Valencia.

Marking Territory

This was a sign in the center of Valencia, just a hundred meters from the Cathedral. The sign was above my head, so they had to work to get those stickers up there. Again Spain, far west of Europe. The two stickers are from Gelsenkirchen and from Prague. Gelsenkirchen is an industrial town in Germany with a famous football club and Prague is the other end of the EU. Just strange to see them both on a sign in Spain.

Uhh yeah…

We went walking out to the beach on our first day and I noticed this coke machine. I like the little details in this picture. First the chain. Really, do they have problems with people stealing the whole machine? Second the tube from somewhere above that leads into the random jug. Obviously drainage of some sort, but what? The last bit is subtle and maybe not that unusual, but I noticed it. There is a big Coke Light can on the sign, but no button for it. Maybe that occurs more than I expected, but still kind of interesting.

Funny Language

Sometimes just because of the difference in languages, the signs are funny. This one says Road of Kitchens in Spanish. In really isn’t more entertaining than milk street in Freiburg or any of a dozen streets I have driven down in the US. I just like the sound of it.

Horno is the Spanish word for bakery. So these are very common around Valencia. The 12 year old in my snickers every time I read it though. The 12 year old mind also put the “horno” next to the Dirndl clad busty-girl poster. They had Oktoberfest in Valencia. All of the Spanish on the poster explaining what the festival is and such. Including the “Maximum Fun” label across it.

Check out more of my Scenes from Spain series.

Valencia Oddities : Scenes of Spain is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Variety

Change it up. In Europe anyway, the biggest issue with this aquarium effect are the cathedrals and castles. Every town had a church with a spire and nearly every city a cathedral. So many of them were built in the same time period that they all have similar features. Yes, they are grand and soaring, but the forms can get repetitive in one country. Castles are similar. Most cities hat defenses at one point or another in their history. Castles and ruins exist all over. Again similar time periods and uses can mean similar forms.

There is much more to Europe than these two sites. Mix it up. Sit in a square and watch people. Stroll through residential areas. Take in a museum. Also try to limit the number of things you see on a day. With only a few weeks it is easy to try to see too much. Resist this, that way lies burnout.

Skip Some

Unless you are explicitly on a tour for cathedrals or doing a graduate project on the castles of Europe, you don’t need to see every single one. On your day trips of towns feel free to explore other things and don’t feel the need to see the cathedral in depth, just because it is there.

This bit of advice has a balance. Try to know which sights are important to you to see. Notre Dame in Paris is one of the city’s icons. It would be a shame to miss even just seeing it because of the aquarium effect. It would be like filling up on bread before your favorite steak. Pick the ones you want to see and be ready. That may mean if you are feeling overwhelmed, take a day off before going to see your highly anticipated site.

Details

Examine the details that make a place different. I think the part that gets boring is that the mind keeps seeing a Cathedral in its entirety and sorts it into the bucket for “big church with tower”. After a while that mental bucket is full. So try to go look at other small details. Are the doors unique? Interesting gargoyles? What about the stones themselves?

Basically seek out what is interesting about this specific place.

Burnout

This aquarium effect is a form of burnout. It is not the long term form that comes up at a job. It is more localized. You overwhelm the brain with too many similar things and it just can’t deal anymore. All fish look alike. Travel is supposed to be fun and education, not a marathon cram session.

Slow down, mix it up, feel free to skip a few and concentrate on other aspects of what you are seeing. Add to that the normal burnout remedies of sleep and you should be able to enjoy your travels more and actually see more by seeing less.

Have you ever felt like this? Not another church/castle? Share your story.

Aquarium Effect of Sightseeing is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.

Pick Me Up

Perhaps my office is just like any workplace in that the coffee machine is the center of the social life. This machine makes all kinds of combos of coffee and milk. Frothy milk with less coffee or even just plain espresso. I don’t remember our machine in the US doing anything other than just plain ole American black. Everyone seems to have their favorite type and it is a tragedy when the machine breaks. Even the few minutes to refill the milk holder can mean a line of 4 waiting behind you.

But, you say that is a normal office. Ok, maybe it is. Perhaps it is typical to offer coffee at the end of a meal after dessert. Even so it just feels like the national drink somehow. “Coffee and Cake” is almost another meal in the afternoon.

Maybe there is something more than just coffee here. Perhaps it is a sense of well-being and medical help from the rich blackness.

A form of Herbal Medicine?

Winter is a time of colds and sniffles. Even more so here than in the US. Population density is higher, we walk outside more and ride public transport all packed together and then there is the thing with opening windows. This past winter I noticed the oddest trend at work. Lemon Ginger “tea”. At some point large ginger roots and a pile of lemons appeared next to the coffee machine. People would cut a few slices of fresh ginger and a few slices of lemon and pour hot water over it.

This must be a health thing. To the point that I can find the powdered form of honey and ginger tea in the supplements section at the drug store. In classic American form I would rather the prepared than the fresh version, but whatever.

They also have Hot Lemon in powdered form. It is what it says, hot lemon juice perhaps sweetened. I can so see it as a form of home remedy, yet it shows up on menus. Though on the menus I would expect a fresh version. I actually like the powdered form of it. There was apparently also a German physician who wrote of the medical benefits of coffee on the stomach. (Wiki)

Although Americans aren’t so far different in that Coke was originally touted as a medicine too. German society seems pretty heavily bound to these herbal and home remedies, so maybe coffee and hot lemon and hot ginger tea became some big thing because doctors said they were healthy.

This theory would also help explain the “taking of the waters” concept of drinking smelly hot water from the ground for medical purposes. This being the idea of health spas. I honestly don’t know, but health is a big part of German society. I’ll write about that at some other point.

And Calm You Down

You came and clicked on a post about Germans and drinks, most likely expecting something about beer. Right?

Beer definitely exists in Germany and is drunk in great masses for any occasion(celebratory Tuesday anyone?) at nearly any time of the day. Beer is definitely still king in Germany, but coffee and hot drinks are queen and court.

Though I would to say something like “the Germans could do without beer, but not without coffee”, but it isn’t true. I don’t actually think society would work without either. Both are integral to the smooth running of things.

Bit of Language

So as a parting word here are a few German words.

• Etwas zum trinken – Something to drink.
• Zum Mitnehmen – To take away, also seen as “to go” or “takeaway”. Remember English is cool.
• Kaffee – Coffee
• Heisse Zitrone – Hot Lemon
• Heisse Ingwer (mit Honig) (mit Zitrone) – Hot Ginger (with Honey) (with Lemon)

What is the strangest drink you have seen in your travels?

This is my entry to this month’s Blogger Stammtisch. Click below to see some of the other entries. May’s topic will be “Parks” with posts, as always, going up on the 15th.

Drink it Down is a feed post from Grounded Traveler.