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First day in Berlin, been asked for directions twice, learnt about Nazis, eaten curry wurst and am now swilling Berliner pilsner. I have four more days what is the best cheap German restaurant here?
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Jun 1, 2013 14:46
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Awesome game full of fun atmosphere without being douchey. Go bayern.
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Jun 1, 2013 19:49
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eviljelly posted:I'm spending a couple of months in Heidelberg (Neckargemünd to be more exact) this summer to learn German. Any idea how to select a good intensive German course? A cursory google search shows lots of language academies with similar pricing and programs, as far as I can tell from their websites. Anything to avoid or watch out for? Any program/school you guys can recommend? I know this is last page stuff, but anyone have any idea on how to pick a German language program, especially in/near Heidelberg?
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Jun 2, 2013 08:45
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Ted Ed Fred posted:First day in Berlin, been asked for directions twice, learnt about Nazis, eaten curry wurst and am now swilling Berliner pilsner. I have four more days what is the best cheap German restaurant here? I enjoyed this http://www.qype.co.uk/place/23743-Nord-Sud-Berlin#reviews but it's french
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Jun 2, 2013 09:39
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eviljelly posted:I know this is last page stuff, but anyone have any idea on how to pick a German language program, especially in/near Heidelberg? I would imagine the Goethe course would be up there with the best (and more pricey options): http://www.goethe.de/ins/de/ort/man/kur/enindex.htm Other than that, there would be the Volkshochschule (VHS): http://www.vhs-hd.de/gesamtprogramm/sprachen-deutsch It all depends on your current level, how far you want to get, how much you want to pay and how long you want to do it for! I did a 3 month course in Karlsruhe (40 min south by train) for, I think, about €600 per month. That was 5 days a week 0800 - 1300. Heidelberg might well cost more, as it is a popular tourist city.
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Jun 3, 2013 14:22
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Any Munich goons happen to know what happened at the Hbf on Tuesday around 17:00 or so? We were trying to take the S-Bahn to the airport and the Polizei were closing off the entrance with tape and not letting anyone in. I gathered it was a bit of a major issue as when we went to the Ost station it seemed like things were not operating normally there, either. It's probably nothing too unusual but American curiosity had us wondering what the cause was.
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Jun 13, 2013 15:27
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Sand Monster posted:Any Munich goons happen to know what happened at the Hbf on Tuesday around 17:00 or so? We were trying to take the S-Bahn to the airport and the Polizei were closing off the entrance with tape and not letting anyone in. I gathered it was a bit of a major issue as when we went to the Ost station it seemed like things were not operating normally there, either. It's probably nothing too unusual but American curiosity had us wondering what the cause was. Hmm... I work in Munich but none of my Munich based coworkers mentioned anything 
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Jun 13, 2013 15:34
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Wegschauen konnten wir schon immer gut. 
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Jun 13, 2013 16:25
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Maybe I'm cynical but police blocking the entrance + irregularities at other stations + nothing in the news and no readily apparent reason sounds like a suicide by train to me. They're commonly not mentioned in the news in order to avoid giving people the idea.
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Jun 13, 2013 17:04
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My Lovely Horse posted:Maybe I'm cynical but police blocking the entrance + irregularities at other stations + nothing in the news and no readily apparent reason sounds like a suicide by train to me. They're commonly not mentioned in the news in order to avoid giving people the idea. Yeah that makes sense.
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Jun 14, 2013 12:27
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While suicides by train (sadly) aren't rare at all, they very rarely happen at train stations themselves and you don't shut down the entire operation for them. My money would be on abandoned piece of luggage. A legit bomb-threat would have made the news, but in both cases, the cops and bomb squad are required to show up and they cordon off the area because ~regulations~. Not that "better safe than sorry" isn't a good concept in general, but the criteria for for discerning between "meh, in all probability not a bomb" and "welp, shut it down, boys!" seem to have gotten a little more numerous in recent history.
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Jun 14, 2013 13:15
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Are there anything worth of sightseeing in Frankfurt? I will probably visit it and Berlin this summer.
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Jun 14, 2013 14:34
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Speaking of train talk, man do people in Germany like resting their shoes on an empty seat. It's just kind of gross. And why are the seats so close to each other when everyone in Germany is so tall? I did ask this question when I passed through an old German Castle, Berg Hohenzollern - why where the beds so small? It was supposedly a manner of nutrition and medical science  And from what time did this phenomenon change the German people from short to tall? 
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Jun 14, 2013 15:17
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Quick question to Munich goons: I plan to spend a week in Munich in August. I think I can keep myself occupied, but being that I am a goon, I'm also looking to make sure I get a hotel with decent wifi. I know Munich's introducing municipal wifi downtown, but I need the interwebs when I'm vegging out in my room after a long day of sightseeing, and my travel experience with hotels that proclaim to have complimentary wifi is rather mixed. It doesn't have to be super-cheap and if it's within, say, 20 minutes of walking and public transit to downtown that'll be fine for my purposes. Does anyone have any experience in this regard? I'll also be digging through the thread and some more sites to figure out my itinerary re: sightseeing, but if you guys want to drop some science on me and tell me about stuff I desperately need to see, I'm all ears.
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Jun 14, 2013 20:37
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caberham posted:Speaking of train talk, man do people in Germany like resting their shoes on an empty seat. It's just kind of gross. Man I love Hohenzollern. Really want to go again. I grew up half an hour away from it but I moved away 12 years ago. We used to go there on school trips all the time.
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Jun 14, 2013 21:07
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Gatac posted:I'll also be digging through the thread and some more sites to figure out my itinerary re: sightseeing, but if you guys want to drop some science on me and tell me about stuff I desperately need to see, I'm all ears.
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Jun 15, 2013 09:35
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Sand Monster posted:Any Munich goons happen to know what happened at the Hbf on Tuesday around 17:00 or so? We were trying to take the S-Bahn to the airport and the Polizei were closing off the entrance with tape and not letting anyone in. I gathered it was a bit of a major issue as when we went to the Ost station it seemed like things were not operating normally there, either. It's probably nothing too unusual but American curiosity had us wondering what the cause was. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchener-stammstrecke-luftballon-legt-die-s-bahn-lahm-1.1694437 - a balloon in the overhead wires.
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Jun 15, 2013 23:27
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Just a weather balloon nothing to see move along
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Jun 16, 2013 12:25
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Default Settings posted:You'll get all the science you want dropped on you at the Deutsches Museum. Plan at least one full day for it, two if you are a science/technology nerd. Well worth a visit. And if you get hot and sweaty with all that visual science and spectacular feats of mechanical engineering and ingenuity, there is a bath house and sauna across the street. I usually stay at the Hilton on Rosenheimer which is just a short walk away. Wifi and a great little bar in the lobby.
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Jun 17, 2013 14:59
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My wife and I seem to be hearing (and smelling) more public farting than usual in our yearly journey through Germany. I had heard someone say before we first started the tradition of going to Germany every summer, that public farting was accepted behavior in Germany, but never found this to be the case. But this year...lots of farting. Someone want to elaborate on the policy of farting in public in Germany? Andechs tonight, Munich for two days starting tomorrow morning.
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Jun 17, 2013 15:56
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LaserWash posted:Someone want to elaborate on the policy of farting in public in Germany? It's not actually accepted, but what are you going to do? "Wer's zuerst gerochen, dem ist's aus der Hos' gekrochen!" Really, though, just fart and then loudly complain to your wife that she needs to lay off the lactose.
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Jun 17, 2013 20:28
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Don't mention the war^H^H^H farts.
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Jun 17, 2013 21:53
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It's perfectly OK to fart in confined spaces with lots of people around because nobody will know it was you.
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Jun 18, 2013 19:36
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There was a claim in Turkish in the '80s that went, "The Germans say 'bravo' to those who fart and 'good job' to those who burp." I've heard of lots of kids hanging around German tourists to see if this would happen. I just got back from another ten-day trip to Berlin. This makes it my fifth time (I thinK?) in two or three years and I'm positive that I'm in love with the city. I've stayed in hostels, three- and four-star hotels, friends' apartments, AirBnB arrangements, and an anarchist squat, located all over the city except the west so far. My sister is urging me to try and live there for a while. Jobwise, I'd be able to telecommute internationally, so that wouldn't be a problem. Right now I'm paying around EUR 850-900 for rent + utilities + net + phone in Istanbul for living in a 2+1 apartment in the city center by myself. My total monthly salary that goes in my pocket ranges from EUR 2000 to EUR 2400. In Berlin I think I'd enjoy living in F'shain, Kreuzberg, or Neukölln (INSIDE the Ringbahn and east of the Hauptbanhof, preferably), and since I'm half Turkish the second culture around there would be no problem for me. Pricewise I believe I should be in the clear, correct? Especially if I'm looking to stay for just three months initially and I am willing to deal with flatmates? I'm 25 years old, if that's meaningful for anything. The main problem is the visa issue and things associated with banking accounts and telephone & internet service and so on, I think. As a US citizen I can stay for up to three months on a tourist visa, but I'd have to use my Turkish and US banks. I don't know very much German but I'd probably sign up for lessons as soon as I got there. (I'm told my pronunciation sounds pretty good from the small amount I have had to speak it, FWIW.) I figure my prospects are better applying as an American than as a Turk (and I don't look at all like the average stereotype of a Turk, most people thought I was German or from the US), and I'm not taking a job that would otherwise be available to a German. I'm also imagining that taxes and health insurance could be an issue beyond the tourist visa period... I also bet that my Turkish could be of help if I need to do some shady things to get things right. Perhaps I need to try a three-month stint on a tourist visa to see if I really have the balls to do it and learn the ropes from expats who have done it. My lease in Istanbul expires in January, so I'd be looking at a very cold time for a stay unless I wait closer to a year from now or break my lease and say gently caress it, I'm going to a foreign country, what are you going to do about it. I feel really lovely being back in Turkey with all this stuff going on. I just feel so relaxed and easy in Berlin (Berlin specifically; I visited Frankfurt and Munich briefly and they were pretty uninteresting to me). It just feels like I'm meant to be there. Any experiences? Oh, this might be important in terms of a visa: I'm a college dropout so I don't have a degree. cancelope fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Jun 19, 2013 |
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Jun 19, 2013 07:55
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I'm pretty sure in Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg or Neukölln you can scale down your current rent/utilities/living budget quite a bit and still live like a king. Godspeed.
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Jun 19, 2013 08:21
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asaf posted:I just got back from another ten-day trip to Berlin. This makes it my fifth time (I thinK?) in two or three years and I'm positive that I'm in love with the city. asaf posted:I'm also imagining that taxes and health insurance could be an issue beyond the tourist visa period... I also bet that my Turkish could be of help if I need to do some shady things to get things right. Do you work as a freelancer or are you employed by a Turkish company? I think in the former case it may be possible to get a visum if you can prove you have a lot of income and get private insurance. In the latter case I'm not sure how to approach it.
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Jun 19, 2013 09:39
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asaf posted:I figure my prospects are better applying as an American than as a Turk (and I don't look at all like the average stereotype of a Turk, most people thought I was German or from the US), and I'm not taking a job that would otherwise be available to a German. I assume you have a Turkish citizenship as well. Then you might want to double-check if it is not easier to get a non-tourist visum as a Turkish citizen. Due to the association between Turkey and what is now the European Union, there are special rules and policies which are advantageous for Turkish citizens wanting to come (and stay) in Germany. So what I am saying is, you should check out the options being a Turkish citizens would give you and not just assume that Americans get preferential treatment.
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Jun 19, 2013 12:16
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If you work freelance you need to prove income of around 42,000 EUR/year to get a visa, iirc. You could sign up for German classes and live there for a year on a student visa, but then you better hope they don't find out about your income... there's strong limits on what kinds of work students can do and how much they can do it. Your income is plenty to live off in Berlin, but it may be too low to get approved for a visa depending on your field (unless you mean 2k after taxes, in which case you have a better chance). This is all from the American side of the visa question - as mentioned previously, Turks might have a better option. I'm going to assume you do web development or some other IT work professionally, in which case I would encourage you to apply for jobs on Stepstone or Monster.de. There are not enough IT developers in Germany at the moment and speaking fluent German is not necessarily a hindrance to getting a job in the field.
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Jun 20, 2013 09:19
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Troubadour posted:There are not enough IT developers in Germany at the moment Where do you get this from? Highly doubtful that it is easy to get into IT positions in Berlin.
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Jun 20, 2013 10:29
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Might be a relic of the times when whoever was in power wanted to import Indians because Indians are good with computers or something. I'm also skeptical of Turks having an easier time getting visa, a friend of mine is having trouble getting her boyfriend a visiting visa, but he doesn't have a steady job, so there's that.
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Jun 20, 2013 12:39
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elbkaida posted:Highly doubtful that it is easy to get into IT positions in Berlin. I know some people in the Berlin tech startup scene and from what I see it's fairly common to hire from outside of Germany since the market for good developers is quite competitive. Granted, if all you know is PHP and JavaScript it's a bit harder but there are still open positions. And that's not even looking at bigger companies that are not part of the startup scene.
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Jun 20, 2013 17:45
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The industry ALWAYS wants to import indians (or whoever) since they supposedly work for cheap.
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Jun 20, 2013 18:05
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They do phone it in a lot though.
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Jun 20, 2013 22:45
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We saw several Turkish protests in Munich and Innsbruck this week. Hordes of policemen in what looked like riot gear off of Marienplatz on Kaufingerstraße last night. What's all this about? LOLZ, I just realized that was an awkward transition.
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Jun 20, 2013 23:01
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LaserWash posted:We saw several Turkish protests in Munich and Innsbruck this week. Hordes of policemen in what looked like riot gear off of Marienplatz on Kaufingerstraße last night. What's all this about? There are ongoing demonstrations in Istanbul which were met with a very harsh response by the Turkish authorities. The demonstrations you saw were probably solidarity demonstrations related to that. Those are quite common in German cities, especially in those with large Turkish communities and/or universities. The deployment of police forces is a pretty standard procedure when it comes to big demonstrations. Especially if they relate to current hot topics, to prevent demonstrations turning non-peaceful or to prevent counter-demonstrations from disturbing a peaceful demonstration.
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Jun 20, 2013 23:13
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LaserWash posted:My wife and I seem to be hearing (and smelling) more public farting than usual in our yearly journey through Germany. "Warum rülpset und furzet ihr nicht? Hat es euch nicht geschmacket?" - Martin Luther
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Jun 22, 2013 13:36
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So if someone could help with this it would be nice: Basically I got into a bike accident when someone opened their car door immediately in front of me. We never filed a police report, but I went to the hospital and my bike is damaged, so naturally I want to get some money from their auto insurance. The thing is, after emailing with the person who did it they just asked for my haftpflichtversicherung number and my address, which seems to indicate they want to file a claim against me? I know per § 14 Abs. 1 StVO that I am in the right (you have to check before opening car doors), so I'm wondering how I should make a claim against this person? Also, what information from me do they actually need to give to their insurance so I can get paid?
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Jun 23, 2013 23:42
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Landsknecht posted:So if someone could help with this it would be nice: Go talk to a lawyer. Don't rely on internet advice when it comes to pressing a legal claim. While it is to a certain degree possible for a person to press their own claims in court, it is usually not a good idea. The judge is required to give a modicum of assistance in civil matters if one side this should not be considered a replacement for qualified legal counsel. This is especially true in an area like traffic accidents, which requires knowledge of legal practises not explicitly found in the laws themselves. Even in cases where the material law is somewhat clear, most people still lack an understanding of how to comply with the basic formal requirements of a civil suits. While a lot of mistakes in this area can be fixed, some might potentially make you lose - at least temporarily - the lawsuit. And it bears to mention that in Germany, unlike most other jurisdictions, losing a civil suit will cause you to reimburse the opposing party for the costs of their legal counsel. Furthermore, there might be issues a non-jurist might not be able to notice. An example would be how any entitlement to damages might intertwine with the various functions of the social security system, e.g. Krankenkasse, Entgeltfortzahlung, etc. Regarding the costs of legal consuulation, German lawyers are not as costly as one might believe. While lawsuits can cost a lot of money, this is rarely the case in smaller cases. Furthermore, there are plenty of lawyers who will bill you at a reduced level or not at all for the first meeting. Don't expect full answers there, but they will probably be able to tell you a general direction to proceed in and an estimate of whether the financial risks of pressing the claim outweigth the money you ustand to get. Finally, I need to mention, that giving out legal advice regarding to an individualized situation, even without payment, is regulated by German law to the extent that it is disallowed in virtually all cases.
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Jun 24, 2013 00:30
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Landsknecht posted:We never filed a police report, but I went to the hospital In the future: Call the police and wait for them to arrive. Do everything via the police, lawyers and insurances. Don't email the other party directly. Did that person tell you a story about how they wanted to handle it privately so they don't get in trouble or something? Or is that a concern of yours? Seconding getting a lawyer. It's not that expensive in Germany.
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Jun 24, 2013 08:39
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I am American looking to attend graduate school abroad for history/philosophy (maybe history of philosophy?). How do the University of Heidelburg and University of Freiburg compare? What's student life like?
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Jun 26, 2013 02:11
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