Migrating Matryoshka

Traveling or moving to a new country is always an adventure. Some aspects, however, really shocked me when I moved to Germany and I’m here to tell you all about them. Even till this day, I’m still surprised by some things that I see or hear people doing. Now, a few things in the following list are culture shocks that I really had to get used to and a few other things are just things that make you go like: ‘Oh wow okay..’ and then laugh about it.

The first thing that I want to mention is very positive, which I simply love. Germany has SO many bakeries, you can never eat bad bread. I used to think I didn’t really like bread, I ate a lot of white bread because of that, until I moved to Germany. There’s a lot of various bread to choose from and you can get fresh ones every day! You can also get nice mushy but crunchy croissants, Berliners (which are basically kind of like donuts but they’re round and they have different kinds of jelly inside), cake, delicious sandwiches, and so much more. God, I’m drooling already just thinking about them. Anyways, German bakeries are like McDonald’s in North America, you can see one on every corner of the street. Since I moved here, I’ve really discovered a different side of bakeries and it’s something we’re really missing out on in North America. Oh, also, there’s this thing called ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’, which is usually around 4 pm, and people get together to drink some coffee or tea and eat a piece of cake (usually very delicious and not thick or too sweet). Love this tradition!

One relatively negative thing that shocked me, which doesn’t only apply to Germany but also to the rest of Europe, is the amount of smokers. Smoking is still very present here and people can just smoke on terraces, right in front of restaurants! In Quebec, you have to stand minimum 9 meters away from a building to smoke, but in Germany and Europe in general, this doesn’t exist. A lot more people smoke here as well, whether it’s cigarettes or shisha or vaping, there’s just a lot of people who still do it. There are also a lot of cigarette vending machines in the street, so you can just buy some there as well, which promotes smoking even more. But, I’ve heard that cigarette prices are rising each year, so maybe that will make people want to smoke less, who knows. A thing that people here do, however, is getting rolling paper and tobacco separately, and then roll the cigarettes themselves, like a joint. It’s a lot cheaper, from what I’ve heard. You don’t really see that in Canada.

On a more positive note, another thing that shocked me was the attitude towards the outside and the environment. Germans, and Europeans in general too, love their ‘Frische Luft’, it can be -10° outside and they would still open a window for some fresh air. I personally kind of got used to this mentality now and sometimes it’s just so nice to get some fresh air, which is something I used to not really pay attention to. As soon as it’s a bit warmer, you can see crowds of people outside enjoying the nice weather, getting a tan, drinking a beer with their friends (yes, even during corona), going for a picnic at a park, etc. This is just such a nice thing, I can’t even explain it, it just feels so refreshing. It really makes me appreciate the environment around me more.

Talking about environment, Germans not only like their environment, but they also protect it. Germany, unlike Canada who has only 2 or three trash compartments (Normal Trash, Recycling and sometimes Compost), has a lot more ways to recycle and separate their trash. One thing that I really love is called the ‘Pfand’ system (see imagine below). This is basically like when you bring back beer bottles to the grocery store in Canada, but on steroids. They have this not only for beer bottles (which gives you back 8 cents in Germany), but also for cans and plastic bottles (which both give you back 25 cents). I really love this because you can get money back, but also you’re protecting the environment more, because you don’t just put plastic bottles in the trash, they sometimes reuse those bottles to make new bottles and use them for other stuff, which is pretty cool. For glass, there are different kinds of bins that you can find somewhere in the streets, where you have to separate green, white (or transparent) and brown glass. Another thing that’s different, is that they also separate recycling, they use yellow bags/bins for packaging stuff made out of plastic and they also have normal recycling for paper/carton only. Of course, Germany also has compost. So, if you associate Germany with being very green and environmentally conscious, you’re completely right! But of course, there’s still room for improvement.

Another thing that I find really cool about Germany and Europe that really shocked me at first, is the alcohol prices!! You can get a bottle of decent wine for like 1-2 Euros (1.60-3.50$CAD) here! In Canada, if you want a nice bottle of wine you would have to pay around 10$ (approx. 5 Euros), if not more. A bottle of beer (either 0,33 cl or 0,5 L) can cost you even less than a Euro too. This is something that’s really good, but it’s also really easy to get carried away with. I would recommend setting a limit of alcohol per week to not end up drinking almost every day (I *might’ve* done this, oops, but now I’m back on track). Also, the alcohol is good here! Oh my god, you would not believe the different beers and wines I’ve tasted here, it blew my mind. Europe truly does have the best alcohol.

So, I hope you enjoyed reading about some things that shocked me when I first came here and maybe you’ll be more prepared and knowledgeable when/if you come visit Germany. I could go on and on about such topics and I have a lot of things to talk about regarding this subject, so I decided that I’m going to write another blogpost about such things in the present future! Don’t worry, more juicy stuff about Germany is coming, make sure to not miss it!