Three years ago I was living in Germany and eager to share my experiences with the world. I was going on seven months as an expat and I jumped at the chance to join an expat interview series by a popular blogger. Last month I discovered that the interview was taken down (thanks to my broken link checker – such a useful tool). I don’t want my work to be wasted, especially when it’s so hard to work with chronic pain, so […]
Category: Germany
Walking Along the Rose Route in Hildesheim, Germany.
We were able to stop in Hildesheim for just a few hours on our way to Hamburg, Germany in August 2016, although the lovely city certainly deserved more of our time. I had developed a deep wanderlust for German cities that were full of half-timbered houses and so Hildesheim had quickly risen to the top of my must-see list. Walking along the rose route in Hildesheim was a bit inadvertent, however. I had planned a walking tour for our visit and it just […]
Visiting the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald – an Incredible Treetop Path in Bavaria, Germany.
A little over a year ago I had the great pleasure of visiting the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald in Bavaria with a dear friend of mine. You may be asking, “The Baumwipfelp… uh, what?” Well, “Baumwipfelpfad” is German for treetop path and “Steigerwald” is simply a region of Germany, which includes the Steigerwald Nature Park. But the term ‘treetop path’ doesn’t fully describe just how awesome this attraction truly is. Visiting the Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald. The Baumwipfelpfad Steigerwald is located in Ebrach, which […]
Grocery Shopping in Germany (Compared to the USA).
Going grocery shopping in Germany has always been a stressful event for me. On my first visit to Kaufland, a few days after moving to Germany, I unintentionally made a cashier very angry because I didn’t weigh my bananas before checking out. Even after living in Germany for 13 months, it seemed like I always managed to do something wrong on each trip to the grocery store. So I’m sharing 20 ways that grocery shopping in Germany is different so that you can be […]
Missing Germany: 50 Things I Miss the Most.
During my year in Germany I often pined for things from the USA. Now the reverse is true; I’ve been home for three months and I’m missing Germany fiercely. To make matters worse, I have no timeline for when I might get to return – just a long list of reasons why I’d like to. Missing Germany: 50 Things I Miss the Most. 1. Schnitzel. 2. Brötchen 3. Schnitzel in Brötchen. 4. Rittersport chocolate. 5. Nürnberger bratwurst. 6. Christmas […]
Summarizing Life in Germany in 30 Tweets.
You can squeeze a surprising amount of information into 140 characters. I’ve used twitter for several years, but my use of it changed once I made an account for my blog. It became a quick, easy platform for sharing my life in Germany with other bloggers, expats, and curious travelers. I looked back over everything I tweeted during our year in Germany and now I’m sharing the best and most informative tweets here. I tweeted about what we learned, dealing […]
Differences Between Germany and the USA.
Our impending departure (#3daystoUSA) is making me think about all the ways my life is about to change. In fact, my mental list of the differences between Germany and the USA started growing so long I decided to write them all out. I’m sharing this thought provoking list partially because I’m exhausted and sick from the past week of moving related stress (and, sadly, a week behind on my current blog series as a result). I’m sure I’ll notice even […]
One Year Without a Vehicle.
This is the second post in the blog series One Year Without. See all of the posts here. We gave up our habit of driving daily when we moved to Germany without a vehicle. For the past year we’ve either walked, used public transport, or used a rental car. In fact, we only spent 19 days driving over the last year. It was a pretty big life change for us. So what was it like? The planning stage. The first step […]
Expat Frustration (Also Known As: Germany Makes Things Hard).
With only 24 days to USA, we’ve been dealing with various problems that tend to accompany an international move. However, one situation has been particularly difficult. Let me start at the beginning. One year ago we were brand new expats, being picked up by our relocation agent to go get German drivers licenses just a few days into our first week in Germany. I remember walking into the foreign waiting area and later being ushered into a surprisingly private office where we […]
Half-Timbered Houses in Erfurt.
Erfurt is the capital and largest city of Thuringia, a state in central Germany. While it’s a popular destination for German tourists, it’s often overlooked in favor of bigger or more well-known cities by foreign tourists. There are so many reasons to visit the city, from its old town being one of the most intact medieval cities in Germany to seeing the Dom St. Marien, where Martin Luther was ordained. I’m looking forward to sharing all of the details about […]