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They bagged Australia and settled on a road trip out west to Colorado. A trip that would consist of riding dirt bikes through the Rockies. A trip that Charlie would never let his dad go on without being a part of it. So immediately, plans changed and we were heading back to the States. We got on Skyscanner and began searching for flights. Just be aware — it will become addicting and you might find yourself scanning in your sleep. We discovered that we could get a flight from Bangkok to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to home for not much more than it would cost to go from Bangkok to home.
We were going to Europe much sooner than we ever anticipated! We almost allowed ourselves 6 weeks to travel through Europe, but after adding up costs of accommodations and trains, we quickly cut it back to 3.
Culture Shock in Munich - SPIEGEL ONLINE
We knew Europe was going to be much more costly than Asia so we were trying to mentally prepare ourselves for this big change. In all of our travels, we had never stayed in a hostel but it was starting to look like that was the only way we could make this trip happen. For those that are solo travelers, it totally makes sense.
But for couples, this just seemed outrageous. After a quick search, it was apparent that this made way more sense than staying at a hostel.
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Could it really be that bad? After a surprisingly fantastic flight on Air India, we arrived in Frankfurt. There is always a sense of uneasiness when you first arrive into a new country with a new language and you are trying to get your bearings. For some reason, that was ten fold this time. After fumbling around trying to figure out how to buy a ticket, we hopped on a train and crossed our fingers we were heading in the right direction.
We were looking around for some sort of map with all of the stops listed and could not find anything so we were getting quite nervous. Finally, they announced we were arriving at Frankfurt Hbf the main station and hoards of people were unloading. We figured that must be the one and followed them off. The train station was really impressive!
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It was full of restaurants and eateries and trains coming and going left and right. It was exciting to see people running through the station and hopping on and off trains.
Sketchy people partaking in sketchy behavior. We tried to ignore it and make our way towards our hostel. The closer we got, the worse it got. We checked ourselves in and were happy to finally drop our bags. It was almost 9 pm and we were surprised to find it was still daylight. We shoveled down the food and made our way back to the security of our hostel as quickly as possible. We managed to arrive during a heat wave and had to keep the windows open for at least a little bit of a cool breeze.
Germany was not at all what we thought it was going to be…. We dragged ourselves downstairs to the lobby at 5: We were surprised to find a few other guys down there already. Turns out, they had the same problems trying to sleep. One of the guys actually worked at the hostel, and after talking to him we started to feel a little better. No — not all of Germany is this way. Huge sigh of relief! He recommended we walk towards the river and we would be pleasantly we surprised to find that Frankfurt is actually a beautiful city. Along the river and in the center of Frankfurt we found the Germany we were looking for.
We were in awe of the architecture and cobblestone streets and overwhelmed with the abundance of bread and baked goods. We found that Frankfurt was actually a lovely city, although often overlooked by tourists as more of a financial hub. We wished we had more than a half day to explore, however, we had already booked our train to Munich and were leaving that afternoon.
Munich was the destination we were most excited about and could not wait for our first real train ride through the countryside of Germany. We have yet to venture to Frankfurt and have stuck to smaller cities like Trier.
2. You’ll receive a righteous scolding.
Have you been there? Whether at work or with friends, you will always know what the fellow Germans around you are thinking. Germans are often prone to some pretty serious sounding illnesses. God knows what will happen if Ebola ever makes it to Germany…. Although not every German will drop their pants at the drop of hat, there are many designated nudist areas FKK zones and they are much more relaxed about the idea than us Brits. Or any nationality for that matter. This does take some getting used to, especially as we found out when we went to a spa in Munich where undergarments were NOT allowed in many areas.
The Germans are a braver bunch than we are, however with time, you actually see that being naked is not the problem, it is more our aversion to it and the Germans have nipped that in the bud and are much more comfortable with their bodies. Could this one catch on in the UK too?
During our time in Germany, we have never had a problem with the police or crime. However, that is not to say that there are some rather unusual laws in place, for example. If you need any help with that, just ask Bernie Ecclestone.
12 culture shocks Americans have in Germany
In Munich at least, this seems to be the most powerful person in the city. The red man has the ability to stop crowds of people on empty roads during the worst weather anyone can face. There have been times when we would have been running through the streets trying to get out of the wind, rain and hail, yet there will be people waiting on the pavements of empty roads waiting for the green man to let them cross the road, getting battered and drenched in the process. And then they wonder why they seem to get ill so often….
German humour is quite a special thing. Patience is needed here, people. With that said, the Germans do have their style of humour. Because everything in Germany has a purpose and everything has some degree of exactness, the Germans tend to laugh at the bizarre and the strange. One time when we hosted a Hawaiian style party in Munich, we were all wearing flower garlands and Jasper was commenting that he was so fat, he should use one of these flower garlands as a belt, causing an outburst of laughter among the people who were around him!
Coming from a country which has a very strong culture of good customer service, German customer service is generally pretty bad. The postal service is great at breaking its own deadlines, government offices only read their emails on Fridays and there is rarely anyone at call centres there to take your call. And coming to our next point, instead of good customer service, Germany seems to like lot of good old…. In fact, what normally could take 1 person to do in one or two steps, the Germans seem to spread this out to 10 people and make it as complicated as possible meaning that nothing will actually get done on time and you will face a lot of stress along the way.
Not only that, but because of German concerns about spying from its Western partners, government officials and sections of the German bureaucracy are seriously considering reverting back to the days of the typewriter. In the day of instant mass communication, this is going to put a massive brake on the speed of getting anything government-related done. So there, we have it guys — our top 10 culture shocks faced by British expats in our favourite country of sausages and beer!
Although, living in Germany has really been the best experience for both of us, these are some of the things that we have noticed during our time in Germany, that seem a little bizarre or maybe just not quite right.. With that said, however, Germany offers some really great things as well, such as: Have any of you guys been to Germany? Were you ever surprised by something? This sort of information is so useful for anyone moving to Germany. You are commenting using your WordPress.