Days of Nations

Monday was Bastille day in France. So, if you watched the right television, or happened to be in Paris, you would have seen the most spectacular display of fireworks over the Champs-Élysées. In fact, Europe does a pretty good run in National Commemoration Days. The Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day, [...]

Discovering Neuseeland: German culture in NZ (video)

Join me as I report live from New Zealand, and uncover some pockets of German culture along the way.

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The Sprudel Question

In between providing me with blankets and reading material and feeding me soggy vegetables in inidentifiable sauce, the lovely Lufthansa lady who looked after me for 10 hours sometime during the last 48 also offered me many a drink. Being a responsible air traveller, I stayed hydrated with lots of oxygen accompanied by 2 [...]

Unterwegs!

You’ll have to bear with me here, as I am about to undergo the 30+ hours’ travel that it takes to get to New Zealand. You see, I am paying a quick visit to family and friends on those little islands down there, and it just so happens that it is pretty much the [...]

Attention World Travellers!

I thought that since the readers of the blog seem to be worldy folk, that you all might like to test your knowledge of various countries’ names auf Deutsch. Achtung: it’s not as easy as it seems!

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Snackalicious tendencies

I (along with some other Englischers, i.e. my good friend Herr V) have noticed that German employers, in a way none of us have ever seen before, provide snacking opportunities for their employees. I think this is a fantastic aspect of life in the land of the Deutsch, and should be compulsory, and by [...]

Schon vorgeglüht?

Today, discussion of another cool and oh-so-appropriate German word: Vorglühen. Now, you Germans will surely know what I’m getting at (and it’s not the literal translation), but Englischers might be a little confused. The literal translation of ‘vorglühen’ is ‘to preheat’. But this is not what I am talking about. Oh no.
When you go [...]

Only in Deutschland!

Although my interest is usually sparked by matters of a linguistic nature, my first thought when I discovered the world’s first automated restaurant was: “That is, like, SO totally German!” No waiters, no bad service, no need to tip. You order your food from a computer and it is delivered to you via a [...]

Wir bitten um Ihr (Miss)Verständnis

The avid readers of this blog (or should I say, ‘reader’ singular - Hi Mum!) might notice the entries a little sparse at the moment. This is because Miss V is in the land of Urlaub (where all Germans go on holiday), living it up and talking about herself in the third person in France. [...]

Hamburgs of the world, unite!

A little interwebbal research has shown me that Hamburg, Hansestadt, HH, meine Perle, is not the only Hamburg on this green Earth. In fact, I was able to find evidence of 13 (thirteen! Oooh, I hope you’re not superstitious) different Hamburgs around the world.
Okay, they’re not so much around the world as in the [...]