Woman from Barcelona tells 16 aspects of life in Germany that may surprise you at first

Although Germany is well known for sausages, different types of sausage and very cosmopolitan cities like Berlin, habits, behaviors and even tourist attractions hide details that not everyone knows. Elisabet, a Barcelona native who has been living in the country for a few years, decided to tell some fun facts about Germany on her blog Crônicas Germânicas. In addition to her blog, she also has an Instagram account and a YouTube channel where she shares strategies to learn German more easily.

Most likely you will not find in a tourist guide the details that the awesome.club bring today. Check it out and take the opportunity to learn a little more about this beautiful country.

According to Elisabet, the Germans are fanatical about sunlight: “At bus stops and at intersections, you can see many people looking at the sky with their eyes closed, as if they were receiving the sun’s rays. A scene like this would never happen in countries where the sun appears frequently, like in Spain”.

This happens because the winter in Germany is very long, that is, people enjoy every second of light. In winter, at 4:45 pm it is already completely dark, unlike in summer, when the days are much longer (on average, the sun rises at 6 am and sets at 10 pm).

The potato (Kartoffel, in German) is perhaps one of the most consumed foods in Germany after sausage. It is estimated that the average German consumes 67 kg of potatoes per year. Another curious fact is that there are more or less five thousand types of tubers, each with a different consistency.

In addition, potatoes can be prepared in many ways: in soups, boiled, fried or in salads. And the recipes vary a lot too, as people like to put their own spin on this popular dish.

Manual skills are part of German culture. Building a house is an activity that can be done at the weekend with friends and neighbors. Elisabet said that the German love of construction is something that always impresses her: “One of the best demonstrations of the love of ‘do it yourself’ is to see how friends and family help people who want to build a new house. Of course, sometimes technical knowledge is needed, but this only happens in extreme cases. You should see how my neighbor built his garden all by himself.”

The Germans are fanatical about “Krimis”, that is, police series. The most famous is called Tatort, broadcast religiously on Sundays since 1970. Elisabet said that many people gather to watch the program at the weekend: “They arrange to get together to watch the series and it is super normal for you to call someone while she is being transmitted and no one answers. The country just stops”.

It is one of the most famous castles in the world, it is located in the Bavarian region and its name can be translated as “new swan stone”. Annually, Neuschwanstein receives more than 1.5 million people and access can be done on foot, by bus or even in a horse-drawn carriage. The castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.

One of the most important festivals in the country is Easter, when exhibitions and other activities are usually held to welcome spring. In the particular case of the city where Elisabet lives, parties are set up with sculptures, food and other activities. “Enlivened by the tradition of the mythical painted eggs, in my city we have many exhibitions where colored eggs and straw are always present”.

18 years ago, the kürbisausstellung (“pumpkin exhibition”), a party in which “More than 450,000 pumpkins of more than 450 different species form an infinity of sculptures with the theme chosen for that edition”. Every year, sculptures are created around a specific theme, such as animals, the Olympic Games, kings and many others.

Christmas is another very celebrated festival in Germany, which is why it is very common to see fairs and Christmas markets in large and small cities. For Elisabet, one of the most beautiful is that of Esslingen. This small town, full of medieval buildings, is located in the southwest of the country and its Christmas market, or Weihnachtsmarkt, as they say in german, it is one of the most beautiful and unknown in Germany, so it is worth visiting.

According to Elisabet, barbecuing is a typical custom among Germans. To give you an idea, a famous brand offers more than 57 different types of sauces for meats. A typical barbecue in the country offers several types of meat, such as lamb, chicken and sausage. In addition, it is very common for people to eat vegetables, including eggplant, Japanese pumpkin and, obviously, potatoes.

Whenever we learn a new language we have to deal with false cognates, those words that we think have the same meaning as in our language. On a walk through Ludwigsburg, the city where Elisabet lives, she said that she experienced a situation like this: “My first fun experience in Germany was with the Goethe Gymnasium. I thought it was an academy and, therefore, I thought: ‘Wow, how poetic, the Germans name illustrious people like Goethe for academies!’. In the end, I found out that it was just a school.”

Elizabeth explained that Gymnasium, in Germany, it is the name given to a school for children over 11 years old.

One of the special things about birthdays in Germany is that they have a specific theme. “This is something very important, especially when the child can already give an opinion about how he wants his own”. One of the most important aspects of a birthday celebration is the invitation. About that, says Elisabet: “Another birthday of my ‘Prinzessin S’, the most important day of the year. Here, it is very typical for people to deliver the invitation by hand, and it is always done by the parents and the child. This year, my little one wanted a unicorn party.”

But, for Elisabet, the most curious thing about the parties is the following: “I had a huge surprise when I went to the first birthday party in Germany and saw that the cake was part of the buffet. Nobody showed up with a cake full of candles, singing happy birthday. Sometimes they sing, but not always. I lived this ceremony only in my house, where we still maintain the same tradition”. She also said that at her daughter’s school a little train is placed on top of the cake and the number of wagons corresponds to the child’s age.

One of the most important moments in a child’s life is the transition from kindergarten to school, a stage that is celebrated even more especially in Germany. Elisabet explained how this experience happened: “My daughter was only nine months old when we came to live here, that is, there was still a long way to go before we arrived today. But here we are, on the day of Schultute🇧🇷 As a mother, one of the most beautiful things in the world is seeing how my daughter is growing and evolving. But the step she is going to take now makes me especially emotional.”

THE Schultute it is a 70 cm cone filled with “little surprises, sweets and some school supplies”. It is a gift that represents the transition from kindergarten to school. “In Germany, this internship is a big challenge for the child: new paths, new school, new colleagues, new teachers. All new. Unlike Barcelona, ​​where we stayed in the same place and with the same colleagues until we were 17”. The cone is given out on the first day of school and is only opened when the child arrives home.

Don’t worry, it’s not what you’re thinking. No one throws sand in the child’s eyes to make him sleep. It is a song about a character called “Sandmännchen”, originally from a very popular show that has been taking place in the country since 1959. In the song, the character throws magic sand and invites the child to sleep.

One of Elisabet’s pieces of advice is to always bring a gift for the host who invites us to his home, if possible something handmade or a book that we know will please. But she points out that, “in Germany, as in many other cultures, people are very concerned with details, but the best thing is to always bring something handmade. It could be a jar of jam, some homemade cookies or something else.”

Furthermore, unlike what usually happens in Latin countries, greetings are not accompanied by kisses: people just hold hands or, in cases of greater confidence, give what Elisabet calls a koala hug: “Bending your back and making kindness. And it is very important to ask if you need to leave your shoes at the entrance”.

Going to a playground is common in many parts of the world, but social norms can vary greatly from one country to another. Elisabet said that among Spanish families it is common to dress the little ones in the best clothes, unlike what happens with German families, who usually go to the park in their everyday clothes.

Children in the country play alone and know where they can and cannot go: “Mothers and fathers tend to ‘disappear’. That doesn’t mean they go away, it just shows that they don’t stick by their kids all the time. A Spanish father used to ‘chase’ his son and even hold his hand when he slipped on the toboggan or when he asked for help to get up somewhere difficult to reach”. But an even easier way to recognize Spanish parents is when they decide to intervene when there is a problem between the children. They always seem to be ‘glued’ with their children.

Elisabet commented in a video that the German language manages to summarize moments of the day and other concepts in just one word. Let’s see some examples:

Ohrwurm: means “a worm in the ear”, that is, when a song or a chorus does not leave our head.

Verschlimmbessern: is a word that means “to improve for the worse”. It refers to situations where we want to solve something, but end up making everything worse.

Pantoffelheld: “slipper hero”, a reference to the man who does everything his wife asks, without complaining.

Erbsenzähler: it could be…