everybody that I knew that I had ever been to Germanily... oh wow the words.
hey guys what's up it's Kelly again and welcome back to my channel for today's
video I'm going to share with you guys some of the best advice that I got when
I found out I was moving to Germany and a lot of this advice is really practical
and I think it could be useful if you're going to Germany as a tourist or if
you're gonna live there like I did so the first and probably best piece of
advice that I got was to always have cash on you
cash is definitely king in Germany there are a lot of places that just will not
accept credit cards so Germans will have German bank accounts obviously and with
those bank accounts like at these things called Giro cards which is like an
electronic cash card and it's sort of like an internal debit card system so
they're able to use that in every establishment without really any issue
whereas if you're coming over there as an American with an American bank
account an American debit card an American credit card you're not going to
be able to use it in all of these places and the places that won't take credit
cards are actually kind of surprising they were surprising to me at least
so there's entire grocery store chains that just will not accept credit cards
there was a museum in mind that didn't accept credit cards there every time I
went to go get my haircut or to get my nails done those places didn't take
credit cards so just don't ever assume this place will take credit cards surely
it's a grocery store because they might not and you're going to kind of be
rushing to find an ATM to pay for whatever you want to pay another great
piece of advice that I got was how to tip and how much to tip because the
tipping culture between Germany and the u.s. is very different so in the u.s.
you're always going to tip between 15 and 20 percent and to do the tipping
you're probably either going to leave the cash on the table for the server to
be able to get it or whenever you get your credit card transaction receipt
there will be a little slot for you to physically write how much you want it to
then you take your food bill plus the tip and that's the total that will be
charged to your card well it's completely different in Germany so first
of all this 15 to 20 percent thing is not how you do it you're basically just
going to round up and depending on how much the bill is you might only round up
to the next zero if it's like just like a cup of coffee or maybe you'll ran up
to three additional euro for your food bill and that's because German servers
actually make a livable wage so they don't depend on tips in order to make a
salary whereas in the US the server's depend on your tips to make that livable
wage also you're not going to just leave it on the table the server will actually
come to your table for you to make your payment social or he will hand you the
bill let's say it's 1795 and you're gonna pay with credit card so you hand
them the credit card they have the handheld credit card machine and you'll
say 20 euro and that person will know ok they're gonna tip me 2 euro and 5 cents
and they actually punch in 20 euro and they run it as 20 euro and that's it or
if you're paying in cash let's say you hand them a 50 and you say 20 euro
they'll just give you 30 euro back that's it that's how you do the tipping
right then and there in one smooth transaction another thing I was told
about was how the fun system works and there's a bunch of things I could talk
about but I want to focus on best so if you go to a fest in Germany or a wine
market or whatever and you want to get a glass of wine they'll have the prices on
there let's say it's 5 euro and so you pay 5 euro but not just are you paying
for the wine with that 5 euro but you're also putting a deposit down on the glass
that the wine is being served to you in so you drink the wine and you can keep
the glass maybe it's some sort of commemorative glass like the Christmas
markets all have like you know fancy in engravings or what is it called whenever
it's inscripted in there you know what I mean so you can keep those maybe as a
souvenir or if you want to get the funds back you just take it
to the 10 or the booth that you bothered I and they'll give you your two euro
back and that's a pretty good thing to know so going along with the whole
discussion about fest another thing that I was reminded of when I moved to
Germany was that you can drink in public there and that probably sounds a little
strange to any Germans watching this but if you've been raised in the US you're
very ingrained in this idea that you can't drink in public because it is
against the law I mean there are a few cities in specific states that will
allow you to drink in public like New Orleans and Butte Montana or to that I
remember mostly but in Germany the whole country it's free game for you to be
able to just grab a bottle of wine sit with some friends in a park and share in
public and it's not a big deal or if you go to a fest and you buy a glass of wine
you can walk around the whole town with that glass of wine and it's not an issue
in the u.s. if you have some sort of fest there's going to be like a
perimeter set up with people you know posted to make sure that you're not
bringing alcohol outside the premises because it's illegal so it's kind of
like a really cool cultural aspect of Germany that I fully appreciated and it
was nice for someone to remind me like hey you can do this I know it feels
weird but you're allowed to do it and another thing with drinking is how to
properly Prost in Germany so if you're in Germany and you're sharing some
alcohol with some friends you're having some drinks together you're going to
first of all it's very customary to Prost at all and when you Prost you're
going to clink glasses and make eye contact with whoever you're clinking
with otherwise it's really bad luck and I started paying attention to this alive
both whenever I was with like American friends or when I was with German
friends and it's kind of funny like the difference between them so Americans are
much more prone to like to look down at their drinks when they're cheering or
posting Germany they won't look up at each other
and I don't know if it's because we're scared we're going to like spill our
drinks or if we want to make sure that we're like clinking correctly I'm not
really sure why we do it the way we do but Germans will very actively look up
and Prost with confidence while clinking glasses I actually have one more thing
to give advice on regarding a fest one specific fest which is the famous
Oktoberfest so I got the overall concept of Oktoberfest but for one I didn't
realize that it's not in October it's actually at the very end of September so
that was good to know and that my friend told me hey when you go to Oktoberfest
don't be one of these idiots walking around and like jeans and a t-shirt make
sure you wear a dirndl because that's what all the Germans will be wearing and
I was kind of like on the fence like like really though like everyone's gonna
be wearing dirndl and later hosen and when I got ready to go to Oktoberfest I
remember being in my hotel room and unique and feeling a little silly but
when I got there I was like okay yeah everyone was buying dirndl and later
Hosea and I would have felt really silly if I had been wearing like normal
clothes so I'm super thankful that my friend told me to make sure I wear a
dirndl another great piece of advice I will share with all the ladies out there
is do not wear high heels this probably goes for most of Europe but definitely
Germany there are a lot of cobblestone sidewalks and streets and if you're
walking around in high heels the chances of you taking your little heel into a
corner of stones is really actually really high and you're going to either
ruin your shoes I have a pair of really beautiful leather patent shoes that I
completely destroyed on the sidewalks in Mainz or you're going to probably break
your ankle or your leg so just don't wear them you can wear wedges those are
no problem I wore wedges all the time but just leave your heels at home stay
in the small hotels that was another piece of advice I got like there will be
big you know a hotel chains and a lot of the bigger cities like Berlin or Dresden
and or Mike's had you know big hotels but there will be a lot of smaller
hotels stay in those hotels guys they're actually really nice I feel like in the
u.s. we're really prone to always get these like big name chain hotels because
you don't really know what you're getting into when you stay in like a
small family establishment but every single one that I stayed in in Germany
was perfectly clean impeccable it had a lot of charm to it and they would just
be like these adorable little hotels and considerably cheaper than like the
bigger names like the Hyatt or Hilton or whatever else you'll find there so I
would highly recommend and it was great advice that I got it was to stay in the
little hotels don't shy away from them they're gonna be great
but also be aware of the fact that they might not have 24-hour concierge at
these places so whenever you booked a hotel make sure you're paying attention
to when the desk hours are and if you're going to arrive after the desk hours or
need to leave before the dust hours you need to like communicate that with the
hotel and figure something out that got me once when you're in Germany you need
to know that you either follow the rules or you should expect to be scolded or
corrected and it's part of that German directors culture that I think a lot of
Germans aren't even really aware that this is perceived as being something
different at least to Americans and I really don't want to intimidate any
American from going over to Germany but just to understand that like if you
cross on a red light don't be surprised if a German comes over and corrects you
to tell you that you shouldn't cross on the red light that's just the way it is
so along the same lines like the German directness that I was told about the
German stare and again I don't think a lot of Germans realize that this is a
thing in the u.s. we're pretty much taught that staring is
and not to stare I mean I can think of like so many times I've heard a mom like
tell their child don't stare that's rude but in Germany there's a lot of Germans
that have no problem with staring and it's just from what I understand is out
of curiosity they're not trying to be rude it's not seen as that it's just a
sign of their curiosity so if I would walk down the street wearing like
athletic attire which is rare in Germany usually people change at the gyms they
don't wear their athletic attire Alton lists are actively running I would get
stared at and it was something that I had to get used to even though I was
like told about it before I ever even went to Germany
because again like I've been brought up in a culture where you just don't stare
and if you do you're you're rude and it's not like that in Germany so if you
go to Germany and you see a lot of people staring at you don't worry about
it they're not being rude they're not being mean they're just curious about
whatever you're doing or wearing or maybe you're speaking English or
whatever the last thing I will talk about is my feeling of safety in Germany
when I found out that I was moving to Germany I started doing a lot of
research and I was already well aware of the immigration into your the mass
immigration but I was reading these news articles and watching these things with
like a whole different perspective knowing that I was going to be living
there and I watched them really I would say disturbing and scary documentaries
on YouTube or Facebook or wherever I was finding them the painting like a really
harrowing picture of what Germany looks like with all of this you know the
impact of this mass immigration and I remember talking to someone about it
and they had lived in Germany and they looked at me in there like Kelly don't
don't worry about it you were gonna feel safe like don't worry and I was like
yeah okay I mean you're it was a guy so I think that women and men look at
safety very differently so when I went over there I was a little nervous and I
will say that for the year and a half that I lived in Germany there was not a
single place that I went that I felt unsafe and I'm talking like there wasn't
even like a portion of a street in a city where I felt uncomfortable and I
didn't go everywhere in Germany I think it would be really difficult to do that
in year and a half while holding a full-time job but I clocked in some
kilometers on my car I drove back and forth and up and down across the country
and I took the train to many different cities I saw a lot and like I said at no
point did I feel unsafe in Germany no matter who I was with if I was
completely by myself no matter what I was wearing and no matter what our of
time it could have been 2:00 in the morning 3:00 in the morning it could
have been you know early morning hours it doesn't matter I felt completely safe
the entire time that I was in Germany and I put a lot of value on that because
I've lived places where I haven't felt safe and it is it's it affects you so
I'm happy to say that I felt really safe in Germany and I hope that anyone
planning to go over there and live or go as a tourist I hope that you guys feel
safe too all right guys that's all I've got for you today that was some of the
best advice I got about moving to Germany if you have some other advice
maybe live in Germany as an expat or maybe you're German yourself put it in
the comments below I'd be interested to read them and I'm sure
some other viewers would be too thank you so much to all of my patrons you
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