Category: Allgemein

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Allgemein

The Black Forest (Schwarzwald)

So for this holiday season we decided to visit the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). Then i discovered that the Schwarzwald is not precisely _a forest_ but like a REGION full of the same kind of forests.

Everything the light touches, Simba…

We were in the southern side, almost in Switzerland, so close that we were even sad that we could not just cross the border as easy as in non-corona times. So we still have this pending 😉

We were visiting a really popular place for skiing in winter, Todtnauberg, a small village beside Todtnau in Baden Wüttemberg. So long story short, pretty south. In summer you can go visit a huge waterfall which you see from a long set of stairs from up to down, pretty good for a short hike.

not so wide but really high

You can also buy local honey and do other activities like blowing glass spheres. When you visit this place tho, you either go to the small convenience store in the village or go to Todtnau for the supermarkets. There in Todtnau you can also find Germany’s longest roller coaster ride, which of course, we visited 😀

So long that we had to go up in this things people use for skiing

And if you go even more to the south (not still not in Switzerland) you can find REALLY LONG hiking routes (well probably not really long but i’m not a long distance hiking kind of person (?))
It was super beautiful!!… and super tiring, like we did 15km in 5 hours, but we saw waterfalls, shallow rivers (where we were walking and taking pictures), places full of huge plants (CR style) and many more beautiful things that i wish were not so hidden so we could reach easier and have a day just there… but precisely them being so hidden is what kept this places so perfect.

Random things you cannot explain but they look really good
Here the river was FULL with this plants
And we found some HUGE stonewalls beside the river

The temperature that week was around 24-30 so you can imagine how much did i want to get into every water mass i saw… but i was also super eavy dressed for hiking cause the last thing i need is to be underprepared for something i don’t usually do. Not a hiking person, but i enjoy the view so sacrifices had to be done.

After this 6h of hiking we went out where we left our car and drove to a restaurant that’s probably the most German restaurant i will ever see… tho i don’t know the name cause the name i noted down, is apparently the name of a regional beer that sponsors a lot of the restaurants of the area apparently. Failed right there. But i can remember it in a map! so if anyone ever needs it i can look it up 😀 the food there was AMAZING. We should make a blogpost about food from each German area.

Oh but not everything is in the south here… did you know that in the Schwarzwald is also the sunniest place of Germany? That would be Freiburg! Which we definitely visited too!

And it was also market day when we visited!

The cathedral of Freiburg is, hands down (to me) the most BEAUTIFUL church i have seen in Germany. At least from the outside. Freiburg itself is so pretty i wished for a moment we were living there. They have also a huge expat community and it shows in the many many international restaurants and businesses you can find. We even found a Costa Rican coffee toaster. I, of course, got a bag ♥

On our way out of the Schwarzwald we made a quick stop to visit a huge wooden structure in a pretty town up in the north which name i don’t remember. There are trains that go only up and down a mountain to take you to this, tho you must still walk over a huge chain of bridges in the treetops to reach there.

When you visit the area better be in peace with heights…
It seems a bit like forever when you don’t know where are you going, but the view,
THE VIEW

I have no idea how high are this structures… you have to pay to get there of course, around 10 euros. So… like 12 dollars. Be ready to carry cash with you, tho you can also book it from internet. Just… you will have to research for the name cause in my panic i forgot most of it. Then, in the middle of this HUGE thing there is a slide. Mmmhmm, like in the Burger King playgrounds. No, BK is not sponsoring anything.

Been there, done that

It looks like death but somehow is not even that fast, is really good, would reccomend 10/10.

So now you know. If you visit Germany in either summer or winter the Schwarzwald is a good option… unless is winter and you don’t like to ski, like me. Then better visit in summer for an amazin hike, beautiful views, AMAZING FOOD and a pretty amazing time in general

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Allgemein Beaches Germany Nature Summer

Beaches in Germany

I’m clearly not an expert in this matter as i am not too fond of beaches in general. In Costa Rica they are too hot for me so never took the time to get to like them truly. I’m also not sure of how to clasify them but here we go.

Said this, Germany has more beaches than i originally thought. We all know Germany has borders with basically half of Europe (ok i’m exaggerating, but it’s a lot of countries), but it also have the North Sea and the Baltic Sea around in the north. This might not be enough for germans tho, as you can find a lot of “beaches” also around lakes and rivers (like the Rhin in Düsseldorf or the Elbe and Alster in Hamburg)

I remember the first time i took Micha to a Costa Rican beach, he asked me “Is this a natural white-sand beach or is it man made?. I was confused. Man made? Who would make a whole beach?. Well… Germans do.
So this beaches around rivers and lakes are mostly man made. Someone at some point decided to have a beach there and put a lot of sand. It works!.

So far we have visited the Elbstrand Oevelgönne in Hamburg and the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg-Vornpommern

Elbstrand Oevelgönne, Hamburg.
You have to be careful when a big ship is passing close.

The best for me is Elbstrand Oevelgönne, cause it’s close to the city so you can run away from the heat anytime and go back to a normal environment. It is literally in the Elbe so probably not a good one to get into the water, but the rest is really pretty and you can just throw your blanket and chill while you see all the ships passing by in the Elbe.

Baltic Sea, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

The Baltic Sea is also really pretty and the water is (i think) cleaner than the Elbe so is “safe”to go in. I say “safe” cause i saw several germans inside, but i also saw a lot of jellyfish so i’m not sure. Apparently this jellyfishes are non-poisonous but i don’t know them so i didn’t risk it. This one is also way more relax than the beaches in Hamburg, as there is normal to see people drinkking or listening to music, but in the Baltic Sea is more about getting in the water and making LOTS of sand castles.

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Allgemein Germany Recipes Summer

Summer time lemonades

So this summer in Germany is not as hot as last year’s (thankfully) but still hot enough to want some cold drinks other than water. And we were definitely not into going under the sun to the supermarket to buy drinks (and even less to get into the hot car to do so) so we took normal things we already had at home to make some nice – experimental beverages.

1. Watermelon – Orange – Basil

This one might sound odd but stay with me, it’s our favorite. The original version here was only Orange + Basil, which i know from my country and i kinda missed, unfortunately it was not enough to fill a glass and i added some watrmelon juice. NO.REGRETS ♥

We used no sugar but you can also add. Here the sugar for us was brought by the oranges. Also, the final color following this recipe is of a beatiful summer sunset.

Recipe:
2 Oranges
5 Big basil leafs
As much watermelon juice as you want.
1 cup of water

2. Watermelon – Cucumber

Another not-so-common mix but believe me it’s worth it.
For this one we used only Cucumber and Watermelon cause we wanted something refreshing and not so sweet.
This one might also taste great with honey, but the following recipe was ust perfect for a picnic by the beach on a really sunny day.

Recipe for a 500ml bottle:

1/6 of a watermelon
5 cucumber slices
1 cup of water

3. Watermelon – Lemon

Now a more safe mix: Watermelon lemonade with honey.
Every time we use lemon on a watery mix we try to use a bit of honey to avoid it being over acidic. This one is the easiest mix as you only need watermelon, lemon and some water, but let’s go to the recipe:

For this and the past 2 recipes literally mix everything in a blender and enjoy!

Recipe for a 500ml bottle:

1/6 of a watermelon
2 lemons (or limes)
1 cup of water
1 full tablespoon of raw honey

4. Classic Iced Tea

Another safe one! Here we made a tiny mistake and left the tea too long in hot water, so we reccomend that you leave it for just a couple of minutes (instead of like 10 as we did).
For this we used just hot water, one black tea bag and lemon so we think is one of the easiest to do as you might have all ingredients already.
Also it might taste better if you add honey or sugar.

Recipe:
1 black tea bag
1.5 cups of water (a cup is about 235ml)
1 lemon
Optional: 1 big tablespoon of sugar or honey

5. Green Tea + Honey

For green tea + honey the best is to add extra honey. Here we reccomend not going with sugar so all the mix remais as natural as possible (and so you get the best flavor out of the green tea). Truth is we are not into sweet green tea much, but the honey flavor here makes you feel like everything will be alright ♥

Recipe for 500ml:

1 green tea bag (with the possibility of chosing flavoured green tea if you need)
2 full tablespoons of honey
1.5 cups of water (1 cup is about 235ml)
you can also spice it up with a little ginger

6. Rose Hip – Lemon – Honey

This is probably the most difficult in ingredients to get so you can change the main the into any other red-fruit tea. Rose hip has different names in different languages. In German it is Hagebutte, in Spanish Escaramujo, Rosa Mosqueta or Rosa Canina. It is made with the buds, not with the flowers and gives a nice sweet taste to the mix.

Recipe:

1 tea bag of Rose Hip or any red fruit you can find
1 lemon
1.5 cups of water
1 big tablespoon of raw honey

For the tea mixes every time we speak of water it is the water you need to make the tea, not extra water 🙂

Categories
Allgemein Germany

Driving “The German way”

One of the many struggles of living in Germany is to move around the country. You have a lot of options! there are even some trains that take you near the country side… but germans are OBSESSED with cars.

Sometimes it gets confusing

So here i am trying to get my driving license. I already had a Costa Rican one but here in Germany it’s only valid for 6 months, after that you have to make the theory test and you even have to take driving lessons.

Driving in Germany is a whole new experience… it is normal to drive 130km/h in the highway and, when there is no speed limit sign, there is literally no speed limit. Of course there are recomendations, like not driving at +200km/h or something like that, but tell that to the cars driving on the left lane…

In my driving lessons i have learned that sometimes when you want to turn left even if it’s green for you there might be cars coming from the opposite direction that want to continue straight ahead, for which you have to wait in the middle of the crossroad and look for a chance to pass… if you stay in the middle of the street in my country i can only think of death lol.
Also the roundabouts… thankfully those are easier here. they are usually one lane only so everything is tiny, cute and clear… not like in Costa Rica that there are up to 3 lanes and you have to be EXTRA careful when changing lanes depending which exit you want to take.

But the main difference of them all… you HAVE to turn your head back every time you want to enter a road/ change lanes/ go backwards/ turn left or right… i don’t know how is it that there are not so many accidents. Maybe cause most of the people driving seem to have forgotten everything about the driving lessons after passing the test. The difference in Costa Rica? You are literally not allowed to use anything that doesn’t come with the car. You have mirrors, why would you risk your life and look back while on the highway at 100km/h?

Also… the signs are totally different. Also in Denmark. I guess is an european standard? most of the signs have no letters and some of them are so confusing even people who currently drives has problems remembering what they are. Like the pretty picture up there

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Allgemein Germany Quarantine

Quarantine in Germany

Arriving a bit late to the subject here…
We did not have a “quarantine” per se here but more of a reccomendation to stay home, which we did. Thankfully Micha’s employer let them work from home so i had (have) him here with me.

I also saw my first snow during quarantine

Since we were not into going out we started a podcast! It is a project we wanted to do anyways and now we have the time. Currently we have already 14 episodes 😀 where we talk about the quarantine, and about living in germany in general. We even have one about gardening, cause Micha’s mom was sharing a lot of knowledge with us and it seems important to pass it on.

For us all this started in the end of winter, by March 13th and until around April 15th we started going out a bit more (other than just going to the supermarket). There is a river close from home so we sent there and to a cute lake full of duckies, swans and geese. This quarantine kinda increased my fascination with birds.

Duckies are really friendly, specially when you bring them oats 😛

We also learned new things and started a few new projects. We want to dedicate whole new posts for each so keep visiting us and make sure to also listen to our podcast (Marz & Micha in Spotify 😉 )

Categories
Allgemein Languages Learning German

Dengleñol all the way

In Berlin you can even speak spanish and most people speaks english too!

I’m gonna tell you a story about languages.

Languages are HARD. The older you get the harder it seems and i’m not preciselly a teenager lulz.
So, mi native language is spanish, thankfully cause i think learning spanish must be hell.
I learned english by myself as a teenager cause i used to be really good at languages, so i only needed the (really) basic things i learned in highschool, vocabulary i got while playing videogames (i used to play up to 8h when i was young) and a LOT of music in english, cause i personally don’t like music in spanish. So of course i still make some mistakes 😛
I went to italian, chinese and latin lessons but due to the lack of practice this knowledge died. I used to be specially good in italian but now i can only read… and i remember the numbers (?)

When learning german you also get to know their “pet names” which are… quite unique

Now i started learning German quite lightly as soon as i got my first job, cause german in my country is not only hard, is also expensive so i had to wait, but i was interested on it since i was 16 and got introduced to German metal music.
After 2 years of learning German occasionally on saturdays i’m here in Germany on the B1 level. Enough to live but still could be better. So… here is where the Dengleñol starts. Sometimes i forget words in german so i say it in english, other times i forget them even in english! and sometimes i want to use a word that i only know in spanish so i have to ask.
I think learning a new language makes you socialize you want it or not, cause sometimes you end up low-key even explaining that this new language is the 3rd you know so it gets mixed… and most people either find it funny, interesting or just don’t mind 🙂
Germans are really patient, at least in the west and the north, but i will update further about this later 🙂

Categories
Allgemein

About us!— is this how you start a blog?

Oh heeeyyyy

Hello! I’m Marz and i will be updating the blog more often than Micha. I used to have a blog when i was 18 and my worst issue was the bad phone company i was subscribed to and which carreer to chose for the rest of my life so we will see how this goes!

Join us in this blog while i’m discovering a new culture, ranting about our daily life, comparing Micha’s country to mine or just randomly giving details about our daily life because why not.