I live in Norway and our public parks have facilities (maybe not baseball diamond but volleyball, tennis, skate park, etc), and you can get tap water everywhere, even in a coffee shop.
I didn´t see it coming, Mike . I always thought that you were going to stay in Europe and come here to Spain some day. We´re going to miss you so very much. Such a charismatic couple !! By the way, the USA is also great and the people from the USA are so open and friendly. I don´t think even Spaniards can´t hold a candle to people from the USA in openness and friendliness. Great choice !! For sure you´ll be doing great on the other side of the pond. I wish you the best, you all are great people.. Your memories with us will be cherished. Good luck and kind regards.
Thank you so much for all the kind words! We actually just went back to the US to visit family. We still live in Europe! Hopefully we'll find our way back to Spain someday soon 🤞
@@MYTravelBF Thanks to you, Mike and have a nice trip. So sorry, I thought you were going to stay there. You´re so charismatic, please open over here Apple 2. You can call it Manzana, with different colours, the same thing and double the price because it´s European... You´ll make a fortune or finish in jail but either way it´ll be an adventure. Kind regards and cheers to the three of you.
Thank you for the video. I think maybe you miss these things precisely because of the way you have been living: "in Germany as Americans". Why not try just "living in Germany", maybe as the locals do, to appreciate their viewpoint. 20+ year expat, 4+ countries (not Germany). I guarantee it will change your viewpoint not only on the culture you are living in, but also the American culture that you are returning to.
Which countries have you lived in? We definitely try to just live in Germany as the locals. The other title just does better in terms of search on UA-cam😅
@@MYTravelBF Dominican Republic, Senegal, Costa Rica, Mozambique. Each for 2 years or more and stints in between in other nations (including months in Spain, Portugal, England, France, Romania,+). My son missed Walmart :). Me, not so much. Actually moving back to the US this next year so am not looking forward to the reverse culture shock again. I actually still never ask for water, ice, or salad just to be safe. Do that at home. Not like that is a problem in Germany..... Overseas educator FYI.
@@micahhall4167 Wow! Those all sound like they’d be such great experiences. Good luck with the reverse culture shock. I know that can be tough. We’re overseas educators too!
Well you can find football pitches (Bolzplätze) in every village here, basketball is just not that popular. Club memberships (in some you can play dozens of sports) are cheap, often free for children. Much better than any gym. Of course, there are also craft beer breweries here, but they have a harder time because the variety of beers here is greater anyway, especially locally. Around 25 different beer styles are brewed in Germany, the home of the Purity Law. Within these beer styles, there are between 5,000 and 6,000 different types of beer in Germany. German (European?) gastronomy calculates differently, they earn most of their money from drinks, which makes sense as it's not just food consumption.
Basketball is gaining popularity here, so maybe that changes. As for the breweries, there aren't many near us that you can go visit and drink at. Yes, there are a lot and the beer is great. There are tons of great breweries to visit in Bavaria though! Thanks for watching as always!
@@MYTravelBF Yes, my neighbor has a basketball hoop in his garage. It gets on my nerves after 7 hours of shooting hoops, even though it's 20 meters away🤣 And Germany is the reigning world champion in basketball. I'm not a big fan of basketball (but I am of handball), but it was an exciting battle in the tournament. You should go to the longest bar in the world, in Düsseldorf, so many breweries there, even in Cologne. Hanover is considered one of the most boring cities in Germany. 😜
Eye contact is a sign of trust, therefore also when toasting. It doesn't inspire confidence when someone looks away. (This is also done during interrogations). In the US it's seen more as aggression, isn't it?
It wasn't about eye contact when toasting. It was referring to people staring at you on the street or public transit for an extended period of time. The toasting eye contact is normal.
@MYTravelBF I get that, I was just using the toast as an example. In the Middle Ages, people were afraid of being poisoned, so they looked into each other's eyes to see insecurity or something else. Today you just pay attention to your surroundings, including whether people need help, for example. In the USA, this is seen as aggression, which says a lot about society!
As a fellow US expat living in Germany for over 20 years now, there is a difference between your first years here (only temporary residence permits) and living here after you get a permanent residence permit with an unlimited work permit. With this, as a border policeman in Frankfurt airport told me, you are almost the same as a citizen of the EU. I can move and live anywhere and apply for and get any job with this permanent status. If you choose to stay long enough and apply for a permanent permit, it will be the same for you.
@@jim2376 Yes, I have C1 level in German. It is hard to learn German, but I spent many years from high school on in the USA learning, so when I arrived I was already fine with the language.
There are 1,500 breweries in Germany. What do you think 90% of them are? Correct, traditional craft breweries! There are 9,500 (craft) breweries in the USA, but there are four times more people in the US too. So the US has a 1.5 times higher density of craft breweries than Germany. Fair enough. However, every small town, at least in my region (Bavaria) has its own small brewery. What more could you want? - Oh, you miss the micro “breweries” in the US where some hobby brewers mix a lot of dubious ingredients together and call it “beer”? Ok, they don't exist here because it's not allowed to call that mishmash “beer” and nobody would think of drinking it anyway. 🤢🤮
Bavaria has fantastic breweries you can visit! Unfortunately, there aren’t many that we’ve found in northern Germany where you can visit and have the same vibe as breweries in the US.
@@MYTravelBF You're language teachers, aren't you? If and when you're looking for new jobs in Germany, don't ignore the "Volkshochschulen". These private adult education centers are in every town and city and offer courses in everything from knitting and cooking to languages and math. Anyone can attend courses for a small fee and anyone with a specific skill-set can offer courses there as a freelancer on a fee basis.
@@MYTravelBF Well, there are beer regions and wine regions in Germany, Franconia is a good example. Lake Constance, where I live, is a wine region, but it also has the best hops in the world in Tettnang. Exported from there worldwide, probably also to craft beer breweries in the USA.
That's a good point the sport thing! I guess we are so obsessed with soccer that we don't even allow other sports. The thing I was surprised was about easily moving in the USA, I feel like it's just so expensive with the moving in fees in some cities and the uhaul with the furniture, but the jobs access for sure 😊
It makes sense that there are more soccer fields, but overall, I feel like there aren't very many. Maybe futsal, but not bigger grass fields that are decently maintained by the city. The USA is definitely more expensive overall though!
I'm an American ex-pat in Costa Rica. I miss In-N-Out burgers. My Tica wife (pictured) and I were in Los Angeles and made a couple of stops at In-N-Out. My wife became a fan immediately. Sidebar: I asked an employee there what In-N-Out employees' starting pay is. Twenty-two dollars an hour! WTF!
The cost of living in the US is incredibly high. Compared to other places, it's wild that $22/hour might not even be a living wage there. We'd love to live in Costa Rica one day! Maybe it's in the cards for the future!
So Americans prefer to be robbed with food prices in restaurants and with tips - just to not pay for their water? I read that so often. It is simply the way of calculation here in Europe that is adapted to the culture in which we do not eat and then leave the restaurant but seldom go out eating and then eat and sit there for hours in which we only drink.
@@MYTravelBF They buy e.g. bottled water for 20 Cents and sell it for 2 EUR - but you want your tap water for free. You pay for the service, for the glass, for sitting in a warm restaurant with light, for a free and clean toilet etc. The usual German goes to the Italian restaurant next door. Orders a pizza or pasta for around 10 EUR (better restaurants cost more) and sits there for 2 hours or even more talking to wife and friends.
It is! But it was great to have a summer job when we worked in schools since we weren't paid during the summer months. We met great people and truly enjoyed going to work!
As an American living in Europe I get sick every time I come back to the USA for a visit. The food is so unhealthy in America my body rejects it. You speak as if the area you live in represents Europe. Here in Prague we have so many parks, big box stores outside the center, shopping malls. I don’t need a work visa if I were to get a job here. I have no problem getting free tap water. I drink a glass every 3 beers. I prefer genuine interactions instead of fake small talk. Every type of world foods are available here in Prague. Can you get all types of food all over the USA? Even in suburbs? I won’t even mention beer. I live in Prague, after all…
Food quality is definitely higher in Europe! We've noticed that too! Our experience has mostly been living in Germany, so it might differ from that of Prague, a city we'd love to live in one day. We really enjoyed our time there!
I live in Norway and our public parks have facilities (maybe not baseball diamond but volleyball, tennis, skate park, etc), and you can get tap water everywhere, even in a coffee shop.
Norway actually has phenomenal outdoor parks with sports facilities and public drinking fountains! Germany not so much...Thanks for watching!
I didn´t see it coming, Mike . I always thought that you were going to stay in Europe and come here to Spain some day. We´re going to miss you so very much. Such a charismatic couple !!
By the way, the USA is also great and the people from the USA are so open and friendly. I don´t think even Spaniards can´t hold a candle to people from the USA in openness and friendliness. Great choice !! For sure you´ll be doing great on the other side of the pond. I wish you the best, you all are great people.. Your memories with us will be cherished. Good luck and kind regards.
Thank you so much for all the kind words! We actually just went back to the US to visit family. We still live in Europe! Hopefully we'll find our way back to Spain someday soon 🤞
@@MYTravelBF Thanks to you, Mike and have a nice trip. So sorry, I thought you were going to stay there. You´re so charismatic, please open over here Apple 2. You can call it Manzana, with different colours, the same thing and double the price because it´s European... You´ll make a fortune or finish in jail but either way it´ll be an adventure. Kind regards and cheers to the three of you.
Thank you for the video. I think maybe you miss these things precisely because of the way you have been living: "in Germany as Americans". Why not try just "living in Germany", maybe as the locals do, to appreciate their viewpoint. 20+ year expat, 4+ countries (not Germany). I guarantee it will change your viewpoint not only on the culture you are living in, but also the American culture that you are returning to.
Which countries have you lived in? We definitely try to just live in Germany as the locals. The other title just does better in terms of search on UA-cam😅
@@MYTravelBF Dominican Republic, Senegal, Costa Rica, Mozambique. Each for 2 years or more and stints in between in other nations (including months in Spain, Portugal, England, France, Romania,+). My son missed Walmart :). Me, not so much. Actually moving back to the US this next year so am not looking forward to the reverse culture shock again. I actually still never ask for water, ice, or salad just to be safe. Do that at home. Not like that is a problem in Germany..... Overseas educator FYI.
@@micahhall4167 Wow! Those all sound like they’d be such great experiences. Good luck with the reverse culture shock. I know that can be tough. We’re overseas educators too!
Many Americans have a very tough time adapting to what they are not used to.
Hi My Travel BF, sorry that you guys are moving back to the USA. I hope u guys had a great time in Europe. Good luck and god bless you and your family
We didn't move back to the USA. We just went back to visit! Thanks for watching!
Well you can find football pitches (Bolzplätze) in every village here, basketball is just not that popular. Club memberships (in some you can play dozens of sports) are cheap, often free for children. Much better than any gym.
Of course, there are also craft beer breweries here, but they have a harder time because the variety of beers here is greater anyway, especially locally.
Around 25 different beer styles are brewed in Germany, the home of the Purity Law. Within these beer styles, there are between 5,000 and 6,000 different types of beer in Germany.
German (European?) gastronomy calculates differently, they earn most of their money from drinks, which makes sense as it's not just food consumption.
Basketball is gaining popularity here, so maybe that changes.
As for the breweries, there aren't many near us that you can go visit and drink at. Yes, there are a lot and the beer is great. There are tons of great breweries to visit in Bavaria though!
Thanks for watching as always!
@@MYTravelBF Yes, my neighbor has a basketball hoop in his garage. It gets on my nerves after 7 hours of shooting hoops, even though it's 20 meters away🤣
And Germany is the reigning world champion in basketball.
I'm not a big fan of basketball (but I am of handball), but it was an exciting battle in the tournament.
You should go to the longest bar in the world, in Düsseldorf, so many breweries there, even in Cologne.
Hanover is considered one of the most boring cities in Germany. 😜
Eye contact is a sign of trust, therefore also when toasting. It doesn't inspire confidence when someone looks away. (This is also done during interrogations).
In the US it's seen more as aggression, isn't it?
It wasn't about eye contact when toasting. It was referring to people staring at you on the street or public transit for an extended period of time. The toasting eye contact is normal.
@MYTravelBF I get that, I was just using the toast as an example. In the Middle Ages, people were afraid of being poisoned, so they looked into each other's eyes to see insecurity or something else. Today you just pay attention to your surroundings, including whether people need help, for example. In the USA, this is seen as aggression, which says a lot about society!
As a fellow US expat living in Germany for over 20 years now, there is a difference between your first years here (only temporary residence permits) and living here after you get a permanent residence permit with an unlimited work permit. With this, as a border policeman in Frankfurt airport told me, you are almost the same as a citizen of the EU. I can move and live anywhere and apply for and get any job with this permanent status. If you choose to stay long enough and apply for a permanent permit, it will be the same for you.
That makes total sense! Germany has changed some of their laws so getting permanent residency is easier. Thanks for watching!
@@markmartin6157 Do you speak German? If so, was it hard to learn?
@@jim2376 Yes, I have C1 level in German. It is hard to learn German, but I spent many years from high school on in the USA learning, so when I arrived I was already fine with the language.
There are 1,500 breweries in Germany. What do you think 90% of them are? Correct, traditional craft breweries! There are 9,500 (craft) breweries in the USA, but there are four times more people in the US too. So the US has a 1.5 times higher density of craft breweries than Germany. Fair enough. However, every small town, at least in my region (Bavaria) has its own small brewery. What more could you want? - Oh, you miss the micro “breweries” in the US where some hobby brewers mix a lot of dubious ingredients together and call it “beer”? Ok, they don't exist here because it's not allowed to call that mishmash “beer” and nobody would think of drinking it anyway. 🤢🤮
Bavaria has fantastic breweries you can visit! Unfortunately, there aren’t many that we’ve found in northern Germany where you can visit and have the same vibe as breweries in the US.
@@MYTravelBF That might be a good reason to rethink your life decisions and move to Bavaria? - Just kidding.🤪
@ Just have to find jobs😅
@@MYTravelBF You're language teachers, aren't you? If and when you're looking for new jobs in Germany, don't ignore the "Volkshochschulen". These private adult education centers are in every town and city and offer courses in everything from knitting and cooking to languages and math. Anyone can attend courses for a small fee and anyone with a specific skill-set can offer courses there as a freelancer on a fee basis.
@@MYTravelBF Well, there are beer regions and wine regions in Germany, Franconia is a good example. Lake Constance, where I live, is a wine region, but it also has the best hops in the world in Tettnang. Exported from there worldwide, probably also to craft beer breweries in the USA.
That's a good point the sport thing! I guess we are so obsessed with soccer that we don't even allow other sports. The thing I was surprised was about easily moving in the USA, I feel like it's just so expensive with the moving in fees in some cities and the uhaul with the furniture, but the jobs access for sure 😊
It makes sense that there are more soccer fields, but overall, I feel like there aren't very many. Maybe futsal, but not bigger grass fields that are decently maintained by the city. The USA is definitely more expensive overall though!
I'm an American ex-pat in Costa Rica. I miss In-N-Out burgers. My Tica wife (pictured) and I were in Los Angeles and made a couple of stops at In-N-Out. My wife became a fan immediately.
Sidebar: I asked an employee there what In-N-Out employees' starting pay is. Twenty-two dollars an hour! WTF!
The cost of living in the US is incredibly high. Compared to other places, it's wild that $22/hour might not even be a living wage there. We'd love to live in Costa Rica one day! Maybe it's in the cards for the future!
So Americans prefer to be robbed with food prices in restaurants and with tips - just to not pay for their water? I read that so often. It is simply the way of calculation here in Europe that is adapted to the culture in which we do not eat and then leave the restaurant but seldom go out eating and then eat and sit there for hours in which we only drink.
We like a lot of the food culture in Europe better but are perfectly happy with tap water instead of ordering bottled water. Thanks for watching!
@@MYTravelBF They buy e.g. bottled water for 20 Cents and sell it for 2 EUR - but you want your tap water for free. You pay for the service, for the glass, for sitting in a warm restaurant with light, for a free and clean toilet etc. The usual German goes to the Italian restaurant next door. Orders a pizza or pasta for around 10 EUR (better restaurants cost more) and sits there for 2 hours or even more talking to wife and friends.
My regular spots here in Prague automatically bring me a tap water and beer was soon as they see me sit down.
@@stevemcgowen They know that you drink the beer, too.
"2nd or 3rd job" that's so US American, sad for me.
It is! But it was great to have a summer job when we worked in schools since we weren't paid during the summer months. We met great people and truly enjoyed going to work!
@@MYTravelBF Live to work vs. work to live. As a teenager / student, I always had a vacation job for a few weeks, but that's different.
Americans need extra jobs to make up for not getting benefits.
As an American living in Europe I get sick every time I come back to the USA for a visit. The food is so unhealthy in America my body rejects it.
You speak as if the area you live in represents Europe. Here in Prague we have so many parks, big box stores outside the center, shopping malls. I don’t need a work visa if I were to get a job here. I have no problem getting free tap water. I drink a glass every 3 beers. I prefer genuine interactions instead of fake small talk. Every type of world foods are available here in Prague. Can you get all types of food all over the USA? Even in suburbs? I won’t even mention beer. I live in Prague, after all…
Food quality is definitely higher in Europe! We've noticed that too! Our experience has mostly been living in Germany, so it might differ from that of Prague, a city we'd love to live in one day. We really enjoyed our time there!