#or do the writers think berlin is the only german city that has airports?

[tebarambles]

I skipped a few seasons and now I reached the episode where Owen flies to Germany™ to profess his undying love (bleurgh) to Teddy, and because I clearly love to make myself angry, I watched it.

Newsflash: it's even worse than I remembered. Both plot-wise and continuity-wise.

One day I'm going to make a rant post about every dumb thing that doesn't make sense in this episode, but right now I'm dealing with the Snots, swollen lymph nodes, a fever, chills, and I feel like I'm breathing with only a quarter lung or so, so you're spared for now.

Just one thing: The way my brain almost exploded when I started the next episode after that one and the tag on Owen's luggage indicated that apparently he landed at TXL?? Unparalleled.

[tripindicatorweb-blog]

Berlin in February is Fantastic, But Can Be Very Cold

We had been thinking about going to Berlin for a few years and with the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down later this year decided we must make a booking.

We had seen a comment in Simon Calder's travel page in The Independent on Saturday about flying there and decided to fly to Tegel that is the closer of the two to the city centre. This meant flying with British Airways and using the new Terminal 5 at London Heathrow.

Our flight was due to go out 8.45 on a Thursday morning in mid February. Fortunately the heavy Berlin Tv Tower Tickets  snow that covered a fair part of the south east of England had now gone, however snow was forecast for Berlin.

We checked in online and were dropped off at terminal 5; we immediately joined a fairly long queue for BA's "Fast Bag drop off". This modern airport appears to have a very slow system whereby you queue for a long time as we did, you are looking out then for the next available check in person who does not process modern technology like they do in banks and many department stores - a system of a number appearing so you go to that check in desk. No, instead there is a helper who comes and goes and either the check in person waves to that BA employee or to the next person looking for a free check in assistant.

Once you have cleared this you must hurry to security and again join another long queue. If you get delayed here you are warned you could miss your flight! Eventually we got through security and were able to explore the wonders of Terminal 5. A fine modern warehouse style glass and metal construction full of shops and restaurants. Does an airport really need such a shopping centre like this, there seems to be a lot of wasted space. It seems like BAA and BA are concentrating too much in leasing out spacious retails zones, whereas had the check in and security areas been larger and a lot more efficient then the terminal would be more efficient.

What a contrast when you arrive at Berlin's Tegel airport. The airport is in the western part of the city and as we got off the plane we were going through passport control within a couple of minutes and collecting our baggage five minutes later.

This airport is a hexagonal terminal building around an open square and this for walking distances as short as 30 metres from the aircraft to the terminal exit. Inside there are numerous shops and restaurants, they difference to Heathrow's terminals is that they are open to people flying out or anyway waiting to collect visitors.

There are small duty free (or cheaper shops for alcohol, cigarettes and perfumes when you go through the various gates, but it looks like there are individual security and passport controls for the individual gates and so as you have got through these you are in small lounge with the small "Duty free" shop and a snack bar and just a few metres from the aircraft door.

Unfortunately Tegel is destined to close in 2012 when the enlarged Berlin-Schönefeld Airport is due to re-open as Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport in 2011. I hope that their design is modeled on Tegel opposed to the Heathrow style terminal buildings.

When we touched down although there was some snow in the surrounding area there was none at the airport and we took a taxi to our hotel, It was very cold not even 1 degree, but dry. The Hotel Augusta is situated in Charlottenburg area in the west of the city, near to Zoo. It is a very pleasant small hotel offering bed and breakfast and as it located in a couple of older buildings, it has very spacious rooms with high ceilings that have been very tastefully modernized.  We had our slightly out of date Rough Guide and in late January.The Independent had run a brief article by their travel writer Simon Calder on his experiences visiting Berlin in January 1999 a few months before the wall came down in November, looking back on that visit plus one of their brief guides "48 hours in Berlin". Armed with this information we set out and decided the best way to get an overview of the city on a cold Thursday afternoon was to take a guided tour on the Berlonina sightseeing double decker bus. There are few companies operating these tours and you can normally pay for the complete circular tour and hop off one bus at a given point and then hop on another.

We got off the bus at the Daimler Chrysler building in Potsdamer Platz and paid to take the express lift to the rooftop viewing gallery. Great views of the city from this point. Back onto the bus again past the only remaining section of the Berlin Wall, through Checkpoint Charlie and up past the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag (Parliament building).

We got off the bus where we had got on originally and walked down the Kurfürstendamm shopping street to the KaDeWe department store. This magnificent 100 year old establishment was very warm and inviting as early evening approached. Visiting the top floor restaurant and bar complex with views over Berlin was fantastic; however going down a floor to the food floor was unbelievable. There are numerous small food bars serving food and drink in amongst the vast selection of produce you can buy. This is a place to visit and stay a long time in if it was a wet day in Berlin.

Across the road from the Hotel Augusta is a great place to relax and enjoy the atmosphere. Reinhards bar and restaurant. Here you will find all the staff smartly dressed in long white aprons and outside as was typical of several bars and cafes, the normal tables and chairs, with a folded blanket on each chair.

The next morning following a buffet breakfast we set off to find an English speaking tour of Berlin. The contact and guide were outside the Zoo Station at 9.45. No one else had turned up that morning at the western meeting point for Original Berlin Walks. Our guide who was half German and fluent in English took us on the train to the east meeting point at the Hackescher Markt. Fortunately there was another couple there, so the tour went ahead. This is a four hour walking tour costing EUR12 per person and worth every cent of it. The same company also runs a selection of other tours, some of which take place in Greater Berlin.

It is a great way to see the sites, have history explained and ask questions. We saw the remains of the wall in the centre close up and where the wall once was there are now two rows of cobbles.

We walked through the Brandenburg Gate and past the Reichstag and onto the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Holocaust Memorial) sculpture and the location of Hitler's bunker. By the end of the tour we had seen all the famous landmarks, many of course we had seen from the bus the previous day including the famous east Berlin Television Tower that constructed under communist rule and had to be shorter than its counterpart in Moscow. It has a rotating restaurant and we were told has some exceptional views, but you don't want to go up there if it is too cloudy.

Our guide told the same story as in the "What to see" section of 48 hours in Berlin from The Independent. When the tower was constructed, crosses off churches were removed by the East German Government. Whenever the sun shines on the globe of the tower, a perfect cross appears and this is known as the "Pope's Revenge".

We stopped for a snack in another of those delightful Berlin cafes complete with blankets on the outside chairs and carried on walking and attempted to get back to our hotel for a station near Checkpoint Charlie. A very helpful Berliner saw us studying our map actually when back down onto the tube station, travelled out of his way to put us back on the correct line. It is very important to pick up a DB BAHN map for the S+U-Bahn-Netz from any station opposed to relying on the small scale version reproduced in many tourist publications. The underground system is very efficient and there are only trams in the East Berlin.

Saturday was Valentines Day. Although there were a lot of flower sellers about and shops were full of Valentines gifts, it appeared that restaurants did not have special dinners at inflated prices that you would normally find in the UK and Ireland.

We started off with breakfast at Reinhards. Most people were having long breakfasts and they offered a choice of German, English, Australian and New York American. Those having breakfast were drinking a glass of champagne say we did as well.

The breakfast set us up well for the cold day ahead and like the day before was also bright and sunny. We walked down the Kurfürstendamm to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Memorial Church and then took the underground to visit the DDR Museum. Both our walking guide and the Independent feature suggested going there. It must be fairly new as it was not in the 1998 edition of the Rough Guide which proves, you do need to buy up to date guides when you go travelling.

The DDR Museum is quite small and portrays life in the former Democratic German Republic (GDR). You are encourage touching the exhibits, listening to the music and see the TV of the era and the largest exhibits are a typical apartment layout from a concrete slab housing estate and an original Trabi that you have to try and start.

We then moved onto the Berliner Dom, the catherdral and headed up towards the Reichstag. We had to queue for three quartes of an hour and it was cold. However oncwe you have got past the security, you are whisked up by lift to the roof abnd can walk around the glass dome desidneg by Sir Norman Foster. There are spectacular viws of the city from up there and of course as it is the Parliament and all citizens (and visitors) are welcome to see their Parliament working, trhere are no admission charges.

The evening ended with a nightcap at Reinhards and we caught the bus into Tegel airport in the morning. The journey takes about 30 minutes and like all the public transport we experienced was very inexpensive. Apparently most Berliners depend on it and approximately only a third actually own cars.

Overall the city  See More..  has a lot of unemployment and unlike Munich, Brussels, London, Rome and other similar cities there are not lots of very expensive cars about. It did not seem too expensive staying in Berlin and eating and drinking. There are of course luxury style hotels and restaurants and there certainly appears to be an excellent selection about.

Berlin is a city that is very cold in winter and very hot in summer. The best time to visit is around April or late September. Enjoy your stay in Berlin, we did.

[browsingcopy]

Altogether Somewhere: On Growing Roots Amidst Shifting Sands and Moving Landscapes

A response to Charles Lim’s SEA STATE

I come from Singapore, a country plagued with “a history of amnesia,” in the words of poet Alfian Sa’at. One of our national day songs written by Dick Lee titled “Home” contains the line: “I will always recall the city, know every street and shore.” It is odd to sing this knowing that “every street and shore” is constantly shifting—the sounds of construction are pervasive, highways are ever-widening and the sea is constantly being reclaimed.

An oft-told narrative is one of Singapore’s growth from a third-world fishing village to a first-world smart nation within the span of 50 years. A lesser-known story is one of how our total land area has grown from 578 square kilometres in 1819 to 719 square kilometres today. The fact that 25% of our country’s land mass is reclaimed may have astounded German, French and Italian visitors to Charles Lim’s SEA STATE pavilion at the Venice Biennale. But they may be less of a surprise to our neighbours in Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam, whose sands we draw upon in dredges. Where there were fishing villages on stilts on the sea, now stand ports, airports, luxury hotels and casinos, built with sand imported both legally and illegally through smuggling and deals with corrupt officials. Riverbanks collapse, estuaries erode, mangrove wildlife and coastal livelihoods are lost. Yet, the drawing and redrawing of our coastline and skyline continually defer their political and ethical implications on both regional and national levels.

I only became more conscious of these realities when I encountered and engaged with the various phases of SEA STATE through sitting with the work, listening to its lulling siren-like voice, digesting the catalogue and attempting to grasp the rich curatorial and artistic research underpinning the decade-long project over the course of breakfast and dinner conversations with Charles and curator Shabbir Hussein Mustafa. Growing up in Singapore, I was always surrounded by rapid modernisation, the loss of significant cultural and heritage sites, and the strange resurrection of demolished buildings like the National Theatre and old National Library in the form of giant floats paraded at the annual Chingay parade, prolonging a nostalgia that no longer exists in present memory. I find it jarring to imagine a similar fate for architectural landmarks such as Golden Mile Complex and Tower—spaces that are significant and familiar to me, where I’ve built connections and friendships over Thai food and open-air rooftops.

Architect Tan Cheng Siong behind the iconic horseshoe-shaped Pearl Bank apartments recalled what it was like during the early days of Singapore’s post-independence urbanisation: “It was an interesting challenge for young people like us. I can remember thinking ‘very good, we are a free people now.’ But at the start, we were so badly informed and had nothing to hang on to. The neighbours, the community, the streets and the shops all these things were lost in some of the early apartments, but young people like me were rushing to fulfil our ambitions. Our parents were the ones that felt lonely every now and then.” The curved corridors of Pearl Bank were designed as an antidote to this growing loneliness and social dislocation, with kitchens facing inwards to encourage people to invite neighbours in for chicken curry. The physical structures in Singapore barely stay long enough. Pearl Bank is slated to be demolished in 2019. Memories attached to old buildings often exist only as projections of the mind or are glimpsed as superimpositions on current, newer replacements. In Between Stations, writer Boey Kim Cheng laments the loss of old spaces in Singapore’s Central Business District: “But in my mind, both the Arcade and Change Alley form a continuum of light and shade, an interim one that is neither outside nor inside, blurring interior and exterior, time and space, past and present.”

In one edition of OH! Open House, I was standing amongst a group in the garden of somebody’s house in Potong Pasir when ceramic artist Michelle Lim reflected as she shaped mud: “Nowhere is sacred, nowhere is permanent. Nowhere where you can build your stories over and over again.” OH! tells alternative stories of Singapore through art by working with artists to create site-specific works in unconventional locations such as strangers’ homes and under-utilised public spaces. I lived in Potong Pasir when it was under the stronghold of the opposition party. Residents of ground-floor HDB flats took great care in nurturing small gardens—trellises, patios, benches and swings spilled over onto public land. In the years that followed the change in hands during the 2011 General Elections, Potong Pasir’s landscape was no longer stuck in the 1980s and quickly evolved. Sidewalks were built, barricades erected, covered walkways constructed, bridges repainted, roads tarred, street lamps installed and lifts upgraded. For the first time, an NTUC FairPrice supermarket sprouted and POSB bank opened a branch. In describing her former hometown, Lim commented, “It’s changed so much that I wouldn’t even know if I’ve arrived.”

My father grew up in this neighbourhood and often went jogging through the quiet, hilly terrain of tombstones in Bidadari. He knew the dimly-lit streets well enough to walk home with his eyes closed. When my great grandmother passed away at the age of 93, we moved into her house. Like my father, I grew to develop my own memories of this neighbourhood. I learnt that several notable persons from Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sinhalese communities were interred at Bidadari cemetery. The graves have since been exhumed, slopes flattened, trees uprooted, making way for Housing Development Board (HDB) flats in what is touted as “the new Bishan,” a bustling district which also occupies a plot of land built on a former cemetery. Bidadari, or “angel of paradise” in Malay, is derived from the Sanskrit word “widyadari,” an angelic being in Hindu mythology. It used to house kampong villages, the Japanese-style garden and lake Alkaff Gardens, and the istana or palace of Zubaidah binti Abdullah (née Cecilia Catharina Lange), the Danish second wife of Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor. Later in the OH! tour, as we were traversing through the former Bidadari cemetery at sunset, I smiled to myself when our guide warned us: “Be careful there are a lot of roots.”

How do we begin to unpeel the layers of our histories and uncover the rhizomic roots? Not too long ago Singapore separated from Malaysia, but between the tears and pregnant pauses, it remains to this day an issue that is still not fully talked about. To quote Josephine Chia, author of Kampong Spirit Gotong Royang: Life in Potong Pasir from 1955 to 1965, “The separation from Malaya was traumatic and no one really talks about this. But we had uncles and aunties and cousins who lived across the highway... I’m Peranakan so I had relatives in Penang and Melaka. And suddenly, you couldn’t be friends anymore.” This history is further complicated by the fact that most immigrants are divorced from Java, Sarawak, Yemen, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Punjab and other places where their ancestors came from.

Separations and traumas on a national scale often have large repercussions on the individual. In talking to a friend from Bayreuth, he described how even today, his parents only go on family holidays in West Germany and avoid the East at all costs. Even though it has been 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the invisible wall lingers on in their minds. Differences in powers, ideologies, religions and races have resulted in crimes against humanity and acts of violence inflicted upon oppressed communities. Although Germany has recognised its role in the Holocaust, it is still coming to terms with the genocide in Namibia. Turkey continually refuses to recognise the Armenian genocide. Malaysia has only just begun a public inquiry into the mass graves of Rohingyas. While underlying traumas exist, they are often buried deep within our national consciousnesses. Yet, we feel their reverberations every day. We are at once connected yet isolated from our past, present and each other.

We all have an innate need for security and belonging. French philosopher Simone Weil once wrote that “to be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognised need of the human soul.” The idea of home may be associated with a permanent residence. However, the reality is landscapes, cultures, lifestyles, populations, borders and national identities sometimes change faster than we can acclimatise. Political systems can disappear overnight. The only method to counteract against collective feelings of uprooting is our individual attempts at rooting, even if they are temporal. I recall our first 12 days in Venice, working almost non-stop from the moment we wake to the moment we sleep. In my journal, I wrote “SEA STATE submerges us in this endless underwater continuum that lingers even as we lie flat in bed. We call it the vaporetto effect, the feeling that you're bobbing on a platform floating on the sea, waiting for a boat to come.” For awhile, that felt like home, truly.

[vsplusonline]

Daily life near a standstill as nations try to halt pandemic

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/daily-life-near-a-standstill-as-nations-try-to-halt-pandemic/

Daily life near a standstill as nations try to halt pandemic

ROME — Meeting with friends, dining out, worshiping and other daily routines have nearly halted as nations take drastic steps to try to stop the coronavirus pandemic.

Religious leaders gave sermons to empty pews or to the faithful watching online Sunday after public worship was curtailed in many places. The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City was being closed indefinitely, and the Vatican closed off next month’s Holy Week services to the public. Still, the 83-year-old Pope Francis ventured out of the Vatican to visit two churches in Rome to pray for the sick.

In the United States, health officials recommended a limit to groups of 50 or more people and a government expert said a 14-day national shutdown may be needed. Americans returning from abroad encountered chaotic airport health screenings and closed-down communities.

In a sign of how much the pandemic has grown, China now accounts for less than half of the world’s 168,000 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The country where the virus was first detected in December had long been the epicenter of the COVID-19 illness, but a shutdown of public gatherings and a quarantine of the hardest-hit central region has steadied its caseload as the virus spreads rapidly elsewhere. Most of the world’s 77,000 recovered patients are in China.

Though China still has the most infections, a dozen other countries have more than 1,000 cases, mostly in Europe.

On the first day of Spain’s quarantine, long lines formed for food as police patrolled. Soldiers and police sealed off the Philippines’ densely populated capital, Manila, from most domestic travellers. Austria planned to limit movement, and Lebanon was put on lockdown, closing down Beirut’s famed seaside corniche.

Ireland ordered all pubs and bars to close for two weeks — including on Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day — and urged people not even to hold house parties. Two pub industry groups had warned of the “real difficulty” in keeping people apart in the country’s famous watering holes.

Italy welcomed a Chinese medical team to help it cope with its patient workload as health officials warn of what will come as the virus hits elsewhere.

“It’s not a wave. It’s a tsunami,” said Dr. Roberto Rona, who’s in charge of intensive care at the Monza hospital.

Italy on Sunday reported its biggest day-to-day increase in infections — 3,590 more cases in a 24-hour period — for a total of almost 24,747. And 368 more deaths brought its toll to 1,809, more than a quarter of the global death toll.

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and those with mild illness recover in about two weeks. But severe illness including pneumonia can occur, especially in the elderly and people with existing health problems, and recovery could take six weeks in such cases.

The needs to stop the virus from spreading to the most vulnerable people and to not overwhelm health care systems with sick patients are pushing the urgent calls for people to avoid public crowds or just stay home.

People should go out “only alone or with the people who live in their apartment,” said Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country has 800 infections.

That was echoed by one of America’s top infectious disease experts.

“I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Governors in California, Illinois and Ohio told all bars and restaurants to close or reduce their number of customers. New York City will shutter the nation’s largest public school system as early as Tuesday, sending over 1.1 million children home.

With fears increasing that the pandemic will depress U.S. economic growth, the Federal Reserve took emergency action by slashing its benchmark interest rate to near zero and deciding to buy $700 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds.

Travellers returning to the U.S. after the Trump administration imposed a wide-ranging ban on people entering from Europe faced hourslong waits for medical screenings. Images on social media showed packed arrival halls and winding lines.

“This is unacceptable, counterproductive and exactly the opposite of what we need to do to prevent .COVID19,” Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth tweeted.

Italy banned passengers from taking ferries to Sardinia and halted overnight train trips, which many in the north had used to reach homes and families in the south.

Even as authorities pleaded for people to stay home, Pope Francis visited St. Mary Major Basilica, near Rome’s central train station, to pray for the sick, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

He then walked to another church with a crucifix that in 1522 was carried in a procession during a plague afflicting Rome. In his prayer, Francis has `’invoked the end of the pandemia that has stricken Italy and the world, implored healing for the many sick, recalled the many victims of these days” and asked for consolation for their family and friends.

During his 90-minute foray, the pontiff and his security detail were nearly the only people around.

The Vatican will all Holy Week ceremonies to the public starting with Palm Sunday on April 5. Holy Week services usually draw tens of thousands to Rome but Italian tourism has vanished.

Spain was under lockdown amid a two-week state of emergency.

“From now, we enter into a new phase,” said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose wife tested positive. “We won’t hesitate in doing what we need must to beat the virus. We are putting health first.”

In Barcelona, there were long lines to buy bread. Police patrolled parks and told people who were not walking their dogs to go home. The Las Ramblas promenade was eerily empty.

Spain’s Health Ministry said the country has recorded 288 deaths, up from 136 on Saturday. The number of infections rose to 7,753 from 5,700.

The Czech Republic will start a lockdown Monday, and Netherlands ordered all schools, day-care centres, restaurants and bars to close until April 6. The new restrictions cover Amsterdam’s famed marijuana-selling “coffee shops” and sex clubs.

Elsewhere, Morocco suspended all international flights, and Turkey set aside quarantine beds for more than 10,000 people returning from Islam’s holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

Even as social life largely halted, some attempts at keeping up public life persisted.

France went ahead Sunday with nationwide elections to choose mayors and other local leaders. A 1-meter (yard) gap between people was mandated, as well as soap or sanitizing gel and disinfectant wipes for voting machines.

The German state of Bavaria also held municipal elections, with poll workers wearing gloves. Germany will partially close its borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and Denmark on Monday, and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said people will no longer be allowed to cross those borders without a valid reason, such as for work.

Britain, which has not yet restricted everyday activities, said it plans to set out emergency powers this week, including potentially requiring people over 70 to self-isolate for up to four months and banning mass gatherings.

“We will do the right thing at the right time,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC.

Puerto Rico ordered nearly all businesses to close for next two weeks and set a nighttime curfew following confirmation of a fifth case.

With the virus having reached 25 of Africa’s 54 countries, sweeping restrictions were announced. Kenya is banning travellers from countries with infections and closing all schools for three weeks.

Senegal and Mauritania also are closing schools. Senegal also banned all public gatherings for a month, stopping cruise ships from docking and suspending Muslim and Christian pilgrimages.

Dalia Samhouri, a regional official with the World Health Organization, said both Iran and Egypt, two of the most populous countries in the Mideast, were likely underreporting cases because infected people can still show no visible symptoms. Iran says it has nearly 14,000 virus cases and 724 deaths, while Egypt has reported 110 cases, including two fatalities.

Testing for the illness has also varied from country to country and community to community. The U.S. was prioritizing medical workers and senior citizens with symptoms, in order to avoid paralyzing the health care system.

“It’s important the tests are available for the people who are most in need and our health care workers and first responders that are helping and supporting them,” Vice-President Mike Pence told reporters at the White House.

——

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Iain Sullivan in Madrid, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Yanan Wang in Beijing, Andrew Taylor in Washington, and Jim Gomez in Manila contributed to this report.

——

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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[spiritytheghost]

“hi, I’m not from the US” ask set

given how Americanized this site is, it’s important to celebrate all our countries and nationalities - with all their quirks and vices and ridiculousness, and all that might seem strange to outsiders.

Oh gosh, the wonderful @alessiaskyler tagged me, so... I’m from Germany too haha, but... wow, hard questions...

1. favourite place in your country?

I’m not sure, I have one, and if, then it would probably be home... or? Maybe, I’m forgetting something improtant xD There are many beautoful places, but nothing that i would call my favourite .-.

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?

I’m not travelling very much, but if I do, it’s personal to me, so it doesn’t matter in which country it is

3. does your country have access to sea?

Yes, it does, but I’m living too far away :(

4. favourite dish specific for your country?

I’m a very picky eater, so I’m sure I don’t have one that’s specific for Germany

5. favourite song in your native language?

I’m not listening to german songs and even though I know some of them, I wouldn’t say that I like one as much as I like other favourite songs

6. most hated song in your native language?

Probably many of the german Rap Songs, unless I#m taking them not seriously, because then I can find them funny

7. three words from your native language that you like the most?

Am I supposed to know that?? xD ÄÄÄÄHM... I don’t know, I like so many words, but right now I can’t think of them :(

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?

No, certainly not, I have blue eyes and was born with blond hair and I have pale skin, so... No. xD

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?

England is not really a neighbour, but I’ve been there two times now and it’s wonderful *__* I’ve been to Austria with my family once and we were in France and Italy for a day, many years ago, so I don’t really know These countries very well and I don’t really know why I should travel there xD

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language?

Wow, this is stuff I know xD Scheiße, verdammt and... I’d say fuck, but it’ s english, although everybody says it, but... then it’s Arsch or Arschloch, but that’s more of an insult xD

11. favourite native writer/poet?

I don’t have one, everybody I like is not from Germany xD

12. what do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?

... I don’t even know, if something has ever been translated in english from the stuff I know xD

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?

Probably everything my family does is weird xD I can’t think of something specific :/

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?

Normally not, there are very few TV shows and movies I like, but that’s it, because almost everything else is pretty stupid in my opinion or maybe it’s just that I’m interested in different stuff

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?

Berlin Airport I guess, because I’m not sure how many other people know about this story xD OR maybe talking about the typical RTL and RTL II series, because everybody makes fun of them xD OMG and the Deutsche Bahn HAHA because the trains are never there on time xD

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?

The Lederhosen - Dirndl - Beer - Thing, is fucking STUPID. I never wore any of it and I don’t like beer, what the hell is the point of it? And that all Germans are neat and always on time NO. DID YOU SEE MY ROOM? And I know so many people that you can expect to be there half an hour later than you planned it. NO.NO.NO.

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

I’m in general not interested in history. School taught me the stuff I need to know and there are definitely interesting topics, but that’s it for me.

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

No, not really, in my Region we’re talking “normal”, maybe slang, but now with a real dialect.

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?

It’s a flag, what would I like about it? It’s what it looks like, the end. xD And I don’t like the national anthem, it sounds boring and like people love their country, but many Germans I know don’t have a community feeling, so nope.

20. which sport is The Sport in your country?

Soccer. But it’s fucking boring too and I hate when people are behaving like a bunch of crazy assholes because of it. It’s JUST A SPORT, for fuck’s sake! xD

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?

I know some people I’d send there... to kill them xD And I don’t know why anything else from Germany should be there xD

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?

Proud... maybe small things, but nothing that really is “made” by the german society. And all the other stuff, just makes me angry, not really ashamed.

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

Beer, I don’t like it, but many other people do.

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

Hmm, a little bit about America, about Poland, and Greece xD 

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?

I wouldn’t say that I really like being german, but if I was born somewhere else I probably wouldn’t be happy with that either, because every country has its flaws, that’s why I can live with being german. But I would definitely like to live in a different city, because my city is awful.

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

Some answer as Question 16, plus that the whole Nazi thing is there too, which I think is stupid, because every country has nationalistic sides, but that doesn’t mean that everyone in the country is as STUPID as them! God, I’m too angry for this question xD

27. favourite national celebrity? 

I don’t have one. Nope. They are all crazy. Some are very nice, but most of them are... nopppp.

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?

Yes, I think so, but there’s again nothing that I’d call my favourite xD

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?

No, but we’re always making fun of the smaller cities around ours xD

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

No. My answers are so boring, omg xD

@alessiaskyler you asked for it, so you got it! My answers are very weak, I saw that you put so much effort in yours, amazing <3