Sunday, January 29, 2006

Bullshit guide to Hamburg

When you move to another country, people always have assumptions concerning the culture. I´ve heard a lot of stories about Hamburg and because I´m here for almost a month now, I think I can judge pretty good what assumptions about Hamburg were pretty wrong. Everybody already knows that Germans aren´t like the hole digging fat bastards that invade the Dutch beaches every summer. But here's a list of stories that rank highest in the bullshit list:

"Hamburg has a very big underground party scene."

Bullshit. The only thing underground in Hamburg is the subway. It's nice to party in Hamburg though, but you have to know the good clubs. There are two neigborhoods where a lot of clubs and bars are: St. Pauli (Reeperbahn) and Schanze. St. Pauli is the most commercial district of the two. It's where all the tourists get drunk or visit the red light district. A lot of clubs there are crowded with young people who drink their first beer. I personally like the Schanze more. There are a lot of bars and clubs and the average age is more like mine (older). The atmosphere is a lot less commercial and the people are nicer. For the readers in Alkmaar. St. Pauli and Schanze is like the difference between the Waagplein and the Platte Stenenbrug. Hamburg is a good place to party if you know where to go, but a big underground party scene? Better check out Berlin for that.

"German girls are easier to seduce than Dutch girls."

I'm going to dissapoint some friends of mine who actually think this is the truth but: the women here are just as difficult to seduce as Dutch girls. In the beginning it was even more difficult for me, because I didn't speak German very well. It's hard to be interesting if you've got the vocabulary of a retard. But the girls are very sweet here. And what is true is that they really really like the Dutch accent. For all the people that are really curious: let's say that I pick up just as much girls as I did in Holland.

"Germans are more formal and when you first meet them you should adress them in a formal way"

The biggest bullshit of all! The Germans are the most informal people I know. All the people here -also the older ones- corrected me the first time I started adressing them with 'Sie' (Translation: You, but in a formal way). Germans are really easy going and very nice. And they all think Dutch people speak German very well. Well, every country has its bullshit.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

hahahaha ...wat een mannetje ben je ook

7:49 pm  
Blogger Robin Stam said...

Haha, en dat zegt het grootste mannetje van heel Alkmaar ;-)

8:26 pm  

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