Category: Immigration
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Trains & Tulips in Grugapark
Towards the end of April, we visited Grugapark one day. We found ourselves suddenly alone after our fabulous vacation, and needed some TLC. Hence, the visit to the park. We’ve been to Gruga a few times before, but we’d never seen it covered in tulips. Being nature-folk, you can imagine how much we enjoyed this…
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Ice Cold
Last week, I bombarded you with images of snow. This week, it’s ice. You see a theme here? This winter has been more than a smidge colder than last, but the weather brings many new experiences for those of us originally from warmer parts. So, ice. We live close to the River Ruhr, but we…
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Kindergarten Fun (TGC)
Yes, this is a German Chronicles post on a Friday. My week has been kind of topsy-turvy. For the first time in a long time, I have a FAQ that I want to answer. Why isn’t Kayla in a preschool/nursery school/kindergarten? The short answer is because Germany. I’m guessing that’s not what you want, though.
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Neuschwanstein Trip
We’ve been ogling this castle for a looooong time. You know how I feel about castles to begin with, but this one was kind of special, and not just because it’s the template for the Disney castle. Imagine this place, with its majestic spires and pristine white bricks, keeping its vigil on the side of a…
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Munich Zoo
Hello, all you lovely folks. Hope you had a good weekend. As I mentioned on Friday, our trip to Munich ended in a zoo, because of a three-year-old’s heartfelt request. For this reason, we braved the cold, ignored the patches of snow on the ground, and went to see some animals. The highlight of the…
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Sightseeing in Pöking and Munich
I mentioned on Wednesday that our journey to Munich began on a rainy Sunday morning. We’ve never been to any other German state, so this was a big trip for us, especially considering how much we wanted to see Bavaria. We’ve been told on many occasions, by both Germans and non-Germans, how incredibly different Bavaria…
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Surviving German Christmas Markets
So, the time of year is officially here, as I mentioned the other day. Today I want to talk about the markets in depth, and maybe give some advice to first-time market-goers, because this stuff can be a little overwhelming. The markets are a pretty amazing part of the German Christmas experience, even if you…
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South Africanisms
We seldom think about our unique English dialect. Or at least, we didn’t think much about how we spoke in the past. Then we moved to Germany. It was first brought to my attention that we have a quirky way of speaking, due to the word shame. Of course I’d known that South Africans say…
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Learning German
I’ve mentioned many times in my recent posts that I’m being tutored in German now. Everybody wants to know how that’s going. Well, it’s crawling. I can speak rudimentary German and I can understand the basics, as long as the speaker speaks slowly. Learning any new language is difficult, especially as one gets older. Ha.…
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Oktoberfest Facts
Yes, folks, it’s officially that time of year. Oktoberfest is in full swing and ends on Sunday. Now, I’m not a beer drinker, but I would love to go over to Bavaria and experience this festival at least once. Until then, I’ll write about it. Going on with the theme from last week’s post, here…
Yolandie Horak 