Category Archives: Leisure time

Just arrived in Berlin?

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Single and just arrived? Your apartment is renovated and your moving is finished? You are living on your own?  Anyway, if you recently live apart, a long-distance relationship or you are not living in permanent relationship.  No problem: 50% of households of Berlin are single ones.

Now you start your social life in Berlin. There are many possibilities to make new contacts. No matter if you join online groups like “new in Berlin” or you go out for a drink, dinner or party. There are so many places you will meet nice people and get in contact.

One quickly makes contact not only at parties or bars, but there is also a large variety of initiatives: business-clubs, science circle, “creatives groups” or voluntary activities.

A great opportunity to get in touch with other people is, to join one of the many clubs in Berlin: for startups, women, international women and creative people.

You will find many more different clubs in Berlin.

Diversity in Berlin: “Karneval der Kulturen”

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Since 1996, Karneval der Kulturen has been celebrated every year in Berlin. Over the four-day street festival reflects Berlin’s many faces. “Karneval der Kulturen” celebrates diversity of Berlin. You will find parties, live music and culinary delicacies from all over the world. This year the festival will take place from the 2nd to 5th of June. The highlight of the festival I the parade on the 4th .

The highlight of this festival is the parade on the 4th of June. More than 4,700 participants from 80 countries took part in the parade last year. Many caravans, dancing people with traditional costumes and music groups are celebrating Berlin’s diversity. The parade starts every year at Hermannplatz at 12.30 pm., along Hasenheide and Yorkstreet, it ends at Möckernstraße at 9.pm.

Learn more: http://www.karneval-berlin.de/de/strassenfest.21.html

 

Berlin – a weekend full of dichotomy and fun is coming up!

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Everyone enjoys a short working week and Berlin is preparing for a long weekend full of contrasting events: German Protestant Church Day, Men’s/Father Day and the final of the German Cup Competition.
The long weekend starts on Thursday with Ascension Day. However, the first big events takes place on Wednesday evening already. In front of the Reichstag, on Gendarmenmarkt and in front of Brandenburg Gate the German Protestant Church Congress is started with huge, ecumenical, cross-generational church-services. Afterwards enjoy the summer evening at the big street party with culinary delights, music and prayers. The German Protestant Church Day lasts until Sunday, 28th May, and has a schedule full of international, intercultural, political and other interesting themes. It offers a variety of services, opportunities and cultural entertainment for the whole family. One of the highlights might be the biggest event of the Protestant Church Day: former US-President Barack Obama will hold a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on May 25th; other prominent speakers are Melinda Gates and Angela Merkel.

On Thursday, the attendees of cultural and political program of the Protestant Church Day, will be joined by mostly male Berlin visitors as well as Berliners celebrating father’s (or in Berlin Men’s Day) strolling through the city with their friends and handcarts and a pint or two of beer.

On Saturday the mixture of becomes even more colourful! In the evening the final of the German Cup Competition takes place between Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. The match starts at 8 pm but the fans will celebrate the whole day and will mix and mingle in the city.
The fans of Borussia Dortmund will celebrate in front of Gedächtniskirche, whereas the Eintracht Frankfurt fans will start their party on Alexanderplatz.
There are even opportunities for those who want to join both: the Protestant Church Day and the soccer feast: Start your day with the ecumenical service in Gedächtniskirche on Saturday at 11 a.m. with all the BVB fans and afterwards celebrate at one of the fan feasts.

Berlin will be full of happy people that’s for sure!

For more information on the Protestant Church Day: https://www.kirchentag.de/programm/programmsuche.html
For more information for BVB Fans: http://www.bvb.de/ger/News/Uebersicht/Fanvorabinfos-Pokalfinale-Berlin
For more information for Frankfurt Fans: http://www.eintracht.de/news/artikel/adlerimanflug-eintracht-fantreff-in-berlin-60199/

New Trend: Professional people sharing flats

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You are not a student anymore but you do feel like a student or miss your good old student times in shared flats? You are single but you do not want to live alone?
Then you should follow this new trend: professional people sharing flats! More and more of these types of shared flats are popping up in bigger cities.
The advantages? – Many!
You do not have to live alone by your own, however if you are professional you might not want to live together with students, having completely different daily routines, and of course a different standing towards tidiness and comfort.
Sharing a flat with other professionals offers you a family of like-minded people. You share a similar daily routine and most of the time you have similar standings concerning comfort, tidiness and house rules.
Professionals do have a higher level of comfort they want to live in, however they also have a bigger budget as they are working already. Students do not have such high-level expectations towards their rooms as their budget is only small and they are not working but studying…and partying (you know you were a student once as well). However, therefore professional sharing a flat with student could cause some trouble. This is the reason why the new trend of ‘professional shared flats’ is rising so fast. Multiple online portals included already the option to search for ‘professional shared flats’ as opposed to ‘student shared flats’ within the bigger cities of Germany such as Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and co.
This might be something for you? Try it out! Find your room in a shared flat and live together with like-minded.

Top Ten Fun Facts Düsseldorf

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This entry is part 7 of 8 in the series TOP TEN
  1. Officially, Düsseldorf has 600,000 inhabitants, however because of all the commuters travelling to and from their offices, there are about 200,000 people more are in the city on weekdays.
  2. Düsseldorf the advertising city – about 400 advertising agencies are based here, including international agencies as well as three of the largest agencies in Germany.
  3. the ‘KÖ’ is Germany’s busiest upmarket shopping street: it is nearly a kilometer full of international flagship stores and shopping centres
  4. ‘the longest bar in the world’ Düsseldorf’s Altstadt (Old Town) comprises over 300 bars and clubs in a very small area
  5. Düsseldorf itself is mentioned in the US- series ‘The Simpsons’ where it is the hometown of the German exchange student wearing Lederhosen.
  6. Wheels of joy play an important role in the city’s history: in 1288, when Düsseldorf won the battle of Worringen and received the town charter, children did wheels of joy. Even today, when you are strolling through the Old Town, children will offer to do cartwheels for one or two coins – and there is even an annual cart-wheeling tournament.
  7. It became the Capital of North Rhine-Westphalia although it is only the fourth largest city of NRW. It did so because it was the least destroyed city after World War II.
  8. Düsseldorf is in constant competition against Cologne. Both towns hate each other and compete when ever possible and in every matter possible against the other one.
  9. The Rhine-Promenade connects ‘The Old’ with ‘The New’ of the city. It leads from the Old Town to the modern Media Harbour and makes Düsseldorf a skater paradise.
  10. It was and is the home of many musicians: Robert & Clara Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn Bertholdy and Johannes Brahms as well as the modern bands of Kraftwerk, die Toten Hosen und Marius Müller Westernhagen called or still call the city home.

Happy 828th Birthday Port of Hamburg!

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Hamburg is celebrating the 828th birthday of its port on 5th to 7th May 2017 with the world’s biggest port festival.
A varied maritime programme for the whole family will be presented in the  unique setting of the Port of Hamburg: More than 300 ships from all parts of the world, spectacular displays, lots of stages with live music and French savoir-vivre of this year’s partner country France.

The world’s greatest port festival will be celebrated at various parts in and around the port of Hamburg: around Landungsbrücken, in the Speicherstadt warehouse district, the new HafenCity district, at the Fish Market and Oevelgönne Museum Harbour.

Get to know Hamburg from the seaside and celebrate its port birthday! Discover Hamburg, its party face and its maritime history!

Spring Festival in Stuttgart: WASEN

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They call it WASEN: The spring festival in Stuttgart. This year the WASEN started on the 15th of April and lasts until the 7th of May! For three weeks, visitors from near and far celebrate the launch of spring in a cheerful and jolly manner.

Europe’s biggest and best attended spring festival attracts around 1.5 million guests to the Cannstatter Wasen fair grounds. On an area of 4.2 hectares, a wide selection of stalls and confectionery stands, modern and traditional fairground rides, side-shows, beer tents and catering stalls offer every conceivable type of family fun and entertainment.
Alongside the traditional keg tapping ceremony on the opening Saturday, annual highlights of the festival program include the balloon glow and musical firework display. Every Wednesday is family day, when a wide variety of cut-price offers are available to parents with children.
Enjoy Oktoberfest in Spring in Stuttgart! Great fun for the whole family!

How useful are opendays, career fairs and Co?

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In nearly every month and in every bigger city multiple career days, career fairs. open days at universities or trade fairs about different universities take place. How useful are those trade fairs and open days? Does it make sense to visit such events?
YES!
Of course you do not need to visit every career or study fair, and of course attending every University openday is not even down-to-earth, but to get an overview of todays possibilities, opendays and career fairs are the way to go.

Today there are so many different Bachelor and Master studies, most of them you do not even know now and cannot imagine that those studies exist. Fairs of the different Universities or study programmes provide a good overview of what is possible. Get inspired by those fairs! It might happen that you find a study programme meeting all your desires but is relatively unknown, wherefore you have not heard about yet.
Similarly, career fairs: You are done with you studies but not sure where to head to? Get inspired by the vast range of possible jobs. Make good contacts and expand your network at those events.
And once you found interesting study programmes or traineeships you can visit the opendays of the universities/study programmes and traineeships you are interested in. Most of the time these specific events provide more into-depth information and easier opportunities to network.

Therefore, take your chance and visit one or two or more of the many career, job and uni fairs in Germany to get inspired and kickstart your career!
We listed some of the upcoming events in Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne and Co.

  • Berlin: Connecticum (25.04-27.04.2017), Studyworld 2017 (12./13.05.2017)
  • Hamburg: Talente kompakt (27.04.2017)
  • Stuttgart: Stuzubi (29.04.2017)
  • Köln: meet@th-koeln (03.05. & 04.05.2017)
  • Düsseldorf: Master and more / Bachelor and more (05.05. & 06.05.2017)
  • Frankfurt: Jobmesse Einstieg (21./22.04.2017)

Fibo 2017

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This weekend in Cologne: The world’s largest trade fair for fitness & health takes place in Cologne and will open its doors for private visitors on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
More than 940 exhibitors will show the newest trends and innovation for fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Additionally, to the newest products and trends an extensive interactive programme is offered to the more than 153,000 visitors.

You can find products reaching from training clothes over training equipment and mobile devices to healthy nutrition and cosmetics.

 

Student–thoughts: Moving to another EU Country for my studies

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Yes! There it is – the notification of admission to my master studies.
However, the first mood of celebrating the placement is gone fast: I have to move to another country… I have to organize a lot of things! But what exactly? All those thoughts come up when thinking about the master placement a second time, less emotional.

What exactly should one consider when moving from one EU-country to another in order to complete one’s studies there.

The following things came up to my mind when I got the notification of admission to study my masters in Madrid.

First of all: Where shall I live? And how?
– Do I want to live near to the University or better more in the center of the town, where something is going on and I can enjoy my leisure time?
– Do I want to live in a shared flat or do I want a small apartment for my own? Do I need other people around me or do I prefer time and peace for me?
– Do I want to have a furnished room or do I want to bring my own furniture?

Once I settled these questions, another one arose: HOW do I get infos about flats, rooms etc. and HOW do I find one?
– The easiest way for me: Facebook and friends which might know someone who knows someone etc… Social media helps a lot! Ask you friends to ask their friends, search for housing groups or groups of your study in Facebook. You might get extremely helpful hints and get to know some nice and helpful people!

Other thoughts, which might not be that obvious in the first case:
– What is about my health insurance? Does it cover a longterm stay in another EU-Country and what are the conditions? Is it better to sign up for a foreign health insurance, or to make a contract with an on-site health insurance?
– What is about my mobile phone contract? Do I have the same conditions as I have at home?

All these thoughts came up to my mind when I received my master placement in Madrid.
In my opinion most of the questions depend on the period of your stay in the city/country. It might not be that reasonable to rent an unfurnished apartment when you are staying for one year only. However, if you will stay at least 3 years in the city it might be nicer and more comfortable to have your own furniture in your ‘home abroad’.
Additionally, all these questions depend on personal circumstances and desires.
My hint: Visit blogs and website, and search for Facebook groups to get to know the possibilities you have. Once you know your possibilities you can decide what you want.
Many online-portals provide a lot of infos about housing, electricity, water-suppliance, about health insurances as well as mobile phone contracts.
Gohelpy is a wonderful example of these online-portals comprising a lot of information about the big German cities.