Saturday, June 16, 2012

Welcome to my German home. Hauptsach gudd gess.

Hallo meine Lieben,

I guess that most of you know that I am a German who lives in the United States. So today I want to show you where I come from, the place I was born and grew up in. 

Around 82 Million people live in Germany, A little more than a million of these people live in Saarland which is one of the 16 German federal states. You can see in the map that Saarland is a very small state. Actually it is the smallest state in Germany besides the city states Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin. The capital of Saarland is Saarbrücken, the city I studied and worked in. Saarland is located near the borders of France and Luxemburg and I was able to drive over there in less than 15 minutes. Pretty cool. For example gas is much much cheaper in Luxemburg (gas is very expensive in Germany) so I always drove over there to get gas and coffee.
Between 1947 and 1956 the Saarland was a French-occupied territorty. In 1956 the inhabitants were offered independence but instead voted to become a part of Western Germany. Since 1971, Saarland has been a member of SaarLorLux, a euroregion created from Saarland, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Rhineland Palatinate and Wallonia.

Enough history lessons. I'll show you some pictures.




That's Germany. As you can see Saarland is also very close to Belgium and the Netherlands. It is really cool because you are able to drive to all kinds of great places. I love that about Germany. You drive a couple of hours and you are in a different country. 




The town I grew up in is very small. Only 700 people live there. We had a supermarket when I was a kid but now there  is only a bakery and a hair salon. So you need a car. There are buses that drive to bigger towns but not that many (but at least there are some buses, America). My school was 15 minutes away so I had to take the bus every morning at 7:10 am.  My town is very picturesque, there are lots of trees and cows and horses. It is always quiet, there are not many cars...it's like paradise. :)



That's the Saar. The state is named after the river. It rises in the Vosges mountains on the border of Alsace and Lorraine in France and flows northwards into the Moselle near Trier. Trier is a city located in Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate), the German state I was born in. By the way: is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC. 



A view over Saarburg, the town I was born in. Also a very small town, only 6700 people live there. As you can see, everything in Germany is a little smaller than in America. Berlin is the biggest city in Germany. 3.5 Million people live there. I guess that's not much for American standards. 




David took this picture because he thought it's funny that beer glasses are much bigger than glasses with coca cola in it. We Germans love our beer, it's a fact.




This is me with a cute dog. I am a huge animal lover and this picture was taken at the annual party of an animal rescue. The dog stood there like that for an hour and I immediately fell in love with him.



That's the famous "Saarschleife" (bend in the Saar). You can find it on every postcard in Saarland. Lots of tourists come to see it. Although there is not much else to see but I guess it is worth a picture. You can't really see it in the picture but there is a castle on the other side of the river. The castle "Montclair". 



This castle was build in 1439. There was a castle before that one which was build in 1180. You can still go and visit the castle. There are several sagas about the castle Montclair, one of them says that a knight jumped with his horse from a big rock into the Saar. You can still see the imprint of the horseshoe in the rock. A ghost also lives in Montclair.



That's me and David at the Saar. The place we stand is a hang-gliding ramp. It looks pretty dangerous to me. You can sit there and see people jump, it's pretty interesting.



Me and David at the Saarschleife. We had to take some touristy pictures. It was his first time in Europe. :) There are not many famous spots in Saarland but this is a must-see. 




I make a sad face because the black cat in background ignored me. 




The famous waterfall in Saarburg. I know, not very impressing. You can't really compare it to the Niagara Falls but it is in downtown Saarburg and you can sit next to the waterfall and eat ice-cream.




David sitting on a rock looking over the Saar. I am sure you are sick of seeing so many pictures of a stupid river but it's an important part of Saarland. You see that river everywhere. 




David at my favorite Pizzeria in Saarland. You get the best Pizza there and they are so big that they don't fit on normal plates. They have to use huge silver plates for them. But I guess you know huge plates when you are American. So I can't really impress you with that picture.  It's huge for German standards though. 




People from Saarland love to eat. David ate "Grumperküchelscha" here. At least that's how you call it in our dialect. In German you say "Reibekuchen". They are made of potatoes and you eat them with apple sauce. 
"Hauptsach gudd gess" is a famous saying from Saarland. It basically means that we are fine as long as we have some good food.
Another thing people from Saarland love is "Schwenken". In America you would call it Barbecue and everywhere else in Germany you say "Grillen" but we Saarländer use a "Schwenker" to grill our food. You can see it on the picture below.





(I put vegetables and tofu sausages on my Schwenker, no meat! :))

I hope you enjoyed my little journey. There are many great places in Germany but I admit that Saarland is not the most exciting one. :) But at least we have lots of nature and nice and friendly people. The dialect might be hard to understand though.

Have a great Saturday!

38 comments:

  1. I would love to visit Germany one day. My great-great grandparents migrated from Germany and through Ellis Island (it makes me a quarter german!). I have always been fascinated with the culture. :)

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    1. That's great, Trish! I hope you will be able to visit soon! It's a fabulous place! Do you know where your great-great-parents lived?

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  2. I want to go to Germany so bad!

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    1. I did not know that so many people want to travel to Germany. :) I like it!

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  3. Oh danke schön :))Ich schaff das auch!
    Da, wo die Saar diese Hufeisenform hat, war ich auch schon :)

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    1. Ja, da bin ich ganz sicher! :)
      Oh, toll dass Du schon an der Saarschleife warst! :)

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  4. Ich musste laut lachen, als ich erst, nachdem ich es laut ausgesprochen habe, verstanden habe, was "Hauptsach gudd gess" bedeutet :-) Allerdings meinen die Meisten damit andere Lebensmittel als wir (mit Frau Schäfchen drei) "Hübschen" ...

    Hübschen in Anführungsstrichen, da ich ja eigentlich außer Konkurrenz bin. *g*

    Hast Du eigentlich einen saarländischen Akzent?

    Du schreibst immer sooo schön ... :-)

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    1. Haha, ja ich denke die meisten Saarländer verstehen unter "Hauptsach gudd gess" Lyoner und Schwenker. Aber gibts ja auch alles als Veggie-Alternative.
      Ich klinge auf jeden Fall nicht wie Heinz Becker. Kennst Du den? Ich denke nicht, dass ich einen Akzent habe, aber ich habe definitiv die saarländische Unart übernommen ab und an "et" statt "die" zu sagen, wenn ich über weibliche Personen spreche. Et Katrin. Ich versuchs aber weitgehen zu vermeiden. Echt schlimm. Man kann sich der Heimat nunmal nicht ganz entziehen.

      Es freut mich wirklich, dass Du so denkst, ich denke immer ich kann mich in Englisch nicht so ausdrücken wie ich möchte.

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    2. DIE Frau Schäfchen, ET Katrin, 'S z. B. Frolleinche - wobei mich "'S" aktuell an Jemand erinnert, den/die ich grade versuche, aus Herz und Kopf zu verbannen ... :-) Klar kenne ich H. B., wobei ich jetzt nicht sein größter Fan bin.

      Nur mal am Rande: Klappt das denn jetzt (besonders in Bingos Tagebuch) mit dem "Per E-Mail abonnieren"?

      Du kannst natürlich schlecht ständig damit kokettieren, aber was sagen denn Deine Leser und besonders Dein Liebster (ehrlich) zu Deinem Englisch? Für mich ist es sehr gut zu lesen und ich muss selten etwas nachsehen, eher habe ich schon mal Schwierigkeiten, Formulierungen oder Zusammenhänge richtig zu verstehen - aber ich bin selbstverständlich kein Maßstab für Dein Englisch ... :-)

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    3. Okay, dann reden wir nicht ueber "s". :)
      Ich schau mir jedes Jahr an Weihnachten die HB Weihnachtsepisode an, das ist es dann aber auch. Wenn die Leute Saarlaender hoeren, denken sie immer jeder ist so. Zum Glueck ist das nicht der Fall!

      Ja, das mit dem Abonnieren klappt jetzt! Weiss auch nicht, was das Problem war!

      Manchmal korrigiert mich David natuerlich und ich frage ihn auch um Rat, wenn ich was nicht weiss. Ich denke im Grossen und Ganzen findet er es gut. Ich kann mich nur meist im Deutschen besser ausdruecken, deshalb denke ich immer, dass ich in Englisch bloed oder langweilig klinge! Bin froh dass Du es gut lesen kannst!

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  6. Nice to see your home town. Nothing wrong with pics of a river. I took a bunch of the Neckar today lol.

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    1. Also I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award: http://wp.me/p1RjNH-BM

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    2. Oh that's sweet! I will check out what it is! :)
      Glad you liked my post!

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    3. Thank you so much, Amanda, I am flattered. :)

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  7. Hey- macht mir sehr viel Spass deinen Blog zu lesen, vor allem weil ich als Deutsche seit 5 Jahre in Seattle (wo wir uebrigens Muell trennen und ein gutes Bussystem haben :)) lebe und mich dein Blog sehr an meine ersten Monate erinnert... mittlerweile ist es fuer mich umgekehrt, ich fahre nach Deutschland und finde viele Dinge dort seltsam. Ich konnte uebrigens mal einen ganzen Satz auf saarlaendisch sagen- mal schaun ob es noch klappt: hol mer mol de federes von de feschel die do laie. Oder so - hab damals im Zoo in Saarbruecken ein Praktikum gemacht.

    Viele Gruesse,

    Ani_r

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    1. Haha, Vogelfedern. :) Das ist ja mal ein lustiger Satz. Man merkt, dass Du im Zoo gearbeitet hast! Aber toll dass Du Saarländisch sprechen kannst!
      Oh, das ist ja toll dass Du auch eine Deutsche in Amerika bist! Und toll dass Ihr Müll trennt! Hast Du auch einen Blog? Freut mich dass Du meinen gern liest!

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    2. Genau- die Vogelfedern. Ich bin bloglos, aber unter meinem Namen auf Instagram zu finden :).

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    3. Ich glaub ich hab Dich gefunden! Hoffe ich zumindest. :) Musst mir mal erzaehlen woher aus Deutschland Du kommst. :)

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    4. Ani_r
      Genauso kenne ich das auch aus Seattle. Dort war ich damals Au Pair. Eine traumhafte Stadt. Auch nach 16 Jahren habe ich noch Fernweh...

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  8. Oooh, I would love to visit your hometown!! It looks beautiful!

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    1. :)) It really is. Not much going on there but it's pretty. :)

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  9. great photos!


    p.s. I'm having a giveaway to SheInside if you'd like to check it out!
    devorelebeaumonstre.com xx

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  10. great photos. germany is also on my bucket list. i tried to learn german once, but couldn't figure it out. maybe one day!

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    1. Thank you, Lesley! I think it is complicated to learn German! Write me if you need any help. :)

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  11. I enjoyed all the pictures, especially the animal ones :)

    I like the waterfall, looks rather picturesque!

    At first I was rather disgusted with the picture of Grumperküchelscha, until I read it`s reibekuchen o_O I love Reibekuchen with Apfelmus! Lecker!!!

    Thanks for sharing pictures of your home!

    Cheers,
    Miss Sugar Shack

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    1. Haha, yeah, I admit that the Grumperküschelcha don't look that great! :) I should make some here soon. David liked them too!

      Glad you liked my pictures! You are the best! :)

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  12. I love Germany, I spent 6 months in Duesseldorf and it was some of the best months of my life :)

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    1. Duesseldorf is a cool city! I am glad you liked it there! :)

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  13. Such a great idea! Loved seeing a bit of where you're from. :)

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  14. Ah you should hangglide fromt hat spot, it's amazing!! So coolt o see where you're from, and it's close to me!

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    1. It looks so scary! And there is water! :)
      Yeah, it's really close, only 2 hours away!

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  15. Saarländisch finde ich schon ziemlich schwierig. Aber entfernt ist es ja auch dem Schwäbischen ähnlich, das ich zumindest ansatzweise verstehe.

    Die Bilder sind sehr schön. So wirklich im Saarland war ich erst einmal für ein Wochenende. Damals waren wir auf der Saar rudern. War auch toll. Ich kann jedenfalls verstehen, wenn du danach Heimweh hast.

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    1. Ja, Saarländisch ist schon manchmal ein bisschen schwer zu verstehen! Ich tu mich auch mit manchen Dialekten schwer!

      Es gibt schon ein paar tolle Ecken im Saarland! Das fehlt mir dann schon! Cool dass Du schonmal im Saarland warst! Hoffe es hat Dir gefallen!

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  16. Loved reading this! I was in Saarland a few years ago visiting with my cousins. They live in Urexweiler and Marpingen. I absolutely loved it! I hold Saarland so close to me heart. ❤️

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