I'm British by birth, I chose Berlin after Brexit because:
1. Friends here
2. Alternative countries were Luxembourg/Switzerland (more expensive); Canada (worse weather); Ireland (fear I might get blamed personally for the stupid done by British politicians, and the UK Gov was being loudly stupid about Ireland at the time); USA (weird culture, guns); Australia/New Zealand (too far from the old country to visit regularly); France (I find the language harder than German); Belgium (saw a police officer with a long barrelled gun at the train station and noped out of even visiting it during an Interrail exploration trip); or somewhere where I hadn't even started learning the language.
That left Austria, which was an option, but Germany was bigger and I didn't want to risk having to move country for work before getting a permanent right to remain in the EU, which I think I need another 6-12 months for depending on what exactly counts.
Alternative cities within Germany: many pretty options, but the tech scene is mostly here, and also the friends.
> Belgium (saw a police officer with a long barrelled gun at the train station and noped out of even visiting it during an Interrail exploration trip);
Sounds like you visited not too long after the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks. I've seen the same in London at times though.
I was at a book reading in a cafe in Berlin once and there was some sort of loud noise outside, firecrackers I believe. Some people flinched, some didn't. The reader said something to the effect of "watch the Americans in the room, when they duck, you duck too".
> Ireland (fear I might get blamed personally for the stupid done by British politicians, and the UK Gov was being loudly stupid about Ireland at the time
Just to be clear, this basically would never happen with most people. Now, the North of Ireland (the part still in the UK) might be a little different, but most Irish (i.e. republic) people couldn't give two sh*ts about where you're from as long as you're good craic.
Comedian Dara O'Brien wanted to name one of his shows something like "Good craic", but was told he couldn't because the British would colossally misunderstand.
It was bigger and scarier-looking than the ones I've seen anywhere in the UK, and if I'm now actually remembering those of St. Pancras rather than just imagining some, those were small compared to the ones in the airports.
Same here. But the way they just this week talked a foreign friend out of filing a PV is absolutely shameful. They fully abuse they fact that she doesn't know her rights that well and isn't as likely to push as a Dutch person might. Disgusting.
Ah, but that is a common trope I think. Is there any state, where police is held in high regards (and shows competence?). My experience with police in germany was a time waste as well.
I certainly considered the Netherlands… «maar ik kan een beetje maar Nederlands spreken» and I'm not even sure I'm supposed to use "maar" twice in that sentence or not.
(Sadly I don't even get to use the wonderful «Ik ben groot», because I'm only tall by non-Dutch standards).
> «maar ik kan een beetje maar Nederlands spreken» and I'm not even sure I'm supposed to use "maar" twice in that sentence or not.
“maar” can both mean “but” or “only” but you have to use it like this: «maar ik kan maar een beetje Nederlands spreken» literally translated as: «but I only can speak a little Dutch». A native speaker would use it twice.
Australian here, living in Austria (lived in Germany for a few years too).
You're missing out. Austria is so close to so many wonderful, foreign things. In Germany its very easy to introvert and never leave the village, mentally or physically - in Austria, its the same - but you can drive an hour in pretty much any direction and get the cold culture shock you need to make you appreciate what you've got.
A stint to Italy or Czech Republic or Hungary or Slovakia or Croatia for an afternoon will shake your bones loose of their cultural chains.
>Tech scene in Germany
Don't underestimate the Ruhrpott. Many ex-pats in Germany do, but its a mistake. The tech scene in Essen/Bochum/Duesseldorf is pretty hot, too ..
If you travel to NRW, you will get the special forces police units using those kinds of guns on train stations, specially in days where critical football matches are taking place.
That one. It's the only Bundesland commonly referred to by an acronym and I guess we are lucky that the English toponym still matches.
The other three-letter candidate (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is more commonly just shortened to Mecklenburg which isn't an option for NRW because the non-Westphalia part is the more important by far but "north-Rhine" wouldn't really work as a standalone name.
Acronyms for our various Saxonies would be rather awkward because both prefix-Saxonies would collide
prominently with an acronym already taken by nazism.
I'd say you see RLP in written form from time to time, but yeah, not "commonly". Also BaWü isn't an acronym but you're right, compared to other countries we're not really big on abbreviating the states it seems.
Yes. The official/technical abbreviation is apparently NW because German Bundesland abbreviations are two letters, but colloquially (and even formally on most occasions) everyone calls it NRW.
Incidentally when GP said the police "use" the guns at train stations, what they meant was "carry". The German "einsetzen" is more ambiguous about whether something is part of the loadout or actively used (I guess "deploy" is the closest equivalent). I'm fairly certain the guns aren't actually loaded (they're just too big to holster) but at times the Bundespolizei (the federal police responsible for train stations and ports of travel) will indeed carry H&K machine pistols.
Language barrier in both cases. Since moving to Berlin I've picked up tourist-grade Spanish — without looking at Google Translate, "Hola, una mesa para dos personas, por favor. Un hamburgar vegetario y un café. Graciás." — but not enough to function outside a holiday.
If I even know a single word of Swedish that's not a loan-word, I'll be surprised.
I don't know which country you're from, but the normal thing in the UK (where I'm from) is no gun at all, and when I've traveled abroad previously the most was a pistol.
There have been occasional exceptions in the UK, as noted in other comments, but in the case of what I saw in Belgium it was the combination of armed police being a rare experience for me plus the gun in question looking exceptionally large.
I've seen officers with SMGs (or something like that; I'm no expert) in the UK more than once. E.g. in an airport.
Better than that, though, I remember going to a cash machine in India and there was a security guard sat next to it with the longest, biggest shotgun I've ever seen. He gave me an incredibly relaxed nod and smile, and I got my money.
1. Friends here
2. Alternative countries were Luxembourg/Switzerland (more expensive); Canada (worse weather); Ireland (fear I might get blamed personally for the stupid done by British politicians, and the UK Gov was being loudly stupid about Ireland at the time); USA (weird culture, guns); Australia/New Zealand (too far from the old country to visit regularly); France (I find the language harder than German); Belgium (saw a police officer with a long barrelled gun at the train station and noped out of even visiting it during an Interrail exploration trip); or somewhere where I hadn't even started learning the language.
That left Austria, which was an option, but Germany was bigger and I didn't want to risk having to move country for work before getting a permanent right to remain in the EU, which I think I need another 6-12 months for depending on what exactly counts.
Alternative cities within Germany: many pretty options, but the tech scene is mostly here, and also the friends.