The stained glass in the grand foyer of the building where I work depicts factories and space travel, alongside striking workers and their families. On the wall in the second grandest conference room is a vast hammer and sickle mosaic. Next door, in the grandest room...
The GW Expat Blog
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Chloe D
Healthy eating in the Hauptstadt
One of my favourite things about working on in Mayfair, London was that I was a stone’s throw from amazing health food shops and cafes. I loved popping out on my lunch break to pick up a sweet potato, pomegranate, and feta salad, or working my way through various...
Berlin Tip: Grand Opening of the Pfefferberg Theater Berlin
When I first came to Berlin in 2002, Pfefferberg was just about the coolest place I'd ever been to. Sitting out under the stars in the Berlin summer, drinking a good German beer, and listening to live music was for me the absolute height of sophistication. On the way...
Making a small contribution – refugees in Berlin
The situation is all over the news, it's what people are earnestly discussing over dinner, it has moved the country on a national scale - I'm talking about Europe's migrant crisis and the role Germany is playing. This is not the time nor place to be political. All...
Summer night at the Freiluftkino (open-air cinema)
A couple of weeks ago we had night without children (they were having a sleepover in the KiTa - worthy of another blog post). But what a rarity! Seeing a film was the obvious choice - prior to parenthood we went to the movies all the time. But it had been a beautiful...
Mahlzeit!
For the first time since we moved to Berlin over five years ago, I am required to go (most days, at least) to an office with lots of German people. Up until a few months ago, I'd either worked from home or from a small co-working space. But now, from behind computer...
It’s not quite cheese, it’s not quite yoghurt
I first heard of quark (such a wonderfully German name) 7 years ago in the "exotic" dairy section of a high-end UK supermarket in London. I was with my German husband. "Oooh" he exclaimed, with tangible excitement, "Look, quark - shall we get some?" I didn't have a...
Eggs on trees – 5 favourite German Easter traditions
I love Easter in Germany. It's full of decorations, rituals and get togethers - almost like a mini Christmas but with better weather promising the arrival of spring. It is a bigger celebration than anything I experienced in the UK. This could be because in my...
Berlin Suburbia: An Expat Guide
We decided against buying a fancy coffee machine when we moved to Berlin because right downstairs from our flat is a cafe which serves a good espresso; the coffee in the cafe two houses further is even better. At the end of our road is a gloriously big park and at the...
Tag der Deutschen Einheit: a view of Berlin 24 years on
As I sat looking out over the tourist boats on the Spree, drinking up the soft autumn sunshine, I had a flickering insight that this moment encapsulated much of modern Berlin. How fitting, I thought, for the occasion, and returned my mind to the conversation. This was...
Keine Gelegenheit versäumen – don’t miss your chance …
I remember that when I lived in Berlin for a year as a student ten years’ ago, I approached every conversation as a language-learning opportunity. Like a hungry caterpillar, I would gobble up more and more words whether talking to taxi driver or a philosophy...
A Golden Cup
Tomorrow one of the most coveted trophies in sport will come to Berlin. Today Germany woke up collectively hungover but with a jubilant smile on its face. Yesterday, just before midnight, the nation erupted into euphoria when the German football team won the World...
Co-working at first hand
Two years ago I wrote a post about co-working spaces and their blossoming popularity with Germany’s freelancers. Though the idea appealed, back then I was still enjoying the quiet and ease of working in my own living room. More recently my feelings changed - why, I am...
Green Sauce
The origins of Frankfurter Grüne Sosse (green sauce) are not entirely clear. It is largely believed that the Romans brought it from the Near East. But the route the recipe followed from Italy to Hessen (where it is today a celebrated local speciality) is disputed....
When a Brötchen is a Bömmel …
The definite preference in Germany may be for dense, dark bread made with various combinations of wholewheat, spelt, rye, seeds and nuts (it accounts for over 90% of bread consumption), but the small, white, crusty bread roll does maintain an iconic status - whether...
And the sky became a sea of light – Silvester in the Hauptstadt
A Scary New Year's Eve in Berlin We were lucky this year that the Berlin snow waited long enough for Silvester's detritus to be cleared away from the streets. In 2009/10 - the winter of the big freeze, when the pavements stayed covered in thick layers of ice and snow...
A new government for Christmas
Germany has a new government, and it's arrived just in time for Christmas. CDU, CSU and SPD will govern under Angela Merkel (CDU) in a Grosse Koalition (Grand Coalition). That Koalitionsvertrag I wrote about in my last post has been approved. The SPD party members...
On the way to a Grand Coalition (election story continued)
As I have written before, Angela Merkel and her right-leaning Christian Democrats (CDU) won the most votes in Germany's election on 22nd September. 10 weeks have now passed, and still a new government is yet to be formed. From a British perspective, it seems to be...
German – from Berlin to rural Hessen
Being a Yorkshire lass at heart who, despite many years in the south of England, has never managed to say a 'barth' instead of 'bath' or 'grarss' instead of 'grass', I am sympathetic to local dialects. In London, I loved hearing true cockneys with their staccato...
Without a voting card on Election Day
Yesterday - Election Day. I, as an expat, was merely a bystander. But that did not stop a familiar shiver of emotion running up my spine at the sight of people strolling to the local polling station, peacefully coming together to democratically express their hopes and...
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