The Ultimate Guide for Living in Germany

After carefully observing Germans in their natural habitat (on hiking trails, but not only), I crafted this 47 minute guide to life in Germany: the only guide you’ll need.
Enjoy.

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Timestamps and Chapters:

1. Culture and community

0:00 What did I know before moving to Germany?
2:35 Finding friends in Berlin and Germany
5:09 Life in German countryside
6:30 The sacred German art of work-life balance
8:35 “The German Dream”
9:28 Ze language, ja? Or why do you need vitamin B
10:55 Subcultures in Berlin
12:51 Radical right and left in Berlin and Germany
14:14 What’s up with burning cars in the streets, is it really safe?
15:38 Owning a bike and cycling in Germany
17:02 Dating in Berlin and Germany
18:08 Food and water quality
20:15 Customer service quality
21:07 Why expats are crying about air conditioning?
22:04 Why expats are crying about the weather?
22:43 German architecture
23:47 Germans love their cars!

2. Transportation

24:04 Public transit in Germany. It works!
24:58 What’s so special about German airports?
25:44 Do you need a car? And what it’s like driving in Germany?

3. Cost of living

26:47 How your income is taxed in Germany? (with examples)
28:58 The benefits of German social state
29:27 The healthcare system: the good, the bad, the ugly
31:37 What kind of taxes you’ll have to pay in Germany
32:20 Costs associated with owning a dog
32:56 Germany: the land of insurances
33:23 Food and what it costs
33:55 Renting an apartment in Berlin or welcome to hell
36:07 Buying property
36:41 Carsharing, car and van rentals
37:34 Tourist accomodation
37:54 Education is essentially free in Germany

4. Bureaucracy and corruption

38:37 The system… works?
39:27 What in the world is SCHUFA?
39:44 What’s the deal with all the bureacracy?
41:10 Digitalization
41:32 Germans and their love for coins
42:13 Why Internet is so slow?
42:52 Corruption in Germany
43:54 “German efficiency”

5. 10 years in Germany: a retrospective

44:33 Was it worth it? Thoughts.
46:36 What now?

#lifeingermany #berlin #germany

Before I embraced the German wild wild Countryside I used to live in the most depressing cloudiest dirtiest ugliest stinkiest simply the best city in the world Berlin you know you’re in Berlin when you can hear people swear in more languages than your brain can process in one single subway ride and if you’ve

Been to any major European city you know that you get to meet people from all over the world but more so in Berlin the city which people from more than 180 nationalities consider their home forget about German the more Central you go the more foreign languages you will hear English Australian

Even Canadian very funny I know seriously though besides English you’ll hear a lot of Turkish various Arabic dialects Hebrew Russian polish Mandarin all the major languages really and then some and now due to the magic of the geopolitical events now you get a solid dose of Ukrainian too now some people

Might argue Berlin isn’t Germany and they’re not entirely wrong I mean where else can you stumble upon an abandoned Factory turned into a techn club and Street artists turning a dumpster really into a piece of art uh not exactly what you imagine as a traditional German

Culture with Le hosen and Z not even talking about that one friend of yours who still Associates Germany with waral 2 and Hitler but to me it also was all new when I moved to Germany almost 10 years ago 9 and a half to be exact so

What did I know about Germany before becoming a Briner well only the most important things it’s the land of the autoban Kinder surprise and Michael Schumaker yes I’m that old and uh David hasselhof no he’s the night rider dude not the Superstar of the Berlin Wall I’m sorry talking about the wall before

Moving here I also knew that Berlin once was divided by a communist wall which wasn’t exactly inspiring me to move here in the first place look how that turned out Against All Odds I somehow survived the good N9 years in this wicked City and now as I’m

About to Bid Farewell to deand I think it’s time to share my Ultimate Guide to Germany with all its secrets so let me share all The Good the Bad and whatever of living in Germany get yourself comfortable it’s going to be a ride sprinkled with some personal anecdotes

And some practical tips so let’s get started the first few things I’ve grouped under the culture and Community category it’s going to be quite a few points here but just to make it easier to navigate since we’re already talking about Brin let’s see how the community life of this Babylon is different from

The rest of Germany well what about it first off once you settle down a bit probably one of the first things you will hear is something like oh my God it’s so hard to find friends here while there are enough people with the weirdest interest to find a match for

You what they actually mean is that it’s kind of hard to make deeper connections for various reasons a lot of people moved to the city just to study so they never planned to stay actually bunch of other people never invest time into learning language and culture some people don’t even put themselves out

There while others try too hard literally forcing themselves onto other people which rarely ends well it’s always easier to make friends when you’re younger I personally set foot on German soil as a naive kid heading into the 23rd year of life after landing at BR a

Which has even closed since still I had to be willing to actively go out and look for my gang to hang out with at the local coffee shop which spoiler alert never really happened who would have known that in the real world people rarely hang out at the coffee shops

Every day I uh didn’t put that much effort into it quite frankly and being more introverted I don’t feel the need to hang out with a lot of people in fact I kind of need a lot of time to recharge after all kinds of social Gatherings so instead I prefer fewer but deeper

Connections but here’s the thing briners or maybe adults in general have this peculiar way of having friends for specific activities only the best way to find friends is to build a relationship around that activity you already enjoy doing it seems with time it might grow into something more keyword being might

So don’t be surprised if your relationship forever stays bound to that one activity but yeah that could be quite frustrating that you cannot spend time just hanging out outside of those activities especially when responsibilities come in between like family over the years I managed to establish what I perceive as genuine

Friendship connection true but here comes a curveball that’s good another that may be somewhat unexpected thing that will make your friendships harder is distance I would speak for the majority of berliners here when I would say they love to stick to their neighborhoods and never get out so if

Your friend moves out to another neighborhood or District say a 40-minute train ride or bicycle ride it could feel literally like a CrossCountry adventure for some so maybe what you need is an idealic Countryside camaraderie where everybody knows each other and you’re passionately waiting for that one time

In the month when Uncle jerk brings out his accordion for the joy of the crowds and it’s true the smaller the community the more connected people usually are so if you get out to the countryside it might be somewhat easier to say social people get together for celebrations

Flee markets help each other and gossip organize daycare for kids and whatnot and if you see where I’m going well the crowd is usually a bit more mature read older and while Sunday shopping in the American sense at least doesn’t really exist in cities even you will soon

Discover that Rural Life offers even less variety restaurants small kiosks ores as they call them in Berlin are open some of them even 24/7 but don’t expect it from small village somewhere in the middle of nowhere here some shops might be open just for a couple of hours

On Saturdays and even during the week they usually open later and close earlier so like around 4 usually it’s already closed in the place where I was staying it didn’t even have a supermarket or a pharmacy store there shopping for clothes just do it another day man so why is your favorite store

Selling [ __ ] you don’t need anyway closed on Sunday you might ask well you might hear people throw around cultural religious historical reasons but in the reality of the 21st century it’s a nod to the sacred German art of work life balance imagine a day where even retail

Workers can kick back relax and indulge in a little bit of me time it’s a collective understanding that everyone deserves a breather ensuring a fresh start in the work week I remember one time I was moving apartments on Sunday and uh the paper box I was carrying opened from the

Bottom sending all of its contents down the stairwell somewhat dramatically reflecting where my life was going at the time as I was collecting shed plates and glass a neighbor came out not just to help but he even brought me a bottle of cola nobody should be working on Sunday he

Said and it’s probably one of the nicest things a stranger ever done to me and uh it shows how kind people can be and how sacred Sundays truly are or maybe that guy was just really happy I was moving out finally I don’t know in general work life balance is something worth

Mentioning because unlike in the US where hustle is practically a national sport here you actually get to live a little you don’t live to work here there is actually a minimum 20-day paid vacation guaranteed by law and tech companies usually offer around 30 sick leave is also paid so means you don’t

Have to worry about how to pay your bills when you’re in a zombie like state of course high taxes have something to do with the hustle culture being vessely different but in general life here is more life than work oriented let’s see if this survives the test of time but at

Least this has been my experience during 2010s and the beginning 2020s when a friend of mine visited me from the US his comment after saying all of this was okay Europe is never going to catch up with the us but does it really have to catch up generally speaking I think it’s

Just different priorities not necessarily good or bad is just different same with comparing Asia to Europe or the US it’s just absolutely different culture different lifestyle different priorities you know like you’re supposed to have your average 2.3 children a white picket fence surrounding a split level house with a

Dog and a cat and a station wagon to take their little breasts to sports practice yes the good old American dream I’m talking about none of that here after years carefully observing Germans in their natural habitat I created this composite image of what I call a German

Dream picture this a spouse and a kid not necessarily your your by the way L and you’re legally married for tax perks of course the husband is regularly going on his business trips and she’s going to perfect her dance at the dance classes but crucially the marriage is intact

Both have corporate jobs IDE one of those bigname corporations like seens or Bosch or Volkswagen but if you’re a government worker you hit a jackpot job security good pay and pension wow all the neighbors Envy you but to get there you might want to consider learning the

Language yeah yes you can get away living your entire life in cities like Berlin without German but if you want to pay respect to the locals make it easier on yourself and more affordable too better speak the language and get to know people vitamin B is a German code

Word nobody really uses for B for connections it’s easy to discard it at first but let me tell you if you’re striving for something better than mediocre you better start expanding your network it will be handy anywhere from getting that specialist doctor appointment faster than in 4 months and

I’m not even joking arranging interior Renovations where you want workers to actually show up finding an apartment to rent instead of staying on a bench or a good deal on a mortgage for that matter not getting ripped off at the car mechanic getting a job getting rid of

Your kid to a kindergarten man maybe it’s an obvious thing to everyone everywhere and it’s kind of a general wisdom but to me it was such a revelation a bit late too it was one of those little things I was trying to escape from by moving to Germany in the

First place I wanted the system with clear rules that works so I can follow them and get a piece of cake well you get a piece of cake but it’s not going to be the best one don’t get me wrong the system generally works and you will

Be able to get all those things without connections but it will cost you way more time money and your nerves but hey at least these connections don’t have to feel forced kind of the good thing in Berlin is you get to meet people with all kinds of backgrounds there are so

Many any subcultures in berin I didn’t even know half of them existed from casual Festival goers to hardcore techn lovers from nerds of all kinds to oh I’m better than you shallow silly Ducks from the corporate office rats to anarchists so maybe it will take you time to find

Your groove but at least there is a variety to choose from another good thing is that while the rest of Germany especially outside of big cities can be quite conservative Berlin is welcoming and accepting of all kinds of weirdos maybe that’s why it felt like home for

Me you know like New York is known for crazy Street people and nobody notices when somebody’s screaming Etc well it can be just like that just with a German touch meaning sometimes they scream in German here instead but in all seriousness you will be accepted here

With all of your quirks and features and what I mean by that is that they won’t care about you you can dress up as whatever you want be whoever you want and do whatever you want as long as you don’t harm anyone this is kind of like an unspoken social agreement here don’t

Worry there are ghettos for normies here as well moving more into rural areas it gets more conservative of course I even get approached once by somewhat not so sober lady who faed the urge to let me know that I’m Not Jesus and uh if I wanted to get chicks

Around I should have better cut my hair I mean okay maybe she was right but normally you wouldn’t hear anything like this in Berlin oh people will judge you all right it’s just that nobody will tell you point fingers or beat you to death for that matter with some

Exceptions maybe a lot of people move here escaping from all the dictatorships around the world where they cannot express themselves freely or simply fleeing from war and violence thanks to the open-minded General culture here people use it as a safe harbor where they can try and live in peace and not

Be afraid to be themselves Berlin is known as the queer capital of Europe and is competing for the world title for example if you have left leaning views especially of a more radical kind it’s a perfect place for you too here you can enjoy the benefits of the western

Civilization and the welfare first state all the while talking about smashing capitalism expressing your love to Marxism and all the goodies that come along with it the rattling is scene is not viewed as favorably especially by the media but the media’s strategy of explaining the dangers of radical right

Views is utterly pathetic and outdated which along with downplaying the dangerous of radical left and incompetent politicians on many levels in the last decades led to a seriously concerning rise of that one rightwing party the party that uses populistic slogan easy to digest and relate to for the general population that’s how they

Gain popularity sounds familiar huh as we know countries like Putin’s Russia and PRC under she are only happy to add fuel to any existing fire so don’t be surprised to see a growing divide here as well to the benefit of those who want to see the western civilization fail

Whoops this got political real fast but don’t worry I’ll keep it to Absolute minimum besides hey this is my perspective and I feel like it’s absolutely necessary to make at least somewhat complete NOS picture so Berlin being so bed in political context meaning diverse is not a new phenomenon

The city has always attracted the best minds and political activists from the entire Spectrum [ __ ] sto with creative people of all kinds remember Berlin is a city of revolutions and in times where we are in a phase of uncertainty and tectonic political changes on the global scale if things start escalating my bad

Is you will see some Street action in Berlin sooner or later you don’t need an excuse to burn down a couple of cars on the street even in peaceful times after all this happens not even related to any protest or Street violence kids do it just for fun from time to time some

Might do it as a revenge or I can imagine for insurance reasons too no it’s not as bad as the pictures you see from France every now and then the protests in the last decade have been vly peaceful but the point I’m trying to make is the potential to explode is

There and although I want to believe people here are generally calmer and will be able to figure out what’s going going on the reality is when things go out of control it’s hard to bring people to their senses according to Bard over the last 40 years there have been an

Average of 3.8 Terror attacks per year overall in Germany versus 1.6 in Berlin alone most of these are done by right left and islamist extremists the trend is somewhat declining but what do these numbers mean well essentially they mean you’re more likely to get hit by a bus

But good to know this is the world we live in huh so is Brin safe well it is but I mean Common Sense applies okay don’t go in the middle of the night somewhere under a bridge into the darkness allra stopped in the leather suit all right and oh God don’t get me

Started on bikes especially if you plan on owning one in Berlin over the years I got only two stolen which is not bad at all by local accounts so don’t leave your bike outside for long and make sure to lock it if you hope a local Sherlock Holmes is going to investigate the

Curious Case of your stolen bike well sorry to break it to you but it only happens in fairy tales and the only kind of fairies you’re going to meet in Berlin are far different from the ones you read about in Peter Pan book Welcome to the Real World Jackass the cycling

Infrastructure is great though not as smooth and seamless as in the Netherlands some obnoxious Ducks would notice but to be fair Germany is more than eight times bigger than the Netherlands and given its population density its infrastructure is quite impressive and it’s getting better every year besides the Netherlands are going

Underwater soon anyway so the joke is on them let’s see what they say when they all turn into rates and come swimming to Germany to look at all the beautiful bike paths they won’t be able to ride on anyway because they would be well mermaids there are various activist

Groups and bike lobbyists to keep on building the cycling Network and make sure the existing one is getting safer and more convenient most of the drivers are aware of you on the roads and unless you jump under a truck or like yours truly get doored you will deeply enjoy

Cycling some including myself even do it in winter just for the sake of annoying car drivers seriously though it’s safe here unless you decide you want to have some Jaga Jaga and chill action here could be worse you might want to settle down with a lifelong partner and why

That would be dangerous you might ask oh because the process of looking for a partner might lend you in a mental institution that’s all meet the dating apps that’s right we talked about making friends now let’s talk about making uh kids or whatever that is you’re looking for in your relationship really

Now the good thing is you have all kinds of people in these apps the bad thing is you have all kinds of people on those apps but listen you just got to be honest with yourself first understand what you really want at whatever stage of your life you are and

Make it clear in your profile and then just roll the DI put in the work and you might still end up alone and under a bridge so why bother might as well go to one of those creepy places with dolls and robots sounds like fun but enough

About me let’s talk about food everybody likes food right food quality is generally great here every American immigrant will tell you that I will add that you can find food for any budget whether it’s organic glutenfree Halal corser vegan handpick fair trade salt-free sugar-free fat reduced handmade potato chips or some sausage

Made out of what remotely resembles meat but hey at least it would be cheap the point is in the German social State you are unlikely to die of starvation what you are way more likely to die from is the bureaucracy but we’ll discuss this topic in more detail later the tap water

Is also drinkable and while many cities unofficially compete for the status of the cleanest water from the tap the reality is well you can drink it once in a while in cities like Berlin doesn’t really mean you should it’s really hard water here and everyone especially ladies out there will complain how hard

Harsh it is on your skin and hair and my suspicion is it’s not a blessing for your kidneys either so using a filter for that tap water is kind of a must unless you’re planning to mine those stones from your kidneys later down the line the food though is really great in

Big cities especially in Berlin you get to try Cuisines from all over the world of course the expats will cry about how oh it’s not the same it’s not original uh to which I have to say three things first in any country the same recipe is cooked slightly different ly

In every family it’s a fact deal with it second you can put in some effort and most likely you will find that authentic Place representing home food you crave at least with 85% accuracy not good enough go back to where you came from or better yet open your own place and do it

The way you see it and three to me as a person coming from a place where restaurants used to be of basically two kinds sushi restaurants and just generic food restaurants it was mind-blowing to discover everything from African fast food through Middle Eastern guso dishes all the way to those Argentinian little

Sweet things whatever they are called and even M te no not the German wobbly kind it’s fantastic really in Berlin you can go every week to a new kind of restaurant for a year and you will not get bored with some effort you can even find some traditional German food you

Can forget about customer service though it’s literally non-existent I had to leave a restaurant on a couple of occasions simply because the waiter didn’t bother coming over could be of course they despised me but more likely the waitress is yet another aspiring artist and has her own head full of all

The art projects she’s working on besides the romance drama she’s going through and here you are showing up expecting them to smile get a life on the other hand nobody’s shoving a tablet into your face asking to select between 20 and 20 100% tip so is it safe well

For the most part yes you don’t see gutter oil reports you get from the good old PRC nowadays for example but don’t be surprised to see toilets completely ruined as if Russians tried to you know liberate them and that guy uh Chef not using gloves while making you a donor

All this talk about food makes me feel a bit hot all right that’s because there is no air conditioning in Germany everyone coming from anywhere really is bitching about it the thing is the summer here is tempered there might be four or five weeks of really hot days

Tops and for the most of the cases a simple fan works I get to like this approach over the years because let’s talk about about the unspoken downside of air conditioning the window Wars people crank up the AC and seal off their Windows leaving you gasping for a

Breath of fresh air not to mention the sad reality of most AC filters which haven’t seen a cleaning since bismar was in power so it’s healthier for you STFU and here’s a little secret for you Germany is a bit more on the Cloudy side when that rare golden orb makes an

Appearance you’ll witness a phenomenon people emerge from their dwellings like Bears waking up from high hibernation flocking onto any patch of grass even if it’s modest 5° C outside so guess what is another thing almost every expert is bitching about the weather gred it’s The Fall season the beautiful Autumn nice

And yellow and everything but if you’re used to Summers when it’s all sunny and warm outside you might be disappointed also summer kind of lasts here from June to September maybe if you’re lucky but the winter season is pretty much starting in October and lasts all the way through April sometimes may dark

Cold wet winter no snow it’s going to suck man unless you may be somewhere in the mountains but uh that’s pretty much what you have to deal with and other reasons for air conditioning situation is that there are a lot of rules and regulations in Germany some of them

Saying you’re not allowed to ruin a facade of an old building with that ugly piece of plastic crap air conditioning usually is don’t worry the scary rules you hear like people wait for the green light are not the bad in practice at least not in berland of course it’s not

A JW walking Mayhem I’ve experienced when I was in London but Common Sense applies I wrote a thread on uh threads if that’s still a thing exactly on this topic coming back to air conditioning free walls that’s one of the things I greatly enjoy in Germany architecture

It’s different from one federal land to another I grew up basically surrounded by what’s left of the Great Prussian architecture don’t confuse with Russian reminds me a bit of City 17 where old blends with new and even somewhat futuristic frankly I love this Bland of course some parts are uglier than others

But overall it’s always interesting to explore the city you will notice that Quadra practi good applies here more than in the aforementioned Netherlands where they just seem to show off with almost every building they create Rich bastards what else except old buildings and old FS you’ll see a lot of in

Germany old cars that’s right old American German and other European cars of course some from the gdr and even good old USSR they love their oldtimers as they call them and lucky car owners enjoy lower taxes than those talking about cars slowly sliding into the transportation category I guess you

Don’t need one in any major city if you live centrally there is especially in cities with countless car sharing options but even in smaller towns public transport is usually really good clean and well thought through of course a lot of people keep complaining how do ban the company that operates the railways

Is [ __ ] and how their train was 2 minutes late but the reality is given the extensive network it’s impressive it works well most of the time of course I could mention that one time I had an itinerary with multiple connections and the very first of them failed because

The driver did not show up to work oh I guess I just did seriously though public transit just works Google Maps will tell you when the train is coming Etc the only thing missing from Google Maps is maybe the GPS tracking of specific TRS and buses in real time even my mom says

It’s hard to get lost here because there are signs maps and information screens every everywhere and airports well they’re just regular airports with good connections because a Germany’s geographical location and B there are a couple of huge International hubs like Frankfurt airport with longdistance connections my favorite airport was

Unfortunately closed a few years ago I liked it because it was like a boss stop you go in get on a platee and leave simple and efficient and it was in the city the modern airports usually sucks suck because it takes 2 hours to get there and after going through always

Understand security you always have to suffer going through what I call a gas chamber you know that section in the airport they sell all the crap in nobody really needs with all that cologne and I don’t know what else with that horrendous stench and if you buying any

Of that crap you are complicit in the crimes against humanity anyway the further you go away from the cities the more you will feel the need for a car in some Villages it’s even a must the one I stayed in you could get away with a bicycle for your daily shopping GP gym

And so on but the option are really limited and driving in the countryside is quite enjoyable though unlike in the city of course it’s still very civilized in cities compared to some wild countries out there I personally observed the situation at a four-way intersection where cars approached from

Three sides and everyone was so Uber polite that they couldn’t decide who should go first oh after you man oh no no no you first oh no after you madam oh Jesus still better like this than the absolute chaos you see in some countries roads are mostly safe and well

Maintained it always amuses me to hear morons to talk about Construction in cities I mean what do you want you need maintenance to get your [ __ ] running besides who pays for That Sweet infrastructure that’s right your taxes so you better enjoy seeing them go to something you can benefit from talking

About benefits let’s address the elephant in the room it’s generally known that taxes are quite high in Germany but you get what you pay for right the water is clean the trains are on time time and the internet is Fast and the roads are clean and smooth right

Well kind of it’s definitely a pleasant stroll on most of the streets everything generally looks really nice and beautiful in a lot of places but you look a bit under the surface and you’ll find a lot of points for frustration but let’s not jump ahead of ourselves we’ll talk about bureaucracy corruption and

German efficiency a bit down the line and now let’s see how the tax system works first off it’s worth mentioning that if you have so called mini job where you get € 520 per month you pay no taxes on it but health insurance is not covered if you register with an

Employment office they will cover it for you but that’s a separate big Topic in itself and so let’s say you have um a 60-year gross salary which is not bad by German standards 60k is an okay pay for a few years worth of experience in Tech a Tex driver for comparison gets around

25k but this is very approximate and without tip Maybe 28k is more like it the same goes for drinks food delivery drivers for contrast a cop with a bachelor’s degree be earning something around 50k it varies also a little on a federal land and a bunch of other

Factors a doctor like a real one the one that makes surgeries and stuff can earn something around 80k maybe a 90 if there is more interest on the topic uh in the comments I might make a separate video giving you an overview of who makes what approximately in Germany so coming back

To our 60k 60k is what you negotiate about to your employer you will actually cost about 20% more so with a gross salary of 60k you cost your employer slightly more than 70k meaning they pay more taxes even before you see it anywhere on your check after all the

Taxes and M contributions you will have around 37k left this would be the net amount that you get in your bank don’t forget about that value added tax you pay for the most of the stuff you buy wink wink but don’t worry about it everyone is in the same system everyone

Is paying it so this is just how it works and you get all the benefits of the social state for example health insurance with minimal dental coverage is already covered in the setup I just described and for the medicine you have to pay yourself unless it’s absolutely

Necessary you know that’s stuff that you will absolutely need or you will die so when you do die they say that they actually try to help you can extend HealthCare coverage with a private health insurance instead of a compulsory one but it’s a huge topic on its own and

I wanted to give more of an overview here than and an in-depth breakdown but to sum it up it’s great to have most people insured and not having to sell your liver to get your leg patched up good luck getting a specialist appointment with that compulsory insurance though a psychological

Therapist or a dermatologist for example might have waiting times of 6 months easily with private insurance you will get to see a professional much faster and more times than not they will also be actually well professional a couple of examples for you with my compulsory Insurance when I got miniscus problem in

My knee a minor problem but still needed operation they just told me to come to the hospital myself while working for me was really painful which I somehow still managed to do just to wait in line for good 5 hours before getting an x-ray and to see a dock for literally 2 minutes

Who just said uh go home it’s going to be fine drink some tea and if it’s still not fine in a couple of days come back again needless to say all the walking didn’t really help my knee in the slightest in fact it’s gotten much worse but you can consider me lucky because

Someone I know told me even a better story about his adventures in German hospitals when he came to a hospital suffering from pain in his guts they just gave the standard German doctor advice go home and drink some tea which he promptly did just to call an

Ambulance a few hours later to save him at the last minute from a bursting appendix and mind you he’s a German for what it’s worth and how about my mom who was in shock and disbelief after having gone from a GP to an eye doctor to a

Skin doctor to a hospital and still haven’t got gotten any help for a quite significant rash and swelling all around the eyes and they didn’t even prescribe tea in the end she had to go back to the GP and beg for at least some kind of prescription which finally worked a

Little advise here always exaggerate with any doctors or they would give a flying duck and get to know people and maintain good relationships with them a nice gesture in a form of a fruit ball goes a long way in Ukraine I consider this corruption and never really understood it but having experienced how

Things work here I don’t know what to think about this anymore I mean you do want to thank people if they genuinely helped you right oh got a bit carried away here but don’t worry taxes don’t end with an income tax so we also got property tax tax on your car and your

Dog yes you’re getting taxed for owning a dog the hated public broadcast tax which technically is not a tax but kind of is in practice the capital gain tax the dividend income tax the interest income tax the rental income tax or what about sax tax yeah because the oldest

Profession in the world is legal in Germany of course you have to pay tax on it as well but let’s go back a little because yeah you heard that right you pay taxes on dogs which I think settles the debate on the topic who’s better cats or dogs but your expenses only

Start off taxes as evidenced by the fact that even getting an animal from a local shelter will cost you a symbolic but still a fee it’s it’s not like in Ukraine where when your cat dies you just go on the street and pick yourself another one no in fact there are no

Stray cats or dogs here at all for that matter you are more likely to see a fox or a rabbit in the city than a cat and since you’re already paying a tax on your dog you might consider buying health insurance for your furry body no

It’s not mandatory but it might be worth it especially if it gets in trouble a lot and if it gets in trouble in terms of destroying somebody’s property consider a dog liability insurance on top of that and whoops it looks like we stepped into the land of insurances or

Germany as I like to call it except for the aforementioned ones you can also consider H I didn’t expect that the only one except for the mandatary health insurance you will need is liability insurance it’s not mandatory but a lot and I mean 94% of the population have it

And if you don’t they will look at you like you have an AQ lower than well them finally you paid all your taxes and ensured the health out of your butt and that got you hungry a square meal would set you back around €10 some fast food like a derner or Shava would

Be around €6 a meal at a somewhat nice restaurant with a possible drink will add up to €20 per person and Beyond of course cooking yourself always saves you money and you know what you put inside kind of you can survive on a couple of hundred EUR a months doing that for

Something like 500 you’d be eating pretty decently and healthy organic and all that after you have eaten you want to go home and take a nap oh wait you need to find a place to rent first H good luck with that seriously it took me almost a year to find my last apartment

In berin and it was still far from perfect as mentioned before you better know people and it’s still going to cost you a lot of effort as for money don’t expect to spend less than €1,200 a month on an apartment without Furniture unless it’s a 25 squ met [ __ ] hole that looks

Like a kij Bazi dungeon with no windows and no working hidden that price that I mention would be what Germans call V no it doesn’t mean the apartment is going to be warm as opposed to C cold it simply means the money on top of the rent that goes directly to your landlord

Includes also additional unavoidable costs like grto insurances Services of the elevator lighting and cleaning services in the common areas of the building and garden base cost for the cold water and sewage trash management and most of the time also heating because it’s hard to find an apartment

And because of the prices a lot a lot of not necessarily younger people live in Vegas a local term for shared Apartments when I moved to Berlin I was lucky to find one in just 3 days and it cost me around €400 a month all included looking

Back I got really lucky nowadays don’t expect to find anything under 600 and prepare to look for month it’s not as bad as what you hear from New York City or those tiny Japanese Apartments but it’s not a comid situation either don’t look for apartments on Craigslist nobody’s using it here except scammers

Your go-to places are immobil in Scout 24 V gig is Facebook groups and maybe CL less popular towns might have a better situation but Berlin currently sucks in this matter especially if you’re young and single you’d be competing not just with high earners but also with couples

And people with more German names than yours so good luck dude also anecdotal but still one duck didn’t want to rent out an apartment to me because my income was too high for his taste and and he thought that I should have rented his other more expensive apartment he knows

My personal situation better than myself of course that gives him the right to decide how much money I should spend on an apartment what can I say if you decided you want to settle down and buy your own place instead it’s a huge topic of course but maybe you’ll find

Something starting from 200k unless again it’s somewhere so remote not even star link is going to help you connect to the rest of the world or there is something else absolutely wrong with it the prices have risen significantly and I mean like doubled in some cases in the

Last 10 15 years so I’m not sure if it’s worth it at this point anymore like I mentioned in the city you don’t need a car and I didn’t have an experience buying a car personally but if you do want to get out to countless lakes or to

The Sea for a weekend there are car sharing options I recommend registering with a couple of the biggest ones to have options to choose from if you need the car for longer than a few hours or minutes booking ahead from a regular big famous car rental company is always a

Safe and cheaper betat what I really like though is the option to rent a car from a private person you can get a Tesla for €90 a day for example or something exotic sometimes which is pretty sweet what I liked even better was trying out van life without owning a

Van if you book ahead and are not too picky you can get yourself a van for under 100 years a night and go traveling around Germany and even Europe I did it myself a couple of times and those were some of the best days and moments of my

Life really might make a report on it one day too bad I didn’t film much click on the affiliate Link in the description to get €30 added to your balance and Van away without the burden of actually owning a van if sleeping in a van is too

Wild of an idea for you a hotel price of €1 a night in tourist hotpots is quite normal sometimes it’s the minimum really so if you’re looking for a more affordable stay you might want to check out rooms on Airbnb hosts rooms on viig and local Facebook groups now having the

Living space sorted so you don’t have to sleep on a bench after paying all the taxes and insurances it’s time to get rid of your lar so you can actually enjoy life a little luckily For You kitas Daycare kindergarten school and higher education are essentially free in

Germany at least compared to the US system you still need to pay for food extra extracurricular activities and such Dam who wrote the script but it’s still great to know you won’t be skinned for just trying to educate yourself or attempting to get your little bread a better life students also get some

Discounts like reduced public transportation tickets Museum allows Etc don’t you worry you want get an easy pass you will still have to fight bureaucracy and deal with human factor just the same scarcity of good places under the sun takes its tall so don’t think it’s a paradise before we wrap

This up a dishonorable mention of German bureaucracy my favorite topic of them all I can [ __ ] about it forever and funnily enough until relatively recently I didn’t think it was a problem at all that is until I had almost lost my sanity in the recent years and let me

Tell you why let’s start with good things generally the system works there are laws and rules tools which are relatively easy to find on the internet along with an algorithm for your actions in case you need something from the government you don’t need to bribe anyone to get your basic services and

It’s just amazing many people take it for granted but it’s kind of magical how people cooperate to keep the 80 million people economy running from a user perspective in most cases you book an appointment online if you can find it there is hello Burg appointment memes

You get to the office maybe you’ll have to wait a little but the point is you’ll get what you need provided you have collected all the documents the credit score system referred to as shua is there to ensure you’re not dealing with frauds if you want to rent out an

Apartment for example sounds great uh why do I need to pay for it if any new landlord requires it when you’re looking for an apartment I don’t know so like I said the system works but the problem is probably with any bureaucracy is there is little incentive to improve things so

From what I can see from the outside there is either a complete lack of system in place that works on streamlining processes or it’s not working really well or possibly people in the system are not even motivated to improve the situation too much because who knows maybe some jobs won’t be

Needed anymore because of the improvements and nobody wants to lose their job another example Germans love to talk about protecting environment and recycling stressing on the talk here but when the rubber hits the road they send tons of mail around yes the snail mail

As they call it oh they just love it I have had a nice conversation with the bank ones where I would send them an email and they would reply to me a few days later VIA mail what why not even once we could respond like this for a

While well at least they responded wasting humongous amounts of paper in the process I was even asked once with a genuine curiosity how come I don’t have a printer at home like how do I even survive but what was driving me almost literally insane for years was when I

Applied for citizenship I would not get a response from several months to half a year sometimes longer and when I did get a response message they wouldn’t let me know what they actually expected from me besides the official requirements I already knew until a year later and countless follow-ups from my side

Digitalization has been a buzzword for at least a decade in Germany and oh my God how slowly it’s moving at least you can send emails to most government offices nowadays instead of mailing them in but it really started changing during all the lockdowns they will still

Require you to send some papers in or reply VIA mail but hey the progress is there and could be worse pigeon or all post maybe the next favorite thing is probably cash small business owners love cash because authorities can’t track all of it hence no need to pay tax on all of

Your turnover some justify it with privacy but come on do you you really need to pay with coins on the supermarket Germans love their coins they even build Special slots for those coins in their cars you will need those round relics of the Roman Empire almost everywhere from unlocking a shopping

Cart at the supermarket and paying for parking to buying tickets and trams and that fluffy thing at a local flea market thank God a year or two ago they finally started installing somewhat modern Bay display machines yes it’s 2020s we’re talking about the Internet is slow in a

Lot of places because on the one hand you want the streets to look clean and nice so all the infrastructure is hidden under the pavement on the other hand it means more bureaucracy as you need to get a bunch of permissions to dig up all the cables and replace them with the new

Ones to get your internet speed above 15 megabits per second and that’s Berlin it’s progressed a lot in 10 years but still I was shocked coming to one of supposedly the most developed countries in the world to find the state of things like this in third world countries they

Don’t care they will throw the cable over the building walls then bam you get your th000 megabit per second in no time looks ugly though so pick your battles corruption as I said is not so apparent but make no mistake it’s there to get an apartment in places like Berlin people

Are getting desperate for some it makes sense to pay 1 2,000 maybe more just to get that apartment in a sweet spot instead of waiting for years for buying properties I can imagine the numbers are much higher this is a rare example though most of the corruption happens in

The upper echelons Berlin airport is a huge example where Contracting companies were milking the budget money for years with little to no repercussions another huge Scandal is comx and you can look at up yourself it’s just a tip of the iceberg we’re talking billions of Euros

A year every year it happens all the time on smaller scale with smaller Federal and local projects it’s just that nobody gives a damn don’t even getting started on the Nord streams and bringing the country into dependencies on the Russian gas and markets or spreading Russian disinformation and

Twisted reality via the very same public broadcast channels citizens are obliged to pay this TV tax for another more tangible example of German efficiency when you enjoy seeing where your tax money goes is when you see a guy trying to make graffity or rather leave one of

Those ugly tags nobody needs and how many police cars do you think arrive at the scenes to detain the unarmed guy three four what about seven that’s right that’s seven police vehicles with a couple of officers each why I don’t know but when your bik gets stolen from your

Seller with breaking and entering which is a criminal offense by the way they they don’t even show up at your place to ask the witnesses sending a letter in a couple of months that oh the case is closed we couldn’t do anything enough about all of the negativity or what I

Call My Reality uh I think I might need a donor just to recover from thinking about all of that stuff so has my impression changed over the 10 years of living in Germany it has most definitely evolved along with me Berlin did Chang a lot entire neighborhoods Rose and not

Somewhere on the outskirts but in the city center a lot of lot of places got heavily gentrified empty postwar and post burin wall spaces between buildings keep disappearing two airports got closed greatly improving air quality especially in Teel and wedding areas the city has gone through two huge waves of

Refugees Syria and Ukraine the city population has crossed the pre-war Mark for the first time and keeps on growing when I arrived the craziest post brillian wall days were just about gone but I still enjoyed exploring the old abandoned buildings old gdr and West Berlin Vibes and even experiencing some

Of the craziest parties in my life I met a lot of smart creative and really interesting people with some of whom I’m still in touch to this day and I’m grateful for all the experiences good and bad that let me evolve and understand myself better history is

Still very much in your face at every corner in Berlin I still can’t believe I used to live just a few blocks away from the place where one of my all-time favorite movies D cabinet this Dr Kari was shot but don’t worry there are enough buildings and streets with Rich

History for everyone the people living here have interesting lives so if you’re a curious person you will definitely not get bored here it definitely did get more expensive and over time the city almost lost that poor but sexy Vibe so if you’re looking for that dii or other

Smaller places might be a better alternative of course I just scratched the surface with this video and there is so much more to unpack and so many stories to tell so if you’re done to hearing some of them with my no [ __ ] approach drop a comment on what topic I

Should expand I feel like I grew up in Berlin spend my 20s really and despite all the things I have jokingly hate about the place it’s the only spot where I feel kind of like home and um it will always have a special place in my heart

So I’m not saying sayara just yet I hope it’s more of aine meaning until we meet again this video will be going live after I will have already left Germany I’ve gotten myself this little passport over here and it allows me to travel to most of the countries in the world and

I’m finally getting myself out there on this path so more interesting stuff to come stay awesome and don’t stop exploring till the next Time