What's It Like Living in Germany as an American? 1 Year Review First Impressions

After 1 year of living in Germany as Americans, we reflect on our first impressions of living in Germany and see whether or not they still hold true after living abroad in Germany for 1 year.

⏩ CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
0:18 Ugly Buildings
1:11 Bike Infrastructure
1:56 Drinking in Public
2:36 Sundays
3:21 Red Lights
4:08 Recycling
4:56 Green Space
5:34 English
6:09 Meal Times
7:01 Beer

👩🏽‍💻👨🏼‍💻 CONNECT WITH US

🤔 WHO IS MY TRAVEL BF?
We are Mike and Becca, two passionate travelers who love traveling deep and experiencing a place through its food, history, and culture.
#germany #expatlife #expat

[Chatharina]

Wow, the first time i see a video about living in Hannover. Did not expect that :-) My opinion is that Hannover is not a touristy city - but a city worth living in. Not much places where you stand in awe and make photographs, but overall a ton of positive places to just live. Eilenriede, Welfengärten (we grilled there for years every weekend in the summer, not a lot of cities where you can just go outside your house and in the park next to you in five minutes and do that) Herrenhäuser Gärten, Maschsee, a lot of museums, a lot of festivals. And i think it is beautiful as it is. I like to live here very much.

[DJFalkoHannover]

Super nice to see somebody reviewing from my town, Hannover! And not - as usual - from Bavaria!

[asmodon]

I enjoy that Hannover is your reference point. Most other vloggers live in Bavaria or Berlin. Hannover is much more of a „normal“ German city.

[lhysander]

The traffic light thing is mainly to educate small children to use it savely. And we so used to it we just wait everytime^^

[hape]

Haha! You just taught me, a native German, a new word: *Fußpils!* That's such a nice example for the beauty of the German language, isn't it? In German, athlete's foot (a fungus infection) means "Fußpilz" (with a "z" in German, literally: "foot fungus"). We have only one word for fungus and mushroom: "Pilz". Some witty German made a new word "Fuß-Pils" for "Pils(-ener) beer to go", which every German understands immediately and must laugh when hearing it the first time due to the instant association with similar sounding athlete's foot.

4:08 Did you know that there are no longer any (as in "zero"!) active landfills for household waste in Germany (and in most EU countries)? There are old landfills from the 20th century that are sealed; their foul gases are captured and used for heating and/or electricity. Then there are landfills for construction waste, but only for bricks, mortar, stone and concrete, because rebar, wood and other materials (plastic, glass, etc.) must first be sorted out and - you guessed it - recycled. Even stones, bricks, mortar and concrete are now recycled in ever-increasing quantities as a substitute for sand and gravel in new concrete.

[McGhinch]

It is nice to have a review on your first impressions. Not many revisit these. Thanks

[Handletaken]

The Kiosk is almost entirely a Hannover concept.
My sister visited me when I lived in Hannover and she asked me why people told her to "piss off" when she walked on a red light. I told her that the were saying "pass auf" which means "be careful"! Ha. We still laugh.

[danielude]

As a former Hannover Citizen i enjoyed the video a lot ;-) BUT: I highly recommend the smaller towns and villages in the region (Region Hannover). For example the village of Rethmar where i come from. To make it even more convincing: we have a castle AND a beergarden/Restaurant :-) It`s beautiful for a daytrip!

[captainpollutiontv]

Im very glad that i learned english. It helps a lot. Many Germans speak english, too. We do start to learn it pretty early in school. Anyway. Welcome to Germany :D

[jasol]

cool that you‘re staying in hannover 👌

[NateHotshot]

Love these videos. Very nice to see an American in Germany living in Hannover (my town) and not berlin, Munich etc.

[marcoh]

Well done - Really like your post! Hope you continue to enjoy and explore Germany and Europe!

[BlissLovePeace]

Hey, let me know where you „grabbed that Fußpils“. I am definitely going to avoid that place … 😂

[robertkirk]

My first posting in the British army was Hildesheim which is as you know just down the road from Hanover.

[amedm]

Hi! I'm hoping to move to Munich soon. Any tips on how to find a furnished studio in Germany? Any popular sites?

[sergiobertoni]

Are you sure that in Spain is illegal to drink alcool on the streets? Been many times in Spain and never noticed...

[mandirosluet]

Latest Video of Architektur TV shows a lot of stunning beautiful old architecture still existing in Hanover

[HahaHaha-vsib]

My man really used Ihme Zentrum as background 😩

[t.d.]

Living in the area of Hannover for over 50 years, so I am a local. Drinking in public is allowed because this is a free country, well free doesnt mean that its normal to drink in public. No, its quite poor. Hannover is a bit ugly. Go to Braunschweig, just 30min east, very nice. Hannover is cheaper than all other major cities and we northern people are much friendlier than you think :-) Travel travel the world

[tomate]

Well, the ihme-Zentrum which you showed in the video is in fact one of the ugliest place in Hannover. 30 years ago it was a place full of live, but a lot went wrong there since than. And now it is what it is: ugly and nearly dead.
As someone who also knows Spain well, you can order _una jarra_ which is bigger than a _caña._