Living In Germany For a Month: What I Learned | Living Abroad Vlog | Germany

Germany is a country filled with good food, low prices and great travel experiences but not everything about it is amazing. In this travel vlog I discuss what Leipzig has taught me. Not just about Germany and German culture but also about how to travel in the future!

I've lived in Germany for about a month now and created a number of different vlogs about my experiences. In this one I stay honest and offer up not only the thing I enjoyed about Leipzig and Germany as a whole but also the thing I didn’t love. This country showed me what I’m looking for when I travel to another country and I intend to apply some of these lessons in the future.

As these travel vlogs continue I intend to go deeper into my personal experiences, how I ended up living abroad and how it’s changing my perspective. I hope to bring you more stories on everything interesting about myself and each culture I discover. Subscribe to see my nomadic/living abroad journey.

#travelvlog #livingabroad #germanculture #nomad #travel #germany

[radiopirat]

Hi Zac, thanks for your interesting perspective on Germany, especially Leipzig, my old home. I wanted to add one more thing: In Germany, the fares for public transport are high, especially if you buy the single ticket. In Leipzig, a one-hour trip costs EUR 3, that's right. But if you have more than two journeys within 24 hours, the 24-hour ticket is much cheaper. This costs EUR 8.40. It's the same with train travel. A state ticket (e.g. Sachsen-Ticket) which is valid on a weekday from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 a.m. the following day, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 00.00 a.m. costs only EUR 27.00. You can use it, for example, to travel from Leipzig to Dresden and back again on the same day. You can only use regional trains with it, but Germany has a very good regional express network. So if you take a closer look at the public transport fare plans, it's not that extremely expensive. Ask the locals!😊

[dnocturn]

I don't get why grocery stores being closed on Sundays might be an issue for travelers. All restaurants and cafes are open, all museums, art galleries and more cultural attractions are open, all major sightseeing attractions are open for you to visit; public transport is still working. You can basically do everything that you can do on every other day of the week, that is connected to tourism and traveling. Why is grocery shopping on a Sunday supposed to be so important? Especially for a traveler. Am I missing something?

[michaausleipzig]

Hey there! Leipzig native here, born and raised! 😊
Glad you liked my home town. I share your criticism of the very expensive local transport in Leipzig, even by german standards.
But: if you plan on revisiting Germany, in May a new nation wide ticket will be introduced. It'll cost 49€ and willbe valid nation wide in local and regional transport. It would have covered your trip to Dresden for example as well as all local transport in Leipzig. So for your next month here in Germany, 49€ is all you need. Only long distance and high speed trains are exempt.

[marisecraigg]

Just ran across your channel. Great video! Loved learning about the contrasts between Leipzig and Grenoble as well as your takeaways from each month! All the best in your travels and looking forward to the next round up!

[robwilliams]

I discovered your channel this morning and am enjoying your perspective, particularly about Germany as this is where I have lived for the past 24 years, have settled down, married a native 20 years ago and became a citizen ten years ago.

I hope that you don’t mind a little bit of constructive criticism about the costs that you mentioned. You really need to research public transportation more carefully if you are spending a month at a time in each country. You spent way more than you needed to in local transportation in Leipzig, and you could have visited Dresden for half of the cost than you mentioned. The Deutsche Bahn has a „Sachsen Ticket“ which costs 35€ for two adults, which can be used on all local/regional trains in the State of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thrungia PLUS unlimited use of the Trams, Busses and Subways in at least some of the cities. This ticket would not only get you both from Leipzig to Dresden and back, but to literally any other destination in the States. As far as local transportation in Leipzig, you shouldn’t have paid more than €8.40 per day max: the cost of an all day fare. You can also get a 7 day ticket for €29.90. But if you are spending an entire month (and assuming that you are there for the entire calendar mont), you can get a one-off monthly pass (not a subscription) for €86.90, which is less expensive than a single ticket per day. I know that you are no longer in Germany, but you can save lots of money and dramatically increase your mobility by doing some basic research about transportation options that are available in practically all European countries and in many other countries as well. Another way to economize on travel is to use long distance buses instead of trains. There is a Flixbus connection between Leipzig and Dresden for as little as €7.50 per person and direction. At the difference between €30 for the bus (if you can get the cheapest fares) and €35 for the Sachsen Ticket (with full flexibility to use any local train), the train option is most likely the better option, but it pays to research and compare.

[maeshellewest-davies]

From May, you can buy a month ticket for 50. It includes trains throughout Germany. You just can’t take the fast trains.

[antjeg]

transit: you can buy a "Deutschlandticket" which covers all local transit all over Germany for just 49 €. You don´t need to buy single ride tickets for 3 €

[Kivas_Fajo]

There are tickets not only for one ride. You could have bought a months worth ticket.
It would have been perhaps 50-80 bucks, but with it you could have driven anytime as much as you like the entire time.

[cesarparra]

Love your content! It's been super helpful.

We are heading to Leipzig in July/August and wondering if you have any recommendations for quieter, nature-connected neighborhoods with good transport links for accommodation? Any advice would be awesome!

🥰

[juwen]

I was wondering, what do you expect to do on sundays, cause the only thing you can't do is shopping. All restaurants and cafe's are open, you can go to the cinema or theater, you can visit a museum, a theme park or a spa. When the whether is nice of cause you can enjoy the nature like going to the beach, sitting in the park, cycling or hiking. Even most of the fests in germany happends on the weekends. So I really don't know, what touristy stuff you can't do? Please tell me.
Greetings from Berlin 😎

[ryker_solaris]

i will bet that this video will definitly gets a mio views in the next 10 years. because leipzig will get the next berlin and so it will automaticly gets more attention! really nice choice i had to say as a berlin citizen ;)

[OlivierRodriguez]

Cool experience... Thanks for sharing it, mate.

[reconquista]

I'm an American that has been living in Dresden for some time, and I'm sorry for your unfortunate timing! 😅 With the 49 Euro ticket, the cost and ease of travel would have been that much more worth it.
And, honestly, there's so much to see outside of the Leipzig area; Dresden, the Sächsiche Schweiz (particularly Hohnstein, Bastei, Königstein), Moritzburg, Schloss Pilnitz, Meißen, Bautzen, Görlitz, Halle, and a lot more hidden gems towards the west of Saxony that even I haven't been to.

The cost of living as a local is even better, really unbelievable. I pay 450 EUR/month for a two room apartment 10 mins from the city center by tram, and now only $49 EUR/month to travel literally wherever I want within the country.

I'm also surprised that you chose to temporarily move to "The American South" of Germany. East Germany (esp. Saxony) has a bad reputation compared to the rest of the country as being backwards and old. I hope you didn't get that vibe, because I sure don't! But if you ever come back to Germany, check out Bavaria and the Hanseatic North. The vibes of all German regions are wildly different (my favorite, but also the most expensive being Southern Germany), and you'll notice that when you compare it to your previous experience within Germany.

[walkingeverywherek]

You should definitely check out Bulgaria! Beautiful country, easy to get around and very low cost of living!

[Skamliker]

Heyy, I know I'm late to the party. Love your videos and insights, just found them today! It's always refreshing seeing someone from a different culture experience yours and see what they thought of it. One small criticism, it's minor really and I'm not sure if somebody mentioned it in a different video, but we put the € after the digits, 2€ for example. Anyway I know you moved on from europe and really hope you'll continue to have a great journey!

[wkaemena]

If you buy single tram tickets or same day plain train tickets they can be expensive and sum up. But there are daily, weekly and monthly tickets available which gives you a total freedom and unlimited rides in trams busses metros and local trains in your area/city for a much better price.

[LessonWorldTV]

Hi Zac!! YouTube suggested your video and I loved watching this and am now excited to go through your other videos, I have peeked at and subscribed☺️ HAPPILY!! I am a travel and food lover plus a content creator too. Looking forward to learning from and with you.All the best in your travels 🇿🇼💛💚💜🇬🇧

[emaildavinam]

I have spent five years on and off in Greece, and I just bought a home here. I am visually impaired, and even now I still learn things every day. I do speak Greek quite well, not fluently yet, but enough to not need English much anymore. Yes, there are a lot of things that you don’t pick up on when you don’t live somewhere, and with Greece, a lot of people just think about the beaches and the islands, and not the struggles people have when they live here or there from here. I have a disability, and in my case, I really notice it. I hadn’t picked up on the people looking at me before, or the disability here is still not very well excepted. I do quite a lot on TikTok, and since October, have faced a lot of bullying and not just online. As a disability advocate though, I’m hoping I can change attitudes little by little. And yes, here things are closed on Sunday as well, and on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

[polexwerex]

Hi! I think next time You should visit Poland, it’s just next to Germany. According what You described, so that destination might be what You exactly looking for. More exotic because different language. Much cheaper and more tasty and better food then Germany. Generally most of things are cheaper then in Germany. Very good transportation and half cheaper then in Germany. Very safe.I use to live 25 yers in Canada Montreal. I moved permanently to Poland since a year . I don’t want to go back to Canada. My friend also from Canada spent recently 4 months in Poland . 2 weeks before departure got depressed just to thinking to go back there. Good to try something new.

[boneskewer]

I think in may the 49€ ticket is supposed to launch. Then you could take any public transit to get around Germany (except for long distance trains like ICE and IC).

But I totally agree for the moment even in NRW getting from my hometown to cologne and back would be a good 32€.
Kinda rough for a total of 2 hours in the train.

For a group of 5 it’s 48€. Which is a lot better. But the new ticket starting in may is gonna help a lot!