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Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

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Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#161

Post by kaybe »

enqk wrote: post #88
bitL wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heuristics for train delays: Does the train pass Frankfurt? Add 15-30 minutes. Otherwise expect your train within 5 minutes of its scheduled arrival/departure.

Yes unfortunately we made that experience many times. When you buy tickets from bahn.de, increase the default connection time, theirs is way too low and results in missed connections frequently.

More rules:

- Get as few train changes as possible. (Being a few minutes late is no issue if there are no connections to miss.)

- Any changes should be in big hubs. (You might be offered a route with a change in a smaller station, but if you miss the connection the next train might be hours off. If you change in a hub there will be many others.)

- Don't take the last connection of the day for the last leg of the journey, you might miss the connection and be stranded. Even worse if it's a small station (offices will be closed if there are even any there, there will be services like hotel and taxi somewhere but have fun finding them).

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#162

Post by cmrdporcupine »

mseidl wrote: post #156
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #155

Honestly it's getting to the point in North America that I'm seriously considering uprooting the family and transferring to my company's Munich office. My father is from Germany and I have cousins and aunts there. If I could dig up the proper birth certificates and paperwork I could probably get a passport. Quality of life seems like it would just be better. Unfortunately we have chickens, and a border collie ... so.…

I don't know what to do with the chickens. But the dog is easy to bring.

My dog has 6 acres to run right now... I can't imagine keeping this tasmanian devil in an apartment...

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#163

Post by burntoutfire »

cosmodisk wrote: post #48
looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

Well...The local operators,here in London,solved the stats issue this way: if a train is late, it skips many stations and still arrive to the end station on time. Guess what,all the stats are produced on first- last ststion basis...

What happens to people who want to onboard on the skipped stations?

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#164

Post by ben_w »

interdrift wrote: post #127
fefe23 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany does not have extraterritorial prison colonies. I think this is a combination of hyperbole and choosing the wrong word. Germany does have housing for refugees and asylum seekers while they wait for asylum to be granted or denied, and the conditions there might be construed as prison-like depending on your political point of view. Technically it's not a prison. Asylum seekers are not permitted to do paid work,…

Illegal migration is wrong and is rightfully opposed by many countries. There are procedures everyone must follow. Nobody is above the law, especially not if you're entering a country.

Illegal migration is tautologically opposed by all countries; moral statements like “wrong” are almost (but not quite) tangential to what the law say — there are many evils throughout history which were not only lawful, but where the opposition to them was illegal.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#165

Post by ben_w »

usr1106 wrote: post #94
netsharc wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it's quite easy to get a residence/work permit in the EU: https://www.apply.eu/BlueCard/Germany/Germany.pdf You more or less just need a university degree, a valid job offer, and you'll get a permit. For IT jobs they don't even demand that you're someone who's highly sought after in the field and whom the employer is willing to pay a lot more, the wage mentioned there is more or less entry level for IT gradu…

> Actually it's quite easy to get a residence/work permit in the EU EU has nothing to do with your residence/work permit. That is a national process and the rules differ (If you have a residence permit in EU you free to travel, but not to work in the whole EU.) We just discussed the issue at work (Finland) the other day. We get a lot of applicants from outside of EU and not many local ones. The official duration to h…

The EU blue card scheme doesn’t fully replace local immigration rules (and AFIK isn’t even fully deployed yet), it’s just an easy route for high-paid roles.

I’m expecting to apply for one post-Brexit, and the only reason I don’t already have one is that EU citizens aren’t allowed to apply.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#166

Post by lioeters »

croisillon wrote: post #108
looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

that reminds of an amusing time i went to buy a train ticket at dresden main railway station, back in 2003: - i'd like a ticket for the next train to prag - ok, 17:25 or 19:25? - but it's 17:30 already? - so what? the train is still on station

That reminds me of an amusing time I spent overnight at the back of the Munich train station, in the cold Autumn wind, with German homeless people (several spoke English) drinking beer.

The reason? Had to transfer from one train to another in Munich - it was around 7pm, I believe - and had assumed from cultural stereotype that German trains would be precisely on time. First one was 10~15min late, missed my connection, and the next one to my destination was the following morning.

The person at the counter suggested sleeping in the waiting room, which was full of people on the chairs and on the floor. Lesson learned..

Edit: The lesson is, as another commenter stated below, increase the time between transfers from the default in Deutsche Bahn's online reservation system.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#167

Post by 0xdeadb00f »

chillfox wrote: post #63
looki wrote: post #9

Regarding the trains, >They are usually on time and cover basically everywhere worth visiting in Europe. He has a very ungerman definition of usually on time :) There's probably not a bigger laughing stock in Germany than our trains (Okay, there is BER). The long-distance ones only arrive within 5 minutes 75% of the time [1]. If you have tight transfers to make, that can get very annoying. I also thought the ICE and…

I don't know about trains, but where I live in Australia buses can be up to one hour late.

Or they just don't show up at all.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#168

Post by nmnim »

zizee wrote: post #143
fit2rule wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also from Perth, lived around the world, including some years in Germany .. had the same set of observations. On this: >I always wonder why Australia seems such an angry place after travelling abroad. I think Australia has a lot of deep pain in its history, and in its culture, and this manifests in a hostility. Every time I go back, I wonder why its such an angry shithole. Australians just seem to be getting madd…

> Every time I go back, I wonder why its such an angry shithole. Australians just seem to be getting madder and madder... Anectdata, but the last German I talked to said "When i first arrived in Australia I was really confused by strangers smiling at me in the street and supermarket. My family doesn't understand it, but I want them to visit so that they could experience a different, more relaxed way of life."

Also anecdata, Germans don't smile at you on the street often but imo they're generally not very angsty. Australians smile often but have higher road rage and that kind of thing. British people neither smile at your nor do they have patience on the road etc. Worst lot.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#169

Post by nmnim »

burntoutfire wrote: post #163
cosmodisk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well...The local operators,here in London,solved the stats issue this way: if a train is late, it skips many stations and still arrive to the end station on time. Guess what,all the stats are produced on first- last ststion basis...

What happens to people who want to onboard on the skipped stations?

I'm not in London but up north, and it's the same here. In my experience you have to wait until the next connecting train, or buy a new ticket and catch a suburban train from a different company that takes 3x as long. This one is sometimes late and will skip your station. I've missed work (seminar teaching, short and time-sensitive, so not just a case of arriving late and staying late) because of cancellations and trains going through my station rather so they can be on time to Leeds or wherever.

Re: Moving to Germany as an Australian (2016)

#170

Post by dgellow »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #124

I moved from Perth to Berlin. The biggest thing that hit me was the alcohol. I can buy a (good!) beer at anytime (even 3am) for about 2 euros from a spati ("late shop"- like a deli but mostly selling beer), and then walk around in the open air drinking it. All the supermarkets sell alcohol all day(and so cheap). People gather by the canals in summer, just drinking and talking. No-one seems to get drunk, there's no vi…

> No-one seems to get drunk, there's no violence or shouting

That’s ... not my experience. I felt really safe in Berlin, even outside during the night in the middle of the city, but people definitely get drunk in bars and in public, really a lot by my standards. And with that you have the unavoidable shouting, random acts of violence, property damage. I enjoy Berlin but the place really has an alcohol issue IMHO.

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