Happy Pride Month! Let’s talk about how to celebrate Pride with pride in Berlin. We at Red Tape collected some info to help ourselves and you celebrate Pride by supporting its community.
*in Germany Pride is often called CSD or Christopher Street Day – read about that here.
A true sign of cultural assimilation is the ability to do the sauna like a pro – at least for this US American in Germany.
One of the first “warnings” I received as I arrived to Germany with a group of 30 other musicians, mostly North Americans, was about the sauna. “If you don’t take off your clothes, people will stare at you”. The idea of being naked in front of strangers was terrifying. So it would be a few years later before I gave it a fair chance.
Fast forward 8 years.
I’m going to break it down for you like I did to my American self – you need to chill, sauna is good for your mental and physical health, get over it and just go.
4. Afterwards
Listen to your body. Temperatures are listed on every sauna. Always lay down your towel on the wood before you sit or lay down, and make sure your feet go on your towel – with the exception of the *Dampfbad or steam room. These rooms have stone seats that you rinse off with water – no towels allowed. Don’t forget to rinse after every room. If you feel a sort of buzz or tingly sensation during your cooldown time, that’s your body working its magic!
![Why no clothes? A swim suit or even a towel get in the way of your body/skin properly sweating out impurities. Textiles can bring in bacteria that will grow a in hot sauna. You don't have to be naked the whole time! most of the time, you're lounging in a robe. Simply remove your robe/towel before entering the sauna room. If the room has wooden benches, sit or lay on a towel (feet too!) In a steam room or [Dampfbad], use the hose provided to rinse off a spot on the bench - no towels!](https://redtapetranslation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Why-no-clothes-2.png)
You could take a sauna buddy for moral support. On the other hand, I freaking LOVED my solo sauna time and can’t believe that 5 hours flew by (okay, 90 min was a massage that HURT SO GOOD). After a very physically and mentally stressful month of work, this was exactly what I needed.
Ready to try the sauna? Check out Liquidrom where I was or another from this list.
Questions? Leave them in the comments!
If you’ve ever wondered how to adopt an animal in Berlin, it’s time to get to know the Tierheim [Animal Shelter]! So many sweeties are waiting for love and their forever homes. With a bit of time and patience, the caregivers at Tierheim Berlin can match you up with your best buddy.
Did you know that in 2020, Berlin became the first German state to make International Women’s Day a public holiday?
Rather than just taking pleasure in having the day off this year, here are 3 events in Berlin you can attend and celebrate womanhood!
Okay, so we’ve already shared the super cool job that Alex Maxwell has placing interns in Berlin (check it out here if you missed it). Now we want to share with you Alex’s Berlin life advice – getting here and settling here.
We’re happy to hear that using Red Tape Translation during the immigration process was a big help. Alex was still living in the U.S. when she first got in touch, but ultimately she decided to seriously look into moving to Berlin permanently.
I knew it was going to be difficult or had the potential to be difficult. I started the research process just like I started anything else – chaotically googling – and it was unhelpful. Right about after you know the 15th blog that I read…I was like, okay, it’s time to seek a professional’s help.
And we are SO glad she did! Alex had coaching with Kathleen to get her paperwork in order. She also opted to take an interpreter with her to her visa appointment at the LEA (Ausländerbehörde).
It can be a VERY long 12 weeks of winter after the holidays, so here are 5 tips to help you survive Berlin winter like a pro…. Read more
NYE traditions in Germany aren’t exactly what I was used to in the States, aside from fireworks and fizzy wine. So since I’m home for the holidays for the first time since 2013, I decided to bring a bit of Germany back to Pennsylvania. I packed my suitcase with various holiday baked goods (Lebkuchen, Stollen, Marzipan Kartoffeln), as well a festively green bottle of cucumber liqueur from Spreewald (not bad!) and some Bleigießen Kits for New Year’s Eve.
Alex Maxwell is up in our new Client Spotlight Series. This series was inspired by the many amazing people our team has had the privilege of working with over the years – it is my absolute pleasure to have Dr. Alex Maxwell as the first!
Wow, where do I even start sharing this amazing human with you? Though her accent will fool you into thinking she’s from the U.S. (yes, I am a U.S. native and saying this with absolutely no pause), Alex is from Russia. After doing some cultural exchange programs in the states, Alex decided at around 20 that she wanted to emigrate.
Get ready to meet some seriously inspiring expats in Berlin – who happen to be our clients here at Red Tape Translation!
It’s no surprise that we encounter many impressive, courageous folks in our line of work: people who come from all over the world, determined to find a way to live and work here in Berlin. This path is not the easiest but it certainly is rewarding for those who genuinely want desire a life in Germany and are willing, and able, to keep at it through the ups and downs.
Which brings us to a new series we want to share with you…
Preußen Park is a beautiful, large park in Wilmersdorf, with a delicious history of Thai street food: from April to October each year, the park becomes home to a giant outdoor street-food market, with vendors selling their best Thai dishes to a hungry crowd. In the past the market was pretty much unregulated. Basically a bunch of cooks and vendors just set up shop on picnic blankets across the grassy field and casually sold their ridiculously good food to whomever happen to come to the park that day.
And while there were some advantages to this – for example, on sunny day I could just walk to the park and get lunch with my friends from German class without any pre-planning – the general lack of organization also ended up being problematic…especially when it came to trash and litter. Seeing as Berliners aren’t exactly known for attending to cleanliness, even when forced (!), you can imagine the state the park was left in at the end of the day.
After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, I am embarrassingly excited to offer our top 5 tips on how to do Oktoberfest in Berlin. But first, a bit of background on this internationally known and beloved folk festival…
Berlin Beer Week 2022, the 6th annual Craft Beer Festival, is almost here! You can experience what’s now the largest craft beer festival (!) in Germany from September 2nd to the 11th, right here in Berlin.
There are plenty of individual bar and brewery events, plus festivals, tastings, and even cruises! Though you may want to hurry to make sure you can still get tickets – some of the events book out fast. Here’s a quick overview of this year’s event calendar:
