I was asked to speak at a Monthly Meet Up event on Tuesday evening hosted by Touring Artists e.V. as an expert on the Künstlersozialkasse (artists’ social security). With a bit of humour and a whole bunch of crazy anecdotes, we dived into the application process in delightful detail.
Category Archive: Life in Germany
Thai Park Berlin – what’s new at this delicious outdoor street-food market
Have you had the new and improved Thai Park experience in Berlin?
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.
How to do Oktoberfest in Berlin…the right way! Read our top 5 tips
What you need to know!
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…
ANOHA Berlin – a wonderful children’s world (the year-long wait for tickets was worth it!)
When I first heard about ANOHA Berlin – the Jewish Museum’s brand new kids’ museum in Berlin – I jumped at the chance to take my daughters. A year later, I finally managed to snag us some tickets.
Energy-saving tips for families in Germany – from the experts at EnviroSustain
Winter is coming. And while we all hope that the Berlin winter doesn’t resemble an icy episode of Game of Thrones, we’d like to be prepared for anything. So we chatted to some experts to get their best energy saving tips for you to use…
Berlin Beer Week 2022 – get a taste of Germany’s largest craft beer 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:
Energy saving tips: How to reduce your gas and electricity bills in Germany
Saving energy is a big topic of discussion right now in Germany with the prices of gas and electricity going up by the day. Here are some of our energy-saving tips to lower your bills in the coming months and help the planet, too. This is also a space to share your own tips and tricks for saving energy – just leave a comment below with any ideas you have…and let’s all get through this together!
Parental benefits in Germany – what are they and what’s the difference?
There seem to be parental benefits coming out of your ears when you’re a parent in Germany. It’s just a bit of a nightmare figuring out what they all mean and whether you have access. We’ll take you through it.
Christopher Street Day in Berlin (aka CSD) – celebrating pride in Germany
Germany not only celebrates Pride, but also its own European version known as Christopher Street Day (CSD).
Although most Pride Month celebrations happen in June, Germany (and Switzerland) celebrate another special day in July: CSD or Christopher Street Day. Christopher Street Day is a day to remember the Stonewall Riots. It was the first LGBTQ+ community uprising against police assaults that occurred at a bar in Manhattan in 1969. Since 1970 onward, parades and marches with various names evolved in the US to what we know today as Gay Pride. Germany stuck with Christopher Street Day and held its first celebration in 1970 in Berlin – natürlich!
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Berlin’s “Secret Park” hidden oasis – your 1-minute tour inside
Did you know there’s a completely secret oasis – aka Berlin’s “Secret Park” – concealed in the bustling Monbijou quarter of Berlin Mitte?
Einschulung: the German school-starting party to end all parties
Einschulung, noun: the process in which your little bundle of joy is initiated into the German school system. This is an absolute rite of passage in Germany and many deem it, rather poetically, “the end of childhood”. It may cost more than Christmas.
Outdoor swimming pools in Berlin – How to get your VIP ticket entry
Have you tried visiting any of the outdoor swimming pools in Berlin on a hot day recently? ☀️ …Did you bring the kids and stand in line without a ticket? Were there tears? 🙈 Do you now require couple’s therapy?
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