I utilized to hate going spots by myself. Transferring to Germany extra to all those hesitations since on arriving I did not know a lot German. It also meant that I experienced no just one to go sites with as I left every person I understood (other than my wife or husband) driving in the States.
With my around non-existent German talking techniques, I have discovered approaches to navigate all around by itself. Google Maps lets me know what bus or prepare quit to get on and off of. The English language selection on the ticket devices allows me to invest in and fork out for my public transportation and parking garage tickets. Cost-free language translation apps allow for me to translate food items menus and indicators as perfectly as let me determine out phrases to communicate with other people.
Armed with these equipment and my longing to get out of the home, the strategy of solo adventures arrived to me. Each individual month, we will current a new way to get out and adventure Germany all on your own. This month we are chatting about venturing out to downtown Kaiserslautern (which everyone lovingly phone calls K-Town).
I live in a smaller village in Germany wherever we don’t get a whole lot of targeted traffic congestion and some days I see much more cows than cars, so driving in K-Town is quite different than driving in my tiny village. Upon arriving in downtown K-City, I was a tad overwhelmed by the narrow paths and seemingly swift turns. Still, the much more I push down there, the extra I get employed to it.
I circled the location and observed a parking garage close to the shopping mall (which essentially has its have parking garage, but fully skipped that 1 in my lookup). I drove into the extremely slender highway into the garage, I pulled up to the device and pressed the button to get my ticket. As I looked for a parking place, I was happy to obtain that they had parking places specified for gals near the openings so they can speedily come across their cars. Safely parked, I commenced my adventure in downtown K-City.
One thing that I was craving that I hadn’t experienced because staying back in the States was boba tea, so, my initially quit was Babe’s Boba Tea, which opened in 2020 and was founded by an American who also had a craving for boba and didn’t want to have to push very long distances. They even have lovely bear-shaped memento cups that I personally use to retail store all of my German wine corks. If boba isn’t your factor, they have a good deal of teas, coffees and include-ins that will delight any flavor bud.
As I walked all-around drinking my mouth watering boba, I came upon a wide range of cafes, eating places, yoga studios and outlets. As a self-proclaimed nerd, the multi-tale bookstore Thalia and the manga retailer Manga Mafia piqued my fascination. The particular person behind the counter at Manga Mafia spoke outstanding English and I had a great time chatting comics and manga with them and, certainly, they had English manga onsite and available for acquire. Though I have not had a probability to check them out but, Gerds Comicladen and Fight Bear Trading Playing cards & Games are on my record to test out for the comic, buying and selling card and board activity choices.
Loaded up with a stack of German-language manga that I purchased for the reason that it will definitely give me an justification to understand the language, I ongoing my journey. I was very thrilled to see some familiar logos and names, these kinds of as Gamestop and H&M. The issue that excited me the most, as a former American teenager, was the unmistakable building that was the shopping mall, K-in-Lautern.
Within the mall, there are common places such as Starbucks and TJMaxx (in this article it is TKMaxx), but also an remarkable selection of apparel, equipment and food items retailers that I put in a couple of several hours perusing. A single of the sites that really caught my notice was Woody’s Actual American Retail store. I was curious to see what Germans thought was the epicenter of “real” American food tradition: Turns out it is Flamin’ Scorching Cheetos, Jelly Bellys, Pop Tarts and Miller Hi-Lifestyle.
As the solar started off to established, I walked back again to the parking garage and grabbed the parking ticket out of my bag. I walked up to the ticket equipment and promptly identified the “English language” button (ordinarily a British flag), tapped the button, paid for my ticket with my Visa, walked back to my motor vehicle, drove to the exit, inserted my paid ticket into the exit machine and drove dwelling. After these types of a successful procuring working day, my downtown K-City adventure arrived to an close.
*Know just before you go: Often carry euros. You in no way know when someplace may not accept cards or when the card device will be down. If you pay back for your parking garage tickets with euros, the equipment does have the potential to deliver you with transform. If you are taking public transportation you can just take the RE1 to K-Town from Baumholder, the RB67 from Ramstein or the ICE518/ICE 596 from Stuttgart. Google Maps or the DB Navigator application can help you navigate which stops to get on and off.
