I have travelled Europe for 38 of my 38 years and only once - two years ago - visited Germany. Only once due to my preconceptions and the horrific contact I have had over the years with the Hun abroad.

However, with all that prejudice baggage on board I was forced into visiting my wife's pen pall from school in Munich.

The experience was mind altering - the city was not an industrial car producing wasteland, the people were not egotistic, arrogant and laud.

Munich was beautiful and the people were friendly to the extreme.

That goes to show that IMO Americans and Germans have one thing in common - they are very different creatures when they travel off their own patch.

Aloha Hausfrau,
I will be in Germany from October 22nd to November 10th to meet my family that live in Fussen. I will also go with my cousin to visit her family they live in Stuttgart (Not sure of spelling) but it is the town you live in now.
I am so glad that I will be going after Octoberfest for this reason, I feel that it will be very high tourist time and most of the locals will have had enough with them. I am from Hawaii so hopefully this will break down any barriers with language (Just smile and say Aloha) for me as I dont speak but a line or two of German and would like to do my best to be a good tourist. I am so excited. Sorry for the spelling but here goes "Gutten Nacht".
Mahalo,
Jeanne

Some years ago I was eating and reading in a Gasthaus in Schwangau. A family came in and sat at the next table. A short time later a young Brit came in and inquired about a room. Learning it was more than he wanted to pay, he left. The father at the next table indicating the departed Brit said, "Verückter Amerikaner." (Crazy American.) Honesty forced me to answer, "Nein, er ist ein Brit. Ich bin ein verückter Amerikaner."

The landlady left the room laughing. Sadly, the father showed no humor in the situation at the time. Hopefully, they all get a good laugh out of it now.

Regards, Gary

Aloha Jeanne,
It just so happens that I have family in Honolulu. I hope you have a wonderful time in Fuessen and Stuttgart. October is my favorite time of year in Germany and you're right, most of the big crowds will be gone. Don't worry about your lack of German - use the words you know like Guten Tag and Danke, smile and be patient, and I think you'll find the people here to be very friendly and helpful. In fact, if you tell them you are from Hawaii, I'm sure they'll be fascinated and will want to hear all about life on the islands.

Gary Mc, I love that story! It's true, people are sometimes pleasantly surprised (or even shocked) when they find out a FEW Americans can actually speak and understand German. ;-)

>We were just there last week for two weeks and the Germans were not very friendly to Americans. ... We were in the Bayern region, including Munich for Oktoberfest.<

You have been in Bavaria, not in Germany. Bavaria calls itsself a "Freistaat" (free state). They do not speak proper German there, but a strange dialect which occurs when you speak with a potatoe in your mouth. They eat strange things there like Weißwurst and wheat beer for breakfast.

(We Germans always wonder what the Bavarians put in their Weißwurst. Thankfully, Logos gave the explanation. But we still wonder why the Bavarian beer is so watery.)

And they treat Germans (they call them "Prussians") in a very rude way. Usually the Bavarians treat Americans well, but maybe because provence97 speaks some German they mistook him/her for a German and treated him/her so bad.

If you do not believe how aggressive the Bavarians are just watch a TV interview with Uli Hoeneß, the manager of their favorite football team, the FC Bayern München!

On Crete we found it common for the beds to be concrete bed-sized platforms with mattresses on top! I guess it's cooler?

Is it possible you were talking very loudly? That is something that tends to get looks in German countries. US Americans tend to talk very loud, I have no idea why, but it is true. The volume difference of my American friends and my German and Swiss friends is significant. I notice it now living in CH for 3 years.

<< I am sorry that "some" Germans think such people are dishonest. I can understand & accept another culture not being the way I am, but negatively judging me because I am always smiling & pleasant seems absolutely weird! Suppose they prefer that I am grouchy?>>

This is a cultural difference - not a personal criticism.

Germans probably don't even notice the smile - they just notice something different.

It's like eye contact.

I teach at an international college and we spend a lot of time looking at cultural differences eg eye contact. The Caribbean students don't make eye contact when they are telling the truth but do when lying - to me a, white middle class British person, this feels wrong - but it is because it a cultural difference. By contrast the Indian students never make eye contact with me, because in Indian culture it is incredibly rude for a student to look a teacher in the eye.

You cannot get away from your own cultural norms and personally I think that we as travellers should be aware that what is normal for us could be offensive to others.

>treat Germans (they call them "Prussians") in a very rude way.

Well, there are prussian Prussians and other Prussians, i.e. the common "American saupreiß, American". (translated: American pig Prussian, American")

There are also Japanese and other types of Prussians, we don't discriminate anybody ;-).

"Americans"? wich Americans? there is South & Central too..you mean Citizen of the USA? :) just saying...

That's easy "American" are any "western looking" nationalities that come as tourists and Japanese are any "asian looking" nationalities. We hate everybody, but most the "prussian" Prussians ;-)

oops sorry for the non sequiteur - I was trying to post somewhere else.

My MIL is German - trust me, they are a mean people! LOL!!

Just kiddin'liebkin!

What I specially <u>like</u> about these threads is that you can change the names of the countries to pretty much anything you want, and some people will agree and some will not :) Usually, not always, based on the extensive experience of one or two or even three trips of couple weeks each. And it is guaranteed to become a lively discussion before it degenerates. <b>fritzrl</b>, I really liked that quote you posted (If it's called tourist season, why can't we just shoot them?). Are you implying that you can't?:) And <b>Audere</b>, hot potato or potato<u>e</u>? Just kidding, guys.

My husband's family are Prussians, specifically East Prussians. When they moved to Germany after WW II, they were strongly advised by other East Prussians to avoid Bavaria because of they were so (generally) hostile to newcomers. His relatives settled mostly in BW, notably around Baden-Baden and Bad Wimpfen, where they were well received (partially due to their job skills) and NRW (there were several engineers in the bunch).
We take most of our German vacations in BW and NRW and find that people are very welcoming, esp. in Muensterland and Detmold, where they get very few American tourists (too bad, these are lovely areas worth seeing).
We also lived in NRW and found that people are a little slow to warm up to strangers, but overall became quite friendly, esp. as we spoke German as much as possible and did not hang out in expat enclaves.

Re the smiling issue, of course Americans would be smiling. They're on vacation and they're enjoying themselves! I've been with German visitors to Chicago and the Pacific NW and the Germans smiled and laughed just as much in those places as we did in their country.

&gt;to avoid Bavaria because of they were so hostile to newcomers.

Hostile to Prussians, that's true. But at the same time all the Sudeten (Bohemians) came to Bavaria, and the integrated rather fast. Maybe Bavarians don't like Prussians, because they annexed independent Bavaria in 1871. Sounds like a reasonable explanation, doesn't it? ;-)

Sure, why shouldn't they be openly hostile and cruel to traumatized children and starving young adults for something they had that happened decades before they were born? Yes, very reasonable.

Sure, why shouldn't they be openly hostile and cruel to traumatized children and starving young adults for something that happened decades before they were born? Yes, very reasonable.

&gt;you mean Citizen of the USA? &lt;

Aw c'mon, im.

How many Ecuadorans call themselves &quot;Americans&quot;?

How many Mexicans call themselves &quot;citizens of the United States of Mexico&quot;?

((I))

Hmmmm ... Ira, we may be calling ourselve that one of these days.