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Guten Morgen GBD!  Are you diggin’ these Passports or what?  I am!

Today we’ve got our first ever peek into Germany!  Specifically the town of Meerbusch, hometown of Nina, aka Ninz.  Here we go!

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Hey there everybody!

My name is Nina.  I am a 23 year-old student from Germany, and today it’s my pleasure to present my hometown to you.  Actually, although I don’t live there anymore (moved out to study), I call this my hometown – Meerbusch.  It’s a very tiny town where I spent my childhood and where my parents still live.  I feel much more related to this town and its people than to anywhere and anyone else.  I love to visit my parents and spend some spare time with my friends at my favourite places!

The red spot (actually this one is gigantic!  Hehe… it covers almost five cities!) marks the location.  It’s in the west of Germany and it takes us just half an hour to go to the Netherlands or just one hour to Belgium or France.  The trips to another country are always fun.  Somehow it’s interesting to explore how different the fashion, the cities or the food are!  Speaking of food now – Belgian chocolate is the best chocolate you’ll ever eat!  Believe me!

This is the emblem of Meerbusch.  Every jag represents one district of the city.  The quarter my parents and I live in is called Nierst.  It’s the smallest one and actually more cows than humans live there.  Nierst is very countrified and as a teenager it was horrible to be stuck in this place.  To add a point here – in Germany we need to be 18 to drive a car!  So I was always dependent on my parents or the bus to go somewhere (the bus only comes once an hour until 7pm).  But luckily four things lighten my life in Meerbusch (of course there are more, but I’ll concentrate on the following four – don’t want it to be too boring hehe):

1.  The Rhine.  I simply love going there.  After school, on the weekends, or just in the evening, I’ve met my friends on the banks.  We’ve bathed in the sun, have had BBQs or picnics, went for walks, and had some parties.  Not as cool as a real beach or the ocean but it’s nice as well.  ;)

2.  Carnival!  This has nothing to do with the Jamaican-Hot-Dancing-And-Singing-Cool-Carnival, but I guess it is as much fun as Latin-American Carnival!  Especially in my region, carnival is a spectacular event!  The people in Nierst work the whole year for just one day!  They create funny vehicles and parades and arrange a costume ball.  Everyone is dressed up (somehow like Halloween) and they celebrate together, throwing candies (yep that’s a tradition), eating as many sausages as they can (totally boosting that German cliché, eh?), and drinking (everyone knows what I’m talking about, huh? ).  Apart from the drinking (and I say that as a totally not-drinking-alcohol person!), carnival is fun!  I remember my first real carnival when I was an orange mouse inspired by a German TV show.  Totally cute!  Hehe!

3.  Düsseldorf.  It’s a big city near Meerbusch and a great place for shopping trips or nights out.  (Maybe someone also knows that Düsseldorf is the capital of North Rhine Westfalia?!  Germany is separated into 16 federal states… but I’ll stop here.  Too much German history and politics for now.  ;) )

4.  Last but not least, our very own festival – Rock am Turm (translated: “Rock at the tower”)!  The drummer of a very famous German rock band initiated a festival for newcomer bands.  Twice a year we have a real rock festival in our little town.  Woot woot!

I can’t think of any special or traditional food in Meerbusch.  Only Düsseldorf has a popular beer.  It’s a very dark ale called Alt Bier.

Because Taylor mentioned the treatment of women, I want to add something, too.  Here women are treated pretty fairly.  The only point is, although Meerbusch is a very family-oriented town, a lot of women have jobs and careers.  Meerbusch is a very modern city and not stuck in traditional family models.  Also, my parents are both working and enjoying their jobs, although my mom stayed home during my school years.

Wow…I guess that was a lot of stuff to read.  But in the end, I think I can summarize Meerbusch in three words: small but nice.

Thanks for reading.  I hope it wasn’t too boring, and maybe someday if you’re in Germany, you’ll think of this little beautiful town and you’ll come visit me.  

<3

Ninz

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Rock festivals!  Sausages!  Orange mouse costumes!  What’s not to love?

I like small towns.  They have a cozy feeling that’s nice to experience once in a while.  Thanks for telling us about Meerbusch Nina!

And guess what…one of these days (I’m not sure when, but sometime in the near future), Nina is going to treat you guys to a video introduction to Berlin!  Isn’t that awesome??  IT IS AWESOME!!

Tune in next week, when Jessica M tells us all about Monterrey, Mexico!  Whoohoo!