Moving to a new country is always difficult. Moving to a new country where you don’t speak the language is even more challenging. This blog is a place for me to record all the information I’ve learned in the process of moving to Saarbrücken, Germany. Right now this blog is pretty skeletal, but it will become more fleshed out in the coming months. Suggestions/comments/useful links or other info are always welcome!
In the meantime, the IMPRS site on living in Saarbruecken is pretty useful, as are the just arrived document from UdS.
Germany-wide websites include Toytown Germany, an online forum for English-speakers living in Germany, and justlanded.de and germany.angloinfo.com.
If you want to get a sense of what Saarbruecken looks like, check out the panoramic photos on the Saarland tourism page, particularly the photo of the main square, St. Johanner Markt, and the view from the castle wall.
well then, welcome to germany! may i ask you, why you decided to come to germany? =)
My husband got a job here.
Hello,
I am an erasmus student form Italy and I am vegetarian too. I am not still in Saarbrucken (I arrive on the 2nd September 2010), and I have several problems to find a flat. Anyway, I am worried about food: are there market with vegetarian food? I mean soya, seitan and all…
thanks
Hello Emilio. Yes, you can get prepared fake-meat products in the stores here. The selection isn’t the same as in the United States, but you can definitely buy tofu, tempeh, fake hot dogs and schnitzel, packages of seitan, etc. It’s not particularly cheap, but if you want cheap you can buy plain tofu and gluten and make your own–or just eat more beans and lentils!
Hi Captious. I will soon be living in Saarbrücken and I am a vegetarian too. As I read in your reply to Emilio, there are some stores where you can buy plain tofu. Can you please please pleeeeaaase give me some adress so that I don’t waste too much time looking for one? I would really appreciate it! Have a good day!
Hi guys, it’s really not hard to find plain tofu in Saarbruecken. You can get it at any organic / health food store, of which there are many, and at most Asian stores. You can even get it at Aldi!
Personally, I buy my tofu at Asia Shop at Mainzer Straße 55, because it’s fresh (on Thursday evenings) and convenient for me. But there are many other places to get it. I know the Asian store right on the St. Johanner Markt also carries fresh, bulk tofu, as does the new Asian shop that just opened across from the Hellwigstr. S-bahn stop. If you want organic tofu you can try any of the Bio stores. There’s a BioFrischMarkt on Mainzer Straße 80, for example. But there are many more Bio stores that carry tofu.
hello captious! i’ve just discovered your blog – i’m a brit, so it’s interesting to hear a fellow english-speaker talking about saarbrücken. i noticed you practice yoga. if you are interested in trying a different class, please check out http://www.yoga-by-blum.de. maybe i’ll see you at one of my woyo and intensive yoga classes.
hi! me again. i stupidly misplaced your phone number, so this is the only way i have of getting in contact. i just wanted to let you know that if you come to class tomorrow morning, you’ll probably be able to have a ‘personal training’ session…
I can’t seem to find soy or vegan cheese and I miss it so much. Does anyone have a store in Saarbrucken that has veggie, soy or vegan cheeses.
Thanks!
I’ve never seen vegan cheese here, but I’ve never looked for it either.
Hi,
I’ve just discovered your website and I just thought I’d let you know that (partially) thanks to this blog I am really excited about coming to live in Saarbruecken for 6 months! It is part of my uni degree that I will be coming over to teach English in a school (and hopefully improving my German immensely!) and I don’t think that I could have been placed anywhere better as I see here that there are yoga classes, I will survive as a vegetarian and it also seems to be a beautiful city (plus being placed in a great school). I have also been able to make a start on finding accommodation thanks to your links.
Thank you for inspiring me!!
Hazel.
Hi Hazel,
Glad you’re excited about coming to SB!
captious
Hi Captious,
Just wanted to say that my fiance and I found your blog invaluable in the run up to our move to Saarbrücken nearly 3 months ago now. In fact we continue to use it! 🙂
Thanks,
Áine
Thanks Áine. I’ll try to keep it a bit more up-to-date now that I know people are actually reading it!
Hello Captious,
My wishes for a good day. I was wondering if you could help me in something; as I am preparing myself to visit Saarbruecken in April, and am actually looking for hotels, but from what it seems, they are somehow expensive and am trying to cut my expenses as much as i can.
As i heard, that some families rent one room or something like that for accommodation, which is much cheaper than hotels of course.
Do you have any idea about something like that ? i can’t seem to find anything of this on the internet, and all i need really is just a place to sleep.
I’ll be much grateful for your help, and thank you in advance.
Best regards,
M.Kandil
Hi Captious! I’m so excited to find this blog! We are moving back (we were living there for 10 months in 2010) to Saarbruecken in August for 2-4 years. We weren’t there long enough last time to really get settled so looking forward to going back. Any advice on long term rentals?
Hi Jennifer,
Sorry, I don’t have too much advice on long term rentals, other than what I’ve already posted. Good luck finding a place and welcome back to SB!
captious
Hi Captious,
First of all thanks for your page, its really helpful, I would like to ask you kindly if you have any info regarding the best exchange rate service from $ to Euro, I have an account in Deutsche bank but their exchange rates are bad,
Nope, sorry. I would suggest doing a search on the toytown forums.
I was in a similar situation, and I used https://transferwise.com/
Thanks a lot Guy, the website is offering good services but unfortunately they are not offering exchanging from dollars to EUROS, any other recommendations would be highly appreciated !
They do offer that, although for dollars you need to ask them to enable that option. See this page: https://transferwise.com/support/usd
In fact, this link will give you a free transfer:
https://transferwise.com/u/4e963
Appreciate your kind followup
Many thanks for your kind followup
Hi Captious, I just found your blog via a Facebook group recommendation and am really enjoying having a root around 🙂 Just wanted to say hello from Wiesbaden!
Welcome! Glad you’re finding it useful.
Hey Captious, I am an American near Saarbruecken, and lived here just over 3 years. Drop me a line about the English Stammtisch.
This is great to see!! I am a vegetarian and I will be moving to Oestrich-Winkel, Germany in ten days! I am coming armed with my favourite natural peanut butter…
I am sure already know this… but you have a great blog up here. Btw, you seem to be in MPI-INF/SWS. Are you? I am doing my PhD here in MPI-INF. Would love to meet you some time….. 🙂
I am so happy to have found a blog about Saarbrücken! I have been living here since late July and I am always looking for new things to try around town. Your blog is fabulous.
My son, grandson and I are moving to Saarbrucken in a month or two, but having a hard time finding a place to live. Son and grandson are there today and tomorrow, trying. 🙂 Moving there because there’s a good French-German school for grandson, and I can continue writing my books and son can continue running German-language book clubs online. Any suggestions about finding a place to live (asap) will be greatly appreciated.
This is a great blog. The city should put you on the payroll, because it’s one of the things that brings us to Saarbrucken. Sorry you’ll be cutting back but we understand very well why you must do it. If we manage to find a home there, maybe we can help!
Hello Barbara–does your grandson already have a spot at the school? My daughter goes there and there’s a waiting list. Pretty difficult to get in without French or German citizenship.
Hi Jennifer. He’ll be taking an exam next week. They said he was just the kind of kid they wanted in the same school in Freiburg, but we’d rather live in Saarbrucken. He’s fluent in French, English and Greek. We’ve lived in France for 5 years, he’s been in school all that time, and he has U.S. and E.U. citizenship. Gets good grades and high marks for social stuff.
Perfect–if he has EU citizenship it shouldn’t be a problem if they have room in his class. How old is he?
He’s 11.
How old is your daughter?
She’s 8.
Is there a waiting list for every age, Jennifer?
We’re here. Just lost a perfect apartment, and turned down an imperfect one. (Location is the first consideration, how many stairs to climb is the second.) We’ll keep looking. 🙂
Wish this blog was still active! I just moved to Germany and looking for blogs like these ❤
Hope u are ok