I miss the pubs in the UK, but they’re nothing without your mates. In Germany, I have no way of making friends or meeting people, it’s a real struggle. Too broke to go out to Meetups, and at my age it’s hard anyway.
>In Germany, I have no way of making friends or meeting people, it’s a real struggle
I used to hear this quite a bit from people who work here, as the article hints at we're a country of clubs and associations, most of them free. Be it chess, football, poetry slams, the church choir, the local CCC given that you're on HN, etc. Most unis will let you sit in for free as well. I also wouldn't worry about age. We're not really that age conscious, very few people I know care if they're around people twice their age.
People tend to bash their head in trying to make friends at work but it's probably the worst country to do this, we just work 9 to 5 and go home.
I’m in the middle of Hamburg but ironically in a completely dead spot with nothing going on nearby and surrounded by light industrial parks. I wouldn’t mind improving my guitar skills and finding a jam, even a ukulele jam, but Google searches went nowhere. I don’t have a job, and it’s not looking good either, plus I’m focusing on launching something in the UK, but doesn’t help with severe loneliness here. Thanks for the pointers, will do some more searching for these things.
The first one event mentions regular meetings but not whether they are still happening. I would suggest reaching out to the Vorstand and asking if they know where to look for a jam, they excplicitly write that they see themselves as a networking platform for guitarists in Hamburg.
And as a German I would like to echo what others said about clubs in germany: I have met half of my friendgroup and my long-term partner in a Verein. Nearly every person I know is or was involved in one. Its not always easy to find the right one for you, but I believe it is the most straightforward way to expand ones social circle in Germany.
Thanks for those, hadn’t found them, but I’ll get in touch to see if things are still running. Great tips.
Good tip on CCC too from previous poster, they’re not far from me, they’re near to stuff I know in Altona, I will grab a mask and head to an Open Chaos night. I passed my B1 earlier this year so my German sucks less than it used to but is still terrible.
This year has honestly speaking been terrible, but all I can try to do is either go back home or find some people to talk to here. You gotta work with what you’ve got.
I also live in Hamburg and yeah it’s extremely difficult to meet people here considering it’s such a huge city, especially if you live south of the Elbe
Yes, South seems to be South of the Ganges, where nothing happens and nobody goes.
For my part, I find the city tiny as I can cycle to the other side in less than forty minutes, which I love, it’s so fast to get around. I’ve been to a few non-tech meetups but they are short and fleeting and quite insubstantial. Still, here we are, send me an email/dm if you want to connect for a cup of tea somewhere equally inconvenient in the Mitte, like one of those Treffpunkts!
It's a swedish game where you take zones with GPS irl. There aren't many german turfers yet but the ones around seems very social. Chat in game and on Discord, starting to organize meetups too. The added benefit is everyone can see where you are and meet up for a chat just there :-)
Hey, you two! I'm also in Hamburg. I'm also up for a beverage. You can reach me at canolcer@hey.com. We can also meet up the three of us if we manage...
quick advice, i would remove the email address from you post while you still can edit it, and instead point to your profile where you can remove or change the email address later if need be.
> quick advice, i would remove the email address from you post while you still can edit it, and instead point to your profile where you can remove or change the email address later if need be.
Too late, but it's fine. I have been posting my email address publicly for a while and not much spam.
> i used to live in hamburg, i would totally join up if i was there.
Search for "sozial treff <your city>". Call there and talk to someone. The churches are also good places to ask. German churches organize a lot of social events. If I interpret "at my age" correctly you mean that you are too old. Let me tell you, especially for older people there exists tons of stuff in your city.
Thanks for the tipp - I’ve been trying to volunteer at the refugee centre ON MY ROAD for months but my application is going nowhere. I’m not super old, just entered my sixth decade, but bogged down in parenting instead of socializing.
EDIT: Super Tipp, danke. Habe gleich zwei Treffpunkte in der Nähe gefunden und werde diese im neuen Jahr besuchen.
We joined a boardgame group when we lived in Berlin. We made a couple of friends, which was great, but even without that it was a good social experience. And I don't speak German, so we had to only play people whose English was up to it, which was limiting (but not as much as you'd expect). If your German is acceptable then you'll do much better.
the nice thing about boardgames is that they also work for introverts. you don't have to be chatty or engage in conversation topics that you find boring. you can use the game as a proxy to interact with people and allow you to become comfortable with each other. more so if you are a cooperative and helpful player. if you are engaged in the game noone will notice if you haven't said a word all evening.
if language is an issue you can find a translation of the rules of most games online to help you out with learning a more complex game.
