Saarbrücken aka: Saarbrucken

I went to see the Paganfest tour in Saarbrücken yesterday. The city was not that impressive, but the gig was awesome and I liked the concert hall (Garage is the name of it). :-)

Saarbrucken was overcast and slightly cold when I was there. There was a neat underground shopping complex and a cool Swatch store. The guy at the McDonald’s stopped me while I was ordering in German and said “It’s okay, I speak English.”

The hotel we stayed at was run by a man named Herr Pink. He had blond, spiky hair and told us about how he once went water skiing in Texas.

Most of my family lives here, so I had to put a point here :)

My family stems from here and I still have a lot of relatives living in Saarbrucken so I’m here twice a year. I like it a lot – the funny dialect, the overall atmosphere and the unspectacularness(this is not a word, right?) of the city. The best thing about the Saarland is that it has such an independent air: is it France? Is it Germany? It seems to stand for itself and because the French border is just ten minutes away, there is a lot of cultural exchange. It’s a good starting point if you want to explore Lorraine and Alsace and there are some really nice places here like the Saarschleife near Mettlach, where the river takes a U-turn.

But – taking a trip here just because of the city will probably be a disappointment for you.