Life in Germany: The Movies

Going to the movies is a special treat especially once you have children but what many of you might not know is that it is totally different in Germany. First off, you get assigned seats! Yep that is right, no showing up to the movie an hour early to get your favorite seat, as you will be assigned one when you buy your ticket. There are normally two cost levels. The cheaper seats are located closer to the screen and the more expensive seats are higher up. Then they are simply labeled with an A-Z for rows and numbers for the individual seats. At first I hated this system and found it stressful and annoying but then the online reservation systems became popular and now I love it. I buy my tickets online, pick the perfect seat, and then show up to the movie just a minute or two before starting time, knowing that I will be sitting just where I want....knowing that my seat neighbors won't be obnoxious is another story however.

So after you deal with the whole seat issue you go to the concession stand and find out that Germans have totally different movie snacking habits. First off they eat their popcorn sweet, not salty. In fact most Germans find salty popcorn disgusting and my husband almost barfed when he watched me add sweet fake buttery oil goodness to my popcorn in the States followed by some cheese powder which probably contained 0.1% actual cheese.

They also love sweets and often have bins full of different types of gummy bears, sweet and sours candies, and licorice (real salty black licorice not the crazy strawberry twizzler stuff- this is probably another post in its own actually) which you can then mix yourself and which is then weighed at the register and you pay based on grams. Finally they have nachos, now I know we also have nachos in the States but I can't remember ever ordering them at the movies nor do I ever remember seeing anyone I know order them but here they are a big thing. And I have to admit that is one thing they have gotten right. Now I won't mention that most of the movie theaters here import their nacho cheese sauce from an American company, although they do. I will just say that even though I haven't gotten into the sweet popcorn, I have completely gotten on the nacho train.

It has also been one pregnancy craving which I can actually make happen without flying back to the States, and that I can even make at home so win/win for me!

Expensive ticket prices, obnoxious teens/adults, sometimes 30+ minutes of previews/ads, and concession prices which you make you wonder why you even decided to go to the movies are the same as in the States though.