Sailing ships on the Elbe river near Hamburg.

One of these days I should count the number of national holidays in Germany.  I am pretty sure it surpasses the United States.  Germans seem to love a good vacation and every German state has its own additional holidays on top of the standard set of national ones.  Unfortunately for me Hamburg has fewer holidays than other states.  Areas with strong ties to the catholic church have a tendency to be a little more celebratory.

Today is German Unity Day which celebrates the reunification of Germany in 1990.  Kind of amazing that East and West Germany have only been reunited for 21 years.  I remember watching the fall of the Berlin wall on TV as a kid.  That seems so long ago, and now I live in a country that is divided no more.  I should spend some time this week asking people what reunification means to them.  I wonder how different a perspective people from the former Germany’s have.  I know that still today there are economic problems in the former East.  While it is better than in previous years, the effects are still felt.

What Unity Day means for me is my first work “holiday”.  I only realized the office was closed a couple weeks before.  I should put the national holidays on my calendar so I do not forget them.  My mind is still centered around American holidays.  I guess the next shared holiday is Christmas.  Since Germany does not celebrate Thanksgiving and Halloween does not include a free day from work.