August: Europe's Quiet Month

It's August and northern Europe has essentially shut down for the month.

Every July, there's a rush to finish work before the client goes on holidays or before an ad agency boss goes on vacation or to lessen the mountain of work that await upon return from your August adventures.

Then July ends and there are fewer emails with the urgent exclamation point icon. There are fewer rushed meetings with end-of-day deadlines and fewer meltdowns. There are still emails and meetings and stress, but it all takes on a less frantic, less urgent tone.

Getting into August, it's worth mentioning that workers in Germany and Hungary get a set amount of paid holidays by law that increases based on their age. For someone my age, it works out to about four weeks.

This is a far cry from Canada, where the amount is set at two weeks and any increases are the result of individual contract negotiations, seniority at a company (if the company does that), or a collective bargaining agreement (which is becoming rarer since Canadian workers are sadly becoming adept at dismantling their labour unions).

I'm not mentioning this to make my North American friends envious (unless you're unionized, then you're fine), but to point out that more of holidays make it easy to take off chunks of August to visit tropical destinations or lounge on a Greek island or, if you're German, takeover a finca on a Balaeric Island.

This August, we're not doing any of that. Paying rent on the current flat and the old one, along with the previous Lisbon trip and an upcoming Budapest visit, has meant things are a bit tighter this August. It's been a month of weekend day trips, of beers on blankets in the park, and lazy, rainy afternoons on the couch – of which there are many in northern Germany.

There are advantages to sticking around when everyone else has ditched the Dorf for sunnier places. For starters, the city itself feels a little less crowded – save for the bachelor parties that stagger through the Altstadt's breweries. 

The pace of the city itself slows – maybe an affect of the warmer weather on the thick-blooded Germans. Going a bit slower, you're able to notice the sunnier side of the German summer, like the 10pm sunsets or temperatures that drift towards 25 degrees – when it isn't raining, of course.

And so you linger on the side-street patios over one more drink, you bike a bit further along the Rhine bike paths, you embrace the sweatshirt-shorts combo to endure the chilly mornings but prepare for a possibly warmer afternoon and evening.

Yes, swimming in the Adriatic might be great in August, but despite the high possibility of cold, rain, and clouds, I can live with the German summer too.

Deeps thoughts on the Rhine Promenade.