I never realized it before, mainly because I  didn’t think about it too much back then, but my last 2.5 years in Germany what kept me truly grounded -and quite frankly sane –  was the fact that with my then best friend we had a few places at which we loved to hang out on the regular. One was a place my friend Claudia dragged me to (kicking and screaming and to be perfectly honest I only ended up there because she tricked me) but it kickstarted the idea of having a regular place at which to hang out. And while it might sound like nothing at all or too much, several conversations with people who’d read up about this cross-cultural stuff awoke a desire to deconstruct the idea of why we have a place outside of our place of work and home that we regularly go to. 

The places I have – at one time or another – considered regular haunts are as varied as the countries they were located in. There was the regular bar (or two) where I was allowed to just have my coffee and where the regulars I’d come to know through my friends would offer me food or the odd drink “to help the material sink in,” when I was revising for exams or writing a paper. There was the restaurant that in the evening doubled as a bar, and the restaurant that turned into a pub welcoming children of all ages as long as they didn’t drink. And then there were the places where I would just sit at the counter while my friends worked, and we’d sneak snippets of conversation into work and writing breaks respectively. 

I learned a lot in those places, about people and about myself too. Some provided a safe haven in which to write, while others helped me come out of my shell. Some even set off truly life changing events, without which I would not be where I am today. They all deserve a spot of their own in this collection of regular places that all turn into one symbolic Pub. 

The song caught my attention when a close friend of mine made a flippant comment that involved Rotterdam. The name caught my attention, but the haunting melody and the beautiful voice of the singer held it all the way through. To me it will always and forever describe the familiarity of places amidst the alienation we all feel at different times of our lives, no matter where we are or may be.