Such good times in Germany.
Have I mentioned yet how different it is than Italy? The entire place is so orderly. So clean and straight, but not in a Stepford way. It’s just simply nice.
Beer here, not wine.
And the people are very to themselves, not pushy, fairly neutral clothing. The language is interesting, probably now on the list of native tongues to immerse myself in. Definitely far different than English than I expected.
Dippemess is a biannual fair the city puts on after Easter and again in the fall. It’s like an American county fair with various foods and carnival games and the best, rides!
Sebastian and I played a balloon-popping game where I popped 8 and only won a heart that was like 6 cm! Oh well, still won and got to practice my aim.
Ate some bratwurst, a Capri-sonne (basically a Capri Sun…which came first?), had a schokokuss (“chocolate kiss” filled with marshmallow cream with a flavor of your choice). We did bumper cars which was great, so weird to be back in a car-like object at the wheel!
Rode one of those spin-you-really-fast-and-the-g-force-is-hard-too rides. It was so fun. Haven’t been on carnival/fair/rollercoaster rides in too long. Then came the best part: you know that feeling you get like you’re about to do a full circle over the swing? Well, there was this ride that had that: you moved so fast, moved up-side-down while already doing a flip on this giant swinging lever-like ride. It was the best ride I’ve ever been on at a fair, even better than the Zipper. Crazy, right?
The Turkish people gave me a haircut. I’ve never seen someone put so much care into using clippers. They did a good job: I look extra Italian with really short sides and regular length on top. Sideburns are a nice touch if I do say so. The back has this crazy faded shortened length as it goes down. The guy definitely took some liberties when I had Sebastian translate to him “just a trim, to clean it up”!
We went to the Nacht der Museen last night. It’s a night where for a certain price, all the museums open their doors and everyone moves between them. We went to three different exhibits before the crowds got to us. In the old cathedral, there was an exhibit on the regalia of the Emperors of the late Middle Ages. Then we went to a couple regular art museums. Then there was the gourmet erotic art coupled with awkward Santa Claus art. This was supposed to be a comical exhibit. It was, but it was also to see people and sausages in scenes that one would never expect.
The skyscrapers and the old churches and the pre-WWII quaint, northern European look plus all the green areas (so many parks) makes for beautiful sights when walking around.
Walked around with the sun shining and some light showers, some of the clearest, most crisp weather.
We had a traditional German breakfast the last couple days: breadrolls with jams, yogurt, honey, bread, cheese. Fantastic. Then today, we mixed the banana juice and the orange juice to make some tasty orangenbananesaft.
More traditions:
Coffee (which after living in Italy, I only take black) with cake (baked apple goodness that wasn’t too sweet) on a Sunday afternoon.
So much beer. Not like an excessive, drunken (*ahem* Americans) amount, but just simply part of the culture. And they have wheat beer, as opposed to the usual barley: a better taste. Beer at dinner, beer at the fair, beer with a snack, and even earlier this evening beer after church with the youth people. IN THE CHURCH. haha, only in Deutschland.
Lots of bread.
Rode an apfelweine-mobile where they play traditional apple wine songs while you get to drink the beverage of the eponymous name. It was nice, something very different.
They have bookshelves on streetcorners where people open the glass door to borrow or trade a book! It’s just a thing here that anyone can walk up to and take part in! Wish we had that in the States.
After the fair yesterday, we ran into a bachelorette party. You pay certain fees to take a picture, have a kiss, have a shot, etc. It was cute, and Sebastian says it’s very common in Germany. They spoke perfect English, like almost all Germans, and had fun with it. I paid a Euro to have a picture with them.
The four of us went to Greece for Tess’s 21st birthday for several days, where we met up with Katie and her girl, Roxanne.