White winter December 13, 2008

14.Nov.08

Seven hours of today was spent in the car from Budapest to Muenchen. We got a ride through Mitfahrgelegenheit again with a girl trying to make a career as an opera singer. She was interesting company and the ride went smoothly aside from a front tire blow-out on the autobahn which we managed to fix in good time; plus you cannot beat the mere 60 euros we paid for the rideshare. Soon we were at Mark’s apartment in München again, with less people on the streets wearing Lederhosen and Dirndl as last time during Oktoberfest. First and foremost we tracked down a place open selling Augustiner and grabbed two nice cold bottles of my favorite beer on the planet. Every time I drink one I set myself up for disappointment, not possibly able to believe it is as delicious as my brain remembers, but alas, once again, Augustiner is definitely as delicious as expected. We enjoyed the beer, chatted with Henning and Steffie (Mark is already in Flein) then slept away on Marks water bed.

15.Nov.08

Early to rise we jumped inside a red VW bus with our next ride share. This guy was like a taxi, constantly driving between Muenchen and Stuttgart for his business, he offers his car as a rideshare each time to pay for gas and have company. We paid the reasonable fare and 3 hours of chatting with all the other riders later and we were in Stuttgart. From Stuttgart we trained to Heilbronn and then bus to Flein where we were greeted warmly by Jessica’s grandma, mom, and dad. After some catching up and a very welcome German smorgasbord of meats, breads, and cheeses, we met up with Uncle Albrecht and Iris who took us out to watch a friend of theirs take his falcon for a fly. The birds of prey were magnificent and tore through the sky like a jet. It was a treat getting so close to such awesomly powerfull beasts and watch them in action. Iris is learning how to Falconeer so she and the head trainer played what could be called a game of “catch” with one of the falcons.

After watching the falcons we did what is a common occurence in Flein; sat around Grandma’s table drinking wine and talking until late when everyone says goodbye and goes to sleep.

16.Nov.08

We awoke to a band playing on the balcony of the nearby church tower. Today is Oma’s 80th birthday, and living in a tiny village, the whole town knows about it. The nearby trumpets blare to celebrate the occasion as all her kids and grandkids join in toasts of champagne. After the playing a photographer comes to take pictures of Maria (Oma, Grandma, whatever you want to call her) with all of her extended family. The below pic is Jess and her three cousins Goetz, Mark, and Axel with Oma.

Practically the entire town comes during the day to congratulate her for reaching such an epic age; the mayor, town minister, all the neighbors, it gets a bit overwhelming so Jess and I spend some time socializing then relax in the room reading for a bit. Cake is served midday at a huge table for everyone and dinner is at a terrific local restaurant.

17.Nov.08

Unfortunately Jessica has no shoes suitable for running, so I went on a jog myself through the vineyards. It was without a doubt the most epic jog I have ever taken, truly a testament to how much stamina we have built up from walking all day every day on this year trip. I jogged straight for a couple hours up, and around the rolling, green vineyard covered hills of Flein to the top of the tallest hill with a great view of the surrounding countryside. Too bad I didn’t bring a camera!

The whole day Maia received more and more visitors from the village and Jess and I did the same routine as yesterday, socializing for some time, then just hanging out resting our brains from trying to understand their speedy, Schwäbisch dialect German! In the evening we walked through town to Jessica’s uncle Albrecht and his wife Iris’ house for some succulent turkey, & lots of wine. Albrecht was very appreciative of the homemade moonshine we brought from Ukraine as well! Albrecht’s hunting dog Heggie is blind and deaf, but stll managed to beg for table scraps like a pro.

18.Nov.08

The Aqua Toll is a massive pool complex built by Jessica’s great uncle Wilhem’s son. It is just a short drive from Flein in the bigger city Heilbronn. Jessica’s parents drove us over and we had a few nice fun hours at the pool. The place is complete with two massive water slides which Jess and I gleefully slid down over and over again like little kids and then the hot baths were nice and relaxing. Once we got all pruny we got out and ate a bite of Currywurst at the Cafe. Currywurst is a regional specialty of spicy, red curried sausages and french fries, CB used to eat it all the time when he was stationed here for the military (where he met Regine).

When we got back I met some new relatives of Jess; Elke, her husband Rolf and their two amazing girls Teresa & Lena. Elke is great uncle Wilhelm’s daughter, the sister of Karin who’s restaurant we visited in Vienna. The whole family are terrific hosts, their home was extremely cozy, clean, and well organized, Elke served delicious pastries, tea, and coffee, Rolf was very fun to chat with, having surprisingly read nearly all of our blog, and both Teresa & Lena (8 & 10) were a load of fun. Goofing around with them made me again realize how much I love being with kids; these girls were super smart for their age. We had a really fun time meeting with their beautiful family; I wanted to stay to entertain the girls, but we had Oma’s fresh Käsespätzle waiting at home. Before leaving Teresa invited us to her birthday party this weekend with official hand-made invitation.

Dinner was everyones favorite dish; Käsesätzle. Spätzle are homemade egg noodles, and Käse is lots of different types of cheese, throw in some grilled onions and you have Käsespätzle! As always Oma’s food is delicious, we went to be d full of food and wine again.

19.Nov.08

Jessica’s parents CB and Regine drive us out to a nearby town Maulbronn to see a massive monastery complex. We wandered around the complex and learned about it through an audio tour. The most interesting was the invention of the famous Maultaschen, a ravioli like dish where pasta wraps spiced pork. Maultaschen was invented by the monks here because the Catholic church didn’t allow monks to eat meat (aside from fish) so the monks would hide meat in the pasta. It made us wonder what sneaky things the monks did to get around the whole abstinence thing. It was a good day, aside from being freezing cold in the monastary.

For the evening we went to Aunt Erika and her husband Hans splendid house for a feast of meats and pasta, as well as greeting from their crazy pure bred German Shepards which they breed and sell around the world as show dogs, police dogs, and just awesome pets.

20.Nov.08

Straßburg and Strasbourg are technically the same city split by a river separating Germany and France. It was a couple hours in the car and soon we were on the French side enjoying our 19th country we have set foot in during this trip. The city is truly magnificent, a mix between French and German, with rivers and canals flowing all around like Venice with row after row of cute, unique buildings flanking the water. Being a border city between two historically hostile nations, the remnants of turrets and walls can be seen, as well as a massive Gothic cathedral in the middle surrounded by delicious smelling restaurants. We wandered the city for a few hours, too short for our taste, but Jessica’s parents haven’t been walking half the day for the last year so they got reasonably burnt out after a good deal of exploring. We ended the day at a very nice restaurant and ordered some specialties of the area which were far more German influenced than French including lots of meats and mustards.

21.Nov.08

Today was simply another lovely day in Flein. Good food, good company, good wine, good fun. We went to the Aqua toll again for a few hours, where we rocked the slides over and over again. Met with the usual plethora of uncles, cousins, aunts, etc, and chatted, drank wine, and ate Oma’s awesome cooking. May sound boring, but after the last year of crazy, it was one of the many welcome days of relaxing in Flein.

22.Nov.08

Snow covered the ground outside when we first peeked out the window!!! Flein was even more gorgeous blanketed in white, and the vneyards were simply breathtaking. Jess and I put on our warmest clothes and wandered through the vineyards, taking some beautiful shots of the city. A great thing to wake up to.

After our romp through the snow we did the usual for the day, more of Oma’s cooking, and people popping in and out periodically. In the afternoon we went back to Elke and Rolfs for Teresa’s birthday party. To the reader, hanging out with a bunch of eight year olds may seem more like a chore than fun, but Jessica and I (especially the latter) had a blast. They were at that age where girls are just starting to group together away from boys, but I don’t think boys have too many “cooties” yet because Teresa managed to invite one; he has no idea how awesome his odds are. We all went to the nearby bowling alley, but the way there was even more fun than bowling itself as huge snowball fights ensued with the biggest person (me) as the preferred target. They made and broke alliances with one another as to whether they were attacking me or defending me, but it mattered little as in the end they would all end up on my shoulders getting spun in circles. Adults are cool and all, but nothing is more fun than chasing and playing with a group of kids.

The alley was a much different game from conventional bowling with tiny little balls and nine pins attached to strings for a quick set-up. Rolf and Elke had a good number of unique spin offs of regular bowling to play for the kids, which they (and we) loved. A few hours later we got what every kid ultimately comes to a birthday party for: A FREE BAG OF CANDY!!! The walk back involved many more snowballs and Jessica and I giving a fond farewell to the kids and the family.

That night all the extended family met again for a final delicious dinner followed by openings of ancient bottles of wine to celebrate. One German bottle had been aged from the seventies, A French bottle from like 15 years ago, and a Napa Valley Cabarnet Sauvignon about tn years old, which go figure, was the tastiest. Everyone said last farewells as we would be leaving in the morning, off to see some more of the world.

23.Nov.08

CB and Regine’s flight was midday, but ours wasn’t for eight hours later, still they gave a free ride to Frankfurt airport early in the morning so we would just ahve to wait. Not wanting to kill all that time in the terminal we went in to the city for a few hours, which wasn’t much more entertaining. Maybe living in Frankfurt would be fun, but visiting is not very interesting. The river is pretty, and there is some fun art scattered around the city, but it was nothing extraordinary. So we went back to the airport where we waited for many hours until our flight was delayed again, and again from the snow dumping on the tarmac. Finally we got on the flight and headed for Ireland.

We landed in Dublin late and took a long bus ride in to the city where we wandered a bit while the sky misted on us, to eventually find the bar where our new CouchSurfing host Francois was working until late. Immediately we love Francois, who breaks every negative French stereotype you can think of. We walked to his place after our first delicious Guinness in Ireland. He was very generous in letting us sleep on his comfy bed while he took the floor. Our first impression of Ireland is great so far!

Sorry, I broke all the pics into multiple links. Hope you enjoyed the blog, we are so far behind!!!

Pics of Flein:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157610021574272/

Pics of Maulbronn:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157610023679352/

Pics of Strasbourg:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157609956167889/

Pics of Frankfurt:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157610605481726/

Dirndl und Lederhose überall! October 1, 2008

20.Sept.08

Awaking early we walked to the Bamberg train station to meet our ride to Muenchen. We found an amazing site online, Mitfahrgelegenheit.de which we used to get a super cheap ride with someone driving to Muenchen. It beats standing in the cold with our thumbs out! The ride was simple, the driver was nice, and as we pulled into Muenchen the amount of people wearing Dirndl and Lederhoesen was much higher than the usual NONE. Today is the first day our lives can truly begin, today is the opening day of OKTOBERFEST!!! Back at Mark’s his housemate Steffie came in from the Wies’n (the Oktoberfest field) wearing an awesomely cute Dirndl (the typical German dress you always see in pictures pushing out milky breasts holding 8 liters of beer). Our plan wasn’t to go today, instead make a whole day of it tomorrow, but we could not resist, so we followed Steffie the five minute walk from their apartment to the Wies’n for a few hours of delicious drunken delight in the Spaten tent! We met a ton of awesome people, lots of Steffie’s friends, and just random folks who were unbelievably friendly to us strangers. Oktoberfest was far more fun than I would have ever imagined, aside from being horrifically expensive at 9 euro per liter of beer ($11.25). We limited ourselves however, which is easy to do as little as two liters per person is beyond a sufficient level of drunk. We left a bit early and went messing around with all the drunk people passed out on the lawn. Then we went back to Marks where we headed to market again for a case of beer for the house and more food to cook for dinner.

21.Sept.08

Probably in the top ten best days of this entire trip, we completely rocked Oktoberfest today! Mark’s housemates Steffie & Henning, and their friends Hannah, and Sabine, with Jess and I put on our Dirndl’s and Lederhoesen (or the closest we had) and had breakfast accompanied by a good amount of Augustiner beer (no better way to wake up). Then we all headed to the Wies’n for a day filled with colors,singing, music, smoke, laughter, delicious beer and food, terrifying carnival rides, and tons of smashing glasses to PROST!!!

For those who have never been here is a quick synopsis of life on the Wies’n: There are around 6 major breweries in Muenchen all boasting some of the best beer on the planet. In order of my favorites they are: Augustiner, Spaten, Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner, Hofbräu, & Löwenbräu. Each brewery has about two tents with different colors and themes, and no matter the small difference in taste they all serve scrumptious beer and food. The tents hold thousands upon thousands of people, below is the Augustiner tent: one that was too packed to get a seat in, but boasts the best beer, and we think the prettiest:

Between all the tents are hundreds of food stalls selling roasted nuts, bread and meat, and a whole variety of other carnival-like treats. Like a carnival as well there are heart pounding rides, two of which we went on thoroughly inebriated when our group was changing from Hacker tent to the Paulaner tent mid day. One of the rides was massive and terrifying, and before my drunk brain could produce enough fear to protest, Jess, Hannah, and Henning dragged me on and shot us unbelievably high in the air at breakneck speeds. Awesome!

There aren’t enough words to describe the fun we had in those tents. Yeah some of it might have been from our brains floating in beer, but all the people were so jovial, the singing and dancing was wild. The song favorites tended to be a simple one: Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Der Gemuedlichkeit, Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Der Gemuedlichkeit at which everyone raised glasses and loudly clanked. Translated it is, one cheer, one cheer, to good ambiance (meaning people, happiness, surroundings, everything). Another song apparently came from the latest football tournament (and I of course mean the sport the entire world but the US calls football), the song was just a humming the tune of the first bit of the White Stripes song Seven Nation Army…weird, but we heard it hundreds of times each day. Other songs were simply American and German classics played by the Oompa band’s plethora of brass instruments and drums.

The second tent was Paulaner and after 20 minutes we’d squeezed ourselves onto into a wooden booth and all had a round of Paulaner in hands. After about an hour some older women came back expecting their seats back that they’d left hours before, we laughed, but they squeezed tight into our booth anyway. After drinking just a bit of their beers they got fed up and left, leaving us thirsty poor travelers and students with free beer!!! No matter how drunk our brains were however, we could easily distinguish between beer and what tasted like fruit loops?! They had ordered RADLER?! UGH, it is like 20% beer 60% fake lemon taste, though however awful it tasted, it sure did the trick and we all took turns forcing the free alcohol down because it seemed a crime at the time to waste anything.

I could keep going on and on telling little stories about the Bavarian guy with a funny mustache hanging with us, one group member passing out for and hour and everyone stealing his massive pretzel, standing on the wood tables and dancing, loud declarations of love, and the eventual miraculous stumble back home after the whole festival shut down, but suffice it to say it was an unbelievably fun experience! Most of those memories are a simple blur anyway, just snippets of fun memories remain, and a ton of awesome pictures, some we don’t really remember taking. I guess it’s okay to get so drunk just a couple times a year, but any more I think is just insane, and it is Oktoberfest!! We were spent by the end.

Our group had expanded and everyone fell asleep in unusual places scattered about the house…Awesome day, I cannot emphasize that enough.

22.Sept.08

Due to some miracle in German brewing, no one woke up with a hangover. We were all quite jovial in fact, and after breakfast most went to work, and Jess and I set to doing chores like washing clothes and such. At about midday we went to meet a Couchsurfing group we’d seen organized online on the Wies’n. We got there too late and missed the group, but wandered around taking pictures in the tents we hadn’t seen yet. It was fun to see the festival sober.

We went back to Mark’s where we cooked a delicious early pork schnitzel dinner. Later we ended up back at the CS meeting spot and caught up with the group this time. It was a very strange hodgepodge of German locals, some French guys, other American’s, and us. A nice, if a bit quiet group, all 10 of us went to the Augustiner tent and sat outside chatting and enjoying the world’s best beer by the liter. Outside was a whole different ambiance, none of the insanity of inside the tent, but a good place to chat, people watch, drink, eat, and meet everyone around. The group leader bought everyone chicken and pretzels which was incredibly generous of him! Full of beer and food we went to the quiet cathedral on the outskirts of the festival. We’d always seen it in the distance on the Wies’n, but it wasn’t something we’d visited even last time in ’05. All of us climbed to the very top where we got stunning views of Oktoberfest.

Then we all tried to find a spot to sit at a few tents, but we were too many and they were all packed. Jess and I decided it couldn’t get any better than yesterday anyway, so we simply said goodbye, leaving them a smaller group and better chances finding a place.

23.Sept.08

We’d intended to leave today, but couldn’t find a Mitfahrgelegenheit ride until tomorrow, and both are too cheap to pay the expensive train tickets. Instead we decided to go see a museum we hadn’t seen last time, the modern art Pinakothek. That however was far too expensive and we don’t really love modern art anyway, so we instead went to an old favorite again the Alte Pinakothek. A collection of stunning classical oil paintings from around the 1200’s-1700’s. Simply gorgeous pieces from Rembrant, Duerer, Van Der Werff, and my favorite Peter Paul Rubens filled the museum with a new and excellent audio tour. Even the second time around this museum simply blew us away; arguably more beautiful than the paintings at the Vatican Museum even.

We got home, cooked spaghetti bolognaise, and spent the night playing Pit, Spoons, and other card games with Mark, Steffi, and Henning. It was a lot of fun; they are a terrific group of people, wish they could travel with us!

München Flickr Pics:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157607438795645/

HALT, Merkelzeit! September 29, 2008

16.Sept.08

A quick U-bahn, then S-bahn ride later and we were met by Jess´s cousin Mark three skips away from his apartment. After a seemingly endless flight of stairs we reached his place. Cigarettes must have not gone out of fashion here yet as the place smells like an ashtray, but it is cozy, and a free place to stay, plus we have Mark, the host with the most. After some sharing of travel stories we were eager to hit the market and pick up some of our favorite German goods. Still packed with a delicious variety of fresh and cheap cheeses, meats, breads, and chocolates as any German market, we stocked up on the essentials; mainly cheeses, meats, breads, and chocolates…but some veggies to go with them, oh and the pickles here! And the beer, mmm the beer, Augustiner, mein Lieblings…now I am starting to remember why I love this land so much!

We had a few beers, ate a delicious meal from our array of foodstuffs, then went out to see some of the city. Nothing really new since we were here in 2005, but it was fun to walk down the main street again with all its towering cathedrals and famous glockenspiel. Feeling our eyes droop painfully we went back and slept on Marks waterbed while he so generously took the kitchen couch.

17.Sept.08

Mark called up his brother Axel to ask his hitchhiking secrets. Axel is as thrifty as us and constantly makes the journey from home to university, Heilbron to Bayreuth, using only his thumb and honey soaked words. After some careful planning we found ourselves at a good spot at a gas station en route to the freeway towards Bamberg. After only 20 minutes our sign worked and we got picked up by two lawyers who drove a fancy new mercedes at mildy alarming speeds on the autobahn towards Bamberg.

Unfortunatly they could only drop us off at a gas station a bit of the way outside of Bayreuth. We would have stayed with Jessica´s cousin Axel who goes to school here, but he has finals, so we tried hitchhiking the small distance from there to Bamberg. After an hour in the freezing cold we gave up, changed our sign to Bayreuth, got in a truck with some dude from Kazakhistan playing cheesy pop-music and were soon at the train station getting tickets to Bamberg. Oh well, at least we made it this far for free!

We walked through the city, liking what we saw of Bamberg so far, to meet up with our Couchsurfing host in his student housing apartment. All his housemates were sitting around chatting and drinking wine, they made us feel right at home, a home we soon left in search of some dinner. We finally gave our tastebuds what they have been craving for since last in Germany; Doener Kebab! A delicious Turkish delight of grilled pita filled with spiced kebab meat, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, onions, and unparalleled garlic cream sauce. Oh rapture! We got back, chatted with our new temporary housemates some more then went to sleep in a room left by a travelling housemate, now all to ourselves.

18.Sept.08

The cobblestone streets were nearly void of people in the crisp early morning. We meandered through all the little nooks, crannies, and alleyways of Bamberg, climbing every little hill and entering every public building we could. We were quickly entranced at how gorgeous the city is, among our favorites were the two main cathedrals and city squares Domberg and Michaelsberg.

For lunch we met with three other couchsurfers we’d arranged to have coffee with. They were all really awesome to speak with, and once again, Jess and I impressed ourselves with how well we still speak German. One in particular, Mathias, was especially keen on showing us the city. He was an expert on the town he was born in and grew up and gave us a wealth of info on its history. After looking through a guide book he brought we saw a picture taken of the city from the view point of a tower he’d never been to. So that is where we wandered, and after finding it tucked away in a tiny castle and climbing a number of spiral stairs, we caught an awesome view of the city. He was excited that we´d shown him somewhere new.

We said goodbye and walked back home. After cooking a pasta dinner we hiked back out at dusk to get another sunset view of the city from the Spezial brewery hill. There we sat and enjoyed the cities special brew Rauchbier, literally smoked beer. It tasted like smoked ham which may sound disgusting, yet surprisingly hearty and delicious.

19.Sept.08

We met Mathias again in the morning and took a long hike up to the highest hill of the city to Altenberg. Past all the homes and through many fields we wandered and hit the perfectly quaint castle on top where we climbed even more spiral stairs until finally getting a panoramic view of Bamberg and all its surroundings, a magnificent sight! We explored the castle a bit and determined it would be the perfect place for someone to have a gorgeous wedding overlooking the city (though it would be have to be medieval themed).

We walked down and back to Michaelsberg to see the inside as yesterday they had some prayer thingy so we couldn’t go in. After exploring its intricate marble, gold, and silver innards we found ourselves having more (even tastier) rauchbier and a local specialty of beef shoulder at the famous (and deservedly so) Schlenkerla. Mouthwatering is all I can say to describe it, this bar epitomizes why we love Germany.

We then walked around a different part of the city where the massive markets are, and political rallies were taking place so close to election time. We hiked again back to another viewpoint for some tee, coffee, and pastries where we sat and relaxed our tired feet and chatted for awhile. Then, as it neared time for the big moment we made our way to a city square where none other than ANGELE MERKEL, DIE BUNDESKANZLERIN (Chancellor of Germany) was making a speech! The guy making her intro was boring, BUT then she came on…and also boring, but it was exciting at least seeing Germany’s top official in person. The most exciting part however is when Jessica blew up a balloon for the opposing party (Die Linke; a more liberal party) and threw it in the air where many people bounced it back up until one smashed it; along with all our dreams… (Later note: the outcome of the elctions found the conservative CSU, Angele´s party, a crushing defeat, changing the political leaning of Bavaria for the first time in 50 years, yay!).

We walked back to the house, cooked leftovers, and hung out with our temporary housemates until we all went to a bar for a couple drinks, new people, more chatting and a gleeful end of the day.

Flickr photos of Bamberg:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157607428650090/