Hi everyone! I'm finally back in PA (have been for weeks now, but I'll get to that in a minute) and it's time to show off pics from my vacation in Germany. This was probably the best experience I've ever had, definitely different from what I expected (didn't expect anything really, I had no idea what Germany was like). My grandmother used to tell me stories of her homeland when I was a child, and German fairy tales too (I don't have to wonder where my love for fantasy came from). I was met with something entirely different than what I know in America both culturally and aesthetically. I'll flesh that out in my next blog. Germans are not much different from us individually, except maybe friendlier (not bad for a country known to try to take over the world in the past two world wars). Friendlier is too small of a word, my relatives were the most generous and gracious people I ever met. And normal too. My grandmother was probably the most normal person in my family (except for a certain cultural tendency to want to overfeed you). Now I know why. The food was great too. A typical German breakfast consists of lunch meats, various kinds of bread and pastries, various cheese, and different kinds of wursts (sausage like meat things). German coffee is delicious and non-acidic. Normally I can't drink coffee because it nauseates me. But not their coffee. There's so much to share, but I'm going to break this up over the next few weeks. I took over 320 photos, and though I will only post a portion of those, I still have to reformat them and stuff (this is why it took me so long to get going with this blog post, and the fact that I came back with a German flu - not fun for the week and a half I was sick afterwards, plus back to my full time job, catching up around my house and garden, rebuilding websites, learning how to program, etc, etc, etc excuses) This first batch of pics is for fun! We had some great moments (and not so great). To my German family, hope you don't mind some American humor. To my American family, well, you have it coming. To everyone else, hope you get my bad jokes!
Civilization! There's pizza here! (That's my brother Mike, everyone say "Hello Mike").
German road signs are worse than Pennsylvania's! (Now say hi to my Dad).
My Dad is explaining to us that our relatives are the last remaining German branch of the descendents of Don Quixote.
After hearing my Dad's dramatic version of our family history, Mike and I were officially made the Jesters of Stahleck.
First German, "What's that tourist taking a picture of now?" Second German, "Didn't she say she was Canadian?" First German, "Well that can't be right, she's got her camera aimed at a crack in the wall." Second German, "Definitely American."
*Huff huff* "Hey! Wait for me!"
"I'm a Princess! I'm a Princess!"
Yeah right, like knights in real armour would fit through this! See, I knew elves existed!
"Hey, you didn't say cheese!" Oh yeah, they don't say that here. (Everyone say hi to my cousin Karl!)
Setting: The Black Forest. My Dad, "Are you sure this is the right way?"
My cousin Karl-Heins is demonstrating a traditional medieval German monk's religious ritual. It has never been successfully photographed.
Translation "Here barfed Geothe" (the famous literary writer of Faust). My life will never be the same after viewing this.
My cousin Julian is happy because he thought he was being entertained by a personal appearance of Mr. Bean.
This guy's not bad looking. Wait! He's my cousin? Quick, throw some holy water on my eyes!
Apparently there's a legendary siamese German elk which has one head with two bodies, as evidenced by this medieval sculpture.
Yep, I'm related to them. (Everyone say hi to my cousin Annerose!)
"Dude, you broke my camera!" Mike replies, "You shouldn't have photographed Karl-Heins practicing his religious rite." I answer, "No, I'm pretty sure it was your face."
Mike gets back at me. Turns out it was my face that broke the camera.
That's all for now folks. More will be coming soon at a blog near you.