Elternzeit II

The next adventure up for my family was the North Sea. Being so close to a huge body of water is like a magnetic pull to at least visit once....well it was for this land-locked girl.
We all piled in the car and headed up north until we hit water. The water was a bit chilly, but not nearly as

bad as I expected it to be. Eli and I played in the sand, made signs, and kept out of the way of jellyfish.
Oh yeah....
jellyfish....
They were everywhere! They were really pretty just slightly terrifying because none of us had to go pee.
They were this gorgeous purple that reminded me on a iris.
we kept poking them with sticks... Okay... -I- kept poking them with sticks.
It was very nice and I'd go there again in a heartbeat!

After that drive to the North Sea, I convinced my parents to try and travel by train since that's just how you do it here. So we decided to go up to Bremen the next day by train with a group of my friends. We all went to the Bahnhof, piled in a train, and were able to relax the entire way to Bremen. No yelling at the GPS. No looking for parking. It was rather great.
But first! We had to take a picture with the statue Bremen is known for. The Town Musicians of Bremen is a statue of a donkey, dog, cat, and roster all sitting atop the other's back. It comes from a very popular children's story that I'll let you google (or click the link I provided).





Just down the street from said statue, is a cathedral that Ty just had to check out. The St. Peter's cathedral was very nice, but the best part is that we could go up into the tower, just like in Hamburg.

View of the square from the tower.

Mom and Eli looking out over the town.

Just because being in the tower didn't make me tall enough....

Aw..... someone from 1986 loves me!

Love the english here.... think you're missing a consonant....

After that we walked over to the chocolate shop in style:

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!

Mom was pretty happy once she got there.

She may have tried to buy out the whole store...

We walked back to the Bahnhof and were admiring the beauty of the building when I heard someone playing the saxophone on the street. Well....you know me! The dancer inside of me just jumped up and couldn't help but move. Sadly, Eli has gotten to the point where he needs to lead now, so I can't dance with him until I teach him how to do that.
So, next option. I slapped on my best puppy dog eyes and asked Blake to PRETTY PLEASE dance with me.

And it seems to have worked!

The next two days were fancy dinners. Both days we decided to suit up and go out either with or without my family depending on how tired they were. Here are some pictures just because when you suit up, you gotta take pictures! 

After that the family left, but I can't wait to see them again when I get home. Seems like they had a great time! I was very glad to explore with them and show off Germany!

Elternzeit

First of all I want to tell you that is post is grossly mislabeled, mostly to forestall any freak-outs from people who know German.
In Germany, after a woman has a child, her husband can take leave from work to help raise the kid. This time taken off is called "Elternzeit" or "parent time" in English.
However, this blog is not a clever way to tell you I'm pregnant (I can promise I'm very much NOT), but I think it sounds like a good title to put all the adventures my parents and I had over here under.
Without further ado, our adventures:

After the shenanigans of trying to get them here (dang storm in Newark!), they flew into Hamburg where Blake and I picked them up.

Mom, Eli, and Dad in front of the Rathaus

Side note about the S-Bahn ride to the airport: Blake and I got on the proper line but saw that it split about half way along the trip and one line went to the airport and the other line went to some little name we didn't know. We were worried, did the train go to the airport and back track? The other side and backtrack? Because we were already late....
Much to our amusement, the nice voice told us that if we wanted to end up in (insert name of stop here) then we should kindly move to the last three cars. Isn't that the coolest? The last three cars split off and go to a different stop!

The first day with my parents wasn't too exciting. We walked around the city a bit, mostly just to find a place to eat. The poor waitress at the steak house we found (trust my carnivorous father and brother to sniff one out here) didn't speak a lick of English and I had to translate most of it. By the end of dinner the family was tuckered out and we saved any more adventures for the next day.

As soon as everyone had a day or two to sleep off jet lag, we were off. This time, to Amsterdam! I know, when you think of Amsterdam, you think of smoking and the red light district. Why would I want to bring my parents there? Two words: Amsterdam Dungeon. Not only is it the coolest one I've been to, but they also present it half in English. If you've been following this blog you'll see how I raved about it the first time. I'm happy to report that we had even MORE fun than the first time I went!

A little think you need to know about my family before I go on is that dad, being tall and bald, always gets picked for things. He just seems to look like a good guy to pick on. So when I tell you that they call up at least one person in every room, just know that the red head and the big, bald guy got called up a lot more often than you would think. One of the times that dad got called up and accused of selling not only him, but everyone in the room to the VOC ships, he called mom up too. Eli got questioned by the inquisition and I got burned at the stake for being a witch.

For me, the coolest thing was the witch burning. The actress in the room called me forward and sat me down with my "book of spells". As she's talking to the rest of the crowd about witches, she points to the side of the page where there are flags for different languages. I flip to English and begin to read. It's simple. They are asking me to act along. They are going to "burn" me at the stake. If I wish to continue, look scared. If you don't want to, just shake your head.
PWHA! This room was made for me!

I put on my best scared face and closed the book. She demonstrated the powers I had by making me stare at flowers until they wilted. Then she tied me up to a pole on top of a pile of wood at the back of the room where there was a nice sign placed just where I could see. It asked me to act like I was choking. Screaming helped.
WELL HECK! This room really was made for me!
It outline that when the lights went out, the whole contraption would get turned around and I was to remain still as the attendant finished the story.
As the lights went out and the platform turned, I let out a high pitched wail of a scream.
Ah, another one of my shining moments.

Among other things we did in Amsterdam, the canal tour was probably the best. It's always nice to do so you can see all the culture without killing your feet. Mom and dad seemed to be much more into it than Eli, however. We went by some neat churches, houses, and the Anne Frank house.




The next day, instead of going to Potsdam and seeing an awesome Renaissance festival there, we found one much closer, even if smaller. Heavy emphasis on the -small- part. I think the best part of that adventure, though, was the fact that we got to go on a ferry. Coming from a state with few rivers and fewer lakes, needing a ferry to cross anything is neat! I think mom found it coolest. She, promptly upon getting onto

said ferry, started taking pictures, much to the chagrin of the other passengers.
Once we get to the other side, we drive and drive until we end up in a small town with a little yellow sign pointing us to the outskirts where the fest is being held. I do have to applaud one thing, though. the dogs in Hagen im Bremischen seem to be very capable. Running shops all on their own like that....



On our way back home, we passed through an interesting little town that mom just had to take a picture with.:

Hint: Her maiden name is Popken

Our next adventure brought us south of Oldenburg to a little town I love called Sandkrug. This town has some of the best forest nearby. So we packed up a lunch, hoped in the car, and headed down south....for about a 10 minute drive. We walked to the forest, had lunch, and explored a little, but we kept hearing music

and announcements coming from farther down the tail. We also kept seeing families going past with kids. We decided we didn't want to miss out on cool things happening, so we went down the path and stumbled upon a family fair!

We joked about dad giving me his hat and letting me hop onto the mechanical bull ride they had there and showing them how a REAL cowgirl does it, but we never really got the chance.....sadly...

We saw some fun things, like the booth that sells all the cookie hearts which seem to be very popular here. I've seen them at just about every fair or fest I've been to so far. There were neat rides, fun booths, and lots of people just having a good time. Towards the end of the fair there was more of a kids circus where kids could try tightrope walking, juggling, hula hoops, and balancing spinning plates. As we were standing out of the way, talking in English, a very nice carnie came up and handed Eli and I sticks with plates already spinning on top of them. Let's just say, this might have been the starting point to me wanting to run away with the circus.

TADAH!

The English Pub

Regrettably, this is going to be a picture free blog entry. I always like to include at least one picture of the event....more if I can really fit it in (you might have noticed already).

Last night our English friend, Emma, brought us to and English speaking club.

Let me explain a few things about that name, however.

First of all, they mean English as in the British English, not really American. They had lots of cool English beers like Monty Python's Holy Grail, Old Speckled Hen, and Newcastle. And when they say club, they mean like a gathering and not dancing. In other words, it was a lot of older people who moved to Germany from England and who wanted to get together and speak English from time to time. Might sound stuffy, but they were all quite friendly, talkative, and rowdy once you got them to drink.

We were quite lucky to stumble into this little pub on the night we did. Heck, it was lucky we stumbled on it at all. You'd have to blame our friend, Emma, who just seem to find it at random on the internet and drag us all there. But tonight was special, it was Sing-Along night. Packets were passed out with tons of song lyrics. I didn't recognize too many at first, but then I started going through one by one and all I could think of was, "bless my mother." There was one children's song CD she would always play in the car that had sons like "Drunken Sailor", "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", "A Waltzing Mathilda", and "Loch-Lomond". I proudly requested those on the sheet of paper being passed around

After a very delicious veggie lasagna and creamy fruit dessert (I really need to learn how to make both), they started singing the songs I requested. After a few drunken rounds of "Hey Jude" and a very touching, albeit drunk, version of Scarborough Fair, I heard John say they were doing "A Waltzing Mathilda" next. For any of you who don't know this, I love this song. I used it as a sign project once and had to sing it while I signed in front of the class because I couldn't find a version to my satisfaction.

John who was in charge of the bellowing singing, was leading everyone in the song, but not very many people seemed to be into it. About half way through the song his voice started to give out. Can't say I blame the ol' chap. He had been singing for a while and drinking nothing but beer. Let me say again, I love this song. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that as soon as he faltered, I lifted my voice above the crowd and sang the entire next verse by myself....or at least until John got his breath back and then people started to join me in the chorus again. After the song, John came over to me with a huge smile saying he owed me a beer. He kept good on his promise and got me a Newcastle before we had to be back at the train station to head home for the night. This story may not be really epic but I thourghly enjoy it. Me, a little Ami, who just belted out an Australian folk song in an English Club in Germany. Anyone else have culture shock yet?

The Journey is the Destination

Between these epic adventures to far off, German cities I find ways to entertain myself. I mean, I'm in Germany after all.... I'm sure I can find something to do with my time.
People are always a good place to start when you're looking for something to fill the hours between sunup and sundown (which is getting really long here. I think we're up to 18 hours of light a day).
A few weeks ago, Blake graciously let me take him on a date. How sweet. We made sandwich stuff and then packed it off to a dorf just south of where we're living called Sandkrug.
Knowing we both miss our forests back in Colorado, I thought this would be a perfect place, and I think I hit the nail on the head. After hiking around for awhile and just enjoying the fresh, albeit heavy, air of the forest, we found a nice hill to plop down onto and eat lunch.
This isn't one of those amazing adventures that I'm going to tell over and over, or even tell my grandkids, but it was a beautiful place

Another nice person to waste time with is Bethany Blackburn. She's another one from UNC, but she's based

out of Köln right now because that's where her boyfriend lives or is studying.... or because that's where she likes to capture dragons. Either way, she's there, so it's a real treat when she comes up to Oldenburg and we get to see her. The first time we saw her here, she was just passing through, but this weekend she was here for a few days. First, we just hit the local watering hole and just had a good night talking and laughing. Ya know, the norm.
Also, she's my favorite red-head.
She's just cool like that.

And then the next day she and Björn invited us to go to Olantis with them. I guess Oldenburg is kinda famous for this water park. COOL! It was only €2,30 since the indoor part was closed and I used a student discount. We still got the outdoor heated (THANK THE LORD) pool and the river that had a pirate boat in it.
Ty showed off his Michigian blood by hanging out in the water of the river longer than any of us. When I said I was going to jump in Alex and Ty kept making jokes about burining my body on the pirate ship like a true viking funeral. And yeah, it was that cold.
Have you ever jumped into water and all of the sudden you couldn't breathe? Like cold just took on a human form and FALCON PUNCHED you in the diaphragm? It felt something like that.
The rest of the time was cool, especially when I pwned at a game of chicken. Goooood times. :)

Lübeck: City of Endless Rain

Last weekend was another one of those fantastic, international student trips that the school sponsors. And if fantastic means dreary, wet, and waterlogged, then I have the trip for you!
siiiiiigh.

CLICK ME!
I GET BIGGER!

I guess it wasn't -that- bad, but Cranky Lex comes out when she gets cold and wet. And it was both....all weekend....
Just a little history on the city of Lübeck and why it's cool (and some pretty pictures of the city for you to look at while I'm explaining all of this):

Lübeck is the second largest city in northern Germany, second only to Hamburg. Lübeck also has the second largest harbor in Germany....again second only to Hamburg. Lübeck is situated on the other side of the Denmark peninsula from me/Hamburg. Once upon a time, a long long time ago (13th-17th centuries), Lübeck was the capital of the Hanseatic League. For those of you who don't know what this is (don't feel bad, I didn't know who they were until I came to Germany) the Hanseatic League was a very powerful organization of merchants...essentially. They were so powerful that their cities lived under their own laws and had their own army and because of this power they pretty much owned northern Europe. There are still a lot of things in Germany and northern Europe in general that reflect this influence. Zum beispiel (for example) take the name Lufthansa. Luft = air and hansa is a reference to the Hanseatic League.

Awesome defensive building
 we got to tour

Because Lübeck was their main port, this means the city was also well fortified. Lübeck is(/was, most of it was destroyed in WWII) pretty much a walled off island with tons of churches and awesome defensive buildings.

Sadly, most of the time we were here, it was raining. Not always a pouring rain at all, but steady enough to be considered Chinese water torture.
One really cool thing that we stumbled upon (no seriously, I pointed at tents and said, "Let's go to the thing".) was a viking/renaissance festival in the Markt of Lübeck.
A few of our group bought celtic, leather wristbands as a group because we're just awesome like that.

Also, between all the Americans who went to Lübeck, we bought 6 liters (jugs) of wine/mead and one nice glass thing. Well, we bought more glasses of the smaller variety that aren't in the picture, but they aren't really all that big (so they don't count). I still have one jug of mead sitting on my shelf, waiting for my parents to get here. Then, and only then, will I crack it open. :)

After trekking around the city in the rain to see all the beautiful buildings, we went to the marzipan museum. I, sadly, am not a huge fan of marzipan and just wandered around the building looking at all the things you could mould out of this sweet treat.

One other thing we did that weekend was go to the sea. Sadly...again... it was rainy and cold, so we didn't do much besides throw rocks into the gray mass that was the ocean.
All in all, it wasn't my favorite trip ever. There were some cool things though, so it wasn't a total bust.