Schnüllerbaum is a tree at the neighbourhood park that holds onto childhood as much as an old photo does. When we decided that the girls were done with their soothers, we did what most parents do and went out to buy ear plugs, drank wine and played music loudly every night until they stopped crying. In Münster, however, parents meet on the first Wednesday of the month to ascend a cherry picker and hang their child's soother from this tree. And then, ever after, their children can come and mourn their soothers like a loved one who visits a grave.
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I love that there are little shops in random nooks and crannies all over the city. Today's store, Beflügelt, was a child's paradise, with lots of handmade goods and toys that were sentimental to the owner. She explained that as a child, all the kids had these tiny "lucky dolls" attached to every zipper they could find. At ten cents a pop, Eloise was gleeful looking through the basket. She even picked one out for her cousin Charlotte, who at 7 months old might just see it as a delectable choking hazard. But maybe not, since they're lucky.
On a bike ride the other day, we discovered this cafe named Nachtisch (Desserts) and resolved to make a visit sooner rather than later. Mother's Day was a perfect excuse to have sweets for lunch. We didn't hold back and each ordered what we wished. Claudia in her chocolate, chocolate and chocolate glory. Eloise picked the simplest looking dessert, which ended up being the fan favourite. It was a white chocolate torte with berries and jam on top. So freaking good. How fancy is THIS? Vanilla bean panna cotta with chocolate brownie and brulèed sugar crisps. Dollops of white chocolate ganache and sour cherries dusted with pistachios. Gelato on the side and oh, of course gold. This was over the top and quite yummy, but looks were definitely its most defining attribute. We spent the better part of an hour there, just enjoying the sunshine while the girls played with puzzles. If you're ever out Münster way, I definitely recommend a visit. They serve my favourite Roestbar coffee and have a gorgeous patio, abundant with potted herbs. They also sell homemade preserves, which was a perfect little gift to pick up for Mother's Day.
My Mom sent me an interesting link titled This is Why You're German. Filled with anecdotes along the lines of "You know you're from a small town when ..." I was in full on chuckle territory. I would say 2/3 of the sayings went way over my head. The ones that didn't, appear below, complete with my take on them.
You wonder why all those people are standing waiting in line when it's easier to walk straight to the front. This was the number 1 thing I noticed after moving here. If you don't keep your eye on the prize, someone will move ahead of you in line without a second thought. You may even get a glare for being SO absentminded. You learn pretty quickly to stand in line with your hands on your hips, elbows out. You have absolutely no idea who the von Trapp family are and you can't sing along to any of the Sound of Music film songs. Maybe this goes without saying? I was naive enough to think otherwise. Canadians know how to say "auf wiedersehen" more than any other German phrase because of this movie alone. You think all houses should have roller shutters (Außen-Jalousie) so it´s nice and dark in your bedroom even in daytime. These things are god-awful. Rolling down the metal blinds reminds me of prison films. You have no choice about this decor statement. German apartments may not come with kitchens, but they certainly come with these. You wait for the pedestrian light to turn green before you cross the road for fear of being fined. This is true and I like it this way. Nothing makes me more anxious than having waiting cars watch as a jiggle/run to make it across the street before they hit me. You greet everyone in a doctors' waiting room with a friendly "Guten Tag!" The first time this happened to me, I literally looked over my shoulder to see who this stranger was being so fucking chipper with. Good day??? Really? We're in a DOCTOR'S office. So, yeah. German 101 for you right here. I've passed the half year mark of living in Germany so I'm practically an expert, wouldn't you say? It's been a busy, wonderful week of hosting the young and the restless. Friends from Canada are backpacking across Europe and we were more than happy to host them on their way from Amsterdam to Berlin. I don't have many pictures to post from their visit, except for this one. I think it sums up what living life as a 20 year old is all about. Or at least what living life with a 20 year old is all about. I had to look up Jagerbomb in Wikipedia
to make sure I wasn't going to die. The area of Germany that we live in is castle central. I can go 30 km in any direction and find one. The palace in Münster is beautiful, but it's also the administrative offices for the university. So, if you want to register for German lessons, you go to a palace to do so. So it didn't strike me as odd that when I was talking to the BFF the other day about how my day was when I blurted out near the end of our conversation "Oh yeah, we went to a castle today." How obnoxious is that? Quite a bit, as I couldn't help but be embarrassed for myself when she replied, "Oh yeah? I went to Walmart today." What I wouldn't give to have rock bottom priced laundry detergent right about now! Living in Europe is so different from living at home. History surrounds us at all turns and it's best that I try to remember that this little life of ours will not last forever. p.s. This castle is also now home to the School of Finance. So, as romantic as it looks, there were also plenty of students hanging out of windows and eating pizza. They seemed completely unfazed about their surroundings. I'm not the only one taking this stuff for granted.
Tomorrow is May Day, and I don't think I will ever tire of the crazy way Germans celebrate the most innocuous of holidays. Tonight I should be having a bonfire to scare off witches and dance into the morning. Or, Dance into May.
Traditionally, tomorrow would also see the arrival of the May Pole, or maybe even my secret admirer would put a mini one in my garden to let me know he's sweet on me. The day is meant to be spent outside, welcoming spring. Apparently people go into the woods and forage for sweet woodruff to make a sort of tea. I could not make this stuff up if I tried. Instead, I'm off to Enschede, in the Netherlands, to shop. May Day is also Labour Day in Germany. And as old habits die hard, I will pull the Southern Ontarian card and book it over the border where the world hasn't shut down to go for a bike ride. I'm hoping that posting a lot of pictures all at once will make up for the fact that I've had no inclination to attend to this blog of mine. This spring chicken is in a funk. Funk, funk, fuck, funk. I hid a secret message. I'm clever that way. I felt a certain affinity with this bird. He kind of has this WTF look about him, that I've also been sporting lately. Castle & Woods. Sunshine-y. I decided to go the ambitious route for Easter eggs this year. The girls and I went to the market to pick up ingredients to make natural dyes. Our home smelled of cabbage and beets. If you ask Aaron, this is not a good thing. My favourite was the cabbage. I was not expecting that kind of blue. Claudia went to school on her birthday with carrot cake for the class. They lit birthday candles for her and sang her happy birthday "in two languages!". But the best was seeing her face when Granddad and Grandma came and picked her up after school. I think Peter may have had his breathing compromised from the ferocious bear hug he received. It was a really great visit, and so much fun to show them around Münster at this time of year. I think the girls loved their two worlds colliding. I liked having a spotless kitchen for five days. Thanks Donna! xoxo
On our way to and from Austria, we made stops into the cities of Rothenburg and Bamberg, both in Bavaria. Rothenburg is a strictly maintained city from the middle ages and is flocked to by more tourists than you can shake a stick at. The main town attraction is a pastry called Schneeballen, which is essentially leftover pastry crust rolled into a ball and dusted with sugar, chocolate, you name it. It was disgusting. Aside from tourist shops, a medieval torture museum (that didn't accept human donations, the nerve!) and a toy museum, the only thing left to do was to find a quiet place for the kids to run around and play hide and seek. This was our favourite part of town, with pretty views and a desire to steal candy coloured houses to call my own. I'm not a fan of posting pictures of myself unless I resemble my 23 year old self, or it has inherit comedic value. This one has the latter. Aaron, bless his heart, is a full foot taller than me. His remedy for this is to bend his neck so that it level with mine. This results in near dislocation of my own head, but at least we're in the same frame, right? Walk with me a little. We leave Rothenburg, go to Austria, sing DoReMi, turn around and land in Bamberg. Destination chosen because of its halfway to home location and its Rauchbier. This beer is brewed with smoked hops, and essentially tastes like Polish sausage. We attempt to find a legit place that both brews and serves its beer with hearty Bavarian fare. Tada! We find it. All hustle and bustle, suspenders and pretzels. We find our seats, order our beer and are handed our menus. Oh, mother of God. We hardly understand a thing on this menu. We know, by now, that Schwein means pig, but all those extra words surrounding it could mean boiled testicle on a bed of raw onion. We had to ask for help. Worst decision ever. Our waitress was, excuse my language, the nastiest bitch we have encountered to date. Holier than thou German bar wench. "Umm, can you please tell us what - schweintesticleonion - means?" For which we received a glare that turned the children to stone and the reply of "Don't you have your guide book with you?" HUH?!?
So we quickly grabbed our beers, asked for the bill, waited for the 5 cents change, which was Aaron's idea as he didn't want her to think we were tipping her five whole cents, and ran into the courtyard. From there we spotted a second dining room and came up with a plan. We would go in there, hope that our wench didn't see us and try to order again. Enter scarier looking wench than the first. Start to sweat as she approaches the bar man and whispers in German. He stares our way, and starts moving towards us. "We just want a pretzel!" I blurt out. He asks where we got the beer from. I'm not above crying at this point, but decide that tattling might prove to be more useful. "The waitress on the other side doesn't want to serve us! She asked us where our guide book was!" Tattling totally works. He handed us an English menu, gave the girls "sweeties" and waited on us himself. The meal was delicious, the beer even more so. We're never going back. If you're willing to accept your inner nerd, and then accept that you're going to display it in public, Geocaching may just be for you. I had bought Aaron a handheld GPS for his birthday a few years ago, with the promise that we would go out and activate ourselves with fresh air, good parenting and financial control. This lasted about 3 months and then the GPS went into hiding and I focused my energy on retail therapy, medical therapy and "maybe I might benefit from psychotherapy." If only I could understand what Dr. Deutsch was saying to me . . . Living in Germany is expensive, so it became time for us to exercise that financial control thingy. So we dusted off our GPS and took the kids out treasure hunting around Münster. I ROCK at finding caches! What started out as wholesome became a competition, and I won. Unless I let Aaron win, but even then, I still won. We saw a lot of the city that we had not ventured to before and the kids really did enjoy themselves. So, another happy and retail free Sunday marked off. Spring has come early to the city and presented itself by way of fragrant blossoms, flowing water and our first robin sighting. The girls and I leave for Canada on Saturday and I hope when we come back, the warm weather will be here to stay and we can enjoy more days like this.
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