Penguins, hot, italian ice cream, stuffed car, fresh rolls, sex on the beach.
She's back.
We've been in Germany for the last couple of weeks, left on thursday the 13th of july. Paranoid Kjersti did of course not want to very publicly announce that, "hey burglars, we're going away for two weeks, come get our stereo" (the TV is starting to act up though, so they could have gotten that one).
Anyway, we just got back yesterday and I'm almost done unpacking. And threw in the third load of laundry right now. Love, poor thing, had to go to work today (I start on thursday), so the task of getting through the dirty laundry was mine today.
But I've petted a penguin!! At the zoo. It was soft, actually. And had feathers. But the softness completely threw me off, I kind of expected it to be more sticky than silky. BTW, it was a jackass penguin *giggles*
The zoo visit was probably the most exciting thing that happened this vacation. I've been to the Münster All Weather Zoo many times as a kid, but not since then. Well, Love and I took my 10 year old cousin and a friend of hers, and had the best time. We fed elephants, loris and of course penguins. And got very close to some lemurs. They're cheeky things!
But petting the penguin was by far the coolest. I'm very fascinated by those birdies, they walk funny, they look funny and they're simply too cool.
Finally traveling with the Color Line "Color Fantasy" ship was also an experience to remember. They've done their best to make it look like a real cruise liner, and it's more refined than their other ferries. Better cabins as well. Oh, and they serve funny long drinks. "Sex on the beach" wasn't really my kind of nummy, it was too sweet, but the "After Glow" was great. Love enjoyed his "San Francisco ligh", but I think he was relieved there was no umbrella. The drink being pink is a serious enough hit on his masculinity.
In the apartment we rented, I found an old (2005) US womens magazine. "Women's world" I think. Whoa... Talk about world's apart. I mean, it had the same basic ingredients like those kinds of mags here, but boy... No diet here would list pancakes for breakfast as acceptable. Nor do the recipes include pound cake, twinkies, gum drops and ready made frosting. Not ONE recipe had ordinary ingredients like flour, salt or milk. They were all about already finished products. For instance, one cookie recipe had a box of cookie dough and a box of frosting listed in the ingredients and that was it.
If you'd put a recipe like that in a Norwegian women's mag, the housewives would revolt. I can see it clearly, "Allers" printing a recipe for "Pizza Grandiosa" (Norwegian stick-ten-minutes-in-the-oven taste-like-paper-and-cheese pizza) - buy said pizza, preheat oven, remove plastic wrapping and bake for ten minutes. Serve warm.
Besides that, what did we do in Germany? A lot of time spent with family. We tried to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents every day. They're getting very old, and health isn't as good as it was. But we looked at old family photos and had dinner at noon. My beloved aunt (mum's sister, but ten years younger. By far my favorite relative.) and I did a lot of babbling, to Love's great frustration. And we explored every little dorf there was in the area. Having the poshmobile with us, it was no biggie. Especially "fun" was last Sunday when there was going to be a "wiesen fest" in a tiny dorf. Sure, we were up for it. Except when we arrived, the whole shebang was three stalls of "fish a turtle and win an ugly stuffed animal" and a pommes stall. Instead we hit the "barefeet park" that was the big attraction in that dorf. Which was basically walking for 40 minutes around a big field with occasional pebbles and tiles to walk on breaking the poky straw path.
Oh, and we were fortunate to catch the heat wave that struck Germany the last couple of weeks. We had between 30 and 35 degrees celcius every day in the shade. On one occasion actually 40C. Let's just say it involved a lot of showers and outfit changes. We were constant sticky and sweaty, it was very weird. Unusual for us anyway. But I'm not really complaining. It was more fascinating than annoying, and thanks to the heat I haven't gained any weight. We barely managed to eat dinner at all, it usually was just fresh rolls with yummy ham or other nummies. Even the half a grilled chicken each that we had with the grandparents was a bit too much (even though it's the best grilled chicken I've ever tasted!). So the lack of major meals probably made up for the numerous enormous italian ice creams we had. Especially one place in Telgte, you get the most humoungous generous sized portions. We actually ended up ordering kiddie portions. Dang... I have photo proof, of course. Will upload loads of photos when I get the time for it.
We managed to squeeze in a little shopping also. For instance the not just one, but FOUR kick ass cool jeans I got for 80€. I always have such stress finding good jeans because I have hips. The ones I get over my ass are way to big around the waist, and not to mention too long. Even though I'm 1.74m. But four jeans and two adorable tops.
I also found Gilmore Girls season 4 there, so guess who's happy!
Man, the car was so stuffed on our way home... Mum was also in Germany this summer, and left the morning the day we arrived. And had of course left behind three tons of stuff for us bring back for her, because we had the car with us. Among the three tons a doll that looks like a real live baby. *sigh* She claims she needs it to pretend she has a grandkid, because we're (Love and I) so slow producing any for her.
The numerous soups and fixes for gulasch and different schnitzels, and kirsch did also eat up some room. We even had soups stuffed in the pockets of our seats.
All in all it was a great trip. It was our first real holiday together, and it was so fun showing Love all the things I grew up with. And it was so strange coming home again, to a very sterile and tidy apartment that didn't feel like home... I always get like this when coming back from Germany. Everything is "doof". Norway is ugly. The houses look like shit. They're in all mis-matching colours, and look badly kept. Norwegian roads are bad and the speed limits are too slow. The food is un-appealing and you can't even get a decent shorle here. And everyone speaks Norwegian. Bah... I feel very strongly against speaking Norwegian when getting back from Germany. It usually lasts a couple of days before I'm back to normal, but until then everything is "doof".
And I keep thinking of the little things we experienced, and how many of those things will be forgotten. Like when we missed our turn and ended up in the tiniest little dorf I've ever seen. Schwamm, I think. Something like that. Or getting fresh rolls every morning. Or walking around my dorf, looking at the well kept gardens and the charming houses. Or the poor porsche parked on the street. Or the libelle zooming crazily over the corn field. Love's face when he first saw the size of his "pizza ice". Switching channels and being freaked out by freaky Hansi Hinterseer (don't ask). Stopping for a tomato mozzarella sandwich on the road. Driving into the middle of nowhere just to find out there was nothing there. Sitting in the dark watching a thunder storm on the horizon lighting up a dark sky. Gnomes in every garden. Being hit by a wave of heath when walking home from grandparents, a pool of not-moving burning hot air that knocked the wind out of me. Running out of money on the way home, having to live off tuc crackers and mini salamis for a day.
Well, I can honestly say we had a great time. So how was your summer?
ps: visited starbucks again and had an iced coffee mocha. Love mooched half of it, mean thing.
