A Fair To Remember

It has been raining every day here for the past week. This may sound odd, but I am starting to miss Bakersfield's weather. So during the day we have mostly kept indoors except for some errands here and there. Today, we helped Svenja clean/set-up for her birthday party, which will be Saturday in a large party hall.

Thankfully, last night the rain ceased, because we went to Hannover's bi-yearly fair or festival on the city's large lake. The festival is called Maschseefest. It is nothing like the Kern County Fair. There are no farm animals, rides, or fried oreos. It basically consists of food and alcohol booths and dance clubs that line the river.

Jara's Mom's photo-op

Maschseefest

At the festival with the lake in the background

I was told the night before from one of Jara's friends that I NEEDED to try a Kinder crepe at this festival. Kinder is a popular chocolate bar here. So my mission for the night...demolish a Kinder crepe. I succeeded!

Svenja and I with our crepes

Scott, on the other hand, had another mission. He wanted to demolish some German meat. Meat definitely was not hard to find at this festival. With every five steps you were able to come across some type of booth selling meat mainly bratwurst and currywurst. Scott found a type of meat/sausage that he hasn't had yet...schinkengriller.

Meat Galaore!

The Schinkengriller and Scott

Also, we found out that Hannover is famous for their pretzels, so Jara and Svenja treated us to HUGE pretzel. They were delicious! This festival is also famous for this beer that has a lot of fruit in it. They assured me that I would like this beer, but all I did was fish out the fruit on the bottom. The beer wasn't my cup of tea.

Beer with fruit at the bottom

While we were in the biergarten aka beer garden, we met up with some of Jara's friends. Later while trying to chat with Jara's friends in English (it takes a little longer to have a conversation while they think of English words), two guys approached our table because they heard us speaking English. These two guys, one studied aboard in Texas and the other in New Zealand, were excited to hear English and wanted to talk with us. Come to find out, one of the guys was a National Junior Olympic Swimmer for Germany. Scott and I were excited that we could carry out an English conversation!

After the biergarden, we went to one of the dance clubs at the festival. It was full of people. I could barely get my groove on!

This one is for you mom...Tina Turner made her appearance at the festival

This One's For You Dad

Yesterday was pretty relaxing at least for Scott and I. Jara's best friend's, Svenja, birthday is today. However, in Germany, when someone turns eighteen, friends and family gather to celebrate at the stroke of midnight. Jara was busy yesterday preparing Svenja's presents. Jara made a very extravagant birthday cake (two layers of chocolate cake, homemade butter cream frosting, and topped with hazelnuts and chocolate shavings). It says London on the top, because Svenja's parents gave her a shopping trip to London!

Jara also gave her many other gifts, and we traveled to the city center aka downtown to help Jara shop for them. While downtown, I went in the largest bookstore in Hannover in hopes that they would have a selection of English books, since I finally finished the book Kaitlin let me borrow for the trip. Sure enough, the bookstore did have an English section, though small (about 3 columns of shelves and a table) it still carried the book I was hoping to find!

As you know I'm a foodie so this should come as no surprise that I'm about to talk about grocery stores in Hannover. My dad has a few questions and is curious to see what they look like. So here is a culture lesson for some of you.

As I have mentioned before, Germans along with Europeans do things on a much smaller scale compared to Americans. For example, their cars, garages, ice cream scoops, and super-sized McDonald meals. Grocery stores are no exception. As I mentioned in a previous blog, Germans don't just have a one-stop shop for their grocery shopping. They go to the butcher, the grocery store, and the bakery. There are a few grocery stores that combined these services into one store. But these stores are not like your typical Vons or Winco where there are aisles on end of everything you can imagine. The grocery stores here in Hannover have about 7 aisles MAX.

The grocery stores still carry your typical items: produce, dairy, packaged meats, frozen foods, beverages, pet food, canned goods, etc. It is just that everything is on a much smaller scale. The produce sections is small. Not too many vegetables. :( For the first time in my life I saw baby carrots canned in a glass jar. Apparently, Grimmway Farms hasn't reached Hannover.

In Thailand last summer, I noticed there were so many new fruits that I had never seen before. But here, the only fruit that is out of the norm is lingonberries. Also, the asparagus here is white and the stalk is much thicker. Leeks are also very common here along with radishes.

Lingonberries

There are very few brands that I recognize. Some of the common kids' cereals and granola bars, Nutella, and candy/gum.

Anything look familiar?

Though the grocery store provides a grocery cart, no one except the elderly use them. When I went to the checkout counter, I was in shock at the amount of food people were purchasing! My thought was 'how long is that apple juice, sausage, and yogurt going to last you? Four hours? Then you come back to the store again?' In America, our carts are full of groceries as if we are hoarding for the next World War.

Also, you have to PAY for your grocery bags. There are 9 cents a bag, so you must pack wisely if you have a bag at all! My brother and I were naive to this fact. So when we saw a man stash his yogurts in his backpack while shopping, we thought he was shoplifting. Jara then clued us in that he was not in fact stealing but using his backpack as a bag. Very common here.

The yellow bags are to purchase

But then again, the size of their refrigerators are SMALL! I thought Jara's family just had a smaller one since only two people live here. But when I visit other homes with families of 4 or 5 people, the size of the refrigerator is the same! (And they don't have an extra freezer in the garage either!) Jara's refrigerator is located underneath the countertop!

The top section is the freezer! My first thought was 'How will ice cream ever fit in there?!'

What I've observed of the German diet is that they eat a lot of sausage, pork, and salami. Chicken, fish, and turkey are hard to come by. One, two, or three potato dishes are served with a meal. They have a large selection of gravies, but the most common is hollandaise sauce (my brother's favorite). Even though chocolate is so common here, the desserts are without chocolate! Most of the dessert included cherries or some type of berry with yogurt and cookies baked into cake-like dish. I'm not complaining...they are delicious.

Today, I ventured byself to downtown, because it was already 3:00 in the afternoon and Scott or Jara were awake yet!! Yes, you read that right...3:00 PM. So I went back to the bookstore to browse some more books and cookbooks, window shopped, and had my first bratwurst sandwich.

Hannover's downtown

Bratwurst Sandwich

Don't worry Scott and Jara were awake when I returned. Tonight, we are off to Cafe & Bar Celona (get it...Barcelona) to have cocktails for Svenja's birthday.

Sorry this blog is so long!

Three Things I Learned Today:

1. I know how to get to the city's center all on my own.

2. I really miss vegetables.

3. People stare at you funny when you take pictures of the grocery store.

History Came Alive Today

When I last wrote/talked to you, we had some transportation issues. Well, those transportation issues fail to cease. On Friday, we had reservations with Enterprise Car Rental yes the same company as in America (Enterprise..."We'll pick you up!"). Sure enough, they picked us up to take us to the rental office. They ran out of compact cars, so they upgraded (for free) to the next class of cars. This would be a VW Passat instead of a VW Golf. In America, this would of been great, but in Germany, the roads are barely wide enough to handle two VW Golfs. Cars have to drive on the sidewalk to let other cars pass. So a larger car, only added to my concern at driving in Germany.

This is Jara's mom's garage for her car. It's TINY. Jara's mom can barely squeeze out of her car. Use Scott to get a perspective on the height.

But don't you worry...in the end we weren't able to rent a car. Little did we know, you had to have a 250 Euro deposit on top of the rental fee. We were unaware of this, and both Jara and I didn't have enough money in our accounts to afford this. So we left Enterprise empty handed. But we were able to make the most of it, and purchase a day pass on the subway/bus and toured other parts of Hannover. We took the subway out to EXPO Plaza, IKEA :), and the country side.

It's like we have never seen an IKEA before

Then on Saturday, Scott and I ventured by ourselves to Hannover's city center aka downtown. We did a little shopping, and found an amazing little kiosk that made my day. The name explains itself...

Scott took this picture for me. I was too embarrassed. Anyhow, they sell ice cream. They custom make Magnums (the ice cream bar), and any other ice cream you can imagine.

I was able to make it on the Autobahn today, though I wasn't the one driving. Jara's mom took us to Bergen-Belsen (the concentration camp). It is about an hour outside of Hannover. There was even a traffic jam on the Autobahn! Also, I didn't realize how much farmland there was in Germany. There was so much alongside the Autobahn.

The Autobahn

What I didn't realize or learn in school was that Bergen-Belsen was not only used as a concentration for Jews but as a POW camp for mostly Soviet soldiers.

The Bergen-Belsen Memorial consisted of an Exhibition, which was more like the history of the camp and the grounds that contained the camps. The Exhibition was full of first-hand video footage (very hard to watch), artifacts (buttons, uniforms, barbed wire, belt buckles, etc.), pictures, and information. I had goosebumps the whole time we were there. There was even a cafeteria there!! Who would eat after seeing this stuff?

The cold, bleak Exhibition

The grounds. There are no longer buildings just trees, flowers, memorials, tombstones, and mass graves.

A mass grave. (I didn't know until Jara's mom explained what it meant)

The British created these graves stones. If you can see...1,000 tote means 1,000 people are buried here. There were SO many of these here with different numbers. Over 52,000 Jews were killed here.

Scott and I looked in the books of names of those who resided at Bergen-Belsen. There were over 40 people with the last name of Franz. We watched some footage on a man named Christian Franz who was persecuted at Bergen-Belsen for being a gypsy.

Jara's mom and I bonded today. She hasn't spoke much English while we have been here, but she does know some. Today while walking on the grounds of Bergen-Belsen, she told me that her father's family had to flee to West Germany to escape the Nazis. Her mother's father was a Nazi soldier, and he refused to speak to about anything when he returned after the war.

Anne Frank and her family were moved from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen. Everyone in her family, except her father, Otto, was killed here.

Today is Sunday, which means tonight was family dinner. Jara's grandma and sister came over for a lovely meal of stuffed bell peppers. Then I started this blog, until I got distracted when Jara's friend, Jannis, came over. We played quite a few games of cards on the balcony. Their balcony is SO beautiful. It overlooks the park, and everything is so green and lush here. Plus, the temperature is ideal. It is just like San Diego's, but it rains a lot more here.

Three Things I Learned Today:

1. Germans, while driving on the Autobahn, put on their emergency flashers when braking for a traffic jam. (Probably because they drive so stinkin' fast!)

2. Anne Frank and her sister, Margaret, died at Bergen-Belsen.

3. Prostitutes in Germany stay in trailers off the side of the road. We witnessed a few today.

Confusion Followed By Comfort Foods

We finally made it to Hannover! Actually, we arrived a day earlier than we thought but by a different mode of transportation! We learned a valuable lesson on Monday night while at the Barcelona train station. ALWAYS check your train tickets even if they are in German. Scott and my train ticket (given to us as one ticket) said that there would be two women riding on the night train plus Jara (who had her own ticket). When we were about to board the train, the ticket collector gave us a funny look and then said Scott couldn't board the train, because this was the women's cabin. The train was full for that evening, so they wouldn't allow us on board! We even offered to sleep in the dining car! We were desperate since there wasn't another train leaving for Paris/Hannover in over 24 hours!

So we travelled 45 minutes by bus to the airport. We got to the airport about 15 minutes before the ticket counters closed for the night. We found a flight to Hamburg (about 1.5 hours outside of Hannover) for noon the next day (Tuesday), but by the time we contacted our parents (for emergency funds) the ticket booth had closed. We spent the night in the airport, and met some very interesting individuals. We couldn't sleep, so we stayed awake playing card games and crossword puzzles until noon the next day to catch our flight (which was delayed another hour). Purchasing a crossword puzzle book the day before may have been the best decision of my life! Thank you Grandma Rose for getting me addicted to them!

We arrived in Hamburg to then catch a train to Hannover. Needless to say, we are alive and well in Hannover! We were exhausted and smelly upon arrival, but Jara's mom made us a delicious welcome home dinner, which filled our bellies for a good night's rest as we each slept about 14 hours!

Jara's Mom made us this Swedish dessert to welcome us home. The combination of ingredients are so unique: Applesauce, Vanilla Ice Cream, and Egg Liquor. It was delicious!!

Yesterday was our first full day home, and what we thought would be a relaxing day turned into a crazy day! Jara and I went for a run after waking up around noon. While on our run through the park, Jara tripped and fell on the gravel rocks. She cut open the palm of her hand. We didn't think too much of it, but when her mom got home she wanted to take Jara to the hospital. So Scott and I got a tour of a German hospital yesterday. Jara is doing well, the doctor just had to clean the wound better so there wouldn't be an infection. The German hospital wasn't white and cold like America's, but concrete and warm inside. A similarity between the two countries hospitals...the wait time isn't any shorter!

Today was also a very relaxing day as we just hung around the house, did some laundry, and watched about the whole season nine of Friends. Oh also, we were on the phone with the train people for about an hour begging and pleading for a refund on our stupid train tickets...a refund is still to be determined.

We decided that we missed certain foods from the countries that we had visited, so night was devoted to cooking our favorite things. Scott wanted the hamburger with a fried egg and ham that he had tried in Barcelona. Jara and I both wanted Nutella crepes like we had in Paris. But we decided that we had to have a real dinner first, so we fixed ourselves the most magnificent sandwiches similar to those we tried in the Paris cafes.

My Sandwich

Scott was SO proud of his replication of the Barcelona Egg Burger

Scott's reaction after tasting his burger...

My Nutella Crepe with Caramel Ice Cream...my reaction after the first bite was similar to Scott's hamburger reaction :)

Tomorrow, we are renting a car to drive to Bergen-Belsen, a former concentration camp. Pray for me and the other drivers on the road, as I take on the Autobahn in a VW Golf!!!! Yes Amy...a VW Golf :)

Three Things I Learned in the Past Two Days:

1. In Hannover, you recycle your bottles/cans at the grocery store.

2. People flying from the Barcelona airport have a real fetish for saran-wrapping their entire suitcase. I don't see the point. I tried to get a picture of this without being too stalkerish, but it never worked out.

3. Germans don't cook their oatmeal, but eat it cold with milk!! Eww! I taught Jara how to microwave her oatmeal and add a touch of brown sugar...her eyes have been opened!

Travel Update

Hello all,

Today we leave Barcelona. We take a night train WITH BEDS to Paris and then have the day to spend in Paris until we leave Paris on Tuesday evening by train. We will finally arrive in Hannover on Wednesday morning. So I will not be in touch until Wednesday or Thursday.

Adios for now!

Sarah

Ice Ice Baby...

Last night we explored La Rambla and Placa de Cataluyna at night! There were so many tourists street performers, and people selling things! Scott suckered Jara into getting him a light-up flying object. That entertained Scott for longer than it should have. He almost injured about five kids with his cheap thrill.

Street Performers

Every day on our way to the beach, we pass a bocadillo shop that always has a LONG line at the take-away window. We figured that this place must be delicious if people are willing to wait, so today was our day to wait in line with the rest of the crowd. I'm SO glad we did! It was AMAZING. The best way to describe this bocadillo is that it is similar to Chiptole but better and in a bread roll. You pick your raw meat and then they grill it in front of you. I chose chicken. Then you pick your sauce. I got Tzatziki sauce. Finally, you pick from a wide variety of vegetables. I got them all except onions.

Then Jara wanted to soak up the sun for one more day on the beach, while Scott and I opted out. We decided to rent bikes and ride down the beach instead. We rode for about 2 hours down the whole beach and Port Vell. It was beautiful.

While on our bike ride, we ran into Tony Hawk and friends. They made a stop in Barcelona for the European Skate Tour. Monster Energy Drink was handing out free Monsters, so Scott was thrilled! Also, the popular beer here, San Miguel, was sampling their new flavors, apple and lemon beer. I hate beer, so I wasn't interested. But Scott tried it, and told me it didn't taste a thing like beer. So I tried the apple beer, and I loved it. Why? Because it didn't taste a thing like beer, but like carbonated apple juice!

Today was also a museum day! Our first of Barcelona! Scott and I traveled to the famous Pablo Picasso Museum. The museum entrance was in an alley and the museum was a Spanish style architecture (go figure). Scott proceeded to read every last informational wall blurb, and then repeat them back to me. I didn't realize that Picasso did so much normal (non cubist) work when he was younger. But overall, Scott and I weren't too impressed with Picasso's work. But maybe that is because we can't understand his genius.

Picasso Museum

For dinner tonight, we went back to the place where I discovered the greatness that is paella and sangria. We couldn't pass up their bargains or great tasting food. I got another sangria and paella. Then to top it off...ice cream (toffee and coconut with chocolate chunks) from the place that I have been eyeing all week!

Our dinner hangout

Tonight was our ice bar experience! We went to the only ice bar in the world on the beach! It was -5 degrees Celsius in there! The room was small but so cool! Everything was made from ice...the walls, chairs, glasses, tables, decor, and bar. They had ice sculptures galore! Even one of the Sagrada Familia! It was definitely an unique experience! Our cover got us into the ice bar and also a very cold cocktail. We had to put on gloves and a huge jacket before entering. I didn't have any closed toed shoes, so I had to go in with sandals. Brrrr! My camera's battery died inside the ice bar :( But luckily, Jara has more pictures. Scott tried to get his tongue stuck to something, but he didn't have any luck.

Three Things I Learned Today:

1. Tomorrow, I will have been in Europe for officially 3 weeks.

2. -5 degrees Celsius is COLD.

3. Kaitlin needs to heal fast and live in a bubble for the next few weeks!