Germany: It's Not Just Beer and Sausages
It's not possible for me to fully extrapolate on my experiences in Deutschland just now, but I can tell you that it has far exceeded my expectations and I hereby officially appoint myself Germany's newest and most enthusiastic Goodwill Ambassador (and it's not because I arrived fresh from the epitome of filth and chaos).
Unfortunately, I have already said goodbye to Deutschland and find myself— somewhat inexplicably—back in Montréal, Canada, where I can only conclude that there is a giant magnet under Mont Royal with my name on it.
As it has taken me several tedious days to upload the following photos, and as I haven't slept more than five hours of the last 48, and as I am finally getting sick with something I'd rather not mention here, I'll post these now and follow up with more detailed explanation later. The official report is already underway, but it appears to be a big one and will take time to cohere.
As I've mentioned numerous times before, photo taking is not my forte, so please excuse the following randomly ordered collection..
more soon,
LMA
After eight months in India, I finally discover the real German Bakery!
Goofing around in the Schwarzwald (The Black Forest),
which, incidentally, has a better manicure than I do.
My first morning in Neustadt, God confirmed my decision to visit Germany
with a special message just for me (translation: Freedom!)
The Magic Bus!
Two handsome young zimmermen dressed in their Sunday best! I believe their wandering tradition dates back to medieval times.
Neustadt, like almost every place I visited in Germany (except Jena), is adorable.
Signs are fascinating for me; this one says to please maintain order or a vulture will come and bite your head off.
The first phrase to learn in German is "Entschuldigung, wo ist die bäckerei?"
No explanation necessary.
A comprehensive system of signs conveniently located in the middle of the forest: decidedly German.
The garden bathtub with wood-fired heating system is the newest necessity on my short list!
Seems hippies have strange ideas about people being equal, or something like that..
(translation: no human being is illegal).
Cuteness abounds, and this is by far the cutest butcher shop I've ever seen. (This photo was taken in Bavaria, a.k.a. "the Texas of Germany." Note the typically Bavarian flower baskets adorning the windows.)
Before I snapped this photo I was seated on my rucksack. It was maybe two minutes before a nice gentleman in a huge BMW waved me in. In my three days of hitch-hiking attempts, I rode only in BMWs, Mercedes and Audis. I like the BMWs best because they have heated seats.
What can I say? The Germans' comprehensive appreciation for bread is inspiring.
I was hoping this was the holy grail: a waffle stand. But it turns out that kartoffel means potato, as in small potato pancake-like creations, also nice.
Immigrants in Berlin getting ready to start a riot (the two on the right are UK imports).
This appears to be some kind of historical building. Unfortunately, by the time I finally made it to Berlin, my brain had finally exceeded its capacity for absorbing historical facts and information. So instead I just rode around endlessly on the U-bahn (subway) drinking beer with a bad case of perma-grin.
The only holy cow I saw in Germany was made from squash.
The Magic Bus!
Two handsome young zimmermen dressed in their Sunday best! I believe their wandering tradition dates back to medieval times. 
Neustadt, like almost every place I visited in Germany (except Jena), is adorable.
Signs are fascinating for me; this one says to please maintain order or a vulture will come and bite your head off.
The first phrase to learn in German is "Entschuldigung, wo ist die bäckerei?"
No explanation necessary.
9 Comments:
you are adorable! party on, oblio.
at first i want to allude that my english is not the best, so please be forbearing with me.
some of my term could sound uncommon to you, but if you use your brain you will
understand every single expression or metaphors. this includes every comment i will
make in the future.
Lola, you and your love are a gift of god to mankind.
where ever you appeared, people will smile.
every human you share your mind with, here and now in your blog,
has to call himself as privileged and "vip" :)
i would wish that mankind could remove theyre
hangman-blindfold tomorrow and see the world with your eyes.
this would be the biggest step in the right direction!
but most humans on our planet are too busy to satisfy theyre
own egoism and greed for money and coming into power.
in every single century these piggishness people tryed to subdue, tyrannise or
destroy everything and everyone which they could not understand
or catalogue.
Lola, you are one in a million!
and im proud of you and everything you are doing.
verry less people have this courage you have.
you are the best example that there are still "normal"
and intelligent humans existing in this world.
humans with competence to love oneself and others too.
which man ever you gonna bestow (give) your heart in the future,
will be the most rich king on this planet.
may Donar succour you and give you strengh and courage.
The Saxon :)
Thank you for the update and the photos my dear friend.....mmmmmm....I can smell the bread from here....
Love and prayers,
A
My Dear Cricket...
You have rattled memories of my Germany & sent me to my photographs...What an awesome country it is!!!Thanks for the memories.
Can't wait to hear more of Canada as well.
Love you beyond...
Dana's grandma
Who is "Donar?"
It is a great question!!! Who is donar?
LOLA
From Wikipedia:
Thor (Old Norse: Þōrr, Þunarr; Old English: Þunor, Þūr; Old Saxon: Þunær;[1] Frisian: Tonger, Old Dutch: Donar; Old High German: Donar; Proto-Germanic: *Thunaraz) is the red-haired and bearded[2][3] god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism.
Most surviving stories relating to Germanic mythology either mention Thor or center on Thor's exploits. Thor was a much revered god of the ancient Germanic peoples from at least the earliest surviving written accounts of the indigenous Germanic tribes to over a thousand years later in the late Viking Age.
1/2
ok, i will try to bring some light in the dark here, and explain a little bit of germanic-mythology. im not an expert but im not content with this short description about Donar. first at all, germanic-mythology is NOT a religion and goes back to the Iron Age in europe around 900BC - 800BC. it is one of many different germanic cultures at the Iron Age and in the Migration Period.
by start of time there was nothing but dark, mess and chaos and in the middle of this chaos was a big crevasse (cleft). the name of this cleft is "Ginnungagap". north of "Ginnungagap" is "Niflheim", a dark and foggy world of ice, where the holy spring "Hvergelmir" arises from. south of "Ginnungagap" is "Muspellsheim", the world of fire and eternal light.
beside of this cleft, this world of ice and this world of fire was the infinite space. in this space was a god living, his name is "Allvater" (" all-father"). he is the first of all gods and he is existing since start of time.
"Allvater" created "Ginnungagap"," Muspelheim", "Nifelheim" and "Surtr". "Surtr" the fire-giant and the first alive being in the universe. "Surtr" is living in " Muspelheim", the world of fire, and is training there his skillfulness with his flame-sword. while his training with his sword he was flinging big sparks and flames into the eternal ice of "Ginnungagap". this steam got frozen verry fast and was sinking to the ground of "Ginnungagap", the big cleft.
it arose two creatures from this frost, after some time. one is "Ymir", the original-giant. and the other one is "Audhumla", a vast (huge) cow and the first animal. Ymir had a bad charcter.
.... lets make a big jump, or else this will become a verry huge article.....
it arose 2 diffrent genders of gods, the "Asen" and the "Wanen". the leader of the Asen is "Wodan" (Odin). Odin is the god of poetry, war, magic, wisdom and ecstasy because he could push worriors in deep rage that they dont feel fear or pain at all. thats why Viking-Warriors admired Odin at most in 8. and 9. A.D.
....jump....
2/2
after Odin, Vil and Ve killed Ymir, the first bad giant, they decided to form the world from Ymirs corpse. Ymirs blood already created the oceans, from his flesh they created "Midgard", from his bones they made mountains and valleys, from his teeth they made cliffs, Ymirs hairs changed into the plant life, his skull formed the sky, his brain created the original clouds. Ymirs eyebrows formed "Midgard", to protect the land of the humans against the oceans and giants. they got sparks of Surtrs sword in Muspellsheim, to light up this new created world. thats how sun, moon and stars got formed.
..... jump....
one day the gods found two fallen down trees at the edge of the oceans (beach), a elm-tree and a ash-tree. Odin blowed life into theese trees, Vil gave them mind and thirst for knowledge and Ve gave them the gift of the five-sins. thats how images of the gods got created, the first humans. the man "Ask" got created of the elm-tree and woman "Embla" got created of the ash-tree.
.....jump....
Donar (Thor) is the god of thunder, thunderstorm, weather, protection and fertility (fruitfulness). he is the strongest god and THE fighter against the giants and protector of humans. Thor is the son of Odin and "Joerd". Joerd is the mother nature in person. Thor was a verry stubborn child and Joerd could not handle him, so he was raised up by "Vingir Hlora", the ghost of lightning. Thor is an honest, straight, powerfully and uncomplicated god (his character).
the german weekday "Donnerstag" is named after Thors germanic name "Donar", the denmark and sweden Torsdag and the english Thursday.
because of the contact between the germanic-culture and the Romans it came to a equation of Thor with Jupiter, which is also flinging lightnings and thunder like the greek Zeus.
the christians (Romans) associate "Thor" as a simple devil and the germanic-culture was just a accumulation of dirty barbarians. and as we know: the book of history has been written always by the bigger killers, the winner.
i hope i did not make too many grammar foults, hehe.
The Saxon
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