Sinneswandel DunkelRestaurant

This will be my first post ohne bilder (without photos).  On Wednesday evening, we went on the scariest dinner date ever.  Not scary in the "boo" type of way, but scary as in knee-knocking pit-in-stomach scary.  One of our friends made a dinner reservation for us at Sinneswandel, a Dunkelrestuarant.  What is a dunkelrestaurant, you ask?  Well, dunkel means dark- so it was a dark restaurant, or as is more common, a blind restaurant.  It promised to be a fun filled evening of sitting in darkness eating dinner.  So why were we nervous?  Well, its one thing to sit in darkness and eat dinner and be able to say "excuse me sir, I've dropped my fork" or "where is my napkin" or "I can't seem to locate this chicken on my plate", but we decided it would be especially difficult because we wouldn't be able to speak to the waiter or understand what he said.

We arrived and chose our food from a selection of four four-course menus.  We were then led into the dinning room by our waiter who was actually blind.  I assumed maybe the waiters had night-vision goggles or something, but I guess I was wrong.

Sitting at the table went pretty well.  We all located our utensils and got our drinks.  The funniest part about sitting in the dark was that everyone felt the need to talk really loud and there were about 5 conversations going on at once because no one knew who anyone else was talking to.

It wasn't quite as hard to eat as I expected, though I was hoping for finger foods like chicken fingers and french fries.  We had to use all our utensils to eat salad, soup, fish & vegetables and even an ice cream dessert.  I have to say that though I managed to use the utensils, my fingers were in my food an awful lot.  It made me wish I hadn't been feeling around the table and touching everything so much before the meal came.

I guess not being able to see is supposed to make the food taste better.  The food was pretty awesome, but I'm not sure if its because I couldn't see it or if its because it was an expensive restaurant.  Either way, we had a blast and enjoyed some tasty food.

If you need a fun place to go for dinner sometime, I highly recommend a dunkelrestaurant!

Its Getting Cold!

I absolutely love fall weather.  Nothing is better than putting on a cosy sweatshirt and maybe a hat or a scarf.  I like it when I can see my breath in the morning, but its not so cold that my fingers are falling off.  Its nice to fall asleep under lots of blankets or cuddle up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and a book.  Fall has the perfect weather.  

Since we're cheap and we have a pretty big apartment, we've been putting off turning on the radiators, but with nights in the 30s, that means walking on ice cold floors and wearing sweatshirts and sometimes hats and jackets in the house.  That's pretty inconvenient when you're trying to cook or do laundry or paint alphabet letters, so we had to break down and turn on the heat (in two rooms anyway).

I guess I wasn't the only one who was glad to have the heat turned on.

Kletterwald

For Bob's birthday, he got a coupon for Kletterwald (Climbingworld in English).  It is this really cool climbing park in the Heide- the largest urban forest in Germany.  There are miles and miles of walking and biking trails and its especially nice in the fall with all the foliage.

We took the tram up to the edge of the Heide and hiked in to find Kletterwald.  Fortunately, there were plenty of signs.  The Heide is a very easy place to get lost and wander around in for hours and hours... not that that's ever happened to me...

It took us about 15 minutes to reach Kletterwald, but the walk was really nice, so we didn't mind.

Bob wasn't having very good luck taking breaks on railings...

(just kidding again... but these pictures are SO funny!!)

Once we got there, we were harnessed up and given a safety course on how to use the climbing equipment and not fall off.

I'm always surprised at how difficult and dangerous things in Germany are compared to things in the US.    For example, they have some insane playground equipment here- for little kids!  Like 3 story slides, spinny-discs that you run on while kids sit on the edge and fly off, wooden trampolines and giant spiderwebs.  Maybe sometime I'll walk around and take pictures of all the crazy playground equipment here, but for now, back on track...
Like I was saying, things here seem just a little more dangerous.  At Kletterwald, after the intro, you climb around all by yourself and its up to you to make sure you're hooked on right and using everything correctly.  Once in Maine I went ziplining and they attached you, unattached you, sent you off, caught you, and pretty much did everything for you.  It must be a liability thing.

I LOVED the do it yourself attitude.  I was so excited to climb around on all the crazy stuff they had in the trees.

Bob and I had a great time climbing around, hanging from cables, balancing on tiny platforms, and ziplining... but climbing and heights aren't for everyone.

A few of my favorite "obstacles" in the climbing park were the sled:

the trapeze:

 and of course, the zip lines:

In total, we spent about two and a half hours climbing through five ropes courses.  It was fun but exhausting!  Our new favorite place in Dresden is definitely Kletterwald.

Ripsticking on the Elbe

This weekend the weather was great!  Turns out the "fall weather" hasn't arrived quite yet.  Or maybe its just a good-weather fall.  In either case, we took advantage of the cool, crisp days to do some outdoor activities.

Our first nice-weather activity was to take a ripstick ride down the Elberadweg, the path by the river.  To get to the river, we had to walk through Altstadt, the old part of the city.  There are always a lot of tourists and street performers when the weather is nice, and sometimes you can see some pretty unusual things.  On our walk through the Altstadt on Saturday, we saw the following:

A very unhappy guy in an old-fashioned baker costume

Some high heels on a bridge

Like I said, sometimes, you see strange things in the Altstadt.

We had a great time ripsticking along the river.  The Elberadweg is one of the few places in Dresden where there aren't cobblestones (cobblestones are NOT ripstick friendly).

We got a lot of funny looks from people as we rode.  I'm pretty sure they don't sell ripsticks here so everyone was very intrigued.  An interesting thing about German culture is that it is totally okay to stare.  At first I was always really embarrassed and a little angry that people would just stare at you.  Some people even continue to stare if you stare at them.  I think now I've gotten used to it.  In any case, we were stared at a lot.

Following the trend of seeing strange things, as we rode along the river we saw a ferriswheel,

a donkey farm,

and a cat.

It was like a state fair!

We rode for a couple miles and crossed a brand new pedestrian bridge

and ended up at the Watzke ball- und brauhaus.  Now you know where one of my cats got his name.  We stopped in their beergarten to admire the foliage and the river and get something to drink.  A 3 mile ripstick ride makes you very thirsty.

It was definitely a beautiful day to be by the river.

On the way home, while we stopped for a break, Bob realized he'd been eating too many pretzels and drinking too much beer.

No, not really, but isn't that a funny picture?

F is for Frog... and also Frosch

When I first decided to make an animal alphabet book, I thought I would make it in English since I speak and write in English about a thousand times better than I can speak or write in German.  BUT, I am living in Germany and the baby I am making the book for is German... so that left me with a dilemma... which language to use to make the alphabet book?

It took me a lot longer to come up with a solution that it probably should have, but here it is:  most animals start with the same letter in English and German!  Fancy that!  Sometimes, the name of the animal is even EXACTLY THE SAME!

So, problem solved.  With the exception of a few letters that didn't have animals with names beginning with the same letter, I was convinced that I could make all the letters and animals and add the names later.

Here is "F is for Frog" a.k.a. "F wie Frosch"

Z is for Zebra

When making an Alphabet of letter-shaped animals, there are some letters with lots of choices. Like C for example. Cat, chameleon, cougar, cheetah, chimpanzee... just to name a few. Then there are some letters that really don't have very many choices at all. Z is one of those letters. Sure, I could use "zorilla", but who knows what animal that is? So naturally, my only choice of animal (that everyone, not just a zoologist, would know) was zebra.

Leuven, Belgium and the Best Waffles Ever!

This past weekend we took a trip to Leuven, Belgium to visit our friend Ray from college.

We had a great weekend- Leuven is a pretty cool place.

Here is an open air food market where they sell lots of fruits and vegetables, and most importantly, cookies.

We walked around downtown a lot and saw some really cool architecture.

This was downtown in the city center.  One of the coolest things we saw was in the largest city square in Leuven, the Ladeuzplein.  It was a sculpture called the totem created by the artist Jan Fabre.

 This is a surrealist view of a bug on a needle and it sits in front of the neo-classical library.  This juxtaposition apparently captures the spirit of Leuven.  I'm not sure about that, but it sure is neat!

Along with a lot of exploring, we also ate a lot of food.  Belgium is known for a few foods, two being french fries (though I would have thought that would be France, but apparently, Belgium has the best) and Belgian Waffles.  The fries were okay.  I'm not a big fan of mayonaise, which comes with the fries, but I do love ketchup, which does not come with the fries.  Even if you ask really nicely they bring you one tiny packet.  I think the fries would have been better had I brought my own ketchup bottle.

The best thing I think I've ever eaten in my life so far is a Belgian Waffle.  A REAL Belgian waffle.
I'm not talking about the Belgian waffles like this, which is how I've always thought of a Belgian waffle.
  I'm talking about a waffle like this:

Now, when asked which waffle looks better, I'm sure most would agree that the "Denny's Waffle" is prettier, but I assure you, the ugly waffle is the best waffle ever.  I ate three.
It came from this funny little stand, which didn't look that impressive, but you could smell the waffles two blocks away, and in case I haven't mentioned, they were delicious!

The funny thing about Belgian waffles is they aren't made from batter, like most pancakes and waffles.  They start as a ball of sugary dough.  That's probably what makes them so good.

Here I am with a statue of a baker.  Maybe I'll start my own waffle business!  Don't I look like a natural baker?

K is for Kangaroo and Krusti Rolls

I love Dresden because there are so many bakeries.  They all open early and make fresh baked bread every day.  In fact, there is one right below our apartment and my favorite smell (aside from fall smells discussed previously) is the smell of fresh baked bread in the morning.  They make these awesome "krusti" rolls that are really, well crusty, on the outside.  I think I could probably live on krusti rolls.

Also, K is for Kangaroo.

Herbst-y-ness

This weekend the weather was sehr schön- very "Herbst-y" (my new favorite adjective that I made up using the German word for fall).  It was cool and crisp and sunny and best of all, we saw a lot of this: 

To the normal observer, this might appear to be a tree.  But to a New Englander who hasn't seen fall foliage in three years, this was a stunningly beautiful tree.

After living in Austin for two years, one of the things I missed most was fall-- my favorite season.  When I was little, I used to love apple picking and jumping in leaf piles and the smell of pumpkins and apples and cinnamon and the sound of rustling dry leaves.  Austin doesn't really have a fall.  One day, the leaves are green and still attached to the trees (summer) and the next day they're brown and on the ground (winter).  I need a solid month (or more) of leaves turning colors and falling off the trees gradually.  

I was so excited about the herbst-y-ness that I took lots of pictures of leaves. 

 Well, okay-- and some wagon wheels and rocks.  These are all pictures from a cute little town about 20 minutes from us called Moritzburg.  There is a very nice castle there as well, but I didn't take any pictures of it because it wasn't herbsty enough.  (No, I would have taken pictures but the front of it was under construction, so it wasn't very nice looking) 

On Saturday morning we got up early to drive to Moritzburg to have brunch with our German friends Ralf and Britta.  After eating so much food, we had to walk around for a while in order to be able to fit back in the car.  On our walk, along with lots of leaves, we also saw this spider.

Germany has some high quality spiders.  They are typically very large.  This particular spider was about the size of a quarter.  

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing outside and enjoying the fall weather.  HAPPY HERBST!

A New Art Project - Finally

The past couple weeks I've really missed teaching art - a lot.  I really enjoy making artwork, but its much more fun to make kid projects as "testers" than to have to think of my very own "grown-up" art ideas.  I'm also a little out of practice... I've been thinking of projects in my head for the past couple months while my art supplies have been sitting in the corner getting dusty while I'm out going to festivals or visiting new places or just enjoying the fleeting nice weather.  

My friend Heike just had a baby (and by just, I mean yesterday).  So my new project is to make an animal alphabet poster or book with German and English animal names.  Of course, it will be a little to late to give it right away, but maybe for his first birthday... 

Anyhow, part of the reason I wanted to start a blog was to show some of the artwork I'm doing over here.  

So, without further ado, I present... 

A for Alligator!

Sausage: The 6th Food Group

Last week was spent hanging around inside, learning German and starting some art projects.  Why, you ask?  Because it is now officially fall and fall in German equals cold rainy weather.  So, for the most part, last week was cold and rainy.  Luckily, it takes a while for the full effect to set in, so this week should be nice out, but I came prepared, with boxes and boxes of art supplies.  In fact, I'm even looking forward to endless days of sitting in my cosy apartment with paints and markers and colored pencils while it is drizzly, cold and grey.

The lovely fall weather let up a little over the weekend and we were able to do a few fun things outside.  Sunday was "Reunification Day" which, of course, meant festival.  (Big surprise.)  And along with the festival atmosphere and the cool crisp weather came lots of hungry Germans.  And what do hungry Germans eat?  Bratwurst.  



I've eaten sausage on occasion.  This delicious food is great alongside some pancakes or mixed into a spaghetti sauce or as a topping on pizza, but they way they eat it here, I swear its the 6th food group.  

I've seen construction workers eating them for breakfast, kids eating them for lunch, the often show up on German dinner menus, and people eat them at all hours of the day as a snack.  These giant sausages (the most popular being the Thüringer Rostbratwurst) are served in itty-bitty bun "handles" and are often topped with mustard.  

As I've mentioned before, bratwurst stands are not lacking on the streets of Dresden.  Occasionally you might see 3 or 4 lined up right next to each other.  There are always hoards of people standing around eating their Bratwursts out of their bun-handles.  No matter how often I see it, I'm still amazed at the amount of Bratwurst consumed here.

During festivals there are many of these giant hanging meat grills

all these people are or were just eating Bratwurst

We wandered around the Bürgerfest (which sounds like a festival for burgers, and given this post's topic, that would be appropriate, but its really just what they call the Reunification festival), watching the sausage eaters and listening to music.  Bob even joined in with a Bratwurst of his own (I prefer the awesome ham and cheese filled rolls- like a hot pocket but a zillion times better).

We were glad to enjoy the nice weather while we could!