Rügen: My first day

I'm a little late writing this, but on my fall vacation, I decided to go to Rügen.  Rügen is the biggest island in Germany (and likes to bill itself as the most beautiful).  After seeing it, I couldn't disagree.

I stayed in Binz, a cute little resort town.  It was a little like a ghost town while I was there.  You could tell how many people would be there if it was the high season, but it was pleasantly quiet.

The beach sweeps around in a wide curve.  The tree here are a beautiful hike that goes to Sellin, the next town north of Binz.  I did the hike on my second day on Rügen, and I'll post those pictures in my next post.

I thought this structure was wonderful.  It would have been a great place to watch a storm, but if it was open to the public, I didn't see how.

One of the things I loved about Rügen was that its beauty had a very restful quality. The fall folliage was wonderfully colorful.

And there were some beautiful rock sculptures.

This is the beginning of the trail to Sellin.

There were many birds.  In fact, one of the highlights of the trips was the great crane migration. But more about that later.

This couple was so adorable!

I had some sun on the first day, too.

A real toadstool! It was already knocked over when I got there.

On my first evening, I wanted to have a traditional meal, and that was exactly what "plattduutsch" (plattdeutsch) claimed to have.  I noticed only too late that they were a hotel restaurant, and they were just okay.

Amber is one of the specialties of Rügen.  It's even one of the places where people have been known to find amber! I wanted this amber hedgehog, but I couldn't justify paying so much.

And that was the first day of my trip to Rügen!  More soon...

Oktoberfest 2013

And now, for Oktoberfest itself.  Somehow, it never occured to me that it would be a lot like an American state fair on the outside, but so it was.

The rides were impressive, but I didn't go on any.  Notice the man in the grey pointy hat in this picture. Some people had similar hats with an motorized mechanism in them that moved the hat back and forth. (I swear I'm not kidding, this is a real thing you can buy at Oktoberfest.)  They reminded me of the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter.

I wanted to get a picture of both the Ferris wheel and of this man's amazing hat.  There were a lot of great clothes at Oktoberfest, and one of my favorite things was that almost everyone was wearing Tracht.

That thing next to the man?  That is a motorized beckoning finger.  Someone thought that was a good idea.

I thought these were so clever! These gingerbread hearts are a major Oktoberfest tradition, and normally they say things like "My treasure, I love you" (the big one on the top) or "do you know just how much I love you?" (second from the left on the bottom).  The ones with black on the edges, however, are anti-love hearts.  From left to right, they say "you've lied to me a thousand times", "with you I can only...get desperate", "you used to be my dream", "you've hurt me a thousand times", and "without you, everything is...wonderful!"  A little black humor to balance a lot of sweetness.

This is the tent that we went into on the first night.  It was unbelievably busy.  If we hadn't had an in, I don't think we would have ever gotten inside.

And this is what it looked like once we were inside: wall to wall people, with a roar of people talking that sounded like the ocean.

It was both amazing and overwhelming.  There was definitely no doubt that we were at Oktoberfest.

Here I am on the balcony, the most exclusive place of all! It was a lot of fun, and we even got to dance on the tables (relatively speaking-no one dances on the actual tables, you dance on the benches next to the tables.  No one is going to risk spilling Oktoberfest beer, which costs almost 10 Euros a Mass!)

In the end, maybe my favorite part of that night was the pretzel we split, which was, and I am in no way exaggerating, the best pretzel I have ever had in my life.  Guys, I lived in Austria for a year.  I have had some good pretzels.  But nothing like that.

On Saturday, we went back to Oktoberfest during the day, for a much calmer adventure.  We went in the Traditions Zelt, which was crowded, but much less so.

We saw a traditional dance (which, honestly, was more like a traditional walk.  After the knee-slapping, musical whip using, schnapps-drinking dances I saw in Austria, I was kind of disappointed.)

The Steins in the Traditons Zelt were gorgeous.  Here is mine.  It has Apfelschörle (apple juice and sparkling water) in it, because I was really done with alcohol from the night before.

I thought this sign really summed up the spirit of Oktoberfest: "These places are not reserved.  And when necessary, just squeeze together!"

It was a great experience.

München and Freising

I have a lot of writing to do.  There's been more happening than downtime to record it! For now, here's my recent trip to Oktoberfest.

This poster was one of the first things I saw when I arrived at the main train station in München.  I thought it was really well done, and well placed, too.

I didn't actually stay in München, but in the nearby town of Freising, where liveth Liz.  Liz and I met for the first time in Köln before the orientation-one of the great things about being a Fulbright ETA is all the wonderful people you meet! Liz was my amazing host for this trip.

Freising has a wonderful bear collection.  This one was my favorite.

The main square of Freising.

Luftmalerei! That made me so happy.

There was also Luftmalerei of a less formal nature.

The little river in Freising.  Klein aber fein indeed.

This is from München, a very mischeivious and rather confusing fountain. I spent a fair amount of time in München NOT at Oktoberfest, but mostly looking for a cheap dirndl. (I did find one in the end, as you'll see in my next post!) One of my favorite parts was the Vitualenmarkt. It had whole fresh truffles! I didn't buy any, but I did get one of the most delicious fresh juices I've ever had-raspberry, pineapple, and orange.

As for Oktoberfest, that deserves a post of its own!

At the Rostock Zoo: Part III

I thought this fellow was fascinating, with his incredibly long arms.

The lemurs have a nice indoor house, but they also have the option to go outside, as this one did.

A mother and baby elk.  I actually go to see the baby feed, as well.

I've seen these birds at other zoos, and I always find their elegance almost shocking.

My host sister and an ostrich observe each other.

This is the petting zoo.  This goat has been stroked so much, all the orneriness came right out.  There was some good petting to be had.

The zoo had an impressive selection of antelopes. It's hard to see in this picture, but the antelope in the rear, which is a horse antelope, is absolutely huge.

Host brother wanted to know why their legs are so long.  I was surprised that he wasn't at all phased by the color.

This owl didn't seem to approve of us.

Kookabura!

I was really hoping that the zoo would have crested geckos so I could show Ronja what I have at home. But this was the only gecko I saw.

It was a bit cold today, so quite a few meerkats were snuggled under the heat lamp.

The jaguar had no time for such childish behavior.

The lions also thought it was time for a nap.

I don't know what happened here, but it frightens me.

The cheetah, on the other hand, thought it was time to be on the move.

Host family! Everyone loved petting the lamas. 

And that was our trip to the zoo! The Rostock zoo is very impressive, and I'm not just saying that because I have a smuggled pygmy marmoset on my lap right now, and later I'm going to train it to make me tea, and then we will snuggle.  The zoo was impressive on a lot of counts-overwhelmingly vast, good environments to the animals, and lots of playgrounds for kids.  Highly recommended!