Viva Colonia!

What Oktoberfest is to Munich, Carnival is to Cologne.

Viva Colonia! I made it through my first Carnival season – a little tired and with very sore feet and a slight headache from all the chocolate (or was it the Kolsh?). Carnival "officially" started on November 11 at 11:11 (known in German as elf die elf) but events really start kicking off the week before Ash Wednesday.

This year I went to a concert at the Cologne area featuring umpa cheerleaders, mini kegs, old ladies with Kolsh koozies (knitted necklaces to hold their beer glasses), and everyone -- I mean everyone -- in costume. Being in costume is an essential part of Carnival. Even Grandmas on the bus were decked out in their clown costumes with full face make-up. On Thursday was Weiberfastnachte, otherwise know as the woman's carnival. We started drinking well before noon -- all things carnival seem to start at 11:11. For hours on end we danced to Carnival music and most people sang.

Parades and drinking (in costume) went on all weekend. Even our little town of Bad Godesburg has a parade. On Monday, know as Rosenmontag, there was a big parade in Cologne. And, where the people in New Orleans throw beads from the floats, the people here throw chocolate and flowers. This was great, but also a little scare because sometimes the boxes of chocoate were pretty big and looked like they could really hurt someone. People in the windows of the buildings used umbrellas to catch the chocolate from their windows.

My Carnival Costumes

I'm not sure how it happened, but in both of my Carnival costumes I appear to be dressed in drag – once as a man dressing as a woman and once as a woman dressing as a man.

P.S. Women dressed like men don't get a lot of flowered at the parade.

Super Bowl...Monday

Kevin (more so than I) was excited to be invited to a Super Bowl party. Who knew that the Super Bowl would be broadcast on German television? The only problem was that it is broadcast live, which meant that the game didn't start until 12:30 AM. Does that make it Superbowl Monday?

But still, I thought it was my duty to make a "traditional" American Super Bowl dish – Seven Layer Dip. The only problem was that serving traditional American food doesn't mean that I made something that I love. Instead of preparing something wonderful and delicious I ended up with a dish that could have come from Ladies Home Journal, circa 1986. My seven layers included: refried beans gussied up with garlic and shallots, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, black olives, cheddar cheese, and hot peppers.

Discovering My "Almost" Southern Roots

Greens, corn bread, fried chicken, barbequed ribs, mac 'n cheese – these are all wonderful foods that I associate with America's South.

Thanks in part to the January issue of Gourmet magazine – which could have inspired anyone to speak with a drawl and long for a poach swing and pitcher of sweet tea – I now think that I didn't spend enough time in Raleigh to full explore Southern cooking. Maybe that's a good thing though...I wonder if real Southerners would accept me as a Southern cook. You have to admit though, it's a bit ironic that while living in German I've decided that I really want to master the art of making good biscuits.

Saturday represented my first attempt. They weren't perfect, but they weren't a totally belly bomb either. I used what I assume is the German version of all purpose flour, didn't sift the ingredients, replaced the lard for butter, and left off the final brushing of melted butter. Next time I'll definitely add the melted butter because this batch didn't have glossy tops, but otherwise I think I'm on the right track.

Stay posted for round two.

Sausage Explostion

There's a sausage store in Bonn center. Every time I walk past I linger outside the window wondering how there can be so many different types of sausages. Today I finally decided that it was time to make a purchase and start sampling.

Well, I'm not sure how one is supposed to cook these sausages, but in a frying pan was not it, as you can see from the photo. I wish I had thought to video the sausage while it was exploding. It was like an alien.

The upshot was though, I added sausage mess to leftover polenta that I mixed with onion, an egg, and goat cheese and baked it in individual ramekins. The result was fantastic...kind of like a baked pudding similar to bread pudding.

Oasis in the Snow

Our Christmas trip has been great. Munich, Salzburg, and the German Alps meant a lot of site seeing in the cold though. Thankfully today we found solitude in the Austrian Alps.

Even though I had sworn off Rick Steve's (as in Rick Steve’s Travel Guides) restaurant recommendations we decided to give him one more chance. This decision came more from a lack of other choices than from confidence that he's steer us to something worth while. Well Rick, you've redeemed yourself.

The Alpenhotel in Ruette, Austria, near the German boarder in Bavaria was fantastic. Downstairs is a cozy little restaurant. The customers seemed to be split between locals and tourists – mostly who appeared to be in the area to ski. The room was cozy, with big tables and small tiled stoves keep the place extra warm.

The food was fantastic. Kevin had roasted goose and I have a pot of chicken, beef, and pork in a mushroom sauce. For dessert we had dumplings with chocolate sauce. I have to say this was one of the best meals we've had so far.

And the best part was, when we were ready to go back to our room, all we had to do was go upstairs! The next morning we went for a run on a small trail near the hotel. The views were awesome and my "winter in the Alps" fantasy was complete.

Now I am ready to head back north the Rhine Rive valley where the temperatures are warmer. Tomorrow we're going to spend the last day of our trip in Baden-Baden, an ancient spa town soaking in the thermal baths.

The Hills Are Alive

Christmas in Salzburg.

We decided that if we were not going to spend Christmas with our families, we should spend it in a storybook town in the Alps. The town lived up to my expectations, though I don't think it would be been necessary to spend more than two days site seeing here. Also, our hotel was a bit of a disappointment and we didn't have the most amazing food.

On the food front, I'll forgive the city. Not much was opened on Christmas Eve. We ate in a place that served both curry and traditional Austrian dishes. On Christmas we went to a Mozart concert and diner, the food was passable, but the music was better. It was very touristy. We sat at a table of Americans. It was nice, though, to be able to speak English comfortably for a little while though.

Of course for me – having seen the Sound of Music countless times – I had to re-enact the twirling scene from the beginning of the movie. Kevin was a good sport too, but I wont embarrass him by posting the photos of him running through the hills.

Hot Dog!

December in Munich: cold, cold, cold, but awesome. The city is filled with an amazing pre-Christmas buzz and all of the Christmas markets – there seems to be a different one every block or so – are packed. Here we are eating the best hot dog of my entire life. It was cooked over a wood burning fire so the sausage was smoky and the bun was warm and slightly crispy on the outside. Delicious! [Editorial note: I am still thinking about how good that dog was daily. It's now February.]

Most stands that sell sausages offer at least two kinds: bratwurst, the white pork sausages, and Rotwurst, red sausages made from beef. Though you'd think that the beef sausages would be the same as American hot dogs they really are an entirely different animal.

One of the most amusing things about the bratwursts sold here is that, no matter how big the sausage, the roll that is comes in is always tiny. It’s as if the bun more as a handle that part of the snack.

What's In a Name?

Really, who thought this was a good name for a bus company?

Berlin

I went to Berlin with a group of students from the Goethe Institute this weekend. Here's my assessment of the trip

The good:

• Berlin really feels like a city – even by New York standards it's big, with lots going on and lots to see

The bad:

• I was reminded that I don't really like traveling in groups – too much time is spent waiting around for other people
• Berlin in December was really cold – especially since I forgot my winter coat

Final assessment, I really want to go back to Berlin with Kevin.

Brotwurst and Glugwine

Christmas markets! What a great idea. Where else can you get your Christmas shopping done; eat a variety of holiday delicacies including crepes, waffles, sausages, mushrooms, and goulash; and drink?

Glugwine stands seem to be the heart and soul of the Christmas market. And though I didn't like this hot, sweet wine the first time I tried it, it certainly grew on my as the Christmas season wore on. Though I was told repeatedly that glugwine was mulled wine, I think it was sweeter and less spicy than any mulled wine I've had in the States. But at 1 Euro and 50 cents per cup, who can complain.

The Problem With Medieval Cities

Kevin and I went to Aachen on Sunday. The Christmas market seemed to encompass the entire city center. The problem was the rain. After walking around the market for about an hour and eating a fantastic apple pancake we decided to pack it in for the day and return to Aachen when the weather was better.

When we tried to leave though, we couldn't find our way out of the town. Each winding little street seemed to bring us back to the same center square. Nothing looked familiar, and we couldn't find out way back to the car for about an hour.

The First Thanksgiving

My greatest German success thus far was ordering a 16-pound (8 kilo) fresh turkey from the butcher. Even though the German freezer cases were willed this frozen turkeys I have to order a fresh one because there was no way I could put a turkey in my mini fridge. (It's smaller than the average dorm fridge in the US.)

Once home, the next challenge was getting that bad boy to fit into my mini oven. It just fit – but part for the drums sticks cooked to the side of the oven and I have to truss the bird up as tight as possible.

In the end though I was delicious! In addition to the turkey I made all of the fixin's: sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and apple and pumpkin pie. We invited Kevin's office and all of the Americans at the Goethe Institute (three). I think everyone enjoyed their first Thanksgiving.

My First Week of School

I don't know how much else I will be able to accomplish while attending German classes. They are super intense. Five days a week, five hours a day, plus home work and cultural activities. It's great though. I really love taking classes, I can't wait to learn German, and it's nice to meet other people who are new to the country.

On the first day of class I took a walking tour of Bad Godesburg. The picture here is the view of my new town from the Godesburg castle. The white L-shaped building is our apartment.