"Deutsche Küche" (German Food)

I know a lot of you are looking forward to this post, so after a few days' preparation, here it is! One of the main things I miss about Germany when I'm at home is the food. Therefore, when I'm here I tend to pack on the pounds. I figure once a year isn't so bad haha.

My absolute favourite German dish is "Schnitzel". The following picture is from dinner this evening. Schnitzel is basically a fried porkchop, except a thousand times better. The breading that is used has a certain seasoning in it and the grease (yea I know, real healthy!) that it is fried in makes the whole thing very tender. It is usually served with french fries or roasted potatoes. I think I could probably eat this every day of my vacation. I'm not really a big meat eater anyway, so I think that says something!

Schnitzel and french fries

German cuisine is very meat-and-potatoes. It has evolved from rustic farm cooking to popular cuisine. There is an emphasis on pork, whether fried or roasted or cooked or stewed.

The area of Germany where my grandparents live (and where I'm currently staying) is famous for its "Altbier". Düsseldorf was one of the original places where the brew originated. I'm not much of a beer drinker, so it really does not appeal to me much, but I can tell you that it tastes a little thicker then say a typical North American beer and has more of a malt-y taste to it. To learn about the history of Altbier, you can find out more here

Altbier

I love the coasters that most restaurants use, straight from the old Breweries


Coke comes straight from a glass bottle instead of a fountain. I swear it tastes better this way!

Traditionally in German culture, the "hot meal" is served during the lunch hours and the evening meal consisted of cold sandwhiches. Usually the table is set with various meats and cheeses and you make your sándwhiches accordingly. The following is a typical example of the sandwich table.

Perhaps the best part of being in Germany, is the chocolate! I'm really not much of a sweet-tooth normally, but here I really pig out. The Leibniz cookies in the front are kind of like buttery sugar cookies covered in chocolate. Available at most Canadian (and I'm presuming American) grocery stores. The package in the back are my favourite. They are little marshmellow figures covered in white, milk or dark chocolate. If I could find these in Canada, I'd be in heaven.

I think that's a good overview of German food for now, I may go more in depth in the coming days.

a short update

I'm gathering pictures for my "German food post" which will hopefully be ready in a couple of days. I originally wanted to have it posted by this past weekend, but its been a long and stressful few days here.

It started friday evening, we had the storm of storms. I've never seen so much rain come down in such a short time. The thunder and lightning was incredible and lasted a good few hours. The balcony at my grandparents' place started flooding, so my grandfather was out there with a bucket trying to get the water under control. In the end we were lucky, on the news it said that apparantly entire streets were closed due to flooding, and 2 people were even killed. The hospital around the corner lost power and the airport was closed for over 2 hours. Basements everywhere were under water.

Anway,

Then on saturday my grandmother got really sick. We didn't know what it was so naturally everyone was very worried about her. We had the emergency doctor make 2 housecalls yesterday because she was feeling so awful and couldn't keep any food down. There was talk of taking her to the hospital.

Thankfully she woke up this morning feeling a lot better, she's eating again and seems to be healthier.

So needless to say its been quite a weekend here in Germany.

I'll have the food post done hopefully in a few days, I just wanted to give you all an update and let everyone know I haven't gone M.I.A

What did you do this weekend? All Americans, did you have a good 4th of July?

Oh and, Happy Belated Birthday Sarah!

aannndd the award gooooeess tooo...

I have to admit I get really excited when awards start circling my blogosphere and lovely blog friends think to tag me in them. It gives me a little thrill and I get excited! I now have 2 awards to dish out! Yay!

Also, I was soooo amazed (and excited!) to log onto Blogger this morning and see 50 followers! Wow! When I started this blog a few months ago I never dreamed that so many people would even want to read my daily rants and randoms! Thank you so so much to each and every one of you!

Jessica tagged me in the "Kreativ Blogger" award. Thank you Jessica! This award comes with the following rules: I have to lsit 7 things that I love. I'm going to change this a little bit seeing as I'm in Germany, and make it 7 things that I love about Germany.

1. The Food: I'm most likely going to do a food post in the following days, but I just can't get enough of it! Especially the cookies and sweets!

2. My Grandparents: I only see them once a year, so its always like a trip down memory lane. Looking at old pictures and hearing stories of what I was like as a child.

3. Getting spoiled by said Grandparents: Pretty self explanatory


4. The Language: I realize that German really isn't the sexiest sounding language, but I grew up with it so it takes me back


5. Reading "Bravo" magazine: It is kind of like German-In Touch. More than half the stuff in it is fake, but its such a guilty pleasure!

6. The Cars: I'm such a sucker for German car labels and still get a thrill seeing BMW and Mercedes all around me, sad I know!

7. The scenery: Everything is much more green then back home

I pass this award onto the following people:

Miku
Al
Head Biting Princess
Patty Ann
Sarah


Sarah, the new girl gave me the "friends" award! Thank you Sarah!

Here's the blog award description:

"This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Now for me to choose 8 Bloggers to pass this one on to! I did a quick check of most of your profiles, so I hope you don't have it already. ANNNNDD the award goooooeess to..

Bluefish
Sweet Pea
Canuckitude
Emily
Jo
Jordan
Ali
Jessica

I have one more award that I still have to dish out, the "Honest Scrap" Award that I got from Emily a while back (thanks Em!) but I think I'll save that for another time. I'm feeling Blog-love overload at the moment haha.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Summer (in the form of a major heat wave) has finally come to Germany so instead of 15 degrees and rain we have 30 degrees and humidity. I'm not complaining! yet.

The Emerald Isle - Part 2

Good news and bad news: I finally figured out how I can upload pictures on this computer, bad newy - it takes FOREVER! Hence the 5 measly pictures I managed to add this time! They do give a nice sampling of the day trip we took from Dublin, and I promise to add more once I have full access to wifi on my beloved laptop again. That may just have to wait a few weeks. Stupid Blogger does not seem to want format properly for me today, so the photos are not in the order that I would like, but I suppose for now I shall have to make do. They are all labeled so at least you can tell what you're looking at. Taking pictures inside of Malahide was strictly prohibited, so although I was tempted, there aren't any pictures of that.

Okay so, our second day in Dublin we decided to do a bus tour to Malahide Castle and Howth. Howth is a tiny fishing village right on the coast with breathtaking views of the cliffs and the water and it was amazing. Malahide Castle is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in the world so far, it is an ancient Castle and was owned by the "Talbot" family for hundreds of years. The last decendant died in february of this year, which I think is simply incredible!

The following is courtesy of wikipedia, but the information is all acurate.

The estate began in 1185, when Richard Talbot, a knight who accompanied Henry II to Ireland in 1174, was granted the "lands and harbour of Malahide". The oldest parts of the castle date back to the 12th century and it was home to the Talbot family for 791 years, from 1185 until 1976, the only exception being the period from 1649-1660, when Oliver Cromwell granted it to Miles Corbet after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland; Corbet was hanged following the demise of Cromwell, and the castle was restored to the Talbots. The building was notably enlarged in the reign of Edward IV, and the towers added in 1765.
The estate survived such losses as the Battle of the Boyne, when fourteen members of the owner's family sat down to breakfast in the Great Hall, and all were dead by evening, and the Penal Laws, even though the family remained Roman Catholic until 1774.
In the 1920s the private papers of James Boswell were discovered in the castle, and sold to American collector Ralph H. Isham by Boswell's great-great-grandson Lord Talbot of Malahide.
Malahide Castle and Demesne was eventually inherited by the seventh Baron Talbot and on his death in 1973, passed to his sister, Rose. In 1975, Rose sold the castle to the Irish State, partly to fund inheritance taxes.

The coast of Ireland as seen from Howth

Cliffs and coastline again

Close-up of Malahide Castle

Malahide Castle

Castle Grounds

Rain, rain go away..

I know I owe you all a second Ireland update, but it turns out I find myself with a lack of wifi access here at my grandparents' place. I'm currently using their computer, but my pictures are all uploaded on my laptop. Unless I figure out another solution, the pictures and update may have to wait.

I've gotten used to the daily routine in Germany a little now. Today it has been raining and thundering for the better part of the afternoon, so I've been spending the hours alternating between reading and the internet.

I felt like writing, and I feel bad that I haven't really been able to catch up with all your blogs, which I promise I will do when I get the chance.

I've managed to keep semi-regular contact with ShyBoy so far between msn messenger and the occasional text message, so I'm happy about that. I was going to do the whole post card thing, but then my mother pointed out that it could take almost 2 weeks for the card to get there, and I'm only gone 4 weeks.

This computer uses a "German" keyboard, which has slight differences from the typical North American one I'm used to. For some odd reason the Z and Y keys are switched, which is really messing me up, same with the quotation marks, commas and apostrophes. They are all in different places.

Has this happened to anyone else around the world? How do you cope with different keyboards?

I hope everyone has a great weekend! ..and better weather then I do there!