Our Second Week: Don't Drink and Festival

When we had our household goods packed up on April 1st we were told that our items were (likely) to arrive a week or two after arriving in Germany.  Also, we were informed that we would have to move our goods or find storage within five days after arriving.  Neither of these statements had the slightest bit of truth to them.  Our assumption was that our shipment was arriving soon and with nowhere to move them, we would be in an overwhelming pit of stress.  We were able to contact the shipping company's logistical side and the person we were dealing with - a nightmare of a human being throughout the entire process informed us that our household goods were still sitting in the port of Norfolk, Virginia.  Our container wasn't scheduled to leave the country for another week or two and our agent had no estimate as to when our shipment would arrive, none whatsoever.  Apparently, weathermen and logistical agents can be the only professions where completely inaccurate forecasts have no recourse.  We took this as a blessing in disguise because we had nowhere to live or any idea of where we wanted to live.

Having a cell phone was a great start for our search for an apartment or house - except, we were using the German newspaper classifieds to call landlords regarding available properties.  Fortunately, I knew enough German to ask; if I was speaking with so-and-so, is the rental still available, and can we schedule a time/day to see it, and if they spoke English.  However, my successes were wildly varied, but a better option would soon come to light.

Mid-week, Julie came home with the wonderful news that we now had an Automated Housing Referral Network (AHRN) login and we could now start looking at properties online rather than looking through newspapers.  We would still have to make calls for appointments and additional questions, but the convenience of looking at pictures was immensely advantageous.  We were well on our way to finding our new home which called for a celebration.

Neither of our palates may be refined, however, all the wine and beer here is delicious and cheap.  Our only issue, where do all the empty bottles go?  We had already been separating our trash (dry and wet waste), separating our plastics, sorting our aluminum - but, where does all the glass go...?  While searching for an rental home in Quiedersbach, the previous tenant clearly had the same issue, there were approximately 80-90 empty handles of Captain Morgan's strewn throughout the home, a disturbing, yet impressive feat.  Soon enough, we learned that bottles could be returned to a collection container near a local grocer, Lidl - and we could stop living like glass bottle hoarders.

The week's end was nearing and we would learn two important lessons in life in Germany.  The first, not really a lesson, more of a discovery.  Steaming television and movies with Europen internet is not a possibility using the usual means of Hulu, Netflix, or HBOGO.  Fortunately, Julie stumbled upon an App within Google Chrome that allows for our VPN (internet access point) to appear as though it originates from the Unites States, thus allowing us to watch our Netflix (not so successful with HBOGO).  This was great news for us because we didn't know enough German to follow along with any television programming, with exception to watching 3.Bundesliga games on Saturday, which need no translation.

The other lesson we learned, don't drink and go to festivals.  We knew festivals were popular in Europe, but our first local event had set up three blocks from our apartment.  On Friday, we had our own Happy Hour at home while watching a German dubbing of The Simpsons (episode where Bart beheads the Jebedeiah Springfield statue).  We left the apartment to forage for dinner, (ultimately Garabaldi's) but the festival was right there - we had to take a look.  We walked around and stumbled upon a drink cart, almost like it was from the wild west.  The owner was from France who spoke some English and some German - we were offered free shots and that was good enough of a hook to reel us into a purchase.  The cart was full of various bottles and you could fill them up with the liquor of your choice.  Knowing the vendor was French, the obvious choice here was to select Absinth, however, we chose a larger volume bottle and our new friend failed to inform us of the charge per centiliter.  The price, $54 Euro, we were pot committed at this point - plus, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Lesson learned, don't drink and buy liquor at festivals.

Street vendors at festival

Drink cart

Surely you can read what this is

Our festival experience reached its climax as we approached the main square in Landstuhl.  There was live entertainment, the streets were surrounded by vendors, and numerous beer stands.  Our entertainment for the evening, a dance with fire - the children surrounding us were most enthused.   The adults on the other hand, were only impressed by the guy spitting large flames.  The other half of the show involved a fire dancer and even she seemed bored by her own act - although, after she added more fire, she grabbed our divided attention.

Fire breather imitating a wheat burning dragon

Bring back the other guy

All in all, our second week was great.  Germany was starting to feel like a place we lived rather than somewhere we were visiting.