365 day project

Okay friends, so today's the day I reach out and ask you for help.

But first, a little backstory:

1. My wonderful Mr. Bama is gone for work for a year starting in a few weeks.
2. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm sort highly motivated / an overachiever.
3. Working as an employee on the German economy isn't an option, as in I don't have a work visa.
4. I have travelling access to all of fantastic Europe.

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So now you, my fabulously creative readers come into play.  Starting July 30, I'll be up for a project.  You can get an idea from my previous posts what my interests are - cooking, design, travel, etc.  My goal is to expand your horizons and as well as mine, so be creative, but not extravagant.  What do YOU want to read about me exploring?  You read about blogs where people tell you want they want you to hear, in this case I'm asking you what do you want to read about?  Here are some very small  rules:

• it cannot include me risking my life... that includes heights, i.e. me standing next to them or jumping off of them.  no no no
• it cannot cost more than $15 a day.
• it cannot include me doing anything illegal.

And that's about it.  I'm excited to hear about what you would me to take on this next year, especially for those readers who usually read, but don't ever feel like commenting! Be creative!

Sacred Beer Atop a Holy Mountain

There's an interesting phenomenom in Germany - Monks.  Who brew beer.

The Kloster (monastery) Kreuzberg, atop the Kreuzberg mountain in the Rhon mountain range, has been brewing beer since 1731.  Even since we arrived in germany, everyone we met told us we had to travel to Kreuzberg to hike the mountain and have the beer.  So naturally, when we found out that there would be a bus trip to visit this wonderful location, we signed up and were excited to go!  While it was freezing cold (and yours truly did not dress appropriately) and drizzly, we still managed to have an absolute blast.

big mug, little mug

Mr. Bama's big mug

happiness is a full beer mug

thats 5L of holy beer

the 3 crosses at the top of the Kreuzberg
mountain.

view from the top.  Gorgeous

Happy Bamas

Awesome + Awesome = Awesomer

If you haven't seen this blog then you really should.

These are some of my faves:

one bakes a cake, the other is often baked.

Salvidor Dali and Coco Chanel

Chick Norris and Bruce Lee... how can a picture
contain this much awesomeness!

MJ and Paul McCartney.  Washing dishes of course

and last but not least... but perhaps the most beautiful

Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.  The two most beautiful
women in the world at the time

all pics are courtesy of awesomepeoplehangingouttogether

(many thanks to Misa for exposing me to this link... as always, you rock)

My Newest German Obsession

It may help to have Google Chrome to read this, but I'm in love with this wonderful grocery (Bio) chain Tegut .

Small, but a ton of local bio chicken, beef and pork.  I'm slightly discouraged by the amount and price of grapeseed oil (Traubenkornöl) so Ill have to find a new high temp cooking oil, but alas, such is the challenges of a new country.

We've also found a wonderful home that rents to American's w/ dogs (a BIG deal).   It's perfect, as it has 3 bathrooms, four bedrooms AND a fitted kitchen - something that is VERY hard to find in a German rental.

our new kitchen -  stove, fridge, oven, sink AND dishwasher!

This is all dependent on an inspection this week, but if all goes well, we have an new home come July 1st.

On another note, out new village is lovely, with 2 hotels, a Tavern around the corner, a grocery and a bank.  Can a girl ask for anything more?

When Good Food Goes Bad

I'm sure this isn't news to you if you've even glanced at a newspaper lately, but Germany's going through a *small* health scare.  It's not just "oh, gosh! I got food poisoning, was sick all night, but felt good the next morning" kind of food poisoning, but the scary "organ failure, you may die" kind of nasty E.Coli food poisoning.  While it's primarily an issue in North Germany (think Berlin), many places down in Bavaria have pulled lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes from their food offerings as a safety precaution.  While I appreciate the proactive approach from restaurants and grocery stores, it has turned salads and anything else green and normally "healthy" into being characterized as unhealthy and dangerous. It also has resulted in slightly less desirable food.  I was standing next to a girl in a sandwich shop and she ordered a BLT sandwich.  The result was a piece of bacon between two slices of bread... yeah.  So this normally healthy green loving girl has resorted to trying out the less than healthy delicacies of Germany.

First - the Pork Schnitzel

Breaded and fried pork with french fries.  Kind of like a pork chop, but the seasoning makes it delectable.  It's actually pretty light for a fried food, but still it's fried and not something that should be eaten daily.  But boyyy is it tasty (especially mixed with a local Hefeweizen).  PS - The famous Jaegerschnitzel is when they add a mushroom sauce to the schnitzel.  Germans LOVE their mushrooms, not so much for this non-fungi fan.

Second - The Döner Kebap

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Turkish immigrants brought with them to Germany the Döner Kebap and it has became as big a part of the German cuisine as the Schnitzel. The bare hunk of meat rotating on a pike seems kind of scary at first, but trust me, it is amazingly tasty.  Usually you add tomato and lettuce to your döner, but since that ingredient is currently hard to come by, döner and onions with garlic sauce it was!

Döner macht schöner ( Döner makes you beautiful).

YUM!  Sidenote: I got the "small" size.

Third - Anything from a backerei

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 The French have their croissants, the Belgians have their waffles and the Germans have their pretzels.  And trust me, you haven't had a pretzel until you've had a German pretzel.  Ohmygoodness.  Even if you aren't a pretzel fan, the options avaliable at any backerei around Germany are enough to send you into a carbohydrate coma.

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So now I know why everyone warned me about how hard it was to avoid the "Bavarian Bulge" when you live in Germany.  Here's hoping we get veggies back soon, otherwise my waistline doesn't stand a chance against this amazing food!  On the flip side, it is better than contracting a deadly strain of E. Coli.  Oh the sacrifices...

The Bamas Meet Bruno the Beamer!

Yours truly is proud to report that I am now the rightful owner of a German driver's license.  Yup, after 3 days studying, taking an agonizing 4 hour class on how German driving is different from American (its all about the Right-of-Way), and completing a 100 question test, I'm legal!  Itching to get on the road, I put my energy into finding a car that was afforable (read under $3,000), reliable and not a gas guzzler.  Enter Bruno:

this is Bruno

Bruno is a  German spec 1995 BMW 320i who was for sale because his owner bikes to work and didn't have a need for him any longer.  He's not as snazzy as the BMW's we test drove Saturday (more about that later...) but he's something that I can drive without worrying.  HOWEVER (and this is big), Bruno has a manual transmission.  Not usually an issue, but when you don't know how to drive manual., it's a big deal.  

So not only am I dealing with a whole new set of road rules, but I'm faced with the challenge of learning how to drive a car that can't figure out on its own what gear to be in!  

Mr. Bama took me around a rarely traveled loop of road near our Inn to train me in this new adventure.  After lots of stalling and swearing, I've finally gotten a hang of it.  But in short: clutches are stupid and I DESPISE hills.  But I do like the sense of control.....

story of my standard transmission life

While we're still on the topic of BMWs, guess what I got to do last Saturday:

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We test drove brand new BMW's at the Schweinfurt dealership -- The autobahn made it so I was able to drive my  personal record speed of 100mph while Mr. Bama clocked out this bad boy at 160 mph

The BMW M3.  Its prettier in real life.  I promise

Next blog post:  Eating healthy when you a) live in a hotel and b) theres a *slight* produce shortage.  And by slight I mean substantial.  Yay E.Coli!  Fun fun times, I tell yah.