Friday, May 7, 2010

The Germany Chronicles 2 - In which a pigeon nearly causes Michael's death and a crow freaks him out...

Okay, so you are now probably wondering what this cryptic title to the post means...
Unfortunately, there is no hidden message, no clue to something else that might lead you to discover an amazing treasure. It's just a description of what happened yesterday. I am not joking.

Yesterday, Michael and I went to Munich. We decided that, as the bad weather was not improving, we should do an inside activity: i.e. two hour train ride followed by a day at the "Deutsche Museum", in other words, the German Museum of Science and Technology. I figured that, Michael and I love our Mythbusters and How It's Made enough to find that interesting! ;-D It was great fun and we thoroughly enjoyed it... (I'm keeping the museum visit bit short, as I only have 30 minutes to write this... again!) Michael and I strolled through aviation, navigation, mining, and electricity (and watched the electrical power "show" in which they show different cool and dangerous things high voltage can do to wood, metal, houses, people, etc. lots of loud bangs and electrical fires!). We spent a total of four hours in the museum, until closing time, actually. In the last half-hour, we discovered that there was a hidden musical instruments section and rushed to see that... it was extremely well hidden... For a minute I thought I was going to find Narnia rather than another lesser known and visited section of the museum. Anyways, it was great fun...

We left the museum at five to get something to eat and stroll around Munich a bit, as it had stopped raining. We went all the way to the Marienplatz, which is a beautiful pedestrian zone with great buildings and church towers surrounding it... and also really nice stores to shop in! ^_^ On our way to the Marienplatz, a pigeon that was hobbling about on the sidewalk decided to take off, nearly hitting Michael in the face with its wing! I am not kidding: it nearly hit me too and I am a head shorter than he is!! The pigeon missed his face by a hair - not an inch: a HAIR! It was a really close call - I think the pigeon nearly gave the two of us a heart attack! So yeah... a pigeon did nearly kill Mike... see why I said the title was not cryptic after all?

And then, still while walking in Munich, as I was trying to figure out where we were (I was left to my own means and my mediocre sense of direction in a big city I barely knew and without a map... I kept telling Michael "I think I know where we are... let's go this way!" and basically went exploring... It went well though: we ended up where I had planned to! I was very impressed with myself.) So, I was trying to figure out where to go by memory and Michael started giving a weird look. He said: "Judith... there is a bum... a homeless man... riding a bike... and he has a PET CROW on his shoulder!!" He insisted that I tell whoever reads my blog about this too. I never saw the guy... but Michael was so freaked out by it that I do believe it was true... So there is part two of the title.

Other than that, the food is still as yummy as ever! On Wednesday, we went to visit some fabulous baroque churches. They were gorgeous! However, it was so bloody foggy we could not see a single scrap of landscape! The mountains had been swallowed up by mist completely! It looked like someone had erased them! It looked like a canvas for someone to paint on, not like an actual, tangible landscape... And things kept popping out of the fog, cars, signs, trees... it was weird and freaky...

Okay... in other, quickly given news, I have a new dirndl. For those not in the know about what that is, it is the traditional Bavarian garb. It is basically a dress made of a low-cut bodice and skirt (which can be worn with petticoats underneath) and an apron. A blouse is worn beneath the bodice as well. It is basically elegant farmer's wife clothing. The fun bit is that it looks very 17th-18th century wenchy!! That's how awesome we are here in Bavaria! Our outfits have not changed since back in the old days! XD The reason why I bought a new one (because I already had one at home in Canada) was that I needed one that was more "my age"... the one at home was a little on the small side and made me look fourteen when I wore it... My new one is light green with a pink apron and it's GORGEOUS! Michael loves it! I look really fabulous in it! And, to match it, I bought a new, stunning feathered hat! It has the longest, most beautiful pheasant feathers I have ever seen!! And it's also very traditional... It is also the perfect hat to wear to Renaissance faires... simply a breathtaking piece!
We also got Michael a nice Bavarian hat. This is because real-deal Lederhosen are just too expensive for our budget right now (one pair of pants is more expensive than the whole dirndl set!) and I decided that I would not let Michael leave Germany until he looked at least somewhat Bavarian... So we got him a hat. It's nice and forest green and has a small Gamsbart on it... I cannot translate that, so do not ask. You can look it up on google though, I am sure. Anyways, he looks really cute in this hat. And, to his big surprise, his head fits really easily into hats here... The big-headedness must be a German thing then, I guess... XD

Darn, I have to go again... sorry. Tomorrow, we are visiting castles. Specifically Schloss Linderhof. If the weather is nice, I'll wear my dirndl, so I'll have nice pictures to upload when I get back!

My best to all! I miss my Canadian friends, but, even in foul weather, the landscape here is absolutely breathtaking, so please don't blame me for loving it here!

4 comments:

  1. Hey Babe,

    I am really glad you are having such a good time!
    A Gamsbart - is basically a hat ornament looking like a shaving brush, but made out of the back bristles of a Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra, is a goat-antelope species native to mountains in Europ - the animal not the rag!)

    So enjoy the rest of your time and get in touch with Lisa
    Bussi Ma

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's shitty weather here too--I think being in Germany is way cooler.

    <3
    Julia

    ReplyDelete
  3. "For a minute I thought I was going to find Narnia rather than another lesser known and visited section of the museum." LOOOL XD Omg, this made me laugh so much <D I love how you write <3

    Aaaw <D seems so nice in Germany u-u And wow, xD Birds are dangerous in Germany X''D They have found new ways to attack people: Disease..and direct attack XD And...Wish I could see the man with the Pet Crow <D OMG! I so would have pet it <D (the crow lol XD the crow....XD)

    Ryu =3

    ReplyDelete
  4. We are excited for you, jealous of you, and looking forward to seeing your thousands of photoes. You have some funny stories to share.

    Love mom

    ReplyDelete