Week one synopsis of our move to deutschland.
Croissants - better than Vancouver but tastes like a hotdog bun compared to Strasbourg
Bread - love the heavy ryes and nut and grain filled bread. Good substitute for baguettes
Glutenfree products - haven't found a consistent source yet. One place by our house has been the best so far but I think we cleaned them out for a while
Credit cards and bank cards - not used! Merde alors. Or Scheisse as I should be saying now. This may pose to be a pain in the ass since we are relying on those for the first month.
Pools - still awesome, cheap and naked. There is a pool about 6 minutes by bike away from us which Axel and I went to last Saturday. It wasn't as cool as Baden-Baden, but it definitely was up there for places we must frequent. I also went to a real pool, where they have classes and lanes...also very cool. And even cheaper.
Produce - I miss France. Nothing is local except the asparagus which ends in two weeks. I did find two markets today but they were very expensive so I don't think I'll be hitting those unless they go down in price. It seems that most people travel outside of the city to farms a lot. I might have to tag along during one of these trips.
Smoking - it's awful over here for non-smokers. They smoke everywhere. Ugh. I forgot how bad your clothes stink after an hour at a restaurant or pub.
Nightlife - so far so good. Better than Strasbourg. Unfortunately I am so tired by midnight that I can't take full advantage of this yet.
Bikes - I thought Strasbourg was bike friendly! Nothing compared to Cologne. Cologne has their sidewalks divided so that the closest part to the road is for cyclists. Not only that but all of the curbs are ramped for your wheel to make a smooth ride. What's kind of crazy is that you are on the same sidewalk as pedestrians which makes for some potentially dangerous encounters. Thank god for my bell and my extremely loud voice.
Size - it's huge compared to Strasbourg. This is kind of nice to be in a bigger city again.
Transit - expensive (2.40 for 90 minutes) but it's just as fast as Strasbourg. We have jumped on a few times without paying Which will definitely keep our costs down! Like in Strasbourg we are very close to transit. Ax can catch the S-bahn straight to work and it only takes thirty minutes direct. We are at a crossroads of 4 different trams and trains. And transit runs all night long
Drinks - koelsh beer is where its at. They are served in thin, 20 cc glasses. We found out that there are over 1500 breweries in Germany, so there are many to try. Being pregnant, and having a celiac partner, however, makes this a little useless to us for now. You can also buy beer and just sit in the park and drink, which is what most people do in the summers. And you can drink on the streets. Here are people with beer on the tram.
Here is the beer bus. It is powered by all of the passengers peddling and you can see it everywhere.
Bathrooms- the ones you pay for Which is most of them are way cleaner than most you'll ever see. But it costs you at least 50 cents.
English spoken - everywhere. This is gute for now, but after a few weeks of learning the language, I hope this won't stay as my crutch.
Our house - we are sharing a flat with a woman and her 4 year old named Rana (who's nicknamed Rani, who calls me little Rani which I find weird since she's way smaller than me). And another roommate from Spain (Basque country, Vittoria) who is in advanced german. Despite not having as much privacy (and thus having to wear pants all the time...scheisse), I really like having different people around to speak german to. The house is filled with all of the family stereotypes too: bottom floor, gay couple; first floor - recent divorced man; second floor - family of four; our floor - single mom with child. Esther, the spanish girl, is hilarious. I love her. She loves sports and knows everything to do with anyone basque...but also loves teaching us german. The minor problem with learning from esther is that she has a thick spanish accent when she speaks german, so we have to make sure we're actually saying it properly once we get the words down. The house with all of the families have known each other since university days, and then they all lived in 1 house (where they shared 2 kitchens and ONE bathroom) for nine years before last year, when they moved here, into separate flats. This makes for a really cool group of people, where they watch out for things you might like to do, share 6 flats of eggs from the local farm, and have a nice chat in the garden.
Overall, it's been really exciting to be in a place where neither of us can communicate effectively. We both love this challenge, but I just started german classes today in hopes that we won't be oblivious of what is going around us for too much longer. It will be an exciting two and a half months!!!
Tschüs!
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