So, it's Sunday morning on June 27th and right now a major event is going on...England is playing Germany in a very important World Cup match! I am pleased to tell you that I've been watching most of these World Cup matches since the tournament began on June 11th. No, I'm not jumping on any bandwagons. As a matter of fact, Carl has been a big fan of English Premier League Football for several years. I am acquainted with most of the teams and the players, as well as the structure of international matches and tournaments. Additionally, about two years ago Carl and I bought a subscription to Sirius Radio. We both have long commutes from the west side to the east side, and we deemed it worthwhile. We couldn't have been more correct...Sirius has changed my life and I am never going back to regular FM radio. Do you know how nice it is not to have to mess with commercials anymore? Also, when stuck in traffic or in a snowstorm, it's comforting to have the choice of over 150 stations to listen to. I find myself most frequently listening to the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and Classic Rock channel, but I have increasingly been listening to BBC Radio 1. They air it on a time delay for people in the states, and I get a huge kick out of listening to songs that are popular across the pond, as well as hearing the day's news and weather in the UK. Football/soccer is England's sport, so they talk about it relentlessly. I consider myself fairly well-versed in the drama of football over there, thanks to Sirius BBC Radio 1!
As I'm typing this and watching the match (Germany just scored their 2nd goal over England...yikes!) I am reminded of our trip to Germany two years ago and how truly amazing it was. My cousin was working in Germany at the time, in a little town called Kiel on the Baltic Sea, very close to Denmark. Carl and I decided to visit him for 10 days in February of 2008. After flying from New York to Berlin, we took a train into Hamburg, then a small commuter rail into Kiel. Before the opportunity arose to travel to Germany, I never imagined myself going there. I am so happy we went!
One of the biggest shockers of all was that the food in Germany was simply astonishing! As a matter of fact, I started taking pictures of food while we were vacationing there! I've been teased on several occasions for taking pictures of food everywhere...places we've traveled, restaurants we've eaten at, or food I or someone I know has made. It all started because, while in Kiel, I innocently ordered a pizza. Not being well versed in German at all, to say the least (my moment of triumph came when we were at an art museum in Berlin and I conducted a transaction with the cashier who sold the tickets. Me, handing over my euros: "Zyei, Bitte." (two, please) The cashier, printing off the tickets and hading them to me: "Danke."(thank you) ) Yes, this was the extent of my German. So, unknowingly, I missed the part on the menu where my pizza came with an egg on top of it. Now, I know that in the United States, we primarily confine ourselves to eating eggs for breakfast, whereas in the rest of the world, especially in Europe, they are eaten for dinner, lunch, etc. But I was still absolutely flabbergasted to see an egg, sunny-side up, on top of my pizza. Appalled, I took a photo:
This is the photo that started it all! From then on, I took a lot of pictures in food while in Germany, and continued the trend as I came home to the US. By the way, the egg was absolutely amazing on top of the pizza. Totally unexpected yet phenomenal!
In the apartment where my cousin lived in Kiel, there was a bakery up the street. Each morning while in Kiel, we would walk there together. Carl took German in high school and my cousin was learning it, so they would order from the bakery counter while I would take in the bounty of loveliness that is a bakery. We would take our food home and eat it on his porch area, then go on to a day of sightseeing. Here are a couple of the pictures of our baked good breakfasts that I took:
Ahhh. cheesecake. Can you believe the size of that baby? I remember this tasted vaguely of oranges...I think they put orange zest into the cheese.
Truly, Germany had great food, which they are certainly never credited for. But, having been to Italy, I can tell you that, on the whole, I had more good meals in Germany than I did in Italy. Go ahead, tell me I'm blaspheming. But it's the truth. Don't get me wrong, I ate wonderfully in Italy, but I ate like a full-on Queen in Germany.
Germany is also where I discovered that the chocolate in our country is, for the most part, embarrassing. It tastes waxy and thin, but German chocolate is of an entirely different species. In each city we visited, and there were many: Lubeck, Eckernforde, Schleswig, Kiel, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin...we bought the local chocolate. I remember the four of us eating whole bars of chocolate as we drove on the autobahn to our next destination. This is probably why, even though we walked for miles a day, I didn't lose any weight. :)
I guess what this whole post serves to show is that, very often, the memories you take away from a trip are memories of food, family and friends. You can see the greatest sights in the world (and we did...the Brandenburg Gate, The Baltic Sea, little villages that the Brothers Grimm based their fairy tales on, works of art in galleries in Berlin, cathedrals that have stood for hundreds of years...) but what I most remember when I think of Germany is my cousin, his friend, Carl and I eating bars of German chocolate like fiends...like absolute maniacs... as we sped down the autobahn together. Or, of my shock and delight when I spotted an egg on top of my pizza. Still yet, the memories of us walking to and from the local bakery in the morning, passing people on bicycles with baguettes in their front baskets, not being able to wait to get back and eat what we purchased.
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