I do hope that you're doing well today! Thanks for stopping by.
This week has been fantastic as I've had the chance to experience the first of many festivals which pop up at this time of year. I was fortunate enough to go to a pumpkin festival with my cousin and her friends and it was a fantastic day to head out into the country.
Like I mentioned in my last post, the part of Germany I'm currently living in is made up of many different municipalities that are all relatively close to each other but still have plenty of space in between. The festival that we went to was about 20 minutes away in another small municipality and it was a perfect Saturday outing.
As you can see from the picture below, it was relatively small and I would estimate around a thousand people being there at any one time.
When we first entered, I was immediately drawn to a sign that advertised for pumpkin waffles. I got in line and was promptly served a hot, fresh pumpkin waffle. I took my first bite and I found myself being surprised by a quite savory flavor. I was expecting it to be on the sweeter side but flavor additives aren't so popular out here so everything that you eat is going to be in it's more organic form. Luckily, there's one thing that goes VERY well with a savory snack. You guessed it! Beeeeeeeeer!
As you can see from the photo below, I was thinking with my stomach not my camera so I didn't catch the whole waffle in all it's glory but you get the gist.
We were also told that if you're at the festival, you should 100% try the pumpkin soup. I don't have a picture of it but I'll bet you could imagine what it looked like more or less. It was SO tasty but it was also quite warm outside so a whole bowl of soup seemed like too much. I was fortunate enough to try someone else's and then I settled for a wild boar bratwurst. We found a spot in the shade and proceeded to relax in the beautiful weather.
Pumpkin ciders and pumpkin wines were also quite popular at the festival. I tried one of the wines and it was incredibly sweet. I wasn't surprised this time but after just one sip I was had surpassed my pumpkin wine quota. Mandy and co seemed to thoroughly enjoy it and they proceeded to buy a bottle to walk around with. I love Germany.
They had a really nice selection of pumpkins for purchase including your standard orange pumpkins of many shapes and sizes. They also had many white pumpkins which I've seen before in the states but then they had some crazy alien pumpkins I'd never seen before. They kind of look like a mushroom you try to consume in a Super Mario Brothers video game. They were pretty fascinating to look at though.
One other thing that was great about the festival is that there were a bunch of small vendors there that were selling a variety of things including handmade goods and plenty of different types of locally-sourced food. The most popular seemed to be the tents selling sausage and cheese as they were high in quality and low in price.
I almost bought some coffee liquor that I sampled once (maybe twice) but I figured I still have so many different types of beers to try that I could put that on hold.
Speaking of beers, I've been going to the grocery store and they have so many different brands and styles that I've just been picking 4-5 of them at random. So far I've found some styles I enjoy and some styles that I'm not the biggest fan of. I have been sticking to a pretty rigorous daily routine so it's nice to crack one open in the evening after another victorious day.
One part of my daily routine is to go for a walk or run because it's so easy to get onto a walking path in just minutes. Here's a video of me taking a quick walk and I'm about 7 minutes from the front door.
The weather has been getting cooler and a bit more dreary each day. I'm pretty sure summer is over but there's some sunshine that pops through every now and then which is refreshing. Here's a picture of what it looked like in the morning the other day.
The sun was trying to peek through but the clouds just weren't having it. Although it can be a bit gloomy, I'm feeling great about my time here thus far. One thing that's helping me get through each gloomy day is that I'm getting very excited for my first gig this Saturday and everything is ready to go! I'll be taking some pictures and videos while I'm there so I can share the experience with you.
I've been back a *couple* times to the pub where I'll be playing, you know, just to suss it out a little bit more and I'm really stoked to be gigging again. I haven't had a gig in over 3 weeks and it's driving me a little crazy! I've been practicing daily and relearning some old songs I haven't played in awhile as well as adding a couple new ones to the repertoire.
I also just got some fun news the other day while talking with my Dutch friend Folkert. I wanted to book a train to Amsterdam to visit he and his girlfriend Else and he gave me some good dates to look into. I also found out he's taking me to a proper football match (read: not American football) between a couple of Dutch teams which is one thing I've been wanting to do for a LONG time. Seeing a local match in the stadium has always seemed like it has an electric atmosphere to me so I'm greatly looking forward to experiencing it first hand.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a fantastic day!
Tony G
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