Wacky Germans

These two pictures just make me laugh every time I look at them. Seriously? Mr. Bleck is a coffee shop? And the dude is standing there looking like Chef from South Park in a little servant's jacket? Oh you racist bastards. You make me laugh so hard. I went and got coffee from there just to see if there was something I could take for Shaynea, and she's so getting a matchbook.

The second picture is the most horrifying fountain I've ever seen. I couldn't capture it really without taking a lot of detailed pictures, but there is a lot of weird and scary stuff happening in there, including a dragon eating someone.

I'll work on London and Prague tomorrow.

Nuremburg, part 2

Knowing that they were called the Nuremburg Trials, if you thought about it hard enough, you'd know that the city saw a lot of action in WWII. But before that, the city had a very impressive history from the 1300's. The castle is at the top of a large hill, and used to have a wall that enclosed the entire city. The city has since spread, but you can still find parts of the wall around the city. Top to bottom:

The hangman's house. Seriously. Who'd you have to kill to live there? Ba dum dum. (Thanks, I'll be here all week, try the veal.)

I'm blanking on the name of that church and I'm too lazy to go look it up. It was bombed to the ground and rebuilt. Inside, it's amazing but you're not allowed to take pictures.

That's really what a lot of the city looks like. That's just a random street that is pretty.

A castle wall- you can see where it's been repaired, post-war.

Another view.

Nuremburg, Germany

Top to bottom:

A statue honoring the toy makers, one of the things that Nuremburg is famous for. There's a hidden ring that you can turn to make a wish. I'm not telling what my wish was.

Cool old bridge right by the hangman's house. That's true- he had one of the best views in town.

View of Nuremburg from the castle.

Castle.

Church.

More Nuremburg- I went with the purpose of taking pictures.

Salzburg, Austria

So it turns out that I didn't take the best pictures while I was gone. There's a lot of stuff that I seem to have just forgotten to actually capture. But this is me in Salzburg- Mozart's birthplace, and the home of Sound of Music. The city is beautiful, as you can see from the two views of either me in it, or looking at it. The other picture is the side of the castle there- knowing how old these buildings are, I'm always amazed at how high they did things. I understand that it was for protection, but it took lifetimes, and that blows my mind. It's quite a hike to get up there. We didn't go in though.

The Bachelorette

All the ladies in the house who were addicted to The Bachelorette say "Hey-yo!"

Hey-yo!

Props for:

Being completely f'n ridiculous. I was watching last night, and when they showed the volcano when she was in the room with Ed (or E.D. if you know what I'm sayin')...I DIED. I was laughing so hard I had to call Shaynea to see if she had caught that shit.

Calling Ed out for the E.D.

Reid! You also called out Ed for the E.D.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I totally just gave you a fist bump and baked you some cookies. You may have been dumped twice on national tv, but you totally looked like a man doing it.

Please. Who proposes when you KNOW that she's been banging other dudes as recently as the night before? Something HAS to tell you that is NOT okay. PLUS, PLUS+++++++!!!!!!!!!! Dude who came in third shows up and proposes and she HESITATED. I'd be all, "Fuck YOU, biatch. In or out, yo." She had to break up with TWO other dudes to get engaged to you that day. Is that REALLY okay with you? Don't lie.

Yeah. I don't anticipate running into Jillian in Chicago. That's all I'm sayin'.

NO, wait! Chris Harrison just called him out on his sissy shorts! And they are SO not okay in the bedroom. If you have to say that many times that everything is fine in there, after the big "fantasy suite" debacle...I'm just not buying it.

Sorry if you weren't watching that ridiculous bs. I like feeling superior in all ways to people on reality tv.

SOTD: Be There by Howie Day. If you're gonna be there, BE THERE. I just really like this song, even though I feel like I shouldn't. I don't know, Howie Day writes a mean pop song. I just accidentally typed poop song. I guess I'm feeling ambiguous break up songs these days. "Sorry, I thought it could work, but if it's not going to, then I guess you should bail." I've also been indulging in retail therapy. Someone take my credit card away from me. No seriously.

If you're digging the angsty Howie Day, see also She Says. When she says she wants somebody else, I hope you know- she doesn't mean you. I'm pretty sure that Howie Day is a HUGE douche bag in person.

Ayo.

I swear i'm working on the picture thing. I'm busy!

But one funny thing from Germany- one of the first things I heard on the radio when I got there was this song- Ayo Technology. And I was listening to it like, "I feel like I've heard this before, but something about it isn't quite right..." Then I kept listening and realized that it is the GEEKIEST Fifty Cent cover ever...but still kind of catchy.

So this is what the Germans are digging these days.

SOTD: Ayo Technology by Milow.

Good news/Bad news

Hello.

Good news: I'm home! I have tons of pictures and stories when I get to it, right now I'm just focused on finding something clean to wear.

Bad news: Banjo Boy and I broke up last night. I am sad, but know it is for the best.

I will post pictures and international stories as soon as I get on that whole clean clothes thing I mentioned earlier. Feel free to entertain me in the meantime with what you've been up to lately.

One picture

So on Saturday when you were all attending awesome bbq's, watching fireworks and celebrating your independence, I went to the Documentation Center in Nuremburg. It's on the former Nazi Rally grounds, and it's a history of the rise and fall of the Nazis. Not so much like a party, and there was something weird about going on the 4th of July, but it was definitely interesting.

Afterwards, I had some time to kill and it's right on this nice lake so I went for a walk and found a nice biergarten. (Look at me! I'm learning German!*) Nelly and Keana came and met me there, and I enjoyed a few brews and some sausages for dinner. Here is a picture of that- it's me, my beer, and about 17 chins. It's an awful picture, but it makes me laugh. Seriously, I look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Do you also like that I'm balancing my huge beer on my boob? Yeah, that's hot.



It's been raining since then, so I haven't done much since then but relax. I've read 6 books so far, and I've been here for about a week and a half. Things are picking up though- Tom and I went back to Nuremburg today when he got home from work and did some walking around, so I have some pictures for you that I haven't downloaded yet, but I promise to get to it before the weekend. Tomorrow if it's not raining in the afternoon, I'm all over going to take pictures of the things that have been making me laugh.

Why? Because this weekend is when I get to go to London and I am PSYCHED!

SOTD: 99 Luftballoons by Nena. Obviously, it's been stuck in my head since I got here. Plus, I totally found a Nena DVD in the closet here. Don't think I didn't laugh out loud when I saw it.

*At dinner tonight, Tom and Nelly were saying Nuremburg funny (not Nurnberg, which is how Germans say it) and Keana looked at them and said, "Don't make it any harder on Rachel!" Apparently, what they were doing is the equivalent of a southern accent. To answer your question Ashley, yes. Keana is smarter than I am. This is not news.

More stuff I've done

Yesterday was a funny day for this 30 Things list. Tom gave me my second ever stick shift driving lesson, AND showed me how to plug in his electric guitar and taught me a few licks.

The driving lesson went pretty well. Tom has become more patient as he's gotten older. According to my sister, when he was supposed to teach her, she killed it once and they turned around and went back home. I successfully started, got to second and stopped around and around in a parking lot last night. Then he tried to make me start going up a hill. I think we both knew that wouldn't end well. Do I think I'll ever be really confident out on the streets? Not so much, but I'm learning. The streets here are so narrow and a little scary for me anyway.

The guitar is awesome. I didn't known I'd like making so much noise, but hey...sorry neighbors, I'm rocking out in Germany!! I may actually have someone take a video of me playing to put up here because I think it's pretty amusing. I can do all of that fancy reverb/feedback stuff. It's pretty badass, if I do say so myself.

I still haven't taken any pictures, but I have Saturday morning to myself, so I'll ride Tom's bike "into town" and take pictures there. It's exactly what you think it looks like, but it also seems funny that it looks like that in 2009.