My trip to Germany is almost over, and I haven't sent much of an update. The excitement to be here waned when a scheduled interview ended up being halfway across Germany, and we had to improvise. Plus the weather has been less than cooperative. Nonetheless, it's been an incredible trip.
I've been driving a manual car all around East Germany, so I haven't had much of a chance to take photos of the beautiful landscapes we've come across. I've driven through rain, sleet, and snow on the Autobahn and through small hamlets scattered throughout the country. I'm not sure how I'm going to get used to driving back at home. My average speed has been 160km/hr or 95mph! And that's average! I do like the way they drive here, it's very respectable. Everyone knows and understands the rules, there is absolutely no passing on the right - pass left, stay on right. The roads are really amazingly well kept. The rest areas are sparkling, and the bathrooms come with bathroom attendants!
Our base has been in Leipzig, so I've gotten to see a little bit of the city. Easter is enormously popular, and all the stores have stocked up with huge amounts of egg, sheep, and chicken-shaped chocolates. I've come to find that the most popular Vegetarisch foods are potatoes, cabbages, carrots, and champignons (mushrooms). That's mostly what I've had. I broke down one day and ate at a Thai restaurant because i needed some tofu and rice.
Today, I tried a Döner Kebab (a Turkish-German street food). Not quite a kebab. It comes in a bread, like a sesame pita with some sort of creme sauce and spicy ketchup. Normally it's slices of lamb meat (cut from a meat chunk like Gyros), and you get different types of krautsalats with it. I just got the krautsalat. It was interesting.
I'll be posting photos of the trip on Flickr, you can see what I have so far. I went to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart, which was really cool! I'm a huge fan of the 356 Coupes. Beautiful machines!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
Did you know the Volkswagen Beetle was actually designed by Ferdinand Porsche? I always thought I saw a lot of similarity between Porsches and Volkswagens. Those coupes look so much like Karmann Ghias too...
Tomorrow is our last day, we head back to Stuttgart to catch our flight back on Friday.
My new favorite word (because it's so long) is: Schneidwerkshohenkalibreignung
Gut Nacht!
