Halloween und Messe

Halloween is not really a German thing. It's the old English pre-All Saint's Day celebration merged with a Celtic holiday, but in the last century or so it's become stereotypically American. My host Oma asked me what it was all about anyways, all she knew was that it came from America because the GIs brought it with them after the end of the war.

That said, my host family has more or less always celebrated it in some way. My host siblings picked it up when they lived in Spain and for years were the only ones in the Dorf to trick-or-treat (Süßes-oder-saures). This year it was just a bonfire in the backyard; cozy and fun.

I'm going to skip through time a little bit here and shoot to last weekend and the Mindener Messe. I went with a group of 10 friends to carnival to just hang out and see the rides. Apparently it comes twice a year, and I'll get a second chance in slightly warmer weather. Although, to be honest, it wasn't that bad. A thick jacket, gloves, and a scarf did the trick.

It was a brilliant evening and when I was on one of the rides, I had an interesting thought. My life is basically a movie right now. It looked like a scene ripped straight from a movie, with the passing music blasting out of the stereos. I was on a carnival ride, whirling around, with awesome friends and the fair lights twinkled in the background while a cold wind brought the smell of popcorn, roasted nuts, and pizza. It's moments like that that make this experience worth it.

Largest transportable Ferris Wheel in Europe

Rügen und Stralsund

One of the churches of Stralsund

One of the days of our vacation, we drove about an hour and a half north to Stralsund, which is one of the harbor cities in northern Germany. It was the first bigger city that I've been in while in Germany. (Driving from the airport in Frankfurt doesn't count). It was really cool, but a little windy and cold.

We went to the Oceaneum, which is a rather large aquarium and ocean environmental museum. It had a bunch of cool fish and sharks and I was able to understand most of the German signage, though there was also an English language cheat sheet right printed beneath it.

I have never eaten so much fish in one day. Its on the coast so obviously there is a lot of fishing, but I was surprised. It was very tasty though. But a pescatarian I am not.

This tank was about three stories tall

From the penguin exhibit on the roof you could see this other church too

But our day didn't just end in Stralsund, we also drove even further north to Rügen, a large island across from Stralsund. Our goal was Jasmund Nationalpark on the very northeastern tip of the island on the Baltic Sea. There are some very impressive white chalk cliffs, like the ones at Dover in England. The one cliff was called Königsstuhl, which means King's Chair, and the legend goes that the ancient Slavs who lived on the island chose their king through a competition. Whoever could climb to the top of the cliff first (without dying obviously) would sit on the top and become king.

View from the Königsstuhl

The Baltic Sea, Sweden is somewhere out there.

We also walked down a 435 step staircase to the beach and looked around. The rocks on the beach were mostly some kind of stone whose name I've forgotten, but it is easily broken into arrow heads and knives and the like. Pretty neat!

The national park also had beautiful forests and it's getting to be fall!