For the past three weeks, Breckenheim has been having wine stands every Friday night. Usually, they only do it every other night. I didn’t go to the one two weeks ago, because Bill was in Romania. Last week, we decided not to go because of the weather. We decided to go last night, because we hadn’t attended a wine stand in so long– not since we went to Switzerland in late June!
It’s been raining a lot lately, and about two hours before the wine stand started, there was heavy rainfall and even some hail! So most of the wooden tables were a bit warped, because they got dumped on. We had to be careful putting our glasses down!
Attendance last night was pretty decent, after the first hour. The temperature was decent; I wore pants instead of shorts. Bill ran into our neighbor, Pete, and spoke to him in German. He used the formal form of “you” with Pete, who corrected him and told him to use “Du”. I was explaining to Bill that “du” is also “you” in Armenian, and there is a “formal” usage there, as well. Only instead of “Sie”, one would say “Duk”. That may be the only thing Armenian and German have in common… Oh, and the word, “potato”, is pronounced “Kartoffel” in German and “kartofeel” in Armenian. And it’s “kartopchka” in Russian… Wonder why we English speakers call them “potatoes”…
Anyway, I got a few photos, so here they are. I’m not sure what we’ll do today. I spent this morning making a song parody that got blocked on YouTube, so I ended up putting it on my blog using VideoPress. Then, I fixed my beloved dark green purse, which I bought in Italy. Bill took it to a shoe repair guy, and he couldn’t fix it. Bill found the part that fell off the bag and I figured out to to repair the strap myself. It was as simple as screwing… (heh heh heh). Then I tuned three of our six guitars. I just replaced the strings on one of them.
We had a good time drinking wine and supporting the local clubs, then came home, listened to music, ate burgers, and made a video for Bill’s daughter, who is preparing for her latest baby’s arrival in a few months. She really has her hands full, but somehow manages to take care of everything with a smile and a good attitude. I wish I could be as cheerful about life as she is. Ah well. At least I can make snarky song parodies. If you want to see it, just click on the link to the main blog… or click here. Until I write a new post, it will be the latest one.
After a busy morning of visiting museums and climbing the Castle Tower, we were ready for some lunch. I wanted something other than heavy Czech fare, but I didn’t want pizza. We ended up at an Italian restaurant in the middle of town called Pizzeria Latran, which offered pasta dishes as well as pizzas. Looking back on it, I almost wish we had gotten a pizza there, as they looked and smelled great, and I was able to watch a female employee baking them in a wood fired oven that was visible from the dining room. But even when we share a single pizza, Bill and I usually don’t finish them in one sitting. Also, I don’t typically like the cheese used on most of the German pizzas I’ve tried here and I didn’t know if the same cheese would be used in Czechia.
I had a clandestine laugh at the very obviously American party near us. Two people in their party of four had ordered pizzas. When they were brought to their table, I heard one of them exclaim, “Oh, my STARS!” Ha ha ha… such an American thing to say. Naturally, she couldn’t finish the damned thing and had to take it with her!
Our waiter was a tall guy who spoke perfect English and looked a little over things. But I think we might have won him over, because we knew what we wanted and didn’t bother him for anything but more glasses of Montepulciano. 😉 I had a really nice Caserecce con Pollo e Salsa Creola– which was basically a pasta dish with chicken, smoked pancetta, tomato sauce, cream, and fresh orange juice. Bill had spaghetti carbonara. Both dishes were very satisfying and we took our time enjoying them over lovely Italian red wine and sparkling water. I was quite relaxed when we were finished with lunch sometime later.
After lunch we decided to wander around some more and buy a few souvenirs. Before we got too far away from the restaurant, my ears were enchanted by the sound of someone playing the banjo with impressive skill. I don’t like to video buskers directly, so I recorded the river as he played. I felt like I was home in hillbilly Virginia!
This guy was a great player! I wish he’d had a CD.
We rounded a corner and noticed an art gallery. One of my big goals for this particular road trip was finding some new art for our house. When we were in Germany the first time (07-09), we bought some art in Eastern Europe. But so far, during this stint, we haven’t been buying as much art for the house. I wanted to rectify that with this trip. So we went into the art gallery and started looking around… I saw a lot of the usual landscape paintings and modern interpretations. Then I rounded a corner and, sure enough, my eyes landed on a painting I had to have!
I wish I’d thought to take a photo of it before we bought it, as the proprietor rolled it up. We’re going to take it to Wiesbaden to get it framed, hopefully tomorrow, but possibly later. I saw another painting of a silvery winter scene in Cesky Krumlov that I couldn’t live without, so we bought both paintings. The winter scene painting came with a frame and is now hanging in my living room. When we get the other one framed, I will try to remember to share photos of both works of art. I think the proprietor was absolutely delighted. It was the end of her workday and we came in and bought two paintings without batting an eye.
We walked back to the room to put the paintings away and take a short rest, then we went out again. We bought chocolates from a chocolatier and stopped by another gallery, where we bought some handmade Czech toys for Bill’s grandchildren. The woman who helped us in that shop was Greek and she told us she speaks a bunch of languages. It turned out her German was better than her English, so Bill spoke German to her.
Outside a music shop. They were playing music I loved and I ended up Shazaming it and buying from iTunes.Banjo guy is in this photo.From a gallery where we didn’t purchase anything.Where I bought a very cool painting featuring owls…Chocolate and wine. My kind of place.A hot air balloon appeared.Lots of cute toys here.Yum!
We looked around some more for a watering hole but didn’t find anywhere that called out to us, so we headed back to our room. Bill bought a bottle of wine from the honesty bar at Monastery Garden and I reminded one of the workers there what a corkscrew is. It was pretty funny… she kept trying to call it a screwdriver! Bill told her it was a “wine tool”, and I said, “No, that’s a corkscrew!”
The lady laughed and said, “Yes, that’s it! Thank you!”
Sad how Europeans put Americans to shame when it comes to learning languages. I’d be hard pressed to identify a corkscrew in Czech!
We were set to leave the charming town of Cesky Krumlov the next morning, so we decided to get a good night’s rest. I hated to go, although you really can do a proper visit of Cesky Krumlov in a day or two. We didn’t see everything, though, so that means we can come back a third time. If we do, I wouldn’t hesitate to book Monastery Gardens again. Especially now that we know where P2 is.
Last night, I became aware of an aspect of German culture of which I was previously unaware. I have a friend living in Stuttgart who is Croatian, but easily passes for German and speaks German like a native. Yesterday, he posted about an altercation he had with a young woman who had a child with her. They exchanged words because he chastised her (which is VERY German behavior, especially in Swabia) for spitting on the sidewalk.
She, in turn, called him a “shit potato”.
My Croatian friend said that this young woman was speaking perfect “Kanaken German”. I asked him what that meant, and he said it was when a foreign person residing in Germany speaks bad German/slang. I was a bit confused by that. Does that include people like Bill, who speaks German poorly and resides in Germany? So I asked my German friend to explain my Croatian friend’s original comment:
“Wenn du von einem ca 19 jährigen Mädchen als “scheiss Kartoffel” beschimpft wirst, weil du ihr sagst, dass sie nicht auf den Gehweg spucken soll. Sie sprach perfekt Kanakendeutsch. Ach so, sie hatte ein Kind.”
My German friend, who is a superstar researcher and enjoys teaching me about Germany and its culture, found this hilarious video. Don’t worry if you don’t speak German. There are subtitles. (the video is no longer available, so I removed it)
Kanaken German is slangy, improperly constructed vernacular German typically spoken by some people of Middle Eastern heritage. Evidently, people who speak Kanaken German tend to be insulting. Like, for instance, the woman calling my Croatian friend a “shit potato”, and the people in the above video using words like “Aaalder” (which means “dude”, although the English subtitles say it means fucker) and “Dutture” (bitch). Well, since he’s not German, he’s technically not a “potato”, but she clearly thought he was German and referred to him as a “potato” as an insult. My Croatian friend sarcastically added, “And I’m the racist!” Clearly he’s not in this case. It’s not nice to insult people using cultural stereotypes, but it sounds like that exchange wasn’t very pleasant regardless!
According to my research, the term “potato” (Kartoffel) for Germans dates back to the 1960s, when Italians were brought in as guest workers. They were known as “spaghetti eaters” and Germans were known as “potato eaters”. Evidently, certain Turkish people have also come to use the term “Kartoffel” for Germans as a whole. As the above video demonstrates, Germans are also called “pig eaters”, which seems even more derogatory since most Turks are Muslims and they don’t eat pork.
I guess, in a weird way, Kanaken German could be characterized somewhat like Ebonics in English, although I don’t think Ebonics is necessarily derogatory. It’s simply “black English”– language patterns that evolved when black people were enslaved in the United States. In the 1990s, Ebonics became somewhat controversial in the United States because certain groups felt it should be legitimized and respected. The term Ebonics dates from the early 70s. It was coined by African American social psychologist Robert Williams, who felt that the dialect spoken by some black Americans should have a name that was less negative than other terms for it, such as “nonstandard Negro English”.
Anyway… I thought it was interesting that I learned a little something more about German culture based on a Facebook post. I’m always grateful to my German friend for being willing to explain these things to me, especially when she finds entertaining teaching examples like the hilarious video above. It definitely drove home the point!
Now, if you order from Five Guys, you can arrange to have it ready at a specific time by ordering and paying online. The order is brought out by a food runner. This hit the spot yesterday, but I only want Five Guys’ burgers every once in awhile. Five Guys is currently exploding all over Germany.
Yesterday, Bill went into Wiesbaden to pick up some Five Guys burgers for us and check out how things are looking as Germany gradually normalizes after the spring lockdown from hell. He said that there were a lot of people out and about, and some people wear masks as they walk around. Most people only put them on when entering a building. People were dining in restaurants. Wait staff wears masks, but if you’re sitting at a table, it’s not required. You just wear them to come in, leave, or use the restroom. And everyone must leave their contact information in case someone is reported ill. After three or four weeks, the information is discarded.
I still have no desire to dine out under those conditions, especially as the temperatures rise, but I may change my mind. I’m grateful that people seem to be working together in Germany instead of being polarized, as it appears a lot of people are in the United States right now.
For today, Bill ordered a three course lunch from our favorite fine dining restaurant, Villa Im Tal. He’s going to pick it up this afternoon, and we will dine at home.
I’ll probably stick to regular Bailey’s and Bailey’s Luxe Chocolat. But these weren’t bad.
I also had occasion to try a couple of Bailey’s liqueur products yesterday. Most Americans know Bailey’s Irish Cream. However, there are a few other varieties of cordials available made by that company. They have the sinfully delicious Bailey’s Luxe Chocolat, which is pretty much like an orgasm in a bottle– Bailey’s mixed with Belgian chocolate. They have Strawberries & Cream. And they have Almande, which is a vegan, lactose free, almond milk drink. All of these cordials can be enjoyed by themselves or as mixers. I have had the Luxe Chocolat many times, so I didn’t need to taste test that.
I enjoyed both the Strawberries & Cream and the Almande, though I would prefer original Bailey’s or Luxe Chocolat to either of them. The Strawberries & Cream, which contains milk and milk products, reminded me of strawberry flavored Quik (Nesquik) from my youth, or perhaps the pink, liquid, antibiotic medicine (Erythromycin) I used to get for ear infections when I was a child. The Almande has a nice, rich, nutty taste, but the liqueur isn’t as rich or creamy. I did put some in my coffee this morning, though. It was not bad at all.
And finally, here are some pictures of our garden. We had a tree die in our yard last fall. It was overcome by ivy. As we’ve cut down most of it, a small patch of land has opened up for a small garden. Since we can’t travel like we usually do, Bill has decided to do some gardening. He picked up some garden boxes, since the plain patch was being ruined by Arran’s incessant need to dig. Now that he has a new box, he’s going to move some cucumber plants. We may have some fresh vegetables this summer. In light of today’s post, maybe we should have planted some potatoes…
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