it's still kinda hard

"it's still kinda hard to be cool with music and instruments like this....as a country"



saturday morning we got up and walked to the Dornberg train station. not as far as yesterday to Buergeler, but almost. after the train ride into Jena, we walked around the city realizing that all the shops were closed already. grr. it had taken about an hour and a half to walk to the train and then about 20 min on the train so we missed all the local shops and were forced to shop in the traditional mall way. we had to meet alex back at the train station because he was going to take us to our pension and then drop us off at the planetarium. that's right, we went to the planetarium show. and not just any planetarium show, the "Queen ~ Heaven" planetarium show. it showed some of their music videos and some stellar graphics along with the music. it opened with Flash and used graphics and audio clips from Flash Gordon. that part was special. we went to dinner at this teeny italian place around the corner from our hotel and the food was AMAZING. it was real italian and it made me miss italy. ordering however was interesting because we only know english except for a few phrases and he only knew german, but it was great because we were all trying so hard. even though the food was great and we all wanted pizza pretty bad, it just made us think of and wish for Peppinos in clemson....then Pot Belly in clemson...and then I thought about going to Bottom's up back in richmond...yum...

Sunday we went to the Dornburger Rosefest. Germans will take any reason for a party...and there's nothing wrong with that! we got there pretty early, but it turned out well because we found a parking spot pretty easily. we wondered around through the rose gardens....gorgeous. I want a garden like it, but I don't think it's gonna happen. no matter how much I want it, I might not be able to put a fountian in my yard. We toured Goethe's house in Dornburg and listened to two organ grinders with stuffed monkeys instead of real ones. hehe. we went back to the city square and got Rose Punch and I had an official Thueringer Braetwurst. We listened to the performers on the stage and I tried a Rosenbier radler, not the best, but not bad. this guy was singing and he was dressed up as a russian singing what seemed like german drinking songs, and he had the positively scariest laugh in the entire world. I will have nightmares about that laugh. as we were about to leave, another band walked through the entrance with quite possibly the oddest instrument I have seen yet. it had valves like a trumpet, but I think a mouthpiece similar to a basson, and either 4 or 6 bells coming out the top.

so I asked if we could stay and listen to them because I was very intrigued. together they sounded like a cross between a group of saxophones and a group of bagpipes. as we were about to leave for the 2nd time we ran into Herr und Frau Fuhrmann. Herr Fuhrmann is the computer guy at the institute and Frau Furhmann cooks lunch and takes us to the supermarket so that we can cook for ourselves too. They told us that there was about to be a parade, so we stayed to watch that too. it was people walking through the city dressed up as if they were from different time periods of germany. and no joke, for a "current" girl: lime green slutty shirt with camo pants and kneehigh white high heeled boots! tragic. and the future of germany was particularly distrurbing: they had a shuttle in a trailer (that's ok) but they were all dressed in those white biohazard suits that covered their entire bodies. apparently they are expecting an out break of horseflies or something in the next few years....psychos...

Food:
Thueringer Braetwurst
softeis
Rosenburche

pictures so far