Happy Labor Day, everyone! Unfortunately we don't get to enjoy a 3 day weekend here, unlike many of you! :) Brian had to go to work today, and I'm on my own again...
Brian and I had a pretty enjoyable weekend. As I wrote in Friday's blog, I met up with Eva for coffee and we had a very nice time! :) It was so nice to be able to sit down and chat with her. She is very sweet and we had alot of common, especially with us both being teachers! :) She speaks English very well and she enjoys speaking English so that she can practice. She also helped me with some words in German, which was extremely helpful! :) After coffee, we wandered around Friedrichshafen. As we wandered through town, we came across a fruit/vegetable/flower market. They had fruit, vegetable, and flower stands set up throughout the streets... It was actually pretty cool. The flower stands had a huge variety of flowers, of which you could choose what types of flowers you wanted, and they would make them into floral bouquets while you waited. I really was wanting to purchase some, but I didn't considering that I didn't want to have to carry them around with me for the rest of the day. However, I found out that they set this market up every Friday from 8 a.m - 2 p.m., so I am determined to go down there again this Friday and get some flowers, fruit, and vegetables. They also had quite a few cheese stands; however, I decided to steer clear of those based on our prior experience with cheese! :)
On Saturday, Brian and I decided to celebrate Labor Day... German style! :) We met up with the other American, Katrina, who works over here through Brian's company and we decided that we would grill out by the lake. Katrina's boyfriend is from Germany and he provided the authentic German potato salad (which was delicious!!). We grilled steaks and indulged in some other German and American cuisines and enjoyed watching the sunset over the lake... Overall, we had an enjoyable Labor Day celebration... for a while it seemed like we were back in the States. :)
Brian and I on the lake during our Labor Day celebration.On Sunday, Brian and I decided to be adventurous and we took a walk downtown to check out the Katamarran to Konstanz. I found out about the Katamarran and Konstanz from Eva during our conversation on Friday. Konstanz is a small German town on the other side of Lake Constance (the lake we live on). Apparantly, unlike the city we live in, it wasn't destroyed during World War II. Since it was so close to Switzerland, it wasn't bombed. Therefore, it still has all of its original buildings intact and from what we hear, it has alot of history and culture... so, considering that Brian and I are both history buffs, we were eager to check it out. Plus, I found out that it also has a Starbucks! :)
Anyways, when I had talked with Eva on Friday, she had told me that the Katamarran to Konstanz left daily at two minutes past the hour, every hour. She also showed me how to buy tickets for the boat. Well, walking up to the dock on Sunday, Brian and I noticed that the Katamarran was leaving at 2:35, which we thought was odd, but we didn't really think anything of it. So, I used my newly acquired skills to purchase our tickets (which I was very proud of, I might add! :)) and we hopped on the boat. A few minutes after we took off for what we assumed was Konstanz, Brian got a very serious look on his face and said that he didn't think we were going in the right direction. At that point, we thought that the boat may be possibly taking a different route to Konstanz. After about 10 minutes of going in the entirely wrong direction, we knew we weren't heading to Konstanz. So, we tried to figure out where we could possibly be going. At first, we thought we were headed to Lindau (which wasn't too exciting for us considering we've already been there and it doesn't have much to offer). But, after passing Lindau, we realized that that wasn't our destination. At that point, we started to slightly panic. We were headed towards Switzerland, which wouldn't be a good thing being that neither of us brought our passports. So, if we docked in Switzerland, we wouldn't be able to get off the boat... Great! Well, we ended up not going to Switzerland. Instead the boat, which had been following the shoreline, did a 90 degree turn and started going right through the middle of the lake. Brian and I were completely confused at this point, so we proceeded to just sit and wait to see where we ended up. About, 20 minutes later, we noticed that Friedrichshafen (the city we live in) was up ahead. As we noticed that we were getting closer to Friedrichshafen, we finally realized what we had done. We had somehow managed to read the sign wrong when purchasing tickets, and we had purchased tickets to go on a 40 minute tour of Lake Constance! Instead of going to the city of Konstanz, we ended up on a boat tour of the lake, which we never really took in considering that we were so confused about where we were going! :) Lovely! However, I did learn one thing from the Katamarran ride... they serve delicious coffee on the boat! :) I may just have to buy tickets for the boat tour on a more regular basis... I could ride a boat around the lake and enjoy and very tasty cup of coffee! :) It would make for a very relaxing day. :)
After our ordeal with the boat tour was over, we decided to wander around Friedrichshafen for a while, and then we got a bite to eat at an outdoor bistro and sat and watched all of the people walk by. On Sunday all of the stores are closed here (the restaurants and gas stations are the only businesses that stay open) and it's considered a "family day", where families come out and everyone just wanders around the city. I was actually quite surprised at how many people were out and about! After we ate, we tried to rent a paddle boat to take out onto the lake, but by the time we got to the rental station, the paddle boats were all occupied... Oh well, there's always next Sunday. :)
Overall, we had quite an eventful weekend. After this weekend, I've started to realize that the way of life here is slower and more relaxed... Unlike the U.S. where people are constantly rushing around to get from one place to another (which I am extremely guilty of!!), the people here actually take a minute to slow down and spend time with their family and friends. It's kind of nice... Brian loves it and seems to fit right in, although, with me being such a "busybody", I have a feeling it'll take a little more time for me to adjust to the slower pace of life. :)
That's us on our boat tour of Lake Constance... we figured we'd capture the moment! :)
A view of Friedrichshafen from the Katamarran...Well, I'm off to run to XXX Lutz (it's the city's version of IKEA... I love it!!). I have to buy myself a pillow... The pillows here are either way too large or way too small, and we only have one regular sized pillow in the apartment, which Brian and I have been trying to share... let's just say, it's not working so well! :) I hope you're all enjoying your Labor Day weekend! I miss you all very much!!
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