Distant German Relatives

We were able to stay with Bea’s grandmother’s cousin Klaus and his wife Ingreid in Osnabruck, Germany for a while. We spent most of our time playing with Klaus and Ingried’s grandchildren who live upstairs; Madita is 5 and Pia is 7. You will see many, many pictures of them. They are so cool, Pia rides a unicycle and horses and does some kind of acrobatic thing on horses as well. Madita likes to both teach us German, and take advantage of our not knowing German. Fortunately for us we know the words "shit" and "ass" in German. We do know quite a bit more of German thanks to her. Some funny things she said:

(Madita points at the ground) Bea: (in German of course)"Poop?" Madita: "No, not poop, bird shit.”

Bea and Peter are outside drawing/writing in journals. Madita comes out and looks through Peter's entire journal that has maybe 2 or 3 drawings. She tells him he has to draw a picture, and he can’t copy Bea and if he does he will get a prize. Later, while everyone is having coffee Madita tells her parents, "Bea drew lots of things, and Peter? Not one!"

Also Pia and Madita stuffed Peter’s clothes and shoes and called him "Blot und shtalk Peter." That is the pronunciation of the German words for leaf and stem, not spelled correctly.

The second night we were there (the first we just spent chilling and drinking with Klaus and Ingeid) Klaus' son Frank and another cousin’s (Hans, who passed away and his wife Gisela) daughter Jutta took us out on the town. We went to what they call the old city, the more historic part of town and went pub hopping. We went to a microbrewery and some small pubs, then out for Portuguese food. It was a way cool restaurant, they had big long tables that you share with other groups. You order plates and share them with your group appetizer style. They had the best olives and some fish stuff. We had a really good time with Frank and Jutta.

Klaus took us around some German countryside, and we went to the neighborhood block party where we had paella for dinner with all the German neighbors. After wining and dining there for a while, Klaus's sons, Frank and Heiku, took us out to a biker bar. It wasn’t like an American Biker bar, mostly it was a cool little pub with murals of motorcycles and some mild biker types sitting around chatting. When we got back everyone was heading off to bed (Frank was sleeping on their couch and Heiku lives upstairs), when the doorbell started ringing like mad. Frank opened the door to a very drunk Ingreid and her gaggle of giggling girls. It was really funny, these four old ladies stumbling around and Frank teasing his mother. It was great, and then Frank told us other drunk Ingreid stories. But she still got up super early to make breakfast and cook a big ole’ lunch!

We spent most of the time hanging out with Klaus and his family, which we no know are way cool, and being shown around the town. We saw old churches, a sculpture park and the town and countryside of Osnabruck and Bisendorf. Oh, and being cooked extravagant meals by Ingreid.