In which I contact a Frauenarzt all by myself

My doctor is not this scary… (Photo credit: partymonstrrrr)

It’s that time again… when I reach the final week of my pill packet and suddenly realise it was the last one in the box and I really need to make an appointment to get some more. Usually, I make the appointment with my Hausarzt (General Practitioner). We have an agreement where I tell him I’ll go for my smear tests in the UK and he gives me my prescription, no further questions asks. Unfortunately – not for the first time – my Hausarzt is on holiday right when I need him. I seem to have a knack for wanting an appointment when he isn’t there… and he’s not going to be there until after I need the pill again. Roughly a week after, to be precise. Normally, this is my cue to get Jan to start calling round doctors for me (I like my Hausarzt because I can make appointments online… no need to attempt to spell my name to nasty receptionists!) but I’ve barely even seen him since we were on the train together on Sunday, and certainly not for long enough to have a real conversation!

It was time to bite the bullet and find myself another doctor! After some googling for Frauenarzt Karlsruhe (a Frauenarzt is a gynaecologist, by the way… and is where I’m supposed to go for the pill) I decided on one that’s a) close to my house and b) had a website that came equipped with an e-mail address. I sent an e-mail explaining the situation and received a reply within two hours:  Of course you can come by and get a prescription for the pill. Just drop by with your health insurance card – on Tuesdays and Friday we’re open til 7 p.m. (I had said I can only do 5:30 onwards due to work). Oh, and usually we would then make an appointment for a consultation and cancer screening at that point. How do things stand with you?

The Frauenarzt chair of doooom!

I had to take a deeeep breath before hitting  reply.  I can come by on Friday to pick up the prescription. As for the screening stuff… usually I get it done in England becasue I don’t have a gynaecologist in Germany, but it’s been three years and I’m not going back home any time soon so maybe I should get it done here. (What I didn’t say was that, actually, it was three years in October… my dad opened the reminder letter for me, but I haven’t been back to England since… Germans expect you to have it done every year (and every six months if you’re on the pill!! Excessive much?!) so I didn’t want to alarm her more than I assume she already will be…). There hasn’t been a reply to that e-mail so far, so I don’t know yet whether I’m actually going to have to get a smear test done in Germany. I’ve heard scary stories about nakedness and the horrible chair though (no lying down on a bed like back home for German women!)… wish me luck!

Quick Friday letters

I don’t have much time to write this. We’re catching a train up to Jan’s dad’s place soon and I have to wash the dishes before we go. Can’t leave them sitting here growing mould while I’m away… (Not that we’re away for long. I took two days off to go visit Jan’s family, only for him to then reveal that there was no point in going before today… yesterday was a total waste of a day’s holiday!)

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Dear May. You are definitely my favourite month of the year! Here in Baden-Württemberg, we get four whole public holidays! Random days off work without having to use any of my holiday? WIN!

Dear Ireland. See you in 36 days! Squeeee!

Dear quiz team. Speaking of Ireland, our flights are booked and accommodation is sorted for all but the very last night. This makes me happy… and more than a little excited!

Dear Dandelion & Burdock. I haven’t fogotten you, I’m just waiting for the right moment to treat myself.

Dear self. Cake is NOT a healthy breakfast.

OK, gotta run. Have a great weekend everyone! I’ll be back online on Sunday. 

More German weirdness

Until recently, all the celebrations I had been invited to in Germany were either house parties or involved a meal in a restaurant. That changed last month, and I have now been to two parties that were held in bars. At both events, beer, wine and various soft drinks were provided by the bar while the buffet was the responsibility of the guests.
Let me just repeat that… At a party, held in the function room of a pub, the host’s guests are expected to bring some food along. The first time, I thought it was a one off. The venue doesn’t have a proper kitchen – just a couple of hot plates where they can prepare things like soup – so it made sense that they couldn’t provide a full on buffet. But at the second party, the other room was open to the public as normal and food was being served there.

Now, I have no objection to contributing food. If it were a house party I would automatically bake something to bring along. But if someone hires a function room in a pub (or restaurant) I tend to expect some kind of catering to be included… either provided by the venue or by an external caterer… but surely not by the guests?! With all the health and safety issues these days, I’m amazed people are even allowed to bring their own random creations into such a venue. Who knows what goes on in some people’s kitchens!

Is this another example of German weirdness or is it just a coincidence that I’ve now come across it twice?
And is it only me that finds this kind of behaviour strange?

Rastatt

 

A street in Rastatt, Germany

The weather forecast for yesterday was very slightly better than today, so we spontaneously decided to go out yesterday afternoon. As Jan hadn’t got out of bed until after 1 p.m, it had to be somewhere we could get to quickly, so we decided on Rastat, which is about 25 minutes away.

Our first stop was at Schloss Favorite, which is actually slightly outside of Rastatt, in Förch – a small village in the district of Rastatt.

Schloss Favorite

It was originally used as the summer residence of Duchess Franziska Sibylle Auguste of Saxe-Lauenburg and later as a pleasure and hunting palace by her son, Ludwig Georg Simpert, Margrave of Baden-Baden, who was nicknamed Jägerlouis (Hunting Louis – Ludwig is the German form of the name Louis).
Miraculously, the sun came out briefly while we were there. Check it out – the sky behind the castle is almost blue!

You can only go inside the castle as part of a tour, and it costs €8. In our case, it didn’t cost anything because it’s included on our Museumscard (I may write a separate post on that some time because the Museumscard is FANTASTIC!). Tours are only available in German though, as far as I know. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the building, which is unfortunate because it was very impressive. All along the stairs, where the skirting board would usually be, there are blue and white tiles. They look like Delft porcelain, but in fact they’re only Delft style and were made in Nuremberg. The fireplaces are also covered in blue and white tiles, and there are other pieces of blue and white porcelain on display as well, including bowls, vases and jugs. We were told the duchess was a collector and actually referred to Schloss Favorite as her porcelain palace.
The one room where we were allowed to take photos was the Gartensaal (Garden Hall, I guess) right at the bottom, so here are a few pictures from there:

Looking up

On the second picture, you can see some of the blue and white tiles in the background. And that’s only about 2% of what’s in the rest of the palace!

After the tour, we headed out into the gardens. The Schlosspark is pretty extensive, but by this time the sun had gone in so we didn’t walk around for long – it was cold!! I did manage to get a few photos though.

I bet it will look gorgeous later in the year when the sun’s out and the trees have leaves on them!

Next, it was time to drive in to Rastatt proper. Of course, by the time we got there everything was closed (and would have been even if it hadn’t been a holiday – the museums in the castle all close at 4:30 or 5 p.m., dpending on the day). There are something like three museums in the castle, all of which are included on the Museumscard, so we’ve decided to come back another day to look at them. Here are some photos of Rastatt:

The above is a memorial to soldiers from Baden killed during the First World War.

That scary looking sculpture/statue thing was entitled “Hommage a Picasso” (sorry, I’m sure that a should have an accent on it, but I’m not sure which way round it goes). Personally, I think it looks more like an hommage to someone’s nightmare!

Here’s the Rastatt castle. It’s rather orange!

Back of the castle

Front of the castle

After admiring the castle, we took a walk in to town, where I spotted this rather impressive metal sign:

There was a church on what appeared to be something like the main square:

Church

Square in front of the church

By this time we were freezing, so it was time to head back to the car. On the way, we spotted a cute piece of graffiti that I just had to take a photo of!

Then it was time to find something to eat. We drove back to Hopfen Schlingel, a local brewery, which we had passed on our way in to town.

Isn’t the boy pointing out the entrance to their car park cute?
Here he is again on the door to the building. Note the plastic Easter eggs – decorating for every possible event or season is so German!

We each drank a beer – I had the Pils while Jan chose the Dreikorn beer (a Weizen, or wheat, beer).

Look, there’s that boy again!
To eat, Jan had Maultaschen (no photo) and I chose the Grillsteak – a great thick lump of pork with a pile of chips. There was also Kräuterbutter (herb butter), which is hidden by salad in this photo, but was a big ball of butter (I think they served it using an icecream scoop!) mixed with fresh herbs. Delicious, and well worth the protests from my bum and thighs

I didn’t find Rastatt to be a particularly pretty town, but in terms of culture/history it certainly has a lot going for it! Apart from the museums in the castle, we discovered that there was an archealogical museum right next to the brewery where we ate. We presume that museum is within the former Festung (fortress) because a sign beside the door to the brewery told us that they were in what used to be the coach house.

If you’re looking for a typical, pretty German town with half-timbered houses and quaint little squares, then Rastatt is probably not for you, but for those who are interested in museums and history, it’s definitely worth a visit!

Happenings

Okay, enough snow pictures! What else has been going in in the land of Confuzzledom?
Well, I bought these shoes:

I spotted them through the doorway as I walked past H&M and I just had to go in and see if they were available in my size. They were – and they only cost €9.95! Bargain. And yes I am aware that some people will consider me the devil incarnate for shopping at H&M (think of the poor Chinese workers…), but I’m already boycotting Proctor and Gamble (which, by the way, means no Pringles for me, ever!!) and Lidl. A girl can’t give up everything you know… and especially not polka dot shoes! Unfortunately, so far I’ve only been able to wear them inside the flat. It’s too cold out for anything other than boots!

Hmm, what else?
I’ve been trying to incorporate exercise isn’t my daily routine, so that I can still work off my daily treats even when there’s no time for my exercise DVD. So whenever nobody else is in my office, I do some weight lifting with my water bottle (1.5 l of water isn’t exactly light!) or lift up each leg in turn and hold it straight for a few seconds. Then, at home, while waiting for water to heat for pasta or potatoes, I do star jumps*. I’m hoping this will at least slightly counteract my inability to walk past the Easter basket at work without taking just one or two tiny chocolate eggs…

Stare (Photo credit: Hen3k Hen3k)

I heard a girl speaking English on the tram the other day and she had the exact same accent as my American friend. I kept looking at her thinking “You sound just like L… but you’re clearly not L!”. If you’re an American in Karlsruhe and you noticed someone staring at you on the tram towards Ettlingen, I swear I’m not a psycho!

Yesterday was the monthly “Stammtisch with my colleagues”. A Stammtisch can either mean your regular table at your local pub or a regular meetup for people with similar interests (such as an English Stammtisch for people who want a chance to speak English). In our case, the Stammtisch simply involves going for a meal with our colleagues and having a chance to chat outside of work. Former colleagues/interns, etc. are also invited, but don’t often show up. This month, the chosen meeting place was an Indian restaurant (there’s a vote), so I had a delicious curry for last night’s tea. The first few times one of us ordered something, the waiter would say in broken German “You can’t order that – it’s not real Indian food!”, then the person would change their mind. It was pretty funny (although I suspect you had to be there to think so). I actually managed to order something that he had no objections to first time round. Yay me!

That’s about it, I think. There haven’t really been any happenings around here lately. But tomorrow is the start of my four-day weekend, so hopefully I’ll have something to report after that.

*These appear to be called jumping jacks in American, as I learned a few months ago. When Jillian Michaels instructed us to do jumping jacks for the warm up circuit, I watched her demonstrate for a few seconds then, as realisation dawned, said “OH, star jumps!”. Out loud. To myself. I’d always wondered what a jumping jack was…

Return of the snow

I thought Karlsruhe had managed to escape the latest round of snow. Berlin has been ankle deep in it for ages and Frankfurt Airport was recently closed because of it (again!), but until now, every time the white stuff was forecast for Karlsruhe, we got rain instead. Our time, it appears, has now come. Here’s what I woke up to this morning:

I wouldn’t even mind the snow so much – despite the fact that it is now officially spring and I want daffodils – if it hadn’t brought freezing wind with it. My gloves did absolutely nothing for me this morning!

Thank goodness I only have four days at work this week. After that it’s Easter, and since practically everything is closed on Good Friday I have an excellent excuse to hide in the house and drink endless cups of tea!

An unexpected day at home

Hello! You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged for a few days (or not…). I was far too busy this weekend to get on the computer! Live music, watching England get absolutely stuffed at rugby in an utterly embarassing performance, cocktails, a full Irish breakfast at the pub for St. Patrick’s Day, watching Newcastle undeservedly lose at football, night out for St. Patrick’s Day…

Photo credit: Daniel*1977

This morning, I got up expecting life to return to normal after my unusually full weekend. Before leaving the house, I quickly checked the Internet to see whether my train was on time. “Warning,” said the Deutsche Bahn website. “Due to strikes, trains in Baden-Württemberg may be subject to delays or cancellations.” My train, it transpired, was delayed by 110 minutes (Deutsche Bahn don’t seem to believe in hours…). And the next train I could have taken was cancelled. The regional trains were apparantly running as normal though. So I sat back down for a bit before heading out to catch a regional train.

I arrived on the platform to find that the train was not already there. This is unusual – it leaves 10 minutes after my usual train but is normally already sitting there 5 or 10 minutes before mine even arrives. Today, there was no sign of it although the information board mentioned nothing about I delay. I waited, along with a number of other people, but the train never came. Then we noticed another train with the same destination sitting on a different platform. So off we went to platform 5. The train driver was standing looking out of the window, so we asked him whether his train would be going to where we wanted to be. “Yes, at some point,” he replied. It was 5 minutes to 8 at this point, and he informed us that his train was actually the 6:55 one but he hadn’t been given permission to leave yet, so he’d been sitting there for two hours waiting for something to happen. A few people got into the train anyway, but I chose to head home and spend theday working from there. Luckily I have the option to connect to work remotely!

I later read that the strikes were supposed to be from 6 a.m. til 8 a.m., so if I’d hung around I may still have made it into work at some point. But by that stage all the fast trains were already delayed by two hours or more and the regional train that I would have ended up taking is the slowest of them all, so it would have taken over an hour for me to reach work even once the driver was finally allowed to set off! Working from home definitely still sounds like the better option! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll actually be able to make it into the office…

Cross cultural cooking: Toad in the hole

It had been ages since I last made toad in the hole, so when I saw it on Lou’s Labyrinth I really, really wanted to eat it again. So that’s what Jan and I had for dinner yesterday.

I always use a recipe that I got from BBC Food years ago, and which doesn’t even seem to be on the site any more. Looking at it just now, I found several similar ones but none that were exactly the same. Mine is a very simple recipe – flour, eggs (four of them!), milk, salt and pepper for the batter. I always add dried rosemary as well, although it’s not in the original recipe. And, of course, sausages. Being in Germany, I don’t actually have access to the kind of sausages one would normally use for toad in the hole, but Bratwurst work surprisingly well. Cross-cultural cooking at its best!

You know you’re turning German when…

German flag (Photo credit: fdecomite)

I’ve been in Germany for a while now, and gradually I’ve been noticing signs that I’m becoming assimilated. Pretty soon I’ll be eating Sauerkraut* at least once a day and wearing a Dirndl to work.** If you’re afraid you, too, might be turning German here are a few ways to tell:

• You own both indoor and outdoor scarves. Back in England, it would never have occurred to me to wear a scarf while inside a building. In fact, I’m not sure I owned a scarf at all after the age of about 10! In Austria, a learned that when you live in a country where it snows all year round*** you need a scarf. Now I own scarves in all colours and thicknesses, including ones that would be pointless in a snowstorm but make pretty accessories for indoor use.
• Speaking of scarves, you may be turning German if you put one on when you have a sore throat. Before Germany, I knew sore throats were caused by bacteria or viruses (or shouting too much) and needed to be soothed with Lemsip, Strepsils and a nice cup of tea. Now, I’ll put a scarf on thinking “letting the cold air get to it probably doesn’t help…“. I haven’t quite got to my boyfriend’s level yet – he’ll wear a scarf in bed if he has a cold!
• You are no longer surprised when something with “salad” in the name turns out to consist of precisely one ingredient, plus sauce. Yes, this happens in Germany. For example, if you heard the words “sausage salad”, what would you expect? Sausage, of course, but perhaps some actual salad leaves as well? Maybe something like this Spiced sausage salad, containing chorizo sausage, but also potatoes, onions and *gasp* salad leaves! Not so in Germany. A Wurstsalat (which literally translates as “Sausage salad”) looks like this (I have no photo because I hate the stuff, so I pinched this from the Internet, specifically from here: http://www.gasthaus-lentz-berlin.de/v/essen/Wurstsalat.jpg.html):
  

  Wurstsalat (Photo © copyright Gasthaus Lentz, Berlin)

  Yes, that is basically a plate of meat with a few onions thrown in and some herbs for decoration. Schweizer Wurstsalat comes with an extra ingredient – cheese. So you essentially get a pile of sausage strips with grated cheese. Tasty! There is also Tomatensalat (chopped up tomatoes, maybe some onions if you’re lucky, and salad dressing) and – my “favourite” – Gurkensalat, Cucumber Salad. A bowl of sliced cucumbers with some salt, pepper and vinegar. I wish I was joking…

• You bake a cake to take in for your colleagues when it’s your birthday. Before coming to Germany, it would never have occurred to me to bring goodies to work for my special day. Surely the birthday girl is supposed to be the recipient of nice things? Not in Germany…
• You automatically take your shoes off when you enter someone’s house. I don’t make people take theirs off at my place though (unless it’s snowing). Neither do I keep extra pairs of indoor shoes (“Hausschuhe”) for guests.
• You are no longer surprised when you see dogs in restaurants (and bars, and shopping centres…). And I don’t mean little handbag sized dogs… I’m talking Golden Retrievers here!
• You’re invited to a barbecue and bring your own meat along. The host may provide salad (maybe even with more than one ingredient ) and baguette, but when it comes to steaks and sausages if you don’t bring your own you ain’t getting any! Not that I would ever turn up anywhere empty handed, but I’ve never been to a barbecue in England where I was restricted to eating only the meat I brought along…
• You know what the Alt Gr key on your keyboard is for and use it all the time.
  

  AltGr, Windows, Menu & Ctrl. (Photo: Wikipedia)

  True story: when I first came to Germany, I had no idea how to get the @ symbol. I could see it on the keyboard, mocking me from its place on the Q key, but could not figure out how to get it to appear on my screen. I resorted to googling “at symbol” and pasting it from there so I could log in to Hotmail. A week later, someone finally showed me what to do.

Fellow Germany dwellers, have you started turning German yet? And do you have any more to add?

* I don’t know a single German who does this.
** Only Bavarians (and Austrians) wear Dirndls and I’m pretty sure even they don’t wear them for work… unless they work in a restaurant where “traditional dress” is the uniform.
*** It’s not strictly true that Austria has snow all year round. It did snow for almost the entire time I was there, but that was an extreme year.

Friday letters

Friday! Friday! Friday! (Can you tell I’m excited that it’s the weekend?).

I’m going out soon, and I still need to change out of my work clothes, so just a quick Friday letters this week.

(Photo credit: valordictus)

Dear people who find my blog by searching for “things to do when your bored”. Might I suggest grammar lessons? Then you could learn the difference between your and you’re and I would no longer feel like tearing my eyeballs out very time I check my blog’s search terms!

Dear woman who closed her car door for me to pass. There was plenty of room between the door and the building next to your car, but I still appreciate your closing the door. And you apologised! My faith that Germans do know what manners are has been restored! (At least until next time I hold the door open for someone at Karstadt and they don’t even acknowledge me! Germans, didn’t your mothers ever tell you manners cost nothing?)

Dear boyfriend. Thank you for washing my dishes when you came in on Wednesday night. I planned to do them before work on Thursday, but it was a pleasant surprise to find them already done.

Berliner (jammy dougnuts) (Photo: Wikipedia)

Dear student worker. Thank you for bringing in Berliner (similar to jammy doughnuts) for everyone at work this afternoon. An excellent way to sweeten up our Fridays and make the weekend feel that little bit closer

Dear Friday night. It seems like forever since I last spent you somewhere other than at home. Tonight, I am going for food with K then we’re going to have cocktails! I’m way to excited about this for someone who turns 30 this year.

Not enough Friday letters for you? Find more at:
http://www.thesweetseasonblog.com/2013/01/fridays-letters_25.html

Happy Friday everyone!