Well, today was the day - the day that IKEA actually had our bed frame in stock. We went and were able to get the frame for just 39 EUR. We also had to buy Lattenrost (slats for underneath the mattress - Germans don't use box springs), and we got 2 for 20 EUR. It was a pretty great deal, and now we have a bed instead of just a mattress! We are very excited. I'm sure that we were quite a funny sight as we left IKEA, though. Because we don't have a car, we had to take the train back to Pam's apartment, and we were carrying two huge IKEA bags and a bed. We probably looked like fools to everyone else, but hey - I'm sure they've seen weirder things on the bus/train system here.
Anyway, we were also able to get to Primark today to buy towels, washcloths, and two extra pillows for guests (okay, really for us... but when guests come, they can use them). Towels here are SO expensive! I must admit, I REALLY missed Wal-Mart today. We spent 28 EUR on 4 towels. And those were THE cheapest towels we could find. They were even more expensive at IKEA! Unbelievable. Those same four towels would have cost us about $12 at Wal-Mart or Target. Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I hate spending that much money on something that is a necessity. We even checked Amazon.de to see if they would have something cheaper, and they didn't. It's just one of those things, I guess. I actually found out from Pam today that there used to be a Wal-Mart in Wiesbaden (a LONG time ago.... like, 10 years ago), but they had to close down because they were too cheap. Yep, that's right... too cheap. Other stores couldn't (read: refused to) compete with them, so they were run right out of town. As much as I hate that stupid store, It's a must-have for someone on a budget. I also learned that Germans don't do coupons. Apparently there was an attempt by stores to print coupons, but no one cared enough to use them, so now they are pretty much non-existent. I have no idea how these people save money. I guess it's time to get creative...
One last thing - in Germany, when you buy any bottled drinks, you pay Pfand (a deposit), and when you take the bottle back, you get 25 cents for it. It's pretty great. Well, Mike and I were talking earlier about how this Christmas probably won't be the greatest because we will be po (so poor we can't even afford the "o-r," in Lori's words), and money will be really tight. A few hours ago, though, he came up with a fabulous idea! We are going to save all of our bottles and wait until December to take them to the store so we can build up a Christmas fund! Then, once we have taken them to the store and gotten all of our money back, we will split it between us and go Christmas shopping! Cool idea, huh? He's so smart!
That's it for today... we move into the apartment tomorrow, so I'll make sure to take pictures of us strapping the mattress onto the car and packing it full of our crap! Should be interesting, since we just rented a tiny little thing....
-M&A
a lifestyle blog
Bomb Threat on the UBahn
So yesterday around 1:00, Mike and I decided to leave the apartment to get some lunch and do some shopping. As we were walking out the door, we noticed that the UBahn was on the tracks, and thought that we were going to miss it. After about 30 seconds of walking toward the stop, however, we noticed that the train wasn't moving. We kept walking toward the stop in the hopes that we would be able to catch the train before it left. It soon became apparent that this train wasn't leaving anytime soon. As we rounded the corner and got to the other side of the train, we saw a man in handcuffs surrounded by four police officers. We hopped onto the train and watched through the window to see what was going on. Mike informed me that it appeared that this man had a "bomb" around his waist (it ended up just being an empty threat - I think they were just a bunch of wires). The police got onto the train in the car behind us, asked where the man had been sitting, talked to a few people, then got off again. After a few minutes, we were on our way again, leaving the man and now six policemen behind. It was pretty crazy, and two extremely drunk men in leather in the seat next to us wouldn't shut up about it.
A couple hours later, while Mike and I were in Sachsenhausen eating delicious pizza, Pam called saying that the police and fire trucks had blocked off her street and that she wasn't allowed to go home. I guess things were a little more serious than they let on? Who knows.
Anyway, we all got home safely and were able to accomplish everything we needed to during the day. Some pictures from the day (unfortunately none of the "bomber" - we didn't think the Polizei would look too kindly on that):
A couple hours later, while Mike and I were in Sachsenhausen eating delicious pizza, Pam called saying that the police and fire trucks had blocked off her street and that she wasn't allowed to go home. I guess things were a little more serious than they let on? Who knows.
Anyway, we all got home safely and were able to accomplish everything we needed to during the day. Some pictures from the day (unfortunately none of the "bomber" - we didn't think the Polizei would look too kindly on that):
That's about it.
--M&A
We're here! And Settled... Sort of.
Now that we are in Germany, I think I will try to update this thing fairly regularly. Since this is going to be a quite long entry, I figure I can make life easier (or try to, at least) for all of you who are reading but don't want to hear EVERYTHING. So... I'm dividing this entry into sections, and each section will have a bold heading.
The Trip
As many of you know, we were originally planning on bringing our cat/child, Zeuss, with us to Germany. Everything was set up - he even had a brand new, air friendly pet taxi (more like limousine). We left for the OKC airport around 5:30 a.m. (my mother is an absolute angel for being willing to wake up and take us that early... bless her heart), stopped by Sonic for some breakfast, and arrived shortly after 8:15. Hugs and kisses were given, and Mom left to go back to KS before her afternoon class. We were so excited to start this adventure, and even more excited that Zeuss was going to be there with us (we get lonely)! When we started to check in, however, it didn't go quite as planned. Long story short, because we were travelling through London it was basically impossible for Zeuss to come. We could spend hundreds of dollars to ship him here, but we aren't exactly millionaires. I called my mom and she came back and picked up the cat (after calming me down [I was crying my head off] and ensuring me that he would not be eaten alive by their dogs). She ended up missing her class (I don't think her students were depressed about that), but all was well. After check-in, we had a couple of hours before boarding the plane and just hung out.
It was a short flight from OKC to Houston, but then we had a little less than 45 minutes to get to our next gate, and once there, we immediately got on the plane and got ready to spend the next 9 hours in the air. The flight from Houston to London was actually pretty enjoyable. We had plenty of in-flight entertainment, and there was almost no turbulence. The food was decent (for airline food), and my flight neighbor was quiet, polite, and slept about 2/3 of the flight. Once we arrived in London, it was 6:45 a.m. and extremely cold. We had a couple of hours to kill before our next flight, so Mike went and bought some of his favorite drinks (only available in the UK), and we sat down to relax. Once we got onto that plane, we were finally tired enough to sleep, and I believe we both slept through almost the entire flight.
Arrival in Germany
We arrived in Germany at approximately 11:35 a.m. CET. We did not, however, get our luggage and go through customs until about 12:15 p.m. My good friend Pam met us at the airport and helped us carry our luggage onto the train and the U-Bahn and eventually to her home. We were extremely tired and suffering from jet lag, but decided it would be best to wait until the evening to sleep. We got to her apartment, showered and changed, and got ready to run some errands. We were able to get cell phones, Bahncard 50s, and a couple of other things that we needed... like Spaghetti Eis. All in all, it was a pretty good first day. The next day was spent running errands as well.
Apartment Hunting
On Thursday night, I looked in the paper and online for apartments (we were homeless and had nothing lined up when we arrived in the country). I found a couple that looked good and decided to call about them. I set up appointments to look at two on Friday afternoon. Come Friday, we visited both apartments and found one that we fell in love with. We were sooo worried that we weren't going to be able to rent it, though, because the ad had said that they wanted a single person who could live there for a year, and had a career. Three strikes against us. All ended well, though, because a lady (the bishop's wife) who had been helping us knew the landlord's wife. We were able to get this wonderful apartment (which has a dishwasher, washing machine, oven, cupboards, sink, refridgerator, and all the furniture we will need) with no problems, and will live right down the street from the bishop's family. It was definitely an answer to our prayers - more than we could have even hoped for. I'll put pictures up when I can.
Other Random Things
Today was spent wandering around Frankfurt. There was a Fest this weekend (I can't for the life of me remember which one), and it was really fun! It would have been better if it wasn't rainy, but whatever. I'll spare you the novel and just put some pictures on here for you to enjoy (or not, but if you don't like them, you don't have to look!).
Mike next to the river
Me
Mike
Mike
Me, Mike, and Pam being goofs
The Fest.
If you want to see more pictures, just go to my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/alyxdodds). Enjoy!!!
Tschuess!!!
M&A
The Trip
As many of you know, we were originally planning on bringing our cat/child, Zeuss, with us to Germany. Everything was set up - he even had a brand new, air friendly pet taxi (more like limousine). We left for the OKC airport around 5:30 a.m. (my mother is an absolute angel for being willing to wake up and take us that early... bless her heart), stopped by Sonic for some breakfast, and arrived shortly after 8:15. Hugs and kisses were given, and Mom left to go back to KS before her afternoon class. We were so excited to start this adventure, and even more excited that Zeuss was going to be there with us (we get lonely)! When we started to check in, however, it didn't go quite as planned. Long story short, because we were travelling through London it was basically impossible for Zeuss to come. We could spend hundreds of dollars to ship him here, but we aren't exactly millionaires. I called my mom and she came back and picked up the cat (after calming me down [I was crying my head off] and ensuring me that he would not be eaten alive by their dogs). She ended up missing her class (I don't think her students were depressed about that), but all was well. After check-in, we had a couple of hours before boarding the plane and just hung out.
It was a short flight from OKC to Houston, but then we had a little less than 45 minutes to get to our next gate, and once there, we immediately got on the plane and got ready to spend the next 9 hours in the air. The flight from Houston to London was actually pretty enjoyable. We had plenty of in-flight entertainment, and there was almost no turbulence. The food was decent (for airline food), and my flight neighbor was quiet, polite, and slept about 2/3 of the flight. Once we arrived in London, it was 6:45 a.m. and extremely cold. We had a couple of hours to kill before our next flight, so Mike went and bought some of his favorite drinks (only available in the UK), and we sat down to relax. Once we got onto that plane, we were finally tired enough to sleep, and I believe we both slept through almost the entire flight.
Arrival in Germany
We arrived in Germany at approximately 11:35 a.m. CET. We did not, however, get our luggage and go through customs until about 12:15 p.m. My good friend Pam met us at the airport and helped us carry our luggage onto the train and the U-Bahn and eventually to her home. We were extremely tired and suffering from jet lag, but decided it would be best to wait until the evening to sleep. We got to her apartment, showered and changed, and got ready to run some errands. We were able to get cell phones, Bahncard 50s, and a couple of other things that we needed... like Spaghetti Eis. All in all, it was a pretty good first day. The next day was spent running errands as well.
Apartment Hunting
On Thursday night, I looked in the paper and online for apartments (we were homeless and had nothing lined up when we arrived in the country). I found a couple that looked good and decided to call about them. I set up appointments to look at two on Friday afternoon. Come Friday, we visited both apartments and found one that we fell in love with. We were sooo worried that we weren't going to be able to rent it, though, because the ad had said that they wanted a single person who could live there for a year, and had a career. Three strikes against us. All ended well, though, because a lady (the bishop's wife) who had been helping us knew the landlord's wife. We were able to get this wonderful apartment (which has a dishwasher, washing machine, oven, cupboards, sink, refridgerator, and all the furniture we will need) with no problems, and will live right down the street from the bishop's family. It was definitely an answer to our prayers - more than we could have even hoped for. I'll put pictures up when I can.
Other Random Things
Today was spent wandering around Frankfurt. There was a Fest this weekend (I can't for the life of me remember which one), and it was really fun! It would have been better if it wasn't rainy, but whatever. I'll spare you the novel and just put some pictures on here for you to enjoy (or not, but if you don't like them, you don't have to look!).
If you want to see more pictures, just go to my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/alyxdodds). Enjoy!!!
Tschuess!!!
M&A
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