Another Day in Germany

Well, we've done quite bit over the last few days. On Friday, we went to our local Turkish "fast food" place and got pizza and a doner kebap. Afterwards we came back and designed our kleidershranks on the IKEA webpage. In case I haven't gone into it, in Germany they don't typically have closets in apartments. So, you have to buy these big clothing chests (kleidershranks) to store everything. We were in need of quite a few shranks, so we found an American friend (Joe) with a van willing to take us to IKEA.

Saturday morning bright and early we headed to IKEA. Poor Joe, he didn't know what he was getting into. At the IKEA we found only some of the parts for the shranks, and were quite confused as to how we were going to build them! So, we ventured to a sales clerk who explained that you have to pay for everything here and then drive to a different warehouse to pick up the other parts. SIGH! Whatever!!!! We drove over there, waited for about 15 minutes, and then filled (literally) his van with boxes. I'm not sure how the van made it to our house, but it did.

We unloaded everything, thanked Joe, and then he went on his way. I was exhausted and fall asleep on the couch. I think about 15 minutes later Nate woke me up to explain that he found a hardware store (through their website) only a 20 minute U-bahn ride away. Unfortunately it closed at 6, so out the door we went. The song "on the road again" going through my mind....

As we walked towards the U-bahn we saw that a little roadside festival was going on. So we stopped for some plum cake (better than it sounds), ice-cream cappucino, foccacia bread, and quiche. A band was playing and people were milling around. It was fun to sit back and take in the sights.

After the quick dinner we rushed to the U-bahn and made our way to Obi, the hardware store. Up on the second floor we found the "paint" area. Surprisingly enough, we made a quick decision on the paint colors and went to the mixing area. When it was our turn we told the woman that we didn't speak German. She then asked us what languages we spoke. Nate told her English and Spanish. Her eyes lit up. Wouldn't you know, she was from Columbia. So Nate got to practice his Spanish. I think he did a good job, as we got the right colors and right amounts.

We ended up with three 10 liter buckets of paint, one 2.5 liter bucket of paint, and painting supplies. And... no car. So we hauled everything about 1/3 of a mile to the U-bahn station, onto the next bus, and then finally into our house. Our arms were quite sore the next day.

Nate painted the hallway that night (tan), and on Sunday we painted our bedroom (a smoke/purple color). I'm doing the kitchen tomorrow (yellow).

Nate started assembling our kleidershranks on Sunday also. It's going to be a big project, but he is up to the task. I have been so proud of him lately. He installed all of our light fixtures, is a master of the paintbrush, and can assemble furniture like none other. What a man ; )