Germany. Day 3 and 4. Sheep Dance and Farming
Good something to everyone! I never know when I’m actually going to post this so I give up saying morning, afternoon or evening so, please chose an option that suits you when you read this.
Considering I am so far behind with this, I will do my best and be efficient by putting at least two days into one story. Today we are leaving Hellenbach and going to Munich to meet our dearest friends Bernie and Anca soooo… there’s more material and inspiration coming my way which of course, has to be told.
DAY 3.
On the 3rd day, which I believe was Monday (remembering days while on holiday is always problematic because well, I don’t have to keep an agenda so time flies by differently), Nancy invited us over to a local parade in a town nearby called Onolzheim (Nancy just spelled that for me ‘cause otherwise I would have called it Onza – she says that’s the accent in which the word is pronounced). The parade is called the Dance of the Sheep (male sheep that is). She gets two badges for mom and I to remember the event, but I give mine to Haylee because I’m busy with the photos anyway. The parade is not what we expected initially. It’s for the children, with cartoon themes and witches and snow, ducklings, sheep and ponies. We do have one that has as main theme Top Gun and everyone looks great in their pilot costumes. Especially the young lads haha.
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| Mom and her apple juice |
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| Zoey and her favorite chair haha |
The whole town gathers, including other people like us coming from the surrounding villages. The police stop traffic on the main road and there are even one or two ambulances, just in case. A few street vendors sell Coke, bear of course and a local drink, a mixture of mineral water and apple juice. Mom and I get two of those and Nancy gets a Coke. I get three chips so that when I’m done drinking I can take the empty bottles back and get 3 eur for them in return. Neat! Someone starts talking in the mic presenting the event and what’s coming and Nancy hurries to let us know what the man is speaking. Everyone laughs and applauds, I can even make out a few words by myself. The elders have brought chairs from home and sit in the sun on the sidewalks while the kiddies have brought little plastic bags that they use to sit on the side of the road. It’s like they have all come prepared for this.
And then the parade starts, a sheep, all garnished and decorated comes by followed by 13 couples walking in line and Nancy tells me that the sheep will be sacrificed at the end of the parade and before that it will choose one or more couple from this long line, to eat it. Freaky stuff. Or as we would say, the sheep is probably choosing them thinking “I hope I get stuck in your throat humans!” haha
There's the sheep
And the people who were supposed to eat him :((
Well, I better let the pictures speak for themselves, with just one small note: the really nice thing about the whole parade was that everyone threw candy for the kids and now I understood why they had brought the plastic bags. A fortune to carry home! Haylee filled her pockets to last her for a week! And Mela engorged on a few Coke lollypops and Haribo jellies… The photographer has to eat as well! Haha On the other hand, a funny thing – and I have to make another note here: I’ve spent so much time with Haylee, but especially with Zoey, preparing her drink, holding her, folding her in her seat that I am a little specialist in 1 year old babies now haha – so Nancy says “Mela, one of the guys in the parade checked you out thinking, what a hot momma!” ‘cause I was pulling the stroller – well, I hope that happens when I have kids for real haha.
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| The sexy momma haha |
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| Pappa bear abd Mela: what a perfect pair! |
When the parade was done, we went home and had late lunch. When the time came for Nancy to feed Riddick I offered to take him out for a walk. I did not know what I was getting myself into that is. Other than the fact that he is taller than me and weighs about 600 kg, there was not much of a problem haha. He is such a well behaved horse and so calm, but so strong! Every stop he makes is a struggle for me to make him move. And because I’m not used to walking to such a big fellow he almost dragged me across the woods and I was afraid to stop him so he doesn’t come to a halt abruptly and slide on the wet leaves. Eventually, Nancy comes to the rescue and teaches me how to maneuver him, but still after a 20 minutes walk I feel I have built more muscle into my right arm then a full week of weight lifting at the gym.
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| At the stables |
Here is Mela walking Riddick in my own very retard way. Poor horsey!
DAY 4.
Day 4, for once was uneventful. It was one of those normal days when you just feel the need to do nothing, or something that requires a minimum effort. Something I don’t get to do every day anymore, unfortunately. Mom does it more often ‘cause she’s so much closer to my grandparents so her journeys to the country side help her to disconnect a bit more through the household and field work they always have going there. So, considering we are in a farmers’ community, we figured we should act like farmers for a little. More so, there was such a nice weather, not that cold and the backyard needed our help to be cleared from all the autumn leaves carpeting the grass.
We visited Riddick in the morning to serve him breakfast and then we spent some time over lunch and small chit chat in the kitchen. Coffee is always welcome especially when you add a little fresh milk taken straight from Nancy’s neighbor, Otto who owns a big farm with many cows. I always salute them through the big doors of the barn and some of them reply. I guess my cowish works; I learnt their language when I was a kid because my grandparents also had cows and I always took care of them every weekend and every vacation. That happened until I left for college and then my visits home were extremely rare, unfortunately.
So, we ask Nancy what’s the plan for the day and she says, of course, we can do whatever we need to do but she has to take care of the garden for a little. Mom and I glance at each other thinking HA! We will help! I don’t feel getting my ass in jeans today to roam free on the streets. It feels more like a leggings dirty boots kind of day today. Plus it’s so nice in the garden, perfect weather and other than walking, I haven’t really exercised in any way since I’ve been here. Well, I have exercised my stomach into fitting more food, that’s what I worked on!
So this is our chance to thrive in countryside fitness activities. We buckle up in our leisure clothes and get out there, with the tools in our hands, ready to make things happen. Nancy is not tally sure she wants us on this ride because she’s got serious matters to handle and we look like we’re about to hit the playground. But alas! Mom has already started swiping the yard before we could even go downstairs – with the wrong broom! Haha We then move on to the backyard and Haylee’s toys (a big kitchen, totally utilized with which she’d been cooking some delicious mud and sand cakes earlier in fall). I find two apple trees in the process and collect a box full of them and cannot help but indulge in the bare pleasure of eating fruit off the grass in the middle of the garden. Sooo good!
Nancy then shows me where I carry all the fallen leaves we’ve gathered: behind Otto’s stables because he will use it as fertilizer for his crops. It’s nice to see how they get along and how everything is somehow put to a better use in this place. They save pretty much everything that can be saved. Eventually I make about 100 trips back and forth and I always glimpse at the cows inside. Eventually Nancy, Otto and I cross path and she explains to him that I plan on visiting his cows haha He says they’re pretty shy but some of them could really use a pet so I’m up for it.
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| I love this!!! Plus it has a kitty in it which means double like! |
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| Camillo - A lovable crazy cat! I'm not sure I'm spelling his name right |
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| Finchen and her big wet nose!!!! |
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| Taranul e pe camp, ura draguta mea, taranul e pe camp haha My farmer side. Kind of missed this, I used to help my grandparents a lot when I was yunger |
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| Beautiful sunset from the back garden |
We’re done just when the sun sets, to go inside and find Nancy in full swing, preparing a great dinner. We look like we’ve been working in a mine, at least I do. I have some dirt and leaves in my shoes and a bit of chocolate chip cookies from Zoey with whom I had played in the morning, smudged over my leggings. But it feels good. Plus we got some work done so that is motivating to wake up tomorrow to a new day.
Well, as you can see, not everything is about visiting and expensive things or holidays. Every year, depending on how difficult or exhausting it has been, we decide what kind of vacation we should have. If we feel like going crazy visiting something, always on the go, then we go for that. But this year we felt like taking a laid-back vacation, where we visited some but got some rest and some normal stuff into the schedule as well.
It’s incredible how many things you can still do without getting bored just sitting in one place. Plus we had lots of visiting yesterday when we got into Munch, so if in any way we missed it, we got plenty of it now. But more about Munich in the posts to come.
We are going back home today, but I will continue writing this so hopefully by the end of this week I will be done with the entire week. It would be a pity not to, we had such a great time and met and made such dear friends along the way. I know how bad I felt when I didn’t write about my week with Emily – which was absolutely gorgeous!!!! – and I had such a wonderful time. So I won’t miss on this one. I guess I have to be more organized. But it’s hard when you’re having fun hahah.
Yeah. Monday. Work again. Ahhhhhh!!! Lovely.
Are you ready??!! I AM NOT!
MUAH, still from Germany.
Mela and Mom
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