Tag Archives: German-Chinese mixed baby

Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Germans, Our cute son, Uncategorized

The Big Medieval Market

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Just few weeks ago I wrote about the Medieval Market/ Renaissance Fair here at my hometown. I also mentioned that we would be going to a much bigger Market this months and today was the day for the journey. The whole event is called “MitterlalterlicherPhantasie Spectaculum” and is the biggest traveling cultural festival in the world. Nearly every weekend during the warmer months it is in another city with over 2500 people and over 1000 tents to bring the Medieval World back to our time.  The closest location of this traveling market is in another city roughly 45 min by car away from us. Last time I had been there was 10 years ago!

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Blacksmith with family and apprentice

 

First of all it seems that the whole town needs to participate somehow as there are just so many visitors coming. As most towns here are in the middle of farm land they just rent some fields and use them as parking lots. Through this all visitors can find some parking space BUT it results in a long journey to the festival grounds at the park in the middle of the town. Last time I was there the ticket price was around 10-15 Euros or so and it got a rather huge increase as it is now 30 Euros per person, eeeek nearly 100 Euros for us! But we both think it was worth it as it was a really special day.

So whats the difference to the free entrance market in my hometown last month? For starters it is so much bigger with multiple actors and bands performing the entire day. Then there are so many workshops you can participate such as pottery, blacksmithing and there are real knight battles (with jousting etc) on the field next to the park, many gleemen, random activities happening and tons of stuff to buy. The place was just full with people and many dressed up accordingly. When my wife saw how others were in chainmail or in beautiful dresses she decided for us that we will do the same for the Market in October.

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Nathan being shy posing with the Knights

 

Though I said last time that we will try to find something nice for Nathan we failed to get him any clothes as he is just too small right now so he had to settle for a mini wooden sword. As he is a fast learner he mastered the skill of one-handed sword fighting within a couple of hours and attacked (unsuccessfully) a dark knight. After that he decided that sword fighting is not his strong point and abandoned the sword for the rest of the day. All in all I can say that this was a really great day even though my current health situation was making everything a bit harder to get around.

 

Would you like to visit such renaissance fair?

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Crazy Family, Our cute son

Our Happiness: Nathan

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Meet Churchill

It’s been now 15 months since Nathan is with us. 15 months might sound long but they passed by very quick. 15 months of happiness, worry, hard work and more joy. Especially in the beginning it was always so hard to figure out what to do when he got sick or cried for a long time but in the end we always managed. He has grown so much by now that it is hard to recognize him from his early pictures “Wow, he really looked liked  Churchill!”

 

By now he is running non-stop around the apartment, opens every drawer, steals everything he can reach and proclaims loudly in his mumbling way that he is here and be better taken care of. He doesn’t say any real words yet but what do you expect when being around four languages every single day. He will take his time and until then we will be happy with his mumbling some random sounds and tries to copy few words which so far never really worked out.

 

 

What is your happiness in life?

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Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Family, Crazy Germans

My Mother’s Birthday

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Today won’t be a crazy story but I put it up nevertheless as it was recently my mother’s 70th birthday. We celebrated on Good Friday however her birthday is on the 31st of March but as this public holiday was so close this year she decided to celebrate few days later with many of her friends.

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Nathan posing together with my mother

 

In our apartment block we do not only have a swimming pool with sauna downstairs but also a room which can be used for “parties”. My mother invited twenty guests and as neither of our apartments would have been sufficient to house so many people we reserved this party room. Invited were a couple of neighbours but the rest were all Finnish women who came to Germany around the same time as my mother back in the 1960s-1970s. These women who came to the party stayed in Germany after the initial contract work contracts ran out and settled down here in this city or neighbouring towns and villages with their German partners.

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The celebration room

 

As my mother wanted as less work on her birthday as possible my wife and I helped out to serve the drinks to the guests and clean all the dishes later. Especially carrying everything upstairs again took several runs as it was just too much hence I didn’t need any workout that day. The main food my parents had ordered weeks in advance from a catering service and all the cakes were prepared by my mother herself within two days before the celebration.

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My mother’s friends singing a song

 

When the first batch of people arrived together (all having the same kind of rose for my mother) they gathered around her and sang a traditional Finnish song about old friends. After the first verse my mother just thanked them quickly and said it is enough as the whole song has about 10 verses, each taking several minutes! You see, my mom is not up for much celebrations, especially not for herself and she is not a big talker either so the only speech she held was “Thank you all for coming and enjoy the food.” Well, it was enough I would say.

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Nathan is sometimes happy even in my arms

 

Nathan did also his best to entertain the guests by running non-stop around and having very interesting conversations with everyone. The best for him was apparently the cake. I do not know why and how but he just loves it, even when we just give him a bit cake base with tiny amount of cream (no young man, no sugar for you yet).

Though the celebration only lasted for roughly four hours it was enough time to get everything more than filled up with all the food. I still felt a bit sick 12 hours later and couldn’t eat anything till next days lunch. Last but not least I have to mention that my days of freedom and happiness will end in 11 days as MIL will arrive then…

 

What do you usually do on birthday? Do you celebrate every year or only on significant ages?

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