We recently visited Holiday Park and were pleasantly surprised throughout the day as we encountered a more relaxed atmosphere than we expected. This park really challenged our primarily American based experience of theme parks. I’m even more excited now to visit more parks in Europe. Here are the 13 things that really stood out to us: You don’t pass through a special parking toll gate when you arrive. Instead, you just pay when you get your ticket and then give […]
Do’s and Don’ts: Our First Impressions of Bamberg, Germany.
Bamberg is a thirty minute ride down the train tracks for us, so we didn’t try to accomplish all our sightseeing in one day. It was bustling with activity when we visited, which isn’t all that surprising considering its university and the city’s claim to fame as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the first things you’ll learn if you start researching Bamberg is that is has seven hills and seven churches on each hill. I wasn’t able to […]
9 Ways to Say Goodbye in German.
I was reflecting on my post about how to greet in German and having a good laugh about it, because we rarely get the opportunity to greet Germans properly. Usually we are greeted by a string of words or sentences as if we were already mid-conversation with someone. The cashier will start rambling along about something (I have no idea what) while ringing up my groceries or I’ll open the door to the cleaning ladies and my “Guten Morgen” is drowned out […]
Visiting Holiday Park in Haßloch, Germany.
Recently Mr. Meena and I visited Holiday Park in Haßloch, Germany. It’s nearly three hours away from where we live and it was a very appropriate trip since we were celebrating Mr. Meena’s 25th birthday (in case you don’t know, he is a roller coaster fanatic in every sense of the word). We had something really special happen during this trip (which I’ll share below)! I’m going to talk about the coasters at the park, their waterpark show, the kiddy section, and […]
4 Details About German Greetings.
Last Wednesday evening a personal language tutor showed up on our doorstep. We spent an hour and a half learning German from him and will see him almost weekly over the next year because Mr. Meena’s company graciously provided us with 100 hours of language training. I thought that the one-on-one language teaching scene was for rich kids and motivated scholars. We are neither. We have Rosetta Stone and some cool phone apps to help us along in this German adventure, but […]
An Expat and a Housewife: My Dilemma.
The cleaning ladies have arrived and done their job quickly and quietly. I’m quite relieved that it wasn’t the same woman from last week because I’m still not over that embarrassment. As I was watching them clean, which is always awkward for me, I was reflecting on how that is one less thing that I have to do. For an entire year I don’t have to do the regular and routine cleaning for my living space. I’ll just have to […]
An Expectation of Silence.
It’s now only 12 days until we leave for Germany, and I can’t stop imagining what living there is going to be like. Of all the differences that I noticed on our short visit there, the one I am most concerned about is the silence. Immediately after we landed in Frankfurt we departed the plane onto a bus and experienced the eerie quiet. No one was talking loudly and excitedly to each other or on their phones, no children were […]
Our Cedar Fair Park Tour Part 3: Kings Dominion and Money Saving Tips.
Welcome to part three of our Cedar Fair Park Tour adventure. You can view the first two parts here: Our Cedar Fair Park Tour Part 1: Kings Island and Cedar Point. Our Cedar Fair Park Tour Part 2: Canada’s Wonderland, Niagara Falls, and Dorney Park. Park 5/5: Kings Dominion, Doswell, Virginia. “Virginia’s Premier Themed Amusement Park” We got to visit this park on day 10 of the trip, and the park was celebrating being 40 years old. We visited on Memorial […]
Our Cedar Fair Park Tour Part 2: Canada’s Wonderland, Niagara Falls, and Dorney Park.
Welcome back! Hope you enjoyed Part 1 of this post. Park 3/5: Canada’s Wonderland, Toronto, Canada. “Canada’s Premier Amusement Park” It was quite a trek up to Canada and it was my first experience driving across an international border. It was also the coldest park of the trip by far. We also spent the least amount of time at this park because we didn’t get there until noon and they closed at six in the evening. But it was very […]
Our Cedar Fair Park Tour Part 1: Kings Island and Cedar Point.
This post is dedicated to Thunder Road, which had its last ride this weekend. Does that road trip layout look a bit intimidating to you? If you love road trips and travel frequently, then the answer is probably no. I remember when Mr. Meena emailed this map to me he put “CRAZY thought! Property of Coffee LLC” in the email subject line. And I definitely agreed that it was crazy. We had never done anything like this before! We live close […]