Did you know that in Germany the cheapest form of toilet paper is scented 3ply? · 5:56pm May 1st, 2019
No joke!
I'm used to living in a country where that's the maximum. It's especially weird considering how environmentally conscientious the rest of the country is. You'd think they would have outlawed anything more than one sheets!
So I guess you could say this is my official "I'm back from my holiday and I'm not dead" blog post, and a kind-of recap of April since it's also the start of May! Pictures, experiences, and other things below the fold.
Okay, so, Germany was so completely different than what I'm normally used to, also a really pretty country. No potholes in the roads at all and cars actually stop for you when you cross the road! Truly a magical land of wonders!
It was also surprisingly warm. When I got there it was already in the tail-end of winter going into spring, and it was nice a chilly, but then every day after that it was steadily getting warmer to the point that I actually got hot. (Pretty sure I was the only one who turned off the central heating and had the windows opened that time.)
The first day was... I was exhausted. The flight was at 7PM on Tuesday night and went through the whole night. I barely got a few minutes of sleep and just wanted to fall into be by the time we had to get off at 5-6AM the next morning.
Though, as a bonus, I was graced the opportunity to watch a little movie about this boy with schizophrenia struggling with seeing talking stuffed animals and bears in his middle ages. What was that movie called, now...? Oh yeah! Christopher Robin.
After that, once I got to put my things down, I just spent a while in bed recuperating until a few hours later when we were supposed to go out for dinner. My dad explained to me that there was little place in the neighbouring village that served something called Flammkuchen, which was like pizza but it was not, and they can only cook 1-2 in the oven at once.
We didn't really get to go there, unfortunately, because they were filled with college students, so we ended up driving around to find a Plant B. Plant B was to go to a nearby Mexican restaurant, which, evidently, was also chock-a-block. My step-mom went ahead to see if they had any space whilst me any my dad stated in the the car to find parking.
Fast forward ten minutes of navigating the parking lot and we finally found a place to park! We were just about half-way into the lot when she came back out and told us they were full, but we could wait ~20 min and they might have an opening.
So.
Plant C.
We went to a local hotel where they'd stayed before finding their current house, and we ordered normal pizza from the restaurant there. 
Not to say it wasn't good, though! The German's Italian pizza, it was actually a little over-sized for the plate, and it was delicious. They had a lot of options with fish (salmon, hake) that I'd never really seen on pizza before, so I tried to avoid those. Rather, naturally, I ordered the one that had pineapple and I think chicken, though my memory is a bit fuzzy on that one.
The next few days were mostly spent seeing the country and visiting the surrounding towns.
I got to see where my parents did their shopping (a place called Globus, and coincidentally, though I didn't get to see it, an IKEA not too far away) and got to experience driving a shopping cart where all the wheels swivelled. They had an interesting system regarding shopping there. At Globus, you're allowed to just pick up any items you want and put them in the cart. You get a little barcode read with the cart and you just have to scan each item as you add them.
I kind of messed up operating it the first time, and ended up with a couple too many lint bunnies on our shopping list. Coincidentally, you're not required to press the plus button before scanning an item. Turns out that just duplicates what was last put on the list.
After that, the whole system was automated. We just had to pay at the machine, and you're allowed to go with your stuff. I'm sure if they didn't have to stock the shelves, they would have just one person there to man the entire shop. You also don't get plastic shopping bags with your purchase. We just kind of had cold bags in the back of the car that we used to put all the cold things into instead.
(soft drink bottles were small too. 1.5L (less than the 2-2.25L bottles from back at home))
The day after we got visit a small town with the same name as my family. I unfortunately didn't get the picture with us all together, though I did take my own of the sign in front of the nice field of yellow flowers.
Then, of course, on two separate days we went to see two separate castles. Namely Exhibit A:
This was taken from the tower at the highest point. I was too afraid to get any closer to the edge, so this was me holding the camera up as high as I could to get a good view.
Inside the tower was a long spiral staircase made of wood. It, well, it looked strong, but I couldn't tell my legs that. I was honestly kind of nervous going up there and wholly exhausted by the time I got to the top. I was really glad when we climbed back down and went for some lunch.
The first one was mostly ruins, though. They had a markup of some herb gardens they'd found in the records and some modern building and coffee shop, but that was about it.
The second one was a lot more impressive!
Beautifully preserved with some lovely octagonal towers. We arrived there early in the morning to try and beat the crowds and had a quick coffe and breakfast in the nearby cafe. Though I think that was a bit of a mistake, because by the time we'd managed to pay, we got to the tram station and the place had already been flooded by a tourist group and we had to wait in the line.
A slightly a nerving tram ride up the hill later, and we got to walk around the castle's grounds. Getting a full shot was a little difficult with all the trees around, I will admit.
The tickets allowed us to go all the way to the top of the mountain, so we decided to take the tram up one more level intent on taking the olde historic tram up to the top, though when we got there, there was another long line! This time even worse, because the tram took only a few people at a time!
So, we did a look around there for some other way, and decided to head straight back down. 
After that was a walk across the town to see the historic landmark, cross the bridge and climb a steep hill. (They called is philosopher's walk because the local university had a Philosohical department along it) and then we got back down across the second bridge back to where we started to have lunch.
We ended up eating in the same cafe we'd been a few hours before, with me eating lasagne and my dad trying to tell us the fountain looked like it had sparagus sticking out of.
(Pictured below)
Those don't look like asparagus to me, they look like people. Albeit weirdly-shaped people. 
And that is it, I guess! It was only a few days and there's only so much I can remember. The time between doing things was spent writing the fic I posted a few days ago, and the flight back was equally as awful as the first, though this time I was on an isle seat and had a neck pillow my mom had given to me (which did nothing to help).
After that flight I legit almost fell asleep during the plane's descent the next morning. I tried to watch Harry Potter and the Broken Lore but I have up on that because the "Lufthansa" logo would keep appearing. Plus I wanted to finish writing my story, so I did that until my pen ran out of ink and (tried) to sleep the rest of the way.
Now what am I going to do for May?
Well, I have three options:
A. I can continue The Great and P-Powerful
B. I can start a sequel to my Fluttershy story (because I totally know what I want to do with that)
C. I have another story I've been working on from before Great And Powerful that has 2-3 chapters already written but not yet published.
Or that's what they want us to think!
Anyway nice to see you had great time in the old world. Also, you have 2.25L sized drinks?
5052170
Yes, we do! Granted, they're part of some kind of promotion. All the no-sugar drinks come with a +250ml EXTRA VALUE!
5052172
Oh promotion drinks. You deceived me.
5052174
Well, they don't seem like they're going away any time soon. It's just a slightly
largertaller bottle than normal, like the bulk value packs you get of other things like cheese.5052177
Excuse, excuses. Clearly you are imposter Deutsch Solly.
5052182
I must be reeeeel! Even I didn't know!
Actually, there is a way to get your hands on the one layered recicling toilet paper, steal it from the Bundeswehr or citiy hall XD
And don't you worry, we have enough potholes in different citys... just travel some 500km to a little city called Brunswick.
We have 2l bottles available most of the times in most stores, yeah, not every sotre, same goes for good bread.
And Flammkuchen, uhm, technically it is not like pizza, depending on region it isn'T the same dough, there is no tomato sauce on it and most times no cheese... but yeah...details, I guess.
but good to know you claim to be still alive and yourself.
5052352
Hah, good to know! XD
I didn't know that! I'm sure there are a lot more options when you get into the big city. Where we were staying was really quite far out in the country, though, so the selection of shops was rather limited.
Besides Globus and IKEA, we had to bounce between several farmer-type shops to just to find a tick medicine for the cat.
We ended up going back there later, and what I got was, yeah, no tomato. It was really nice, though, and the crust was wafer thin.
There was an option with more pizza-ish toppings for the 'Murican tourists, but they weren't as good as the traditional recipes.
5052473
Well, just ask a german, some of us do know about about this country... Well I just know Baumkuchen.
And yeah, Flammkuchen with other topping as the traditional sounds bad. As well as pineapple on pizza!
)
Ok, I eat that too, sometimes... though I prefer tuna or Salami (no its not called pepperoni! And have fun ordering one in germany.
Wow, thank you for that. That was lovely.