Germany Recap



How freaking cute is that?

Germany was wonderful.  Landshut (which is pronounced more like Lon-suit) is adorable.  I have no other word that fits.  If Landshut was fabric, it would be pale pink with purple polka dots in linen - durable fabric that would age well as it softens from washing and wear.  In medieval times, Landshut and Munich (side vent, why do we translate places?  Is Munchin too hard to say?) vied for power and size.  Landshut was home to the Wittelsbach dynasty, ruler for Lower Bavaria.  With skills to make armour, materials to make brick, this area was prosperous for 300 years.  In 1475, the last of the Landshut ruling family had a wedding between their son and the daughter of the king of Poland.  This couple had 5 children, two who were boys, but the boys did not live.  When the husband died in 1503 power transferred to Munich which is why Munich is a much larger city now.  The end result is this city of about 60,000 that is like linen.  You can see it was stunning, it IS still stunning but has worn into it's history.  Every 4 years, that wedding becomes a 4 week celebration where they reenact the wedding with locals playing the bride and groom and gentry that attended.  The downtown is largely kept as it was (and perfectly maintained as the wedding approaches) so that tradition can continue without McDonald's logos cluttering up your pictures.

Construction is to prep for "the wedding" this June and Trausnitz Castle above the city

Town hall, home base for the film festival.

I like Toronto.  I've never lived IN Toronto, but I love visiting and I like living near by.  I like the energy, I like the neighbourhoods.  We don't go in as often as we used to but there is always something going on I'd like to see.  Going to Germany reminded me how young North America is and in particular how young Toronto is.  Even being so young, we don't take care of our history.  It's hard to find a large stretch of Toronto streets where it looks like it did even 100 years ago never mind 500.  It's hard for me to wrap my head around and left me thoughtful about home while I was there.

I was fairly sure Mr. Lina's movie about zombies was going to be well received when we came across this near the Landshut train station.

 

 

And the screening did go very well.  Applause was at the start of the credits (something that didn't happen a lot at this festival, people usually waited until the end of the credits or for some of the Shock Block didn't clap at all) and there were quite a few questions during the Q&A after the film aired.  The "black comedies" were the last block of films to air for the whole festival, 10:30 on the Saturday night.  A wrap party for the festival started at 11pm but it was well past 1am by the time we got there.  Our glasses had not even cleared from the change in temperature and people were approaching Mr. Lina to talk about his film.  We had met some film makers from Germany and France earlier during a tour of Landshut (organized by the film fest) and they saved some seats for us.  It took a while to get to their table because we were stopped so many times.  Even at 3am, there were still people approaching Mr. Lina.  And on the plus side, it seems some of these conversations are continuing now that we've been back.  He's Facebook friends with one of the judges from the festival and emailing some of the film makers.  So from a networking perspective, it was worth the trip to Germany.

 

I'd show pictures of what I wore but almost all the pictures of me look like this:

Munich - Isar River

I would push my hood back for pictures but it was quite blustery and cold.  I'd need to make a winter coat to have any self made clothing to show.  On the plus side, outside of one day with light rain, it was cold but fairly sunny.  Nice enough to enjoy walking, cold enough to want to stop for a strudel and mulled wine.  This day it was snowing off and on, pretty big flakes that would swirl around.  Oh so pretty. 

I think the vacations were very good for me.  Mexico for vegging out and Germany was a thinking and doing vacation.  I've mentioned that work has been crazy lately and with my manager leaving it's not letting up.  We're a specialized group, it takes time to find the right people and even when they are hired, it takes time for them to learn to the depth that is needed to really be a full team member.  This can lead to me feeling completely overwhelmed and shutting down essentially, sort of what I did prior to Mexico.  But this time, I'm happy.  I get to 5pm and wonder where the day went.  Like I was having a good time and I'll just finish one more thing... and it's suddenly 6:15.  Oops.  I haven't felt good like that, finding flow, in a while. 

I have not been sewing, my sewing room is a mess.  I literally went to get something this morning and I couldn't walk in the room because some pile of stuff fell over into my "path".  Tidying is not my forte.  While I've felt... let's say not-myself, I can't be bothered to either decide to pitch something or find a proper home for it.  I found bank statements from 2012 on the china cabinet, wedding invitations from 2011, 3 year old birthday cards...  just clutter.  I filled a whole recycle bin from the main floor.  I've done lots of laundry, enjoyed making dessert for my family Easter dinner, we went for a hike,  I helped Mr. Lina start another batch of beer... I've been puttering.  It's a good-busy feeling I'm hoping to carry upstairs.  Monday is our last house concert (Terry Penney from Newfoundland) until September so I can store a few boxes in the guest room again soon.

Also, I've made the call to the clinic to get the ball rolling again.  I'm ready for this last FET cycle.  Right now it's the paper work stage, I have to swing by and get all the consent forms (again). 

So next post I have to get the camera out and show off my fabric purchases.  I found a fabric store in Landshut so I have 2m of souvenir fabric.  Hopefully that will be another push to get the sewing room ready to sew in.  Mr. Lina has more filming sewing (a video for a friend of a fried) that may have to come before sewing for myself.  Whatever gets me back in there is a good thing!