I must admit that today, we found the best shopping mall ever...even better than...wait for it...any shopping mall visited in Southern California. I know, it's hard to believe I am actually admitting to finding something, in Germany, that is better than anything from either the US or Canada!
Our day began with the buzzer ringing at 9am and the nice men from Amazon.de finally delivering our washing machine. I was thrilled at the prospect of finally having clean underwear that had not be hand washed in the bathroom sink! I spoke too early, however, because our old apartment had an old tap that the washer needed to be hooked up to, so of course the fittings didn't work!
Mark decided to head out to the hardware store while I stayed home to make breakfast (ie lie in bed and watch Friends reruns on E4 - they're always on...it's great!). He came home with what he thought was the right fitting, which of course didn't work. But more importantly, was super excited about finding the German equivalent of Home Depot. Like, down to the layout, "hand" written signs and orange smocks! So, since he had to go back anyway for a different fitting, I decided to see for myself.
Sure enough (as the picture will attest to), we found the German equivalent of Home Depot. This lead to a series of purchases for what might eventually be a normal shower (don't get me started on what is currently passing for a shower in this place!) and clean underwear...(For the record, we still don't have the right fitting, so I have planned my Sunday around sink washing once again...).
After finally dragging Mark out of the Home Depot, it was decided that I needed a proper food processor and Garmin GPS if I was going to survive one more day in Darmstadt. The nearest Saturn (read European Best Buy) was just around the corner. What we didn't know was that it was housed in the most glorious shopping mall EVER! Stores abound including Starbucks, Guess, Nail Salons, Hair Salons, Esprit, Clothes, Clothes and More Clothes. I was in heaven and have decided if you need to find me at any point over the next 2 years, look for me there (because now I have Garmin GPS who will show me the way!).
Many hours later, Mark was afraid I would spend all his money (hey - I don't currently have a job, so who else's money will I spend?) so headed out to our planned Saturday destination. IKEA. While much window shopping and planning was accomplished only a few purchases were made (and we still haven't solved the washer or shower problem!).
Eventually, we were both hungry and headed to Wiesbaden to see what it was all about.
We had dinner at a lovely Scottish pub (the Scotch and Soda) and then off to Murphy's Irish pub for Guinness and Strongbow. Wiesbaden has a lovely downtown that remains untouched since before the war and due to the American Army/Air force base is full of English speakers who will tolerate my lack of German skills. Long story short, it was decided that we would be spending many more weekends pub crawling through Wiesbaden (and who knows - may have to move there if it suits us!). Apparently they have the worlds largest cuckoo clock. How can you go wrong!
All in all, today was a good day....which is a great thing to come by!!
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