EuroLife: Day 63

I'm home! I can't tell you how nice it is to be back in our little apartment. I was released this morning at around 10:30am. Michael and I walked home, stopping for an errand at the University, and walked to the Mensa for lunch at around noon. After all that fresh air and walking, I was totally wiped out and took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon. Freed from bed rest, and it's back to bed I go. I felt like one of those kids who wants to play "school" on the first day of summer vacation. (No offense, mom :) In my defense, they wake you up well before dawn in the hospital and that is something I am not used to! (Nor is it something I approve of it, or condone in any way. I am Irish, and we like to sleep.)

After 4 or 5 days of hospital German food, I was desperate for a change. The food wasn't bad; for hospital food it was actually pretty good. It's just that I was already getting a little tired of the local cuisine before I went in to the hospital, and in the hospital it was all German food all the time. I needed something a little more familiar; I needed comfort food. That is how landed at Cheers this evening.

That's right, Cheers--you know the song. Jena's own "American Sports Bar." After looking at some pictures on facebook from a friend's barbecue, I was desperate for a cheeseburger. Rumour had it that Cheers was the place to go.

When we first walked in I was so excited. It smelled like an American burger joint, which is to say it smelled like greasy goodness. We ordered a basket of onion rings and two cheeseburgers and did our best to ignore the exorbitant prices. Michael got a Becks and I had a Fanta--the one German touch to the meal. If you've never had an orange soda in Europe, you don't know what you're missing. It's the most delicious beverage, quite unlike orange soda at home. It has juice it in, and it's nowhere near as sweet as, say, Orange Crush. I'm a big fan. Still, we paid about as much for the Fanta as we did the Becks. I'm still not used to that

We had been told by several German friends that they serve fries and such in giant baskets. Our onion rings did come in a basket, but we have been spoiled by American decadence (or gluttony--hard to say). This would have been a small order back home. It was plenty, of course, especially since our burgers came with fries, but it was interesting to compare our notions of a "giant" basket of appetizers.

Then came the burgers! We were given two condiment containers when we sat down: one red and one yellow. This was the first time in Jena that we have been given unlimited ketchup, and I quite appreciated it. The "mustard", however, was another story. It was not mustard. It was either dill-flavored mayonaise or some kind of butter, we really couldn't tell which, but we left it alone. The burgers, as you can see, looked a lot like American burgers. Alas, they did not taste so much like American burgers. They were not bad, they were just very different; kind of like a meatloaf sandwich with some interesting extras thrown in. (The fries were good too, but they come with Paprika on them, so they are also not quite like what you'd get at home.)

All in all, we had a lovely evening. I am very happy to be out and about again, and extremely thankful for the baby's health. A weird cheeseburger was still a very nice change, and the onion rings made me feel like I was back home for a few minutes. And now, once again, it's back to bed I go :)