Hochzeit in Deutschland

Well, I wanted to briefly let everyone know that I got to Germany without a problem Thursday night. As some of you may know, I am in Germany because of a wedding that I was going to on Sat. with an old friend from high school. I at least wanted to write a little about it while I could remember.

Actually, even just getting to where I needed to be is a bit of a story. I flew into Frankfurt, took a bus into the town (which was 120 km away) and then took a train to the town of my friend whom I met in Guatemala. I stayed there for the night thankfully and then we went to the Int'l African Festival, which was on the way to where I would spend the next night. The festival included many things to buy from Africa, foods, and of course music. In the evening, my friend found a ride for me online. We travelled on the autobahn (which really is just like a regular highway, with parts that only have 2 lanes except that there are parts too that do not have a speed limit) for a 2.5 hours and got dropped off to where I would meet my old friend from high school and then get picked up by the families of those who were getting married. Obviously I could not have done that all without the help of all my friends here.... thanks so much for taking care of me.

Sat, the day of the wedding, was the first sunny day in a few weeks. It was absolutely beautiful. The lilacs were still out. Peonies were blooming. There was a warm breeze and the night was cool but not cold. The day began by going to the bride's grandma where we ate some goulash soup before mass. It was delicious. We then drove to the wedding, which was in the countryside. On the way, the fields were full of among some other things, wheat, rapeseed plants to make oil (which were blooming yellow and were very fragrant), and hopps to make beer famous for this area (Bavaria). The church was large and beautiful for being in such a small town. The wedding service was similar to that of one you would find in America except they had instruments you might normally find in an orchestra. After the wedding, kids held ropes up to prevent cars from leaving the small town until each car paid something to them. It sounds like something I would have done.

We drove to the small palace... I learned that it was not called a castle but a palace as I just wrote. The events started with all kinds of wine and champagne. Then the cakes were served. There was the traditional Bavarian chocolate cake and then the other 25 cakes that all the family members brought. Needless to say, we ate a lot of cake, or at least I did. I wanted to try them all since when else would I have such an opportunity to try so many varieties of cakes. After the cakes was the balloon event. Everyone wrote on a card something they wanted to do with the bride and groom and then tied the card to a helium balloon. Then all the balloons were let go together. The cards have the address of the bride and groom so that if they are found by someone they can be mailed back. By tradition, all cards found must be fulfilled. After that event, it was more wine or Bavarian beer and then dancing, but only for the wedding couple and their parents. It is not always formal, but this was a bit formal since they used the same musicians as they had in church. Dinner followed with dancing for all, more cake with cheeses, including really stinky cheeses (I tried all the cheeses. Some people say that some cheese stink but taste good. I agree. The stinky cheese that was at this wedding though, I hope to never have it again.) After the last round of desserts, digestives were served, which are liquors to help digest everything. Mine tasted a lot like moonshine. With all the drinking though, no one was drunk. That is because of all the food and activities and even time in between activities, it would be pretty hard to be. The night ended at 2am and I spent the night at the same house I had goulash soup.

And just to keep you up to date, Sunday was a rest day mostly for rest, going to Church, and getting to Munich. Monday I went to Salzburg, Austria, and Tuesday I went to a castle is the inspiration for Disney World's castle. No pictures yet. Sorry for the errors... I figured you would not mind as long as you found out quickly what was going on.

Sausainiai

Here is just a small post when I was able to make some Lithuanian cookies with friends.

As I entered the apartment, these guys were busy making their nest.

So the ingredients were fairly simple: flour, salt, sugar, and sour cream. I think that was it. The dough is kneaded and rolled out. Then it is cut and put into oil to fry.

Once golden, they are taken out of the frying pan and drizzled with honey or powdered sugar... sounds a lot like ausukis to me.

I made a special cookie.

On another note, I made some no-bake cookies, but they ended up not turning out as well because I put to much milk in the mixture and it ended up being to runny. Oh well, they were still tasty.

Next post will show my trip to the beautiful peninsula off the coast of Lithuania.

Juroje

Here are a few pictures from a weekend trip we took to the Baltic coast.

So our first stop was a church and monastery where one of my cousins is in Kretinga. He gave us the tour of this beautiful church built to stop the spread of Protestant religions at that time. This cross was the cross used to "baptize" Lithuania into Catholicism.
This is the oldest organ in Lithuania.
This is the altar. Look closely at the statues. They look so good and yet they are hundreds of years old and made of wood. Just look at the picture below to see the back of the altar and see what the statues look like from behind.

My cousin the Franciscan with Ignas and Ričardas
So in the background is what was used for the choir originally during mass. These wooden pieces were moved to the current room now and will be restored by my cousin's (the monk) father. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see Franciscan martyrs throughout history. The pictures are a little gruesome.
Here are the caskets of the original founders of the church here in Kretinga. It is part of the catacombs of the church.

This is an altar made in the catacombs. As the story goes many people told my cousin when he came there that there had been people burned alive in the church by Sweeden as a revenge against Lithuania and its ruler. When my cousin started remodeling the church, they found that the story was true when they broke through a wall and found many skeletons. The altar was put at that spot and the skeletons were put into the altar as you can see from the picture.
beautiful woodwork in the church

After the church, we went to a museum and winter house.
Taking an illegal picture.

An interesting plant
Oops... more pictures of the church. Here you can see it from the outside. There was a wedding that was about to take place. The bride is waiting for her groom to ride up in a motorcycle.
A beautiful picture of Mary
A picture of St. Anthony with a relic of his. This place is actually only behind Padua for having recorded miracles attributed to St. Anthony's intercession. Many people would make pilgrimages here but since after World War II, they have declined.
Finally, after the winter house and museum, we went to the seashore at Palanga, a beach town nearby. Here my cousins are on the boardwalk.

There was a display of Easter eggs from around Europe on the walkway.
Ok, so I guess I really had this all out of order. Here is the winter house again. I took a picture from above and got 2 newlyweds with it too who were taking pictures of their own. I guess that was the day to get married.