storefronts & signs

  


  

Save for one shot from my friends' balcony, these are all from a leisurely shopping/eating walk on Saturday from Alt-Sachenhausen to the Nordend in Frankfurt. This city keeps getting prettier the longer I live here.

recent deliciousness

1. Chana masala with homemade paneer: I added a bit too much coconut milk to the version I served my friends, but the extra sauce I kept at home has all the right tongue-tingling goodness.
2. Aperol Spritz (the perfect summer cocktail) and mint & lemon water
3. Green pea soup with an Indian flavor profile: so good that I said, "Holy crap," upon taking a bite. I ate it with pan-fried haloumi cheese, not having yet made the homemade paneer from #1, and it was equally good hot and cold.

rheingau

  


More shots from the Rhine Vally last weekend: flowers in St. Goarhausen, Burg Rheinfels in St. Goar, Dreiburgenblick above St. Goarshausen, and Rüdesheim.

three-castle view

On Sunday, while my friends Heather and Fitz were here visiting, I rented a car and drove us all out to the Rhine Valley. I'd been a couple of times before but never by car, and it turns out that having your own wheels in that area is pretty awesome: it means that when you see a sign that promises a view of three castles, you can jump in the car and drive up a goat trail for ten minutes instead of hiking straight uphill for a couple hours. We had a little trouble locating the third castle, leading us to consider redubbing the scenic overlook "two-and-a-half-castle view", but it was there, slanting into the green countryside in the distance.

I love a good city and the beach will always be where my heart lives, the landscape where I am most at home, so it's easy to forget that the countryside can leave me breathless with longing. I forget that I ache at how beautiful Germany's countryside is: Rosskopf's golden checkerboard fields, villages tucked into the greenest of hills in the Bavarian Alps and the Schwarzwald, even riverside fields just the slightest bit to the east or west of Frankfurt, trees along the water on one side and fields full of crops on the other, no sign of a city anywhere close. I don't feel stifled by the city, but when I leave it I remember that feeling I had when I came to Germany for the very first time, as a sixteen-year-old: the feeling that I wanted to soak in every bit of this country's beauty until I was utterly satiated. And there's so much of the German countryside that I've never visited, that I haven't even begun to know. Better hop to it.

reunion tour

  


  
Sunday a week ago, my study abroad friend Lauren rolled into FFM as part of her weeks-long European tour before heading off for her summer fellowship. Seeing as the last time we saw each other was in South Asia, it's less surprising than it would otherwise be that her summer fellowship is in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. We spent a couple of days wandering through town, enjoying the gorgeous weather (save for a freak hailstorm we got caught in in Sachsenhausen), and noshing on Flammkuchen, Grüne Soße, and Apfelwein at Dauth Schneider, Turkish appetizers at Manolya, ice cream at Eis Christina, and a big German send-off breakfast on my balcony. Not a bad way to say goodbye (though waving each other off in India was pretty solid too) -- and I'm sure the next time we see each other, it will be just as awesome.