Sunday, May 30, 2010

Calbe: More Family .. And A Goat

One of the things I love about Germany is the food, and particularly, breakfasts! Breakfasts here are simple: bread, spreads (butter, cream cheese), cold cuts, and cheese. And all three - breads, cold cuts, and cheese - taste damn good here!

I got up early today, around 8am, and enjoyed a hearty breakfast with the rest of the family. Afterwards, Rudy, Olga, Kevin, and Joana went downtown to take a few pictures of Calbe. Then we went to the local Tiergarten, a zoo of sorts, although very small. The first two pictures below were taken there.

Cub and a goat.














A lovely couple: Rudy and Olga














We got back mid-afternoon, and immediately upon returning I made may way over to uncle David's place. He welcomed me in, as he did yesterday, and we had a conversation for about 3 hours. This time he talked about his "faehigkeit" (ability, skillfullness) as an engineer in the Russian army, pre World War 2. His most treasured years of all are from the late 1930's, when he was stationed as an engineer on a Soviet battle ship. After he was let go from the marines (for being German), his life deteriorated. In fact, he deems his life after Sevastopol virtually meaningless.

It was difficult to leave his home today. It's quite obvious to me that he's a lonely man - misunderstood by his daughter and grandchildren, lost his only son a few years ago in a mysterious death, and lost his wife too, I believe just over 20 years ago, he's literally alone, in his 90's, trying to see out the last few years of his life.

After saying good bye to him, I returned to downtown Calbe to take a few more pictures.

Then, around 7pm, I returned "home" to uncle Yuri and aunt Nelly's. Not long afterwards, Yelena and Micha arrived. We ate a great great dinner - by far the best dinner I've had so far on this trip.

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