Laundry and Curry

We had to do our laundry at a laundromat on Saturday at the Eco Express Waschsalon. Seems pretty simple, right? Just bring some coins and some detergent and you're all set. Wrong.  First of all, the walk to the laundromat was about 3/4 of a mile, so we opened up our largest rolling suitcase, piled in our clothes and started our walk.  A very kind fellow FedEx pilot who has been here since December helped us navigate our way there since it is hard to find.  He walked us through the process of getting soap and selecting a machine and then headed back to the hotel.

Unlike American laundromats., where each individual washer and dryer have a place to give your money and select your wash cycle, German laundromats have a large control panel where you enter your money and select your machine.  It looks something like this:

You also get your detergent (a different type for colors and whites) and fabric softener at this control panel.  Note that it is all in German - labels for buttons, directions, etc.,.  Once you have tackled the control panel, you walk over to your machine, load your clothes in and then put in the soap.  But even this is a wee bit confusing if you aren't speaking much German yet.  There are three different places to put soap, fabric softener and prewash, once again all labeled in German as you might expect.  So Google translator on my new IPhone was my best friend.  We finally figured it out and got four washing machines going while Kellan had tons of fun running around and attempting to push the buttons on every single machine.  I had to be very careful to keep him from actually pushing one of those buttons, as he could have disrupted someone's wash or dry cycle and caused me to have some angry Germans on my hands.  While most people seem to be pretty nice, some seemed to be impatient with us Americans and I'm never sure which type I'm going to get...

Right across the street was an Indian food restaurant that we decided to give a try while our clothes washed.  We were a little nervous as our last two dinners out with Kellan hadn't ended so well.  One night we had to throw our food into to-go boxes right as it arrive and leave because he had a full-blown tantrum.  At the enxt dinner, we rushed through very, very quickly to prevent what was quickly moving towards a full-blown tantrum.  Poor guy.  I was also nervous about whether or not I would like the food, because my tummy has been a little sensitive since we got here.  Some foods - meats, dairy products and water - taste just a little bit different and I just haven't adjusted to that yet.  Of course, all of the foods that are particularly bad for you - croissants and other delicious breads and candy - taste delicious.

We were seated quickly in the Indian restaurants and had very friendly, English speaking waiters.  K was in very good spirits after his romp at the laundromat, so things were looking up.

K loved both the crispy and the soft Na'an bread, as well as the rice.

 Matt and I had chicken masala and curry and both were delicious!

K was very good the whole time and it turned out to be one of our best meals yet.

We returned to the laundromat after to dry our clothes, then after folding we loaded everything back up into our suitcase and went back to the hotel.  I am looking forward to having a washer and dryer of our own at our apartment, but I think I could get used to weekly laundry and curry if I had to.