Kolsch in Köln

I am happy to say we are getting settled into our apartment. I cooked a meal in my own kitchen for the first time in about 4 months on Tuesday. We decided to make turkey tacos, which was risky. There is only one brand of Mexican food we can find so far - Old El Paso - which isn't anything I would buy in the States.  It is actually manufactured here and tastes quite a bit different from home. We are pretty sure the taco seasoning had curry in it...a lot of curry. Anyhow, it was good enough and I think the fact that we were eating it in our own place made it taste better.
The Saturday before we moved out, one of the families here volunteered to watch K for us for a couple of hours so we could go to dinner. The amount of support we have gotten from the other families here is incredible, by the way. We are so fortunate to be surrounded by so many great people. Kellan got to play with a couple of adorable kids that night, which he absolutely loved.
Matt and I visited a local brew house and had some local fare. The place was packed as Karneval is in full swing here. I will try to do a post to showcase this months-long costume party that the German celebrate each year, because it is like nothing you've seen before. Matt and I started with two Kolsch.

We started looking at the menu and became very concerned that it may take us all night to order because we would have to translate the whole thing. Fortunately, they offered an English menu, so we were able to get things figured out.  When you are drinking beer here, they keep filling your glass until you put your coaster on top of it. Each time you get a refill, they put a tick mark on your coaster, which we found amusing.  The glasses from which we were drinking were only 1/3 of a liter, so our waiter stayed pretty busy!

We ordered some pickles and cheese for appetizers and then goulash and bratwurst for the main course. Everything was great, but the bratwurst and Kolsch was by far the best part.

Fantastic date night!