Asian Markets in Kaiserslautern

As part of my walks through town where I check out all manners of stores, I came across several Asian grocery markets in Kaiserslautern. I don't know much about these types of stores or what constitutes a good one (sorry about that), but here are some pictures and information that I hope will be helpful.

Asia City

Pirmasenser Str. 22, 67655 Kaiserslautern

Hours: M - F 0900-1830; Sat. 0900-1800

This is a small store on the west side of the pedestrian shopping area. I saw a sign that they sell fresh tofu. I also found a container of coconut oil for 3.50 euros, which seems to be a good deal. When I'm ready to make soap again, I'll probably stop by to purchase some. 

Orient
Karl-Marx-Straße 6 67655 Kaiserslautern‎
Hours: M-F 0900-1900; Sat. 0900-1700

Toward the middle of town is Orient. I've stopped in before and bought wasabi peanuts. I guess that's all that I can say as I don't usually eat/buy Asian food :)

Tam Asia
Karl-Marxstr.20, 67655 Kaiserslautern 
M-F 0900-1800; Sat. 0900-1600
Close to Orient is Tam Asia. This store seems to be the brightest and the largest of the three.

It has begun! The Christmas (gangsta's paradise) market in Kaiserslautern

I was downtown tonight to do this crazy, rushed outing to shop for boots (and I was stupid enough to try to speak rushed German, too -- that was a mess and the relieved store employees were practically begging me to return to English).

Once that was done, I wandered around the fußgängerzone, which is the pedestrian shopping area. It was wonderful; the Christmas market had just opened today and a jolly mood permeated the crowds of people visiting little huts and sipping glühwein (hot, mulled wine). 

Look! Does this blurry cell phone picture show the fun, or what?!

Around the corner, the sounds of a band greeted me. I walked up and jammed to some of the upbeat music, which, by the way, was not the least bit Chirstmassy. There was something about it that seemed familiar though.

Suddenly it dawned on me: they were playing a cover of Coolio's Gangster's Paradise! I was cracking up and reminiscing about being in my teens and roller skating to the song super fast and thinking just how cool I was (yeah, don't you wish you could've had such awesome teenage years too?). Were you expecting some om-pa-pa music or old German carols? This is modern Germany, bro.

Anyway, it was a pleasant little visit. The funny thing is that I still don't really feel in the Christmas spirit yet. The party vibe downtown is pretty much the same for most of the markets and events. Don't get me wrong; I love me a good party atmosphere and it was fun, especially with the Coolio references. I might just need to play some American Christmas carols at home to get into the swing of things.

Thrift Store Review: Lieblings, Kaiserslautern

Lieblings - Second Hand Laden Kaiserslautern
Richard-Wagner-Strasse 25
67655 Kaiserslautern
Hours: M-F 1000-1800; Sat. 1000-1300


I think that the tagline for my take on this store should be "Lieblings: I'm not lovin' it."

Actually, "lieblings" means "favorite." It's also accurate to say that this is not my favorite thrift store in town (my favorite is Die Schatzkiste, while we're on that subject). That's harsh, but it's how I feel.

Anyway, the store is reasonably large with a selection of men's and women's clothes (I don't recall seeing children's clothes and the sign didn't mention them so I don't believe that they carry them). There are also jewelry, shoes, accessories, some household items, and books.

Many of the items were name brands. The reason this store just doesn't do it for me is that I feel that the items are way overpriced. For example, there were t-shirts for 12 euros that I'm sure retailed for around the same price! Shoes with obvious wear were around 25 euros, and they weren't expensive shoes when they were new.

I think that the store may be a consignment store as I saw bags of clothes packed up with names on them. They also had tags with codes. I've consigned clothes before and it looks similar.

Either way, I don't recommend this store. It's just too overpriced.

Visiting Primark in Saarbrücken

On Saturday a friend and I took a trip to Saarbrücken. I needed some boots for an upcoming trip and we also wanted to visit Primark, an Irish clothing store that is similar to Old Navy in its offerings (inexpensive sweatshop stuff). I popped into the Frankfurt store once but was so frustrated by how busy and crazy it was that I popped right out again. This time, I planned better and we had a more peaceful visit.

For any newbies to Primark, I would suppose it is a good idea to prepare yourself first. Seriously. Blogger Charlotte from Sherbet and Sparkles wrote a helpful guide here. I had read this before my trip to Frankfurt so when I checked out that Primark, I kind of knew that it would not be enjoyable to visit on a Saturday afternoon. Thus, I knew that my next Primark visit would be early, not too long after opening.

We arrived at the Saarbrücken Primark around 9:40 am. I marveled at how pleasant it was to move freely through the store and for the most part, not having the other shoppers slam into us. We enjoyed ourselves, oohing and ahhing over the velour-lined fleece leggings. I absolutely had to buy some; wearing them is what I imagine being a teddy bear must feel like. Or maybe not, since their velour is on the outside? Hmm...

A display of animal-shaped mittens and hats captured our attention for way too long. I was deliberating over which pair of mittens to buy when I solved the issue by choosing none of them because I remembered that I hate wearing mittens. I should have thought of that sooner.

Following that, we lost ourselves in hilarity. There were escalators throughout the building; the main floor to the next floor had a normal sized escalator but between the next levels there was an escalator for a height of seven stairs! It seemed so ridiculous for such a short distance (and of course we rode it, giggling all the way).

Really? An escalator for this short of a distance?

I then managed to get semi-stuck in a sweatshirt while trying it on. It didn't help that it was a cowl neck sweatshirt and I couldn't breathe for an interval. Even worse was that once I could breathe again, I was doubled over, laughing because it was so ridiculous. I finally got it all together and my friend helped extricate me from the sweatshirt.

We then found an even more "charming" sweatshirt:

How special is this? We both lived through the 80s and remembered when people would cut off the sleeves of sweatshirts (but we were both too young to know why this happened). This Primark sweatshirt is awesomely retro and has the cut off sleeves, just like in the 80s...but then has additional sleeves sewn back in. Even though I'm an adult now, I can't explain this phenomenon. Is it an Irish tradition, perhaps?

After the strange sweatshirt, we hit the jackpot: a whole wall of weird adult-sized footie pajamas that were also costumes. Oh my awesomeness. If I didn't panic when I wear such things, I would have really had to hold back from buying one. I missed out as being Spider(wo)man, Super(wo)man, Santa Claus, or even a tiger. Darn!

We felt that our opportunity to shop in a less hectic environment was waning so we scooted downstairs to pay for our choices. It was in the nick of time, too; more people had flooded in during the forty-five minutes when we were shopping. We were pretty excited about our purchases: awesome velour (and non-velour) lined leggings and a cowl neck sweatshirt (that actually fitted me). Then we got the heck out (we both realized that we don't enjoy shopping a lot, even factoring how much fun we had with exploring the store).

Aldi gets in on some electronic sun too

Even Aldi has solar panels and the display board that indicates how much energy its solar panels are producing.

Electric sun

Germany is moving away from nuclear power to greener forms of energy. I think part of the reason is that the country is trying to show that it is possible for a strong industrial nation to survive without nuclear energy.

Wind turbines and solar panels are reasonably common here as a result. Throughout Kaiserslautern, there are buildings with plaques that note how much energy is generated through the solar panels. I saw the panel below in the Kreissparkasse.

Roadside candy machines: Ramstein-Miesenbach

Some blurry jewelry, watermelon gum, that creepy sticky hammer that keeps showing up in candy machines around the Pfalz, and Meerestiere, or sea animals, fill this roadside candy machine by Löwen Apotheke in Ramstein-Miesenbach.