The Greatest Place on Earth (and no, I don't mean Disney World)

I've mentioned Kaufland a couple of times, but I think it deserves its very own, if slightly brief, post. A cross between Target and Walmart that sells mostly groceries and a smattering of home and office supplies, Kaufland is the single most oft-visited place we've discovered in Tuebingen. They have fruits and veggies, they have all your standard dry goods, they have an entire refrigerated wall devoted to salami, they have a whole corner of store set aside for meat and dairy, and most importantly, they have extraordinarily inexpensive wine and beer for the odd American student who likes to enjoy that with their dinner (who that might be, I couldn't say....)

When we first arrived, Anya dragged me over to the big, table-high bins of fruit and vegetables. "Look, it's all bio!" she pointed out. Bio is the German version of organic, except it's a lot more affordable over here. In fact, you can get a deal on something bio that is cheaper than the non-bio equivalent. It's also all inexpensive. Have you ever gone grocery shopping, picked something up, and wondered how it can cost as much as it does? Or whether you have enough cash on your pay for it? Well at Kaufland, unless you're buying something "expensive" (like 5 Euro olive oil), you can pretty much assume everything in the cart will be 2 Euro or less, and guesstimate that way. My giant leek? Why that's -.65 cents. Two Bratwurst? -.85 cents. For both. This place just blows me away. Even the shampoo, toothpaste, and essentially every other product you'd ever buy for your own personal care of hygiene is affordable at Kaufland. And the best part? In less than two minutes, we're there. We do get funny looks from some people because we're either speaking comfortably in English or in decidedly non-fluent German, but I think they're getting used to us...