From one tourist hot spot to another

The last two years we lived in a place with scenes like this...

And buildings like this...


And the visitors and tourists flocked to it. Understandably.

Now we live in a place with scenes and buildings like this...



And tourists flock to it!!

Welcome to Indiana! Actually these are scenes from Nashville, IN, a small town about 15 miles east of Bloomington in Brown County, the "famous" Brown County. In the autumn thousands of visitors come to this area (upwards of 1,000 visitors a day) to see the colorful trees, walk around the State Parks, browse through shops in Nashville (like the ones in these photos) and have a "good country experience."

We'd heard a lot about it from locals and knew that if we waited another month or two, the roads would be packed with tourists, so we decided to go check it out and spent a morning walking around the historic little town. Ah such classic heart-warming scenes. Jim got particularly excited about all the ice cream, fudge and candy shops. We both got excited when we heard there are two wineries in the nearby area! (sorry no photo of that). Now we feel "at home" again - Southern, Midwestern American/German/South African Hoosiers.


(sorry no word yet on what "Hoosier" means. Still researching.) And no, we didn't try "Egg Roll on a Stick." Would you?!

The Fly Story

Int: So, Jim and Julianna, tell us a little about your week - that is, week 4 in Hoosier Town. It's now been a month since you moved here. Any highlights?



Jim: Successfully swatting a massive fly in our bedroom, definitely. Two nights ago it was circling around our room and buzzing really loudly. Initially I tried to kill it with a rolled up magazine but it was evading me and I saw I had no chance of making contact.

Int: Oh really? So then what?

Jim: Well I upgraded my weaponry to a large cloth bag (the first thing I grabbed off a hook on the wall). Very "swing-able" and much wider than a magazine.

Jul: It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. Flailing and grunting with the effort but then collapsing with laughter because it was so futile.

Jim: I almost threw my arm out of socket but THEN! Suddenly I made contact with a sound swipe. But unfortunately I had swung towards my wife and the fly careened towards her and landed on her chest.

Jul: I was innocently sitting in bed doing my sudoku and this huge fly lands on me!

Jim: So she exploded out of bed with a loud "hey!" I ripped back the covers and there it was, gasping it last breaths, knocked senseless.

Jul: And he then smacks it again, to death this time (but still using my cloth shopping bag), despite my protests.

Jim: I put it out of its misery.

Jul: And then he turns to me and says, "Wife, are you impressed?" ... oh yes, very impressed. There's now a massive dead fly on the bedsheets.

Int: That's quite a story. So this was the highlight of the week, you say?

Jim: Well last Saturday we went to "Long's Bakery", up in Indianapolis, which I had heard had great donuts. It's been a while since we've had really good donuts. We stood in line for 25 minutes! And the number of donuts on trays in the back was staggering - so many kinds and so many. It felt like this "classic" old American bakery. Been around since the 50s and the shop hasn't changed much since then.


Jul: We gave in and bought a half dozen donuts and one "gator log" (some type of huge frosted-nut donut). One man in front of us bought 5 dozen donuts and brownies.

Jim: And they were ... amazing!!

Jul: We wolfed down three in no time and enjoyed the sugar high for a while. The best was called "apple fry." Never heard of those before.

Jim: But then the stomachache set in ... so when we got home we put the rest in the freezer.

Int: Thanks for the recommendation. Next time, I'd like to hear some more about what the transition from South Africa to Indiana has been like.

Jul: Oh definitely, next time. Every day it seems we're making observations. Like this week it suddenly hit me, "Wow these gallons of milk are so huge! And the milk stays fresh so long! And the milk is fresh, not from a box!" But more on that later...

B town: Farmer's Market

The Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings is fantastic! Live music, local produce, plants and flowers, kettle corn (irresistible), free-range and organic lamb, beef, pork, and chicken, organic cheeses, local honey and jams, plus lots of people-watching.
What's being harvested these days? Have a look below.

B Town: First Scenes of downtown

Bloomington is a very cool town - really and truly! - but especially the downtown area. It stretches for blocks with lots of cool shops, cafes, bars, coffeeshops, and international restaurants galore, most of them residing in cool old buildings that have been kept in good shape. Standing in the central square is the old county courthouse. It is pictured below with the Civil War monument out front.

Looking for a unique place to grab a bite? Bloomington probably has what you're looking for. Besides a couple of places that serve standard American fare, plus a few chains (Chipolte, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts), we've got Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Morroccan, Indian, Thai, Ethiopian, Irish, Chinese, Mexican and on it goes. Jul and I are excited to explore (slowly, of course, considering our budget!).

Bloomington has a lot of neat old buildings, as I mentioned above. Many of them were built from limestone drawn from centuries' old quarries in southern Indiana. We're told that the same quarries also supplied much of the limestone used to build Washington DC and New York City.

It seemed that every other person we met told us that we Really Had to have breakfast at The Village Deli. Last Friday we did just that, and it met expectations: I ordered a giant pancake and eggs; Jul ordered cheesy/veggie eggs with toast and potatoes. We both enjoyed the coffee, of course.

We've tried them and are inclined to agree with the locals: Bloomington Bagels probably makes some of the best anywhere - yum! Especially nice for us since we could not get bagels in South Africa. The Pretzel Bagel is our favorite so far, perhaps not least because it reminds us of our days living in Kandern, Germany, when we could pop down to the village bakery and buy lovely pretzels and pretzel-dough rolls.

Another cute one of K&N

*from two weekends ago; the morning after the engagement party