I am always astonished when a saying is the same in English and in German. For example “Die Karten auf den Tisch legen” means ” To put one’s cards on the table”. So many years living in an English speaking country and I never came across it. But it is pretty much the same. And I decided I need to put the bi-lingual saying/expression cards on the table. Here we go:

I have come across the famous “raining like cats and dogs” from an early point in learning English. My first English teacher believed in something called: ” learning by doing”. So he did things like going in and out the door telling us that the thing he opened and closed was a door. He also taught us a lot if idioms that come in handy when going to an English speaking country.

So he taught us the famous “raining cats and dogs” but no in Germany it rains twine: “Es regnet Bindfaeden” literally translated means “it’s raining twine”. Was always wondering how that came to be. Does it rain differently in Germany than in England? Well, so far I haven’t been hit by raindrops looking like cats or dogs. I am still waiting for it though 😉

I am getting grumpy. Somehow I am losing my train of thought. That would make a German laugh. It would be “ein Gedankenzug”. Thoughts do not resemble trains in German. They resemble hallways. It would be a “Gedankengang” which is a “Thoughhallway. Wrinkles nose. The German’s do that too, by the way: “Sie ruempfen die Nase”! But that is not everybody’s cup of tea. Not so in German though. No, no don’t get confused: We do not always agree on everything but if it is not my cup of tea it would not be my fall. Yes, really: “Es ist nicht mein Fall!” It’s funny, isn’t it.

Some English speaking people get the giggles when they leave the motorway in Germany. Why do you ask? Because an exit is an “Ausfahrt” in German and the second part sounds like “fart”. Which reminds me. My family and I did offend my step mum a little some years back when we visited her at the lovely Rhine Valley. Apparently, Lord Byron did love it too and wrote a poem about a rock which is called “Drachenfels“. Literally translated that is a “Dragonsrock”. However, she called it “Dragons crag”. But me looking the whole thing up found out that, in fact, he had called it Drachenfels in his maybe not so famous poem.

Well, I am running out of time. Need to start cooking. But if you ever get the chance to go to Germany try and visit the Dragons Rock. You get a mean view over the Rhine Valley!

view from Drachenfels north towards Bonn and Cologne
view from Drachenfels south towards Bad Honnef and Koblenz

So Linda’s prompt was this:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “card.” Use it any way you like. Enjoy!

And I have no idea how I ended up on Dragon’s Crag 😉

Here are the suggestions on how to take part

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

And here is the post to find more incredulous Stream of Consciousness posts! I agree with Linda: have fun!!!!!