I have mentioned it before, but for you who may have stumbled here and are new to the military family, please take the time to go to a Heartlink class on your base. 

Inside the Bazaar

This class helped me to understand the air force so much more and gave me a heads up on all of the resources around me. It also helped me meet some new friends! 


One of the events the class shared about is the Ramstein Welfare Bazaar. It’s held once a year and is basically a bunch of vendors stuffed into two giant airplane hangars and a tent. There are over 130 merchandise vendors and over 25 food vendors. 

walking into the bazaar

In the past couple of years they have had over a thousand volunteers and last night James was one of them! I guess he was security for one of the hangars to make sure all the merchandise was safe overnight and ready for VIP shoppers this morning. (If you volunteer, you get to shop before the crowds. In my opinion, 1000 shoppers is still a crowd) Last year there were over 25,000 shoppers counted over the weekend and they made 1.78 million dollars! Of course, that is the gross sales number, but they still have given $1.45 million back to our community in the last 5 years so it’s all for a good cause!


Today kicked this years event off and so my friend Jessica (attended Heartlink with me) and I decided to check out the goods.

Jessica and her pretty babies

We started out with food…because I can’t describe to you how excited I was about a simple american hotdog and tater-tots! mmmm it was SO good!

yummy tots

…washed it down with a raspberry lemonade. 

Super sweet lemonade

Well here’s the thing about the Bazaar. It’s not that I had anything in mind that I absolutely needed or wanted to buy, but I only ended up getting one thing because I felt like everything was really expensive! Now I know that people look really forward to this every year and like I said, it’s for a good cause, but I am a cheapo! At one point I tried on this cute headband with an awesome costume looking top hat attached to it and as amazing as it was….it cost 69 Euro and I couldn’t imagine why!?!! I could have made one for under $10. I can’t justify that. 

Cuckoo clocks!

there were lots of local wines

Polish pottery

really cool liquor bottles

Cute little toys

Barbie and her castle

Christmas ornaments

cute little guys!

I did manage to find a birthday present for Debbie (little sister) so that made me happy and I felt like I was doing my part. lol. 

a little “owl love”

Jessica’s oldest, Lily, is potty training so we had to take numerous breaks and make our way to the bathrooms but it’s ok because it was close to the food…and I managed to get a funnel cake in before we left so I was a happy camper. 


It was such a gorgeous day too. The perfect day! Lots of little, poofy clouds rollin’ around in the sky and warm sunshine on your back. It did get a little cooler as we were leaving but I took a picture of the sunset tonight and felt like that cool air that blew in made it a great one. 

view from outside my bedroom window

and a blurry one because I liked the bokeh

All in all, I felt like today’s adventure was a success.

Oktoberfest is this weekend….can’t wait to tell you all about that adventure. 

(this is the costume I wish I was wearing to Oktoberfest this weekend)