Feeling at home in Germany

In one sense, my brain has been in overload. In any one day my consciousness is sifting through all the bits and pieces of language that I know, in a manner something like this

...ok, just ask if they speak english, i think thats parlais vous englisch, oh, no thats french, i don't even know french. alamak (malaysian exclamation!)...She doesn't speak english, whats the word for pen? I can remember auf dem tisch is on the table, pen, pen...make a writing gesture instead...aaaargh!

In another sense, I felt very comfortable in Germany. Although my grasp of the language is piecemeal, when I heard it I felt like I could understand if I thought harder or heard it a bit slower.

I loved walking along the street and incidently saying "entschuldigung" and knowing that people thought I was German.

I loved lots of the food (although if I ever get or see anything like Dean's squishy pate like sausages from last night I will be extremely grossed out).

The towns felt open to me, like I could figure out where to go and what to do with ease.

I loved German shoes. And the kids wooden toys are awesome (yes we got some for Baby M)

I've been wondering about why this is. Is it that I learnt a bit of German at school, and that I heard lots about my Grandmas German cousin Rika, and about my Dad's childhood days in Germany...do I just feel at home due to a certain level of familiarity with the culture?

Or is it that Australia in general is more similar to Germany than somewhere like Italy or even Poland? (less Latin/Slavic, more Germanic?)

Pondering....