The Wasen, Take Two

AHHH!!

Sunday I was going to go to the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart, Stuttgart is the home of both Mercedes and Porsche. Unfortunately by the time I got myself motivated the museum wasn’t going to be open much longer and I decided I could visit on Monday. Instead I headed into the hills above Esslingen and walked on the paths that go through the wine fields. There were also apple, pear and plum trees scattered about. It was a beautiful day and a nice relaxing way to get some exercise.

Monday I went to the Mercedes museum but unfortunately it is closed on Monday’s. The museum is on the same grounds as the Stuttgart futbol(soccer) stadium and Mercedes employee offices. The number of bikes in the employee parking was staggering as were the number of motorbikes. Bikes get to park in the front, followed by motorbikes and finally cars. I think it’s a great idea to have employees bike to work if it’s feasible. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the park in downtown Stuttgart relaxing.

The company where Yvonne worked this summer was having an employee only get together at the Wasen, where the owner was buying employees drinks and food. As I wasn’t an employee I was unable to partake in the free goodness but I was able to go back to the Wasen and enjoy myself none the less. Yvonne went with her company to their table and I walked around and found a spot for myself closer to the music. I joined a table of guys from Wales, England and Ireland. These guys had been at the Wasen for five nights straight and were heading back home the next day. The Wasen has several tents and this time I was at a different tent than the one we were at on Saturday night. The new tent had stripper poles and cameras that were projecting onto a big screen. We nicknamed the photo setup the “perv cam” because they only seemed to show provocatively dressed girls dancing on their benches, not that I minded.

There were girls walking around with a breathalyzer machine charging people 3€ to be breathalyzed and one of the guys at my table wanted to give it a try. The guy asked the breathalyzer girl, how high the machine went and was told a 3.0. The guy then blew and had a blood alcohol content of 3.53.

Like on Saturday everyone was standing and singing on the benches. Shortly after we had a new round of beers delivered a German guy at another table slipped and fell onto our table knocking three of our fresh beers onto the ground and shattering the beer mugs. At first the guy was only willing to offer us one beer to replace our three that were destroyed but after a short conversation and realizing there were 12 of us and only 3 of them they replaced the rest of the beer they spilt.

After the Wasen we got on the train to go back home and it was full of other people who had also been at the Wasen. We sang Oktoberfest songs all the way home, another amazing ridiculous night.

I spent much of Tuesday making plans and have the next few weeks planned out as follows Munich - Berlin - Amsterdam - Belgium - Prague – Krakow and then working my way south through eastern Europe.

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09_28_09 Stuttgart small

Wasen

Nice Horsey

Yvonne was looking around online and read that there had been pictures found in a train station during renovations that were taken during WWII and were of Jews getting onto trains to leave the area and head to Auschwitz. We thought that it would be interesting and informative so we headed there. Unfortunately we didn’t know exactly where it was and so we had to walk around and talk to several people who all thought it was in different places. We eventually came to a field where there were a bunch of people moving gravel around and cleaning up an area outside and saw that there were pictures in the park they were cleaning up. It turns out that they were not old pictures, but recent pictures taken by a photographer of the area that was used to load the Jews onto the trains during WWII. The photos were then placed on the ground for three weeks, so they could be affected by the ground and then the photos were photographed and the final products were displayed in the park. It wasn’t what we had expected but it was informative and sad anyway.

Saturday was also the day of the Wasen, pronounced Vasen, in Stuttgart and many of Yvonne’s friends came to Stuttgart for the Wasen. It is a kind of carnival with rides and food booths and games. There are also large tents that have food, 1 Liter beers and live music. We got to a tent by 2pm because in previous years the tents were full by 3pm and people were not allowed inside. This was also the case this year and we had to search hard to find an available table to accommodate our group. At first people were wandering around drinking beers and talking and then band after band took the stage playing German drinking songs, that don’t have too complicated of lyrics and after the first or second time, I now know many of them. Half of the songs were English songs, but many were songs that are not that popular in America and the ones that were popular seemed out of place like “My heart will go on” by Celine Dion. Many of the German songs have hand motions, like swimming or flying. Once the bands started playing everyone got up from sitting on the benches and stood on the benches drinking and singing the night away.

Even in the men’s urinal the guys were swaying and singing the songs that could be heard from the band. I saw a guy walking and while walking turned his head to the left like a swimmer coming up for air and puked in stride and then kept on walking, like it was nothing more than a cough.

It was a ridiculous amount of fun, I cannot wait for more in Munich this week at the "real" Oktoberfest.

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Onion Cake

So Awful!

Michea, Yvonne’s brother had to work all day so I went and wandered around Karlsruhe. There are a lot of students in this town, both college and high school age that were wandering around at the same time I was, making the streets very crowded. The two main attractions in town are a street where cars are not allowed that is lined with shops and a giant castle. There are of course large ancient churches, like in all European towns but I have had my fill of them.

I managed to find a few things I needed to resupply on and also bought a new packet of socks, mine have slowly been disappearing one at a time through my travels. When I first started to work after college three years ago, I collected all of my socks up and threw them all away, because through the years and having so many males in my family, I didn’t have but two pairs of socks that actually matched. Then I went and bought three packets of identical white socks, so that mine would always match. Those three packets have slowly been dwindling as I lost socks and they became worn down and holey. Once I get back I will need to purge my socks again and get all new ones, now that these new socks are in the mix.

Michea told me that it would be easier if I ate dinner on my own because he didn’t know for sure when he would be home from work and we were going rock wall climbing that night. Before Michea came home I ate a delicious McDonalds extra value meal, called a “menu”, in Europe. Then when Michea got home he asked me if I wanted a pizza and I ate that too. After eating all of that I felt like I could hardly move, my stomach was so full.

I have never really been rock wall climbing, I have done some small stuff that was heavily assisted, but not like this. I have always wanted to but never taken the time to actively pursue it. Michea has been doing it for a while and so he instructed me on how everything works, why it’s done and what the ramifications are if it’s not followed properly, mainly someone will fall a great distance and get hurt or possibly die.

Each person wears a harness that goes around their legs and their waist and then one end of the rope is attached to each person and then either to a pulley at the top of the wall or attached to hooks as you ascend the wall. There were lots of different paths that could be taken with varying difficulty depending on the spacing and grip of the things attached to the wall. Michea was much better than me, but I was able to stand my own and picked up quickly what to do. I have also added rock wall climbing to my list of activities to pursue when I come back home. The list is starting to get very long, but I think that I can do most if not all of the things regularly once I come back.

After nearly four hours of climbing I was exhausted both physically and mentally and ready for some sleep. My muscles were really sore, but in the way that feels really good.

Friday Michea had to work again and so I went back to the city, walking around and exploring. I found a bird that was grabbing nuts and then flying them high into the air, where the bird would then release the nut so it would smash into the ground and crack open. Then the bird could easily swoop down and enjoy all of the nutty goodness.

Michea was traveling back home for the weekend and gave me a ride back to Stuttgart. While driving we saw a car pulling a trailer on the Autobahn with a sign indicating that it should not be going faster than 80KM/H. We were right behind it and traveling the same speed of 100KM/H. Just after we noticed the trailer an unmarked cop car pulled up behind it and turned its lights on. “Ha Ha, they got him” I announced. It wasn’t him they were pulling over though, it was us. In Germany cops pull in front of cars and have signs that say “follow me” in their back window. We followed the cops to a parking lot where there were a lot of officers and other cars that had been pulled over, they were doing routine traffic stops. The officers asked for our identification and then made us wait in the car while they looked us up in the computer. The officers came back and told us that everything was fine and we were free to go on our way.

When I got back to Stefan’s apartment in Stuttgart I was met with a hilarious sight. Yvonne was making onion cake and was chopping onions wearing swimming goggles. I’m not a fan of onions but I told Yvonne I would try her onion cake. I tried it and it was awful, it was just a bunch of onions on freshly baked bread with cheese. It would have been good if there weren’t any onions, but there were so many it was impossible to pick them off without only being left with plain bread.

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2 Posts

I just posted "Jumping Over Stuff" and "Zipper Accident". Sorry I have recently been posting in groups instead of single posts. Be sure to check beyond the most recent posts when you check, so you don't miss one.

Jumping Over Stuff

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Wednesday morning I went and did my laundry at a local laundry mat to get out the smell of my own sweat and cigarette smell that I get in my clothes when I go out. I really hate other people’s smoke in my clothes, YUCK!

Yvonne and I drove to Ludwigsburg and walked around a castle and garden. The garden was decorated with thousands of pumpkins recreating many famous fairy tales. It reminded me of going to pick pumpkins and playing apple baseball, a game my dad and I created where we throw mushy apples and smack them with the apple picking stick. I started to feel really homesick thinking about missing out on doing that this year and missing out on other things back at home.

Then we drove to Karlsruhe where Michea, Yvonne’s brother, lives. Michea got some friends together and we all went go karting. These are the superfast go karts where you have to wear helmets and get lots of instructions. Before we started I was thinking about how good I was going to be and how impressed all of the Germans would be with the speedy American. As it turns out I am awful, I think it’s because I don’t know how to turn properly, but I got passed by everyone and finished in dead last both times. My fastest lap was slower than most other peoples average lap speed. For some reason it makes me feel like less of a man to be so awful at go karting.

Yvonne took a bunch of artsy pictures today so there are over 100 in total.

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09_24_09 Stuttgart small

Zipper Accident

Plllt!

Monday Yvonne had an appointment to look at a room to rent in an apartment and I went with her and then she pointed me in the direction of the city and we agreed to meet there later. The only problem was that Yvonne didn’t know for sure which direction the city was and all I had was a street name to look for. I didn’t have a map and all I could find were small maps on bus stops that only showed three blocks around the current location. After some walking around I found a bus map that had the street I wanted and was able to find the downtown area. I’m not quite sure how it worked out as it did, but I’m glad it did.

For dinner Yvonne made maultaschen a pasta like thing that hid delicious meat inside of it. Yvonne made veggie ones for herself and fried up some meat ones for Stefan and I. I cannot pronounce the name of it, but it sure is tasty. We also had South German potato salad, which doesn’t have mayonnaise and is much better, I might be biased a little since I don’t like mayonnaise.

Tuesday Yvonne and I rode bikes to meet Stefan for lunch at an Indian restaurant. I don’t think the owner was Indian, he looked to be Turkish but my curry chicken was quite good. I wanted garlic cheese naan, probably my favorite bread item in India, but all they had was garlic naan. I ordered that and got more of a flat bread than naan, but it was still good none the less. After lunch Yvonne and I took the train up to the radio and TV tower. It was the first free standing tower of its type and was used as a prototype for many other TV and radio towers. We decided to go there because it has great views of the city and it seemed to be a clear day. However, once we got to the top we realized it wasn’t as clear out as we had though, but it was still a nice view. Since the tower was located on a very high hill above town we rode our bikes back down towards town at lightning speeds. I forgot how much fun it is to ride a bike, I’m going to look into getting a better bike after I get back in America and have money again.

Once back in Stuttgart we went to a park and laid in the grass relaxing and listening to music. The weather has warmed back up and jeans are no longer necessary during the day. Yvonne and I decided that all the downhill riding and relaxing in the park meant we deserved to have giant ice creams. While eating mine a bird flew overhead and pooped on my head. Luckily he missed my ice cream and there wasn’t much on my head, though it did smell extremely foul.

Tuesday night Yvonne and Stefan both had plans already so I looked online and found a movie theater that shows movies in their original language. I left Stefan’s apartment at 6:15 to see a 7:30 movie. By the time I made it to the movie theater it was after 8pm, I might have taken the wrong train a time or two. The next movie showing was Inglourious Basterds and I waited to see that. It was very interesting to see that movie, a movie about Nazi’s, in a German theater. There were subtitles for the German parts but everyone else in the theater knew German and would react when the characters would say their lines instead of reading the subtitles. There were several times that I chuckled to complete silence at the things people said in English because the humor was English word play that the other people either didn’t find funny or didn’t get. I had read that people either really like or really dislike the movie and I am in the category that liked it.

While going to the bathroom I zipped myself in my zipper. I screamed like a little girl and then started shouting the most insane profanity that came to my mind. I have never in my memory ever zipped any part of myself up in a zipper and especially not something as sensitive as what I zipped up. It was a terrible feeling and ever since every time that I have gone pee I have had a flashback and had pain in my stomach for fear of repeating that awful experience.

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Winefest - France

Look a church!


Yvonne was upstairs and I was in her room, in the basement. Yvonne’s cell phone started to ring so I picked it up and started to bring it to her. “Your phone is ringing” I called. Here is the conversation that ensued:

Yvonne: Who is it?
Shaun: Nicole
Yvonne: Who is it?
Shaun: Nicole!
Yvonne: What does it say on the screen?
Shaun: Nicole!!
Yvonne: I know, but what does it say on the screen?
Shaun: Nicole!!!

Then Yvonne answered the phone and talked to Nicole. She thought I kept saying “A call” and couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t tell her who was on the phone.

We picked up Nicole and headed to the wine country for a Winefest. Another of Yvonne’s friends lives in the wine country and we drove to his house and had a dinner of pizza and then waited for others to come and go to the Winefest. The guys house we were at, Stefan, also speaks English and as Yvonne and her friends always do they were speaking English to include me in the conversation. Some new people arrived and looked at us with confused looks “Why are you speaking English?” The new comers asked. Yvonne explained that I was there and I don’t know German. Then the usual questions ensued, how long have I been in Germany, when will I leave, what do I think of Germany, why don’t I know German…

On the walk to the Winefest Stefan informed us that he had spoken with the Winefest people the night before and learned about all of the wines and would be leading us in our own personal wine tasting, one bottle at a time. Stefan would get a bottle of wine and bring it to us and then talk about it and pour us glasses until the bottle was empty and then move on to the next wine. It was interesting to learn about why the different wines taste differently and the whole process.

One of the German girls in our group asked me “what does ‘drag’ mean?” I explained that it is when a man dresses as a woman or vice versa. She looked at me really confused so I asked her the context she meant. She was talking about the movie she had just seen “Drag me to Hell”. I explained my error and what the word meant in that context. There are a lot of words in English that have multiple meanings and can make conversations turn out strange. The other example I have in my mind right now is the word “trunk”.

The Winefest was a lot of fun with drinking, dancing, eating and good people.

Sunday morning we woke up, ate breakfast and decided to head to France. It is so cool to go to other countries for the afternoon! We headed to Strasbourg near the border to Germany. As we were walking around the town a guy on a bike came up from behind me and said “bring bring” with his mouth to simulate a bike bell. I almost fell on the ground laughing because he was so serious in his face and his tone when he said it.
On the drive back to Tuttlingen I was again reminded how beautiful sunsets in this part of Germany are. The sky is beautiful and then the way the light enhances the trees, fields and flowers is amazing. I tried to take pictures but none of them turned out anywhere close to the real thing.

Once back in Tuttlingen Yvonne and I packed up our stuff and headed another 1h30 North to Stuttgart where Yvonne will start graduate school in October to look for an apartment for her to live in while in school.

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09_18_09 Wine Country & France small

Plans Update

I have bought a plane ticket back to Saint Louis for the 1st of December flying from London, now I just need to figure out what to do for the next 70 or so days.

With the Greatest of Ease

AHHHHHH!


After looking at the pictures of myself from Europa Park and having no luck with the hair wax, I have decided to get a hair cut. I always try to grow my hair out, but then as it grows I hate it so much that I cannot stand the transition to longer hair. Also, I don’t honestly know if my hair is thick enough to make it look anything but stringy when it does grow out. Yvonne had to run some errands and dropped me off at the cheapest hair salon in town to get my haircut. I waited in the lobby area until a woman signaled for me to come and take a seat. She asked me what I assume to be “How do you want me to cut your hair?” in German and I informed her that I didn’t speak German. She started to freak out and made a hand motion for me to stay while she ran away. The woman went to the back and I could see her talking frantically to another woman pointing at her and then pointing at me. I assumed she wanted the second woman to cut my hair. The second woman was telling her that she didn’t speak English either. After much discussion between them the second woman came forward and started talking to me. I pointed to the electric clippers and signaled that I wanted a number 2. Unfortunately they don’t use the same numbering system in Germany, they have millimeter lengths. I shrugged that I didn’t know which one to use and she pointed to one and said a word that sounded like “typical” or “usual” and I nodded in agreement. After she did that I showed her how long I wanted the top to be and she cut it a little longer to be careful and then I asked her to go shorter. It’s not like cutting guy’s hair is rocket science, at least I don’t think so, I’ve honestly never tried. It looks so much better now, I don’t know why I waited so long to get it cut!

I called Yvonne to come and get me and we went to a local store to look for warm clothes. Yvonne and her family have offered me the clothes of her brother but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look around and see if I can find anything that I like, so I don’t have to worry about ruining someone else’s stuff. I was able to find a cheap sweatshirt and jacket that I liked and got both, it’s going to only get colder as I continue my travels.

Next we met up with some friends and drove out to a rope park. You strap on a harness with two ropes attached and then you climb into the trees and attach yourself to cables. Then you climb over and on things that are hanging in the air. Once you get done going over a bunch of obstacles then you get to slide down a cable to the ground. There were a total of seven courses of varying difficulty. The final two courses were very difficult. There was one with a series of nets several feet apart and you had to jump from one net to the other. You could walk along the cables on the bottom, but you are supposed to jump. I jumped to the first one and hit my shin on the bottom cable and cut it open. I then slowly worked my way from net to net. I was really slow because I wanted to do it right and my muscles were screaming. I was able to do it and I was really proud of myself. The last course had something different from the other courses and required special instructions. You hook yourself to another cable and then jump off of a platform and fly into a net that stops you. Then you climb the net to the top, where you change to a different safety cable and then climb off the net to a nearby platform. Flying into the net was a lot of fun but climbing up the net was real work. It didn’t look that hard but it was a lot of work. It was a great workout and a lot of fun, now I just need to convince my dad to build a small one in his backyard.

Yvonne wanted to go to a nearby town that has a salsa dancing club, because she knows how to and likes to salsa dance. We were also able to convince Nicole, one of Yvonne’s friends, to come with us. We drove to Nicole’s house to pick her up and she wasn’t ready yet so we went in and her family had some friends over for dinner. They insisted that I join them and have some of their leftover food. They didn’t have to insist long and I quickly filled a plate with food and accepted a beer.

On our way to the Salsa club we heard on the radio that Anthony Rother, a famous DJ, was playing at another club nearby to the salsa club. Nicole really wanted to see him and so we bought tickets and then went to the salsa club. The salsa club was pretty much empty when we walked in, but it was huge and had several different types of clubs inside the one club. There was a pop music club, a salsa club, an older music part and another part that I’m not sure what it was. Yvonne went and danced salsa but since Nicole and I don’t know how and when we got there the lessons were over we went to the normal part and I showed all the Europeans my amazing American dance moves. I think everyone was really impressed because they kept looking at me and pointing.

Then we went back to hear Anthony Rother play. Young people in Germany love electronic music. I’m not a big fan but Anthony Rother was actually pretty good. Fog machines were pumping, lights were flashing, music was blasting, people were dancing.

I have included a short YouTube video of Anthony Rother playing one of his famous songs so that you can get an idea of the atmosphere from the video.



It was one heck of a long day, but a really great day.

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Butter Bread

Things are looking up


Yvonne and I made lunch, really I just sliced what she told me to slice but I think it counts, we had German pancakes. The pancakes weren’t sweet like normal pancakes and we filled them with ham and vegetables, it was really good. For dessert we covered the pancakes with Nutella and put sliced strawberries on top, also really good.

Yvonne, Stefanie and I went to the Lake of Constance on the border of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We parked the car and walked through some really beautiful gardens and then walked down by the lake front. The lakefront has lots of shops and restaurants and we found a restaurant that Stefanie had been to before and wanted to visit again.

Stefanie was insistent that I have the German food item called “butter bread” and so she ordered it to give me some. What is in butter bread you ask, bread with a massive amount of butter on it and then sprinkled with salt and pepper. Nothing fancy but somehow in a restaurant it tastes fancier than normal bread simply covered in butter.

It started to rain outside and we didn’t have any rain gear. We just sat in the restaurant taking silly pictures and waiting for the rain to subside.

During this time of the year in this part of Germany they have a wine called sousa and all of the restaurants and bars were selling it. Since it is only available seasonally in this part of Germany we were pretty much obligated to give it a try and so we did. It was sweet and delicious.

I was still hungry after the butter bread so we went to a Turkish restaurant and Stefanie and I ordered a kebab sandwich to share. Yvonne asked us how it was and Stefanie said that she liked it but wished there were more vegetables. I replied that I also liked it but wished there was more meat. We looked at each others halves and realized I had gotten most of the veggies and she most of the meat, so we swapped sandwiches and everyone was happy.

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A Day in Tuttlingen

Quit staring at me!


Yvonne and I went to town to meet some friends for lunch. We went to a pizza place and I had pepperoni and pineapple pizza, my favorite. After lunch we walked around town and I got some miscellaneous stuff that I needed. I bought a small wallet, contact solution and hair wax.

I bought the wallet since I decided before leaving America that I wouldn’t need a wallet, which was a terrible decision. I got the hair wax because my hair is getting long and it is frustrating, hopefully the wax will make things better. I got wax instead of gel because gel makes my hair stick together and I look balder than I wish I actually am. They sell actual contact lenses in the stores without a prescription, I need to check that mine are the same kind and I will pick some extra ones up since I am worried about mine not lasting until I make it home.

That night we went to a friends house who was celebrating her birthday and had dinner, drinks and watched futbol with some other friends. A very low key and relaxed day.

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Super Fast

Even the dog liked it


Super Fast

Tuesday I went to Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Greece, England, Russia, Holland, Scandinavia, Austria, Spain Portugal and Iceland. It was one heck of a busy day! Well maybe not the real countries, but I did go to a theme park that had different country themed parts called Europa Park. Their mascot is a mouse, similar to another theme park I’ve heard of elsewhere.

Yvonne couldn’t come so I went with her friend Stefanie. She picked me up at 7am and we were at the park by 9am in time for the opening. German schools started on Monday and it was a weekday so the park wasn’t very crowded which was perfect. The weather started out a little chilly but quickly warmed up and made for a perfect day.

One of my favorite rides was a kid’s ride, where you sit in a car with a laser gun and shoot at lights in the moving scenes getting points for everything you shoot. I had over 80,000 points while Stefanie only had 13,000, I kicked her butt!

The park was close to France but in Germany and all of the signs were in German, French and English. The problem was that they didn’t have an English speaker read the signs before they put them up so they said silly things like “Leaning out of the car, striking out arms or legs and carrying bulky objects is forbidden” and “Be careful of lose articles”.

The drive to the park was really beautiful with hills covered in trees and the only place there weren’t trees was where the road or farm fields were in the valleys. I really wanted to hop out of the car and head into the mountains, but that wasn’t on the agenda for the day.

There isn’t much else to say, we had a great time, look at the pictures. The nice pictures Stefanie took with her fancy camera.

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Wurmlinger Dorffest

Currywurst


Yvonne lives within 50 meters of the town square and this past weekend they had a festival in the square. The festival started with local groups playing instruments and singers. Yvonne and her family all play instruments and they took part in playing the opening music. Then the mayor gave a speech to the citizens and then opened a keg of beer and poured several large mugs that were handed out by children to the local elderly.

All around the town square were tents by local organizations selling beer and food to raise money for themselves. Yvonne’s band had a tent and she had to work a shift with her mother to start the festival. Luckily they were working the bar at the tent, so I hung out there partaking in the offerings. Yvonne’s brother, who is my age, was in town for the festival and besides being in the band, he is also in a gymnastics club. The gymnastics club put on a show with a trampoline where they would run and jump off the trampoline and do tricks. It looked like lots of fun and I wanted to do it also, but I wasn’t allowed since it was a performance.

The night continued with music, drinking and food, we had a good time and I was able to find some other people who also spoke English. Luckily Yvonne seems to have lots of friends who speak English.

On Monday Yvonne’s boyfriend got to drive a BMW M3 as a work perk. The car has two doors and they are large doors so the seatbelts in the front seats are behind the seats. You don’t have to turn around to grab the seatbelts though because there is an automatic thing that brings the seat belts to you, very classy. We took the car out on to the autobahn to drive around and the acceleration on it is amazing. I tried to keep my head forward when we pulled onto the autobahn but the acceleration was so great it was nearly impossible. We took the car up to 260KMH (161 MPH), not fast enough to make the dotted lines on the highway become solid, but plenty fast.

I tried ketchup this weekend for the first time since I was a little kid and it wasn’t too bad. The ketchup here is darker looking than that in America so I wonder if that has something to do with that or if I just like Ketchup now.

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Traveling on the Train

Krombacher


It’s finally time to leave paradise and keep on traveling. I have had an amazing time with Anna and her family but it is unfortunately time to move on.

As always I looked for the cheapest way to get from where I am to where I want to be. This time I will be taking the train and going cheap means changing trains multiple times. The plan was to leave Hagen, a town near Anna at 8:40 and arrive in Tuttlingen, where Yvonne lives, at 4:11pm. Yvonne lives in a town called Tuttlingen, which is pronounced Tootlingen and makes me laugh every time I say it. The itinerary for changing trains was as follows: Hagen – Koln – Mainz – Darmstadt – Stuttgart – Tuttlingen. My second train was late and as a result I missed my third train. I went to the information desk and they printed me a new itinerary and now instead of Darmstadt I would be going through Mannheim. This new train was late and I missed my 4th train to Stuttgart and had to catch another train. I made it at 5:30 instead of 4:11, but it wasn’t bad, all of the trains were new and comfortable and one even had electricity so I could charge my laptop and watch some movies.

At the train stations they have separate bins for different kinds of trash to make recycling easier. There are often homeless looking people who walk around and take out the bottles to get a deposit back on them. I saw a man walk by the trash can, look inside and reach in and pull out a large beer can. He shook the can and realized that it was empty and then threw it back in the trashcan. He wasn’t looking for cans for their deposit he was looking for beer. I like beer and especially free beer, but that is a line I don’t want to ever cross.

All of the trains have free bathrooms on them, but I would never realize that I needed to use them until I was about to get off the train. I ended up using the bathrooms at the train station which charge €.5 to use them. That was terrible planning on my part all three times!

I got a sandwich for lunch and there was a tomato on it. I have been eating lots of tomatoes over the last two weeks since La Tomatina without any problems. For some reason the smell of this tomato reminded me of La Tomatina and made me start to gag. I did eat the entire tomato though, gagging and all.

At night we had two birthday parties to go to for people who were complete strangers to me. The first party was at a rented clubhouse type place and had a lot of free food and free alcohol, my favorite kind of party. There were a decent number of people that spoke English and others that tried and I really had a good time. Then we went to another birthday party that was more like a house party and there were free snacks and free drinks. I am such a big fan of free, in fact I think free might be my favorite thing.

Everyone kept asking me “How long are you staying in this part of Germany?” and “Where are you going next?” I didn’t have any answers, I don’t know how long I will stay here, probably until I’m ready to move on. I don’t know where I will go next, I don’t have any plans, I really need to look at a map and try to come up with a plan but as of now I don’t have one. I have some places in mind that I would like to visit but if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, let me know.

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Life’s Tough, For Other People

Big and White


Tuesday I slept in, ate breakfast, went to the store, ate lunch, watched a movie, laid in the back yard reading a book, watched the sunset drinking a beer, ate dinner, had some flaming shots, drank beer, watched tennis, checked my email, went to bed.

Wednesday I went to Koln, with Anna’s boyfriend Fredrick. We took the autobahn to Koln, and there is no speed limit, so we went 170KMH about the max for Anna’s little car. Anna didn’t come, we just borrowed her car while she was at work. In Koln, we found a parking spot and went to get out of the car but somehow between turning the car off and standing up Fredrick lost the key to the car. We spent several minutes searching for it, we hadn’t gone anywhere so it had to be in the car or around the car, but we couldn’t find it. We checked his pockets, the glove box, the floor and under the seats several times. On the second to last time looking through everything we found the keys. Of course it was not the second to last time it was the final time, why would we look one more time after finding them.

We walked around old town Koln and found an authentic German restaurant on the Rhine and drank some beers and ate some German food. Then we went and looked inside the large Cathedral, which was free for everyone. We also passed several sights where archeologists are digging up the ground and have found ancient German and Roman ruins.

Back in Breckerfeld I decided to take a jog and Anna’s sister and father decided to come with me. We ran in the fields and then into the woods and along the lake, it was really beautiful and it felt good to be jogging again. I have been walking lots everyday, but I don’t think I have jogged since I was in Canada and there is a definite difference on the way it feels to my body. When we finished jogging the air temperature was 27C (80F) and the pool was 23C (72F), which is really cold for me. I jumped in anyway and it was wonderful and refreshing.

Tomorrow is my last full day in this area and on Friday I head South by train.

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Royalty

Vroom Vroom


I have spent the hottest months of the year in the areas of the world that are hottest and now that fall and winter are approaching I am planning to spend much of that time in places that are really cold. I definitely could have planned that better. The benefit of my poor planning is that there are fewer people where I am so I get better prices and shorter lines. My suitcase is very small and I only have 1 pair of pants, a pair of jeans. I have only worn them on days that I fly, so I can take the extra weight of the out of my suitcase. Since it is so cold here and it’s only going to be getting colder as the year winds down, I figured I should probably get another pair of jeans.

Apparently in Germany most shops are closed on Sundays with the exception of once a quarter when they are open for a small celebration. That happened to be this past Sunday and so Anna, her boyfriend and I all went to look at the shops and walk around. We went to the mall in Hagan, a nearby town, and they allow dogs in the mall all the time. Then we went to a castle on a very high hill overlooking the town. It is basically an old farm house built high on a hill with high walls around it. It had some great views of the surrounding town below.

Monday Katja, Anna’s mother, and I headed to Dusseldorf, about an hour away. On the way we stopped at the nearby lake and walked across the dam. Things here are so beautiful with the water and all of the trees everywhere, I love it. When we got to Dusseldorf we went to a department store and I looked around, everything was so expensive and this was supposed to be a reasonably priced department store. Things are at least two times as expensive in America before the Euro to Dollar exchange and when that is taken into account things become nearly three times as expensive as they are in America. I should have bought everything I could ever need while I was in India. I found a pair of jeans that I liked and then I went to look for a new pair of shoes, I have been wearing the same pair of shoes since I started and they were already dirty and stinky when I started. While I was looking at the shoes Katja came over and she had bought my jeans for me. I protested that it was unnecessary, but she insisted that since my mom took care of her daughter for a year, spoiling me for a week, was the very least she could do.

This past weekend Anna had wanted to go to a disco, a dance club, but I don’t really have any dance club clothes and I definitely cannot wear dirty stinky tennis shoes in a club either. I had originally packed a nice pair of shoes and pants but when I never used them in all of India, Nepal or Morocco, I sent them back to America with Julie when she returned home. I decided that since I am in Europe now and might go to a club if it’s free to get in and they are offering reasonably priced drinks, I should at least get some shoes to wear, if they are affordable.

We went to another store and I found both a pair of reasonably priced tennis shoes and dress shoes and decided to splurge and buy them both. When I went to check out Katja again would not let me pay and insisted on paying for me. Not that I mind, because I am beyond cheap, but I do feel bad and wish she would let me pay. At least on some level I am sure I feel that way.

We walked around the old part of Dusseldorf and then walked down to the Rhine river where we sat and watched the boats pass in the sun eating a dessert. When we got back to Anna’s house I took out the go-cart/lawnmower and drove it around in a field near their house. With the wind blowing and the fields and the trees all around I had a feeling of flying and then I really wanted to actually go flying.

Anna’s family has a truly beautiful home and they have been treating me like royalty. The family won’t allow me to help with anything and has done my laundry and constantly brings me food and drinks. I feel as if I have rented out an entire five star hotel for myself.

I am having an amazing time resting up and relaxing, traveling does wear on a person after a while and this is a perfect time in my trip to recharge my batteries.

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Germany Here I Come

With Anna and Mona


Last week when I checked in for my flight to Rome, I also checked in for my flight to Germany because I had a really hard time finding a place to print in Spain and didn’t want to have to spend a long time in Rome also looking for a place to print my boarding pass. If you don’t bring your boarding pass with you to the airport they will reprint it for you at a charge of €40 (I just found out that by pressing Ctrl + Alt + E you can make the symbol for Euro). Unfortunately on the check in for both flights I put 0 bags and as I learned from my flight to Rome I need to put 1 bag. Ryan Air doesn’t let you change this online, you have to call them and none of the numbers work from a calling card so I was unable to get the change made. It would have only cost me €10 to add my bag over the phone. When I got to the airport, I checked in and told them I wanted to check a single bag. The charge for this was €20 instead of the €30 I had expected. They apparently have a progressive charging scheme for checking bags, the longer you wait the more is costs.

At the desk where I had to pay my €20 the man working the counter asked me if I was at the beach in Italy two weeks ago because I looked familiar to him. I told him I thought he was mistaken and then he looked at me for a long moment and said “you really look like him, are you sure you weren’t there?” Since he was referring to a beach in Italy and I had been in Spain at the time, I knew he was wrong. His look was kind of creepy and I wonder what happened between him and the guy who looked like me on that beach.

When I arrived in Germany is was cold, really cold, I’m talking teens in Celsius and near the end of the night it reached single digits.

For the next week I will be staying with Anna and her family, Anna is a girl from Germany who lived with my mom’s family for a year, four years ago. I went to an information desk at the airport and asked how I get to a train stop near Anna’s families house. The woman behind the counter hit a few keystrokes on her computer and then gave me a customized printout for the journey telling me which bus and which trains to take and the time of them. It was amazingly easy and straightforward. I took the bus to a train station, hopped on the first train, and then went to another train station, walked to a different platform and hopped on the next train and then I was where I wanted to be. Anna was there waiting for me and she drove me to her parents house out in the country in Breckerfeld.

Anna’s parents own a cleaning company and were having their annual party the night I arrived. Everyone brought delicious food and there was German beer, it was a filling and a great time. I ate at least four full plates of food and then snacked all night. I think maybe from now on I will go to one all you can eat buffet a week to give myself an opportunity to eat more variety and stuff myself to the max.

It’s really nice to be in a home, with a private bedroom and a kitchen that is fully stocked and with nice people who all know and care about each other. I don’t really know the best way to explain it, but it’s nice to be in a home again.

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Fountain Crawl Update

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fountain crawl