I've got a few minutes to kill right now before the groom's family arrives for the evening dinner. We've been waiting awhile... the groom's brother somehow stepped out for a few minutes to buy a Coke, and never returned. I think the local police just located him, 3 hours after his disappearance, so looks like it'll be another smorgasbord of breads, meats, cheeses and wines/beers pretty soon here. The Germans usually have light breakfasts and dinners consisting of the aforementioned foods, and really live it up for their lunches.
We had our big lunch today in the tiny town of Landstuhl following the the couple's official civil wedding today in Kaiserslautern (German Fun Fact: Germany requires couples to get married in the town hall, or Rathaus, to make it officially legal. Couples can then have separate ceremonies in churches or wherever they wish. Legal weddings at the Rathaus are rather boring... the couple just sits at a desk while an appointed official rambles something in German. If I didn't know better, I'd think the couple was trying to buy a car. For civil ceremonies, couples can dress in whatever attire they want. Shane looked like a game show host. Andrea looked like Betty Page. Not the typical wedding attire you'd expect).
Landstuhl used to be a thriving town about 10 to 15 years ago...it made most of Europe's shoes and also manufactured medical equipment. But all those jobs have now be outsourced to China sweat shops, forcing all the shops to close. Now Landstuhl is best known for its U.S. military hospital, which receives all the wounded soldiers from our current war with Iraq. Fortunately for us, Landstuhl still had a nice restaurant in operation called the Schloss Restaurant. I sat down to a nice lunch consisting of bread, salad, perch covered in white wine sauce, noodles, asparagus, and white wine. (Violet, however, was not so lucky...they forgot her order, and had to wait an extra 30 minutes to get her meal. I felt sorry and pawned some of my food off on her. Germans aren't known to be the best when it comes to serving food. I blame it on their lack of accepting tips from customers.)
After having our lunch and checking out the poor excuse for a castle for which Schloss Restaurant was named, we headed back to Shane and Andrea's apartment. Violet and I decided we better give the couple some time to chill by themselves, so we took off in the rain and wandered around the forests of Kaiserslautern, looking at the changing colors of the leaves. The weather seems bitter cold to me here in Germany. But then again, after spending all summer in 100+ degree Phoenix, AZ, 90 degrees now seems like a chilly day to me. I am such a thin-skinned wuss now.
Tomorrow we're taking off to Paris for two days of roaming around the city. I'm looking forward to it, because I'll get to play tour guide for Violet and finally retake all the shots of me in front of Paris monuments (the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc d'Triumph) that my friend Eric lost last summer when his camera was stolen. Using Photoshop would probably have been cheaper for me to recapture those shots. But hey, you can never get enough of Paris. Better bone up on my French tomorrow and pray that my bladder holds out due to the lack of public toilets to use.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Back Across the Pond
Guten tag, everyone! And welcome back with Version 2.0 of The Travelin' Fool! This time around, I'll be over in Germany and some other random places for two weeks of shenanigans. It should be a fun time, and I'll do my best to give you the lowdown on what's going on.
The last 48 hours were a non-stop thrill ride of being crammed into tiny places with smelly people. My girlfriend Violet and I started our long journey on Saturday morning at 4 am by heading over to the Phoenix airport. Other than the flatulent man behind me stinking up my airspace, our 6 am flight to Chicago was uneventful. We landed in CubbieTown at noontime for an 8 hour layover. Violet's sister and niece and a German foreign exchange student named Stephan met us at the airport. Along the train ride into the city, I embarked on a cultural exchange with Stephan, handing him a German book of cuss words and asking him which ones I could use on my trip. I now know how to order a beer and say derogatory terms about people's body parts. Looks like I'm well prepared for my trip to Germany.
We toddled around Chicago, first stopping by Ann Sather--a Swedish restaurant--for lunch. I had some of their world-famous sticky buns while everyone else got sugar highs off of french toast and pancakes. We then went downtown to Millennium Park to check out NextFest, an exhibition put on by Wired magazine that featured the latest and greatest in science and technology. It was a nerd's paradise there, but extremely stuffy from all the heat, so we split, headed over to Hard Rock Cafe so the exchange student could buy his "I survived Brian's walking tour of Chicago and all I got was this lousy Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt," and then headed back to the airport. After that, it was goodbyes and an 8 hour plane trip over the pond to Frankfurt, Germany. As far as flights go, it was rather painless. Note to self: order the lasagna next time, not the chicken and mashed potatoes.
Violet's friend Andrea met us at the airport and drove like a bat out of hell to her home in Kaiserslautern. It felt like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride being in the back seat of that VW sedan, flying around corners at 180 Kph on the Autobahn. Note to self: never order a hot coffee when someone from Germany is driving.
We made it into Kaiserslautern around 12:30, and I was starting to feel like something the cat dragged in. I had had less than 1 hour of sleep, I smelled bad, and now my nose was a leaky faucet. It just kept getting worse as the day went on, and I just wanted to rip my nose off. Thankfully, Andrea and her husband-to-be Shane took us to the U.S. military base so I could buy some drugs at the AAFES BX store (where everything's tax free, baby! Cheap tube socks for everyone!). We then spent the evening playing Canaste, sampling wines, cheeses and bread and waiting for my nose to stop running. It didn't. So I doped up on TheraFlu and Violet and I hit the sack about 9 pm.
We didn't get up until 10 am this morning. My stomach was a growling mess, trying to coexist in two different time zones. Thankfully, my nose is under control now, and after running outside for 3 miles through the forests of Kaiserslautern, I'm feeling up to speed again. Shane's family from the States arrived this morning, looking like the battered messes that Violet and I were yesterday. There's something about air travel that just kicks you on your ass and makes you feel so nasty and dirty. I'm fortunate to have someone like Violet along with me to make traveling more enjoyable, and still love me when I'm sick and smelling bad. If that ain't love, then I don't know what is.
The last 48 hours were a non-stop thrill ride of being crammed into tiny places with smelly people. My girlfriend Violet and I started our long journey on Saturday morning at 4 am by heading over to the Phoenix airport. Other than the flatulent man behind me stinking up my airspace, our 6 am flight to Chicago was uneventful. We landed in CubbieTown at noontime for an 8 hour layover. Violet's sister and niece and a German foreign exchange student named Stephan met us at the airport. Along the train ride into the city, I embarked on a cultural exchange with Stephan, handing him a German book of cuss words and asking him which ones I could use on my trip. I now know how to order a beer and say derogatory terms about people's body parts. Looks like I'm well prepared for my trip to Germany.
We toddled around Chicago, first stopping by Ann Sather--a Swedish restaurant--for lunch. I had some of their world-famous sticky buns while everyone else got sugar highs off of french toast and pancakes. We then went downtown to Millennium Park to check out NextFest, an exhibition put on by Wired magazine that featured the latest and greatest in science and technology. It was a nerd's paradise there, but extremely stuffy from all the heat, so we split, headed over to Hard Rock Cafe so the exchange student could buy his "I survived Brian's walking tour of Chicago and all I got was this lousy Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt," and then headed back to the airport. After that, it was goodbyes and an 8 hour plane trip over the pond to Frankfurt, Germany. As far as flights go, it was rather painless. Note to self: order the lasagna next time, not the chicken and mashed potatoes.
Violet's friend Andrea met us at the airport and drove like a bat out of hell to her home in Kaiserslautern. It felt like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride being in the back seat of that VW sedan, flying around corners at 180 Kph on the Autobahn. Note to self: never order a hot coffee when someone from Germany is driving.
We made it into Kaiserslautern around 12:30, and I was starting to feel like something the cat dragged in. I had had less than 1 hour of sleep, I smelled bad, and now my nose was a leaky faucet. It just kept getting worse as the day went on, and I just wanted to rip my nose off. Thankfully, Andrea and her husband-to-be Shane took us to the U.S. military base so I could buy some drugs at the AAFES BX store (where everything's tax free, baby! Cheap tube socks for everyone!). We then spent the evening playing Canaste, sampling wines, cheeses and bread and waiting for my nose to stop running. It didn't. So I doped up on TheraFlu and Violet and I hit the sack about 9 pm.
We didn't get up until 10 am this morning. My stomach was a growling mess, trying to coexist in two different time zones. Thankfully, my nose is under control now, and after running outside for 3 miles through the forests of Kaiserslautern, I'm feeling up to speed again. Shane's family from the States arrived this morning, looking like the battered messes that Violet and I were yesterday. There's something about air travel that just kicks you on your ass and makes you feel so nasty and dirty. I'm fortunate to have someone like Violet along with me to make traveling more enjoyable, and still love me when I'm sick and smelling bad. If that ain't love, then I don't know what is.
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