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.