The long awaited Germany recap

Yes, I know that I have procrastinated on blogging about my trip to Germany over Christmas. I guess I saw it as a benediction of sorts on my entire winter break respite (yes, I am aware of how redundant that is) and I knew how much I have to say!

Anyways, I've been sitting here for about 4 hours working on my application for my summer job; I'm applying to work for YouthWorks (http://www.youthworks.com/about/index.asp) and these questions are not easy. Once I know what I want to say, I'm done within a matter of minutes but I spend quadruple that amount of time figuring out what that is. For instance, the question I am currently stumped on is: "
Tell us about the hardest experience you had working with an individual or group of people. What did you learn about yourself?" See what I mean? They're asking for the hardest experience; not just describe a difficult experience but the hardest. I guess in order to break the writer's block or in this case, thinker's block, I just need to write; thus, I am blogging.

Germany was wirklich schrecklich! (I cheated by looking up "really awesome" on a free translator site) However, the trip also had some "meh" moments and some "ugh" moments (I find that sounds are more descriptive than words sometimes). For one thing, having a dad who is active military was very helpful in our adventure. I call it an adventure because that's how we justified all the times that we got lost.

Because my dad is active duty military, we were able to "MAC", aka, fly military air which I can't say is the most comfortable experience but it was free! On the way there, the plane was more conventional and more passenger oriented. It had normal seats like a commercial jet. Just like on a commercial jet, the seats in the very back of the plane(to explain, the back is the front because you are literally flying backwards) don't recline. Try sitting ramrod straight for 8 and a half hours with your two younger siblings sprawling over you as if you are a mattress. That's what I did. I regret allowing Patrick to choose where we sat. To top that off, the heating system on the plane went bonkers for the first 20 minutes of the flight; they fixed it after we had all but stripped down to our underwear.
The flight back was...different. We were seated in the large cavernous body of the plane in seats lined up along the walls. We saw that people had sleeping bags and mats and that didn't make sense until we were allowed to take off their seatbelts and they snuggled up all cozy...I sound very jealous now and I don't intend to. My coat was a very comfortable mattress; it didn't quite protect me from the frigid floor of the plane but it was enough. (On a side note, I had a very frightening and vivid dream that I ate a cockroach that crawled across the floor of the plane. I woke up intending to tell someone then realizing that the plane was too loud for anyone to hear anyways and we were all asleep wearing earplugs.) The one redeeming part of this flight was when I visited the cockpit. It was night and we were flying over London. It felt as if we were in the stars as they were so bright and so close. You could also see the lights of the city below...it was a pretty spectacular sight. Maybe enough to justify joining the Air Force (don't tell my dad I said that).

I don't want to wear my reader out before I actually get into describing the German experience so I'll begin by describing my first impressions of this fair land. They seem to care a lot about being good stewards of the environment. I saw dozens of power generators which looked like giant windmills and smartcars and those solar panels. Their houses are built of more solid materials; their building standards are much more stringent than the cardboard boxes that are mass produced in the US. Maybe it's for the sake of their tourist industry; they'd rather their houses look picturesque than affordable. I saw a lot of the German road system. Hello autobahn! That part was a bit terrifying. There, everyone actually drives in the right lane and passes on the left. Bizarre! We did see the remains of an accident that was being cleaned up; from what I saw, the accident was quite gruesome but they cleaned it up within the hour, now that is efficiency!

We saw lots of the same Christmas rush in Germany in the Christmas markets. For a country that is so fervently socialist, they sure have the same capitalist impulses to sell overpriced items to a willing public. We bought some ridiculously overpriced chocolate that ended up tasting like plastic, mmmm. I got to sample gluwein as well which is basically hot wine. Note: I am not turning into an alcoholic. I did get beer at restaurants only to realize that by the end of the trip that I don't really like beer; I just like the novelty of legally drinking an alcoholic beverage.

Some of the details of the specific names of cities and cathedrals and castles that we saw are a bit blurred but I do vividly remember the experience. We got to visit Trier first which is one of the oldest cities in Germany. There, we got to explore some Roman ruins and aquaducts of the Roman baths. I even got to pose for a picture next to a giant foot. My family and I traversed to the top of the "Porta Nigra" or the"Black Gate" which was some really old Roman city gate. Once at the top, we got a pretty good view of the Christmas market down below. Here in this city we saw a cathedral which supposedly had Jesus' robe...with the language barrier, sometimes it's hard to be sure. However, there was a children's choir who was practicing for a Christmas performance; with the acoustics and again, the language barrier, it was a beautiful performance.

Strasbourg, France was another stop we made in our adventure. Yes, I know that that is exiting the realm of Germany but this is a part of France deeply influenced by Germany enough for us to avoid making it a category in and of itself. After driving around for what seemed like forever (apparently Europeans don't believe in parking), we were able to mill around in a "Marche de Noel" or a French Christmas Market! Finally, a chance to flex my language muscles! I failed. I approached a shop owner, postcard in hand, and said, "Je voudrais acheter ce carte postale." He responds in English saying that it is half a
€0.40. I valiantly ignore my sister, Annie, who is shaking with laughter at this point. He asks me if I am a student and I tell him that I am just traveling with my family. I did get to successfully ask in French for a crepe later. Maybe that redeems my prior embarrassment.
Our family also visited the Marksburg castle of the Rhine Valley region. Eventually, we were able to secure a guide who would lead the tour in English (we almost had to go on the tour led entirely in French, I might have enjoyed that despite my limited competence). While we were waiting, we encountered a few billy goats. Patrick enjoyed feeding them grass and gum but something about their eyes scared me. The tour of the castle was really interesting despite Patrick asking the tour guide irritating questions about rats and the black plague. It must have been really uncomfortable to live there though despite the mass amount of servants always at your disposal. Supposedly, "Jillian" joined us for the tour. I denied the likeness but the backpacker girl did share a certain resemblance...

Christmas Eve was a more chill-lax day. I got to visit the Landstuhl castle which was mostly ruins but it had this eerie quality to it; mythical even, like the forests were populated with elves that were there but we just couldn't see them. I enjoyed looking at the exercise instruction boards (we have these in the US) because they demonstrated all sorts of exercises that involved Nordic poles (I was right about this trend in Europe!) We went to an evening service at the North Chapel on base; it was a wonderful service but I was kind of distracted by all the adorable babies who were also in attendance. I know they didn't intend to be distracting but they were just so darn cute!

Now, Christmas day was unlike any I have ever celebrated before. We went to Rothenburg which is normally known for its massive Christmas market. Not on Christmas day though. Compared to its normally frantic state, it was a graveyard. We enjoyed walking around the city without the crowds and clambering around on the walled part (after all, it is known as the "walled city"). For much of the trip we relied on Rick Steve's travel guide which of course, we check out from the library. It advised us to not eat these pastry "snowball" things which he said were overpriced and disgusting. Well, what did we do? As soon as we spotted a shop that was open, we were eager to go inside and buy whatever they were offering! Rick Steves was right. The Crime and Punishment museum was also open so we got to go inside and witness the medieval horrors. Besides displaying methods of torture used in the medieval period, there was much history to read about as well. I enjoyed reading about and looking at the chastity belts; those would definitely qualify as a means of torture and have historical merit. I also enjoyed seeing the means of punishing students in the classroom. They actually had little scale models of classrooms so that you could see little models in tiny prisons and sitting on a wooden donkey and so on.


The Mosel River Valley was quite astonishing. It was a clear but cold day so we could see the entirely valley displayed before us in Beilstein. Picturesque is probably a very feeble description of the beauty of that region. Of course there was a castle here too but it was closed for the winter. Conveniently enough (for Dad, Annie, and Patrick), the German owners were there so while Mom and I were finding a bathroom (along with parking spots, Europeans also don't believe in supplying the public with places to relieve ourselves), they got a private tour of the castle! Possibly my favorite part of the trip was the next town we visited in this same region, Burg Eltz. While it was quite a hike in order to access the castle, the hike was worth it. Surrounded by mountains, this castle probably topped them all.

We spent our nights and evenings in Air Force Inn rooms which were spacious and included kitchenettes so we could provide ourselves with our own dinners which we ofter did! I don't have much to say about the food of Germany because we did picnics out of the trunk of the car quite often (every day) and they love their pork. Annie and Patrick were addicted to this "spezi" drink that was basically coke and fresca mixed together.

I am running out of steam as I write this but I feel better having written something even though it wasn't the answer to that application question!