My Trip

As I said I traveled with my friend, her boyfriend, her dad, her cousin and his wife from hell. After the first day I knew she and I were not going to leave the trip the best of friends. She’s one of those people that complains a lot and she seemed to know everything about everything (must be nice). She talked so much she made my ears bleed and when she wasn’t talking she was reading out loud from her guide book. She criticized and belittled almost everything that came out of her husband’s mouth and started every single sentence with I. Their relationship is the poster child for why I don’t want to be married.

We went to Dusledorf, Wurtzberg, Nuemburg, Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Hamberg, Calogne, Burbach and Siegon (I think that’s it). Berlin was amazing, very urban with tons of different eclectic neighborhoods. I could picture myself living there except for the fact that I had no idea what anyone was saying and vice versa. We saw a million castles and churches, and drank almost as many types of beer. I scoffed when my friend told me the food there was great, I expected to lose weight, instead I of course gained 5 pounds. We ate and drank our way through the entire country and I loved everything I tried, bratwurst, curry wurst, weiner schnitzel, suckling pigs, I had a lot of fish and it was white asparagus season so I had to try that too! They are known for their great chocolate so I ate and brought back too much of it. We over shopped the gummy bear store and even had amazing Italian and Thai food. We would ask for menu’s in English (most didn’t have them) and have a good laugh over the translations (Salmon/Trout, Lion of Lamp) When I pointed out the lion of lamp to my friend she informed me that meant without bones (she’s German). I asked her which part came without the bones the lion or the lamp!

A few observations on the trip were that MTV actually played videos both American and German. No channels had any shows in English but they did an excellent job dubbing German over several shows we have like Law & Order and Sponge Bob. It is illegal to jay walk, which is almost impossible not to do as a New Yorker. Pillows are huge and beds are usually two twins put together or separate and hard. Skin heads are a big thing over there, who knew, I didn’t know that was even a “thing” anymore. Oh and the punk skin heads that I saw walked around with rats as pets. Hookers seem to be very prevalent and they all seemed to wear a version of the same outfit, tall pleather boots, very short plaid skirts and low cut tops. Breakfast always consisted of breads, meats, cheeses, and a soft boiled egg (yuck). And everywhere I went people rode bikes. They all had cute bikes with baskets and used them to get around, no wonder all the cities were so clean. They made me so jealous that by the third day in, all I could think about was going home and buying a bike. I developed major bike envy! Also, my favorite phrase of the trip was, “Un Bier Garten!”

It was completely freezing almost every day and of course I only took summer clothes. My cute little sundresses only saw the bottom of my suitcase! And of course I lost my debit/credit card somewhere and left all copies and phone numbers at my friend’s house. Did I mention I slept in a castle? That’s a picture of it up top. I took about 300 pictures which I’ll add a few to Flickr.com and post a link at some point. Germany is so rich in history, and although my guide book was really helpful (I suggest you always buy Frommers) I really wish I had brushed up on the history before I’d gone.

My trip home was pretty eventful too, I tried to buy a NY Times at the airport because I was dying to know what was happening in the world and they tried to charge me 15 euros for it ($18)! I guess it was written with gold ink or something. Typical, I sat next to a fat smelly man who took up part of my seat as well as his. Unlike the woman in front of me who sat next to a cute guy. They proceeded to get very drunk and gave everyone an in-flight show by spending the second half of the flight making out!