Germany! In depth.

Germany:

So I didn't write about this when I was there, but I took notes, so I'm going to try to go in chronologial order. Also I'm working with a Spanish key board and no spell check so cut me some breaks.

France was great, but not what I planned because I was so sick, so I was ready to get onto the next adventure when the day came. The train ride there was great and kind of funny to me. There were all these kids running around speaking diffferent languages, it was like someone had forgotten to lock up It's A Small World one night. So adorable. And my seating area looked like a joke, I mean if I turned to you and said "A German business man, a French retired man, a Russian priest and an American girl got on a train together heading towards Frankfurt," you'd wait for the punchline. Which maybe you could argue was the train stewardess's peirced and bedazzled tooth. Europe's an interesting place.

I took the train thruogh the Rhineland, and now I understand why there are so many songs about that area. STUNNING. Every town we passed looked like a fairy tale or a theme park, it was so unreal. And funny. Like when every train station we stopped at wished us "gud fahrts" meaning of course, a good journey. I think I'm going to try to bring that one back to the States.

After the train ride I had a rather unpleasant plane ride to Luebeck on Ryanair. Let me tell you about Ryanair. First lie of Ryanair, that they're a "discount" company. A real discount Airline would not more than double the stupid rate with tagged on fares and fees. Second lie of Ryanair, the air in their name. I'm convinced they use discount air with less oxygon, but whatever they use gives everyone this weird headache almost immidiatly after boarding. Third lie of Ryanair, a "safe" trip. The only discount part of their fine practices is their pilates. I fly a lot people. So I've seen a lot of landings and take-offs. None as bad as these people. Everyone first gets more religouis before a landing and then cheers and rejoices when you actually land. That shouldn't happen!! It should be a given that you will land. Not ok.

Anyway, moving on, Johanna picked me up and we went back to her house, which looked just like a PacNorthwest house and made me really happy. Her family was so nice. So nice. I loved being in a house and being with people who weren't students, it was such a great thing. The next day we went around Hamburg doing fun touristy things and (mostly me) learning a lot about German history. Hamburg is a fascinating place. It has a very rich history, from like crazy old kingdoms to being a border town between East and West Germany to modern day Northern united Germany. It was just so interesting. So much of the German history I've learned had to do only with the World Wars or global issues, and it was great to hear another side of all those stories in addition to tons of other things.

In addition to history, I learned a lot about my own heritage. We just don't have a good sense of heritage in the States. We really are a melting pot of everything, which is fantastic, but it also means we lose a lot of pride and knowledge about family history and cultural identity. To be fare, I am an American absolutely, and THAT is my heritage and history now, but there was a time not to long ago when my ancestors had other identities. A giant chunk of that family history for my family is German. Annnnnnnnnd let me tell you, I had no idea how German my family was. For starters, we look like the people in Germany. It was weird and kind of creepy. Tons of people I met I was like "wow, you are my aunt____/uncle______/grandma______" It really was strange to have everyone kind of look like you. But looks aside, culturally we still do all these German things! Johanna and I were talking about traditional German recipies, and tons of them we still make for all the holidays. And we have some of the same decorations, and sayings. It was soo weird. Germany looks like Michigan, (where my relatives live) and Wisconsin (where my other relativeds live). And the And we act like the Germans I met. It was like meeting another branch of my family who all had cooler accents than me.

Ugh, and it is so beautiful. In northern Germany, there are a lot of brick buildings, including giant brick gothic churches. It was such a nice change from all the cold limestone gothic in France and England. Speaking of church, I went to Johanna's church for Palm Sunday. It was Lutheran and all in German, but it was just like a traditional Presbyterian service. German is a great language, and it's funny because it's so similar to English a lot of times I felt like I was just tired or something for not understanding. I think part of it is the tonal accents and speaking rhythms are the same as ours. Like the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed and advertisements all sound the same as English, just in German. I don't really know how to explain that in print

I was there for a little less than a week, but we did tons of stuff. After sight seeing in Hamburg, we had Turkish food, went to a museum and then went to the Red Light district. That was an experience. I like couldn't get over the fact that prostitution is legal and they're right there! And that they all wear fannypacks. Never thought those could be sexy. The next day I met her extended family and went to a birthday party for her cousin, who was 18. In most European countries, 18 is the biggest birthday, because it's when everything happens, drinking, driving (hopefully not together), adult status, off to uni, etc. Lots of board games and amazing food. (German food is amazing. Weinerschnitzel is like the food of the gods). Then! we had dinner with a friend of Johanna's who's currently doing an apprenticeship with a major German publishing company, which you know, I thought was totally awesome. She gets to travel around and try to get people to buy German Harry Potter. Tough life. I also thought it was cool that they still do apprenticeships. I think sometimes Americans are overeducated and overqualified when we really just need more job training. I also learned a funny German colloquialism. Her friend spoke English fluently, but a lot was translated straight from German, so instead of people breaking up, they "departed". Annnnd things like "the hip hoppers can't smell the goth rockers". I love that.

The day after that we went on a massive car trip around. We started off by visiting a Concentration Camp. Wow. I think it's good to look for beauty and admire what mankind has done well, but it is equally important to remember and learn about atrocities. The camp we went to was a work camp where prisoners were given nine months to live at best. Prisoners were ranked based on race, mental abilities, sexual orientation, and other things. The top prisoners were in charge of the others, and those lowest in rank were given only broth to eat and no tools. The beautiful river we passed on our way in was dug out using only the prisoners' hands. People were tortured and experiemented on. Many people ran into the electic fences or stepped out of line and were shot to get away. One of the saddest parts, was that when this camp was about to be freed, the prisoners were all put on military boats which were bombed. It was horrible.

While we were looking at all this, I also heard about stories from the other side of our text books. About people fleeing Poland after the war. About East Germany. C.S. Lewis said that everyone you meet will either be more beautiful than you could possibly fathom or more terrible and uglier than you could ever picture.

It was a lot to take in.



After that we went to a couple different cities. The first one was this charming riverside village, and the next was a college town that, like everything else here, was super old. It was a great city. We went to the girliest coffee shop ever to start off with. My friend Jesse is convinced every woman has this dream of owning a bakery/coffee shop somewhere exotic, most likely in the Mediterrean, like the end of Bourne movie. Welll.......that's mostly true. But I want this coffee shop, not one in Greece. This city had really cool architecture. Johanna and I at this point both started joking about how every sign started out "this is a typical German _______, with its roots in German________" to the point that we word for word predicted most of the signs in this town. I laughed a lot. The buildings are so mixed age wise, tons of them were bombed in WWII, but they've done a great job of keeping the same style. Unlike London which decided modern architecture was a good idea. Sad London. Anyway, I also got kind of obsessed with these home decoration stores. I feel like every store in Germany is aimed at me. Like I am the target demigraphic for all these stalker German marketing people. Like honestly, how else could they come up with things like giant coffee cup plant pots, or neon drapes, ugh. I want to buy everything in Germany. I had to settle with a cow pitcher.

I left the day after, but not before seeing the first hospital in Europe, (awesome by the way) and the Marzipan Factory. I saw the largest Marzipan sculpture ever. You haven't lived until you've seen 12 life sized famous Germans made out of sugar-butter-cream. This city also has really cool architecture, like these giant towers and cool facades. It was fantastic.

I love Germany. I will be back there as soon as possible. I loved staying with Johanna and her family, they were so warm and amazing hosts. I loveee Germany.

So with a stomach full of yummy food, a head/lungs that were almost over being sick, and a heart full of happiness I braved another Ryanair flight to Girona, Spain.