We got back two nights ago from the 3 week tour of Europe and we had a great time. We regret not being able to update our blog as often as we would've liked during the trip, but free highspeed wireless internet is about as rare as hen's teeth in Europe. Or rather, it's rare at campgrounds; if I had risked taken my computer with me out on the town then maybe I could've written. But no bother, it just means that we have better stories to tell when we get back. Right now we're in the process of repacking all of the stuff that we brought, in addition to a treasure trove of goodies, so it's a bit hectic and tomorrow we're meeting up with the family for some last pictures and some "bier zeit." Though we're ready to come home and get back to our real life, I'm pretty sad about having to leave. This has been one heck of a trip, and I have 3000 pictures to prove it. Yes, everyone has to sit through all the pictures.
So on this trip, we managed to visit 6 countries: Germany, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Belgium and we drove through about 10 miles of the Netherlands so that counts too. By unanimous decision, Belgium was the favorite place that we visited and without a doubt is the best kept secret in travel. I didn't manage to visit any breweries in Belgium as they are all on banker's hours and are open at weird times. Also, they don't give many tours as they all jealously guard their advanced brewing techniques or something like that. Actually, many of them are run by monks so they don't have a lot of time to give tours, between the 30 times a day they have to pray a day and making beer. But... Pe and Axel secretly arranged for a private tour at a local brewery this morning near their garden. It is the smallest brewery in Saxony, and it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. A brewmaster, actually, THE brewmaster, took us on a personal tour all through the brewery and showed us all the operation and how they make beer and all of the equipment and ingredients and everything. He spends 10-12 hours every day brewing the beer there, and it is without question the best tasting Pilsner beer I have ever had in my life. It was awesome, I got to talk beer talk with him, thanks to translator Anne, and we hung out for a while and drank a couple of cold (in a German sense) ones with him. And when my German gets better I can come back and help out in there over the summer, no seriously, he said I could. Anyway, we ended up leaving with a few beers and a beer mug and he gave me some labels and stuff. So anyway, Belgian beer is no longer my favorite, that guy's beer is my favorite.
Well, I think it's pretty much impossible to write about everything we did given the amount of time we have left here in Germany. I will write a comprehensive recap of our events and we'll eventually post all of our pictures on-line. Though, as I said, I alone took over 3000 pictures, and I'm sure Anne has a few hundred, not to mention all of the pictures I have on the computer that Pe took. But we'll be seeing everyone soon anyway, so we can personally share with you everything we've done.
As far as the rest of the trip goes... we're leaving Germany on Saturday morning (August 11th) and we'll be arriving in St. Louis on Sunday evening (the 12th, duh.) So I'll be probably pretty hungover for our early morning trek into Berlin. We'll be staying in St. Louis for a few days, and then come back to Kansas on Tuesday the 14th, if we survive the jet lag. Poor little Anne has a meeting on Wednesday morning while I play with the kitties and my long neglected Destroyer. Then school starts, I think we both have class on Friday. Then in about 2 weeks, I start teaching again, and summer then officially ends. But I think I'll still be working for the German department so I can keep up all of the great German that I've learned while I was here. I'm fluent at ordering bread and meat.
Well, I guess that's about it for now. In a few days we'll be seeing all of our English speaking friends and family, so that'll make another 23 hour trip worth while.
Tchuss
Thursday, August 9
Tuesday, July 17
Last Update before the trip
Ok, this here is the last update for the next three weeks - if we won't find internet anywhere.
Everything is packed and ready to go. Tomorow we will get the caravan and load everything in it and on early Thursday morning we will leave. The first stop will be Ingolstadt, Bavaria. There we will visit some distant family and go to the Audi Factory, including tour. From there it will go to France. We will stay at a campground north of Paris for 5 nights and we will explore the area from there. After France we plan on 4-6 days in Britain and than back to the continent and towards Belgium. I will try to update as much as possible, but I cannot pronise anything.
Since we are back from our study tour we havent really done anything. We visited my grandparents on my Dads side on Sunday and we did a lot of laundry and tonight we went to Oma and Opa for barbecue and a nice time. it is very hot since Sunday and we had over a hundred degrees yesterday. Today it was a bit cooler, just 97° so we went swimming at a nearby lake to cool down a bit. Ted and I don't mind the heat that much, but the average german isn't used to that so everybody is suffering and complaining. The only problem are the missing A/C in the apartment and for next week in the caravan.
Ok, as you can see on my very bad English today, I am tired and I have to go to bed. I try to write as many postcards as possible and keep everybody up to date.
Everything is packed and ready to go. Tomorow we will get the caravan and load everything in it and on early Thursday morning we will leave. The first stop will be Ingolstadt, Bavaria. There we will visit some distant family and go to the Audi Factory, including tour. From there it will go to France. We will stay at a campground north of Paris for 5 nights and we will explore the area from there. After France we plan on 4-6 days in Britain and than back to the continent and towards Belgium. I will try to update as much as possible, but I cannot pronise anything.
Since we are back from our study tour we havent really done anything. We visited my grandparents on my Dads side on Sunday and we did a lot of laundry and tonight we went to Oma and Opa for barbecue and a nice time. it is very hot since Sunday and we had over a hundred degrees yesterday. Today it was a bit cooler, just 97° so we went swimming at a nearby lake to cool down a bit. Ted and I don't mind the heat that much, but the average german isn't used to that so everybody is suffering and complaining. The only problem are the missing A/C in the apartment and for next week in the caravan.
Ok, as you can see on my very bad English today, I am tired and I have to go to bed. I try to write as many postcards as possible and keep everybody up to date.
Saturday, July 7
Another Update
Hey everyone it's another update. Anne and I went out today and walked around Berlin a bit. We finally got to go to the zoo and see Knut the little polar bear, albeit in the pouring rain, but we did it nonetheless. It was very strange weather out, torrential rain one minute, then sun, then rain, then wind, then rain, then sun, repeat, repeat, repeat ad nauseum. Berlin has a very nice zoo, and there was plenty to see besides Knut, such as baby leopards and baby sun bears and baby orangutangs and all kinds of babies. They have a very nice nocturnal animal display unlike anything else I've ever seen in my life, so people can see things like aardvarks and bats up and about during the day; that was worth the price of admission. We got to see the feeding of the sea lions too which was great. We went out for dinner and had some Lebanese food which was delicious. The weather has been pretty sucky for the most part, but at least our high temperature has been lower than the low temperature in Kansas. I guess that's pretty much it for right now since I posted yesterday. I still won't have the cable for my camera for about a week so I'm still sorry but no new pictures. Tomorrow Anne and I will be traveling to Kiel in the north of Germany. I'm unsure whether or not we'll have internet available where we're going so this may be the last update for about another week.
Friday, July 6
Update finally
Braunschweig- Ironically they don’t know what Braunschweiger is.
I’m writing this entry from Braunschweig, so it’ll be uploaded once we get back to Hoyerswerda, or someplace else with a high-speed internet connection.
Once again it’s been a little while since the last entry. We had a few days to waste in Hoyerswerda before coming to Braunschweig, giving some time to recover from the gout attack. We had our party out in the garden on that last weekend in June, and it was pretty much a roaringly drunken good time. It was a lot of work, frying up a roost full of chicken and frying up several jars of pickles, but everyone seemed to like the deep-fried American style food. It’s amazing to me that Germans don’t really fry chicken. And they don’t have hot wings either. And of course, they’ve never heard of fried pickles, though not many people have outside of Lawrence, Kansas. They do have Kentucky Fried Chicken here, but it’s just not all that popular in Germany; KFC doesn’t really fit into the whole scheme of things. Fast food is something on a roll, whether it’s a wiener, schnitzel, herring or a hamburger. You can’t put a chicken leg on a roll. So chicken is sit down food, but KFC isn’t a sit-down kind of place. Germans need a bar that serves fried chicken. And hot wings. Don’t tell Hooters, it’s my idea.
Hooters wouldn’t work in Germany either. First, Germans don’t tip waiters. So the whole concept of scantily clothed girls allowing some drunken guy with wing sauce smeared all over his face to clumsily grope their scantily covered asses for an inordinately huge tip is pretty much out of the question. Second, you see naked titties during prime-time T.V. in commercials, so why go to Hooters and pay twice what you should for seriously crappy wings and the pleasure of seeing titties covered in a t-shirt that would be too small even for a starving Somalian? Third, they don’t have much Meth in Germany, and Meth is the primary cause in the development of Hooters girls. Fourth and finally, Germans have a very weird sense of theme restaurants. I mean, if you say Hooters in Germany, they’d probably be expecting a place at which chicken wings are served up by a waiter dressed like an owl pantomiming the regurgitation of said chicken wings onto your plate. Oh, you want ranch dressing? He’ll squat over your plate and lift his tail feathers to dispense that. Germans like crazy stuff. You all think I’m kidding? There’s a restaurant in Berlin at which they serve wieners in bedpans and beer in urine specimen bottles. That restaurant is the most popular tourist attraction in Berlin. Hmm, maybe my version of Hooters isn’t such a bad idea.
Okay, so the whole point of all of this is that I think Germany is ready for hot wings. They already have the beer. The thing is Germans just don’t fry up that much stuff, so it’s not much of a surprise that they don’t make fried chicken at home. Well, they probably will now.
The party went very well, Oma and Opa brought their friend Irena to the party. Irena is an 80 year old German professor from Ukraine that Oma met during her latest stint at the hospita. Irena loves Anne and me. Oma and Opa brought Anne and me Triominos, because we had such a good time playing it with them during one of our dinners at their garden. I spoke a lot of English with Pe and Axel’s neighbors, Frank and Margarite, who incidentally just got married a few weeks ago. They’re chemists, so we didn’t talk about chemistry at all. We talked about brewing beer and spices I think, I can’t remember much from that day, between the whiskey and the pills. Anyway, Frank and his wife have sheep, BOY sheep, which they keep during spring and summer in the field next to their house. . Their names are Franz and Fritz. The sheep do a very good job at keeping the grass short. In the fall, the sheep become kebobs and chops, yum.
Besides Frank, Margarite, Oma, Opa, Irena, Pe, Axel, Anne and myself, those in attendance at the party were Holm (unfortunately without Sandra, but that’s okay, we understand,) Stefan, Kirsten, Ronnie, Helga, Torsten, Bea, Wenke, Vivi, Vivi’s boyfriend Frank, Marja, and Jenny.
Braunschweig-
I am trying to figure out why no one has ever said anything about Braunschweig before. This is one of the most interesting and friendly cities that I’ve been to in Germany. It’s one of those places that you have to come to in order to experience it, I can’t really write enough to do justice. First, we’re staying here in a guest room at the Georg Eckert institute, where they have a huge textbook library. It’s the cheapest place to stay in Germany and very nice. Second, the people at the institute are actually friendly. I was looking for Anne the other day, and all I did was say her name to a librarian, and the librarian smiled, (yes, the librarian smiled) and she took me up to Anne personally. And she said something about it was nice that Americans would come here or something. Okay, and then I went to Starbucks, and I had to talk to all the people behind the counter for about 20 minutes because I’m American, and they just wanted to talk. People actually wanting to help in stores, people being friendly in restaurants, I even had some old guy wanting to give me a tour of the city yesterday. Everyone is very patient when I try to speak German and are very encouraging. It’s also a very international sort of town; there are lots of people here from all over the world. I guess that would help explain why we had the best Döner in the world here in Braunschweig. Besides the very friendly people, there are all kinds of historical buildings, churches, museums and that sort. Every town in Germany has old buildings and museums. Braunschweig also has to have more statues and fountains per square inch than any city in Europe. Of particular interest is the nice statue of kitty cats, as a tribute to a street in Braunschweig that was the favorite of kitties for centuries.
Fourth of July in Braunschweig wasn’t very interesting, except that it was about 65 degrees and intermittently rainy. I don’t remember many Fourth of Julys at which I wasn’t sweating my butt off and waking up the next morning without blisters and charring on my fingers. Instead, I spent the day walking around town, and Anne came along with me after she finished doing her research for the day. It was Fourth of July, and I was walking around in jeans and a sweatshirt, gotta love Germany.
I’m not sure what the plans are for this weekend. We may be heading to Berlin to stay with Holm for the weekend, or we may be heading straight up to Kiel. We have to be out of here on Friday, so we’ll be definitely going somewhere. The weird thing is that by the time we get to where we’re going, then we’ll know where we were going, so there’s not much of a point of writing what I’m writing right now as I’ll be putting it in the blog once we get to where we’re going and therefore I will have known where we were going when I publish this. See, it’s like I’m pretending I don’t know where we’re going once I’ve published this, but as of right now, while I’m writing this, I don’t know where we’re going. Anyway, Kiel is way up north near Denmark. I will probably head up north to Denmark just so I can say that I’ve been to Denmark. Yeah, just like I’ll head to Poland just to say that I’ve been to Poland. I’ve never been to Poland. Pe and Axel are too afraid that I’ll stop at a red light and the Poles will steal the car. Russian car thieves have to steal 2 cars at a time in Germany, that way they’ll still have a car left when they get through Poland. It’s sort of like East St. Louis, but not as nice, from what I’ve heard.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m going to head out and see what kind of interesting stuff I can see that I may have missed yesterday. Here’s some GPS coordinates so people can look us up on Google Earth to see where we’ve been.
Braunschweig Rathaus- N 52°15.850’, E 10°31.502’
Braunschweig Mall (has the façade of an old castle as the front, really cool) -
N 52°15.801’, E 10°31.627’
Crazy House (you have to see the pictures)- N 52°15.850’, E 10°31.502’
Georg Eckert Institut (Where we’re staying) - N 52°16.088’, E 10°30.634’
Unfortunately, I forgot the cable to the camera, so everyone is going to have to wait for new photos, sorry about that.
I’m writing this entry from Braunschweig, so it’ll be uploaded once we get back to Hoyerswerda, or someplace else with a high-speed internet connection.
Once again it’s been a little while since the last entry. We had a few days to waste in Hoyerswerda before coming to Braunschweig, giving some time to recover from the gout attack. We had our party out in the garden on that last weekend in June, and it was pretty much a roaringly drunken good time. It was a lot of work, frying up a roost full of chicken and frying up several jars of pickles, but everyone seemed to like the deep-fried American style food. It’s amazing to me that Germans don’t really fry chicken. And they don’t have hot wings either. And of course, they’ve never heard of fried pickles, though not many people have outside of Lawrence, Kansas. They do have Kentucky Fried Chicken here, but it’s just not all that popular in Germany; KFC doesn’t really fit into the whole scheme of things. Fast food is something on a roll, whether it’s a wiener, schnitzel, herring or a hamburger. You can’t put a chicken leg on a roll. So chicken is sit down food, but KFC isn’t a sit-down kind of place. Germans need a bar that serves fried chicken. And hot wings. Don’t tell Hooters, it’s my idea.
Hooters wouldn’t work in Germany either. First, Germans don’t tip waiters. So the whole concept of scantily clothed girls allowing some drunken guy with wing sauce smeared all over his face to clumsily grope their scantily covered asses for an inordinately huge tip is pretty much out of the question. Second, you see naked titties during prime-time T.V. in commercials, so why go to Hooters and pay twice what you should for seriously crappy wings and the pleasure of seeing titties covered in a t-shirt that would be too small even for a starving Somalian? Third, they don’t have much Meth in Germany, and Meth is the primary cause in the development of Hooters girls. Fourth and finally, Germans have a very weird sense of theme restaurants. I mean, if you say Hooters in Germany, they’d probably be expecting a place at which chicken wings are served up by a waiter dressed like an owl pantomiming the regurgitation of said chicken wings onto your plate. Oh, you want ranch dressing? He’ll squat over your plate and lift his tail feathers to dispense that. Germans like crazy stuff. You all think I’m kidding? There’s a restaurant in Berlin at which they serve wieners in bedpans and beer in urine specimen bottles. That restaurant is the most popular tourist attraction in Berlin. Hmm, maybe my version of Hooters isn’t such a bad idea.
Okay, so the whole point of all of this is that I think Germany is ready for hot wings. They already have the beer. The thing is Germans just don’t fry up that much stuff, so it’s not much of a surprise that they don’t make fried chicken at home. Well, they probably will now.
The party went very well, Oma and Opa brought their friend Irena to the party. Irena is an 80 year old German professor from Ukraine that Oma met during her latest stint at the hospita. Irena loves Anne and me. Oma and Opa brought Anne and me Triominos, because we had such a good time playing it with them during one of our dinners at their garden. I spoke a lot of English with Pe and Axel’s neighbors, Frank and Margarite, who incidentally just got married a few weeks ago. They’re chemists, so we didn’t talk about chemistry at all. We talked about brewing beer and spices I think, I can’t remember much from that day, between the whiskey and the pills. Anyway, Frank and his wife have sheep, BOY sheep, which they keep during spring and summer in the field next to their house. . Their names are Franz and Fritz. The sheep do a very good job at keeping the grass short. In the fall, the sheep become kebobs and chops, yum.
Besides Frank, Margarite, Oma, Opa, Irena, Pe, Axel, Anne and myself, those in attendance at the party were Holm (unfortunately without Sandra, but that’s okay, we understand,) Stefan, Kirsten, Ronnie, Helga, Torsten, Bea, Wenke, Vivi, Vivi’s boyfriend Frank, Marja, and Jenny.
Braunschweig-
I am trying to figure out why no one has ever said anything about Braunschweig before. This is one of the most interesting and friendly cities that I’ve been to in Germany. It’s one of those places that you have to come to in order to experience it, I can’t really write enough to do justice. First, we’re staying here in a guest room at the Georg Eckert institute, where they have a huge textbook library. It’s the cheapest place to stay in Germany and very nice. Second, the people at the institute are actually friendly. I was looking for Anne the other day, and all I did was say her name to a librarian, and the librarian smiled, (yes, the librarian smiled) and she took me up to Anne personally. And she said something about it was nice that Americans would come here or something. Okay, and then I went to Starbucks, and I had to talk to all the people behind the counter for about 20 minutes because I’m American, and they just wanted to talk. People actually wanting to help in stores, people being friendly in restaurants, I even had some old guy wanting to give me a tour of the city yesterday. Everyone is very patient when I try to speak German and are very encouraging. It’s also a very international sort of town; there are lots of people here from all over the world. I guess that would help explain why we had the best Döner in the world here in Braunschweig. Besides the very friendly people, there are all kinds of historical buildings, churches, museums and that sort. Every town in Germany has old buildings and museums. Braunschweig also has to have more statues and fountains per square inch than any city in Europe. Of particular interest is the nice statue of kitty cats, as a tribute to a street in Braunschweig that was the favorite of kitties for centuries.
Fourth of July in Braunschweig wasn’t very interesting, except that it was about 65 degrees and intermittently rainy. I don’t remember many Fourth of Julys at which I wasn’t sweating my butt off and waking up the next morning without blisters and charring on my fingers. Instead, I spent the day walking around town, and Anne came along with me after she finished doing her research for the day. It was Fourth of July, and I was walking around in jeans and a sweatshirt, gotta love Germany.
I’m not sure what the plans are for this weekend. We may be heading to Berlin to stay with Holm for the weekend, or we may be heading straight up to Kiel. We have to be out of here on Friday, so we’ll be definitely going somewhere. The weird thing is that by the time we get to where we’re going, then we’ll know where we were going, so there’s not much of a point of writing what I’m writing right now as I’ll be putting it in the blog once we get to where we’re going and therefore I will have known where we were going when I publish this. See, it’s like I’m pretending I don’t know where we’re going once I’ve published this, but as of right now, while I’m writing this, I don’t know where we’re going. Anyway, Kiel is way up north near Denmark. I will probably head up north to Denmark just so I can say that I’ve been to Denmark. Yeah, just like I’ll head to Poland just to say that I’ve been to Poland. I’ve never been to Poland. Pe and Axel are too afraid that I’ll stop at a red light and the Poles will steal the car. Russian car thieves have to steal 2 cars at a time in Germany, that way they’ll still have a car left when they get through Poland. It’s sort of like East St. Louis, but not as nice, from what I’ve heard.
Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m going to head out and see what kind of interesting stuff I can see that I may have missed yesterday. Here’s some GPS coordinates so people can look us up on Google Earth to see where we’ve been.
Braunschweig Rathaus- N 52°15.850’, E 10°31.502’
Braunschweig Mall (has the façade of an old castle as the front, really cool) -
N 52°15.801’, E 10°31.627’
Crazy House (you have to see the pictures)- N 52°15.850’, E 10°31.502’
Georg Eckert Institut (Where we’re staying) - N 52°16.088’, E 10°30.634’
Unfortunately, I forgot the cable to the camera, so everyone is going to have to wait for new photos, sorry about that.
Monday, June 25
Walking around
Well, the last couple posts have sort of been filler. There's not much one can do when they're crippled. The doctor hasn't gotten back to us yet on what was up with my knee, though it's feeling much better now. A couple days ago Anne and I went to Bautzen which is a cool old town about 18 miles from Hoyerswerda, and it's where I would live if I had to live in Germany. We had a pretty good dinner there, and we walked around and saw all the old buildings and stuff. Torsten had his birthday, so we went over to their place and had dinner and hung out a bit. Everyone seems to be doing pretty good. We also went over to Oma and Opa's to hang out and have dinner. They have a really cool garden house with a nice little lake near by, though we didn't think to take our swimsuits. It seems that swimsuits are, though officially required at that lake, optional. Then yesterday we went with Pe and Axel to the Czech republic to buy groceries for the big party next weekend, the 'Anne and Ted are in Germany' extravaganza. We're doing an American theme with hamburgers, hotdogs, potato chips, fried chicken and lots and lots of beer. We're also trying to find something that will be a good substitute for Margarita mix since it's unavailable in Germany. It was originally supposed to be a fourth of July party, but there's a wedding somewhere that weekend so we had to move it a bit ahead. I also picked up a tasty bottle of Absinthe in the Czech Republic though I've yet to meet any green fairies. Anne's making arrangements for our next round of trips for information gathering. Next week we're heading up to Kiel which is close to Denmark and heading over to Braunshweig which is home to the famously disgusting meat spread. She loves that stuff, but she also loves raw pork. There's a guest house up there where we can stay for cheap so that'll be very nice, and there's a sale on train tickets too!!!
Right now it's actually horribly hot and humid, just like Kansas, and there's a big thunderstorm rolling in. It seems like it rains here a lot, which would explain all the really nice gardens we see. Pe and Axel's garden has been growing like crazy and now looks like something out of the Amazon.
I've started reading all the Harry Potter books so I can be caught up when the last one comes out. I've only previously made it through the first two or three so I've got a bit of reading to do.
I'm expecting that we'll have more interesting stuff to write about if things go as planned for the next few weeks. Just a couple more weeks of research, then the big trip with Pe and Axel. We had to decide, because of our detour to Britain, on whether to visit Belgium or Amsterdam; this was a very hard choice but we have decided on Belgium. This will also guarantee that we will spend the 36 seconds needed to drive across Luxembourg. Anyway, it seems like everyone goes to Amsterdam, who the hell goes to Belgium? And it's the Mecca of beer, which had a lot to do with the decision, so Belgium it is. And out of our disdain for Brussels Sprouts, we will be boycotting Brussels on this trip out of protest; it is a protest against the forcing of every child of the world to sit for extended periods of time at the dinner table staring at those little green globes of Jolly Green Giant poop. No one like Brussels sprouts, so Brussels, you can go to hell, we hate you.
Right now it's actually horribly hot and humid, just like Kansas, and there's a big thunderstorm rolling in. It seems like it rains here a lot, which would explain all the really nice gardens we see. Pe and Axel's garden has been growing like crazy and now looks like something out of the Amazon.
I've started reading all the Harry Potter books so I can be caught up when the last one comes out. I've only previously made it through the first two or three so I've got a bit of reading to do.
I'm expecting that we'll have more interesting stuff to write about if things go as planned for the next few weeks. Just a couple more weeks of research, then the big trip with Pe and Axel. We had to decide, because of our detour to Britain, on whether to visit Belgium or Amsterdam; this was a very hard choice but we have decided on Belgium. This will also guarantee that we will spend the 36 seconds needed to drive across Luxembourg. Anyway, it seems like everyone goes to Amsterdam, who the hell goes to Belgium? And it's the Mecca of beer, which had a lot to do with the decision, so Belgium it is. And out of our disdain for Brussels Sprouts, we will be boycotting Brussels on this trip out of protest; it is a protest against the forcing of every child of the world to sit for extended periods of time at the dinner table staring at those little green globes of Jolly Green Giant poop. No one like Brussels sprouts, so Brussels, you can go to hell, we hate you.
Friday, June 22
Wednesday, June 20
Meow
Hi, my name is Katinka. Why am I so happy? Oh, I don't know, maybe from planning to... oh, I've said too much. Beef?Click on Katinka's Photo for Mega Size!
Not much going on
I'm sorry to say that there's just not a whole lot going on. The past few days have been spent sitting around, which at least is better than laying around. I was back at the doctor's again today for more blood tests which should give us an idea by next week with what I'm dealing with. I was able to go out a bit today after the doctor's appointment and walk a bit with Anne. As a precautionary measure (because all this pain may be a gout attack), I've cut myself off of beer, which is a cruel irony considering that I'm in Germany. The doctor thinks it may be gout, but she's also suspicious of my extremely high white blood cell count and thinks that this may be some delayed after effect of being exposed to some tick-borne pathogen. God knows that I've been the feast for many a hungry tick, so who knows, but personally I never considered it. We do have a couple of parties to go to this weekend, and we have our big party next weekend, so hopefully they can figure out whats wrong with me in time for some fun. Dad has informed me that he has become Katinka's new best friend, and also her new favorite chew toy. I guess since her little buddy(i.e. kitty brother) is spending most of his time hiding and pretending to be a ghost, she has no choice but to try to convince people to play with her by trying to bite their legs off. I guess she can get a little jealous too; she probably thought Dad was giving the neighbors some turkey and she thought she'd give Dad a little warning about cheating by biting him on the leg.
Anyway, I can tell you one thing, being a gimp sucks! I have managed to watch every video on YouTube in the past week which is a world record. Luckily we had broadband in Berlin while we were there, and we got it to work here in Hoyerswerda after we got back. The upside is that I am no longer dependent on CNN for hearing english. The downside is that most of the english I hear comes from videos of people setting their asses on fire. I'm also able to sit here in the living room and type on my own computer which has a wonderful American keyboard, sans of all that umlat and y mixed up with z nonsense.
I did manage to restring my guitar tonight which wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. Now my guitar no longer sounds like I'm playing it through a sleeping bag, which is what happens when strings start to oxidize and go bad after a month of non-stop playing. Well, now since I'm just writing about stupid stuff I figure it's probably time to call it quits for tonight. Hopefully if everything goes well we'll have alot more interesting stuff to write about. If not, well, there's going to be alot of posts about different ways to say 'ow, that #&$*@)! hurts!' in German.
Anyway, I can tell you one thing, being a gimp sucks! I have managed to watch every video on YouTube in the past week which is a world record. Luckily we had broadband in Berlin while we were there, and we got it to work here in Hoyerswerda after we got back. The upside is that I am no longer dependent on CNN for hearing english. The downside is that most of the english I hear comes from videos of people setting their asses on fire. I'm also able to sit here in the living room and type on my own computer which has a wonderful American keyboard, sans of all that umlat and y mixed up with z nonsense.
I did manage to restring my guitar tonight which wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. Now my guitar no longer sounds like I'm playing it through a sleeping bag, which is what happens when strings start to oxidize and go bad after a month of non-stop playing. Well, now since I'm just writing about stupid stuff I figure it's probably time to call it quits for tonight. Hopefully if everything goes well we'll have alot more interesting stuff to write about. If not, well, there's going to be alot of posts about different ways to say 'ow, that #&$*@)! hurts!' in German.
Saturday, June 16
some cool stuff
I'm just laying around here today, so I figure, I might as well share some of my cool photos from the past few days. I went to the German Natural History Museum 2 days ago, and to my surprise, almost everything in the museum is closed. I found that out after I paid admission. Remember National Lampoon's Vacation when they got to WallyWorld and it was closed---yeah, something like that. To be fair, they are setting up a new exhibition which will be open in a few weeks about the Evolution of life on earth, but I was pretty sad as the German Museum has the giant skeleton of the Brachiosaurus, which is the largest fossil skeleton on display on earth. I could see some of it's vertebrae soaring about 30 feet into the air through some gaps in the paper that was covering the windows, but that was about it. But there was one VERY COOL fossil on display that was worth the trip. I got to see the fossil of Archaeopetryx! That's the little dinosaur with the feathers that sort of settled the 'where did birds come from' question. It's undoubtedly the most famous fossil in the world, and according to the museum, the most expensive. I'm not sure how much it is worth, something like $100 gazillion. But I have pictures of the most famous fossil in the world. Would you like to see them? Here they are!!!
Berlin killed my knee.
It was bound to happen. After weeks of walking around and seeing stuff, my right knee has pulled it's "oh, I'm going to hurt like a mother#^$%*& and be all unusable" act and went out. So I've been all gimped up for the past couple of days here in Berlin and I can't do anything but sit around and smell bad. I'm hoping it'll get better soon, it usually only takes a day or two to get better. But considering how inconvenient this is, I imagine it'll take weeks to get better.
That's my rant. At least I have a good supply of beer.
That's my rant. At least I have a good supply of beer.
Wednesday, June 13
Potsdam
Yesterday we went to Potsdam. Potsdam is the capital of the state of Brandenburg and it is know for its castles and Palaces. It used to be the summer residence of the Prussian king and it is about 10 km west of Berlin. After a slow morning, we were still kind of sore from the Berlin day, we took the S-Bahn (a kind of commuter train, like the metro link) to Potsdam. There we went after a short hello to an
old friend of mine, to the big castle gardens. They are beautiful with a lot of straight, tree lined alleys and little houses and palaces hidden in the green. The main castle is very famous for its terraced gardens and its majestic view. After a little picnic with view up to the castle, we climbed the 132 stairs up and enjoyed the view down in perfectly trimmed gardens. The castles name is Sans Souci - without worries - and once you stayed there and looked down the hill, you understand why.After the castle we walked or better strolled to the huge gardens on hidden path without meeting anybody on our way.
In the late afternoon it started to rain and we had to buy some umbrellas otherwise we would have been totally soaked.
We meet again with my friend for dinner and went to the dutch quarter for food and a lot of good beer - Ted was extremely happy that they served his favorite brew, Orval, for less than half the price than back home.
It cooled down a lot after the rain and after the long hot day I was kind of chilly, but the train back was still hot and stuffy.
We were back at 11 pm and after some chatting with Holm we went to bed.
Today I was in the library, that unfortunately didnt open until 1pm, because of a staff meeting. While I spent the rest of my day working, Ted stayed home and played computer - but he deserves it after two days of walking, and sun and a lot of touristy stuff.
More later.
Monday, June 11
Berlin
After a long long day in Berlin just a short post. We went to Berlin last night with my uncle Holm. This morning after going to bed late, we slept in a bit and left for the town by 11 am. A short ride with public transportation and we were in the city center. After some desperately needed coffee at Starbucks we started our big tour of Berlin. First stop was the Dorotheenstädtischer Cemetery - yeah yeah you all think now what are they doing on a cemetery -but
I always wanted to go there, because all the famous Germany are buried there, especially authors and philosophers from the 19th and early 20th century. It was really pretty and relaxing like a little green oasis in the middle of a bustling city.From there we walked down the Friedrichsstraße famous for its shopping and entertainment. After a short stop at the Library, where I will spend the next couple of days, and some taste of German bureaucracy, we headed towards the Brandenburger Tor. A short look around, some photos and of we went
to the Reichstag.There we had to wait about half an hour to go up to the dome. But the wait was worth it because we wer
e rewarded with a great 360 view over the city.After that we went to the Potsdamer Platz and to the checkpoint Charlie, the former main border crossing station and from there back through the town to the Alexanderplatz from where we went back to the apartment.
It was a long and very hot day - we had at least 90 degrees - but we had a great time. More pics are as usual at Flickr.
Tomorrow we will probably head to Potsdam, about an hour away and with lots of old castles etc. There we will also meet a friend of mine and hopefully get a good tour of the city.
Wednesday, June 6
GPS coordinates
I forgot to post these on the last blog, but in case anyone was wanting to look on google earth, I'm posting the coordinates I took for the apartment and garden house. I've been meaning to do this for all rest of the places we've visited but I seem to forget the unit alot.
Apartment-
51 degrees, 25.907' N
14 degrees, 16.612' E
Garden-
51 degrees, 22.801' N
14 degrees, 06.322' E
Apartment-
51 degrees, 25.907' N
14 degrees, 16.612' E
Garden-
51 degrees, 22.801' N
14 degrees, 06.322' E
Hey, a new post!
German keyboard be damned, I'm going to write anyway. If there's a weird symbol instead of an apostrophe, or I write kittz instead of kitty, well, blame the keyboard. Anyway, I'm just sitting here and it's a sweltering 73 degrees outside so there's nothing better to do than write. Anne has been really busy the past few days heading back and forth to Dresden, which involves a nice 2 hour train ride back and forth. The train ride really provides a good insight into the European impression of distances, afterall, Dresden is only about 36 km away, that's 22 miles for us Americans. I may be wrong about the distance, I mean it may be 40 km away, but the point is, it's less than 50 miles away and takes 2 hours by train, which incidentally is almost faster than driving. Oh, but the German autobahn is soooo fast you think, but there's not much of it, so any trip between cities with less than a billion people in them involves travelling down very narrow highways through very antiquated and charming villages. What the Germans call highways, we would call a paved farm road in America, albeit a very nice paved and smooth farm road, through the middle of some very nice barley fields. Thus, the Autobahn is not the only driving adventure in Germany, if avoiding semi-trucks on a 1 1\2 lane road is a good idea of adventure. Of course as an American, there's also the challenge of learning the German rules of the road; unfortunately the manual is 15,379 pages long and was written in middle-high German during the 30 years war (the Germans, if anything, had alot of foresight.) Ok, it's not that bad, I'm attempting humor at the expense of my beer loving hosts though it may be a bad attempt. If there's anything Germans take more seriously than beer it's driving, so from here on out I have to watch my p's and q's.
Anne previoulsy mentioned our participation in the Elbschlepper, which is the German word for- "8km hike while swilling 20 beers that you have to carry with you along the Elbe river while very well dressed locals look at you funny." For a while there, I felt like the most beloved person in Germany, as it is very rare that a single person would actually carry the entire case of beer on their shoulder for the entire route. In fact, I believe I made history by being the first person to ever do so. The Germans believed that this incredible power came from my prodigious american beer belly, which they gleefully posed with for photos after the race. We also made friends with the band that was playing at the event, which was called 'Stampede' which played some very good covers of some Rolling Stones tunes. We shared our love of rock 'n roll and a few beers and then Anne and I headed back with Pe to the garden, where I spent the next two days regretting my decision to carry a case of German beers on my shoulders during a 5 mile hike.
The past couple of days has been spent (by me at least) hanging out in the apartment and working on my German and playing guitar. I did go to Dresden with Anne on the first day and spent the entire time wandering around the old city looking at the sights. I also realized how helpful and friendly the Germans are when I tried to order food and beer in German. (that's not a joke, people here for the most part are very friendly once they realize you're American and are trying to speak the language) We also impressed a group of kids in our train car with our quacking abilities, something which has yet to become common in the German dialect. I also became the hero of many of the boys in the car with my video game playing abilities. I'm probably going back to Dresden tomorrow as the prospect of watching another 15 hours of CNN International is nauseating. CNN is the only english language channel here and is my only refuge from impending culture shock. Ok, the culture is not all that different, but I've run out of people whom to say Ich möchte Bier to, which really limits my conversations. Of course there's always the hilarity of saying the St. Louis Rams are my favorite football team as the Germans have an entirely different concept of football. As a result, I do now have an authentic German National Team soccer jersey which I proudly wear around the apartment. I'd hate for people to confuse me with a Brazil fan or something. Ronaldinho, who's that? I also have a nice hoodie from the Leibzig city team, FC Lokomotive, which I soon realized is extremely popular with Anne's family.
Ok, for the part everyone has been waiting for, the official Ted Beer Count. Ted has had about 50 beers so far, and out of that, there has been 17 different brands. I'm not going to write all of them down right now, but I'm trying to save as many labels as possible for posterity. The last western beer I had was on the airplane, and I had a big Heiniken in the Amsterdam airport, but since then, it's been German and Czech beers. I'm having a beer now. So that's 51.
I guess that's it for now. Enjoy the pictures, we'll be posting some more soon.
Tchuss,
Ted
Anne previoulsy mentioned our participation in the Elbschlepper, which is the German word for- "8km hike while swilling 20 beers that you have to carry with you along the Elbe river while very well dressed locals look at you funny." For a while there, I felt like the most beloved person in Germany, as it is very rare that a single person would actually carry the entire case of beer on their shoulder for the entire route. In fact, I believe I made history by being the first person to ever do so. The Germans believed that this incredible power came from my prodigious american beer belly, which they gleefully posed with for photos after the race. We also made friends with the band that was playing at the event, which was called 'Stampede' which played some very good covers of some Rolling Stones tunes. We shared our love of rock 'n roll and a few beers and then Anne and I headed back with Pe to the garden, where I spent the next two days regretting my decision to carry a case of German beers on my shoulders during a 5 mile hike.
The past couple of days has been spent (by me at least) hanging out in the apartment and working on my German and playing guitar. I did go to Dresden with Anne on the first day and spent the entire time wandering around the old city looking at the sights. I also realized how helpful and friendly the Germans are when I tried to order food and beer in German. (that's not a joke, people here for the most part are very friendly once they realize you're American and are trying to speak the language) We also impressed a group of kids in our train car with our quacking abilities, something which has yet to become common in the German dialect. I also became the hero of many of the boys in the car with my video game playing abilities. I'm probably going back to Dresden tomorrow as the prospect of watching another 15 hours of CNN International is nauseating. CNN is the only english language channel here and is my only refuge from impending culture shock. Ok, the culture is not all that different, but I've run out of people whom to say Ich möchte Bier to, which really limits my conversations. Of course there's always the hilarity of saying the St. Louis Rams are my favorite football team as the Germans have an entirely different concept of football. As a result, I do now have an authentic German National Team soccer jersey which I proudly wear around the apartment. I'd hate for people to confuse me with a Brazil fan or something. Ronaldinho, who's that? I also have a nice hoodie from the Leibzig city team, FC Lokomotive, which I soon realized is extremely popular with Anne's family.
Ok, for the part everyone has been waiting for, the official Ted Beer Count. Ted has had about 50 beers so far, and out of that, there has been 17 different brands. I'm not going to write all of them down right now, but I'm trying to save as many labels as possible for posterity. The last western beer I had was on the airplane, and I had a big Heiniken in the Amsterdam airport, but since then, it's been German and Czech beers. I'm having a beer now. So that's 51.
I guess that's it for now. Enjoy the pictures, we'll be posting some more soon.
Tchuss,
Ted
Beer Race Pics
Pictures of the Beer race ar on Flickr, just follow the link and click through the pictures until you find some where everybody wears a red or orange T-Shirt. I will put on some comments for the pictures later. Enjoy :-))
Monday, June 4
The Beer Race
Saturday it was finally there – the big beer race in Dresden. We left the garden at 9 am and were at the location at shortly after 1030 am. At first we helped with all the preparation – nailing start numbers to the ground etc. I did the check-in while Ted was a bit bored, because nobody talked with him that would change soon. Because Axel had to work and Teds new partner didn’t show I run with him. Here again the rules. A team of two had to run a track of 5 miles with a crate of beer filled with 20 bottles (16 oz.), during the 5 miles the team had to empty all the bottles. We carried the crate for about a mile together and than Ted decided it would be easier if he carries it himself on his shoulder. So he got out of his shirt and lifted the crate on his shoulder showing of his American belly and his muscles. Everybody was quite impressed and by the time we were done everybody knew the “big American” from Kansas. We drank about half the beer and the other half we dumped but once we were back there was no lack of beer and we had our share of it. We finished in the first third after about two and a half hours. We had a great time and a lot of fun. Photos follow soon.
But after a day like that we were rather tired and sore on Sunday. Teddys shoulders are bruised and hurt and we feel the pain every time we move. According to our hang over, very autschie feeling the weather on Sunday was cold and gray and rainy, so we spent the whole day on the garden and hung around. Ted helped Pe and Axel repairing the water pipes in the kitchen, that were leaking.
Today we are going to Dresden, I have to work and Ted for exploring. Unfortunately the train is packed with kids – I guess around 4th graders – and it is rather loud. So I decided to write the blog and upload it later. The kiddies a very impressed by our computers (Ted is doing whatever with his) and that we speak English – I feel a bit like in a zoo.
Ok that’s for today – more later, I hope Ted will do the updating next week, because I will spend the week in the library in Dresden and I don’t think anything exciting will happen there.
But after a day like that we were rather tired and sore on Sunday. Teddys shoulders are bruised and hurt and we feel the pain every time we move. According to our hang over, very autschie feeling the weather on Sunday was cold and gray and rainy, so we spent the whole day on the garden and hung around. Ted helped Pe and Axel repairing the water pipes in the kitchen, that were leaking.
Today we are going to Dresden, I have to work and Ted for exploring. Unfortunately the train is packed with kids – I guess around 4th graders – and it is rather loud. So I decided to write the blog and upload it later. The kiddies a very impressed by our computers (Ted is doing whatever with his) and that we speak English – I feel a bit like in a zoo.
Ok that’s for today – more later, I hope Ted will do the updating next week, because I will spend the week in the library in Dresden and I don’t think anything exciting will happen there.
Thursday, May 31
20 beers=6 dollars
I've been meaning to write some observations about my trip to Germany, but there's so much I'm a bit overwhelmed. Also, I'm trying to use a German keyboard since we don't have the wireless router set up yet, so I'm going to make this short. Basically, in an effort to make everyone thoroughly jealous I am going to point out one huge difference between America and Germany.
I went with Axel to the Czech republic the other day for a beer\grocery run. And while we were there, I picked up a case of 20 of the finest German and Czech lagers, and these are 16 ounce beers mind you, for about, oh, 30 cents a piece. Yeah, that's right, a case of beer for 6 bucks. Water was considerably more expensive. Oh sure, we're sepnding nearly $5 a gallon for gas but only spending about $2.40 a gallon for German beer. Seems like a fair trade off.
Ok, that's it for now, I hate this keyboard, so time to enjoy that beer and train for my big beer race this Saturday.
I went with Axel to the Czech republic the other day for a beer\grocery run. And while we were there, I picked up a case of 20 of the finest German and Czech lagers, and these are 16 ounce beers mind you, for about, oh, 30 cents a piece. Yeah, that's right, a case of beer for 6 bucks. Water was considerably more expensive. Oh sure, we're sepnding nearly $5 a gallon for gas but only spending about $2.40 a gallon for German beer. Seems like a fair trade off.
Ok, that's it for now, I hate this keyboard, so time to enjoy that beer and train for my big beer race this Saturday.
Tuesday, May 29
Pfingsten - Pentacost
Last weekend was pentacost and that means a long three day weekend. On Friday we went to Leipzig, about 150 miles west. Pe and Axel were at a concert and Ted and I roamed the town. At the same time there was the biggest Goth-Wave-Festival in Europe (if not in the world) in town - therefor there were like black dressed people everywhere. I know Leipzig a bit, so I could tell Ted some things. First we visited the train station - one of the biggest in Europe that is quite impressive. The town itself is very nice, lots of old buildings and little passage ways with fancy shops, a very very nice old town hall on the market place and two famous churches. We wandered around for a couple of hours, did some shopping - Ted got an Lokomotive Leipzig Sweater, what is the local 5th league Soccer club but beloved by all Leipzigern. And now my whole family, who is a big fan, too, loves him even more - and we enjoyed the town a lot.
Ted also liked that we took public transportation from the hotel, that was a bit outside, into the city center. On the way back to the hotel we had a group of rather drunk kids, that were very loud and in my opinion enoying - Ted had a lot of fun and couldn't stop grinning.
The next day, Saturday we left early in the morning and did a tour through the "Muldental" (The valley of the river Mulde). We visited two castles and climbed up on one of the oldest castles in Saxony. We had an incredible view over the countryside. We drove through neat little villages and towns and lots of fields with wheat and barley. The last stop was the Rochlitzer Berg. A little hill famous for its red granite.
The next two days we were in the garden with Pe and Axel and didnt do much. On Sunday Ted and I drove into town and had a little walk through the old town. Unfortunatly it started to rain and storm and we couldn't go to the Zoo to say "Hey" to the penguins. On monday, still a holiday, Oma and Opa came out for coffee and cake. We finished every night with games and alcohol.
Monday night Ted and I went back to town, mostly because the bed at the garden is not very comfortable and I was getting a stiff neck.
Today Ted went with Axel to Czech Republic, for gas and beer and other groceries and had a great time. Later on we got out the bikes (about 20 years old and very uncomfortable) and did as the locals do and drove into town to the mall.
Tomorow we will go by train to Dresden - more about that later.
Photos are not updated yet - I still dont know how to do the wireless internet here and the photos are on my computer and on Teds I need to put them on Pe's to upload them from here.
Ted also liked that we took public transportation from the hotel, that was a bit outside, into the city center. On the way back to the hotel we had a group of rather drunk kids, that were very loud and in my opinion enoying - Ted had a lot of fun and couldn't stop grinning.
The next day, Saturday we left early in the morning and did a tour through the "Muldental" (The valley of the river Mulde). We visited two castles and climbed up on one of the oldest castles in Saxony. We had an incredible view over the countryside. We drove through neat little villages and towns and lots of fields with wheat and barley. The last stop was the Rochlitzer Berg. A little hill famous for its red granite.
The next two days we were in the garden with Pe and Axel and didnt do much. On Sunday Ted and I drove into town and had a little walk through the old town. Unfortunatly it started to rain and storm and we couldn't go to the Zoo to say "Hey" to the penguins. On monday, still a holiday, Oma and Opa came out for coffee and cake. We finished every night with games and alcohol.
Monday night Ted and I went back to town, mostly because the bed at the garden is not very comfortable and I was getting a stiff neck.
Today Ted went with Axel to Czech Republic, for gas and beer and other groceries and had a great time. Later on we got out the bikes (about 20 years old and very uncomfortable) and did as the locals do and drove into town to the mall.
Tomorow we will go by train to Dresden - more about that later.
Photos are not updated yet - I still dont know how to do the wireless internet here and the photos are on my computer and on Teds I need to put them on Pe's to upload them from here.
Thursday, May 24
Deutschland
Yeah we are finally here, after 15 hours of flight we landed yesterday save and tired in Berlin where my Grandparents picked us up. The flight was ok so far except the first part to Minniapolis that was very bumpy and I got very very sick. That made me feel not so good the whole time until we arrived in Germany. But once here everything was great. My folks is very very happy to see us as are we of course to see them.
Last night we stayed at my parents little garden house, but tonight we will be in the apartment. The jetlag woke us up last night at like 4 am. But we could do anything, because the House is tiny and we slept in the living room and there is no door to the bedroom, just a curtain. So should we wake up early tonight we at least can watch TV.
Today we went into town, we had my moms car, and run some errands. I am trying to change my name in Germany because I need a new passport (my old one is still on my maiden name), but it is nearly impossible. They need so many documents and forms and we dont have half of them here. I guess I'll just keep the old name her. It is a hassle sometimes especially when flying, but so far I dont see another way - stupid Germany burocracy.
When we walk through town and speak English people look weird at us - I dont care but I feel like an exotic animal or something. In America everybody would ask you immedently were you are from, but here, just stares.
Tonight we had dinner with Oma and Opa and we had a great time - Ted was very happy, he got beer and grilled pork steaks and felt like in heaven. His german is improving rapidly and gets better with every bottle of beer he is drinking.
Tomorow we will go to Leipzig and stay a night there and we probably will be in the Garden until monday or tuesday - there is no internet, ok dial-up, but that doesnt count, so I wont be able to post until next week.
Last night we stayed at my parents little garden house, but tonight we will be in the apartment. The jetlag woke us up last night at like 4 am. But we could do anything, because the House is tiny and we slept in the living room and there is no door to the bedroom, just a curtain. So should we wake up early tonight we at least can watch TV.
Today we went into town, we had my moms car, and run some errands. I am trying to change my name in Germany because I need a new passport (my old one is still on my maiden name), but it is nearly impossible. They need so many documents and forms and we dont have half of them here. I guess I'll just keep the old name her. It is a hassle sometimes especially when flying, but so far I dont see another way - stupid Germany burocracy.
When we walk through town and speak English people look weird at us - I dont care but I feel like an exotic animal or something. In America everybody would ask you immedently were you are from, but here, just stares.
Tonight we had dinner with Oma and Opa and we had a great time - Ted was very happy, he got beer and grilled pork steaks and felt like in heaven. His german is improving rapidly and gets better with every bottle of beer he is drinking.
Tomorow we will go to Leipzig and stay a night there and we probably will be in the Garden until monday or tuesday - there is no internet, ok dial-up, but that doesnt count, so I wont be able to post until next week.
Monday, May 21
15 Hours to go
Ok, everything is packed, all our suitcases weight 49.5 pounds (50 lb are allowed), all presents are bought and packed, the carry-ons are ready, we have all papers and document - we are good to go. We have to leave here at 730 in the morning tp be at the airport on time and at 1030 am we will be of to Germany. We are very nervous and I thinkk I wont be able to sleep tonight - what isn't that bad, becuase than I hopefully will be able to sleep during the flight. We will be in Germany Wednesday morning at 930 local time and I want to try to stay up as long as possible that day to beat the jetlag.
15 hours to go, the next post will be from Germany ...
15 hours to go, the next post will be from Germany ...
Saturday, May 19
Two days to go
After squezzing everything in our car yesterday, including the cats who were not very happy at all, we are on our first stop in St. Louis for the next couple of days. Today we went to buy everything we still needed, including suitcasesn and presents and now we are more or less ready to go. Except for the fact that all our stuff is still in trash bags and has to be packed.
The cats are doing ok so far. That is Katinka is fine here, because she knows Teds parents and she has been here before. Felix on the other side is just petrified from the drive and is hiding under various sidetables, beds etc. Yesterday he actually crawled inside the matress of our bed. The matress is very old and the lining on the bottom has come of. He was sitting between the box springs - poor little fellow. But I think he will do fine eventually. Katinka is not very happy about Felix being here and she is hissing and the little one, what doesn't make it easier.
So for tomorow I just have to pack the rest of the stuff, do some little more laundry and get a manicure and a pedicure and we are good to go.
The cats are doing ok so far. That is Katinka is fine here, because she knows Teds parents and she has been here before. Felix on the other side is just petrified from the drive and is hiding under various sidetables, beds etc. Yesterday he actually crawled inside the matress of our bed. The matress is very old and the lining on the bottom has come of. He was sitting between the box springs - poor little fellow. But I think he will do fine eventually. Katinka is not very happy about Felix being here and she is hissing and the little one, what doesn't make it easier.
So for tomorow I just have to pack the rest of the stuff, do some little more laundry and get a manicure and a pedicure and we are good to go.
Friday, May 11
Excitement
God, I am getting really really excited and nervous about the trip. Only 11 days and we will be sitting well above the clouds and be on our way to Germany. There is so much still to be done. Ok actually not. I did all the planing, what was the hardest and most time consuming part and now I just have to put everything together. I have about half the gifts - for those persons it was easy for. And now I still need a ton of stuff and I have no idea what to get them. At least I am done with school for this semester - just a stupid final on Wednesday - so I have time to get everything done.
But yeah, right now it is more nervousness about the flying. Ja I have my pills and my logic tells me it is totally save blah blah blah - but I still hate to fly. Unfortunately that is the fastest and cheapest way to go to Germany.
But yeah, right now it is more nervousness about the flying. Ja I have my pills and my logic tells me it is totally save blah blah blah - but I still hate to fly. Unfortunately that is the fastest and cheapest way to go to Germany.
Thursday, April 26
Start
26 days until we leave for Germany and 27 till we will be there. This blog is for everybody back home to see, read and enjoy what we do during our three month summer work-vacation in Germany and some neighboring countries.
For right now I am busy to finish the semester as well as Ted, but I have to plan a lot for the trip and cannot forget anything - I have about 5 lists for different things and they are getting longer every day.
For right now I am busy to finish the semester as well as Ted, but I have to plan a lot for the trip and cannot forget anything - I have about 5 lists for different things and they are getting longer every day.
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