Germany

HALLOWEEN! (my haunted Chai Latte)

I see family! And continue to accumulate traveling experience

The German adventure began last Tuesday the 28th of October, when Megan and I took a bus to Killarney. Our flight from Kerry airport was so early that we couldn't get a bus there that morning, so after another evening in Neptune's Hostel, we took a taxi the additional twenty minutes to the airport. Kerry airport is tiny; it has two terminals and, as far as I know, services only Ryanair. I have a love/hate relationship with Ryanair; see Figure 1, below.

We arrived in Frankfurt the next morning and easily found our hostel, located just outside the bus/train station. Frankfurt is definitely a big city; one of the world's largest and busiest from what I understand. It was raining during both of our days there, and Germany in October/November, we also learned, is pretty cold! Megan and I spent Wednesday and Thursday seeing the city and having dinner at a couple of the many affordable restaurants. Wednesday night we ate at an Italian/Indian Specialty Restaurant. Confused and fascinated, we went in half expecting a new hybrid culinary form, but actually there was just a menu with an Indian and Italian half. We got by without any German fairly easily in Frankfurt. Most people spoke English, and many were no more German than Megan and I; at least in the area where we were, Frankfurt seemed very "international."

the main square in Frankfurt's "old city"

We also went to the Natural History museum, which was beautiful, and included replicas of several fossilized ocean creatures, the originals of which are on display in the Sternberg in Hays, Kansas! Here is one of my fellow Kansans in Germany:

Anna joined us Thursday night and we showed her the old City Center and had coffee before turning in early at the hostel (a coming post about hostel experiences will have more detail, but for a preview, see Figure 2 below).

First thing Friday morning, we went to the station to see about train schedules. Train tickets wound up being more expensive and time consuming than expected to buy, but it was a very pleasant approximately three hour ride, with a scenic detour along the Rein. This area is so beautiful, and with the dense deciduous forests that veil most of Germany in fall leaf, it was especially striking. Little towns crowded around beautiful cathedrals dotted the far riverbank, almost always with a restored or ruined castle overlooking them from the more defensible position of a peak overhead. For a stretch, it seemed like there was a castle every mile. On the intervening slopes were the yellow vines of out-of-season vineyards, sometimes on surfaces that were practically vertical they were so steep.

When we reached Bonn, our destination, we found a very different reception than in Frankfurt. Off the tourist path, Bonn's residents had less patience for our lack of German, and didn't take pains to ensure we actually understood their English instructions. I'm convinced most of them spoke more English than they wanted us to know! What we sorted out after resorting at last to asking taxi drivers to take us to our hotel address and being repeatedly refused, was that the hotel was not in Bonn at all. Though it listed Bonn as its address, it was actually in a neighboring town called Bad-Godesburg.

We eventually ascertained a route to Bad-Godesburg by public transportation; one train, one bus, and a brisk walk later, we found ourselves at the Hotel Ambassador Bonn, which aside from not being in Bonn at all, was a pleasant place to stay. Totally worn out by this point even though it was only late afternoon, we set our stuff down in the hotel and walked Bad-Godesburg, eventually just getting bread, cheese, wine and beer at the Aldi next door to our hotel and hosting our own carpet picnic in the room. I made a stop at an internet cafe to see what the plan was for meeting up with Kim and Rich...my cell phone was out of service, to my frustration, and I couldn't call them. We made tentative arrangements to meet the next day in Bonn, so Anna, Megan and I got to sleep early and woke up the next morning in time for a nice complimentary breakfast at the hotel.

Now comfortable with our route to and from Bonn, we were less stressed boarding the train and navigating the immediate surroundings of the main station in Bonn. I checked my email at another internet cafe, but eventually realized it might be better just to call Kim and Rich. We used a pay phone for this purpose, starting with one euro, and the call was successful. It was so great to hear Kim's voice! She told us that Lee left his "man bag" on the plane, which included his passport!, and that they were still at the airport waiting on a bus. I told her I knew how she felt, but then tried to rush to figure out what time we should meet them, since my friends were reaching past me to feed the phone change approximately every five seconds.

We camped out to wait and in another hour, Kim appeared on the main station's front steps. I waved; we hugged; I introduced her to my friends and we went back inside to find Rich. United not only in physical place but also in our German travel complications, Kim and Rich treated my friends and me to a great lunch. Rich has retained an impressive amount of German from high school classes and the wait staff at the restaurant seemed pleased by his effort to use their language. I was glad to see the softer side of some German citizens. Then we set ourselves to finding their hotel and then transportation to Aunt Terry and Lee's show.

At this point it's probably necessary to mention that Rich has some kind of handheld supercomputer with GPS capabilities, and that he admits to often being dependent upon its powers. Apparently Germany and its weather confused the GPS, and as a result we followed the computer down a four lane highway in the rain before resigning ourselves to its fallability and realizing Aunt Terry's show was supposed to begin in 20 minutes. Luckily, Rich was brave enough to cross the street at the sight of a large vehicle that seemed to be for hire, parked by the median of the closed-off lane. We watched Rich stand outside the driver's side window, wondering whether he was negotiating fare or asking directions, and then he gestured us over.

Apparently our van was some kind of restaurant shuttle, and the driver was between appointments. We piled into the ample seating - it had to have a 15 passenger capacity - and Rich rode shotgun, and after a few miles Anna turned to me and said, "Rachel, we're headed toward Bad-Godesburg!"

Not only were we headed toward Bad-Godesburg, we were headed to Bad-Godesburg! Not only were we headed to Bad-Godesburg, but we passed Hotel Ambassador Bonn (of Bad-Godesburg) en route, and as it turned out, the venue was only a few blocks from it.

Marveling at this coincidence, we piled out and thanked the driver repeatedly, hurrying to avoid tardiness, and Aunt Terry met us at the door.

The show was great; intimate audience size, great music, and even a Day of the Dead ceremonial demonstration by a Mexican dancer in full costume. Of course for me the highlight was the chance to see and talk with Aunt Terry and Lee, as well as see them in action. It was the first time I had heard Aunt Terry's flute in person, and it was truly beautiful, in my amateur listening opinion the perfect compliment to Chucki's singing and guitar. At one point I was somehow brought into the stage area to play a drum; luckily the little girls I stood up with were good at keeping rhythm and when I started to get off, they would each rattle their instruments louder to correct me.

lovely Chucki at the show; I tried to take pictures of Aunt Terry, but the guy in front of me had his head in the way. :(

the German-speaking Mexico City native in his ceremonial dress for Day of the Dead

Kim and Rich in their boundless generosity hung around Bad-Godesburg after the show to take my friends and me for a drink and tapas. We had two rounds and traded funny "Americans abroad" stories, then discussed visits to London. Megan and her dad are making one this weekend, and Anna and I were invited for Thanksgiving with Kim and Rich! (If you're reading this, Kim, I hope you were serious, since Anna and I booked our flight!)

We began to walk Kim and Rich to the train station, but they opted for a cab on the way. We said our farewells and headed back to the hotel, and it wasn't long before we were out cold.

We woke up at about 5:30 so that we could be at the train station on time, and thus began the return journey from Hades.

Honestly, the German part all went according to schedule: we took a train to Koeln, snapped some pictures by the cathedral, then waited for our bus shuttle. Took the two hour bus (actually lovely weather and lots of countryside - and some wind turbines! - made this ride pleasant) and got the airport an hour and forty-five minutes before our flight. Which was good, since after check-in we spent a long time in the security line as people who were about to miss their flight were pulled out of line behind us and put in line in front of us. Anyway, we boarded and flew back to Kerry airport without incident.

Tiny Kerry airport on a Sunday is a tricky place to leave in a hurry. We had to wait an hour for the shuttle to Killarney in order to meet up with the regular bus line of Ireland, and we pulled into Killarney's bus station just as our bus was pulling out. So, we had to wait another hour for the next bus to Cork. Exhausted, we lugged our back packs around the shopping center and ate ginger snaps. The bus, when it arrived, was almost full to capacity, which meant sitting by strangers and a lot of background noise. I had my iPod handy, but some of my traveling companions weren't so fortunate: Megan was sitting next to a guy who watched/listened to his cell phone the entire time with the sound on speaker.

A long hour and a half later, we were back in Cork. It was cold but clear, and we hoofed it at speed back to the Apartment building, said our good byes, and collapsed. It was almost exactly twelve hours after we had gotten on the train that morning in Bad-Godesburg. International travel still startles me: two countries, five cities, one day.