Postapalooza: Germany
Post-a-palooza! I know I've pretty behind in covering my whirlwind travels so I'm going to divide it up into separate posts. I've actually had the description of my last weekend in Germany partially written for a while. It's just been tough to devote the time to finish it and get it posted. It's quite long.
I got up at the crack of dawn the day I left for Berlin to pack, check out of the hotel and take a taxi to the train station. I was able to handle the whole taxi exchange in German (okay so it only consisted of like five words) but I didn't fool the driver at all. He still said "thank you, good bye" in English as I was leaving. I asked the station attendant about my train and how to buy tickets for it. They directed me to some main teller area but it wasn't open yet. I found the electronic ticket machine and bought it myself from there. Then I wandered around the station trying to find breakfast only to discover neither Burger King nor McDonald's (both of which were in the station) serve breakfast in Germany and, of course, neither do any of the other many snack places. I ended up buying a sandwich that had egg in it and some water. The main Frankfurt train station is freaking gigantic. There are twenty-three tracks that dead-end in the station side-by-side. But while the boarding area is very long because the trains have many cars and the station is very broad, the rest of it is not very deep. The area between the tracks and the entryway is just enough for a few shops.
The train announcements were in both German and English so I didn't have much problem figuring out where my train was arriving or that it was running five minutes late. Getting on the train was pretty painless but finding a seat was confusing. I was used to Amtrak where they put the tickets above the seat to show the seat is in use. There were electronic signs above the seats, but they were for reserved seats not just to mark where people were sitting. I sat down in a couple and got questioned by their holders later. I found an empty seat eventually and it wasn't really that bad; I was just nervous about the whole situation.
The trip to Berlin was pretty uneventful. I set an alarm on my phone to wake me when we got near when I should disembark just in case, since I was quite tired. I dozed a little here and there along the way but was awake for most of the time. The countryside was very pretty. Directly outside of Frankfurt it was very green with lush hills. As we got closer to Berlin there were still a lot of very green foresty areas but they were broken up by farms and plains of various sorts. It reminded me of a mix of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
The main Berlin train station felt bigger than the Frankfurt one. While it didn't have as many incoming tracks, it had MANY vertical levels. I got a little lost trying to find my way out the right way. Fortunately, my friend was running late so I had plenty of time to get out the correct exit and hop in her car. Then we stopped and picked up a friend of hers and drove off into the Berlin countryside.
That weekend one of her other friends was having a birthday party. His parents own a farm so he invites all his friends to come camp and spend the night there to celebrate. It's one of her favorite parties. I was a little concerned that they wouldn't appreciate having a random American around who didn't speak German but I was assured it would be fine. Most everyone understood English even if they didn't necessarily speak it with me. People were a little shy, of course, since it was still a gathering of geeks and I was an unknown but a couple of her friends nearly latched on to me and chatted with me for most of the night and others opened up more over time. One of the guys almost seemed scared of me at first. He introduced himself in English, then announced, "there, I did it!" like he was so proud of having been able to say hello to an American in English and scurried away. By morning, many of them (including the guy who had seemed afraid of me) were sitting around talking with me in English. It was a very interesting experience. Even if I wasn't directly involved in a conversation, sometimes they would switch to English if someone was saying something they thought I might appreciate or wanted to get a reaction. That made it easy to tell when someone wanted my attention. ;-) Conversely, though, they would sometimes seem to be looking right at me while talking in German and I couldn't tell if they were talking to someone behind me or if they were really trying to talk to me. I greatly appreciated the inclusiveness. I don't normally enjoy being the only person I know at a party, anyway, so it was all that more awkward when I didn't speak the language. It was very kind of them to switch, periodically at least, to engage me. I must have made a good impression because they invited me back next year. :-)
The party itself was basically sitting around, eating from the BBQ and drinking. It was fun and very relaxing. A few people, not my friend or any of the people with whom I'd been chatting in English, went inside towards evening to watch the Germany/Uruguay game. The people watching were still excited, even if it was only for third place. I think my favorite moment of the game was when one of the Germans joked (in English) about the fact that the German goaltender's name was "Butt" and other people chuckled. I commented in relief that I was glad someone besides me mentioned it first since I'd been trying really hard not to snicker about it all night. Everyone laughed. I ended up staying up later than my friend and chatted with some friends of hers who played MMOs. The downside of having watched the soccer game was that the sun set while I was in there and I hadn't set up my tent before it was dark. Fortunately, the weather was good enough that I really just needed a sleeping bag.
The party broke up shortly after everyone eventually roused themselves that Sunday morning. I was up pretty early and actually enjoyed some coffee (surprising!) and sat around chatting with people. At some point we packed up the car and drove back into the city. It was still too hot to really do anything so we made plans to get together with some of my friend's other friends to watch the World Cup Championship match at their church. We then went on a driving tour of Berlin and stopped to get some ice cream before heading to the church. It was really neat to meet some of her other friends. They were a couple and really sweet. The girlfriend was very shy about her English and kept trying to get my friend to translate for her but she wouldn't let her get away with it. I felt a little bad. Her sister had driven it into her head that her English was "terrible" because her sister had studied in the US. Her English was great; certainly WAY better than my German. I was able to understand her just fine and told her so. Sure, she struggled for words now and again and sometimes I had to fill in the gaps but we were able to communicate well enough. The game itself was somewhat lackluster but the company was fun. We were both pretty tired by the time we got back to her apartment and had to be up at another ungodly hour to get me to the train station so we just went to bed.
My friend and I got up separately and since neither of us were morning people we kind of stumbled around doing our own things. She made me some tea and once I was done and packed I sat down to enjoy it with her. She told me that she'd made a snack pack for me and warned me about the fact that some school children on another train had been hospitalized for heat illnesses when their train's air conditioning wasn't working. She dropped me off at the local underground and bought me a ticket to the main train station. The ride to the main station was uneventful. I plopped in a seat and paid vague attention to the passing stations. The main station was the end of the line so the fact that the announcements were only in German wasn't a big deal.
I was on a pretty tight timeline so I went straight from one train station to the next. Unfortunately, that meant I missed Starbucks and did NOT get a Berlin mug. Guess I'll just have to go back for it. ;-) I made it to the platform just a few minutes before the next train was to arrive only to discover that it was quite late. At least my friend had found a train that would get me to the airport sooner than the one for which I'd originally planned so the delay wasn't a big deal. Eventually, it arrived and I got on but couldn't find a seat. I ended up finding a spot where I could sit on my suitcase and kinda be out of the way. Others ended up just sitting on the floor in the space between cars so I wasn't in so bad of a situation. It was only for a few hours, anyway, before I changed trains.
The next train, which would drop me off right in the Frankfurt airport, I actually found space in one of the "quiet rooms", which were closed cabins with six bench seats around a table. That part was awesome. The downside was the air conditioning was broken and it was very hot. I was quite glad then that my friend had packed a bottle of ice for me so I had very cold water by that point. Until then I'd only discovered the water in the snack pack I'd been carting with me. I had the table to myself so I explored the rest of the pack and found that my friend had clearly spent most of the morning putting it together for me. It was more than a collection of snacks; it might as well have been lunch. It kept me satisfied until the first meal on the plane which was quite a while later. The lack of air conditioning kept the conductors so busy delivering water to people that they never did collect my ticket. At one point, they stopped by to say something in German, pointed further down the train and moved along. In the cabin with me were two Spaniards and one German. The German was the only one who understood the comment and said that the air conditioning was only out in our car and was working in other cars. She went out to scout for us and returned to confirm it. We grabbed our bags, moved to another car which was, indeed, cool and even managed to get room in another quiet room. The rest of the trip to the airport was uneventful.
The train stopped in the middle of the Frankfurt airport and there was even a check-in counter right by the station where I checked in my suitcase and collected my boarding pass. That was super handy. The airport itself was easily traversed and I ended up at my gate with an hour to spare. Each gate had its own little walled off area with lots of room. It was kind of neat. The flight itself wasn't anything memorable other than I was both sad to be leaving and glad to be going home.
I got up at the crack of dawn the day I left for Berlin to pack, check out of the hotel and take a taxi to the train station. I was able to handle the whole taxi exchange in German (okay so it only consisted of like five words) but I didn't fool the driver at all. He still said "thank you, good bye" in English as I was leaving. I asked the station attendant about my train and how to buy tickets for it. They directed me to some main teller area but it wasn't open yet. I found the electronic ticket machine and bought it myself from there. Then I wandered around the station trying to find breakfast only to discover neither Burger King nor McDonald's (both of which were in the station) serve breakfast in Germany and, of course, neither do any of the other many snack places. I ended up buying a sandwich that had egg in it and some water. The main Frankfurt train station is freaking gigantic. There are twenty-three tracks that dead-end in the station side-by-side. But while the boarding area is very long because the trains have many cars and the station is very broad, the rest of it is not very deep. The area between the tracks and the entryway is just enough for a few shops.
The train announcements were in both German and English so I didn't have much problem figuring out where my train was arriving or that it was running five minutes late. Getting on the train was pretty painless but finding a seat was confusing. I was used to Amtrak where they put the tickets above the seat to show the seat is in use. There were electronic signs above the seats, but they were for reserved seats not just to mark where people were sitting. I sat down in a couple and got questioned by their holders later. I found an empty seat eventually and it wasn't really that bad; I was just nervous about the whole situation.
The trip to Berlin was pretty uneventful. I set an alarm on my phone to wake me when we got near when I should disembark just in case, since I was quite tired. I dozed a little here and there along the way but was awake for most of the time. The countryside was very pretty. Directly outside of Frankfurt it was very green with lush hills. As we got closer to Berlin there were still a lot of very green foresty areas but they were broken up by farms and plains of various sorts. It reminded me of a mix of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.
The main Berlin train station felt bigger than the Frankfurt one. While it didn't have as many incoming tracks, it had MANY vertical levels. I got a little lost trying to find my way out the right way. Fortunately, my friend was running late so I had plenty of time to get out the correct exit and hop in her car. Then we stopped and picked up a friend of hers and drove off into the Berlin countryside.
That weekend one of her other friends was having a birthday party. His parents own a farm so he invites all his friends to come camp and spend the night there to celebrate. It's one of her favorite parties. I was a little concerned that they wouldn't appreciate having a random American around who didn't speak German but I was assured it would be fine. Most everyone understood English even if they didn't necessarily speak it with me. People were a little shy, of course, since it was still a gathering of geeks and I was an unknown but a couple of her friends nearly latched on to me and chatted with me for most of the night and others opened up more over time. One of the guys almost seemed scared of me at first. He introduced himself in English, then announced, "there, I did it!" like he was so proud of having been able to say hello to an American in English and scurried away. By morning, many of them (including the guy who had seemed afraid of me) were sitting around talking with me in English. It was a very interesting experience. Even if I wasn't directly involved in a conversation, sometimes they would switch to English if someone was saying something they thought I might appreciate or wanted to get a reaction. That made it easy to tell when someone wanted my attention. ;-) Conversely, though, they would sometimes seem to be looking right at me while talking in German and I couldn't tell if they were talking to someone behind me or if they were really trying to talk to me. I greatly appreciated the inclusiveness. I don't normally enjoy being the only person I know at a party, anyway, so it was all that more awkward when I didn't speak the language. It was very kind of them to switch, periodically at least, to engage me. I must have made a good impression because they invited me back next year. :-)
The party itself was basically sitting around, eating from the BBQ and drinking. It was fun and very relaxing. A few people, not my friend or any of the people with whom I'd been chatting in English, went inside towards evening to watch the Germany/Uruguay game. The people watching were still excited, even if it was only for third place. I think my favorite moment of the game was when one of the Germans joked (in English) about the fact that the German goaltender's name was "Butt" and other people chuckled. I commented in relief that I was glad someone besides me mentioned it first since I'd been trying really hard not to snicker about it all night. Everyone laughed. I ended up staying up later than my friend and chatted with some friends of hers who played MMOs. The downside of having watched the soccer game was that the sun set while I was in there and I hadn't set up my tent before it was dark. Fortunately, the weather was good enough that I really just needed a sleeping bag.
The party broke up shortly after everyone eventually roused themselves that Sunday morning. I was up pretty early and actually enjoyed some coffee (surprising!) and sat around chatting with people. At some point we packed up the car and drove back into the city. It was still too hot to really do anything so we made plans to get together with some of my friend's other friends to watch the World Cup Championship match at their church. We then went on a driving tour of Berlin and stopped to get some ice cream before heading to the church. It was really neat to meet some of her other friends. They were a couple and really sweet. The girlfriend was very shy about her English and kept trying to get my friend to translate for her but she wouldn't let her get away with it. I felt a little bad. Her sister had driven it into her head that her English was "terrible" because her sister had studied in the US. Her English was great; certainly WAY better than my German. I was able to understand her just fine and told her so. Sure, she struggled for words now and again and sometimes I had to fill in the gaps but we were able to communicate well enough. The game itself was somewhat lackluster but the company was fun. We were both pretty tired by the time we got back to her apartment and had to be up at another ungodly hour to get me to the train station so we just went to bed.
My friend and I got up separately and since neither of us were morning people we kind of stumbled around doing our own things. She made me some tea and once I was done and packed I sat down to enjoy it with her. She told me that she'd made a snack pack for me and warned me about the fact that some school children on another train had been hospitalized for heat illnesses when their train's air conditioning wasn't working. She dropped me off at the local underground and bought me a ticket to the main train station. The ride to the main station was uneventful. I plopped in a seat and paid vague attention to the passing stations. The main station was the end of the line so the fact that the announcements were only in German wasn't a big deal.
I was on a pretty tight timeline so I went straight from one train station to the next. Unfortunately, that meant I missed Starbucks and did NOT get a Berlin mug. Guess I'll just have to go back for it. ;-) I made it to the platform just a few minutes before the next train was to arrive only to discover that it was quite late. At least my friend had found a train that would get me to the airport sooner than the one for which I'd originally planned so the delay wasn't a big deal. Eventually, it arrived and I got on but couldn't find a seat. I ended up finding a spot where I could sit on my suitcase and kinda be out of the way. Others ended up just sitting on the floor in the space between cars so I wasn't in so bad of a situation. It was only for a few hours, anyway, before I changed trains.
The next train, which would drop me off right in the Frankfurt airport, I actually found space in one of the "quiet rooms", which were closed cabins with six bench seats around a table. That part was awesome. The downside was the air conditioning was broken and it was very hot. I was quite glad then that my friend had packed a bottle of ice for me so I had very cold water by that point. Until then I'd only discovered the water in the snack pack I'd been carting with me. I had the table to myself so I explored the rest of the pack and found that my friend had clearly spent most of the morning putting it together for me. It was more than a collection of snacks; it might as well have been lunch. It kept me satisfied until the first meal on the plane which was quite a while later. The lack of air conditioning kept the conductors so busy delivering water to people that they never did collect my ticket. At one point, they stopped by to say something in German, pointed further down the train and moved along. In the cabin with me were two Spaniards and one German. The German was the only one who understood the comment and said that the air conditioning was only out in our car and was working in other cars. She went out to scout for us and returned to confirm it. We grabbed our bags, moved to another car which was, indeed, cool and even managed to get room in another quiet room. The rest of the trip to the airport was uneventful.
The train stopped in the middle of the Frankfurt airport and there was even a check-in counter right by the station where I checked in my suitcase and collected my boarding pass. That was super handy. The airport itself was easily traversed and I ended up at my gate with an hour to spare. Each gate had its own little walled off area with lots of room. It was kind of neat. The flight itself wasn't anything memorable other than I was both sad to be leaving and glad to be going home.