Hallo! What a wunderbar (German for wonderful) trip to Germany! Now, it is going to take a while to tell you about all of the great and amazing things we experienced in Germany but here we go…
The trip started with a 6-hour bus ride to Madrid on Thursday morning. Copeland and I were up and showering before 5 am, yes you read correctly--FIVE AM! We arrived in Madrid a little late because of traffic but around 3:30 we headed on the Metro and to our hostel. I’m glad that I am from a big city and know how to read and follow Metro routes because our travels went very well. We were staying at Hostel La Posada de Huertas for the night so we could fly into Frankfurt Friday morning. Now, this was my first experience in a hostel and I am not sure they are for me….I thought that I would be fine with the hostel-type experience while touring Europe but I think growing up with a OCD mother (yes mom, I am considering vacuuming more than once a day, being able to see the tiniest of crumbs on the kitchen counter from across the house, and biweekly Spring cleaning symptoms of OCD) made me a little skived to sleep in a hostel. It was a nice hostel but I was terrified for any inch of my skin to touch the bed and I wanted to bath in hand sanitizer after going in the bathroom. Anyway, I survived one night. We shopped around Madrid for the afternoon and ate dinner at a great little Italian restaurant. Madrid is so beautiful and I would have been very sad to leave if it weren’t for knowing I would be back in a few weeks.
Friday morning we headed on the Metro and to the airport, excited for the (long) weekend to come! Our flight was delayed a bit but we got to Frankfurt and were greeted by Paul, who Copeland had met this past summer while he was staying with her extended family in America for 2 months, and Nils, Paul’s friend. We were staying with Paul for our time in Germany in Koblenz where he lives, which is a little bit outside Köln. Köln is about an hour-ish from Frankfurt. We all got to Paul’s house where we settled in while Paul and Nils worked on a wonderful dinner of spaghetti with curry chicken. After dinner we headed to the city of Köln by way of a 40-minute train ride with some more of Paul’s friends: Gabriel (Gaga), Carina, Nicoil, and Simon. We were going to a club called Triple A to celebrate (a few days late) Paul’s birthday! The clubs have an odd system in Germany of giving you a card when you enter, which is essentially your bar tab. Every time you order a drink the bartender marks it on the card and at the end of the night you hand over your card and pay your bill. The catch is if you loose the card or, say, thought you were smart by “misplacing” the card so you would not have to pay your bill - you have to pay SIXTY-FIVE EUROS. So great system for the clubs because I am quite positive tons of drunken customers loose their card. Anyway we got our cards and I quickly stuck it deep into my pocket for safekeeping. Vodka and red bull was the drink of choice for the birthday boy but they ordered a bucket for the table, which consisted of a bottle of Absolute (with a giant sparkler flaming from the top), tons of cans of red bull, glasses, straws all in a big bowl of ice; basically a mini bar for your table. The price: 120 euro, chump change. How many did we get: 4. What does that lead to: a great night of “making party” until 6 am. Side note: the phrase, “No Homo,” is all the rage in Germany right now. They use it with almost every sentence and I must have heard it 500,000 during the course of the trip.
Saturday Paul, Nils, Copeland, and I went to the ruins of a castle high atop a hill near Koblenz. It offered beautiful views of the surrounding towns and the river Rhine. Now, I did not know Germany was known for their bakeries and bread but only for their wursts (sausages). Well, I quickly learned after stopping at a bakery and upon entering becoming overwhelmed by the smells and the sights. We went to the same bakery every day of our trip after that visit, seriously. Anyway, then we were off to cheer on the local team of the professional German basketball 2nd league, the Dragons. Lets just say that German professional basketball is not the same as American although you do have to take into account the fact that it was the 2nd league or tier. I’m pretty sure the gym was bigger at Millbrook and the cheerleaders: 12 and 13 year old girls without a coach (the “Dragon Flames”). The announcer was cool and extremely hip shouting, “BOOM SHAKALAKA” after a deserving play. It was a really fun time and a cool experience since it is something the locals do.
Sunday we went to cheer on another basketball team although it was made up of 15-year-old boys that Paul coaches. It was kind of like the YMCA or Parks and Rec league with tons of games going on in the facility, lots of parents and siblings watching, and even a small bake sale. Sadly, after a close game Paul’s team couldn’t pull through but it was still a lot of fun! We met up with Nils in Köln to visit a cathedral called the Dom. It was sooooo windy when we were walking that restaurant tables and chairs around the plaza where the Dom is located were flying away and parents were literally holding on to their children for dear life. It was like a scene out of wizard of oz. The tower of the Dom is 157 meters (what a workout) and offers beautiful views of the city. When we got down the polizei would not let us out because the wind in the plaza was so strong but after about 5 minutes we were free to walk at our own risk. We walked over to the CHOCOLATE MUSEUM ☺ yum yum yum yum yum. We learned all about harvesting coca and the history of chocolate but more important received plenty of samples! Even more importantly Lindt was shooting an Easter commercial for their Golden Bunnies and asked us to be a part of it!! All we had to do was tell what the Golden Bunny meant to us so I quickly signed the waiver that I could not read a word of seeing that it was written completely in German. The touched up our makeup, shot the scene, and gave us our own golden bunnies. If you know me at all you will know that chocolate in exchange for work (especially being in a commercial) is fiiiiine with me! I’m not sure if they will use our part of the commercial but I’m just going to say they are. Next time you see me I will be in the big screen along side Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, where I belong.
Monday Paul, Copeland, and I went to my 2nd home- a medieval hillside castle- Marksburg. It is one of very few remaining knights hillside castles due to the destruction during WWII. It was gorgeous and we even got a private tour since it was Monday and not many visitors were there. As you can se from the picture I got to try on a medieval knights helmet, which I believe is very flattering for my figure. Don’t you agree? Maybe in more of a gold? ☺ On the way home we stopped at the German Corner, which is where the rivers Rhine and Mosel meet. There is a huge statue of the German Emperor Wilhelm I and a flag and symbol of each German federal state. Later that night we went to a bar with Paul, Nils, Gabriel, and Simon, which was having ladies night. Pay 3 euro and get 4 glasses of wine or 4 beers- sounds good to me! We had a great last night with our new friends and even made plans to return in December for an Austrian ski trip!
I can’t believe Tuesday came so fast and it was time to return to Sevilla but not without a tour of Frankfurt first. Wow, Frankfurt is a beautiful city because it modern, classic, and sooo clean! You don’t see any graffiti or trash just an occasional McDonalds or KFC. We visited the building where the first German National Assembly was held and another beautiful cathedral. Then we did a little shopping before heading to the airport….
We had such a great trip and Germany is definitely somewhere I have to go back to (hopefully in December ☺). From the historic sites, to the bakeries, to the great people it is a vacation I will always remember. It is some awesome to have a local tour guide (or a couple of local tour guides) because you get to experience the city or country in a different way.
Chao for now (no homo),
Amanda (or my new German nickname Samantha)
