We just laid next to each other on the mattress and talked. Before we parted, he kissed me on the cheek, and I said that I would send him an email update mid-week.
I was still feeling pretty lousy and decided to sleep at home and drive to Chicago early the next morning. I woke up at 4am and left by 5. I made it to Chi by 10, was full of Sultans's, car dropped off at Roy's house by 11, and on the blue to ORD.
Made it through the ticket line/gate no problem.
First stop: Helsinki. We were 90 minutes late to leave the gate due to a computer problem. Flight time was 8 hours. I ate 10mg of Melatonin and put on my sunglasses and fell asleep. I woke up when the food cart came through, and I don't know what the deal was, but there was no special food options, even for people who ordered in advance. I ate the salad and some crackers. Luckily I had two cases of Cliff Bars in my bag!
Had a layover for about six hours, then boarded the flight to Berlin. In Helsinki, there were no jetways. You go to the gate and then get on a bus that takes you out on the tarmac where the plane is waiting and you walk up a little stairway to board the plane. Flight time was just under two hours, and Ron and Tara were at my gate in Berlin to meet me! I was so excited! Ron still looks that same (and he said the I look the same, too!)
We took a bus to a train to Tara's East Berlin apartment! I was in love with Berlin the first five seconds I was there! Very spread out, not a lot of tall buildings. Very obvious socialist influence; a lot of the building all look to same. Very green city with lots of trees (more on this later!). People on bikes, zipping around in special bike lanes that are not on the road but a separate zone on the sidewalk, trains and buses. I was waaay into the vibe that everyone in Berlin was putting out. Everyone had their own unique style and was just so chill. No attitude. Just positive vibes all around.
Tara's apt is REALLY nice and we dropped off our bags and headed to the Berlin International Beer Festival. There was over a million people there, something like 85 countries represented, food tents, way cute German boys with cute accents. We had an Eastern Pils, which I really liked, and a Dutch beer that was 'aight. I ordered a plate of Nudelpfanne and Tara got some garlic/basil mushrooms. The night was gorgeous.
The next morning Ron and I took the train to HBF because he was going camping for a few days and I was going to Gedern for a few days. I was actually going to take the ICE train to Leipzig to meet up with one of my hosts, Yvonne, who was there teaching a hunting horn lesson to a group of school children. The train was smooth, fast, and quiet. I looked out the window for a bit; the countryside is beautiful, but I was incredibly tired from the jet lag and fell asleep.
The station in Leipzig was very interested from an architectural POV. I met up with Yvonne and we drove in her car on the Autobahn to Gedern. I was excited to go FAAAAST, but there was actually a lot of traffic and we didn't get the car up too fast. Leipzig was kind of depressing in that it was raining and a lot of the building were still bombed/burned out. Just looked...desolate.
Gedern was beautiful. I love being the country, and the area was so hilly and forested but also dotted with farms. There were lots of windmills and hay bails on the hillside. I met up with the rest of the host family and we all went to a nearby lake and ate dinner at a restaurant. It was nice being with the family to eat dinner. They really took time to enjoy the meal and social after. We were there for about two hours.
The next morning, I met up with Uwe, who is the German half of the sister city program. He took me all around Gedern/Ober-Seemen. We went to a BBQ place for breakfast/lunch and I met the proprietor, a man named Don. When Uwe entered the place, Don started speaking to him in German and they were obviously friends, but I could detect a southern twang in Don's voice. Then he spoke to me in English and I could certainly tell then, that he was American. He is from South Carolina but was stationed in Germany then stayed after his enlistment was up. He opened a BBQ joint and lives with his wife upstairs. Two other ex-pat American retired soldiers came in while we were there. Don made a veg sandwich.
Gedern Castle:
After food, Uwe and I went around to see some castles. We went to Gedern castle, which is now the city hall. The original woodwork and staircase from the 1300ss is still holding up and in place in the castle. Amazing. We also went to Burg Ronneburg. It was high up on a hill, and there was a falconry there! I was so excited, but the birds only come out of the weekends and it was Monday. We also went to two privately-owned castles. Visitors are allowed on the grounds but cannot go inside the buildings.
Burg Ronneburg:
Susan at a lookout ledge at Burg Ronneburg:
Uwe took me to some of the other sister city sites and I took some pictures.
I had a great time! I was so tired an took a nap when we got back. Going into the trip, I wanted to see castles, and after the morning with Uwe, I could cross that off my list!
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