A preview of sorts

Well, the time has come to write to you all again about my travel exploits. Yes, I just had another two week holiday. (France is lovely isn't it?) Thank goodness I'd finally finished my Christmas holiday blogs right? That could have got confusing.

ANYHOW.

More blogs in the near future. But as I am now back at work any long updates will have to wait until at very least this weekend. So, to tide you over, as I'm sure you are all just champing at the bit to read more of my somewhat silly ramblings, I have put together a little preview of what will be the first installment of my trip. (Yes, there will be more than one installment again... save us all.)

And, as with most of my quickly put together blogs it is in video form and can be seen by clicking on this phrase here which is actually a finely crafted link. (Embedding is still grumpy with me.)

Did you click the link?

Very good.

So, I, as ever, aim to entertain. Let me know if you were or weren't, if you have any questions, etc. You know the shpeal.

Also Lydia (who you met in the video if you clicked the link) also has a blog which, if you are so inclined, can be found here.

Christmas 2012 (part 3/3) New Year's and the end!

Germany! That's my next and final stop on this whirlwind of Holiday fun times. So off we trot.

Hopping the train was relatively easy. I mean, apart from one moment of blatant terror when I had to switch trains at a "station" that was basically three platforms in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately I worked out that trains were posted on a... waitforit... poster. So I did work out which platform I needed to be on before my train came rattling through.
That's a Lucy Travel Tip (patent pending) for you: when in a panic read EVERYTHING, not just the crappy monitors. Chances are in civilized countries, like Germany, trains will run on such a regular schedule that there will be a poster with departures and arrivals on it, by time. This poster will be very reliable. I didn't even need to know my direction/terminus, I just checked what time my train was supposed to leave the station, cross-referenced with the departure times on the poster and voilá! Sorted.

So I wash up in Garmisch. Lydia picked me up at the station. Lydia is lovely! (We met at the UO, bonded over dance, and haven't looked back. You can check out her blog here, should you wish.)

She works teaching ski for an American Army base vacation resort. She lives in a dorm on part of the base. I had to be signed in. Every time I wanted to come in. By guards with guns. "Golly" was my general feeling about that.

Though, honestly, the weirdest part about staying in the American Dorm in Garmisch Germany? The vending machines that only took dollars. Bizarre.

Lyds and I went out for a quiet dinner, and my first (of many) German beer. It came in a glass taller than my face. For realsies.

The next day, new years eve day, Lydia took me up to the resort. Both her and her charming boy Alex had work all day. But she managed to sneak me in a Beginning Adults ski lesson for the day.

Wait.

Whut?

"Lucy on skis?" you ask?

Oh yes.

I've never skied before. Not a day in my life. Honestly, strapping bits of wood to my feet and shooting down slippery and steep inclines has never really seemed like a good idea... or well, not a good idea for me I should say. As most of you know already I'm not exactly "sporty" or "athletic" or "co-ordinated". Like, at all.

But Lydia was very persuasive.

So we suited me up (those ski boots are freaking heavy), and sent me out into the sunny sunshine.

To my great surprise, I didn't suck!

I had lots of speed, much less fear than I expected, and very little control.

By lunch we were going up the rope tow, and skiing on down the back-yard hill. It was quite a large hill (to me anyway, not to a real skier, but I'm very much NOT that), and I think I did acceptably well.

The rope tow didn't thwart me too badly, I failed to balk at going down a slope that was longer and steeper than a snow drift, and (best of all) I didn't run anybody over! Though I did have to do a strategic  collapse at one point. It was me or the five year old. So I was nice and purposely fell over, rather than colliding with the small child in the pink snowsuit.

I even went back after lunch. Though by then I was tired and everything was a lot harder. At one point I lost both poles going up the rope tow, tipped over, slid partway down the edge/embankment thing, and spent a reflective minute upside-down (boots uphill, head downhill) contemplating the clouds. It was very peaceful, and floundering out of the snow just seemed to be far too much bother. I wasn't even obstructing rope-tow traffic.

Well, eventually I got out of that, put the reflections to one side, and soldiered on. I threw in the towel about 20 minutes later when my knee started to get grumpy at me after a second fight (which I lost) with the rope-tow.

But all in all, I would call my first ski experience a success.

That night was New Years Eve. Everybody in Garmisch was headed to the Marionplaz (the center square) for music, fireworks, and drinking. Alex and Lydia had to work a late event, and so they left me in the dorm, with plans to meet me in the Marionplaz at 11:30.

I should, at this point, pause briefly to talk about the weather. It is relevant later, I promise. The day had been cold, with really lovely snow in the morning. By about 3 in the afternoon, it had warmed up just enough that it was now raining. With a vengeance.

I joined up with a group of the Dormers and headed into town a bit after 10:00. It's a ten to fifteen minute walk, 20 when you are with drunken Americans. Once there, we wandered down the street to get close to the music. And it was at this point that I started to work some things out...

1) Germans love a good party. And New Year's is the perfect excuse to let go and get wild. There were tons of people everywhere.

2) Americans love to party too. So everybody was there to party. In spite of the rain. Which hadn't bothered to stop.

3) Germany has no open liquor laws. Drinking in the streets is perfectly legal and, on a night like New Years, expected. So, as you can imagine, if you were there and not totally sozzled, you were working like mad to catch up with every one else.

4) Germany apparently has few to no restrictions on Fireworks.
And this, my friends, is the clincher.
The fireworks.

Let me pause, collect myself, and attempt to proceed in a rational and organized (HA!) fashion.

So, pre-midnight, things were bedlam. But a manageable level of bedlam. Ish.

Um, so in the streets people can just set off the fireworks. Whatever fireworks. For example fireworks that, in the States, would certainly not be permitted out of Fort Knox.

And they just weren't lighting.

You know how I mentioned it was raining? (See I told you it was relevant!) Well, this meant that everything was soggy. Including lighters and fireworks.

So, what do you do when your lighter doesn't work?
Answer: borrow one of a tipsy German teen.

What do you do when your firework hasn't gone off, but you've burned off all of the lighting wick trying to get damp wick to catch and burn?
Answer: Obviously, you pry open the firework, stick in your hand, and light it from the inside. Duh.

Yup.

But nobody got burned. So that was good...

Fireworks, from simple sparklers to shooting star rockets, were going off at fairly regular intervals. In all directions.
I watched one go powering right into a tree, and another skitter along an apartment building across the little square we were in. (Luckily all the windows were closed. I guess residents know what to expect.)
Fireworks were also being pitched into the street, one of the few areas with no slushy piles of damp snow... so the best place for them to burn out. This street however, was not closed. Mostly cars driving by were avoided.

...more or less...

So, yeah. Bedlam.

And then it struck midnight.

...

And suddenly I was having to re-think my definition of madness.

...

It was a freaking war zone.

All those fireworks that I had gone "Wow, those totally wouldn't be allowed in the hands of the public back home"?
Yeah, those were just the warm-ups. The opening act.

See, in Germany, as far as I can tell, cities don't put on fireworks displays. Not like at home. In Germany they basically just let the people put on their own show. I swear, the displays of fireworks put out by the good people of Garmisch put to SHAME the displays we have in Oregon. And they aren't even funded by the state. Holy cow.

However... this also means that the people in the street, the people standing right next to you, are shooting off massive fireworks. The NOISE. The SMOKE. Whooof.

And then... there were the slightly smaller ones, the less impressive massive boomers, that were being shot in all directions. 


Wait, let me re-emphasize that: Fireworks were being shot in ALL directions.

The big, expensive, awesome ones were too valuable to be shot anywhere but up, where they were displayed to great and impressive advantage.

The rest went everywhere.

And I was very, very glad that I was sopping wet. Because I didn't catch fire when a firework exploded at my feet and trailed sparks up and down my legs. I didn't even get singes in my jeans.
I did smoulder a bit on my right shoulder when some jerk (nationality unknown) balanced a sparkler on my shoulder. It rolled off quite quickly, being round and all, so there was no harm. Aside from a light bit of smoking.

At this point I was in full "DUCK AND COVER LADS" mode. And I hid behind the very tall Lydia. Which didn't work because, as I have previously pointed out, the fireworks were coming from all directions. And we were in the middle of the very crowded street.

But then there was Beer-liqueur (spelling questionable here), and lots of cheering, and more really spectacular fireworks.

What it boils down to: it was a really really excellent New Years!


The rest of the trip was no less awesome, but much calmer.

Lydia and Alex had the 1st off. So we did some lounging, and then went to a German bath-house. We hung out in the warm pool and I slid down an awesomely steep water slide of death. There was also an amazing sauna that felt so good I didn't want to leave. And we closed it off with a hot-tub outside over-looking the gorgeous German Alps.

Oh!
Fun story: to get to the Bath-house, and really just to get from the Dorms to anywhere in a timely fashion, we used bikes! (the American dorms were way out on one end of town)
That's right! We borrowed me a bike, and I biked through snow, ice, and slush. And I didn't die! I only even tipped over once, and that was plowing along through a very crusty-ice-snow path.
Yes, I think that's another bad-ass badge earned. Thankyouverymuch.

We went out to dinner at a really nice Bavarian restaurant. Bavarian food is amazing. That is all I have to say about that. Go. Eat things. You won't regret it.
(Also: Thank you to both Alex and Lydia for being my interpreters. I would have been so lost and confused without you explaining the menus to me!)

So yeah, that's some of the highlights. Lydia and Alex were amazingly good hosts, and it was more than a treat to get to spend some time with Lydia again!
I got to hang out some more in the lodge the next day, and listen to American Army families on their vacations. Weird.
I did some shopping, bought lots of chocolate, and generally really enjoyed myself.

I also got to raid the Take-a-book-leave-a-book shelf in the American dorm. I took three. One of which I want to use with my students here, one was a book of Agatha Christie short stories about Tommy and Tuppence that I don't think I'd read before (!!! big deal that! Finding a Christie mystery I haven't read is now very rare for me), and a Regency Romance novel (turned out not to be a bodice-ripper, tragic sigh,  but was quite funny).
(I finished the Agatha Christie on the train and passed it off to the American woman who was riding next to me. She had a very small baby and lives with her husband in Germany. I think they must be doing some sort of sabbatical, as they'd been there 2 years, and are going back to the States soon. I love the people you meet on the train!)

So, after three days of fun, food, sights, and general awesome-ness, I said goodbye to Lydia and Alex early one morning and stumbled off to catch an early train.

I had about 4 train changes, and everything went really smoothly. I even had time in Stuttgart to get lunch.
Which was actually hilarious! I think I met a throw-back to the 40s while I was there.
I was nestled in a café, reading my book, having mostly finished my sandwich, when a man and an elderly lady came and sat at the table adjoining mine.

She was in furs and diamonds.
He was in a reasonably nice suit, a snazzy hat and overcoat and carrying all the bags.
He got her settled, and then went to fetch coffee.
They spoke in French together.
The man clearly had an accent, I think he was either English or (more probably) German. The woman might have been Italian? I'm not sure. But I do think French was their common language.

Right before they left they had a brief exchange:
-Man: Tu termines le café? (You will finish your coffee?)

-Dowager Duchess type woman: Non, jamais. (no, never)

The man sort of laughed incredulously (yes, fancy word, but it fits the best I swear!) and goes: "Jamais."

And then off they went.

Whut.

Clearly some sort of fabulously wealthy woman, or at least a very old title with heirlooms and little money left (they were taking the train after all, though I have no doubt in my mind they were in first class all the way), and her escort.
But he had to be a new escort, as he didn't know that a lady never finishes her coffee. How very gauche!
I wish I knew their full story!

I love train stations.



And that was sort of the end.

I made it back home that day, and was back at work the day after. And I've been working ever since.

(Except for last weekend when I was in Paris.)

And this coming weekend I'm off again!
I'm meeting up with Lydia in Istanbul for 5 days. (I am still sort of in shock over that... really excited, but a little bit disbelieving.) And then back to Paris, up to Eu, and then quite possibly over to England. Good old France and regular 2 week vacations for schools. I'm so very spoiled!



There you are my faithful followers. You are all nicely caught up. (Finally) I hope you've enjoyed reading of my holiday rambles. If you liked reading about them even a fraction as much as I enjoyed having them, then my work is accomplished!

I might get something else up this week about the snow and French school systems and how they do not mix well... but we'll see. Would you be interested in that?

Remember, I love questions, comments, feedback, anything!

Bisous from Domfront.