Josh in Germany

No this isn’t my first time blogging; it’s just my first time using this page. See, I used to bog on MySpace but I realized I’m not 16 anymore and if I’m going to try to go for that Journalism degree, I should probably use a better blogging network and most importantly, write about things that are worthwhile instead of posting random blurbs then having someone I really don’t want to talk to (like most people I went to high school with) to read then post some random, borderline idiotic comment. Anyways, welcome, hello, and I hope those of you who will actually read this, will enjoy.

With that out of the way, I just came back from Germany. Yes, the guy that never gets out, spent three weeks in a foreign country. The first week was full of fun, between taking off my shoes in the airport to get them checked and buying a magazine, there wasn’t much to remember before boarding the flight. We left around 1 P.M. CST on that day (I believe it was the 23rd of June) and ended up in Germany thirteen hours later. There’s not much to do on a huge flight like that, there were two in flight movies, one being The Other Boleyn Girl, which sucked, and the other being Dan in Real Life, which was halfway decent. The in flight stations were cool, they had a rock station which played mostly Alt-Rock but when you’re on a plane that long, you don’t care. At least they played some Nick Cave, Coldplay and Deep Purple. When we finally arrived in Germany, I felt dirty and sick. Not five minutes after we arrived in the Frankfurt Airport, I already threw up because of the mixture of traveling and bad airline food. After claiming our luggage, we drove an hour to our first destination, Kaiserslautern Germany and the Ramstein Air Force Base.

As soon as we checked into our room, I slept for basically eight hours and messed up my sleep pattern for a whole week. The first place we dined at was none other than a Chili’s on the base. Yeah we’re in Germany, but with that much jet lag, you’ll go to the closest place there and well, Chili’s was in walking distance. For those first couple of days, we saw some castles in that area and walked around downtown K-town. Our first big venture didn’t come till about a week later when we went to Paris which my two cousins didn’t enjoy at all despite how beautiful and historic that city is. The best thing on that trip however, wasn’t going to Notre Dame, or looking at all the other landmarks, it was my cousin Jason nearly getting hustled by some weirdo standing outside of one of the many cathedrals. Other than Paris, there wasn’t much of anywhere we went to in that first week. We were in Germany just in time for the Euro Cup final in which Germany was set to play Spain. It prompted me to purchase a German soccer jersey and root for some guy named Michael Ballack who apparently is the Dan Marino of soccer because he’s yet to win when it counts. Watching the Euro final and seeing Germany lose was reminiscent of watching a Cowboys or Spurs game with my family, but instead of rooting for a city, these guys are rooting for national pride.

Our second week is kind of a blur, but like the first week, we looked around some of the different landmarks around Germany. Luxembourg was my favorite, seeing General Patton’s grave site gave me shivers and seeing all the guys from World War II was truly moving. In that same week, we spent the 4th of July in Amsterdam. We had a choice of seeing either Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band or going to Amsterdam, and I must say, we made the better choice. After an endless car ride to Holland, we finally made it to Amsterdam. Like most tourists, we walked downtown and yes, we ended up accidentally going through the Red Light District. Aside from all the sex shops and hash bars, the other shops are nice and the people there were as friendly as can be. We spent the night there and left the next afternoon, thus ending our second week there.

We spent our third and final week in the Bavarian part of Germany. My uncle had set it up to stay the week at his friend’s mom’s house. His friend, Glen, had his family there so it was two families sharing a four storied house. Their eldest son got along perfectly with my cousin Jeremy while Jason quickly made friends with the others. The wonders of gangster rap helped bridge a gap between two people on two different countries. We spent most of the time at the house but we did take day trips to Munich and to a nearby site which was formerly Dachau Concentration Camp during World War II. Dachau was depressing but very moving and interesting to see, especially for anybody interested in learning about the Nazi regime during World War II. Munich was fun though, we saw yet another castle, and walked around the downtown area. The funny part of that trip was despite being in the heart of Germany, there were hardly any Germans and we were surrounded by nobody but tourists from what it seemed like every other part of the world. We ended the trip back at Ramstein again waiting for our plane back to the states.

The day of our departure was one bad thing after another. We checked in to Frankfurt around 10 A.M. and it was the start of a long wait. We had to check my backpack with wine, into luggage instead of carry one which was a bad sign. We then had to re check into the gate before actually taking off. Our plane took off at 1 P.M. and lasted for eight hours. On the flight back, we got to sit through the cinematic crapterpiece which was Fool’s Gold and on the Airline radio I enjoyed Iggy Pop, more Nick Cave and some Rolling Stones which made the trip a little better. Our second in flight movie was Definitely, Maybe which to an extent, I enjoyed. The flight was less than the one we took going to Frankfurt, but it felt a hell of a lot longer than it actually was. We then arrived in Philadelphia where it was the worst three hours of my life. We waited an hour for our luggage to actually get in before finding the wine that I brought home to my parents, was busted, leaving me with a smelly backpack and feelings of depression for my belongings. The workers at the airport sucked too. None of them were nice, none of them were helpful, and none of them seemed smarter than a middle school pre teen. By that time, I was tired, nauseated and eager to get home. We went to our gate before being told angrily that our gate had changed. We boarded our flight around 7 P.M. and never had I felt so sick and so tired, I just wanted to get back home. I spent most of the flight sleeping because if I stayed awake, I probably would not have been able to keep whatever food I had in my stomach, down. After another long three hours, we were in Houston, home sweet home…well, for the most part.

I hardly ever get out, but this was the chance of a lifetime, and I’m so happy I went. Never in all my years, did I think that I was going to be able to go to Europe. It was a really great experience and something I’ll never forget. If you ever get a chance to go, I strongly urge you to take that chance it make it there, you will fall in love with all it has to offer and will be moved by so many of the sights.