TIME FOR SOME FUNNY STORIES
I promised you bitches some stories about my vacation in Germany, so I have come bearing stories. Most of the things I did were not that interesting in and of themselves. I did quite a few traditional touristy things like the museums and castles. I also went to some less touristy museums like the Medical History Museum and the Erotik Museum.
The first thing I found interesting about traveling in Germany was the realization that my mind had actually stored away a fair amount of German from when I took it in high school. All in all, I probably know more German than I do Korean, and I lived in Korea for an entire year. And I found that Germans were generally much more supportive of my shitty German than Koreans were of my shitty Korean. It's amazing how a tiny bit of encouragement can totally change your motivation. I found it really hard to find the desire to study Korean, but being in Germany for two weeks has sort of made me want to try to pick up with my German studies again. As a result, I'm thinking of trying to find an ESL job in Germany instead of going back to Korea. I'll probably continue to look for jobs in both countries, but we'll see what ends up happening.
But really, Germany was all about the people. I met so many interesting, cool, and/or weird people, especially in the hostels.
The first leg of my vacation was in Berlin, and I stayed in a really great, friendly hostel. One night a guy walked into the dorm at the same time that I was walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I asked him what time it was. Based solely on this interaction, he struck up a conversation with me the next day and became subsequently obsessed with talking to me. I found out he is from Chile but lives in Dublin and had been in Berlin for three weeks. His bed was right in front of mine, and he slept naked except for a single sheet swathed across his groin, like some Biblical painting of Adam. Every night he would loudly announce that he was going to the grocery store, disappear for three or more hours and then reappear with no groceries. He woke me up at 5 or 6 a.m. to ask me if I wanted to go out and get a beer with him and then was confused when I sleepily replied that I didn't want to. In that same hostel I met an Australian guy who went to the sex museum with me, thank goodness, because I didn't want to go there alone. Except afterward he wanted to watch porn in one of those porno booths, so instead I entertained him with stories from when I used to work in the porn store.
Giant golden penis!
I love that this chastity belt has an angry face on it. >:(
Then I went to Bonn, where I met Sebastian aka
tuppe, which was really cool. I accidentally fell asleep on the train on the way and ended up stuck at the airport so I was at first afraid that I made a terrible first impression. I ended up having a great time because I discovered that he shares my love for useless trivia and strange conversations. We discussed what would happen if cats had opposable thumbs, for example. He is also just a genuinely generous and nice guy, so three cheers for Sebastian!
Also because this picture makes me laugh. In Fat-Girl-Angle-Vision!!
After Bonn I went to Mainz, which I only went to for the Gutenberg Museum, because a museum devoted to the inventor of movable type makes the geek in me very very happy. There wasn't quite as much English signage as I would have liked, but it was still worth the journey because I got to see some copies of the 42 line Bible (sadly not the original) and some other cool old books and printing presses. Mainz was pretty, but not much to see there other than the museum, so I went to Wurzberg the next day.
Bonus Picture: A CHURCH!!
Würzburg was gorgeous. It was one of the prettiest towns I have ever been to. Everything about it, even the residential areas, seemed very picturesque. I went to a really big castle/royal residence place which has the world's biggest ceiling fresco above a staircase. That made me laugh because it's an oddly specific "world's biggest..." to have. The hostel in Würzburg was cheap and had free internet access, but it was also full of old guys. One of them was in my room and kept trying to give me travel tips while I was trying to sleep. I realize that he had the best of intentions, but seriously dude, if I'm in my bed it's sleeping time, not talking time.
Oh no, fucking skeletons!!!
Next, I went to Munich. My hostel in Munich was completely rank. I was the only female there, which I think weirded out some of the guys. I was in a full 10 bed room. In two of the beds were a super old Russian guy and his son. His son was a traveling magician and they had been living in that hostel for like three months. There was also a hippie Belgian guy who was trying to learn German as his FIFTH language. He was really nice and actually made me feel a lot more comfortable about being there. The other guys were obviously a little uneasy about me being in their room, which I found funny, because it seems like if anyone would be uneasy it would be me. They were super-conscientious to the point of almost being annoying. If I was in the room, they would suddenly be quiet and ask me if I needed to turn on the overhead light or if I wanted them to close the window, etc. etc. I guess I shouldn't be complaining (although the room smelled like a stinky foot).
Before I came home, I did a little day trip to Füssen to see Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Before I left for Germany, my dad told me that he wanted me to take a picture of a castle in the mountains for him. Since Neuschwanstein is sort of "the" German castle, I thought I'd go. On the train from Munich I met a group of five Korean tourists when I helped them figure out the train schedule. Once we got up to the castles it had started snowing pretty hard. A group of demon German children started throwing snowballs at each other which was amusing for a while until we got caught in the crossfire. One of the Korean girls took a snowball pretty hard, so I tried to convince her to throw one back at them. She wouldn't, but I enlisted the help of one of the Korean guys and we started throwing snowballs back. We got a little too into it and I accidentally smacked a kid right in the face with one of the snowballs. I felt bad about it for a few seconds, but then I got over it because he was obviously a total dirtbag who deserved it.
My journey ended there. My flight back was fairly uneventful except that in the row next to me was the fattest man I have ever seen on an airplane. He was so fat he needed a seatbelt extender and couldn't fit the tray table down because his gut was too big. When Plato spoke of everything having an idea form, this guy is Plato's archetype of a fat guy. Slobby, snoring, wearing a ripped and stained t-shirt. That was a little annoying because he snored really loudly for the entire trip unless he was eating two (!) airline meals.
But I digress! My trip to Germany was fantastic and I can't wait until I get the chance to go back.
The first thing I found interesting about traveling in Germany was the realization that my mind had actually stored away a fair amount of German from when I took it in high school. All in all, I probably know more German than I do Korean, and I lived in Korea for an entire year. And I found that Germans were generally much more supportive of my shitty German than Koreans were of my shitty Korean. It's amazing how a tiny bit of encouragement can totally change your motivation. I found it really hard to find the desire to study Korean, but being in Germany for two weeks has sort of made me want to try to pick up with my German studies again. As a result, I'm thinking of trying to find an ESL job in Germany instead of going back to Korea. I'll probably continue to look for jobs in both countries, but we'll see what ends up happening.
But really, Germany was all about the people. I met so many interesting, cool, and/or weird people, especially in the hostels.
The first leg of my vacation was in Berlin, and I stayed in a really great, friendly hostel. One night a guy walked into the dorm at the same time that I was walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I asked him what time it was. Based solely on this interaction, he struck up a conversation with me the next day and became subsequently obsessed with talking to me. I found out he is from Chile but lives in Dublin and had been in Berlin for three weeks. His bed was right in front of mine, and he slept naked except for a single sheet swathed across his groin, like some Biblical painting of Adam. Every night he would loudly announce that he was going to the grocery store, disappear for three or more hours and then reappear with no groceries. He woke me up at 5 or 6 a.m. to ask me if I wanted to go out and get a beer with him and then was confused when I sleepily replied that I didn't want to. In that same hostel I met an Australian guy who went to the sex museum with me, thank goodness, because I didn't want to go there alone. Except afterward he wanted to watch porn in one of those porno booths, so instead I entertained him with stories from when I used to work in the porn store.
Giant golden penis!
I love that this chastity belt has an angry face on it. >:(
Then I went to Bonn, where I met Sebastian aka
tuppe, which was really cool. I accidentally fell asleep on the train on the way and ended up stuck at the airport so I was at first afraid that I made a terrible first impression. I ended up having a great time because I discovered that he shares my love for useless trivia and strange conversations. We discussed what would happen if cats had opposable thumbs, for example. He is also just a genuinely generous and nice guy, so three cheers for Sebastian!
Also because this picture makes me laugh. In Fat-Girl-Angle-Vision!!
After Bonn I went to Mainz, which I only went to for the Gutenberg Museum, because a museum devoted to the inventor of movable type makes the geek in me very very happy. There wasn't quite as much English signage as I would have liked, but it was still worth the journey because I got to see some copies of the 42 line Bible (sadly not the original) and some other cool old books and printing presses. Mainz was pretty, but not much to see there other than the museum, so I went to Wurzberg the next day.
Bonus Picture: A CHURCH!!
Würzburg was gorgeous. It was one of the prettiest towns I have ever been to. Everything about it, even the residential areas, seemed very picturesque. I went to a really big castle/royal residence place which has the world's biggest ceiling fresco above a staircase. That made me laugh because it's an oddly specific "world's biggest..." to have. The hostel in Würzburg was cheap and had free internet access, but it was also full of old guys. One of them was in my room and kept trying to give me travel tips while I was trying to sleep. I realize that he had the best of intentions, but seriously dude, if I'm in my bed it's sleeping time, not talking time.
Oh no, fucking skeletons!!!
Next, I went to Munich. My hostel in Munich was completely rank. I was the only female there, which I think weirded out some of the guys. I was in a full 10 bed room. In two of the beds were a super old Russian guy and his son. His son was a traveling magician and they had been living in that hostel for like three months. There was also a hippie Belgian guy who was trying to learn German as his FIFTH language. He was really nice and actually made me feel a lot more comfortable about being there. The other guys were obviously a little uneasy about me being in their room, which I found funny, because it seems like if anyone would be uneasy it would be me. They were super-conscientious to the point of almost being annoying. If I was in the room, they would suddenly be quiet and ask me if I needed to turn on the overhead light or if I wanted them to close the window, etc. etc. I guess I shouldn't be complaining (although the room smelled like a stinky foot).
Before I came home, I did a little day trip to Füssen to see Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Before I left for Germany, my dad told me that he wanted me to take a picture of a castle in the mountains for him. Since Neuschwanstein is sort of "the" German castle, I thought I'd go. On the train from Munich I met a group of five Korean tourists when I helped them figure out the train schedule. Once we got up to the castles it had started snowing pretty hard. A group of demon German children started throwing snowballs at each other which was amusing for a while until we got caught in the crossfire. One of the Korean girls took a snowball pretty hard, so I tried to convince her to throw one back at them. She wouldn't, but I enlisted the help of one of the Korean guys and we started throwing snowballs back. We got a little too into it and I accidentally smacked a kid right in the face with one of the snowballs. I felt bad about it for a few seconds, but then I got over it because he was obviously a total dirtbag who deserved it.
My journey ended there. My flight back was fairly uneventful except that in the row next to me was the fattest man I have ever seen on an airplane. He was so fat he needed a seatbelt extender and couldn't fit the tray table down because his gut was too big. When Plato spoke of everything having an idea form, this guy is Plato's archetype of a fat guy. Slobby, snoring, wearing a ripped and stained t-shirt. That was a little annoying because he snored really loudly for the entire trip unless he was eating two (!) airline meals.
But I digress! My trip to Germany was fantastic and I can't wait until I get the chance to go back.