(no subject)
I'm on my way home from Germany now! But don't get too excited. I have approximately 28 hours of scheduled travel time, so I won't be home until tomorrow afternoon. I'm in the Frankfurt airport now, and I may be the only one on earth, but I'm beginning to appreciate the small conveniences airports and planes afford. Wifi for one thing. And good food (and wine) if you know where to find it. I may have a drastically different perspective on this 6 hours into my 12 hour layover in Heathrow -- that's why I'm writing about this now, before I regret ever coming on this trip and my life as I know it.
I feel like I need to regurgitate everything that's happened everywhere I've been, but I may just save that for the unlucky few who will have to sit through my slide show -- set to a Rammstein and Falco soundtrack, of course. It's been fantastic. I really should have written about the publishing class I took a week ago, because it w as really intense and I don't remember a thing. That's not true, but since I left Germany the first time for Bratislava, everything is a blur. A really happy fun blur. Meave's friends -- all other English teachers -- are a blast. I want them to incorporate me. She took me to Vienna, which is gorgeous in a very grand, Habsburg-emperial sort of way. Bratislava is also cool, but Meave says it's small and gets boring easily.
After 3 days there, she and I went to Heidelburg, which is gorgeous in a cobble-stone, old school architecture, roses and ivy everywhere sort of way. And somehow they manage to pull it off without it feeling Disney-fied, though there were places that got close (mainly where they were selling souvenirs). The only unpleasant part was our first night when we got a decadent amount of free wine from our waiter (it starts out okay...) who wanted us to stick around until he was done working (sketchy, but whatever. Free wine...). Then he sort of pawned us off on his Italian friend who spoke very limited English, and spent the next hour trying to have a conversation in Italian w/ Meave, who speaks not that much but, bless her heart, was trying VERY hard. This was annoying, AND all of the waiters were in cahoots with ours, and no one would bring us our check so that we could pay and kindly run the hell away. Finally we insisted, so no further unpleasantness ensued. Except for hangovers.
I feel like I need to regurgitate everything that's happened everywhere I've been, but I may just save that for the unlucky few who will have to sit through my slide show -- set to a Rammstein and Falco soundtrack, of course. It's been fantastic. I really should have written about the publishing class I took a week ago, because it w as really intense and I don't remember a thing. That's not true, but since I left Germany the first time for Bratislava, everything is a blur. A really happy fun blur. Meave's friends -- all other English teachers -- are a blast. I want them to incorporate me. She took me to Vienna, which is gorgeous in a very grand, Habsburg-emperial sort of way. Bratislava is also cool, but Meave says it's small and gets boring easily.
After 3 days there, she and I went to Heidelburg, which is gorgeous in a cobble-stone, old school architecture, roses and ivy everywhere sort of way. And somehow they manage to pull it off without it feeling Disney-fied, though there were places that got close (mainly where they were selling souvenirs). The only unpleasant part was our first night when we got a decadent amount of free wine from our waiter (it starts out okay...) who wanted us to stick around until he was done working (sketchy, but whatever. Free wine...). Then he sort of pawned us off on his Italian friend who spoke very limited English, and spent the next hour trying to have a conversation in Italian w/ Meave, who speaks not that much but, bless her heart, was trying VERY hard. This was annoying, AND all of the waiters were in cahoots with ours, and no one would bring us our check so that we could pay and kindly run the hell away. Finally we insisted, so no further unpleasantness ensued. Except for hangovers.