Spring Break (woo!) parts 2 &3: Die Verrückte Verwandten and French Fries, Waffles, Chocolate and Sprouts

Wow, time is really flying by this semester. Finally I have time to sit down and update my life. I was unable to document the rest of spring break during the spring break because of the amsterdam hostel we had had one internet and I barely had enough time to check my email until the angry spaniards behind me in line for it started making impatient angry grunting noises that I was already taking too much time on the computer making for a very awkward and uncomfortable blogging session.

Well I was able to use my unbelievable skills in Microsoft Paint and create the complex map of my very busy two week travel schedule:

Note: Blue is Airplane, Red is Train, and Green is Driving in some sense

Where did I leave off last time? Oh yes. When we got off the airplane in Cologne, there were my two relatives (who, I just looked it up, are my 4th cousins, once removed) Mannfred and Mechtild waiting for me at the gate. Luckily I recognized them from my visit with them 3 years ago. Immediately they were extremely friendly as Mannfred, jolly as the head Kiebler elf, started chatting away as Mechtild, kind as ever but still with a typical German frankness, tried to calm him down. They are too young to be my grandparents but too old to be my parents. They drove me (and Aaron who was on the flight but taking a mighnight train to meet his parents in Munich the next day) to the city and started to show us around, and then they took me (and kindly invited Aaron too) to their son's house for dinner. There I had one of the best home-cooked meals I have ever had this year. It was Sauerbraten, or litterally sour-roast. Its a typical Rhineland meal where horse flesh (we ate pork) is marinated in vinegar for days then cooked in a sweet and sour sauce. So delicious. Aaron's and my embaressingly low alcohol tolerances were revealed that evening as they kept producing various sorts of alcohol to drink and us being polite guests refusing to refuse. The limits of my bladder were also tested that evening on the hour long ride to Aachen.

The next few days were really fun as they excitely took me around Aachen, Cologne, and the Sauerland (where the earliest records of my family come from in the 13th century). Some highlights include:

-Aachener Dom- My favorite cathedral in Europe, a collage of Romanic, Gothic, and Baroque and with some of the most vivid mosaics I have seen, plus the remains of another great Charles, Karl der Grosse (Charlemagne).

-Cologne Chocolate Museum- Interesting but a dissapointingly low amount of free samples

-Coincidental swastika patterns in a 2000 year old Roman Mosaic in the Roman-Germanic Museum

-Visiting the spot where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all come together

-Holy Saturday seeing the blessing of the Semmel, a special double fish-tail shaped bread in Attendorn, after which you go home and eat with butter and ham. As well as witnessing the post semmel blessing lumberjack contest. The young men of the town split into 4 teams and pick 4 large trees to cut down and have a mini competition on who can fell theirs first. The trees were used the next evening for their easter fires (shaped like burning crosses?).

-A delicious Easter Dinner in Cobbenrode, in the Gasthof where my great-great-grandfather, Josef, was born before emmigrating to America.

-Seeing the exact spot the where an ancestor had a farm in the 1300s, named by the locals "Home of the Birds"

-Learning just about everything to know about that finger of my heritage

-"Improving" my German by speaking it nonstop for 5 days straight

-Being able to relax and take it easy

Some lowlights include:

-Catching a cold from the constant rain/hail/thunder/lightning/sleet/snow/wind

-Constantly playing "the guest game," one of my least favorite social traditions where you are required to argue on who will pay for your dinner/museum ticket/cough drops

-"Improving" my German by speaking it nonstop for 5 days straight

On that last note, I just wanted to say that it was really interesting coming back here. I had visited these relatives about 3 years ago in high school and it was this trip which actually inspired me to take German in the first place at ND which was where I was inspired to come here to Innsbruck. It was really cool that I could effectively communicate with them this time around (their english is very slim). Also, you would think that my German would improve after speaking it nonstop. Well, no, it didn't. First of all, it was kind of hard to understand what they were saying at first since they speak a different dialect, and I am so used to trying to decipher Tirolerisch (English's equivalent would be a Scottish person with turrets). I will admit that my comprehension did improve by the end. Then having to concentrate so hard all day, at the end of the day, I was so exhausted I could barely communicate in any language. Finally I think my subconscious was so fed up with having to tolerate this foreign thought pattern that it started slipping in small semblences of English in my German such as adding an "s" when I wanted to plural a word or even just speaking in English when I meant it to come out German, it was so dstrange. The worst part was, when I met up my friends in Belgium after leaving my relatives, I couldn't even really speak english to them. I remember staring at the lady's face at a Brugges TI for 30 seconds when I couldn't remember how to ask for a map in English or German.

Unfortunately, in all too short of time, I had to say "Auf Wiedersehen!" to my relatives and hop on a train to Brussels to meet my friends.

Part III

I called Katy (with Monika and Kevin) on the way to Brussels and we decided to meet at the Mannekin Pis (18 inch tall peeing boy fountain, you know the kind of fountain that is naturally seen as a symbol for a european nation) at a certain time. I wanted to see two things in the city before meeting up and taking the train to Brugge: the building shaped like an atom (Atomium), and the worlds largest Art Deco Church, also the Basilica of Brussels. They didnt care for either so I had to see them before our meeting. Getting off the train, I discovered that in everywhere but America, they seem to celebrate the day after Easter as much as if not greater than the holiday itself. As such, no TIs were open, and I had no map. With no help from the 6 euro guide to Brussels from the one newsstand that was open, I managed to find both. Being a huge Art Deco fan, I found the basilica to be a real treat, like some sort of space-port ripped from a 1920s Sci-Fi comic book. The Atomium building, built for a 1970s world expo was also amazing. It looks like a giant atom model (shaped like an iron crystal). I was standing among the amazing chrome structure, taking in its scientific beauty when the ice that started raining from the sky reminded me that I had to meet my friends soon. A series of events fell into place including, my cell phone running out of money, a delay on the subway, meeting two nice Americans on the subway, and my friends not being there 15 minutes after our meeting time that resulted in me finding myself in some stranger's house. I later discovered that they decided to book it to Brugges without me and not to wait in the raining ice when I called them on Skype 5 minutes later in a really nice flat owned by the afore-mentioned Americans. I really dont know how I find myself in these situations.

So, long story short, we ended up meeting in Brugges (miracuously since I did not have any directions to the hostel [called 'Hostel Snuffel' btw]).

Brugges was fun, we ate a lot of chocolate, waffles, and french fries as well as some of my favorite beer in Europe, each in their own specific glass goblets. While there, we decided that Flemish was our favorite European language. It was also nice being in a city for once that was not almost completely destroyed in a recent war (Unlike Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Cologne, and Aachen).

The crappy weather unfortunately followed us from Belgium up to the Netherlands as we went to Amsterdam. We found the city overall to be extremely dangerous. There was so much to see but you could never look up at the distractingly quaint old buildings or disturbing prostitutes because you might wander into the street, fall in a canal, tread on the streetcar tracks or (God help you) tread on the bicycle path. After 48 hours in the city we had been Pavlovianly trained to get a surge of adrenelane when we heard the jolly (or in this case, life threatening) chime of a bicycle bell so that you could sprint to the safest bicycle-free location in the area. I also did the Amsterdam things like walk through the red light district in which I was informed that I looked ready for sex, as well as meeting up with two goons (Al and Mary) for a trip in a coffeehouse. Because of poor planning, (and a fast-pass sort of ticket distribution system) our stop after the coffeehouse was the Anne Frank house (sobering in more ways than one) which I was overall a little dissapointed with. It was so empty (no furniture left, just the rooms). It was a good presentation but I've never read her diary which I think would give the place a lot more meaning to me.

After a few days in Amsterdam, we headed over to the west side to Haarlem (namesake of the neighborhood in New York which was once called New Amsterdam), to relax in a B&B in the Dutch countryside. Besides running around the city pretending to be in a gang, we took a day trip to Keukenhof, which is supposedly the most photographed place in the world. It was what would happen if the Rose Parade had a bastard child with Disneyland after a messy one night stand. Its a giant garden, open two months of the year in spring when all the daffodills and tulips begin to bloom. Although we were there a little early and there wasnt as much color as there were in the postcards, there were tons of flowers out and it was really pleasant (even sunny for a few moments). We were able to go crazy in hedge mazes, tiptoe through tulips and play giant chess. When traveling I find that spending day after day in the major cities can get old, fast, so it is nice to mix it up with some nature. Note that Kevin refused to go and is forcing me to read "The Dictionary of Manliness" because I decided to pay to see some flowers. Oh and the Dutch know how to do it: chocolate sprinkles on buttered toast for breakfast. And I found out I slept in the same bed as Rick Steves.

Well we had a pretty painless flight back (direct to Innsbruck, so easy) and started classes again this Monday. After a week, I can tell this semester is going to be tough (I already have 3 projects due by Tuesday) but not impossible. I'll give a review of my classes soon.