Travel Tips

We went to Rome five years ago. We went with one of those super cheap airlines--Ryan Air. They can shuttle you around Europe for like 25 euros a ticket. I found out the flight was only going to take an hour and a half. So I decided to forgo my usual motion sickness medication. I figured the stuff makes me so drowsy and it was such a short flight it wouldn't matter. Of course when we got in the plane I started to get nauseous. One of the stewardesses came around offering drinks. I asked for sprite hoping it would settle my stomach. She handed me a miniature sized can and cup and then said, "That's 3 euros." We were like what? Since when do we pay extra for drinks? We begrudgingly handed over the money. The rest of the flight the stewardesses walked up and down the aisles selling everything. Alcohol, weird little toys that looked like they were made out of rubber bands, cologne, and who knows what else. We tried to tune it out. We were smarter now. We were fast learners. They were even selling bus tickets into the city, but we already lost 3 euros on a tiny Sprite, we weren't going to be tricked again.

So we got to the airport in Italy and were trying to figure out how to actually get to Rome from this airport. We went to ask a lady behind a desk. We stood in line and Z, my husband, went ahead and asked in German if she spoke English. (Yes, we were in Italy) The lady looked at him oddly and said, "I speak German and English, which would you prefer." We chose English, because this was really before we actually spoke German. We found out we should have purchased our bus tickets on the plane because they were cheaper there. So we lost a few more euros, but bought our tickets.

We got on the bus and we were both eager to see a bit of Italy, but I was feeling really nauseous from the plane ride. I was so dizzy from the trip, and I had such a bad headache I just kept my eyes closed for the 20 minute ride into town. Z was having a great time. He would tell me every once in a while to open my eyes to look at a ruin, then say "oh sorry honey I guess you didn't look in time." At one point he got really excited and said look a prostitute! Neither of us had ever seen a real live prostitute before. We're from small towns alright, that was exciting stuff to us. So after I missed all that excitement we finally got to the center of town. I was feeling even worse after that wild ride. Bus drivers drive like maniacs, I think it's part of their training--drive this bus like it's a Lamborghini.

I got my luggage and we were trying to figure out where we were. It was dark out and despite the fact that we were in the center of Rome, we didn't really know what that meant exactly. So we were standing on a curb and realize that I was really sick, like I'm about to throw up. I call out to my husband, who is apparently so engrossed in studying his map that he's walked away from me. I was standing by myself throwing up on the curve holding my own hair in a foreign city. Hesitantly, another tourist came over to ask me if I was ok. I wasn't but I said I was and walked away to go yell at my husband.

A few days later after a lovely time in Rome we went to get back on our bus to head back to the airport, as I was putting my suitcase in the under the bus storage area another passenger was swinging his large bag into the compartment. He swung it directly into my head. I wobbled off to go find my husband who was once again absent and happened to miss that fine moment of mine.

And that's kind of what traveling is like with us. We're a mess. If you don't believe me you can read this old post about Z and his problems with getting through airport security.

So my travel tip is, do the opposite of what we did and you'll do great!

Sometimes I love my life, sometime I don't

Love:

Super late Sunday night, actually Monday morning, we had a Super Bowl Party here in Germany! It was awesome. The sports announcers even greeted our tiny town! We were all so excited! We had tons of great food! We got to watch the super bowl with a bunch of Americans and Germans! And thanks to our influence everyone there was rooting for the Packers!!! My husband's birthday is today and he's still on cloud nine because his favorite team won. He's calling it the best birthday present ever, and I'm ok with that.

Don't Love:

I started a new art class, the teacher basically told me all the art supplies I have are way too cheap and for school kids. I felt like crap. I didn't have a list of what I needed. It said that they would tell me when I got there. Everyone else seemed to know what to bring.

Love:

That my German is good enough that I understood the class well and people didn't seem to think my German was bad. One person even complimented it. Instead of taking another German course, I thought, I'd try something where I could improve my German and meet Germans. In language school I of course only meet foreigners, and most of the foreigners that I've met have left the country.

Love:

Getting complements on my German. Seriously, last Thursday I met someone and they told me I had only a small accent and my German was quite good! Do you know how you felt in high school and a cute boy gave you a complement? I felt that good for days after that! And trust me it was not a cute boy or anything that said that. That's what us language learning people love to hear. Now I'm not saying my German is that good, but one person mistook it for being good. So I'm excited.

Don't love:

The sometimes brutal honesty we get from Germans. I mean it's seriously rough sometimes. It's like please lie to me a little. Like please don't tell me what you really think of my haircut. I have to live with it for awhile.

Kind of Love:

They don't lie to you, they don't fake friendly. Sales associates don't pretend to be your best friend. I've worked at plenty of stores in america where my job was to be miss perky friendly sales girl at whatever store. That's not my natural personalty, so it's nice that I can go in a store and no one necessarily greets me. Although the negative side of that is the customer service here is pretty stinky. I think at some stores they're paid to be rude. Maybe the more costumers they ignore the better Christmas bonus they get. But that's ok, because if you ignore me I'll just find it cheaper on amazon.

Love:

Germany, the people I've met, the life I have here. The culture that I've been able to discover because I've lived here for a while. Do you know that when someone has known someone for a long time here and they switch from the formal way of addressing each other to the informal, they will reintroduce themselves to each other using their first name. Yeah, so even if you've known this person for 10 years and obviously know what their first name is and have both decided to switch, you kind of stop the conversation and reintroduce and shake hands. Weird, I know. Luckily for me, most people just use the informal with me. All though it would be fascinating to do this.

Don't love:

Germans always talk about how cheap and flimsy american houses are compared to their 500 year old stone houses. I don't know why, but this more than anything, drives me crazy. Maybe because German houses sometimes drive me crazy. See post here. They seem to think that if a tornado came to Germany their houses would be fine. Which brings me to final point.

Love:

That Germany doesn't have any major storms. Thunderstorms are almost nonexistent. When a thunderstorm comes I barely take notice. Germans will talk about it later and I'll be like, that little storm? Huh? Yeah I guess the sky made a grumble sound. And no tornadoes! Woohoo!

Guess what, the "loves" outweigh the "don't loves," so I'm pretty happy in Germany. I love the friendships I have here. There's something deep and strong about our friendships here. Germans have thick walls, but somehow the relationships that we have feel so strong. That's a huge "Love." So even though today was bit of a tough day, after writing this and looking back at my weekend I've got to say I'm happy with the friendships I have and am building on!

So what about you, what do you love/don't love?