"Guten Morgen, Frau Ethington"

I wrote the first half of this blog post while sitting in the Frankfurt Airport waiting for my flight:


Last night was definitely not my most peaceful sleep, but it was entertaining. I was the only girl in a three person room and the two guys sharing the room with me (one from Korea and one from Ghana) were incredibly talkative. It was their first time in Germany and were really excited about going out the next day and seeing everything. They pulled out a map and I showed them which U-Bahn to take and where and showed them the easiest routes to go places.

Turns out the Korean guy is headed to Marburg in a couple of days to visit a friend and he asked me all kinds of questions about it and I was more than happy to oblige. I was up late talking to those two and after I told them I really had to go to bed we all got in bed but were kept awake by the screaming hookers, awful techno music, and sirens blaring in through the windows. I must have slept only a couple hours off and on. I wasn't bothered too much because I thought it was just really funny and I figured that no sleep that night means more sleep on the plane. 

This morning I lugged my stuff down the Hauptbahnhof walking down the alleys of the Red Light District where the party was still raging. When I got down to the S-Bahn station, a family from Pennsylvania was staring at the map looking really confused. They were trying to find the Airport like I was and I told them I would help them out (even though I had extreme hesitations and doubts about my own capabilities). Turns out everything went well and I walked over to check-in to find that my flight had been delayed from 10.30 to 14.45. So, i'm sitting in what is called the "Leisure Zone" (aka more comfortable chairs than the ones at the burger king across the hallway) and typing away trying not to fall asleep. This little kid sitting next to me is making this really annoying noise clicking the handle of the roller-suitcase up and down, but luckily his mother just told him, "If you keep doing that, the pilot will KICK YOU OFF THE PLANE!" I think she's had a long morning...

In relation to the title of this post, I've heard, "Guten Morgen, Frau Ethington" about 10 times this morning. And i'm not even mad. I hate when people call me Ms. Ethington... but Frau Ethington has more character to it.

This next bit I am writing the morning of my second day back in the US (at a good jetlagged hour of six in the morning):

It was kind of a nightmare getting home. After that delayed flight I ended up in Dallas with yet another delayed flight and didn't even get home until after midnight.
Dallas was honestly really terrifying. The first thing I noticed were drinking fountains that were everywhere, secondly there were so many American flags EVERYWHERE and it was so so so incredibly loud.

I basically passed out on the flight from Dallas to Salt Lake because I didn't sleep at all on the one from Frankfurt due to a farting Sri Lankan guy that was sitting next to me. Typisch.

Being home is a really strange thing that I can't really describe. It feels like my time spent in Marburg was just one long dream that I suddenly woke up from, but then being here also seems like a dream and any minute i'll snap awake in my little cave of a dorm room in Marburg. I knew culture shock existed, but I didn't know what it really meant. I feel like a have been spending a lot of time just looking at things. The streets here are HUGE, the cars are HUGE, the mountains are HUGE, the people are HUGE, the drinks at restaurants are HUGE, everything is just HUGE HUGE HUGE. I spent my first day mostly with my older brother. We went to Nostalgia (the coffee shop I used to spend basically every day at) and sat outside drinking coffee and playing cards. Then we went off to buy some new pants and then back to his place to play Left 4 Dead. That was my first time playing a video game in 10 months and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. Not at all. My sister came by and we ran off to the liquor store to get wine and then came back to my mom's to be wined and dined. I barely ate anything at all yesterday and my stomach is not happily reacting to what I DID eat. Hopefully that will all get back to normal somewhere in the next couple days. Dearest friend, Autumn returns from Bonaire tonight, I don't know what time, but I'm hoping it's before 22.00 so we can go off to a bar that my sister works at later. Today is going to be spent trying to find my old phone charger, my bus pass, doing laundry, and trying to keep my mind in check as I coast around this strange Twilight Zone.

This is my last blog post, so kids I thank you for reading it and I hope you enjoyed something from it.

Tschüß!

Too... Too Many Books.

Last night Rabea, Chelsea, Mimi, and I went to Hinkelstein (the dungeon-looking bar) to watch the Ukraine vs. Sweden game (Euro cup 2012 is going on right now for those of you who do not know). I'm usually not a big football fan, but I like to get into the games and it's an excuse to yell and be belligerent.

Mimi and I cheered for Ukraine while Rabea and Chelsea cheered for Sweden, and I can't deny that the slow motion shots were... wonderful. They have some beautiful men on this side of the planet. After UKRAINE WON (muahaha), we all went back home and I went back to cleaning out my room. I went to bed at 3 a.m. and then woke up at 9 a.m. to finish cleaning before my terrifying Haus Frau came to check me out of my room. After I was checked out I picked up my backpack and- no... that's an understatement... I had to FORKLIFT my backpack onto my back and then use a crane to get my suitcase down the hill and onto the bus. I didn't realize just how many books I had gotten while here and how difficult it would be to get everything back to the US.

I now had my Laufzettel and could make my way down to the Studentenwerk where I would get my €150,00 deposit. My Haus Frau told me that she took off €30,00 for cleaning (which they usually always do with everyone), so I was looking forward to having at least €100,00. This is where I had my last brush with German bureaucracy. I had to take my Laufzettel to an office in the Studentenwerk and get  it notarized or something, take that form and another to the accounting department and let them figure out the rest.

When I walked into the first office I didn't exactly know where I was going, this lady at the front desk (who was missing an arm) looked up and saw that I was a bit lost. There in that space where her other arm should be was a little finger-looking appendage that she used to point at a door next to me and say, "um die Ecke!" A little taken aback at what happened, I stumbled over to the door around the corner and went into the other office where I awkwardly announced what I was there for. A plump rosy-cheeked woman motioned over to me and without a word snatched my form and began typing, writing, and calculating and then had me sign a couple forms (which could very well have said that I would give them my first born child) and then told me to go to the accounting office. I walked around the corner and the appendage lady motioned to the exit. I walked into the accounting office and this tall regal blonde german lady came rushing over to me and offered me a seat and a candy (I took five, I was very nervous). She grabbed my form and started stamping things, writing things down, typing something on her computer, and brought out a giant accounting calculator and started plucking away on the keys like a lady with a mission. She then turned to me and said (in German), "You owe us €23,63." i was so taken aback by the fact that I walked in with the expectations of receiving over €100 and instead OWEING them money I said (in English), "WHAT?" And she proceeded to say it again, but in english and I said (in German), "No no no... I understand what you said, I just don't see how that could have happened." She looked down at the form and then back at her calculator and realized she had made a mistake... she reworked everything and turns out I only get €12,00 back. I didn't care as long as I didn't owe them money, I still got worked by the German Accounting Dep. though.
I walked out of that office and down to the second floor where Rabea's brother was watching my awfully heavy suitcase for me. Rabea went and turned my uCard in and I got at least €15,00 for that.

Now it was Goodbye Time. A few months ago Chelsea and I decided not to tell each other when we were leaving to go back to the US. I was able to keep it a secret, but somehow she had discovered that I was on the top floor of Studentenwerk and the only reason anybody goes up there is to get their room deposits back. So, she came up and waited while I went through that mess I had just described. When we rejoined Rabea's brother and Mimi downstairs, Chelsea took one look at my bags and the emotions started flooding, so she and I went outside and sat on a bench. I faced that castle and looked up at it thinking of all the times I had sat on this one particular bench just taking it all in. Chelsea and I sat there in almost complete silence, neither of us knowing what to say or how to even deal with this kind of situation. It was strange because she and I usually can't shut up when we are together, but this time it was just silence, and that's when you can tell when things are bad. We went back up to join the others where there was another 20 minutes of just awkward silence. Then I decided that I just had to go. I was feeling nauseous again from this whole farewell thing and I just needed to get moving. So, I said goodbye to Mimi and then Rabea plowed into me giving me a good old fashioned german bear hug. It was definitely really sweet. Chelsea and I just kind of stood there staring at each other.

She said, "I can feel my heartbeat in my fingers."
To which I replied, "Yeah... I think i'm going to puke."
"Yeah, me too."

Then she asked if we could have one of those awkward side-hugs and we did, but it was really painful. I took one last look at everyone and just turned right on my heel and headed for the Hauptbahnhof. As I walked out the doors I thought I could hear that little group laughing. Whether they were laughing about me or at me, I didn't care because that's exactly how I want to remember them: laughing.

As I was on the train watching the castle I loved so dearly slowly disappear into the distance, I didn't really feel nauseous anymore. I felt that weird bitter-sweet feeling when you leave somewhere that has so many wonderful things tied to it. In reality it was kind of like a strange sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, like I came, I saw, and I conquered. Though I still would have liked more time, it wasn't quite as painful as I had thought. I think it's the people I left that is really getting to me.

I wish someone had filmed me trying to get onto the train with my suitcase... at one point I was wedged in the door way with really know way out until by some miracle from the gods, I squeezed onto the train. Getting off the train in Frankfurt was a bit easier, I just kind of flopped down onto the platform like a whale, flopped around a bit, gasped for air, and then continued on like nothing had happened. I found my way to my hostel which is in the heart of Frankfurt's Red Light District. The hostel really isn't bad at all, it's situated between a couple really fine family-friendly places called, "American Pussy" and "Turkish Delight." Across the street is a lovely looking place with a creative name. It's called, "SEX SEX SEX." After a dropped all my stuff off in my room, I ran off to the spring market outside the Hauptbahnhof and got a Wurst and some Apfelwein, then I went into the Hauptbahnhof and sat down on a bench at Gleis 15 (the platform that usually goes in the direction of Marburg). An RE train was leaving to go to Marburg and I saw a few people I knew and played with the club-footed pigeons that were scuttling around on the floor. After another nice little walk I came back to my room to find another person in there snoring away. This kid is out like a rock. The hostel is having a BBQ and watching more Euro Cup games, so i'm going to go down there and join them. Not a bad way to spend my last night in Deutschland.

Now I just have to figure out how my book-laden back is going to survive tomorrow.

Tschüß!

The Last of the Lahn Days

The days of infinite sun in Marburg have passed. May was probably the most beautiful month I've experienced so far in Germany. Every day we were stretched out on the Lahn practicing sloth, but lately Marburg has gone back to its old rainy self. I was talking with Rabea the other night about how I would like to just have one last Lahn Day before I leave, and sure enough... the Germanic gods granted my wish and the sun came out to play yesterday. So, we all marched down to the Lahn and occupied the grass by the river for hours. We sat around talking and drinking beer/wine, playing frisbee, and eventually took a much needed nap.


I woke up laying on my back on the grass and looking up at a perfectly blue sky. Every now and then a white frisbee would go zooming over my head as Andrew and Hayden tossed it back and forth for about an hour. These times on the Lahn have probably been one of my favorite parts about Marburg. Everyone just takes some time to relax and not worry about anything. I definitely needed this Lahn Day. I have been getting all kinds of nots in my stomach about having to go home and other people in my program have already left or are leaving in the next couple days.

After the long afternoon and evening by the Lahn we made our way back up to Studentendorf where we had yet another bonfire (which has turned into something we do on a regular basis). All night long we sat around the fire drinking, talking, playing music, and saying bitter sweet goodbyes. A huge chunk of the group are headed for Budapest tomorrow and wont be back until after I'm gone so I had to say goodbye to a lot of really fantastic people last night. It's a real shame that I'm the only one that lives in the West. Pretty much most of the group goes to Penn State or lives in Wisconsin so they are all pretty close to each other. I'll just have to make some kind of pilgrimage east one of these days.

Today I ran off to Kassel for dOCUMENTA (13). It's basically the biggest exhibition of contemporary art in the world. I couldn't afford to go in, so I just pressed my face against the glass like a creepy pauper and looked around at what I could. I came back to Marburg and sat outside at Fiona's drinking tea and reading while I waited for the bus. When I got back to my room I started packing and cleaning. I didn't realize just how many books I had bought while I was here. Basically my entire backpack is crammed full of just books... my back is going to hate me.

The Euro Cup started yesterday (European football tournament) and tonight Germany plays Portugal. It's being broadcast on a giant screen up by the castle where I'm sure more than half of Marburg will be. I hope for my sake and the rest of this country's sake that Germany wins... I've seen what happens when a favored team loses and it is not the prettiest (like when Chelsea beat Bayern... that was ugly). It should prove to be a most eventful night ending it most likely another one of these farewell bonfires.

I'm reminded of a Kerouac quote that pretty much sums up everything that's been going on the last month or so: "We were alone and mixing up our souls ever more and ever more till it would be terribly hard to say good-by."

And I leave you with that, my friends. I'm off to have more adventures until Doom's Day.

... but we're not talking about that.

As my stay here in Germany is winding down a certain phrase is repeated continuously in every conversation I have with people and it goes a little something like this:

"Well, when I get back to the US..."
"BUT WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT THAT!"

 Most of us refuse to acknowledge that there is this pending doom hanging over all of us within the next couple weeks. So we just don't talk about that, but I'm afraid right now I'm going to HAVE to talk about that.

 This last week everyone from what I've called, "The Wisconsin Horde" have all been moving out. They are the big group of about 40 people who are all from Wisconsin that randomly showed up at the beginning of January. I was friends with a few of them, but especially Kelli and Maggie who live on my floor. Maggie and I spent a lot of time out on our balcony drinking wine or tea with too many lemons. Kelli is the die-hard Packers fan who loves to cook and bake though she seems to think that she fails at both. The three of us have spent a lot of time just sitting on the balcony talking and talking. Maggie left a couple days ago and Kelli was supposed to leave yesterday, but she missed her flight because the cables between Marburg and Giessen (the only line to the Frankfurt Airport) was broken. So, she's crashing with me for the night which makes me happy because I was already missing her. She told me that as she was sitting on the train watching the castle disappear she started crying like a fiend and an old german lady asked her, "Alles in ordinung?" And Kelli replied through hysterical tears, "NEIN! ALLES IST NICHT IN ORDINUNG!" And apparently the lady was so freaked that she changed spots. Kelli is definitely one of the sweetest people I've ever met. And when she showed up at my dorm this morning she brought me a chocolate croissant. She just left to go biking through the canola fields for the last time and I'm staying in to clean my room and get some things in order for when I leave in the next couple weeks.

Cleaning is such a dangerous... DANGEROUS thing. It is one of the biggest memory joggers and is not a safe thing to do when you've been denying the inevitable. I started with the safest thing: the sink where I only had a few memories of binge-tea drinking with Spencer from last year and as I poured bleach into the basin I remembered cleaning the mold from my windows in -25 degree weather.
The real rough stuff happened when I started emptying and sorting my desk drawers. There I found stacks of maps from all of the different places I had been, the map of Marburg I never used, old train passes, bus reservations for Prague, boat tickets for Finland, trolley stubs, U-Bahn/S-Bahn maps from Berlin, and my RyanAir flight ticket stubs to Scotland, Ireland, and Estonia. I just continued to throw them all away (with the exception of the maps and the boat tickets now using as bookmarks), but I couldn't bring myself to throw away one particular thing I had found.

I rediscovered my first train ticket from Frankfurt to Marburg. As I stared at it I saw all of my former anxieties, fears, and anticipations. I knew then that I would come to love this place, though I had no idea exactly how MUCH leaving Marburg would hurt me. Even right now I'm just staring at the screen with no idea what to write as the rain pours hard against my window in good Marburg fashion. I'm so terrified to go back to the U.S. Aside from my usual fears of having to talk to the Haus Frau to check out, getting my boarding pass printed, getting to the trainstation, and then getting to the airport... I'm terrified of how I'm going to feel when I get home. I know there will be that surge of excitement to see a few people again, but how long will that last? I know that I wont be able to communicate everything that's happened to me properly and that basically nobody will quite understand what's happened to me. I'm definitely certain that my family and friends will want to take a frying pan to my face every time I bring up Marburg or Germany, but that's all I can relate things to.

It's going to be strange only hearing English with the occasional Spanish thrown in here and there. In Marburg it's always German, but since there are so many study abroad students we also have a lot of Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Hungarian, Italian, Slovanian, Slovakian, Russian, Polish, Czech, French, Romanian...etc.

I guess I wont know how things will go down until I get back to the U. S.

There we go. I talked about "that." I guess I just needed to get it out there and now I can go back to cleaning and then prancing around drinking by the Lahn and just enjoying what little time I have left in my favorite place.

Heidelberg and Sloth

These last few weeks have been spent stretched out on the grass by the Lahn drinking beer or wine, listening to music, and just talking with people. The weather has been abnormally great (in the 70's and 80's) so everyone in Marburg tends to bee line to the Lahn when done with classes. I wish Salt Lake City had something like the Lahn where people could go down by the river and just hang on the grass for hours grilling, drinking, playing music and games, swimming, going out on paddle boats. It is such a great way to unwind from everything. Basically the last few weeks have gone on like this with all-day Lahn parties and then bonfires that go until dawn. Would you believe that I am still actually getting my homework done? Some of the strange miracles of Marburg, my friends.

Yesterday, Chelsea and I decided to take a day trip to Heidelberg (which is just outside of Hessen, but Deutsche Bahn still let's us travel there for free, YAY). Simply amazing weather to be on a train because you pass by all of these huge green fields and large ponds where you can see people boating and water-skiing, not to mention you have a clear view of the castles in each town that you pass by. Simply an amazing country, Germany. When we arrived in Heidelberg we grabbed a map and then headed straight for the castle. You'd think it would be easy to find the castle because it's on the top of a hill, alas... it is the best defended castle in history simply because there is no way to find a way up. Eventually we did, and I wont mention how long it took us because it is embarrassing, and I lugged three liters of wine all the way up where we found a bench to sit on in the middle of the ruins in the shade. There is simply an incredible view from up top:

We sat there for hours just talking, talking, talking about everything that could really possibly be discussed. We people watched and then started reading out loud from books and drank to our heart's content.

As we finished up the last of our boxes, we decided it was time to pack it in and see the rest of the city before catching the last train back to Marburg.

It was such a perfect day that I honestly have no complaints. Not even about the little gremlin saplings that screamed and cried on the train ride back. It was one of those days that just makes you feel complete.

I Can See Helsinki From My House

The following account of my trip to Estonia/Finland is put together with scattered memory and a few notes I had written down while I was there. Enjoy: Having been a bit desensitized to the "wonders" of flying, I spent the 2 hour flight just reading my book. Though it got a little distracting because halfway there, the plane started sounding like a Tuvan Throat singer. As the plane started to descend, Lincoln and I looked out the window at the empty, murky, marsh-looking land of Estonia. I turned to him and said, "I don't think anyone lives here..." to which he replied, "Honestly, I think you're right." Then we saw Tallinn. Not a gigantic city, but also not a hamlet. By this time it had gotten pretty dark and the vast wilderness of Estonia was a single black sheet stretched out beneath us. When we landed, we figured out the bus situation and were off to our hostel. It was only about 15 minutes and we climbed out of the bus and walked around a sketch-looking park and up a couple of alleyways until we found our destination which was shoved between a sex shop and a hookah bar. Everything that night in Tallinn was dark with the exception of the many many many neon signs. Our hostel, The Monks Bunk, was being run by a group of hilarious Western Australians from Perth. All of the red-faced, bearded, and excited to see new people. After a few cheap Estonian beers, Lincoln, Chris, and I set off to find a grocery store. We walked passed the grocery store the Aussie's had recommended twice because it was hidden behind yet another sex shop. My mouth dropped at some of the prices of the food items there (i.e. I got a loaf of bread for 25 cents and a jar of Nutella for 75 cents). That night was spent shaking off the grogginess of traveling by drinking a few beers and talking with the Aussie's. The next morning we set out to discover where we were. Turns out Estonia was a good choice. Right around the corner from our hostel we had a perfect view of the Old Town. It was definitely a skyline I had never seen before. Dominating the view was a tall building with 6 or 7 black onion domes with gold trimming. The rest of the buildings poked out in random places, each of them having their own elaborate design. We started walking in that direction and found a giant medieval wall with a ton of towers that we decided to explore.

Each of the towers had long spiraling staircases that seemed to go on forever. Despite the loads of pigeon poo covering every inch of everything, that damp and musty smell of age that I love so much was everywhere.

Afterwards, we walked around and found our way to the onion-dome building which I named, "St. Basil Jr" and other parts of the old town. I found the look of Tallinn really really strange. Every other building was in complete shambles, while the buildings next to it looked completely fresh. Some buildings were brown and dreary, while others were completely covered with broadly painted strokes of green, pink, yellow, and blue. The cobblestones are probably some of the worst i've ever walked on and have probably never been changed since their original placement in the 12th century.

After wandering around for a few more hours we found our way to the old town square and went into a restaurant called, "The Olde Hansa" where I ate dried Elk meat while others had giant platters of duck, mushroom soup, different breads, vegetables, and a number of other things I can't even begin to describe. We each got a giant medieval-style mug of Dark Honey beer that thickly slid down our throats leaving an incredibly sweet taste on our tongues. That night, the boys went out while I stayed in (not wanted to spend all my money) and drank a few beers with Poncho from Perth. He was tall and just big boned with a giant beard that wrapped around his red face like a sloth. He had a deep guttural laugh that echoed around the lobby. It was fun to watch him strum his beer and flick his cigarette to the beat of the music while he told me all about his home town and how he had ended up in Estonia. The next day started late as we shuffled out of the hostel and took a trolley out to a giant park that had the old summer palace of Pyotr the Great, The National Museum of Art, and the Presidential Palace. The sun was shining and birds and people were running around everywhere trying to enjoy as much as possible before the wrath of the eastern european gods would crack open the skies and pour more heavy rain down on the city. The National Museum of Art was loads of fun. I am not familiar with Eastern European art at all, so it was wonderful to see hundreds of works completely different from what I am used to (Western European). The group was split during the museum trip because Lincoln and I spent quite a bit of time in there. He and I ended up wandering through the park and found our way to the beach where I saw the Baltic Sea for the first time. I strode out onto the sand and jumped up on a pile of seaweed and kind of laughed to myself about how cool it was that I was on a beach touching the Baltic Sea. I bent down and scooped shells out of the water and wrote my name in the sand only to watch it disappear. Lincoln and I took a seat in the sand and talked about traveling and other places as we watched the giant ferries puff away in the distance headed for Finland and Sweden.

We got a trolley back to the hostel where we sat and played a couple rounds of chess waiting for the others to get back so we could see what everyone is up to. The other boys were taking part in a beer pong tournament against the freshly arrived Yorkshire tenants, so Lincoln and I stayed around to watch and then shoved off to the Old Town. We ended up in a tiny, candle-lit, medieval-themed tavern where we grabbed a couple Dark Honey beers along with a couple apple pies and sat in the corner just loving the atmosphere. After an hour or so we decided to go for a walk, but then ended up back in the same little tavern. There were all kinds of options when it came to pies: you could have any kind of meat pies, cabbage pie, apple pie, spinach pie, carrot pie, and so on. We got a couple mugs of Lingonberry juice, apple pies, and a spinach pie and sat down and talked about everything. The next day was complete insanity (in a good way). Josh has a friend, Maksim, who is Estonian and was kind enough to rent a van and take us out to the Estonian countryside. It didn't take long to get out of the city and to suddenly be surrounded by vast tan fields. As we continued on we stopped a giant cliffs that plunged down into the Baltic. The more we went along the thicker the forest got until all of a sudden we were submerged into a giant forest that just seemed ancient. The van twisted and turned around thick walls of green until at last Maksim parked the car and we got out and took a walk through the forest until we got to what we will call, "The Estonian Niagra Falls."

The water was this strange golden color and nobody really knew why, but what did it matter? It was gorgeous. I watched the river flood down into the depths of the forest, it looked like a single golden ribbon cutting through and flowing around the deep trees. After this we drove on to probably one of the most impressive cliffs i've seen. I'm happy my friend was able to catch a picture of me checking it out:

After this we ran off to the Cisternian Paradise Monastery. It's this giant abandoned monastery from the 13th century that is probably one of the coolest places i've ever visited.

There were all kinds of crazy twisting passageways that would go down and then suddenly swing up again and completely turn you around. It was a labyrinth of epic proportions and I was in love. We excitedly went down into the creepiest of creepy-looking places where we found piles of animal bones and other doorways leading into darker places (which, of course, we went to). Then we ended up in the old chapel which was beautifully eery.

I looked around at the high vaulted ceilings and imagined the chants of the monks echoing from the walls, the desperate prayers, the people who ran here for safety during times of war, everything that could have possibly happened here. These walls witnessed the rule of Eric V of Denmark, and then the conquering by the Teutonic Knights, and then it was partially burnt down with 28 monks trapped inside, rebuilt, and then witnessed the Livonian War, then the occupation of Sweden, and later the Russians. And now it was rubble and tourists were running around taking photos. We all agreed that we could have spent a whole day in there, but we had to get going back to Tallinn. When we arrived back in Tallinn, we went to a little restaurant in the former factory (now art student occupied) district. I had a giant chicken salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and I don't even remember what. Only that it was amazing. That night was the hostel beer pong championship which some of our group were in, so while that was going on, Lincoln and I ran back up to our little Medieval tavern to eat more pies and drink more beer/juice. The next day we were shoving off bright and early to get to Helsinki, Finland.

There's a picture of Lincoln on the back of the ferry as we go across the Baltic Sea. Actually, I don't know if I want to call that thing a "ferry." It was a FREAKING HUGE SHIP. I'm kind of new to this whole boat-travel thing. So I was in awe that this thing with 8 floors, a grocery store, a casino, and 37 restaurants and bars could FLOAT. When we landed in Helsinki and got off the boat, we had to take a bus into the center of town. When we got off the bus we were suddenly surrounded by dozens of gypsy music groups. Each of them trying to play louder than the next. Helsinki reminded me a lot of Prague in some ways. Many of the buildings were just so elaborately decorated it didn't seem real. We caught another boat that took us to a small island called Suomenlinna where we made our way to the southern tip to check out the old fortress. Needless to say, it was simply epic. We found creepy places to crawl and giant cannons to play on. Here is a photo of the whole group (minus Lincoln who was taking the photo) in one of the underground passageways:

We made our way back to Helsinki where we just walked around and looked at the city. It had some pretty incredible things.

We caught a 21.30 boat back to Tallinn and were happy to leave Helsinki. It wasn't a place you wanted to spend a whole day in, maybe half a day. That, and we kind of missed Tallinn. As the boat pushed out of the harbor, I went and stood on the back of the boat and decided I would stand there and watch Helsinki disappear. Lincoln came out and joined me and pretty soon we were freezing, but we had made a commitment to watch Helsinki disappear so we were going to do it. Didn't matter that it started raining and the wind was going to rip my face off... I was going to do this. It actually turned out to be a LOT of fun. First of all, I love the wind, and I love fog. We passed another smaller ferry and Lincoln and I started pretending to order commands to shoot missiles at it (doing all of this in Russian accents). "Zey take up zpaze in vater. Shoot mizzles zo zey know who zey try to raze." It's hard to write it... but you get the idea. We stood there and watched Helsinki disappear into the fog, and then walked down to the bar to join the other guys where we sat and talked until we heard the big foghorn indicated that we were arriving in Tallinn. I forgot to add one picture of Estonia that's probably one of my favorites:

Tallinn was a home away from home away from home and felt good to be back. Unfortunately we left bright and early the next day and made it back to Marburg at around 16.00. It was a very fulfilling trip and one that I needed to take badly. I hope to see Estonia again at some point, and perhaps Latvia and Lithuania as well. Actually, I just hope to see the rest of Eastern Europe and so on and so forth.

The City Nobody Wanted to Leave: Dresden

We arrived in Dresden around three in the afternoon to sunny weather with a temperature in the late 70's early 80's. I haven't felt this weather since last Oktober. Needless to say, we all got a little crazy because Marburg had been so cold and rainy. The hostel room was better than I had anticipated. It had large windows and a balcony (keyword here being balcony). The view looked out over Dresden, but I didn't take much time to scope it out because we decided to run down to the Elbe (river through Dresden).

As you can tell, it was a bright clear day and the air was humid and warm. When I stepped off the bus, I was reminded of a quote by Jack Kerouac: “The air was so sweet in New Orleans it seemed to come in soft bandannas; and you could smell the river and really smell the people, and mud, and molasses, and every kind of tropical exhaltation with your nose suddenly removed from the dry ices of a Northern Winter.” A bunch of us ran down to the grass by the river (some with a Maß beer, some with glasses of wine) and sprawled out on the long grass in a way that looked like we were photosynthesizing. As I dug my heels and hands into the grass laying on my back propped up by my elbows, I looked out at this amazing panoramic and couldn't help but smile. When the bells of the dozens of cathedrals went off and the steam boats rolled by, it seemed as though every happy feeling i've ever had, every beautiful thing i've ever seen pulsated under my skin and then exploded from every pore. It was a feeling beyond that of non-belief, it was one of those feelings where you just know that you exist. Life didn't pause, it didn't go slowly, it kept with natural time and it was perfect. I felt each blade of grass, each cool breeze, every cathedral bell that rang and every blow from the steamboats resonated in my chest. In those few moments, I found myself in my own little european pari-nirvana. After we managed to pull ourselves off the grass (you can imagine what a difficult task that was), we headed for the Altstadt to look around. Everywhere I looked there was landscape of some unbelievable baroque marvel. We stopped and watched a band of hippies perform some kind of artsy-musical piece and then continued onward through a large gateway into the Altstadt where a huge May market was going on. Flowers and flowers and more flowers throwing up everywhere. In the center of the market was a large colorful May pole surrounded by elaborately carved wooden stands selling all kinds of food, clothes, and knick knacks. We all got some kind of variation of a Bratwurst and sat down to watch the market at work. Some people were bustling along buying things left and right while others sat at long, colorful tables drinking beer and smoking. Having had a long day, we decided to go back to the hostel. On the way, we stopped for ice cream. I got my classic favorite of chocolate and lemon and walked down the street a ways to where a gypsy was hard at work plucking keys and pushing and pulling her accordion. We continued down the street and under this long arch-tunnel where an opera singer stood singing Ave Maria. We stopped to listen and then continued on our way back to the hostel where we spent a good night inside drinking tea and simply talking. That night I went out on the balcony with a book and sat there watching fireworks shoot across the Dresden skyline. The next day we were scheduled for a city tour, so we all jumped out of bed eager to see more of the city. The first half of the tour was spent, to my dislike, on a bus where we drove around the suburbs of Dresden and then came back to the Altstadt where we filed out and separated into groups. The next half of the tour was on the Dresdner Zwinger.

Simply a Baroque masterpiece. After the tour, we walked around the May market again and got more wurst. Then we met up with some other people and we went to heaven the Museum of Fine Art. And it is there, that I died and was reborn multiple times. I saw so many paintings that i've spent years and years looking at and studying in textbooks including a couple that I wrote very large essays on (Raphael's Sistine Madonna, and Nicolas Poussin's Realm of Flora). I also saw tons of work by Rubens, Rembrandt, Füssli, Claude Lorraine, Coreggio, and the list runs on and on. When I left that museum, there was nothing that could pull me down, I was freakishly happy. After the museum we went back to the hostel, put some things down, and then went to dinner. I also did some walking around behind the hostel in an area I decided to call, "Hippyland." And it was just that. Streets and streets of no cars and just bicycles, naked people walking around, dreadlocks, cotton clothes, multiple instruments, everyone sitting down on patches of grass or walls playing music or talking. The oldest person in this neighborhood was probably 35. It seemed to be all the students living in one massive area. I sat down on a wall and ended up talking to a few art students from Holland and Germany. We had a great time talking about nerdy philosophical stuff and geeking out about the museum of fine art. After a couple beers, I said farewell to them and went back to the hostel to find friends and wine. When my roommates went to bed I was still on a museum-high and went to the balcony below me to visit some friends there where we drank more wine and they let me ramble on and on (more passionately than normal) about all of the works of art I saw in the museum and why I loved them. After they went to sleep, I went down yet another floor to another group of people and spent some time with them. I then returned to my room and grabbed my book and went outside once more to enjoy the cool night air. The next morning we all shuffled into a bus and were swept off to the Elbe River & Sandstone Mountains. The drive there, alone, was MAGNIFICENT. We passed through fields and fields of bright yellow canola flowers.

We arrived at the summer residence of August the Strong (king of Saxony/Poland from way back when). Three GIANT and elaborately decorated mansions surrounded a large courtyard of tightly organized flowers. It was a little too mindblowingly colorful. We then proceeded into what was called, "The English Gardens." It was basically a forest with a gravel path cut through the center of it. In any case, it was simply gorgeous. Tall light green trees surrounded by long grass, multiple kinds of bright flowers, and red squirrels with long ears and colorful ducks scampering all over the place. There was a point in our tour when we walked by a bunch of lilac trees, without hesitation it seemed like half the group purposefully faceplanted into the lilac trees and for a minute all you could hear were the deep inhales of jazzed students. The Sandstone Mountains is also named, "Little Switzerland" because of the nature, and I believe it. Everything looks a lot different than most places i've seen in Germany. We went out to this look out point and could see for miles. Not far away, we could see the Czech border. We then continued on through more canola fields to an old fortress situated on the top of a giant plateau. After all of this we made our way back to the city where we all spread off, many going back to the Elbe, and others itching to take a nap in their beds. I went off by myself and walked around the city and Hippyland a bit more just enjoying what I was seeing and enjoying everything that had happened that day. I sat on a bench in the middle of a giant park and pulled out my book. After a couple hours I went back to the hostel for tea, and then went and sat on my balcony overlooking Dresden. I sat there for another hour or so listening to music and drawing. I then left to hang out with people and check out a jazz/blues bar a couple blocks away. I sat in the bar moving my head to the beat of the music, and when more and more people arrived it got louder and louder and everyone started clapping and cheering as the horns blew up and down creating insane scales and jumping from high note to low note with ease. I sat with a couple young kids from southern France and another old couple from Belgium. We all clapped along, drank, and laughed as the music escalated and eventually quieted down. I returned to the hostel with my head in a daze. I could either spend the rest of my life here or I couldn't stand how utterly perfect it was. The next day, everyone sluggishly moved around due to the madness that had been the night before. We all had to leave the city by noon and nobody seemed particularly happy about having to leave so soon. I know that I, for one, was not. Before we left there was a giant steamboat parade (for May Day) on the Elbe and tons of parades and protests around the city. I'm sad that we had to leave that day... I would have liked to see more of what May Day in Dresden produces. The ride back to Marburg went by quickly with my book and the fantastic scenery of zillions and zillions of canola flower fields. I came back to find Marburg in the full swing of Spring. All of the trees were tall and the leaves poured out of the branches mixing with one another to the point that I couldn't tell which branches and leaves belonged to which trees. Many of the trees were so full that they bent into each other creating large green archways over the dirt paths of the forest. I was happy to come back from Dresden with such wonderful weather in Marburg, it made returning a lot easier. Then again, the next day we were pelted with golfball-sized hailstones......... doesn't matter. Marburg has character. I swear i'll get around to writing the post about Estonia and Finland. I just found it a lot easier to write about Dresden because I was just there and for a shorter amount of time.