Dusseldorf, Germany

I arrived to Germany and finally saw a familiar face. Kathy (she was a foreign exchange student when I was in high school. We did track together) greeted me when i got off the train and i felt so relieved. She currently attends university to become a doctor and she helps other foreign students who are in this program adjust during a short summer program (in a nutshell). Anyway, with her was Giovanni, who is from Milano and very italian! He's a very nice guy and wants to be a neurosurgeon. He had just arrived to dusseldorf the day before me, so Kathy had been spending the day helping him do errands and adjust. We dropped him off at the dormitory and then made way for home, which is in Wuppental about 15 minutes off the Autobahn (!) from dusseldorf. When we arrived at kathy's apartment, which her and her boyfriend Cristian just moved into a few weeks ago, he had made a wonderful traditional German meal, vegetarian style! It was potato pancakes with homemade apple sauce and some delicious mushrooms in a sort of cream sauce... And it paired perfected with a wonderful German beer! We caught up and before long it was far past bedtime. We made plans for the next day then headed for bed. In the morning, the weather looked like it could either way, and eventually it did start to drizzle. Of course. Regardless, we headed towards this castle, which name is literally translated as "castle castle." I got to experience the true Autobahn that has no speed limit. We pushed about 180 km/h which translated to wicked fast, but it didn't last too long since it's only for part of the road and then they actually have a speed limit... Which is still quite fast. The drive to the castle was so beautiful! It reminded me a lot of western Washington because it was very green, forested, and mossy... Oh and by this point it was raining a bit. It felt so good to finally be around people and not traveling alone. It was especially good because Kathy and Christian were able to give me what felt like a private tour of the history of the area and the castle. The castle was from the medieval era and very, very cool. I'm almost sure this was the first castle I had ever been to and it was definitely an awesome experience. Apparently there are people who actually still live there and there were a lot of neat restaurants and shops inside. We walked around for a bit and inside they had a lot of artifacts from the site. In many of the rooms on the first level, the walls had these amazing paintings which, in one room for example, told the history of the family who built the castle. The room before that had paintings of all the lords and kings who presided over the castle. These paintings were done in the 19th century and were in immaculate condition... I mean, it was literally painting on the wall! Very cool! After awhile of walking, we worked up an appetite and so we stopped into this restaurant on the castle grounds so i could experience some waffles. It was probably the best waffle i have ever ate. I ordered it with warm cherries, whipped cream, and sugar (a traditional way I'm told) and i could've licked the plate! Yum! After we stuffed ourselves, we walked outside to take in the beautiful view of the mountains and came across this really cool tree that you could actually live in! The trunk almost makes a bowl the way the branches come up and they had what looked like the frame for a tent inside. I could definitely live there! My own treehouse near a castle with a beautiful view and incredible waffles?! Sold! Anyways, from there went to another medieval town called Zoms. It's literally a town that is surrounded by one of those walls you see surrounding a castle! It was so cool, and yes, another place i could definitely live! The area around the town was very rural and peaceful... And definitely brought me a lot of comfort! I'm so used to the quiet and not the bustling cities that this break in Germany has been very enjoyable! It was just so quiet, the air fresh, and the colors just very natural. It could not have made me feel more at ease. We walked around the town for quite a bit, checking out the herb gardens, windmill, castle wall, goats, and also found a really cute shop with lots of tea and very good hard candy! We also came across a bakery and bought 3 different types of streusel for breakfast the next day! When we 
left, we went back to dusseldorf to pick up Giovanni to check out another castle and grab dinner. The castle we went to was actually more like a mansion and was pink. Seriously! The grounds, however, were beautiful and there was this long pond thats similar to the one in Washington DC. There were some beautiful swans wading in the water and a bunch of geese on the grass. I got to climb a tree too! When we asked someone to take a photo for us, it was quite funny. We apparently asked the absolute best person because he was actually a professional photographer and even had the little things to help with lighting! We were all starved, so we ended up heading for dinner. We went to this really great German restaurant, had some delicious food (not so much traditional as, like Prague, it's all meat!), and very good beer! When I went to the restroom (aka WC as in water closet) I had to come back to the table to ask Kathy if i go in the one with a D or H... It's a good thing i wasnt by myself! I probably would have walked in the mens room (the H door). Stuffed (again), we headed for the airport to pick up another student Kathy was helping from turkey. As I thought about it, i realized that a week from today I will be heading to the airport to head back from boston and conclude my quite epic European adventure! I cant believe it's near the end and i finally feel like I'm in a good place emotionally to enjoy and finish my trip! It's taken long enough. I feel like the more i think about the places I have gone, I start to remember more and more about all the really amazing things I have seen in my travels. Anyways, while we waited for Kathy to help the new student settle in, Giovanni, Christian, and i went to a bar around the corner for a drink. Its funny because at the places we went to the small beer comes in this really adorable 0.2L glass. I guess it helps the beer taste better than having it in a really enormous 0.5L mug like the one i had in Vienna. but what i really want to tell you about is the bar we went to called Lott Jonn. It was so... I actually don't think i have a word to describe it, so let me just tell you about the decorations. There was a shark hanging from the ceiling, this HUGE wizard like statue (I mean HUUUGGGEEEE!!), Lara Croft (from tomb raider) was just hanging out on the bar in the smoking section, then (I saved the best for last) a skeleton riding a horse with a cigar in it's mouth, a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and silver high heels! I couldn't help but laugh every time I looked at or thought about it. When Kathy finished, she met up with us and we headed for home and bed. We were all pretty beat from the long day and tons of food we ate. 

The next day, our breakfast was extremely sweet and filling! We ate the streusels we bought the previous day and talk about sugar overload! All 3 flavors were delicious in their our sweet way, but my favorite was the apple. Since Kathy had to work, Christian and I spent the day exploring. Our first stop was to Essen to visit the Krupp mansion. Instead of taking the Autobahn, Christian took me through the countryside which was so beautiful and very much like home -- except more green and houses. We passed through some very old towns and saw some traditional German houses. Believe it or not, in some parts of Germany they do have enforced speed limits and poor Christian got caught! It was weird because you can pay for your ticket right there when they stop you. He also told me that sometimes they take a picture of you and your license plate if you're speeding and send you a ticket, but if you have a passenger in the car, they block them out. Why you ask? Because apparently some wives were questioning their husbands if it was really just a colleague they were driving with. That's pretty bad! Anyways, we got to the mansion the grounds were so beautiful... As well as the house. The rooms were huge and they had a lot of photos of the family. The Krupp family was very famous in the steel industry and seriously rich. After we walked around for a bit, we headed back home to drop off the car, change because it was actually feeling like summer outside, and head into Dusseldorf. While we walked to the train station, we decided to grab lunch. We passed by this marketplace and decided to get some fried fish. Growing up with fish and chips on Fridays, i have had my fair share of fried fish, however, this was amazing! It was so crunchy and the fish very tasty. Feeling like we could never eat again, we headed to the train and arrived in dusseldorf. We met Tusqa, the Turkish medical student we picked up at the airport, and christian showed us the waterfront. Here there were a lot of rather interesting buildings including one with these colorful frog like creatures crawling up the side. Kind of strange, but in a cool sort of way. On our walk we stopped into this art gallery that had some very, um, interesting artwork. There were photomontages of all kind of random sights in odd places and mirror that had frames that had all sort of knick-knacks glued onto it. There were canvas with barbies and legos... Just really different. Moving on, we stopped into a bar to grab a common dusseldorf beer. Not being much of a dark beer drinker previously, Germany has certainly turned me on to them. It was wonderful! We headed towards the area where we would be meeting for dinner and walked down this super fancy shopping district street. All those high-end stores... Too classy for me! We met up with Kathy and went on a hunt for German chocolates. We found some and Kathy also bought fruit and raspberry bark. The raspberry bark was seriously the best bark I've ever tasted! I mean, i couldn't even think about anything else but what i was eating, it was so delicious. We then met up with Giovanni and headed to dinner at a brewery in dusseldorf. It was quite the experience. There were really no appetizing vegetarian options so i had to suck it up and "do the cultural experience" thing. I tried this traditional dish translated as "liver cheese" -- they assured me it was not actually liver. It was quite a hefty portion with potatoes (obviously) onions, and an egg. I'm sure its insulting, but it tasted like a hot dog... Which I'm still not sure how i feel about it. And between our meals and a few beers, we were all in food comas. We made our way towards Lott Jonn, the bar we went to the night before, so all the exchange students could meet each other. It was a fun night and i brought back my table soccer skills and played a game with Giovanni and 2 of the Turkish students, we won. By the time we left, it was raining. We had a little bit of a walk to kathy's car and it was getting to be quite chilly. It's so hard to believe its summer because vie hd anything but summer weather. 

My last day in Germany, we spent the morning at the japanese garden. The grounds were quite beautiful and when we left the sun was starting to come out. We had lunch at the fish house, had one last ride on the autobahn, and ate some great chocolate cake. When Kathy and Christian dropped me at the train station i thought my bad karma was coming back. We got to the platform and the screen said my train was cancelled. Uh-oh! Though there was another one in an hour, it was one of those unexpected things I've gotten used to on my trip. Christian asked at the service desk and they told him at the train was in fact running, and amazingly it was. When we looked at the screen again, the message about it being cancelled was gone. Talk about a just kidding! I boarded the train for the last time to the netherlands. Amazingly, i have less than a week left in my journey and I've finally been able to enjoy myself.