So I have been in Germany the last 10 days or so, and just because I'm only starting to write about it now has nothing to do against it, if anything it goes to show how great the last week or so has been.
The beginning of my stay in Germany was special for a number of reasons. For one, it was the first time a friend/family opened their home to me, after just knowing me during my Euro trip. Way back when I was in Scotland, I had met a group of German friends on vacation and struck up a quick friendship with them. If you remember, I briefly mentioned them in my post "Eating to Survive, Drinking to Experience". One of the things I was looking forward to the most about this trip was of course, the social aspect. And not just meeting people for 4-6 hours over drinks, but developing lasting relationships with people that have experienced life in a completely different way than I had growing up. Well, mission accomplished. Thank you Brian, David, Friedemann, Marius, Moritz, Jo, Pflaumus and Tabea. You all made the start to my Germany experience exceptional, and here is why...
To start, Marius, David, and Friedemann picked me up from the train station in Aalen. Off the bat, they gave me a true bavarian experience over a cup of coffee- my first Bavarian pretzel! Boom, one experience everyone needs to have, conquered. Much more to come of this sort, of course. From there, we started out tour of local churches and castles -- two things Germany is certainly not short of. It was mostly a whirlwind type of afternoon - 'if you look to your right, you can see a church, and to your left...well, another church. Oh look, there's another castle!' That kinda thing. To them it was just another castle, maybe a good hookup spot for high school kids, but to me it was...well, a castle! An 800 year old church! I knew it wasn't the most exciting thing they could have done that day, but that was one of the things that made these guys so great- it was always about me, and making sure I was having a good time.
From there we had lunch in Ellwangen, their home town and where I would be spending the next few nights. They brought me to a Turkish restaurant/kebab kind of place, where we got takeout wraps. Some sort of Turkish immigrant thing that has started/taken over in Germany. Delish. We met up with Moritz, who was then my tour guide for...you guessed it...more churches! But seriously, some pretty cool ones. From there, we went to David's house to drop off my things. HUGE, GIANT, THANK YOU to David and his parents. These people went so far out of their way to make my stay as perfect as it could be. I was the first American to stay in their place, and it was like they were in a competition to make their American happier than any other American to stay in a German residence that year. Well they would have won. You saw the picture below (if you haven't, look now). Check out that breakfast. How can you beat that you say? Add some beer with the breakfast as well as periodically throughout the day no matter what the time was? Ok cool, they did that too. Do my laundry and not let me lift a finger no matter how hard I try? Check. Someone just get the trophy.
From there we met up with the rest of the gang. Did I mention that my entire stay, it wasn't ''who's-gonna-entertain-matt"? Instead each one went out of their way to spend time with me if they could, every single day. That takes a special group of friends. That night we went to a bar for a few drinks (including my first shot of Absinth, though it was ONLY 60%-- what the hell is it normally?)
The next day, they brought me to the famous town of Rothenburg via the Autobahn (David reached just over 200 km/h, roughly 125 mph). This medieval German town may attract a ton of tourists, but its obvious why. Just walking along the town's mile and a half long wall transported me back in time briefly, as I pretended to shoot an arrow through one of the slits in the wall out toward the surrounding forest...ok, parking lot, but I have a good imagination. Checking out St. Jakobs (Jacobs, duh), which was partially built in 1311, we saw one of the finest High Alters there is, dating back to 1466. Before that day I didn't even know what a High Alter was, but I was still amazed.
We then had a typical Bavarian lunch in a little cafe/restaurant a little off the beaten path where all the tourists were paying twice as much. This meal included Schweineschnitzel (next to its name on the menu, it said, and I kid you not - "Wiener Art"). Yes, I took a picture. The english version just called it "escalope of pork", which is not nearly as entertaining, nor even English sounding. Accompanying the meal was, of course, the locally brewed Pilsner beer, Landwehr Bräu, and finally followed with an apple strudel for dessert (it was brought to my attention that most of the meal was actually originally austrian, but whatever).
That night I spent some time at Brian's house, where his parents were again unbelievably kind. We exchanged some tunes, listened to some of his band's music (BEST BAND EVER...;) ) and taught me some important German vocabulary, aka curse words. That night...well guess. We drank beer.
The following morning, David's mother cooked the incredible breakfast you see below. The white sausage, called Weisswurst, is a traditional Bavarian sausage made from minced veal, pork bacon, and spices, cooked inside "pork casings" (Im getting this off wikipedia and I guess they are trying to make it sound nice), which are actually the cleaned, pig's intestines. Yumm. Though you don't eat that part, you peal it off. It is served with sweet mustard (the dark stuff on my plate next to the butter, jar seen behind) and of course, eaten with freshly made pretzels and rice beer (we had Paulaner).
From there, David and Marius drove me to the train station for my trip to Munich, for Oktoberfest!
Another huge Thank You to David and his parents, my words don't nearly describe how great you were to me, and of course, the gang. Hope to see you all some day very soon, keep in touch!
- Matt
Location:Ellwangen, Germany
Sounds great Matt. Nice to know you have some clean laundry. Thanks to the parents!
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