Lauralee and I decided to take a trip into Schwezingen for an art fair held at the castle. Our “casual” day trip turned into a major adventure full of sightseeing, castles, food and music.
First off we needed to find a way to the train station. We decided the Strause (mini train throughout town) was our best bet. Only problem was that we didn’t know where the train station was or what it was even really called. Standing on the street, reading through the list of destinations I turned to my guidebook. According to “Fodor” we were looking for something that had “Haufbon(sp?)” in it. With this info, we kindly asked the first person we saw if they could help us find the Haufbon. This was the start of something great.
For 15 minutes she tried in broken English to tell us where to go. Through lots of laughs, gestures and many references to the guidebook we all came to the conclusion that our conversation was going no where. In between puffs on her cigarette this stranger in a fur coat and stilletos grabs my arm and says something which I recognize as “come with me”. Ummmm ok……
So now I’m on a train not sure where I’m headed. All of a sudden she grabs my arm again, I grab Lauralee and we’re off the Strausse and running across the street. She’s now running to catch a different train and pointing to what we guess is a sign with the letter “H”. We gather that we’re supposed to stand next to this sign and just a few minutes later the “H” approaches and we’re on our way to the train station.
Oh…the train station. Yet, another adventure in and of itself. Not knowing what to do we ask information how we might get to Heidelberg (our jumping off city to Schwetzen). He tells us to run to platform 10 and buy tickets straight from the conductor. We literally run through the train station and make it on to the train as the doors are closing. Great..we’re on a train, headed hopefully to Heidelberg and without tickets. The conductor is no where in site.
As we anxiously wait for the conductor to come by I scramble through my language book trying to piece together some sort of explanation for why we don’t have a ticket. Of course even with the phrases to say, the conductor doesn’t understand me. Luckily, a young girl sitting near us helps out. We buy our tickets and can sit back and relax.
I felt like an idiot, grinning ear to ear, so excited to be on my first European train. The countryside is breathtaking and the people so far have been great. Hawaii is a BIG hit with the locals and once they know I’m from there they seem willing to help out in any way possible. I don’t think I’ll have to use my cover up of canada (lucky for me Lauralee really is from our neighbor to the north.)
Once we arrive in Heidelberg we learn it’s another 30 minute bus ride (which means at least an hour) to Schwetzigen. Time for Plan B. Oh wait….we don’t have one. Ok, on to the tourist information booth.
Lucky for us September 29th is the Heidelberg Fall Festival. Basically the coolest day out of the year to be in town. Just a short walk down the cobblestone streets and we had landed ourselves in the middle of an amazing cultural festival. Street vendors, performers, concerts, food, dancing…..it was awesome!Not only was the festival amazing, but just a short hike up the hill and we were at a castle overlooking the bouncing town and beautiful Necker River (sp?).
After walking around town for hours and hiking to the castle we decided to make our way down to the river. It’s really pretty cheesy but as we entered onto the bridge a young boy was playing the sax to an old Titanic song. I was at a loss for words. I just stood there staring out over the water and it finally hit me. I’m living my dream!
Guten tag friends! I’ve made it to Europe and have been enjoying my first week of Brautwurst and foreign language…well not so much the brautwurst. Life on the army base is definetely interesting but I’m well taken care of and safe (you wouldn’t believe the hassle to just get on this computer!)
I started work bright and early Tuesday morning and so far enjoy the staff and kids. Hopefully this week I’ll settle into a permanent classroom. I’ve been rotating around infants, toddler, preschool and kindergarten. My head is spinning with information and trying to remember names! I’m crossing my fingers to land in the infant room. I LOVED IT!! The babies range in age from 6 weeks (tiny tiny) to 18 months and are full of snuggles and gas (that’s another story)!
Hopefully I’ll be able to post pictures and keep this blog updated with my travels. I ventured out to Heidelberg this weekend and have plans for Paris the 6th, 7th and 8th (yay for Columbus day!!) Keep checking back for updates and photos galore.
Miss you all and thanks for the love and support.
XOXO-Heather
With “The Curse of Matt” behind us, our parents couldn’t have picked a better week to come out. With chest to head high surf the entire week they were here, everyone got more than enough waves. Not too many photos from their visit but we still got a few good ones.
Back to California tomorrow!!! See everyone soon…
What’s Dobber doing back on Oahu, again, just three weeks after his last visit? It’s an uncommon event best known as “coming to your senses”. Dobber realized a shitty job with no time off isn’t worth it, regardless of the pay, when you can be living in a beautiful place like Hawaii instead. After his first visit, Dobber went home, put in his two weeks, and got a job lined up in construction with his uncle’s company. He works the weeks on the big island, but gets Fridays off and spends the weekends over here with us. Not a bad gig if you ask me.
Jaime was out here for a work conference but still managed to slip some fun in between the cracks…
The following shots are from a game we made up called “Pieces of Eight” — strip poker meets truth or dare meets texas hold ‘em meets a couple bottles of rum (Hana Bay of course)
No more shots from the game, but let’s just say Jaime needs to practice up on her hold ‘em skills…
And here are just some fun shots from when we went out to the Yard House. Heather didn’t get the memo on this first one:
And Jaime was just too drunk to realize the memo only applied to the first photo…
I don’t know guys, Dobber looks like he’s actually enjoying me grabbing his booby…
When you’re a player, it’s hard to take a weekend away from the high-rolling where-my-women-and-krystal-at lifestyle. Too bad Dobber’s not a player. Nope, otherwise he would have had a valid excuse for not coming out to visit us for a full year! We only got a few shots from his trip out here, but managed to get in a number of good hikes. Dobber aptly named the Koko Head hike “Mount fuck me in the ass”. Lucky for you we don’t have any pictures of that one…
There be a storm ‘a coming!
“One more hike and you’re going over the edge!”
Here comes the storm…
Yeah, it rained on us… hard.
It aint e z bein’ a gangsta…
More to come from Dobber soon…
Although we still managed to have a good time, Matt brought the flat spell of the summer to Oahu’s south shore (Matt was out here at the beginning of July and the surf was flat all the way up to this last week). A few head high days at the beginning of the week deteriorated into lake pacific. Calling the waves ankle-slappers would be generous. Very generous. Good thing the skate park still had some bowls and the beer at the bars didn’t dry up! Although, the pitchers at Broke Ass Mondays did seem to have dried up and shrunk a bit. Having Jeff and Matt at Maunawilis at the same time finally gave us guys the courage to try the huge jump off the left cliff. Nuts! That’s one hell of a jump! There were a bunch of photos from the week but I can’t seem to find any right now. I’ll throw them up when I do.