Coreyography

What Would You Do If I Sang Out of Tune?

I'M IN: Prague, Czech Republic
HAVING VISITED: Stuttgart environs, Landstuhl (outside of Kaiserslutern), Heidelberg & Munich in Germany
NEXT UP: Yeah, I should probably figure that out...

I've definitely been getting a little help from my friends the last two weeks, and it's been absolutely fantastic.  I loved visiting my American friends Brenna and Becky, both of whom are part of military families.  This meant that I, too, got to visit military bases where they have honest-to-goodness Americanesque grocery stores and even a Chili's!  It's weird what you miss after a spell - I didn't think Southwestern Egg Rolls would ever make this list, but apparently they do.  Also, hotdog dreams were realized over July 4th weekend, with Heinz ketchup!  Excitement.  

After my mini-visit to the USA while still in Germany, it was on to Heidelberg.  There I stayed with my friend Suzanne, whom I met in Namibia in March.  We had a fantastic time, touring and going to see the Heidelberg castle "illumination" which is a recreation of the 17th century destruction of the castle (it is a semi-ruin to this day).  The illumination involves fireworks (yay) and also the castle glowing red for about fifteen minutes.  I'm told this effect is achieved using flares or a flare-like burning chemical substance - it is super cool looking.  Unfortunately you will have to take my word for this as my camera was in an uncooperative mood for snapping a decent pic.  Or, you know, operator error: German beer is delicious!

Speaking of my camera, it is a tank and I love it.  I have abused it fourteen different ways, most recently a mishap involving a leaking bottle of water in my purse.  After literally dumping water out of my camera and a two day drying out period, I'll be derned if the miraculous machine didn't come back to life!  Takes a licking and keeps on clicking.  Most other folks I've met who are traveling for an extended period are on their second or even third cameras, an expense and hassle I'm most pleased - and fortunate - to have avoided thus far.

And last week, my friends from D.C., the Beckriches, arrived in Munich.  We did a good round of touring there (including extensive beergarten research) and came on to Prague yesterday.  I could tell right away that Prague is my kind of place.  It's a little funky (both in style and dirt-collection ways) and there's tons of cultural options and lovely buildings around every corner.  I plan to stay on here after the Becks return home on Tuesday and figure out my next steps.  I had sketched out another month and a half wandering around Eastern and Central Europe, but my 90 day Schengen Zone stay will expire on August 21, so... Romania?  Not sure.  Regardless, looks like after Europe I will definitely head to India, about which I'm super excited.  I might even be able to do so work whilst there, which my bank account would most appreciate.  Imagine, money coming in not just going out!  Yesss.  And hopefully I will have enough cash and gumption to continue on to South America at some point, although that is definitely too far ahead for me to plan now! 

Planschen Aus in Baden-Baden

I'M IN: Baden-Baden, Germany
HAVING VISITED: Brugues, Belgium & Strasbourg, France
NEXT UP: Staying in Germany, staying with friends!

Well, Belgium got a lot better.  There were frites, there were waffles, lots of art and lots of beer.  The Belgian beer officially falls into the No Joke category, both in deliciousness and fortitude.  After a few days, I hopped a train to Bruges, one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe.  It's pretty much the cutest, if not the happeningest.  From there I made a little detour to France to visit the former home of my Uncle Mike and Aunt Beth, Strasbourg, which is a model for urban living in my opinion: public transport, plenty of green space, bike paths, well preserved public buildings.  Things came a bit full circle when I was able to see In Bruges in Strasbourg in English (INXS).  It's a pretty good movie and I was tickled pink while watching it thinking, "I was just there.  And there, too!  And right there, I loved that place."  

My other viewing material has been Eur08 soccer.  I chose Spain as my team at the beginning of the tournament, both because I was there at the time and because Fernando Torres is a total dreamboat.  I was happy to find a cafe of (mostly Algerian) Turkey supporters with which to watch the Turkey-Germany semi-final in Strasbourg.  They were as disappointed, as was I, when Turkey lost.  Surprisingly (to me) almost no one watched the Spain-Russia game the following evening, but I did and best: Spain won.  This set up a Spain-Germany final on Sunday, the day I came here to Germany.  I'm all about win-win situations and this was one - yay if Spain wins because they are my team, and yay if Germany wins because these volks are going to lose their frickin' minds up in here.  But it was even better.  Here in Baden-Baden they had a public viewing area set up in a park with a huge screen and lots of sausages and beer, so I was able to watch the game with about a thousand other people.  There were even six or seven other Spanish fans in the crowd!  Then Spain totally won (thanks to a goal scored by my future husband no less) ending a long drought of Spain winning anything soccer-related.  Although the German fans seemed a bit down, their loss did little to suppress the ensuing party which mostly consisted of people driving around in cars, honking a lot and shaking German flags at each other.  So much fun.

There's a lot to like about Baden-Baden.  It's lovely and smallish, but not too, and has a plethora of walking trails.  But the reason I came here was to bathe-to bathe (it's right there in the name after all).  I was far from disappointed.  There are two baths: one is more modern and you wear a bathing suit, the other is older and all nekkid with men and women bathing together (welcome to Europe!).  I decided to ease myself in, so to speak, with the former.  It was great - thermal water pools everywhere (indoor and out, many different temperatures) with waterfalls and these muscle melting super high powered water jets.  These jets were sort of like those hand dryers they have at the State Fair that move your skin around, except for under water and on crack.  Yesterday I braved Friedrichsbad, which had lovely tile and cupolas at which to gaze while completing their 16-Step Bathing Program.  Each room had placards with the Step name and number (in German, English, French and Greek), the recommended time to spend there and a map to the next step.  Ja.  My favorite part was Step 15: after all the various temperature rooms and pools and scrubs, you slather yourself with lotion, hop on a bed and a woman comes and wraps you up in a warm sheet and blanket and you cook there, cocoon-style, for a half hour.  Step 16 was sitting in a lawn chair reading trashy Euromags, which I did for another thirty minutes because this is important apparently.  I shouldn't mock as relaxation was achieved.

And now I'm going to stay with friends for the next few weeks, which is wunderbar.  First up: visiting Brenna outside Stuttgart.  My main goal, as with last year, will be scoring a hotdog on July Fourth.  Hope your July the Fourth is also hotdog-filled and fun for all.