FIELD TRIP #2...GERMANY!

So, I thought I´d try to fit another field trip in to my very busy Euro schedule and headed to Germany to visit my long-time friend, YiYi (and before you get a chance to butcher her name it´s pronounced GiGi). YiYi is from Puerto Rico and we met back in 1986 when she lived with her cousins who lived next door to me. She has since married a wonderful German guy, has two of the cutest boys and lives in Trier, Germany. I hadn´t seen her since her wedding 9 years ago!

Trier is just an hour and 40 minute flight from Barcelona, but when you want to travel Euro-cheap it becomes a bit more complicated. It was like a scene from ´´Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.´´ I flew Ryanair which is like Southwest Airlines on crack. It doesn´t fly out of Barcelona. So, I metroed it to the bus station, took an hour-long bus ride to Girona and arrived at the airport to find at least 10 different check-in lines based on your destination, with each line being 75 to 100 people deep. After standing in line for about an hour, I finally checked in, but wait..there´s more. I had to go to a separate counter to pay a special 5 euro tax, and then return to the check-in counter to finally receive my boarding pass. So I go pay the tax and also paid another 5 euros for a priority pass which is semi-VIP. It allows you on the plane before the masses. After getting through Security, I then had to stand in line Southwest-style at the boarding gate.

Once I finally arrived in Germany, YiYi´s lovely husband picked me up from the airport and we made the hour-long trek to their house. Whew! It makes me tired just thnking about it again.

But, it was all worth it! It was great to see YiYi and see this cute town her new German-Rican family call home. In between re-living our junior high memories of ´´Dirty Dancing,´´ ´´Pretty in Pink,´´ and ´´The Breakfast Club,´´ I got to experience this cute, semi-little town of Trier. It´s located in the southwestern portion of Germany near the French border. It has a population of 100,000 and some very, very sad looking people. We think it may be because of the cold winters and lack of sunshine. I´m not sure if these people know how to smile. It was fascinating!

While there I learned that Germans like to tell it like it is. They are very straightforward and to the point. For example, we call it a ´´refrigerator,´´ they call it the ´´cold closet.´´ ´´Gloves´´ are ´´hand shoes´´ and ´´envelopes´´ are ´´letter covers.´´ It´s so simple! And movie titles are hilarious. For my fellow 80s lovers, you know ´´Say Anything...´´ Why give it such an obscure title when you can call it ´´Teen Lover.´´ Or how about ´´Prime.´´ For those of you who haven´t seen it, you may not know it´s about a woman and her therapist. But, in Germany, they want you to know what you´re getting into beforehand and call it ´´Couch Talk.´´ So simple! Why complicate things when you don´t have to?

While in Trier, I also got a chance to see the EuroCup 2008 soccer games kick-off. YiYi and I caught a game at ´´Louisiana´´ - their take on American cuisine. I had a cheeseburger...it was interesting... Anyway, it was Portugal vs. Turkey. I learned that many Germans are not fans of the Turks and I´m sure the feeling may be mutual. So the entire restaurant was cheering for Portugal except for this one table of about seven Turkish twenty-somethings. Whenever Portugal did well, the entire restaurant cheered, but when the Turkish team was on the up-and-up the restaurant fell a bit quiet except for this one table...can we say awkward.... I was secretly wishing for the Turkish team to win as well, but worried a bit about what might happen if they won. Yikes!

My last day in Germany brought me back to my espanola roots. Once a month YiYi has brunch with about 7 or 8 fellow Hispanic friends who all live in Germany. It´s a nice network of friends for YiYi and was a great opportunity for me to practice my espanol - which was a good thing considering I had been skipping class. During this ´´practice session,´´ I discovered that I´m good for about an hour, but after that you lose me and English translation is definitely needed. I guess I have Spanish ADD!

Saw this poster posted in a restaurant...hmmmm...don´t seem to be big fans of ours either...

These bronze plates were located in front of the house below. It´s in memory of a father and son who were killed in a concentration camp. Very sad, but a nice way to honor them.