Paris, Je T'aime

 I daydreamed the entire way to Paris. My iPod was geared up with all my favorite French songs (Edith Pilaf and Charles Trenet). My three and a half hour train ride from Frankfurt to Paris was easy. It took me to one of six train stations in Paris (Gare du l'Est) and from there I took the Metro close to my hostel in Montmartre. I climbed off of the crowded, burning hot metro to find myself in Abbesses. The stairs to the butte Montmartre were something of a dream to me. I'd seen it in so many movies and pictures as a child and it grew into a "must see" for me later. I got lost, as a I often do, and asked a Parisian for help. They kindly pulled out their personal pocket map, pointed me in the right direction, and even recommended a restaurant to try.

I checked into my hostel and bumped into my room mate on the way out the door.  She was wearing sunglasses with palm trees on the lenses and so I was intrigued. I found out that she was a fashion designer from Russia. The room was so small that I could barely scoot my way past her. I left out of my hostel with my city map in hand and made my way up to the very top of Montmatre. I came up to the back side of the Sacré-Cœur and I was completely overwhelmed with the amount of people. There were crowds everywhere with street performers and vendors, but I could see why they were all there. The views of Paris were spectacular. 

Sacré-Cœur

 I walked down to locate the Moulin Rouge. It was quite easy, because it's in the red light district of Pigalle just down from Montmartre. I hopped on the metro from there into the center of Paris on the Seine River. I came out from the Metro at Place de Concorde and found myself just outside the Jardin des Tuileries. The 3,300 year old Luxor Obelisk stood before me and just over that stood the Eiffel Tower, gleaming where the sun had just bid adieu.

Place de Concorde overlooking the Eiffel Tower

I was entranced and I felt so cliche at how beautiful I thought it was (*Cue the French accordian music....*) I could not stop staring. Wanting to get closer, I took a relaxed stroll down right bank  of the Seine and crossed over to get a close up of the marvelous tower. I approached the tower and the crowds surrounding the bottom were enough to make me realize very quickly that I do not actually enjoying sight seeing. It is hectic and stressful and people are always hurrying which kind of defeats the purpose of a city like Paris. I bought a crepe and decided to make my way back to my hostel and as I did, the Tower began to glimmer and sparkle. I sat on a ledge on the River Seine and watched the beautiful show.

On the way back to my hostel, I got off a stop early to find a place to eat at the late hour of 10:00 pm.  I walked up the street in Abbesses down a tiny little street to find a warm little welcoming place far away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist district. The name of the restaurant rang a bell (Chez Toinette), and then I remembered that it was a recommendation from my guide book of Paris. I walked in to find that there were five tables in the entire restaurant. To me, this is always a good sign. I was greeted by the one waiter who ran the restaurant and I was seated in the intimate setting and poured a glass of Bordeaux. Veal carpaccio for appetizer, roasted duck for my entree, and chocolate parfait and champagne for dessert.

Chez Toinette--I will return!

The food was delicious and quintessential French, but it was the service and the company that made it exemplary.  The couple sitting next to me was from Boston and they were always one course ahead and they kept making recommendations on what to order. They were on their 25th Anniversary trip and neither had been to Paris before. By the end of the meal, my new friends from Boston had made their way around 2 glasses of scotch, and when it reached the bottom, the waiter came around, filling up everyone's glasses in the restaurant (all ten of us) saying, "free re-fills." I paid, thanked the chef for his job well done, and left the restaurant a happy girl. Unfortunately for me, the last metro had already taken route to my hostel, so I had to ascend all the stairs up to Montmatre to make it back to my hostel. On the way back, some locals were standing on the street at a local hangout and it was karaoke night. I introduced myself to them and someone bought me a glass of Bordeaux. After I finished it, I continued the last leg of my journey (at an 80 degree angle) where I now find myself.  

Stairway up to the butte

What does tomorrow hold? Who knows. My favorite way to travel is with no itinerary or expectations. It is not always foolproof, but it is a guaranteed adventure.

The old wooden stove

My host mother (Carola) had this beautiful pink hibiscus potted in the kitchen when I first arrived. I remember it because it was so bright and tall with two huge blooming flowers. About a week after, the flowers crumbled into nothing leaving no trace of life behind. Another week passed and the "dead flowers" emerged into green buds with so much life and potential. I watched Carola carefully water them until one morning, I woke up to see six tall, bright, pink flowers. They grew back more beautiful and plentiful the second time around. I noticed, however, that she had moved the flowers closer to the sun-room and placed them against the hundred year old wooden stove in the center of the home to support the long stemmed plant.

It made me wonder, is this place, this trip, this year my old wooden stove? Is it going to protect me from toppling, and encourage me in the direction of my greatest potential?

One thing is for sure. I will grow back. I will be brighter and more full of life this time around. What is life but being born, growing, changing, multiplying, and then dying? My spirit feels renewed.

Stuttgart

Wine Festival adorned with sunflowers

I started the weekend out going out with friends after a fantastic Indian feast prepared by Caitie. She is a vegetarian, but she kindly prepared entrees featuring meat also. The cashew chicken was my personal favorite, yum! After that, we headed up to our newly proclaimed stomping grounds of Cafe Brazil.  Now if you saw this place, you would laugh. It is in the tiny town in Friedrichsdorf two train stops away from my town (all the Aussie au pairs live there). About the only German I really speak yet is this: "Eine Apfelwine, bitte." It means an apple wine, please. The other au pairs showed up by the time Caitie and I had already had a couple of drinks, but somehow Ben sped ahead of us all by the end of the night. When we went to pay, the owner gave us candy and fruit.  We assumed this meant that we were by far the youngest clientele that the cafe had ever seen as most of the regulars are in their 50s watching futbol.

On Saturday morning, went left for Stuttgart. The original plan was Munich, so we were both worried that we might get bored, but Stuttgart pleasantly surprised us both. When we arrived by train on Saturday (only an hour and half from Frankfurt's central station) the town greeted us with lovely shopping streets and the fabled Black Forest peeking from over top of the city's hills.

We got checked into our hostel (my first ever, I have to admit) and roamed around the city.  Luckily for us, there was a wine festival and the weather was beautiful. We found an antique festival that was really interesting.  One stand sold vintage sunglasses organized by decade (starting in the 1890s). Another had old photographs of German families. I contemplated buying one, but they had sort of a "creepy" factor to them. Plenty of old things for all tastes and styles. Old military uniforms, books, jewelry, you get the picture...

The city center (Schlossplatz) is adorned with a beautiful palace complete with fountains and statues. We fell upon a modern art museum where we kept finding art that opposed something called "Stuttgart 21." Our curiosity led us to ask the curator about it and she gave us a brief background and we found out that there was a protest in the park that day. We would have been silly not to attend, so we found ourselves in the middle of a park at a peaceful protest. There was music on the stage and art hung from the trees.  We found out that three people had been camping out in the park for a year and that there was a man (nick named Robin Hood) who lived up in the trees until the police kicked him out.

After so much education and protest, we felt like indulgence in the form of food and wine. We walked through a city market full of local meats, cheeses, chocolates, and breads and then found our way to the wine festival. It turned out to be so incredibly busy that we had to push through crowds of people and all the tents and tables filled up completely. If you ever go to a German festival, the crowd means that you are clearly at the right place and is a very good thing. After a few glasses of wine, Caitie and I decided to buy each other roses just because we thought we deserved them. Caitie fell head over heels with some gingerbread she bought at a stand (magen brot) and our happy selves decided to see if Stuttgart had much of a night life.

In the Schlossplatz, there were street performers (flame throwers, guitar players, etc...) We never found any clubs, but it didn't really matter because people were standing around outside everywhere on the streets in club clothes just dancing and drinking, talking and flirting. A random guy tried to convince us that he drove a dune buggy that was parked nearby. When he got in to try and drive away in it, the real owner walked up and corrected him in German (which always sounds angry no matter how you speak it).  We muscled our way back through the crowds, up the hill, and to our beds in the hostel after our full and epic first day in Stuttgart.

The next day we woke up, returned briefly to the wine festival and then went to an art museum which featured Otto Dix art work. We then watched a concert in the Schlossplatz, and decided to see a movie before returning home to Frankfurt. We saw Midnight in Paris (my second time watching it). It was a beautiful film. 

At the end of the weekend on the train ride home, we laughed at how we thought we would be bored in Stuttgart.  Caitie and I concluded that we could never be bored anywhere together (even in a padded room in a straight jacket).

As for my plans next weekend? I'm dreaming big, and her name is "Paris." :-)

Schlossplatz

Modern Art Museum

Protest

Protest art

"Feminism, we buy ourselves roses" Caitie

Street Performers

Architecture on a church

Museum Fest Frankfurt

This weekend I met three new friends (Ben, Caitie, and Taylor), also au pairs who are ALL from different parts of Australia. We visited Frankfurt by a 15 minute train ride (so cheap and efficient) to attend my first German festival. This particular one was Museum Fest, dedicated to all the different museums that Frankfurt has.  The festival was set up on both sides of the Main River. I had my first official bratwurst and got to sample a regional specialty: apple wine or "apfelwine."

Apple wine tastes like a dry apple cider, so to call it wine is only indicative of the process by which it's made.  Production of this thirst-quenching drink dates back to1st Century A.D. to the Romans. It eventually made its way up to the state of Hessen (the region where Frankfurt is located) when a cold winter damaged the vineyard, forcing the wine makers to find an alternative. Apple fields began to spring up all over Hessen and are still widespread today. It is that fervor for success and hard work that makes German culture so interesting to me.

Caitie, Taylor, and I ended up staying in Frankfurt after dark walking around, enjoying the food and drinks and soaking up the live music. At the end of the night, we decided we were ready for a cocktail, found a nice place on the river, and we ordered a Sex on the Beach. We settled down to a table close to the dance floor and began to read the flyers (in German) that were on the table. It was then that we realized we ordered a sex on the beach at a lesbian bar and we all just laughed, shrugged our shoulders, and danced the night away.

Die Welt ist klein

A week and a half is not enough time to get to know a place at all--but it is plenty of time to become completely infatuated. Oberursel looks like your favorite quaint German town with its streets lined in small town bakeries and fine butchers complete with a centered marketplace, cobblestone roads, and traditional timber framing. The walls whisper quietly as you walk slowly, careful not to disturb its quaint charms. You crane your neck to take it all in at once.

Many people think of Germany as the land of sausage and beer, but it is so much more for the foodie's palate. The selection of truffles at my new favorite chocolate shop (Salon du Cacao) are German made and absolutely fantastic. The Riesling actually rivals the Weisen and the bakeries are overflowing with things anyone's grandmother would have made growing up. This place is incredible. And yet everyone (it seems) is beautiful and thin. I wonder if that was a national decision put into law?  In a matter of thirty years, Germany has unified, become globally and regionally unique, and are now the richest country in Europe.

I am taken with the way of life here--the balance of modern and traditional, global and unique, political yet neutral, religious yet private. Germans seem so dedicated to this balance.

Sanctuary

I have been very lonely lately. Sure I have five new family members to keep me company, but they drive me crazy just like my own family. I found myself in my room a lot, being very unlike myself and acting like an introvert.

I never realized that I get bored easily until I moved here. Three days into my stay and I was ready to get out and make friends and meet people, join a sports team, and take up juggling. Ok, maybe not juggling, but I needed to connect with some people, any people.

I noticed an elderly man walking by me as I was window shopping in town today. He walked with such ferocity I decided I had to see where he was going! He walked from the shopping street through the market place, up a gigantic cobblestone hill.  We walked under a narrow archway up to the very top of the hill to the highest point in the city to reveal the city's beautiful yet quiet cathedral. While I was taking in the view, the old man disappeared inside of the church. I waited a few minutes and opened the huge wooden door to the nave and then entered the sanctuary.

I stood on century old stone. The current building had been erected in the 1400s, but religious buildings had stood on the site for over a thousand years. The silence inside was utterly addicting. I could have remained in this depth of mind for days. I was encapsulated. Did I follow this old man or did he lead me? Did he see the desperation in my eyes? The bell tower struck twice, telling me gently that it was time to return home. I got up to exit the church and shot a gentle smile to the old man. He acknowledged me with a nod of his head and closed his eyes in prayer. As cliche as it sounds, found myself much like a new person. The cold rain softly drizzled on me, yet I felt warm as I walked calmly home feeling not quite so alone. I was never really alone after all.

The path to the church...there's my friend, the old man

St. Ursula Church-Oberursel (Taunus)

9 hour flight and I'm feeling fine!

I left the Orlando airport after a three day trip to Disney World with Andrew. To start, we got to the airport and checked my luggage that I had unpacked and re-packed a thousand times to make sure there weren't too many clothes and that it wasn't overweight.  As it turned out, my luggage was 10 pounds too heavy. I said goobye to my curling iron and several pairs of shoes. The kind Lufthansa representative told me to take a few things out and they would re-weigh it. Long story short, my luggage was still to much after two times of re-weighing it.  I broke down and cried like a baby. While Andrew was trying to calm me down, the kind airline lady came over and whispered to me "If you have another bag out in your car, I can allow you another another checked bag free." I transferred some items to another bag and voila! My luggage was accepted.

Andrew and I said our goodbyes before I went through security. The rest of the way to my gate was a breeze. I made my last few American phone calls before boarding.  When I spoke with my mom, she was even more emotional than I was and that put me at ease. I saw the same airline representative that had allowed me the free bag before I boarded the plane. I thanked her excessively and she just smiled. If it hadn't been for her my sweaters and hair dryer never would have made it to Germany.

My flight was fantastic. Lufthansa puts all American airlines to shame. The food was good, the alcohol was free, and economy class was like first. Not to mention they spoke perfect English (mostly because my German is rubbish). The movie selection was limited. I can't believe I admitting this, but I watched the Disney movie "Prom" that is basically like High School Musical without the music. I felt ashamed until I looked over and saw that an old German couple was watching the same movie and laughing hysterically.

When the plane approached landing, I noticed all of the beautiful German towns surrounding Frankfurt. It was already so different from the way the U.S. cities are set up. In America there is the sprawl effect with our big cities making their way out to smaller suburbs and eventually smaller towns. In Germany there are big cities, but then villages. The villages all looked similar with a cathedral in the center of town and a shopping area. The houses extend out from there to form a neat little clumps of towns with scenic forests, hills, and mountains in between. I was already jumping out of my seat with excitement.  Then the stewardess shot me an a panicked look and I calmed down a bit.

I landed and got my luggage and miraculously none of it had been lost. My host dad (Michael) picked me up from the airport. We drove for about fifteen minutes to their house in a charming town called Oberursel. We pulled up to the big yellow house and he said, "we're home." I initially felt panicked. "Home?" I said to myself. Home is 4900 miles away..I am simply visiting. Then I felt comforted and realized I was indeed home, and they made me feel such.

My host mom (Carola) gave me a tour of the house. She already told me what she wanted me to do around the house and what was expected of me. I think my "working" started right when I walked through the door! I have an entire floor of the house to myself. Sure the walls are slanted and I have already bumped my head twice, but it has character.

Now we are waiting for the kids to arrive and then we will all have lunch together. We are having pasta and the weather is beautiful.We visit Bad Homburg tomorrow which is an old spa town that the Romans established long ago.

Must...fight...jet lag. Keep my eyes open. Thank goodness Germans drink coffee!

New home in Oberursel, Germany in the village of Bommersheim

No matter where you go, there you are.

I leave in three days and I have no idea how to feel about it. I have a plethora of mixed emotions ranging from excited to anxious and all the way to hungry (yes, the thought of no American food for a while makes me feel hungry...so sue me). I am surprised that "fearful" and "scared" are not emotions that I feel. This is an adventure I've wanted to pursue for a long time.  Being in a foreign place does not feel foreign to me.

I have a comfortable job at home with a very lovable life, but I don't even feel like a real person some days. I have looked at enough travel guides and watched enough movies in foreign languages to understand that I have a taste for something different than the life I've always known and loved.  I know for a fact I will feel uncomfortable, lonely, and I will be stretched to my limit. My life for the next few months is truly a mystery and wide open. I do not know what to expect and I do not know how it will turn out.  It is the unknown that has always drawn me in. 

That is what I love so much about travel: "No matter where you go, there you are."  No matter how far you go, how much you see, eat, feel, and experience, at the end of the day, you are still with yourself. That implies a lot.

Maybe that's what it is all about for me. Spiritual enlightenment? No. Getting in touch with my inner self? Too deep.  I just want to become the best version of myself and that means learning to live with myself and love myself. 

Until next time friends! Next time I post I will be in Deutschland. Auf Wiedersehen!