Willkommen in Europa

Twenty days. A long route north over Nova Scotia, following the tail winds over Greenland, dipping down through France and landing at last in Stuttgart, Germany. Clammered against my seat with ear phones and a desperate desire to sleep.

Oh, what a relief to stand up and stretch your legs after nearly ten hours! It's 8:30 a.m. The sunlight and the small airplane breakfast do just enough to convince my brain, kind of, that it's actually morning. Back home, the sun won't rise for hours yet.

That's the way my trip began, three weeks ago. Up till now, my summer's been quite tame--work, college preparations, sneaking a last few days at home. Then, late in July, it was time to head back to Germany for a delicious three-week vacation.

A quick explanation: when I was sixteen, I did a foreign exchange through my school. For six months, I lived with a family in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the southwestern-most state of Germany. I went to school and took two additional private German lessons a week. It was a beautiful stolen chunk of time, where I made friends, took trips around the country, and had the amazing experience of learning a new language.

Afterwards, I came back to the States, and the real world started again. I went to school. I studied for my SATs. My life was college applications and senior classes. I started to notice how much I stumbled over words during German class.

This spring, I wrote to friends in Baden-Wuerttemberg and asked if I might stay with them over the summer. In July, I packed up a couple of gifts--two bottles of Texas hot sauce--and boarded my plane for Stuttgart.



 I can't possibly describe every day of the trip, though I'd love to. I'll just say that it was non-stop, hectic. Autobahn-quick. The first two weeks I stayed with various friends who all live in separate small villages. My favorite: Michelbach, region Schwaebisch Hall.

Gorgeous.

Other than the friends, other than spending time with beloved people whom I haven't seen in several years, there were other great highlights.

1. The food. Friends and acquaitances were shocked to hear that I eat much more sensibly in busy, fast food-famous America. And why? Because I can't resist German food. And we ate. And ate.

This is Döner, the world's most amazing food.
It's worth a trip to Germany just for lamb and yogurt sauce on pita-ish bread.

When cousins arrived, I even got treated to a lesson in how to make Spätzle, a regional noodle dish with sausage and lentils:

Ta-da!

2. One day, friends and I decided, like true former Waldorf students, to spend the afternoon felting. If you don't what felting is, it consists of taking bits of colored wool, wetting it in hot water and soap, and then rubbing it between your hands until it holds together. Kind of like making dreads. I've felted slippers before, which was interesting to say the least. Lucy and Miri and I gathered up our supplies and headed out to the garden:

After a while, the boys came out and decided to try their hand at felting, too. I think we girls hit a little closer to the mark.

After hours of felting and felting, we were just about ready to sew all our teeny tiny pieces together and make some extremely gorgeous potholders.**

**Sarcasm disclaimer. I also need to practice my felting skills a while longer before my potholders reach "gorgeous" standard.

3. A quick detour to Italy! A mutual friend of Lucy's and mine lives in Brescia. Our last week, we piled into the car. This is what the morning in Germany looked like.

Austria....

Ten hours later...ahh, Salo, Italia!

Six days in Salo with quick trips to Brescia and an accidental almost-trip to Verona after a wrong turn on the Autobahn. After fear of arrest and a sixty-euro traffic ticket, we were back on track.

We started the nine-hour drive back to Germany at 2:00 AM on Monday morning. I dozed off in the back seat and woke to the sun rising in the Alps. When I woke for the second (or possibly third) time, we were just outside of Ulm.

We had one afternoon. We grilled. I packed. We ate in the garden until there was no room left.

I arrived in Stuttgart the next morning just in time to settle in for my flight.

Now, it seems impossible that I was in Italy only four days ago. It was the roadtrip of a lifetime, and now, I'm happy to be back home. Home where everything is scheduled, regular. Where we measure things in inches and miles instead of centimeters and kilometers. Where things are safe and familiar.

Yes, it's good to be home. :)