quick run through

leaving NYC, i took a Chinatown bus (note the irony that i was the only 'not Chinese' person and yet, was still obviously some sort of Asian) to Harrisburg. my scheduled taxi was 45 minutes late and there was no bus stop. i stood in an empty parking lot with three other people at close to midnight. the taxi driver had the fade set totally on the back speakers and the music was loud enough that i could barely think. at least i like D'Angelo. 'nuff said about that experience.

i proceeded to crash on the couch at Mike&Mike's without waking anyone up. they went to work early in the morning, but i knew that Sarah had the day off, so i went to her apartment to catch up. her roommates all remembered me from my short stint with them in the summer and we all hung out as if we'd known each other since childhood. after a while, i figured that i might as well wait to see Little Mike when he got off work. found out he had the next day off and then it was drink time. yet another night on a couch and to the Waffle Shop in morning. mmm, good times!

no one was home when i got to Glen Hope, but Grammy and Karla came back from a day of shopping not ten minutes after. i putzed around the house with them for a bit and then went to JoAnn's to see the new kitchen. my cousin Jason figured that i was bored as hell and took me off-roading in his Rhino to his favourite bar. oh my. i may be the black-haired bastard child in a pot of curly blond blue-eyes, but we are indeed family by blood. let me just say, Budweiser and tequila the whole afternoon.

in the morning, said my goodbyes and headed down to Virginia to meet my Dad at Ernie and Pegg's. i missed seeing the grandkids, but it is always fun to talk with Pegg and she misses chatting with my mom. i guess i've grown enough to make a good substitute. =) back to the couch. the next morning, Dad and i hit the slopes at Wintergreen. mmm, i love slush!

back in Gville, i did my rounds at the uni, talking with professors and filling out paperwork. sooo stoked about finally having a class with Gil! went to The Stockyard with my mom, tramping through the stench of animal piss trying to find raw peanuts. read my first Jailbird, and thankfully didn't know anyone in it. started packing my things for the return to Deutschland and then off to the island with Katie.

we sat on the ferry deck shelling peanuts and smoking from a corn cob pipe. got in touch with Luke without having a phone, met him at Zilli's and spent the afternoon drinking German beer outside in the salty air. the next day we were out sunning with Joe and i got to see why Brian was banned from the seashore. i love the beach when you still need a hoody. i kept thinking about what a good idea it was to come here before i left again. maybe it's the feeling of sand between your toes while drinking Tecate with two of your best friends and having the sun shine off your hair. KT and i took the early ferry home and watched the sun rise over calm purple water. picked up the truck on the mainland, biscuits and gravy for breakfast and singing to Motown on the way back. bliss.

i apologize for the lack of photos, but my time with these people was too precious. ♥

"these streets will make you feel brand new"

and so i tried the CouchSurfing in America. Mathew was an awesome host! no worries, all accommodations and a living encyclopedia of New York City. i arrived via Amtrak and Bayardo by bus. props to Bayo for not bailing out like everyone else. him and Nick are the best travel buddies ever. hard to imagine our discovery of that just a year ago in Dallas. pause for good memories.

NYC, omg! i mean, i've been there before, but this was my first time independent of school or the 'rents. i got to really throw myself into it and damn was it beautiful. maybe it's just because of this time in my life and all the opportunities i've got after graduating this year. who knows, but every moment of walking through the streets, i could NOT get that Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song out of my head.

[Bayardo in Times Square at night]

even now when i go back and watch the music video, their pride looks, feels so inclusive, so alive. i loved how EVERYwhere there were quotes about the city. sometimes they are on construction fences. sometimes they are on window decals. sometimes they are engraved in granite facades.

[construction by South Ferry]

additionally, i was blown away by the internationality. maybe i was especially sensitive after my travels through Europe. of course there were lots of tourists too, but even from the people walking out of apartment buildings, i overheard so many people speaking German, Spanish, French... keep on going. Again on history, my mind was a total whirlwind.

[Statue of Liberty from Battery Park]

with a big dash of luck, Bayardo and i got to be present for the beginning of a performance piece, ...and Counting by Wafaa Bilal, who had come to ECU last year. amazing man. in this work, he had a map of Iraq already tattooed on his back and this night he was having a dot for every American and Iraqi that had died so far in the war. let me clarify: that is 105,000 pricks in 24 hours. go to the webpage to get the entire description. the names of all the dead were also to be read while the tattooing took place.

and wow. never been part of a performance piece before. there is something about the time frame that sets it apart. first off, documentation of the event (ie: photos) are very important, but what appeals to me the most is the brevity. it ends. it dies. and after that, the memory of it is what's important.

[filming Wafaa]

anyone could read names, and most would read a page and then the next person would come up. for my turn, i chose the list of American soldiers just so i wouldn't butcher the pronunciation and also because i'm familiar with the abbreviations for military ranks. reading a list is quite redundant and when i finished one page, i automatically flipped to a second and kept reading. it didn't strike me until i was around the eighth or so that i had gone so far.

i choked a bit at the feeling of actualization for this work by Wafaa. it was the same feeling of overwhelming that i usually get when i start making connections between a city and it's history and then applying it to the present day; except this time i was part of a piece of art, so it touched ME personally. it was like grabbing on to an electric fence and not letting go. and i had no desire to let go.

Wafaa Bilal. check out his work. especially Domestic Tension.

pause.

okay, i could probably have made that bit a post of it's own, but maybe the length of this one helps explain my feelings about New York.

and on to Coney Island. unlike me, Bayardo was hopping around and staying in a different place every night. i went down earlier in the morning with Mathew, who went to buy a couple gifts to give on his own CouchSurfing travels that were coming up soon, and we met up with Bayo there on the boardwalk. i had no idea how popular the movie The Warriors was OR how thick Coney Island was with Russians.

[polar bears sunning in 50°F weather]

Mathew left us after some nice conversations and Russian pastries, then Bayo and i took the bus up to Prospect Park. originally we wanted to go to some museums, the botanical gardens and maybe the zoo, but somewhere in our wandering we ended up in the public library and opted to go straight to Dumbo and the bridge.

the timing was perfect. it was late afternoon and natural sidelighting always makes for good photos. we probably spent an hour on the bridge, photographing and dreaming of living somewhere in the Upper West Side, biking daily across the Brooklyn Bridge to a studio in Dumbo.

[Bayo on the north side of the Brooklyn Bridge]

last stop: art museums. i had no idea how big the Metropolitan was. almost 5hours and i barely saw half! not to mention, it's free to get in. there is so much stuff from all over. makes me wonder how the hell anyone can accumulate it all. gotta love having Graziani as an art history prof. made me appreciate the old stuff a lot more. =)

[a cappella group in front of the Met]

Bayo was bored with the Met, so we went on to MOMA. again, i can't say enough about seeing artwork in person. there is no way a textbook can do an 8' x 8' Picasso painting justice. i suppose one could go back to the concept of how the human eye has a bigger tonal range than a camera. that is, without Photoshop. ;)

[men in front of Matisse]

oh, and of all things, ran into Brian McBride after hitting up B&H Photo. i felt like Uncle Tosh, seeing people i know everywhere i go. but really, more than all the sightseeing, good company wins overall. like Nick, Bayardo and i had lots of good conversations as well. it was nice to talk about language barriers and have a mutual understanding, plus a lust for travel. after all the new friendships in Europe, there was a great relief to come back to something established and even watch it grow more. thanks, Bayo!

Philly, you nice, but you ain't the 'Burgh

after a week of what i guess you can call rest, it was off to Philadelphia for the photo conference. College Park, MD happens to be conveniently on the way and i got to visit Jessica from the Sommerkurs!! it was also conveniently the night of the Maryland/Duke upset. whoa. you Terrapins are crazy, but the cops were indeed a bit over dramatic about everything. i could see myself living in DC, though. especially for the international route. hm.

it was a quick drive to Harrisburg, where i parked my car at my aunt's house and got a taxi to the train station. i know! trains in America?! felt like home (ie: Germany). a bit as if i stepping to a time capsule from 30 years ago, though. =P the conductor had an old skool get-up and hand-wrote little tickets to tuck in the rack above your head.

enter: Philadelphia

mmm mmm, American urbanity. i forgot that Philly was one time bigger than New York and i didn't think so much about writing the Declaration of Independence until i got off the train. i know i talk about the impact history has on me when i visit a city. well, the States have hardly let me down. at least here, i don't need a tour guide or brochures because i remember learning everything in grade school (or more likely, from my father).

i didn't have time for sight-seeing. the vibes i got from Mr. Brotherly-Love were just swimming in my head as i sat through the lectures with SPE. the conference as a whole was not too exciting or invigorating like Dallas. i kind of expected that. after KKΨ, i know better than to get caught up in the glam of big organizations. still, i enjoying hanging out with the our photo department, seeing old faces and meeting the new crew (even though it meant four nights of sleeping on the floor). perhaps it was really just a ploy to visit Philly and the Big Apple. ;)

Grenzen ganz löchrig

at least i managed to wash my sheets before i hopped on the plane, but i did leave my room in quite a mess. the trip wasn't bad. the plane was half empty, so everyone got a chance to lay down in the center at some point. wow, did that make everything ten times better!

things didn't feel strange until i landed in Charlotte. the white rocking chairs were a nice familiar sight and i met an older couple from Greenville at the bar, but i just spent a lot of time looking out the window after that. i think it was watching people working outside that really got to me. i know it's the same situation in every country, as labor is never a fun event, but the tediousness of it hit hard; like i got pulled back into the clockwork.

the sky was a thick blanket of clouds, but little pockets of light started opening up. i noticed because spotlights popped up on the Tarmac. i looked up and noticed the holes in the clouds. behind the claustrophobic grayness, the blue was so bright and clear. it reminded me that had seen another place sometime before and, despite where i was at the moment, i could not have that memory taken away from me.

then i climbed into the little propeller plane and off we went. so many people are scared shitless of them, but i love it. there is a slow crescendo as the engines start up and the vibration makes the plane feel like a living being. it was like an alarm clock waking me up to the fact that i was really going home to people who knew me.

and that was that. my dad rode with my mom to pick me up. we went straight to Ham's to meet up with some friends. drank home brewed beer until late. woke up and went to class the next day. i know, i'm a dork. talking with Dr. Jensen was amazing, though. she was tickled pink that we could have real conversations auf Deutsch after i had only finished German II. found out that Colleen from KKΨ was taking German. after class, who should walk in but President Mike Miller! oh yeah, forgot that i knew everyone and their brother. etc. etc. and so goes returning to Greenville.

ein Besucher!!

i have been envious of all my european friends that can easily get visitors, so when Nick mentioned coming across the pond, i was super excited. never really had an exact date and time, but i told him the name of my town, gave my class schedule and included directions from the train station to my place just in case. that crazy nut didn't write down my telephone number, couldn't get in touch with me and i got a call from my roommate around 10pm when i was out at a bar saying, "your friend is in our kitchen." oh well, that's how we roll and everyone over here is completely flabbergasted that it actually works.

after the Faschingsumzug in Tü with the Narrenzünfte, i thought it would be something interesting and with a local twist. we walked to a neighboring town with another Ami, Andrew, via a trail that i had done with some StudIT friends earlier.

[Wurmlinger Kapelle mit Schnee]

it was awesome as a first experience in Deutschland, i think, and especially for photos. in Rottenberg, we met up with Oli and had a mini excursion like our crew from back in the States. the train ride home was a bunch of photo talk. Nick was stoked about coming to me and Oli's class later and getting to see the facilities.

[Fotografs sind in ein fotografisches Gespräch vertieft]

it was so nice to muck around with another photographer again. i took him through Tübingen and cooked Schupfnudeln. we walked to another neighboring town, Bebenhausen, and photographed the cloister. the Prinz Karl dorm threw a Karneval party that was totally insane. a visit to Heidelberg ended by staying with Stephen from the plane to Ireland. for one week, i can't think of a better time! even Greg benefited from having so much english in our apartment. =)

[Schnee in Heidelberg]

the highlight though, was probably all the conversations. Nick and i had plenty of time to talk, on account of the close quarters, and we already have a good dialog, but he has also seen me evolve as an artist and understands better where my ideas are coming from. it was nice to constructively talk about ideas. oh dear, made me homesick for the rest of my friends. still, means a lot to have a visitor and, like i said, i love to share. so really, it was the kicker of my first six months. thanks again, Nick!

oje Neujahr, du hast mir schon hintergelassen!

and how do i go two months without a post, you ask? keine Ahnung. i pretty much spent a lot of time studying, Nick came to visit and then i was back in the States for a month, not to mention a fifteen day trek through Europe not even two days after my return to Germany.

so, i only went out photographing once in January, but it was magical. enter: die Narrenzünfte. Carnival is popular all over Europe and similar in time and manner to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. although, things are different around the Black Forest. Narrenzunft translates into 'fool's guild' and these groups get together for parades in every town around Carnival time. what happens: they drink a bit and then put on wooden witch masks and terrorize the bystanders. include marching bands. i loved it.

[ein Schwob mit meinem Karneval, bitte]

it was like any other parade. the participants throw candy at the crowd and whatnot. BUT, there is the risk from not knowing if it's a good witch or a bad witch. sometimes you get goodies, sometimes you get a faceful of confetti before your reward. personally, i think it's a wonderful mix of fun without too much glam.

[Tübinger Teufel]

reminded me much of Halloween when working at Sheetz. people are definitely different when in costume. for a college town where it is just an excuse for girls to dress like sluts, it usually means that people are overly obnoxious, but here, with masks, the barrier made the mischief less personal. blah blah blah. artistic discussion about the aesthetic symbolism of masks. puh, i saw it as people coming to an event for the sake of a fun time.

needless to say, it was a nice break from the books. it had snowed the night before and the streets were a bit icy. i stood at my favourite corner and got to look out over the square when things really got hopping. at the beginning, some kids were throwing fake snow out their window and down on the crowd, but the real snow later was icing on the cake. i think this picture captures it all.

[der Holzmarkt vor der Stiftskirche]

die Ferien bei Familie

9am Christmas Day: wach und bereit. Eva's mom was the only one awake and we sat in the kitchen having a nice catch-up chat over Irish tea and milk. i must have woken Eva up when i crawled out of bed, because she joined us shortly after. tell me this not the best smile to see on a Christmas morning!

[Eva früh an Weihnachten]

the McElligott lowdown: Jim is a first generation American-born Irish that went to Ireland to study and met Jacinta. they eventually made their way back to the States and had seven kids. Eva's the true middle child, and will always be my favourite. =) we met in high school and would regularly visit each other in undergrad; especially after her parents moved back to Ireland with the youngest two, Keith and Liah. her unique blend of smarts, fun and hard work with heavily seasoned wit has been close to my heart for over a decade now.

[St. Stephen's Green]

on Boxing Day we headed into Dublin to make use of newly acquired TopShop giftcards. unfortunately, we found that Trinity would be closed until the day i was scheduled to leave. no Book of Kells for me. =(

the next couple days, it just kept snowing. we attempted driving, but after a few miles of sliding all over the road, we opted to go back home and walk to the Vartry. that in itself was still a tough task and because of all the ice, we took about three times as long to walk just 100m.

[Jimmy, Keith and Eva gegen 4 od. 5h]

i think my average bedtime in Ireland was 6am. i didn't even sleep in as much as the others! for all the nights we were stuck in the house, there was plenty of beer to entertain ourselves. just as the mood would get mellow in the wee hours, the guitars would come out and we would be up for a few more hours singing and drinking. then someone would suggest a fry and we would be eating breakfast at the normal time and THEN going to bed.

New Year's was a blast. we had an epic snow fight with at least three generations of McElligotts. wish i had my camera, but i got to be neck deep in the mayhem. the house had six sizable bedrooms, but there were still no free sofas, chairs or warm spots by the fire! Eva and i walked with Deirdre and her mom, Geraldine, back to their house for beds and blankets. somehow we missed the boys coming later (we got there around 4 or 5am) and could not stir Kevin in the morning to catch a ride back to Roundwood. can't blame him, though. he hadn't had an actual bed for over a week at that point.

[Glendalough]

eventually, i said 'screw the snow' and planned to go to Sally Gap. everyone was down for it the day before, but no one woke up the next day. Kevin (the next younger than Eva) took Celtic out for a walk with me around Roundwood, trying to give the others time to crawl out of bed. still not a soul. the roads were still bad as well, so no Sally Gap, but at Glendalough we had a nice four hour chat as we walked and i took photos. towards the end, it started snowing hard again, so we turned to get back to a pub and have a few beers. Eva's dad came to pick us up, one more round and then we were back home.

[typische Sammelung von Mäntel und Schuhe, mit der Katze Fae]

back to the recurring theme about 'home,' the McElligotts are the alter ego of my family and i love them for it. i wouldn't be complete without them. wish i was better showing that in my photos. much much thanks for sharing everything with me, then a holla to Mom and Dad: glad you find the 'holidays' as insignificant as i do, and i will see you soon. XOXO to everyone and Happy New Year!

Interludium vor Irland

continuation: more ICE action. puh, trains rides are nothing after last night. =) i was fairly early for the flight, possibly out of fear that i would attract more abnormal happenings. it crosses my mind for a split second, what it would be like in Ireland speaking English with family. again, a dash of fear.

as i wait to get my boarding pass, there are several English speaking people conversing around me. i clam up and make no effort to talk. we are waiting in line and an Irish man behind me is very agitated and is bitching about a woman in front Chatty Cathy-ing her bullshit all over the poor attendant. she is quite hideous; an older woman (and not with a good body) wearing a 20something's clothes. that in itself was bad enough that i shied away from the negative attitude of the Irish man. after a few minutes i feel like a complete zombie from the mixture of lack-of-sleep, waiting in line and completely not being myself by being so silent around people i can actually talk to. fuck it. he's still ranting about her and fidgeting all over the place. i open my mouth. "as if she didn't LOOK bad enough already." insert a few awkward steps and then the basic introductions. welcome my new friend, Frank.

who's Chatty Cathy now? i was still pretty reserved. i had no idea what to think of all this. i enjoyed all the conversations i had on the road trip this summer, but in this moment, i had a lot of fear that i would be throwing away my German experience and going back to old habits; just being the same person, with no personal development. fuck it. lose yourself in your typical blur of being interested in everything, Sabrina.

Frank had just moved into Frankfurt at the beginning of December. he was an older dude, so plenty of life experience, which i always love interacting with. there was really too much to remember, as the conversation bounced around like a ferret on crack. i threw in my two cents here and there, but just went with his flow for the most part.

i was hoping to get a Döner or something, but that's typical of a train station, not an airport, and the only thing open by our gate was Burger King and the line was around the corner. still, we found a table to sit at and Frank offered me a ham sandwich that he was not going to eat. perfect. the only thing missing was a beer to help me cope with shock of so much English.

an hour or so later, i give him a business card and we go about our separate ways on the plane. omg, so... much... English! i clung on to snippets of German i could manage to hear, but to no avail. somewhere in the ride, i started talking to a military man and an Irish dude about my age. i think that somewhere in the mess i was missing hearing my parents and their Army talk, while at the same time wondering when Jonathen was getting back from Iraq and when Martin was going and if my dad would really catch a cargo flight over and why my mom never hinted at doing the same, etc.

somewhere in the middle of our conversation, a flight attendant comes up and asks me if i have a friend on the front row. what the fuck do i say? "uh, yeah, uh, i know someone in first class?" the attendant had a funny look on his face as he hands me a bottle of champagne with a plastic cup and a scrap of paper with a note scribbled on it. the dudes get funny looks on their faces and then (sure that the surprise on my face is the funniest of them all) i chuckle, stick the note in my pocket and open the bottle.

why the hell do i sometimes feel that i am a normal, boring person?

the military man and the Irish dude were fun. for the umpteenth millionth time i have to explain my family in Ireland in relation to me and Eva going to high school together and me studying abroad. it's like a taped recording by now, but at least the Irish dude knew exactly where Roundwood is and was tickled that i was going there. there was an announcement that the plane was about to land. i was given half the leftovers of a strong cider/whiskey mixture. we toasted to Christmas Eve and then went through the mess of lines in Customs.

needless to say, i had a bit of buzz. i grew anxious waiting for Eva since it was my first time in a while relying on other people. no worries. she and Liah showed up big grins and many hugs. oh my, sometimes i forget that Liah was only 5 years old when i first met her and now her driver's license is in the mail! i recapped my insanely long day and the randomness of the plane ride and Eva just smiled and said, "We're meeting the family at a pub."

insert a blur of neverending introductions similar to being an exchange student in Germany. wow. me and Deirdre were so excited about finally seeing each other in person. it was delightful to see Sarah Louise again. Kevin was his same drunken self. Keith, oh dear. the pub was packed. i have no idea how many pints of Guinness i drank. father/son clash on the car ride home. memories of the house on the river, bonfires, Jacinta's cooking, a herd of golden retrievers, late night singing, four people to a bed... what a wonderful end to a crazy day. after 45 minutes into the country, i plopped myself into bed and passed the fuck out!

Kuckuck aus Köln

i have a habit of always saying 'Köln' instead of 'Cologne' and often forget that my English-speaking friends probably don't know what city i'm referring to. what can i say? es passiert.

Köln is quite amazing. my host Sigfried was quite nice, straight up tour guide with his description of the city. and, D was quite right about how you walk out of the train station directly in front of the cathedral. i arrived in the evening and promptly went through all of Sigfried's books to plan the next day.

i could have been sharper the next morning and noticed when all the people with luggage got off the Straßenbahn. oops. turned out okay, though. got off at the first stop on the other side of the river and walking across the bridge was my first experience of the day.

nobody told me about the padlocks! i mean, i've seen a few here and there, but never to this magnitude. apparently i never got the memo and it's quite common. made for some neat photos, for sure. i also enjoyed seeing the tracks from the former site of the Hohenzollern bridge. Köln was pretty heavily damaged in WWII, zB: the part of the cathedral that got replaced.

again, influx of history overwhelms my brain and i love every bit of it. now throw in a museum of Roman artifacts, the scandals of Agrippa and tile mosaics in their original place. oh my. the Römisch-Germanisches Museum was laid out VERY nicely. remember me complaining about the lighting at that museum in Straßbourg? this place was the exact opposite. the volume of the sculptures was perfectly defined, right down to tiny figurines, and just the atmosphere of the room with all the jewelry was amazing. oooh, i still get chills.

now sadly enough, that was the extent of my touristy ventures in Köln. so, i broke the heel of my boot shortly thereafter. i walked around the downtown area looking to buy a new pair of shoes. of course everything is super expensive and i was in no mood to spend money on something i'm not particularly fond of. i give up. i remember Garry walking around for several hours with wet sneakers and decide that i can deal with missing an inch or so on one leg. i walked to a couple more churches, but i had wasted a lot of daylight in the futile attempt at shoe shopping and they were all closed. just keep taking photos, baby. i go back to Sigfried's apartment hoping maybe he could point me in the direction of a Kaufland od. etwas. he was not home. i waited an hour and some, thought about places to go the next day and edited some photos. still not home. with enough time to myself, i thought: "why the fuck not go back to Tübingen? you have your hiking boots, which would have been the better choice anyway. dumb Sabrina. oh well, no going back on that one. it's kind of late. hm. do i leave a note for Sig? omg, how do i explain this auf Deutsch? fuck it, just go. i can write it in English. shit, i can't even explain it in English without it seeming completely odd. dude, it was your ONLY pair of shoes for Ireland. you have the time. okay, wtf just go. you are really weird, you know."

so, i lock the keys in the apartment and try to formulate a voicemail for Sigfried. it sounds horrible. oh well. i hop on the ICE to Stuttgart. my arrival overlapped THE last train to Tübingen by two minutes. two minutes! i am officially stuck in Stuttgart for five hours. oh well, shit happens. i know i'm crazy enough to handle a layover. but, it was pretty damn cold. i paid 50cents to use the bathroom in the train station because it was 2am and everything was closed. i sat on the toilet for a good 15minutes (because every place for sitting in the station was taken by other people) before i decided to battle my crazy thoughts with more craziness. there are night trains and what not. i was going to just ride the trains all night. i had a fucking railpass, why not fucking use it? it is only a few hours. trains are warm. i could sleep a bit if i wanted AND i don't have to pay to use the bathroom.

and so, i bought a coffee, sat on the floor, then got on the next train to München. i planned it out that i would make it back to Tü just in time for the first run of 22 back to my dorm. it was definitely a little surreal. oh well, not good to spend too much time re-living experiences. might as well make the most of the choices i made.

the apartment was clean, other than the typical Oliver dishes. i fixed some food, reorganized my things, enjoyed the view from the kitchen a little longer and then headed back to the Hbf. please note that the story continues directly to Ireland.

M-M-M-Maastricht

stop #3: Maastricht. since i was in the area, i was interested in seeing the city where a friend had studied the year before. shout out to Kristin and many apologies to D for not making it to Njimegen yet. though, i swear that i saw your friend Florian on the train between Heidelberg and Saarbrücken.

my host was awesome; older hippie dude studying neuroscience in the medical school. wow Kristin, didn't know what a big medical school they had there! Phil took me on a quick tour, we ate some fries at the Marktplatz and had a cup of coffee, and then some beer. and then some more. originally he was from Belgium, so my sampler from Brussels kept going.

eine schöne Stadt, stimmt. more Weihnachtsmarkt action. didn't feel like toting around more Glühwein mugs, though. i definitely enjoyed the idea of sharing some of the landmarks with Deanna and Kristen. it was almost as if i was visiting the actual people. well, i suppose i was at least visiting a memory of theirs. =)

my favourite spot was a cathedral turned into... a BOOKSTORE!! mmm, i've been reading a bit more since i arrived in Europe. something about the train rides and books. perfect match. reminds me of all the long car rides as a kid. in turn, also makes me miss my road trips. soon enough. i'll take the trains while i have them. can't wait to try a night train!

Phil was a great guy to talk with. he cooks like me, just throwing things together. i showed him how easy it was to make Glühwein and we had dinner on his kitchen floor. it is definitely a lot different when couchsurfing. i enjoy the company, but often get distracted from the city that i'm visiting. six and a half doz the other, though. i'm glad to get both in the same package!