So, I'm sure most of you by now know that I did not make it to London. In my rush to catch the train to Bamberg Friday night, I left my gigantic suitecase with Sören and Suzanne with the promise of getting it soon. I arrived in Bamberg, had a pleasant evening, slept fairly well, woke up, and as I tried to print out my flight itinerary, realized that my passport was in the gigantic suitecase back in Berlin. I would not be allowed to fly out of the country. We also realized that I had actually missed my train too, because the actual ticket said, "From Bamberg to Frankfurt" but the time said, "Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof 10:28" (actually said "Nrnbrg Hpbf"). That's about 2 hours from Bamberg. I was supposed to catch the Bamberg train at 8:30ish. I still could have made it to the airport in time, but I'd have been crunched. I was so upset with myself. How could I have forgotten the most important thing when traveling. So stupid of me. So I'm going back to Berlin either Tuesday or Wednesday to pick up the suitecase again. I have to send an email to Suzanne.
So this means, no London, no Ireland, and most importantly, severely less time with my Denise and Melissa. *sob* But at least they're still coming here to Bamberg for a short visit, so I can at least see them for a bit.
And even though I've managed to have my travel plans ruined YET AGAIN, I think it still is a good thing. For one, I can relax and not worry about catching planes, trains, and buses, or rush around like a maniac trying to pack a million things into my days. I'm safely with Kat in her little apartment located above her family's little house. They're severely kind to me. Her mom doesn't know any English, which is especially good for my German. I ate an amazingly delicious dinner with them last night and they took me out for lunch today. Last night Kat and I went to meet up with Dr. Cagle and Hannes and Lindsay Miller for some drinks. I tried "Rauchbier" (smoked beer), which is positively AMAZING. It's like drinking hickory smoked bacon...which for most people I feel wouldn't sound very good at all, but it severely is. It made me think back to my childhood at my MomMom's house. Maybe also the jäger atmosphere of the little pub that was decorated similarly to hers added to the remeniscence. *shrugs* I thoroughly enjoyed it, nonetheless. Dr. Cagle warned me at first that it would take more than one to really get the taste and actually enjoy it, but I was hooked after the second sip. And I think it was purely because of the atmosphere and the remeniscence. It is THE smoked beer of Bamberg and it's called Schlenkeler. The story is quite amusing, Hannes told us it last night:
There was this guy in the town who would limp or swing ("schlenkern") around everywhere, but was always in the pub where the smoked beer came from. Because of his limp, they called him the "Schlenkerla". When they decided to give the beer a name, no one could come up with anything. Then he walked in and they all decided instantly that it would be called Schlenkerla. haha. Also drinking a lot of this stuff just makes you swing when you walk, apparently. hahaha.
haha, a bit of an interruption to say, Melissa, I'm thinking about you THIS SECOND because the song that says "music is my girlfriend" came on and Kat and I both giggled for about 10 seconds.
Anywho, today Kat and her parents and I met up with Dr. Cagle again to see Altenburg, this beautiful castle atop one of the hills. I guess it's more of a fortress. But there's a 33m tower that they used for fire signals to the other hills when enemies were coming or if something was happening. It was really cool. Melissa and Denise, we're making you guys come see it. Bamberg is located on 7 little hills, so it also has the nickname "Little Rome". It also has a little area on the river called "Little Venice"and is the residence of the Archbishop of Baveria, I think. Kat's not sure how the areas are split up. AND it the only place north of the Alps where a pope has been burried, Pope Clemence II. Bamberg is also severely Catholic. lol. There are churches everywhere, and there are even statues and sculptures of saints. There's a funny story that the Archbishop didn't want a political mayor or anything set up to compete with his control, so he made some law that no political buildings could be built in his city, so the sneaky things that politicians are built it on the river, which belongs to no one. haha. Amusing.
Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Dr. Cagle again, only this time it's to also meet the new exchange students from Bamberg! So I'll have a head start on getting to know them. Yay! ^_^
Tuesday I'm hoping I can get back to Berlin to get my suite case and my PASSPORT. *sigh* So now I send an email off to Suzanne and then maybe I can get to putting up some pictures from Berlin and work my way up to Bamberg. But probably not...probably only getting through a weekend or something. I had almost 500 pictures from our last week, from Stammtisch to the Balkan konzert to the zoo to the party. woops! haha. The blog is reserved only for the good pictures, so don't worry, there won't be any insane amount of pictures. I'm going to open a flicker account I think for ALL my pictures, if anyone wants to see all of the stupid little ones, too. haha.
AND I got a super awesome wonderful surprise today when I went to help Eric with his plane tickets to Germany: he's coming to see me here in Bamberg and not in Berlin!!!! Yay! I really was thinking about how much he'd really enjoy Bamberg more than Berlin, too!
Alright, wells, I guess I'll get to emailing Sören and Suzanne. *sigh* Tscüss, or as they say in south Germany, "Ade" or "Servus".
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