It was great having my sister Lisa in town for ten days. I was so happy to be the first one to giver her a very brief (we barely skimmed the top) of Europe. I picked her up at the Munich airport on Dec 29th in the morning. The day was particularly beautiful as there were frost covered fields and tree tops. It must have been all the praying for snow I had been doing prior to her arrival. She specifically told me that if we did nothing else, snowboarding would be it. Since the weather has been so abnormally warm in the Alps this season and last, I had to do a lot of channeling to the snow gods.
The morning she arrived looked good. It was even colder than usual so there was promise in the air.
At the Airport
She stepped out of the luggage claim the moment I arrived, looking much more rested than I would have imagined after two weeks of jumping flights between work in Missouri, snowboarding Washington a week in Hawaii and a grueling long flights from Washington via Atlanta to Munich. It was her sincere smile, I noticed first and after a hug we went on search for the car.
Before heading back to Garmisch, we decided to stop in Munich for some coffee and tea. I turned out to be much longer of a stop than I had intended but worked out for the best because the weather was extremely favorable which helped to show off the beauty of Munich even more. We found our way to an open air farmers market where we stopped at a small bakery for some much needed pastries and coffee/tea. After a bit of walking around the main platz, we decided to head south bound to Garmisch. The drive from Munich to Garmisch is usually one hour which gave us some time to catch up on the basics.
Munich to Garmisch
Lisa has an amazing job that can only be described as the kind of job that most people only dream about. I say this because she is working in the field that she loves, which is nutrition, has only one boss whom she admires, and is working for a cause that is beneficial to the cutting edge of the health care field. To top it off, she basically makes her own hours which allow her ample time for the things she loves including snowboarding, traveling and her sailboat. This must have been the smile I noticed when she got off of the plane.
Just before arriving in Garmisch we were graced with the biggest traffic jam known in the history of the small ski resort/farming town that I live in. At first I automatically blamed Lisa for bringing the Seattle 520 freeway traffic with her, but it turned out to be something else. New Years and the Olympic ski jumping competition happened to be around the corner which is always a big draw for tourists, hence causing the traffic. I immediately felt blessed that traffic was an oddity in my life and not a ritual as it used to be.
Home to Garmisch
We finally made it home and I was super excited to show her to her room that I had “made” for her. It was perfect because I had been looking for a reason to transform our second bedroom, which had been until now a storage room, into a cute guest room. She was happy, I was happy so we moved onto lunch and beer.
I had to go to work after that so Lisa vowed to try her best to stay awake until a reasonable hour to combat her jet lag. The best part was, not five minutes after I left her alone to get ready for work, she was out like a light. I woke her up before I left and she said she would try harder.
That night after work, we went for a walk around Garmisch and stopped at a local pub for a jar and then called it a night.
First day of the season on the mountain
The next morning we got up fairly early and decided to head up the mountain. Lisa and Ben had a great time but the snow was not ideal. I, on the other hand, had a really rough time and almost decided that I would return my ski pass and give up the ridiculous sport that I felt I would NEVER be good at. Sweet as my boyfriend and sister are, they comforted me and told me that whatever decision I made was fine, as long as I didn’t spend my day unhappy like I was then.
Lisa also advised me that either I make the decision to quit or understand that every day will be tough until it clicks, but in order for that to happen, I can’t quit. I decided to stick with it even thought I felt like a fish trying to wear a pair of ice skates, and later felt good that I did.
New Years Eve
The next day was New Years Eve. We went to the gym and then while I went to work, Lisa was able to come to the hotel and do a bit of work on the computer. She then had dinner at my restaurant and then after closing we headed down to the Marienplatz (the center of town) with some Champaign and a few of my friends. As we walked from my house to the center of town, it began to snow heavily and the sound of European electronic music and fireworks filled the air. It is the one time of the year, Germans are allowed fireworks and they don’t spare any expense in buying them. The best (or scariest) part about it is the fact that they light them off in the streets, shooting them in all directions. Those passing by are lucky if they don’t get hit and we were not an exception as we dodged them by ducking and swerving. As we approached the center, it became a strange mix between something looking like a rave and a war zone. The air became so thick with snow, firework smoke, music and laughter that it was about thirty seconds after midnight until we notices and then we all hugged and said happy New Year. The snow continued and we stayed outside until we were too cold to be there anymore.
The next morning Lisa and I woke up early and decided to go up to the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain and only ski-able glacier in Germany, just outside my front door. One’s options for ascending almost 3,000 meters to the top are two fold. One can take a smooth train ride that gradually makes its way up the mountain for about 45 minutes or the seilbahn (the cable car) which looks like its hanging by a thread whilst swinging through the Alpine air above jagged cliffs, packed with 40 people standing face to face and takes 10 minutes. Naturally, (after some whining from me) we took the seilbahn.
At the top, we were breathless at the beauty surrounding us. Heaven, is the only word, I can use to accurately describe the feeling of being above the clouds, under the bluest of skies and eye level with an endless sea of mountain peaks and fresh snow. We immediately strapped on our boards and indulged in winter playground at our fingertips. The entire day was perfect and it whole heartedly reminded me why I bought my pass in the first place as well as returned my faith in my ability to snowboard.
The following morning Lisa and I headed to the coffee shop on base to do some research on traveling for a few days. We weren’t exactly sure how much time I had off so I called my manager to find out. I was expecting maybe two, three days off but he gave me an entire week!
We rented a car, booked a hotel on the military base in Vincenza, Italy and after Lisa finally got her Wiener (sausage) and gluwein (hot mulled wine) we hit the road.
We first stopped in one of my favorite towns within an hour of Garmisch, Innsbruck, Austria. Lisa had mentioned earlier that she would like to try ice skating, as she never had before, and I had seen a rink set up outside in one of my previous trips to Innsbruck. So, we stopped and Lisa had her very first ice skating experience. The rink was small and not very slippery so she had an easy first time. We did a few laps to some very bad (but so good) eighties music and then felt satisfied with the experience and decided to move on.
We arrived in Vicenza fairly late, got some sleep and then got on the free shuttle (I love military benefits) to Venice.
Just as in my previous trip to Venice, we didn’t really have an agenda of things we wanted to see (or even a map)so we basically just ended up just letting ourselves get lost in the winding roads. We spent a bit of time ooohing and aaahing over the beautiful buildings and canals and then decided it was time for lunch.
Truthfully, I believe that it is s tough to go wrong in Italy when looking for food. However, im sure its possible to stumble into a tourist trap with high prices and low quality, now and again, as with any other place in the world.
Because we only had one afternoon in Venice we wanted to make sure that we found a great place to eat. As we passed one restaurant after the next we had a tough time deciding but we finally were semi lead into a place by a black cat who appeared at the doorstep of one restaurant. We took it as a good omen so we went inside. We were greeted by a smooth looking Italian with his collar popped and belt high enough to say, “yo, this is my joint and its worth it”. So we agreed to eat and were pleasantly surprised by the entire experience.
We started with some amazing wine, carpaccio, pasta and then a fish that he basically gutted and prepared with extreme delicacy, in front of us. We finished with a tiramisu that Lisa and I agree was the best we had ever eaten.
The rest of the afternoon we spent giggling down the side streets and taking photos.
Later that night we headed north for a five and a half hour drive through the mountains to Vienna, Austria. We both decided that it was a shame that we had to travel at night and miss the scenery along the way but it was the best way to save time for sight seeing during the day.
We arrived in Vienna around 2am, worried that we wouldn’t be able to get into our pension. However, a very friendly Eastern European let us in and showed us to our apartment. The accommodations were better than expected and we were sad when our host informed us that they were fully booked and that we couldn’t stay another night.
But we spent our five hours sleeping before we had to get up and check out the next day.
We found another pension even more centrally located and then headed off for some food.
Later that day we found ourselves at the Museum of Fine Arts. Being that it was so cold (colder than I’ve ever felt it in Garmisch even), we spent a few hours browsing Raphael's, Vermeers and Velasquez as well as Egyptian and Near Eastern jewelry and collectable. Tchotchki's (spelling?, think Office Space) as Lisa likes to call them.
Eventually I found myself tiring of the same religious scenes found over and over again, soI absorbed myself in the portraits of various 15th century royalty and scenes from past Vienna life. The building alone was worth the visit and I officially named it the most fabulous and glamorous place I had ever had a cup of tea.
As night fell we wandered through the main center of Vienna, stopping at Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s (I love saying that name) apartment. We then found an Irish pub for some Kilkenny beers, fish and chips and stew. I love Vienna.
We went back to our room and agreed that the cold weather had taken all of our energy. We were asleep by 9:00 being the party animals that we were.
The next morning we were sad to leave as we could have naturally spent a few more days examining its beauty. However, Lisa only had a few days left in Europe so we headed back to Garmisch.
When I looked at the map, I realized that Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia was only about 60k away so we decided to drive through. Most of the city was unimpressive save the Danube River and the Bratsilava Castle sitting atop a hill next to a weird space looking tower. Mostly we drove through littered streets and a multitude of billboards most likely overdone after the fall of communism in 1989. We eventually did find the old part of town, however, and it changed our view a bit. There we found cobbled streets and beautiful old buildings. The most interesting part of Central and Eastern Europe, I think, is the eclectic mix of classical, cultural architecture and communist block buildings. It stirs a combination of feelings making it hard to decide if you love or can't stand a city.
Lisa had expressed that she had wanted to experience one of the concentration camp memorial sites. While we didn’t have time to go to Dachau, there happened to be one in Austria on the way back home.
Mathausen, we would later find out, was built and established in 1938 by an overflow of prisoners from Dachau, Germany. I wont' post any photos due to their gruesome content, however, it is very interesting. The website will give you an overview as well as a confession of Franz Ziereis, commander of Mauthausen Concentration Camp.
The website alone is tough to look at and it was even tougher to visit
http://www.jewishgen.org/forgottencamps/Camps/MauthausenEng.html.
We spent at least two hours wandering, virtually alone, through the saddening walls of the camp. The tour lead by a listening device took us through the entire process of being at the camp as a prisoner. We started by the door where the prisoners would enter, then be stripped of their belongings (including all of their clothes) registered, shaved and humiliated. Men, women, jews, gays, blacks and anyone not supporting (or having the correct color of skin or eyes) were tortured, enslaved, starved, robbed of their spirit and then most were ultimately murdered in one way or another. The tour took us through the entire process.
As we stood in the gas chambers, holding containers, crematorium rooms and torture chambers alone, on this freezing winter’s day, the silence and sadness filled us deeply. While we shivered in our warm clothes we grieved for the men and women who were made to work in these conditions from sun up to sun down with little to nothing on their bodies.
We left feeling grateful for our lives and incredibly respectful towards all those who had suffered.
This being the second time at a concentration camp (and truthfully the last), it always baffles me that there people are still skeptical about the events that took place there. There are individuals who, for one, don’t even believe the holocaust happened and two, still have the idiotic Nazi beliefs.
The other sickening fact is that these types of genocidal events/ethnic cleansing are still taking place in parts of the world. From the Gaza to Darfur to recent past in Cambodia with Pol Pot (thanks for the info Lisa), the mentality that one religion or way of life is right and the other is entirely wrong and should be stopped, is what cultivates the same type of hate felt by Hitler and his Nazi regime.
And in addition, our own current government often, disturbingly, shows signs of the same type of tyranny when dealing in international affairs.
These are my thoughts as we drive home that night. However, I realize that dwelling on events that are entirely out of my control at that very moment, never do any good for my soul. It does, however, always light a fire within me that gets my thoughts moving towards being involved with positive change. There is so much to do, where do I start???
At home, we stop at one of my favorite restaurants with a hilarious name, Muke Fuck (pronounced Mookee Foook). The meaning has something to do with a type of decaffeinated coffee produced for children. It’s strange, I know, but has amazing food.
The next day is Sunday and the day before Lisa has to leave. We decide to take a trip to see the famed fairy tale castle, Neuschwanstein, of the crazy (but fabulous) King Ludwig II.
The best part about it for me, as I had been there before, was our tour guide. A sickly, frail but sweet young man, who had a striking resemblance to Igor, wobbled his way through the castle, mumbling a barely audible story. The only thing that was clear was his respect for the history and importance of the castle as he spent a great deal of the time shooing children away from the antiques. Had he not been talking and sneezing the entire time, he would have blended in quite nicely as one of the pale faced men on the Kings walls. Lisa and I had the blended feelings of hugging him, giving him soup and being as far away from him as possible to be assured to not catch whatever sickness the drafty castle had bestowed upon him.
We drove home later that afternoon, had dinner in the evening (Muke Fuck again) and turned in to wake up early and get Lisa to the airport the next morning.
We took the 6:30am train, dragging all of her bags including the rack of beer she stuffed into every nook and cranny possible in her suitcases.
The ride, as I was completely aware of, was long and tiring but we made it and got her to the gates in time.
I was sad to see her go but it was time. We hugged and the trip was over.
