Deutschland

Hi Everybody,

Elizabeth and I are keeping ourselves exceptionally busy this fall and winter. Two weeks ago we were in Berlin. Still to go in 2016 we have Rothenberg, Strasbourg, Athens, and Kentucky. And we just returned from an adventure in Budapest. I say “just” returned because we arrived home at 2:00am, only a handful of hours ago. After a shower and cat poop cleaning, I got what sleep I could and even managed a productive day at work.

I’m running on fumes at the moment, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see how detailed (and coherent) this post will be today. Let’s start at the beginning…

Mid last week, Elizabeth bullied a coworker of mine into watching Ozzie and Riker during our trip. Or, you know, something nicer-sounding than “bullied.” Sarah stopped by the apartment late on Thursday. She met the boys – who love her – and picked up our spare keys. Sarah was a god-send. We hadn’t found anyone else to look after the boys. Luckily, Sarah recommended for the future a local group of pet-sitters (like Craigslist, I guess), which should help us a lot in the coming months.

I left work at lunch on Friday in order to catch the train to the airport. And to pack. And to go to the grocery (Elizabeth wanted to sample new cereals. She was so excited that she couldn’t wait until we got home). I had practically four hours to kill, actually, which was perfect. After triple-checking the apartment, Elizabeth and I took a leisurely stroll to the train station, and… our train was cancelled. That happens sometimes. It was still the early afternoon, which meant that trains came every 30 minutes, thank goodness. Even so, if Elizabeth hadn’t padded our schedule, we might’ve missed our flight right then and there.

Chug-a-chug-a-chug. We arrived at the airport with very little wiggle room, timewise. We fought our way through security, throwing elbows and pinching babies, and… our plane was delayed. Germanwings(Eurowings), you bastard. We’ve come to expect delays with them. Warning: if you ever plan a layover between two Germanwings flights, go ahead and review the surrounding hotels at the same time. Our delay this time wasn’t bad – maybe 25 minutes. Smart-E (smart Elizabeth. Get it?) pre-booked/prepaid a taxi from the Budapest airport, telling them to pick us up when the flight arrived. Essentially, we were guaranteed a taxi no matter when our airplane decided to show up.




9:15pm or so we landed and found our taxi. The tiny man driver was the most talkative non-fluent person I’ve ever met. I am extremely jealous of people like that. He was well aware that he only had 200 words at his disposal, but that didn’t stop him from rattling them off over the 40-minute cab ride. Compared to my German - I know my German is better than this guy’s English, yet somehow he spoke more English to us in 40 minutes than I’ve spoken German in the past year.

However, no matter how much I admired and respected him, don’t worry: there’s zero chance that I’ll personally learn a lesson or anything. I won’t be speaking to anyone at work any time soon. My vow of silence will prevail.

10:00pm we arrive at the AirBnB. We were exhausted, cold, and smelly. But sleep would have to wait. Our AirBnB host was STAYING WITH US and happened to be SUPER TALKATIVE. Her English is excellent, for the record. During our three night stay, we saw her every evening and every morning (she made breakfast). If I may, I’d like to share some of the more entertaining tidbits. But first, a disclaimer: she is extremely nice and appears to be a fantastic single mother (her 11 year old son stayed with us, too). However, due to an unbelievably difficult decade, she’s grown a little… bonkers.

You know what – never mind. Text cannot do our conversations justice. Seriously, how am I to accurately reproduce the hour-long introduction to her fish? Sure, the conversation began with the understandable difficulties of obtaining and installing a 400 liter fish tank in a kitchen wall and the sexism of the fish market, but it quickly devolved into something much more… Sopranos. Quick summary – her first set of fish were amazing. There was a kingpin who knocked up all of the ladies and cleaned around the tank. He maintained a peace amongst the fish, big and small. Then along came the “gay one” (according to her, 25% of fish are gay). Mr. Gay Fish rallied the other fish against kingpin. They assassinated kingpin, GF assumed power, and then all hell broke loose: non-impregnated ladies, fights, whathaveyou. My words cannot convey the gravity of the tale, so I will cut it off here. Suffice it to say, GF received a sailor’s farewell.

What else? Well, Elizabeth and I could tell you minute details about every surgery and procedure, medical and dental, she had ever undergone. That includes the C-section. None of it needs to be repeated here.

Oh, and her dead cat? Yeah, that was stuffed and sitting in her living room.

Where was I? Budapest! On Saturday, we began with packet pickup. It was five minutes from the AirBnB (thank you, Liz), right at the marathon starting line. Hero’s Square. It was spectacular. Directly behind it was a beautiful castle, surrounded by an active festival (completely independent from the marathon).




Next we proceeded to the two-hour lunch buffet river tour – the most fantastic way to see a city and simultaneously overeat. Elizabeth must really love me. Then we spent the next six or seven hours exploring Buda (the west side of the river) statues and palaces. Of the gazillion statues in Budapest, Elizabeth mapped out a route to walk to all of her favorites. Naturally, Liz’s eyes were bigger than her feet. In the end, it was my task to drag Liz’s tired butt through the woods after her feet and enthusiasm wore down. It didn’t help that I was in a hurry to hop in bed… I had a marathon in the morning!




I’m sorry to say that we kinda spoiled dinner with our big lunch and exhaustion. Instead of something authentic, for dinner we grabbed some street pizza. It was still good.

Marathon day! In case you have wondered: I didn’t run whatsoever after the Berlin marathon. I used the two weeks for complete rest and recovery. Anyway… Sunday. Elizabeth walked me the quick five minutes to the starting line to the super late marathon start (9:30am), after which, I can only assume, Liz took a four-hour nap. The race, in short, was wonderful. It was well-staffed, with tons of support and not too many runners. I’m glad to have added it to my collection.

After the race, Elizabeth and I picked up some festival food before hurrying off to bed. She wasn’t feeling great, and so we both were in dire need of a nap. In the evening, we hit the town again, visited a handful more statues, and then ate a great Hungarian dinner. For easiness sake, let’s call it Terv Bistro.




Neither Elizabeth nor I were feeling much better on Monday. But we fought off our inner demons and waddled to Margaret Island. The island has some neat gardens and ruins. But no food, apparently. Not this time of year, anyway. Once we were good and starving, we rode the tram back into downtown and ate the biggest burritos we could find. Again – not exactly authentic, but who cares.

That evening we took another long taxi ride (not nearly as entertaining as the first) back to the airport. Oh my goodness… our Germanwings flight was delayed? No one could have ever seen something like that coming! The flight was so delayed that they wouldn’t commit to a gate for two more hours. I ate pizza. Liz groaned from her upset stomach. And we both feared the absolute worst… missing the last train out of Stuttgart.

We didn’t miss it, thank goodness. We caught the 00:36 from Stuttgart, We arrived home at 01:30. Though, it makes you think. What will we do on the day we DO miss that last train?

The fish drama is hilarious. I pictured the two of you when she told you that in great detail. :D