Tschüss, Germany!

We are now safely in Paris, dealing with even stranger keyboards at the internet cafés... I pretty much have to relearn to type in every country that I'm in.

But today, I will be writing about my experiences in Germany, where we were in Frankfurt and then Heidelberg for one day, so here goes.

Lessons learned in Germany:

• Anyone who speaks English is your new best friend.
• Walk in packs when you live in the red light district. For example, the door to the right of our hostel was the entrance to "The World of Sex."
• If you come from anywhere in the Midwest, never try to eat corn anywhere else. I ordered some corn on the cob in Frankfurt, and I swear it was canned corn on the cob. Not good.
• Expect to walk A LOT. When you decide to walk across a town, remember that the map is much smaller than the town.
• No matter how friendly they are, don't pick up strangers and invite them to walk down the street with you. With our experience, we were walking in a group at night in the red light district, and a guy from New Zealand started talking and walking with us. Turns out, he was drunk and just wanted to fight any and everyone, so when a car stopped at a stoplight and he opened the door and tried to get in and punch them, we ran.
• In German restaurants, you share tables with strangers. It seats more people and is a great way to meet new people.
• When sharing a hostel room with 6 boys, at any one time during the day, one of them is either: drunk, sleeping, passing gas, snoring, grunting, or otherwise. Prepare yourself.
• Euros (€) remind us of Monopoly money. The trick is not to spend it like Monopoly money.
• Germans eat lots of meat. If you don't like meat, bring snacks from home.
• It will be colder than you expect. Either prepare to wear the same clothes for days on end, or pack for any type of weather. I chose the former.
• Cars are small and usually park on sidewalks.
• There is a bike lane on lots of the sidewalks. Watch out if you are a pedestrian!
• Germans drink beer at all meals.
• Even drugged out, drunken people can have the cutest kids.
• Socks are overrated, especially when you only brought 2 pairs.
• Germany is very clean.

And here are some German words that I learned:
schloss- castle
tschüss- bye
Hauptbahnhof- main train station
bitte- please
bitteshön- you're welcome
Kaiser- king
Stasse- steet
danke- thank you
auf wiedersehen- goodbye, until we meet again
Brot- bread
Wasser- water
Bier- beer
Apfel- apple
Haus- house
Berg- hill/mountain
Deutsch- German
Bretzel- pretzel
hallo- hello
Schnitzel- fried veal or pork cutlet
Toiletten- bathroom
Was ist das?- What is that?
gut- good
ja- yes
nein- no
Strudel- pastry
guten Tag- good day

Expect another post in a few days about my experiences in Paris. Tomorrow we go to Madrid, and celebrate my 21st birthday! Whoo!

Much love from Europe!