Rail Adventures

I LOVE trains! At least, I love the trains in Germany, and I am sure I would in the rest of Europe! It is such a great hassle-free way to travel. I bought my ticket, got on, rode for around 3 hours, got off and was at my hotel.

They have comfortable seating, are super fast (like 180 mph/300 km fast) and offer door-to-door service, or close to it. A few things you might need to watch out for are reserved seats and the kids-free section, if you do not want to be attacked by 4 year old twin boys, who could have been extras in Children of the Corn….

So, you can reserve seats on the train. You do not know this until the person who reserved the seat arrives and pretty much kicks you out. How lovely?!?! And to make matters worse, I was so flustered by the situation that the guy had to speak to me in English so I could understand.

I ended up moving further down in the car and was in a row by myself, the whole time worried someone else would come and try to claim my/their seat. Anyway, no one did, but the terror twins. These kids ran all over the car and occasionally into the car behind us. Side Note: The high-speed ICE trains in Germany have glass, electronic doors, like a store, that connect the cars together. You do not to manually open the doors to walk between like you do on a subway. So, the terror twins would then wrestle all over the car and occasionally into the empty seat next to me. What did their mother do? Nothing! Augh!

With 4 Weeks to Go, I Am All Things...

As I woke up this morning I realized that four weeks from now, I will be in Germany…AMAZING! This is making me, all things about this trip.
I am excited! I have never gone on a vacation this long before. I have never left the continent before.
I am scared! Besides my visits to Montréal and day trip to Tijuana, I have never been somewhere where English is not the primary language spoken.
I am worried! I am trying not to read the weather reports about the blizzard that is attacking the Northeast. I cannot have bad weather that delays my flights or interferes with my touring. I do not want to leave my mom…..
I am overwhelmed! I have a laundry list of items to take care of at work and at home and for general and specific preparation for my journey.
I am trying not to annoy everyone around me, with my constant talk of Europe!
As I mentioned earlier, I AM EXCITED!!!!!!!

Wortschatz Panik

I have been struggling with the best way for me to refresh my German language skills, since I booked my air travel. Today, on my way to work, I went into somewhat of a panic.... I was listening to my favorite morning radio station, Q100's The Bert Show and I realized that most of the simple sentences they were saying I could not translate into German. How am I supposed to survive if I cannot translate a simple sentence?!?!?! I began to breath and really listen to what they said and was able to do a few words at first, then I was able to work on a couple of sentences. If I just take that approach to my standard vocabulary (Wortschatz) and translate my most common words, then my most common phrases, then my not-so-common words and then my not-so-common phrases, I should have a pretty decent Wortschatz in six months (im sechs Monaten)!! Viel Glück zu mir!