Germany: The Arrival, May 9

Despite the drama of my departure, my arrival to Frankfurt was quite the opposite. The flight was fairly smooth and there were no major debacles. I couldn't sleep, probably because a two-year-old cried for most of the flight and his mother felt it necessary to rock him right near me. In any case, we actually arrived early. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and everything felt amazing.

I zipped through customs. I love customs, by the way. Since this was only my second ever trip outside America, I looked forward to the passport stamp, and of course, I loved the 3.8 seconds it took the nice German to actually stamp my passport.

Waiting for my luggage took a while longer, which gave me ample time to observe some of the German passengers waiting for their bags. The Germans love, seriously LOVE, those carts to drag all of their luggage in one haul. Seriously, almost every German had a cart. Weird.

Anyway, I grabbed my bag and found Brandon patiently waiting for my arrival.

As I mentioned, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful morning in Germany. Sitting in Brandon's twenty-year-old BMW with dark green exterior and black leather interior, it became immediately evident that the sun was beating directly on my face, and it was hot. If only the air conditioning worked...

The drive back to Brandon's place was a little over an hour, via the autobahn where, of course, there is no speed limit. Thankfully, the Germans are pretty good drivers and the truckers didn't seem to be obnoxious like they are sometimes here in the states.

I used this time to take in the German countryside. Tiny red-roof towns, more like villages really, dotted the splendidly green landscape for miles. It was so picture-esque to see each little town with its church steeple jutting from the center. Each town could be deemed "the middle of nowhere" but it was so beautiful to imagine life in such a tiny place.

We arrived at Brandon's to give him time to change for work, and I spent the afternoon experiencing his work life at Conn Barracks. I met many of Brandon's friends and coworkers, each of whom had some colorfully wonderful story about Brandon or work. It was quite enjoyable.

Feeling some serious jet lag at this point in the day, Brandon was so kind to allow me a one-hour power nap before a delicious dinner with his friends in Wurzburg (more on the city later).


Dinner consisted of an amazing piece of pork (clearly!) with an almond crust and some tri-tater like potatoes, coupled with an excellent bottle of white wine. This, of course, led to a lengthy night of carousing at a local bar, where I was forced to sample warm beer for a multitude of hours. I also impressed some female German with my knowledge of American politics and my outlook on life. She apparently thought I was a genius American because I wasn't her redneck family members who were raised in the sticks in Tennessee. Bonus for not being a stupid American!





The bar played a multitude of American hits, including songs like "Summer of '69", which the Germans seemed to love. The walls were also dawned with American redneck paraphernalia, which you may be able to see behind Brandon in this photo. Yes, it's a John Deere tractor.

The night ended with a pretty serious argument between one of Brandon's friends and some German guy. The hookah couldn't stop the battle being waged about world knowledge, politics, and history... honestly, I don't even know what really happened. It was nearing 4am and I was utterly exhausted.