Hello Germany 5/29/09

We got our bus tickets for the Euroline, which were a lot cheaper than flying. I think it came out to about 30 Euros a person, as opposed to 200 Euros a person. Now we have more money to spend on the rest of the trip!

Here's a funny story about the first time I got to use my German on the trip: As I was falling asleep, I unconsciously put my feet in the gap between the seat back and cushion of the seat in front of me (it was really hard to get comfortable). I guess they touched the butt of the girl who was sitting in front of me because she grabbed my foot (which jolted me awake), and said to her boyfriend, "Fusse!" That means feet in German.

I leaned forward and said, "Es tut mir leid," which is German for "sorry." She kind of just smiled and nodded, and I was too awake at this point to fall back asleep so I took a note of this in my journal. I was hoping that the first time I used my German would be a little more grand than this, but oh well.

I finally got to sleep a while later (after doing a few crosswords), and woke up two hours later when we stopped for our first pee break. I was pretty thirsty at this point because I left my water bottle in the hold under the bus, and I hadn't drank water since we left for the metro station in Paris. Not smart. Anyway, the picture at the top was taken at the rest stop. It amused me.

Right now, we're two hours from Stuttgart, and I can tell that I'm really going to like the part of Germany we're going too because everything is soooo green outside! Here's a picture which doesn't do what I've been seeing justice, but I'm going to post it anyway:



It's nice to have a change of scenery from the huge cities we've been visiting. As a side note, I'm pretty grungy right now, and my teeth feel like crap because I didn't have a chance to brush them. I'm seriously considering taking a hobo shower at the Stuttgart Station. I guess I'll try to sleep a bit more before we have to figure out a way to get to Neckarzimmern from Stuttgart. This is the least planned out part of our trip, and I'm a little excited for the adventure!