Deutchland

First daze of the journey.

At the airport, swollen eyes, Eleanor and Nancy agree it's hard to say goodbye to the ones you love. But we also agree that we are happy to go explore the world...

10 hour direct flight, Portland to Frankfurt, over the North Pole. Sadness and stress over grad school application replaced with a mild excitement. Maybe because I've been thinking about this trip for so long, or maybe because it all feels like a dream, but right and natural, my belly butterflies remain settled on their perches. As we approached Norway, the sun began to rise. A dark deep red spread along the horizon, as if hummingbird feeder syrup had dripped horizontally across the sky. It slowly turned a warm peachy orange and reflected in the lakes and fjords below. Unfortuneately we weren`t sitting in the aisle, so I had to walk up and down the aisle to get a fractured look through each window.

We arrived in the morning, although really to us it was I think 2am. We confusedly pushed buttons on the train ticket machine until it spit out a ticket (I thought I was well versed in travelling in foreign cities, but oh man, that German machine was not wanting to be understood by an English speaker). We waited on the wrong side of the tracks until we missed our train (which we tried to catch in a mad dash with our huge packs). Eventually we found the right train and the right stop and located the hostel, which is located in the red light district. (Despite naked lady signs everywhere its not actually too sketch, even at night.)

We quickly discovered that most Germans speak English: a good thing for ordering food and asking directions, but it also means they all understand everything we say despite the fact that we can't understand them. Perhaps if we mumble and speak fast they won't realize we are lost tourists...

Frankfurt is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. I though Portland was a green city, but Frankfurt's parks, squares, tree lined streets, cobblestone walkways and public groomed gardens are even lovlier in their greenness. Today we walked to a park that is humongous; Nancy hid in the canopy of a Fern Gully tree and I discovered two well kept Japanese buildings, complete with a water fountain and stream that ran underneath one of them (which reminds me- Frank Lloyd Wright travelled to Japan several times). The riding of bikes also rivals )perhaps exceeds) Portland.

It is very modern and clean here, both the streets and buildings, and the people. High heeled shiny boots, fashionable skirts, and designer suits galore. Most people look like they came off the Calvin Klein runway (except that their genders are clear) and out advertisements for razors. Of course, I mean this in a good way: smart looking attractive people. Then again, we are looking forward to Turkey and Asia, where its not so modern and neat and tres riche. All in all it doesn't feel so foreign here.

After a night of good German beer drinking (or Apfelwein) to Istanbul tomorrow!