Germany is More Than Just Beers

The morning I left to go to Germany was smoother than I thought. Depsite the 5am wake up, the whole trip was like butter. I asked the reception the night before to book a taxi going to the Barcelon Bus Station Nord to catch the bus to Girona Airport.

There were crowds of people there doing the same thing. Luckily, I bought the ticket (not dated as long as I use it in 30 days) earlier when we arrived in Barcelona so I avoided any long lineups in the morning. I am also glad that despite being there 45 min early, I had a gut feeling to get out to the platform with about 20 min before the 7am bus as they were already loading up the bus. I quickly put my bag in the bag compartment and hoped to sneak to the front somehow to get in the bus before the cut off and I was so glad I did! The bus driver scanned the ticket and at the same time it counted how many people there were so he knew when to say no to the next person. The good thing was there was another bus being loaded beside us. I am unsure how many buses there are for each time slot but it was good to know that it was not just one. So if any of you decide to do that, go early to the station and get on to the platform.

Ryan Air is what it is so let's skip on to when I landed at the Karlsruhe airport. It seemed like I was the only nonEU citizen on this flight. I heard a lot of French and German and not much of English. So I thought like any place I have landed, I needed to fill out a custom card and go to immigration etc. Well was I surprised. There was nothing like that. I pretty much grabbed my bag and left. Thorsten and Britta welcomed me at the airport and probably thought I was not on this flight as I had to stop by the toilet first and was the last to grab my bag at the conveyer belt (that had already stopped and everyone had already left). Unlike, the other places, Germany was sunny and hot at around 17 degrees!!!! Boy, was I happy. This place was so beautiful. There were green fields, mountains, clean air (esp after Spain where everyone and their dog seem to smoke) and awesome architecture. We headed to Thorsten's place where his mom Magdelina was so wonderful and gracious cooking a meal for us. It was simple and good - salad and pasta. She was so nice and I had a chance to try some poor German as she only spoke German. She also had a cute and well groomed garden and home.

After the meal, we took a side trip to Baden-Baden. I couldn't help saying how beautiful this country was and how I love it. So much space in comparison to all the places I previously visited on this trip. And it was not over crowded. I saw so many runners and the nature here is fabulous. The architecture is just simple, quaint and cute. I know I have used these words often but man alive, I really mean it here. There is something very peaceful about this place and no words can describe it. All you can do is enjoy it!

Karlsruhe was different than Baden-Baden as the population is more younger and more populated. Some random tidbits .... tried McDs and Burger King ... latter is better than in Edmonton and McDs had a McDrive as the drive through ... the mall is indeed like a mall and not just another supermarket with everything in it ... Heiniken is not German beer .... they have places for prostitutes and one was called Maxim (I thought it was the magazine!) ... the black forest has no bears ... the grass have beautiful flowers - sounds like kroka (sorry don't know the spelling and no one here at the moment to help me) - instead of dandelions and I'm sure there is more that I have missed, but know that it is indeed more than just beer :)