Luckily, only two of those were actually bad^^ After our little excursion through Frankfurt (kicked off by our epic quest to find a Deutsche Bank, in the financial center of Germany), Yannik and I returned to the apartment to cook some truly excellent chili with a buddy of his. Both of them looked like they hadn't slept in days, but with the Staatsexamen (imagine if you had 2 comprehensive final exams for your major, independent of individual classes) coming up, that isn't surprising. We tried to watch a movie afterwards, but neither of us was able to stay awake^^
The next morning it began... the staring. If any of you have ever been to Germany, you will know what I mean. ANYONE who does ANYTHING even slightly out of the ordinary, will be greeted by bone-chilling teutonic stares. Don't believe me? Try riding even 5 stops on the Frankfurt subway with 2 suitcases and a backpack! Add a slight limp due to an inconveniently placed blister on my right foot, and you are a sitting duck. (or a limping duck, i suppose) This staring would continue to follow me all day, more to come of course.
I was on my way to Nieder-Eschbach, where I was to meet up with the folks I was riding along with to Lübeck. We had worked everything out beforehand in an email conversation, but as the time sped closer and closer to 8am, and no one was there, I realized there must have been some mistake. So I pull out my trusty German cell phone, (thanks again Will^^) and find out I was told the wrong U-bahn station, and they were waiting for me in Heddernheim (approx 4. stops in the other direction)!! So, I buy another ticket, deal with some more staring, finally reach Heddernheim, and then we have to pack the car...
All I can say is, thanks to years of experience putting too much stuff into too small cars, we made it work, though there was literally no more room to put anything in that car when we were finished! Sandy, our driver with truly epic 80's hair metal Friseur, was pretty worried about his poor little Ford Mondeo with all that weight, and 5 people, but we eventually proved that even the American cars are better in Germany, and 180+ km/h on the Autobahn was no problem^^
Well, except for the construction zones that is... That's right folks, the Autobahn is not all fun and games, and there are even places with speed limits! In fact, it's only on the wider, more remote parts of the Autobahn that the 80, 100, 120, or 130 signs disappear. Anyway, after stops in Göttingen (Burger King!) and Hamburg, we arrived in Lübeck around 14:30.
After Sandy sped off to his seminar on "Systematic Coaching", a concept which was explained several times in the car, but proceeded to only confuse the passengers further, I set off to see a bit of Lübeck on my way to the Bahnhof. I started off in the general direction of the old town, realizing along the way just how far out of town I actually was, and not realizing how much my foot was going to hurt afterwards. I could have taken the bus, but at this point I was starting to take some kind of perverse pleasure in the staring, loudly talking in Pfälzisch on the cell-phone, pretending there was somebody on the line. The kinds of looks I got were so confused that I wish I had some way to share them with you all^^
Anyway to make a long story short, (not that I have tried to do that at all up until now) I got to the train station, made it to Bad Oldesloe and am staying with the assistant director of the school and his American wife, both of whom have been exceptionally nice to me. I already feel somewhat at home here, despite the fact that I am still homeless! Hopefully that will change soon, as my efforts to find a place to live have stepped up considerably in the past two days.
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