The Voyage - Days 19, 20 and 21

Day nineteen. Frankfurt, Germany.
Sarah took Matt to the Nurburgring (public race track) for a high speed joy ride. Luckily for Tilly, Sarah rented a little sporty car for the track.
While they were there for the majority of the day, the rest of the group set out on a relaxed day of exploration. We saw Frankfurt's shopping district, old town, new town and museum district. We also sampled the famous apfelwein, aka apple wine. The public transportation system was extensive and very user friendly. The day wound down to an end with everyone at the Irish Pub.

Day twenty. Frankfurt, Germany.
My day started horribly because my night was horrible. The bed squeaked so loud every time Brian or I repositioned. It was so loud that we kept waking each other and ourselves up whenever we moved, I finally fell asleep at about four in the morning. When I woke up, my entire right hand was numb from laying on top of it for four hours. Groggily I got up, used the restroom and layed down on Sierra's queen bed with her where I regaled the story of my awful night. As I was talking to her it dawned on me that I had gone number two when I was in the restroom and Sierra was going to have to use that restroom very soon too. In order to prevent total mortification I decided to warn her that the restroom may not smell of roses; what actually came out of my mouth was sleep deprived version of my thoughts, it came out as such "Sierra, I'm sorry, I accidentally pooped".
You can imagine her confusion at such a comment, but since she is a well trained special needs teacher she simply replied, "where?". I had to laugh at my own mistake, now you can too.
The remainder of the day was better but I was a grumpy pants until my nap.
This was the day we switched hotels in Frankfurt because our first one didn't have an airport shuttle service and the Holiday Inn Express did. I did not have a good day.
In the evening we all sprinted, literally, across the street from the Holiday Inn Express, to a campsite's restaurant. Odd that a campsite has a restaurant but oh well; they didn't disappoint. On my last night in Germany, and Europe in general, I finally had Schnitzel and Spaetzle. Both were delicious. The evening was spent packing beer and souvenirs.

Day twenty one. Washington, USA.
Breakfast was good but I did not appreciate being up at 6am to eat it. The shuttle took us to the airport where Matt, Sierra and I all received a vigorous pat down/hands down our pants security inspection. All of our pants buttons set off the metal detectors and apparently buttons needed to be felt from the inside of the pants, just to make sure its not a mass murder device. Now I'm on the plane home, about to eat my provided 'premium' meal. Can't wait to see my animals!

The Voyage - Days 17 and 18

Day seventeen. Nuremburg, Germany.
After breakfast we took Tilly down to the Pilsener Brewery and loaded her up with beer and loot! Next stop on the list, Germany! Specifically Nuremburg, Germany; more specifically, Nuremburg Castle! The youth hostel we stayed in was INSIDE the castle with nice, recently updated rooms. Ken and Matt's room was ridiculously hard to find, we had to have the receptionist show us where it was. Turns out you turn left upon exiting the elevator then take the stairs to the portal of mismarked exits, dead lift an iron door, descend the spiral staircase abyss, arrive at platform nine and three quarters and wallah! "your destination is on your left". Alternatively you could just use the door with direct access to the outside but that's not as much fun, or exercise.
Four out of our seven group members went to the underground beer tour while Brian and I went down to Nuremburg's Saturday market where we met up with Ken. The sun was at its zinth and hot so we stopped t a small table for a sorbet break. Mango, apple, watermelon, apricot, and lemon sorbet with a wild card thrown in for good measure, orange softserve yogurt. Be jealous. The three of us poked around in the booths and shops for awhile before deciding to head back to the hostel for dinner with everyone.
Lessons of the day: learn how to navigate nonsensical directions through an ancient castle, it may come in handy some day-- restaurants with outside eating areas typically provide blankets for guests at no charge, lesson is, even if you never use said blanket Do Not put it back in the clean blanket bucket, other guests will scowl.

Day eighteen. Frankfurt, Germany.
The Nuremberg castle has cool rooms and cool history but it comes with a 'not Bridget friendly' breakfast, I was disappointed. Too many dairy based foods. Because we had not gone on the evening beer tour, Ken, Brian and I went on the morning tour. Turns out they only provide one English tour per week and we had luck on our side! The tour was pretty neat, we got to see how the beer was kept cool during summer and how it was brewed. There was also a bit of history on the tunnel's use as storage for Germany's great arts during WWII. Overall a cool underground tour.
We hit the road and arrived in Frankfurt at about dinner time. As a herd, we started walking towards downtown fully expecting to find some dinner options quickly. How could our little dinner hunt go wrong? Sunday evening early closures took half of the food options away, and the World Cup took the rest. No one had any availabilities for seven people. After the herd became 'hangry' (hungry+angry) we found a Persian restaurant and a pizza place. We split up, ate food and rejoined each other after the 'hangry-ness' feelings had passed.
Back at the hotel we drank our Pilsner beer and watched the World Cup. When Germany scored their goal we turned the TV off and listened to the streets erupt in a roar of cheering and firecrackers. Brian, Matt and I walked back downtown to join in the celebration. Brian wore his German flag like a cape, he instantly became very popular.
People were being crazy downtown! Cars were getting rocked side to side by hordes of drunk people, flags were everywhere, people screaming and cheering all over the streets, and so many people were hanging out of car windows and sunroofs. Even the police joined in the crazyness! The noise of the night was defaning.
Lessons of the day: hangry Dorans are not a pleasant sight-- Germans love their football (soccer)

The Voyage - Days 15 and 16

Day fifteen. Prague, Czech Republic.
The sounds of shouting awoke me, at five thirty in the morning. I was not amused. At my balcony I could see the joggers, some type of bootcamp's morning workout. I tried to go back to sleep but ultimately I ended up just laying in bed until other people started getting up.
For the adventure and to rid ourselves of the boy stench, Sarah and I set out to find a laundry mat. The place we ended up going to (Andy's Laundymat) was way cooler than any laundry mat in the states. They had couches, Wi-Fi, desktop computers, and free coffee/tea! While there we met a Professor who has lived all over the world, he gave some sound advice on living outside the states.
After we returned to the hotel everyone set out to do their own exploring. Brian, Sarah and I went to a quiet courtyard cafe for lunch while the rain clouds passed over the city. Hot mead is yummy.
The herd met back up at the hotel so Sarah and Ken could get 'fancied' up for their orchestral show. (reference 'the sights of Prague...can't be unseen' for a funnier version of the regrouping)
The remainder of the herd set out to explore the city. We found a cool farmers market where we tasted Wild Boar sausage and Deer sausage. Surprisingly the boar was better than the deer. We further split into smaller groups after we left the market; Brian and I continued exploring the city for a few hours while the others headed back to the hotel.
After a brief respite at the hotel Brian and I took a little stroll down to Prague's famous cabaret and red light district, pretty damn cool place at night, not as sketchy as one might think. We saw some sights, some beautiful sights and while we still had money in hand we went back to the hotel for one last noisy sleepless night in Prague.
Lessons of the day: per the laundrymat professor, hamburgers are $35 in Singapore--wild boar is actually tasty--Prague's 'Darlings' are very pretty

Day sixteen. Plzen, Czech Republic.
While in Prague we left Tilly parked in the hotel's reccomended parking garage, when Sarah picked her up the parking cost was about $65. Heart attacks ensued. The only comfort was that we hadn't paid much for parking for the rest of the trip so it kind of evened out. With the parking pass paid, luggage packed and everyone accounted for, we got on the road and headed for Plzen, land of Pilsner beer.
Luggage was offloaded and Tilly was left in the 'on street' parking, no more expensive thermoregulated garages! Off to the Pilsner Brewery! It was a fairly short walk from the hostel. We went to the brewery's restaurant, Na Splice, it was pretty amazing. Great beer, great food, great service. Unfortunately the brew tours were closing so no tour for us.
Lessons of the day: always figure out how much parking will cost before trying to leave or else you might end up spending every last Czech coin in you possession--Pilsner makes nasty (in my opinion) pale ales, but they make some tasty dark lagers and wheat beers

Random Funnies

I finally got around to grabbing all of the photos off my camera. Most of them were taken by me (Sarah), though Bridget took many as well. This is a small set of random funny photos I found, out of the nearly 1400 on my camera.

3 generations of Doran men having a beer in Munich. 

Brian and Bridget at the fort in Poland. 

Brian practicing his impersonation of the pregnant woman statue. 

Self explanatory.

Ken told Patte not to help move the bed. She helped anyway. One more use for duct tape!

A tourist bus in Budapest. 

Somewhere in Romania. There's a horse pulling that buggy. 

Group photo at the Polish fort. 

Ken and Patte at the fort. 

Siblings doing what siblings do. 

Matt and the giant snail in Munich. 

Patte on the ferry from Dover to Calais. 

Sierra photobombing Patte!

Matt testing the bed. He choose the sofa instead. 

Watching for the enemy. 

The Stork Has Landed

I had an assortment of blog ideas I was considering writing to commemorate our return to America. Some of these ideas are really good, as well as humorous and heartfelt. 

This post is not one of them.

Unfortunately, the temporal vortex that has caused me to arrive home 2 hours after I left on an 11 hour flight has left me befuddled. So I desperately need to sleep and collect my wits (of which, I have a vast quantity to collect), before I have anything worthwhile to contribute. Potentially, I will write a heartfelt and humorous retrospective on the trip as a whole. I've been peculating some thoughts about it that I would like to write down and share. This, however, will be at a later date if I ever get around to it. The really good stories I would never share on the internet anyway. We'll see.


So in the meantime:

Aw yeah.

The Voyage - Days 11 and 12

Day eleven. Three Countries in One Day Extravaganza.
Yet again, we had an amazingly delicious breakfast made at our bed and breakfast. We all spent the morning showering and putting on our freshest clothes so we could have a slightly more pleasant ten+ hour car ride from Romania through Hungry and just across the Slovakian boarder to Kosice, Slovakia!
As we passed through the Romanian-Hungarian boarder we were stopped by boarder control yet again. Thankfully the story leaving Romania was similar to the story when entering the country, we were kept for a short amount of time then released without having our baggage rooted through.
The drive itself was pretty uneventful except when I drove up some switchbacks with really tight turns, I was going a little fast; I really wanted to get around the slow car in front of me. Plus Brian sang for us, loudly, that was pretty mention-worthy.
When we arrived in Kosice there was minor debacle with parking, as per usual; and a minor debacle with useless power outlets, as per usual. We somehow always find a way to make things work, hopefully that luck doesn't run out.
The apartment we stayed in that night had a laundry washer/dryer combo, the 'dryer' functions didn't work so well. Any clothes that were washed were now dripping wet with no way to dry. By morning the whole apartment was covered in hung up damp clothes. I'll briefly say our night in Kosice involved a tasty 12% beer, a lot of laughter and a lot of water.
Lesson of the day:
1. A 12% beer CAN taste good, deceptively good.
2. Storks live in Hungry, Romania, and Slovakia and my family is still obsessed with them
Day twelve. Katowice, Poland.
Our bestest pal Tilly took us to Poland through a 'back door', aka some chicken farmer road to nowhere. Eventually, she took us to the motorway (freeway) and we realized the motorway was still being built in many spots and that Tilly just wasn't up to date on their construction progress. Damn Tilly and her beloved goat roads.
We dumped our stuff off in our hostel for the day while we went to Auschwitz. I won't say much about Auschwitz because the thought of that place disgusts me. I will say that everyone should visit at least once in their youth, 16-25yrs old, so that everyone understands the consequences of standing by and watching a problem without mobilizing to action for too long. Auschwitz is huge, no book or video clip could ever describe the enormity of this mass murder ground that was capable of killing 1.1 million people in a year and a half; it has to be seen personally.
Clearly after a day at Auschwitz we needed a pick me up!
Dinner was the perfect thing to get our minds off of the horror of the day and our dinner did not disappoint. The dishes were aesthetically pleasing enough that we took pictures. My stew came in a mini camp fire stew pot with a little sterno gel cup burning under the pot. Fantastic. Hungarian stew made in Poland, just fantastic.
Lessons of the day:
1. Auschwitz is huge and people are disgusting.
2. There is not a single stork in Poland - my family is disappointed.

Sarah and Matt Took a Drive

The one thing on Matt's "Must Do" list in Europe was a trip to Nurburgring, the famous race track, also known as "the Green Hell". Frankfurt is less than a 2 hour drive from there and lucky for us, they were set to allow tourist drives on the track Monday evening.

Matt and I set out a little before noon, as Nurburgring also purported to be a tourist trap with plenty to do. It turns out that with only 2 people on-board and all of the suitcases and piles of crap removed from every storage space, our beloved Tilly is actually a fun little car to drive. She was perfectly capable of reaching 170 km/h on the motorway. And yes, we finally found a portion of the Autobahn that was  open and not under construction. 

We passed all manner of automobile on our drive. As we got closer to the track though, the general character of what we pass grew more intriguing. We had just been lamenting the fact that we had not seen a Lamborghini, when one ambled by us going the opposite direction. Giggling like little kids, we continued our drive.

We found the visitors center and they talked us into the "behind the scenes" tour. It was excellent! We got to visit the old paddock, a little museum, the new paddock, the winners platform, the media center, and the viewing platform. The platforms provided an excellent view of the Grand Prix track activities. It was just a track day, but we got to see innumerable expensive cars roar by down the stretch. It was loud and awesome!

After our tour, we conducted the requisite swag shop stop. After all, you can't visit one of the most historic race tracks and have nothing to show for it! Then it was off to the go-kart track for Matt. The photo is self explanatory!

Then it was time for our own drive of the famous road track. We rented a tiny Suzuki Swift rather than subject Tilly to the rigors of the track. The Suzuki was the only car they had that used a regular manual transmission instead of paddle shifters. It was also the smallest car they had, in every sense. Given the reputation of the track, this seemed sensible anyway for a first time track driver. Matt was a tiny bit disappointed, especially when the guy who did our orientation called our car a go-kart. It wasn't an ordinary Swift though either. It was equipped for racing. No back seats, roll cage, Bilstein shocks, racing tires and suspension, upgraded breaks , etc.

We got our orientation, then had to wait until the track opened for tourist drives at 5:15. We were among the first in line. They opened the track, we swiped our pass, the gate swung up, and off we went.

What happened next is more or less a literal and figurative blur. There was lots of shifting, a small amount of swearing, a lot of sweating, a comment from Matt about being glad there was an"oh shit" handle on his side, a near catastrophe when someone illegally passed us on a corner, and lots of tail lights. 20.832 kilometers, 73 turns, and about 17 minutes later, we were done. It was amazing! Matt no longer regretted the small car either, allowing as how "it was pretty great". We both agreed that we probably would have died in a more powerful car. 

If I lived here, I would buy a season pass and go all of the time. Doing this track in a car I was familiar with would have been even more awesome, but alas, I had to "settle" for a rental.