WARNING LONG BLOG AHEAD
But then again, I haven't been writing as often as I should, so there should be a balance somewhere in there.
Well yesterday was certainly interesting, bloggable and totally made up for the fact that there has been next to nothing happening this week.
It was decided some time ago that a group of us would go to Seenachtfest in Konstanz, Germany, which is on the German side of the Bodensee, or otherwise known as Lake Constance. This sounded like a fun idea. Evidently it's a huge part wth lots partying, music on the beach, and at dark there would be lots of fireworks. All of which sounded great. We were going to find a place to sleep, but decided it would be less expensive if we just all slept on the beach under the stars. Which sounds awesome, but when Sarah came back from her trip to Bodensee with her class she was covered in Mosquito bites and we all decided that maaayybe this wasn't the best idea. So I pushed and I prodded, and I kept asking- "Okay, then was ARE we going to do?" But by the time anything was actually done every hotel, hostel, inn and apartment in the area was completely booked. So it was decided we would sleep in the cars. ugh.
So Saturday morning Melly and Judith came to pick me up at 8am and we took off to meet up with Sarah, Marion, and Mattias (aka Kelpchen- Little Calf). Taking two cars we drove the about two hours to Konstanz.
We ate Italian, we found a place on the Switzerland side of the border to park our cars. It was behind a farm-ish looking house and we figured it would work well enough to sleep there too. We walked back to Konstanz (aka over the border) and did a little shopping in a Mall. Yes, that's right. I found a mall here, which is rather rare and it made me happy.
We then paid 15 Euros to get bracelets that let us over the walkway into the Seenachtfest which was on the other side of lots of train tracks- a good way of making sure people don't sneak in without paying.
The whole festival was basically on the beach the entire way around the lake, at least from where I could see. It had food vendors, craft vendors, lots of beer vendors, many stages set up with music- DJ, Radio personalities, and bands. It was really neat.
While others sat and lounged in lounge chairs under a canopy, I decided to walk around. I mean, really, why was I here if not to take it all in? So I walked, and I walked, and I walked. I got a braid wrap done by some women from Africa, I bought a hermite bracelet, and I rode a ship around the lake and sat back to drink some appleschorle while I watched the waves crash, yachts sail, and seagulls attack one another. It was really nice.
After all of my adventuring I went back to find my friends. We chilled out for a bit under the canopy with me singing along to the excellent mix of American music coming from the stage near by, and enjoyed soaking up the sun.
As the sun went down we decided to go get some food and find a good place to watch the fireworks. Everyone else at pizza. Me? I'm getting tired of pizza. I found a vendor called "Bonanza" where the meals came with names like "Little Jo" "Big Hoss" and etc. I had myself a "traditional American dinner" with what Angus Steak, potato wedges, and cucumber salad.
Sitting by the lake we waited.. and waited... and waited for the fireworks show to start. Though, when it did start it was on the other side of where we were sitting and in the rush to scramble over to where the fireworks could be seen I got slightly trampled.
I was amazed at how much the Germans were awed by the fireworks. Turns out they are only allowed to set them off once a year- Sylvester's Day. I'm not really sure what that is or when, but then and these organized events are the only times. So it's not like home where all you have to do is drive to Missouri and pick some up. Me? I've seen fireworks, and more impressive displays, I took the time to go to the restroom while hoping against hope that the lines were shorter. They weren't. But I did think it was interesting/funny as hell to watch as in the dark, desparate people to go to relieve next to the chainlink fence. While not hard for men, and so I thought, fairly private, I was alarmed? confused? laughing? when I saw that across from where the men were facing the chainlink fence, directly in their sight was a group of women with the same idea answering nature's call behind a vinyl banner. While the banner shielded them from the people on the sidewalk only feet away, it would have been fairly obvious on the otherside. I personally think that when you resort to these measures, and you obviously don't have a clue about your surroundings- it's time to go home and sleep it off.
After the fireworks I was tired... sooooo tired. The Seenachtfest was just beginning and there wasn't a chance in hell that I was going to make it any longer. The thing lasts until 5am. I'd been up since 7am... do the math.
Unfortunately there was a lot of people who must have also been tired because there was a mob scene, caustrophobia, and lots of pushing. So when I saw an ambulance come through and then go by I grabbed Melanie, who was holding onto Judith who was hold ing onto Sarah and we made a run for it. Why? Ambulance was Moses- we were Jews. Nuff said. I ran after the ambulance as fast as I could (not very fast) and watching people's faces as the four of us ran after the ambulance was hilarious. So here I was, running after an ambulance laughing histarically as the Germans slowly realized what had happened and began to join me. Um... I had Running with the Bulls flashes. Soon enough we were once again mobbed in, but we were a helluva lot closer.
Once we made it to the bridge that took us back over the railroad tracks to the rest of the city we watched as people streamed up the three flights of stairs and we walked over to meet Kelpchen and Marion and I pushed the button for the elevator at the bottom. This was smart for two reasons. 1) There was a stream of very drunk people walking up a winding three story staircase- I didn't feel the need to be an example in a dominos game. 2.) I'm lazy.
We walked back to the car towards Switzerland and got to the car, only to discover that although we had previously decided to stay the night there, we were wide awake and all people who would be driving were very sober. So we decided to be like German bananas and split schnell.
I fell asleep at some point and woke up to an event that I will be laughing about for years to come. I could hear Melly yelling at Judith to slow down. But she wasn't sitting in the backseat next to me like she was when I fell asleep. That and her voice was coming for behind me. I turned around to see Melly and Marion running to catch up with the car and Melly yelling at Judith through the open hatchback. This was new.
Turns out we had been in creeping slow traffic for quite a while and we evidently had been going slow enough that Marion felt it was okay to get out of her car to come over to us to ask if we had anything she could drink. Melly, being a great friend, hopped out of the car to help Marion search the trunk for something to drink. And that's when the traffic started up again. I can tell you now, that I almost cracked a rib. But that wasn't even the end of the weirdness. We saw a group of 6 people pushing a car along the road with one person inside steering. I thought, "Ah, poor people. It would suck to have your car break down and have to push it, there's not even a shoulder." Although, after talking with them... we were moving reeeallly slowly, it turns out they were just trying to save gas, and this seemed like a good idea for the slow traffic. And ya know, it did.
A while later we arrived outside my place and I began getting everything together to go inside when I discovered I didn't have my keys. This is BAD!!! See, the thing with keys here is that they are special and can't be easily duplicated, and if one is lost then everyone in the little community of townhomes and apartments that is connected to the house has to also get new keys and locks. So it's realllly expensive. We tore apart Judith's car and could find no trace of the &#$^$ keys. I panicked. Knowing this is really bad. I knew that the property manager had an extra key, Dorothee had told me that if I got locked out to go to them, but I don't think she had 4am in mind. No, definately not. So I decided to do the only thing I could. Melly and I walked over to my neighbor's house. My neighbor's name is Irena and her husband is Thomas. They have the cutest pair of fraternal twins- girl and boy. I help Irena out twice a week with the children. She knew that I was alone while the family was away in America. I called her cell phone in an attempt to not wake up the kids with the doorbell and like a sleepy little angel she came to let me in, offered me food, drink, blanket, and pillow. After telling her I would be alright and expressing my sincere graditude I fell asleep on her large comfy couch... until the kids woke up screaming 4 hours later.
In the morning I was able to get the extra key from the property manager's wife and I was able to go to my own bed and sleep a short while. I am lucky though. Because in Germany I was lucky enough to find a friend as good as Melly, who spent the morning surfing the internet, calling people, and she was somehow able to locate the person who's house we parked behind. And now my keys will be sent back to me and should arrive tomorrow. Ugh. It was awful, but that's to Melly it's not terrible.
So yeah, that's my trip to Konstanz. Any questions?
