Germany 2008: Finale

Hello,

It is the end of my last day in Germany. It's been a trip, certainly. This will obviously be my last email. Well I'll stop rambling, here is the ending to this story:

I got on my first sleeper train, which took me to Wien (Vienna). Couchettes or cheap sleepers consist of 2 columns of 3 beds (more like upholstered benches) with a rickety ladder inbetween. Even in the cramped quarters (where does your luggage go?), everybody was very nice. I was always offered food, poor to excellent attempts at English and a smile or a hello. Which Germans tend not to do in the street. So while Americans smile at everyone, our natural reaction is to close off and alienate ourselves while in cramped quarters. But Germans, you sleep with them, you're family.

Vienna is so jampacked with music and was gorgeous. The first day I got terribly lost (I was in Vienna for 2 days) and ended up in the Viennan equivalent of Wheaton (a suburb of DC that is thought of for its shootings and for its really cheap, good ethnic food ... which maybe makes it safer?). Was I in safe Wheaton or sketchy Wheaton? I got out of the place as fast as I could. I went to Mozart's apartment and the Haus der Musik (House of Music) which was full of crazy "ears"-on experiments showing the quirks of the human ear. As you can imagine I was entranced for a good, long time. I spent most of my time in Stephensplatz -- where luckily all the places I wanted to go were located, along with many street musicians and posh restaurants. I went to a Jewish museum for a change of pace. Their permanent exhibit consisted of holy Jewish objects that were donated by the community. Some of them were blackened because of Nazis trying to burn them or the temple they existed in. Very moving. But the exhibit I spent to most time in was on Erich Korngold -- a Hollywood film composer and Viennan Jew. So I spent a few hours listening to his music.

Then I went to Munich but was so tired I didn't start seeing the city until dark. I went to Olympic Park -- which was a trip because of the horrifying events that happened there (and the lack of any obvious acknowledgment of those events) and the absolutely amazing architecture that was completely gravity-defying, massive and curvy. I also ended up going to a German bier haus in Munich -- which according to my German hostel-roomate was completely full of tourists. The glasses of bier must have been 2 or 3 pint cups -- a glass having the mass of a full growth human skull at least. We ended up splitting one. We also got hit on by men from Holland my dad's age... who also reminded us how they had wives and kids (but they mostly told us that to deflect the "you're so gay" jokes they were passing around... wow). I got her to leave pretty early on.

The next day I left for Soll... the skiing town in the Austrian Alps. I spent the first day reading and taking in the views. The second day I went snowboarding. You took a gondola to GET to the lifts. It was crazy. There was a second gonola, picking up where the first one left off, that went to the top of the mountain. I took it just to see the views. I got there and saw I was standing above cloud level. Next to me, coming up the side of the mountain was a huge, puffy cloud. I starred face to face with a cloud. It was so scary and wonderful.

I somehow got back to Harsewinkel. Everything seemed to go wrong on the trip back -- the bus to to train station didn't come, my sleeper train's number didn't match my ticket but was still the right train (luckily I asked), on it goes. But I got back 2 days ago. I've been catching up on sleep since then and in less than 24 hours I will be on a plane back to the States. Hope you are all well.

Love, Ray