Leaving Germany

Marieke and I watched Germany play in the Eurocup at her local pub, then rode our bikes home where I packed up my things and said my goodbye's. Marieke was leaving for work early the next morning before I'd be awake. It was hard to say goodbye to my second travelling companion of the trip and to return to solo travel again. However mixed with my disappointment was also excitement. Travelling alone gives you the opportunity to see how strong and capable you really are. The last part of my trip would certainly test my capability and sheer will to not end up stranded in say, the bus station in an unknown town possibly in Czech Republic or Poland but unsure which one...

The next morning I awoke to the sounds of Marieke's mother moving about the kitchen preparing breakfast for me. Marieke had passed on to her mom my longing for eggs since they aren't an easy thing to carry with you when you're backpacking. Luckily they have 20 chickens on their farm so her Mother had whipped up a large bowlful for me along with a lot of other meats and cheeses. I wasn't quite sure the proper way to eat all of the different condiments and meats she had laid out for me, so I just made it up as I went with a few odd glances from her mother's way. The breakfast silence was aided by the fact that her Mother spoke no English at all. Through a series of hand gestures we conveyed the basics of breakfast and what I was going to do that morning, mainly update my blog and enjoy the time off. I was thankful to realize that Marieke had passed on to her mother that my food bag was running low and so she filled it up with a variety of German snacks. All of them delicious and finished off within two days, except for the weird beef jerky/fat sticks which I tried unsuccessfully to pawn off onto other unsuspecting travellers. After spending the morning updating my blog and returning week old emails I heard a quiet knock on the door as her mother motioned toward the kitchen door for lunch. Marieke's father had come in from the barn and the three of us sat down to lunch. This time I followed her parents lead as I tried to figure out how the different types of new food were to be put together and eaten. At the end of lunch her father pulled out three large photo albums of his visit to D.C. to see Marieke two years earlier when she was an Aupair. He would describe the photos in German and I pieced together about every 15th word that sounded similar to english and it was in that way that we spent the next 45 minutes looking at photos, half of them doubles.

After lunch I finished packing and Inika came to give me a ride to the local train station. She walked me up to the platform and helped me figure out the cheapest ticket to Hamburg. As I settled into my seat I gazed out the window at the beautiful scenery of the German countryside and wished that I could have spent more time exploring it's other cities and villages. In Hamburg I reluctantly bought an overnight bus ticket to Prague and settled in for a long 12 hour ride.