The Beginning in Bodnegg, Germany

Hello Reader.

Have I got an entry for y’all. The past two days have been so full. And true to the Barnes nature, I’ve taken more pictures than I can count. If I could, I would upload every one of them. I might try starting a gallery, also offered on this site, but I haven’t really looked into it yet. But I’m getting off topic.

After crashing following the Disco night, I woke up at 12 noon. We ate breakfast, packed, and headed for Southern Germany. We weren’t going through Heidelberg, (sorry, Zio, maybe on the way back through), we wanted to see Rothenburg ob der Tauber on the way to Steffie’s house. Rothenburg - which is fancy talk for small old town with a nice cat – is very traditional. It has a long wall surrounding the city to protect all the quaint tourist-trap gift shops from the locals. They had a type of pastry that is only made there… called snowballs, I think. To picture it, one must think of all the left-over dough that wasn’t used when cutting out Christmas cookies being balled up like soft-ball sized pieces of scrap paper then thrown into the oven. What comes out is fluffy, cookie-like goodness which is then dipped in your choice of chocolate. I had seventeen.

We were heading south on an autobond, about thirty minutes away from Steffie’s house when her dad called and warned us to get off the highway because there was a big traffic jam coming up. Then, true to form, we got lost. I was the navigator, looking glassy-eyed at a large road map with names of towns that would take me upwards of three minutes just to sound out. The pitch black night and heavy fog were not helping either. We finally arrived in Bodnegg after an hour.

Her parents are SO kind and her sister, too. Her dog, a hunting hound (a REAL one – not the fake one in the States), was not so cordial. I must have been wearing CK Deer or something, probably not the best choice this morning. We ate goulash, (Steffie and me, not the dog and me), which was SOOO good.

Tinsha (Steffie’s twenty-three year old sister) then took us to a friend’s apartment. There I met four of the nicest people I couldn’t understand. One of them spoke Spanish, too… (insert sigh of relief here). When I found out that we were going to play board games, I smirked slyly. I was hoping for Minch agan Dich Nich (like Sorry! but translates to ‘dude, don’t get pissed’) which I learned from Maurizio, a German in Providence. But we played Activity, the great, great grandfather of Cranium. I don’t care what language you speak, I’ll still kick your ass. Then it was UNO. Those poor bastards. I guess my UNO reputation has yet to make it to Southern Germany.

We came home. I must comment on how nice of a room in which they’ve put me. It is like living in an apartment with stoves and a refrigerator… in fact, it’s bigger than my first apartment (‘the kitchen’), and for those of you who don’t know, the entire apartment was the size of a kitchen, but with two small bedrooms inside it (remember the days, David?). Her mom also (extremely generously) put out a fruit basket, water, juice, and chocolate. So I’m staying until Saturday.

I slept soundly on the softest mattress with a thick down-feather blanket. Steffie woke me up early to see the sunrise. We hopped on bikes and rode about a quarter of a mile up to the church that overlooks her village. The mist was just beginning to recede. Just over the lake we could clearly see the first row of the Alps in both Austria and Switzerland. It was a sight that can only be described as breathtaking.

We packed a lunch, and headed for Neuschwanstein. This should sound vaguely familiar to Vitaly, my ex-roommate, and his old roommates who lived with him in the dorm. Neuschwanstein is a castle, a picture of which was hanging up in their room. I never would have imagined when I looked at the poster that I would be standing in its presence. The castle was built under the reign of Ludwig II, known as ‘Wiggy’ to his friends, and not to be confused with Ludwig von Kuppa, from Super Mario Brothers III for regular Nintendo. Ludwig drowned in the lake after only living one hundred and seventy days in the castle… it was never finished. Six weeks later they turned it into a museum. So much for a grievance period.

We ate lunch on the lake. The swans chased me while I was eating. Did you know they hiss like snakes when you kick them in the mouth?

Then we went to the summer residence of Ludwig, called Linderhof. It was too late to get a tour of the inside, but we got plenty of shots of the outside. We then headed home, about a two and a half hour trip. All of which I slept.

Side story: I also slept on the way to the first castle. At one point I guess we were in a traffic jam and Steffie tried to wake me up. ‘Eli, there is a traffic jam and I’m bored and lonely. Wake up and talk to me.’ To which I groggily and so sympathetically replied, ‘if your lonely, turn up the radio.’ Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

…I’ve been apologising since.

Tonight Steffie and I went for a walk in the woods… with Samy, the dog. I clung to Steffie as if at any moment he could tear out my heart and eat it in front of me. The night was so clear. I’ve only seen so many stars on Jekyll Island in Georgia. I could almost taste the Milky Way. We saw shooting stars and a UFO, for real.

Tomorrow, we are going on a bike tour for five or six hours. If I am still alive tomorrow night, or coherent the following day, I’ll try to update the journal again. Good night to all.

---

---