A First Class Start

This blog is broken up into paragraphs for those who don't read good ;) and want to take it just a bit at a time.

With our start to the trip leaving SFO I realiyed just how much I'm going to be missing my friends and their generosity. It was hard saying goodbye to everyone, but their generosity in my last days will be with me, quite tangibly throughout my travels.

Colleen and Geoff have started me off well; I am quite spoiled indeed. We flew direct, first class with Lufthansa, and it really is first class, and I now see why they keep it hidden on a separate floor of the jumbo jet. Lufthansa has giant chairs that recline all the way back and if I wasn't totally wired it would be easy to sleep, and they feed you like hobbits. For dinner I had caviar to start...yes caviar, with all its magical fixin's, the salad was pretty average, but the short ribs were killer and the dueling mousses was not just mouth watering it was pant creaming goodness. Then for second dessert they brought around chocolates...which with my curse I again succeeded in picking the orange chocolate - I swear that was a bad practical joke gone wrong...oh so very wrong!

The stewardess was very nice. I was asking how she avoids the jetlag and she said that she doesn't, she was actually sleep walking. She was very kind and willing to joke around. When I asked where the fan was, she looked at me as if to say, 'silly boy, we donät have the little blowey vents... the ones that cool 1 square inch of your face while the rest melts.' So I asked then how I could cool it down. At which time she explained 'You don't have the power, I have the power.' As if on cue, the music from 2001: A Space Odessey started playing, and I couldn't help but jump up. Instinctively I began screaming like an ape. I tell you, no sense of humor; they didn't even crack a smile when I started throwing feces around the room. Oh well, you can't get everything you want :)

Regensburg is an ancient city, at the northern fringe of what was once the Roman empire, it's also home to some of the most impressive gothic structures in Germany. It's been a blast and I've already made a friend here named Dea. It's amazing what talking to people will do...I'll have to do it more often. Today we went with my Aunt and Uncle, cousins and their friends Julia and Marcus (who are both awesome people) to a lake outside of Regensburg. We had an excellent BBQ and played football - soccer - and I managed to twist my ankle ... surprise.

This evening we went on a walking tour of Regensburg, a view of the gothic church from the gothic bridge which spans the Donau (Danube to us) is stunning. The bridge itself is a masterpiece built by the same fellow that designed the church, I am told. It is said that he had to strike a deal with the devil to complete it and was told that he would receive the devil's help in return for the soul of the first being to cross the bridge. The wily architecht completed the bridge, and lo and behold the first to cross the span was a lowly dog. Take that devil! He clearly struck no such deal for the church, since it was not completed until the 19th Century, more than 600 years after it began, and they only completed a third of the original plan...crazy.

Afterwards we went to a rooftop beach bar (seriously cool idea) and watched a surprisingly even Italy v. USA game and caught the end of the Ghanaen upset of the Czechs...

Tomorrow we shall cruise the Danube to one of the oldest monestary-breweries in Europe....good times!

Observation: German people don't like shorts, however, German people do like short pants. Louis Armstrong would be happy, I'm sure. It pleases me mightily at least. Well, of to continue having good times with the Tates. There really are few that I have as much fun with.

My next stops: Ljubliana, Budapest, Krakow, Vienna, Prague


Cheers all,
Cor.

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