Ktown Down

I consider myself an intelligent person with a good deal of common sense but after my first solo train experience I had begun to doubt myself.  My list of mistakes in order of occurrence:
-Trying to take a short cut to the train station through Kurpark in Garmisch - clearly closed at 6:30am
-Sleeping through my first transfer in Munich
-Getting on the wrong train going to Olm
-Getting off at the wrong stop in Augsburg after already revising my train schedule twice


Bad Durkheim

 I'm at least able to blame getting off at the wrong stop on the hefty old man sitting next to me.  I heard the conductor say that the next stop was Augsburg, where I was making my next transfer, but the sign said Augsburg-Oberhausen.  I asked the man if there was more than one stop in Augsburg and he responded with "no, only this station", so I got off the train, and seconds later realized it was the wrong station, turned around to get back on, and the train siren blew and left me behind in the dust.  This was a smaller station so there was no information desk.  Luckily, there was a Yorma (little convenience store within the station) and I found a man sitting at his desk in a back office.  I'm fairly certain I wasn't allowed back there but I was on a mission so I walked into his office and said my way overused "Sprechen sie Englisch" then explained my problem.  He directed me to the next train going to the right Augsburg and I arrived just in time to catch my correct transfer.  Three transfers later and I was in Kaiserslautern!  The sleeping and getting on the wrong train were 100% my fault, but in my defense, I kept my cool the entire time and actually found the whole situation pretty funny.  I knew that by the end of the day with a little help from the lovely Deutsche Bahn employees I would reach my destination.


First night out in Kaiserslautern

 When I first saw Lindsey at the train station I was so excited, it was really nice to see a familiar face!  We arrived at the house and I met the entire family followed by a mexican dinner of homemade salsa, enchiladas, fajitas, and rice.  I was loving it.  The whole family/child atmosphere was a little too much for me to handle though.  After spending a weekend with children I don't think the au pair lifestyle is a good fit for me.  After dinner we hurriedly got ready to meet another nanny at a bus stop so we could head into the city.  Lindsey actually lives in a small village with no means of transportation so we had to work around her host family's schedule along with public transit.  Our first night out was fun and added to my ever mounting exhaustion.  Thankfully, the next day we were able to sleep in and take it easy.  We met a friend and headed to Ramstein (an Air Force base), where we had lunch at Macaroni Grill and did some shopping.  I was amazed at the differences in our bases.  Garmisch is 1/100 the size of Ramstein with not nearly the same amount of resources or options.  We then were on a wild goose chase to find neuwein (new wine) and drove all over the greater Kaiserslautern area on our search.  We never found that perfect road side stand to buy our neuwein, but we saw some beautiful castles on the country side and shared some good laughs over our aimless navigation.


Castle on the Rhine

 The last full day there Linds and I took a train to Bingen on the Rhine River.  Our Bingen adventure began in a small smoky pub where the bartender was missing an arm....2 seconds later we were back on the street looking for something a little less off the beaten path.  The plan was to take a Rhine River cruise, but at our second pub we discovered that during the winter season they only run on the weekends, so we made the best of it and continued our eating and drinking binge.  After taking the ferry over to Rudesheim, another small town across the river, we successfully used the outdoor restroom and made friends with a mother and son who were doing the same.  After that we walked, talked, and drank the rainy day away and before we knew it it was time to head back for another fun filled night in Ktown. 
Now I'm going to say something that will probably not go over so well with Bret and the old man.  That night in Ktown Lindsey and I met a fellow traveler who was here on business.  After talking to him for nearly an hour we discovered he was driving to Munich on Saturday.  Perfect?  I think so.  I finagled the situation and got myself an almost free ride only an hour away from Garmisch!  My creep radar never went off and despite a few awkward silent moments my car ride back was easy and a major money saver.  I even ran into a fellow Edelweisser at the train station so I had some company for my last 2 hours of the journey.  It felt awfully good to be back in the Abrams.  Slowly but surely it's starting to feel more and more like home.