Homies, mates, buds & bros!
Do you still know me? This is me calling out from New Jersey at a lazy Sunday evening. I hope everything is going well with you! I know it's been too long long a time since you heard from me, but life is keeping me busy.
Let me bring you up to date...
I celebrated my birthday in June and had an awesome party at the new apartment. It was a gorgeous day and we could sit outside on the deck the whole night because it wouldn't get cold at all. With hookah and friends it was a great celebration. I don't know how but I ended up having more beer and food in my fridge after the party than I had before. Maybe my fridge is magical... ;-)
Then I visited Germany during the end of the World Cup. Watching soccer over there is just exceptional! I had a blast even though we unfortunately didn't get the cup. But oh well... in Brazil we gonna rock!! I went to Germany to get a new working visa for the US and of course to see my family. We haven't been all together for almost 18 months, which seems like a suuuuper long time, but thanks to Skype and Facebook and all those things it didn't feel that long. Sorry to everyone I couldn't see (which were a lot of people) but I couldn't spend my few days at home with driving all throughout Germany.
With my siblings I did a tri-country tour ... Germany, France (where my sister went to language school) and Netherlands (which is close to my brother's place in Aachen). Overall I had a very relaxed and awesome time at home ... until the time of my departure came ...
The day after the World Cup final I had scheduled the flight back to USA. My brother wanted to drive me to Frankfurt Airport but I insisted on taking Deutsche Bahn since it would save him a long trip, thanks to "Fruehbucher Specials" it was much cheaper and also took only a fracture of the time compared to taking the car. At least that is what I thought in all my stupidity. Upon pressure of my parents and the experience of my brother, I booked a train from Aachen via Cologne to Frankfurt with a lot of spare time before my flight. According to plan I should have been at the airport 4 hours before departure. Or so I thought...
Along comes reality ... and with it the super turnado storm that just had to hit North Germany that very day at that very time ... and yet again one of my commonly known travel nightmare starts. (I was already totally surprised how smooth the whole trip to Germany went so far!!)
-10:30- My brother and I leave his apartment to our way to the train station.
Do you still know me? This is me calling out from New Jersey at a lazy Sunday evening. I hope everything is going well with you! I know it's been too long long a time since you heard from me, but life is keeping me busy.
Let me bring you up to date...
I celebrated my birthday in June and had an awesome party at the new apartment. It was a gorgeous day and we could sit outside on the deck the whole night because it wouldn't get cold at all. With hookah and friends it was a great celebration. I don't know how but I ended up having more beer and food in my fridge after the party than I had before. Maybe my fridge is magical... ;-)
Then I visited Germany during the end of the World Cup. Watching soccer over there is just exceptional! I had a blast even though we unfortunately didn't get the cup. But oh well... in Brazil we gonna rock!! I went to Germany to get a new working visa for the US and of course to see my family. We haven't been all together for almost 18 months, which seems like a suuuuper long time, but thanks to Skype and Facebook and all those things it didn't feel that long. Sorry to everyone I couldn't see (which were a lot of people) but I couldn't spend my few days at home with driving all throughout Germany.
With my siblings I did a tri-country tour ... Germany, France (where my sister went to language school) and Netherlands (which is close to my brother's place in Aachen). Overall I had a very relaxed and awesome time at home ... until the time of my departure came ...
The day after the World Cup final I had scheduled the flight back to USA. My brother wanted to drive me to Frankfurt Airport but I insisted on taking Deutsche Bahn since it would save him a long trip, thanks to "Fruehbucher Specials" it was much cheaper and also took only a fracture of the time compared to taking the car. At least that is what I thought in all my stupidity. Upon pressure of my parents and the experience of my brother, I booked a train from Aachen via Cologne to Frankfurt with a lot of spare time before my flight. According to plan I should have been at the airport 4 hours before departure. Or so I thought...
Along comes reality ... and with it the super turnado storm that just had to hit North Germany that very day at that very time ... and yet again one of my commonly known travel nightmare starts. (I was already totally surprised how smooth the whole trip to Germany went so far!!)
-10:30- My brother and I leave his apartment to our way to the train station.
-10:55- My brother and I were on the train from Aachen to Cologne, where he wanted to say goodbye and send me off in an ICE to FFM.
-11:10- The train leaves Aachen and I made the following comment "I just love how trains in Germany are so reliable and always on time! In the US it would never work like this."
-11:20- The train stops at the very first stop after we got on and stopped and stopped and stopped.
-11.45- The awesome Deutsche Bahn made the announcement that the train would go no further and everybody had to leave the train.
-12:15- After all confusion, fellow passengers with nervous breakdowns and screaming attacks, advice from the knowledgeable "Schaffner" we then call Anna, Julian's girlfriend, to run to the car we luckily had access to and which was parked in Aachen to come and pick us up at our current location. By that time Aachen looked like a mess - everywhere branches, accidents and the fire trucks and police had peak time.
-12:45- Anna arrived and we decided to drive to Cologne train station so that I could catch my ICE from there.
-13:45- We arrive at Cologne train station only to find the train station in an organizational mess. To fix it Deutsche Bahn employees handed out orange juice "beverages" which I wanted to throw in their face. Nobody knew what was happening, people were stranded in the train station because the whole north of Germany was hit by the storm and supposedly no train was able to reach Cologne train station. As a result, no train was leaving Cologne train station as well. So thousands of passengers were lost and angry. Delays were 180 minutes and longer. Some Deutsche Bahn guy actually told me that with purchasing a DB ticket I was only entitled to get transportation. NOT to get punctual and reliable transportation. I felt like saying "Sänk ju for träwelling wis Deutsche Bahn IN YOUR FACE!"
-14:15- We decided to try the impossible. Drive to Frankfurt by car and try to reach there in less than two hours (because one hour before departure there is no effin chance of checking in your luggage). To increase the fun of the whole game ... I had Sven's passport (sidenote: both of us came to Germany at the same time, we scheduled our US embassy visa appointment together, we were supposed to fly back together and I picked up both of our passports when the visas where done). So he couldn't leave without me. What a friendship!! :)
-15:30- I was driving, or should I say flying the car to Frankfurt. I think our average speed was around 150 km/h... *hahaha* I jumped out the car, said a hasty goodbye to my brother and Anna (no time for sentimentalities) and rushed inside the welcoming area of the airport. Instead of everything going smooth from here on, the weirdo automatic check in machines didn't accept my passport, the lines where huge, I had overweight in my suitcase and had to open it right there at the counter to shift stuff worth of 3kg from my suitcase to Sven's.
-16:00- We arrive at the gate when the seating already started.
-17:15- The plane took off with delay and I didn't even have time to mentally say goodbye to Germany. No time no time rush rush rush!
So what should you learn from this story? NEVER travel with me. I'm a magnet for bad things to happen. And this time, I swear, it wasn't even my fault!!!
After returning to the US my life kinda returned to a nice routine. Finally, Jo and I live in the apartment at exactly the same time, we enjoy our weeks and weekends somewhat together, somewhat individually. During the week we hardly see each other since I get up really early for gym and work and she usually gets up after I already left. I come back around 7 to 8 and am off again to meet friends, to do grocery shopping or laundry. She comes back when I'm gone and maybe we meet around 11 pm before both of us head back to bed. LOL
Yesterday I finally went out to buy the car I was talking about getting since probably February or March this year. Long research, several visits to car dealers and many nerves of my patient family and friends later, I decided to get a Ford Fiesta, which was introduced to the American market just two weeks ago. So it's a brand new car, but the demand is amazing. My car is gonna be blue, have white racing stripes and will be amazingly cool. If I'm lucky it's gonna be a German car produced at the Cologne assembly lines. :) However, you all will have to be patient, since it's gonna take around 14 weeks until I get the car and until I can upload pictures.
Stay tuned! Love always ... Vicky
-12:45- Anna arrived and we decided to drive to Cologne train station so that I could catch my ICE from there.
-13:45- We arrive at Cologne train station only to find the train station in an organizational mess. To fix it Deutsche Bahn employees handed out orange juice "beverages" which I wanted to throw in their face. Nobody knew what was happening, people were stranded in the train station because the whole north of Germany was hit by the storm and supposedly no train was able to reach Cologne train station. As a result, no train was leaving Cologne train station as well. So thousands of passengers were lost and angry. Delays were 180 minutes and longer. Some Deutsche Bahn guy actually told me that with purchasing a DB ticket I was only entitled to get transportation. NOT to get punctual and reliable transportation. I felt like saying "Sänk ju for träwelling wis Deutsche Bahn IN YOUR FACE!"
-14:15- We decided to try the impossible. Drive to Frankfurt by car and try to reach there in less than two hours (because one hour before departure there is no effin chance of checking in your luggage). To increase the fun of the whole game ... I had Sven's passport (sidenote: both of us came to Germany at the same time, we scheduled our US embassy visa appointment together, we were supposed to fly back together and I picked up both of our passports when the visas where done). So he couldn't leave without me. What a friendship!! :)
-15:30- I was driving, or should I say flying the car to Frankfurt. I think our average speed was around 150 km/h... *hahaha* I jumped out the car, said a hasty goodbye to my brother and Anna (no time for sentimentalities) and rushed inside the welcoming area of the airport. Instead of everything going smooth from here on, the weirdo automatic check in machines didn't accept my passport, the lines where huge, I had overweight in my suitcase and had to open it right there at the counter to shift stuff worth of 3kg from my suitcase to Sven's.
-16:00- We arrive at the gate when the seating already started.
-17:15- The plane took off with delay and I didn't even have time to mentally say goodbye to Germany. No time no time rush rush rush!
So what should you learn from this story? NEVER travel with me. I'm a magnet for bad things to happen. And this time, I swear, it wasn't even my fault!!!
After returning to the US my life kinda returned to a nice routine. Finally, Jo and I live in the apartment at exactly the same time, we enjoy our weeks and weekends somewhat together, somewhat individually. During the week we hardly see each other since I get up really early for gym and work and she usually gets up after I already left. I come back around 7 to 8 and am off again to meet friends, to do grocery shopping or laundry. She comes back when I'm gone and maybe we meet around 11 pm before both of us head back to bed. LOL
Yesterday I finally went out to buy the car I was talking about getting since probably February or March this year. Long research, several visits to car dealers and many nerves of my patient family and friends later, I decided to get a Ford Fiesta, which was introduced to the American market just two weeks ago. So it's a brand new car, but the demand is amazing. My car is gonna be blue, have white racing stripes and will be amazingly cool. If I'm lucky it's gonna be a German car produced at the Cologne assembly lines. :) However, you all will have to be patient, since it's gonna take around 14 weeks until I get the car and until I can upload pictures.
Stay tuned! Love always ... Vicky
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