Auf Wiedersehen Germany

After two and a half weeks of wandering around Bavaria, I am preparing to leave this sausage filled country.  Altogether I spent 4 days in Munich, a week in Augsburg, and a week with Bernadette.  My time with Bernadette was filled with visits to the Alps, fun time with farm animals, and visits to relatives.  One of my favorite evenings was a trip to her uncle's farm near the Czech Republic.  There I sat at a table with 10 people speaking German and had no idea what was going on, but all the same had a great time.  I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy because the most random aspects of the farm got me so excited.  'A water trough! Cows! A big oven!' I couldn't believe there were people actually walking around in lederhosen and the other traditional outfits.  At one point this adorable 10 year old girl started playing a humongous horn.  Ah, Bavaria.

I'm afraid these posts are getting too long-winded, so here is a concise compilation of good and bad feelings about Germany:

Pro's
 - The Alps. Everywhere you look the mountains are peeking around at you.  Monstrous, snow-capped, gorgeous.
- Peanut Butter.  It exists here!
- Animals.  I cannot get over all the animals.  I've played with pigs, cows, horses, cats, dogs, kittens, ducks, sheep, and bunnies. Love it.
- the Autobahn. It looks like Ohio so I got really excited.  The only difference is people actually know how to drive here, and they drive fast.
- Weather.  It hasn't been 90 degree's here, which is nice.
- Food.  Pretzels, strudel, cheese, potatoes, sausage. . . I don't know how I'm going to go back to being poor in Rome.
- Wood.  Today we moved and stacked an entire trailer of fire wood.  Thank goodness, because it provided some much needed exercise.
- Hot pants . .  for men.  Although it is disgusting, I get a great laugh every time.  These are shorts I would be uncomfortable wearing, for decency's sake. They're like daisy duke's for men.
- Bernadette and her family.  They have been fantastic, driving me all around and showing me fantastic sights. We even went over to the Austrian border and basically to the Czech Republic.  They are also all putting up with my terrible German and are practicing their English.
- Bernadette's house.  It is so nice, and I finally feel clean.
- Traditional Clothes.  I love when people are actually wearing the cute German outfits. I want to tickle them.
- Relatives.  I wander around meeting German relatives and friends and pretending to know what is going on. Great fun.
- Castle's.  King Ludwig II may have been insane, but he built some really pretty castle's that seem to pop up around Bavaria.  The most famous one was the model for Cinderella's Castle in Disney world.

Con's
- Speedo's.  The 'old fat man in tiny speedo' is in full force here.
- Food. Delicious, yes.  Damaging to my figure, yes.  Butter is in full force.
- Hot Pants.  Hilarious, but painful to see.
- German.  I do not understand this language.
- Rules.  I think the Germans like rules. No driving in flippy floppies.  In Berlin they had crazy rules in museums.  I don't do well with rules.
- Nausea.  I've been feeling sick and I don't know why!  Perhaps my body is just tired from moving around the past 6 weeks.  Dad says I am just suffering from 'homesickness.'  Thanks for your professional opinion Dad.
- Slugs.  Bavaria has the biggest slugs I have ever seen.  Would not be a problem, but I'm always afraid of stepping on them.  No good.

Tonight I leave on my train to Roma.  I'm nervous it will be as hellish as the way up here.
Tomorrow I start real life. . .