plotlines

The walk from my place (Haus 4) to Jacky's (Haus 13), a few days ago. These days my last of German snow, I fear.

In four days I will be waking up very very early to catch a 5am train to Hamburg, where Jacky and I will catch a 10am flight to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We get in around 12:30, which should provide an ample afternoon to wander around and find a hostel where we can stay the night. From there on its all pretty open: I have some acquaintances/friends with whom I might crash in Siena (Italy), Toulouse (France) and Bordeaux (France). Jacky has a good friend with whom we will likely stay in Madrid (Spain), whenever we happen to get over there. Other than that- the time constraint is that we should be in Malaga, Spain by April 1st, or the 2nd at the latest.

Those are about the only restrictions to the openness of the adventure. The basic plan is somewhat as follows: Stay in Zagreb as long as we are interested (maybe a night, maybe four?), then make our way down to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Except for Mom and I's flight from Malaga, Spain to Salzburg, Austria on April 8th, the plan for the preceding month is to travel exclusively by train, unless we get so enamored with some country that we want to take buses out into the countryside to pick real local flowers or something. Water-travel might also be an option at some point, either in the Adriatic, or sometime during the first week of April from Malaga to Morocco (!). I think everyone involved is itching to make that a day-trip.

Thanks to a well-made Bosnia and Herzegovina tourism site, I think from Sarajevo we'll head south to Mostar, B&H and then to Dubvronik, Croatia. I've heard lots of good things about Dubrovnik. I wanted for our initial flight from the Fatherland to be into Dubrovnik, but since we are leaving Germany when it still really isn't tourism season yet, airlines don't operate to that airport yet. From Dubrovnik we'll start heading up the coastline, perhaps first to B&H's single port city Neum, and then back into Croatia to the city of Split. Jacky got some good recommendations about Croatia from Emily, a friend of ours, and so we might even get to do some island-hopping, since its all made to sound fairly easy (we'll see). It's agreed that Jacky and I want to touch a toe into Slovenia, since its basically on the way and all, so we'll likely move from Croatia to Ljubljana, and if we're digging it, check out some other cities besides the capitol.

From Slovenia its just a skip and jump into real tourism territory: Italy. Though Italy has perhaps more Sehenswuerdigkeiten (things to see) than most other European countries, I am less inclined to spend as much time there. I am more interested in the places that haven't been trod by a trillion other American feet, and from the other Amis studying here in Goettingen that have come back from the Great Peninsula with stories, I am a little wary. If there is anything I dislike about traveling its being made to feel like a tourist. Every time after leaving Germany I am always glad to come back to Goettingen, where I can at least pretend to live under the guise of blending in. That said, I guess we'll see how we are doing on time, and see as much as we can with as much time as we allot ourselves there. We both want to see Venice, if only so that we can make jokes about young Polish boys and eating strawberries on the beach (we had to read that last semester, if anyone is getting the reference). I am desperate to see Rome, and am hoping that we will be able to shy away from some of the trashier touristy things while still fufilling the history major part of me. Thats the problem with places like that, though- you sort of can't escape looking like just another mindless John Robert, flaunting your capitalist wealth around. I absolutely hate that feeling- but unless I am going to learn Italian within the next week or two, I'm sort of out of luck. The one touristy thing I fully accept and acknowledge is the omnipresence of my camera. Other than that we try to talk quietly on street cars, pick up at least how to say 'thank you' in the local language, and move ourselves around in the least intrusive way as possible. I have come to really despise the (american?) mentality of pushing your way in somewhere and expecting things to be explained and layed out for you. I don't know when that switch got flipped on, but it was probably not longer than a year ago. That said, I have poignant memories of my first weeks in Germany, and the feeling that I needed to escape the crowd of Americans because I was embarassed to be part of the squabbling gaggle.

From Italy I've been thinking it'd be nice to stay in Southern France with two kids I know from Santa Cruz, one in Toulouse and one in Bordeaux. Of all the people we are hoping to crash with the only one I have the definite okay on is Chris in Bordeaux, but hopefully the others will fall into place too. Its not only having a free patch of ground to lay a sleeping bag down onto, but knowing someone who KNOWS the city is a huge benefit. I am guessing towards the end of March we'll be crossing the border into Spain, where apart from Jacky's friend David in Madrid, I'd like to see at least Barcelona before we head down to Malaga to meet up with the gang.

And thats about it. I was talking with Patrick last night, and he was expressing his interest that Jacky and I are running off for a month without really... planning anything. You could argue that I just presented a plan, but saying where you want to go isn't really the difficult part. I have been sitting in my room thinking about this trip for months, and going south for warmth and following a somewhat logical line of transit while you're at it were sort of no-brainers. We will be spending the first leg of our trip in an area of the continent that will be significantly cheaper than the other half we are visiting, and that is also intentional. Other than that, we will be relying on the wisdom of the travelers before us, that you don't really need to book things ahead of time, especially in the pre-tourism season we will be running around in. Letting yourself have free reign means you get to go to a place when you want and leave when you want. Of course, this all depending on train schedules. But I will have at the very least infrequent access to the Internet, and thus to emailing people ("You gonna be home in a week, cuz I actually might be in the area..."), and thus to checking schedules. The people that work at hostels are generally gung-ho travelers themselves, and often have good advice that you might not be able to find in your guide book. Other than that, Jacky and I traveled together for two and a half weeks this past autumn and managed to end up even better friends afterwards. She and I both traveled seperately with other friends over Christmas break and gained a little more wisdom in those ventures as well.

And now the cliche we've all been waiting for: When else in my life am I ever going to be able to leave home (home!) to roam a still foreign continent for an entire month? As with everything, I still feel mostly unprepared, but apart from having devoured 23 travel books the past month, what else could I have been doing? I have been enjoying Goettingen without the strain of school and class for the past couple of weeks, but the sorry truth is that when I don't have school to worry about I find other things to make my mind race in the early morning hours. It is starting to seem like it could almost be easier to let Work occupy your waking thoughts and let your personal life bend with the course of the river.

I've spent the past month getting over being sick, procrastinating and then finally writing the last essay of the semester, staying in and watching snow fall outside my window, making dinner with friends and sitting in cramped fourth-floor apartments drinking sidecars and watching Monty Python in German. I'm tying up what loose ends I can reach, though I don't think my naivete extends so far as to expect the floor to be swept up when I return. As a sidenote, a few pictures of the past month's escapades got updated in this album here.

After our week in Malaga, Mom and I are taking an expensive flight to Austria, tourism season apparently beginning just about that time. From there we will burrow our way north to Goettingen in time to plug me back into the world of academia. I'm expecting to still find it ironic that summer semester is the name of a term that begins in April.

I have lived in Germany for seven months now, and haven't yet seen the country south of Weimar. Mom is the one who has been reading the travel books (in case the 23 travel book joke wasn't clear enough), and so apart from my vague idea of needing to see the second largest german city and proposed epicenter of all that is baeyrisch Muenchen (Munich), Matthias' hometown and former Nazi big-town Nuernberg (Nuremberg), and the recently restored Frauenkirche in Dresden, I am going to be open to Mom's and Matthias' suggestions.

Its about time to make some dinner and start the laundry. My backpack, the soon to be 'home on my back' for the next month, is sitting on the floor between my empty water cases and the mirror I inherited from Kai when she left for Japan. Already packed is my 'pocket' dictionary and a german novel Andi suggested. Apparently there is a city near Venice where Italian, German, and a hybrid of the two called something like Ladino is spoken. I think Jacky told me about it because she wants to go there, so apart from maybe an afternoon wondering why Italian and German ever got mixed, I'll be reading Militaermusik, communicating with Jacky when we don't feel like looking like Americans, and writing some emails and postcards in German.

Meredith, still in Germany but not for long.

I am anticipating the return to the indescribable awe and reflection that made it impossible for me to write an entry about my first trip out. I'll let you know.