"What?"
"WE ARE IN GERMANY!!!"
Us in GERMANY!!
I have asked Theresa this question upwards of twenty times...today. The exchange is always the same. She responds with an enthusiastic "what?" and I answer, practically shouting, "WE ARE IN GERMANY!!!" To give myself credit, sometimes I change it up a little and respond with "WE ARE IN FREAKING GERMANY!!!" Needless to say, the fact that my journey through Europe has started has yet to sink in.
At 1:00 pm (Louisville time) on August 19, I hugged my dad, my mom, and my sweet little sister Maria goodbye. Two hours later, I was sitting alone on an airplane heading to Philadelphia. The Philly airport was enormous. It took me forty minutes to find the shuttle, ride the shuttle to a new terminal, and navigate my way through a new terminal to the international wing. Once I made my way to my gate, I sat down in a fairly comfortable airport chair and started to crochet a scarf to slowly pass the time of my five-hour layover.
Luckily for me, my dear friend Merette called me after only an hour of crocheting. We talked about life and travel and plans and worries. She's doing incredible things in St. Louis before she leaves for a wonderful semester abroad in Tanzania. She's a beautiful person who is doing beautiful things all over the world and I am so blessed to call her a friend. We prayed together before we hung up the phone and it was exactly what I needed. My heart felt a kind of nourishment and peace that was much needed.
Around 8:40, I heard "hello stranger!" and quickly embraced Theresa. We caught up on the end of our summers and discussed our hopes for our future adventure. After a two-hour delay, we boarded our plane and set off for Frankfurt. We spent, well Theresa spent, the first two and half hours of our plane ride watching Divergent. I very quickly fell asleep. After five more hours of "sleep" and back pains, we arrived in the Frankfurt airport. It was almost 1:00 pm local time so we gathered our checked bags and headed to the train station. After walking around in a couple of circles, we made our way to the information center and we were handed schedule telling us exactly where we needed to be. It was in German of course, but we figured it out.
Theresa and I on the plane to Germany!
Traveling through Germany by train was beautiful. I spent most of the time just staring out of the window taking in the beauty that surrounded me. One of the funny moments of the trip happened when we were transferring trains. To get to the platform that we needed to, Theresa and I had to drag our 60+ lb luggage down a flight of stairs. Clunk, clunk, clunk. We were making a lot of noise, taking up a lot of space, and just generally struggling to navigate the train station with our bags. Once we finally made it to the bottom, we realized, with disbelief, that we were going to have to carry our bags right back up a different flight of stairs. Theresa went first and saw this super "helpful" ramp on the side of the stairs. She placed her bag on the ramp and started to walk beside it, pulling her bag behind her. "Theresa, are you sure that's what that's for?" I questioned as I saw a button and some possible instructions above the ramp. "Yes!" she assured me as she continued to slowly walk up the stairs. I ignored Theresa's lead and just started pulling my bag up the stairs one step at a time. About halfway up, I heard a loud "Oh shoot!" and turned just in time to see Theresa and her bag face-plant together in the middle of the stairs in the middle of the Freiburg train station. A couple people stared. A couple of people laughed. And a couple of people said something to her in German. I'm sure you can guess which helpful group I was in.
Once we made it to our final destination, we sat down, exhausted, and waited for the incredible Liberti family to save the day. Steve and Dawn arrived in a few short minutes, loaded our bags into the back of their car, and transported us to their lovely home in Kandern, Germany where we were met with a feast of German meat (sausage stuff), potatoes and carrots, and beer, a really refreshing, so-much-better-than-what-we-call-beer-in-america, beer.
I felt absolutely zero jet lag the entire day. Zero. I started to get tired around 10 pm local time, so Theresa and I just called it a night. Ten hours later, we woke up to the smell of coffee and homemade zucchini bread and our first full day in Europe was starting. We began the day with a prayer group/bible study hosted by Steve and Dawn. The passage for the day was Philippians 1:21-30. Each person was invited to share their own reflection on the scripture and together, we prayed for each other, for our communities, and for the world where there is so much pain and brokenness.
After our morning prayer, we packed our lunches and set of for the day. Even though Sofia and Bianca (Steve and Dawn's daughter's) tried to explain to me what we were doing, I honestly had no idea what to expect. We drove to Todtnau, another town about an hour from Kandern, and bought tickets for the Rodelbahn. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Basically we rode up a mountain on a ski lift, stood in a line for a little bit, and rode down this track...
in this car...
SO. MUCH. FUN.
SO. EXHILARATING.
Afterwards, Theresa and I visited St. Johannes Catholic Church in Todtnau. It was absolutely stunning. Most of the interior was simple in design, but behind the alter was a massive, 50-ft. mosaic of Jesus, Mary, and St. John. I lit a candle, which I am going to continue to do in every church I visit because when I was talking to my cousin Robby before I left, he told me that my Grandma Nash requested that he light one in every church that he visited during his travels through Europe many years ago. It's a tangible way for me to feel connected to her spirit throughout this adventure.
The alter and mosaic
After the church, we visited the Todtnauer Wasserfall. As I stood at the bottom and felt the mist in my face, the incredible beauty just took my breath away. After spending some time at the bottom, Theresa and I decided to hike up to the top. After many many steps, we reached the top and saw this view. It's so beyond my words that that I will just leave you with the picture.
The view from the top of the waterfall.
Standing at the bottom!
Looking down the waterfall.
We climbed back down and ate dinner at one of Steve's favorite restaurants, a Turkish restaurant that served Doner Meat (a mix of beef and lamb). It was absolutely delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed every bite. After returning home, Theresa and I sat down in the living room with Steve and Dawn. CNN international was on in the background and the moment they mentioned Ferguson, I refocused my attention. There's a huge piece of my heart that is in St. Louis right now with my friends, my peers, my classmates, my people. My people who are hurting. My people who are taking a stand against injustice and oppression. My people who have taught me, inspired me, and lit the fire of passion in my heart. The countless images of men, women and children with their hands in the air, of tear gas and rubber bullets and militarized police forced were suddenly replaced with a reporter interviewing someone in Ferguson. "THAT'S DR. BRADLEY!" I yelled out. The interviewer from CNN was interviewing Dr. Stefan Bradley, director of the African American Studies Program at SLU. Dr. Bradley, who has challenged me, grown me, taught me, and inspire me. Dr. Bradley whose class I can't wait to take in the spring when I return to SLU. Suddenly, home didn't feel so far away. I am so inspired by all of the people organizing in St. Louis and I look forward to joining you in a few months.
After staring at each other in shock for a couple of minutes, Theresa and I thought it would be a good idea to actually plan out our trip to France. Much to my frustration, our rail passes did not count toward our train to Paris, and because we didn't order our tickets ahead of time, they were going to be ridiculously expensive. Although Theresa and I were both extremely disappointed, we recognized that a) we were in Europe, b) we were together, and c) we had delicious European chocolate to eat. With Dawn's help and patience, we have created an alternative plan. We will now spend another day with the Liberti family in Kandern before spending a couple days in Munich and a couple of days in Berlin.
Every time Theresa and I are together, it's an adventure, but when you put us together in Europe, it's an entirely different kind of adventure. We have both laughed until we have both cried. We have traveled by planes, trains, and automobiles in less than twelve hours. We have sped down a mountain in the Black Forest of Germany on a bobsled-like thing. We have eaten both German meat and Turkish meat. We ate an entire bar of chocolate in one and a half minutes flat. We have chugged German beer (just kidding, we sipped it). Our plans have fallen through and we have created new ones. We have prayed in a spontaneous circle of new friends and we have prayed in an old German Catholic Church. We have had an adventure already and it's just day one.
Love to all of you. I will write again soon!
Peace from Germany,
Sarah
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