zaterdag 27 februari 2010

Across the Country of Germany

It was early Friday morning and the light of the sun was still on the other side of the world. Normally I am asleep then ( There is an exception though) and there is no sound in the house. But this friday, was not going to be a friday like others. So, why not change it first thing in the morning by waking up early! And that's what we all did. One earlier than the other, but before 7 am we sat around the table, ready for breakfeast. I preferto wake up alone, and eat my breakfeast in silent, but that was not going to happen. Luckily, I was to tired to really freak out, and so I kind of sat there in my own world, waiting to wake up.
As soon as I sat in the car, I closed my eyes again and slept for an hour of 2. I allways like that, sleeping in the car. It's the only oppertunity for me to sleep in my brothers arms ( which I love by the way, but don't tell him or he won't let me do it again).
We were going to Germany! In about half an hour, we were in Germany. To tell you, it does not feel any better. There is not a big difference between Holland and Germany. I guess the font of the sign next to the roads is different, there is no speed limit on the high ways, and, of course, everything is written in German. Other than that, it's like every other place. I somewhere expected to be cool again, because I had not been in Germany for a while. I thought It might be really fancy, because all my friends in America are SO jealous about the fact that I can be in Germany in 30 minutes.. To tell you the thruth, I find the fact that I drove or 30 hours in ONE COUNTRY more significant than being in Germany in half an hour. Oke, I am getting off with my story. Back to the point : being in the car was somewhat Boring, even though it was in Germany. Simon and Josse are pretty funny though, because they like to play Arnold Swachenegger and other weird types. That makes my mum laugh, and that makes me smile.
So, We went to Altastenberg, or Winterberg. The weather was not great, but hey, who cares! There was snow, there were no people ( and family the Leur likes things 1000 times better when there are not people everywhere) and failing was just not an option.
So, ski's on, and GO. I've cross-country skiied before, and Dad too, but as for Simon this was a WHOLE new experience.
Simon liked the falling the best. We liked it too. He would cross one Ski over the other, which caused him to get stuck in a really uncomfortable posistion with his legs all crooked and awkward, what made him scream and move even more funny, and than he would fall and laugh out loud in the cold snow. We laughed too, and waited till he was up again.

There was this one REAL steep hill. It was crazy when I think about it now we even went down! I said i had done it before, we went cross country skiing a couple times with school, and I thought I had done this before. So, I went first. When I increased speed the tears came rolling of my eyes, I was going pretty fast. When I was halfway, my knees were bend ( I was trying not fall, and with bended knees i was more stable) and my hands were waving in the air, and my mind was getting crazy. "I'VE NEVER BEEN SO FAST BEFORE. THIS IS DANGEROUS. DON'T DO THIS. WAIT, I AM DOING THIS. HOW AM I EVER GOING TO STOP. MAYBE I SHOULD JUST FALL. NO, I AM GOING WAY TO FAST FOR THAT. WAIT, IS THAT ICE I HAVE TO CROSS? I CERNTAINLY CAN'T FALL THERE, I WILL BREAK EVERY BONE IN MY BODY. I GUESS YOU JUST HAVE TO KEEP GOING. " It was dangerous. I went way to fast. There was this blurry sight ( my tears, remember) and i jsut really hoped i would make it to the end.
AND... I did! I did! Didn't break anything, didn't even fell. It was amazing, but i did realized this was not going to be good if my ( old) dad was going down ( without his new glasses, so he pobably coulnd;'t have seen a thing) this thing! So when I saw Josse coming down with that fear in his eyes, and that high scream, I was hoping he wouldn't break anything. He did not. Papa, mama and Simon went walking down. We all came back alive (I might have been overacting this a bit, but hey, it sound good. but there was a steep hill and it was dangerous.)

It was a long trip, and to tell you, not that easy, but it was beautiful. The trees had a deep green that made the forrest a bit mysterious. Allmost a bit Like Narnia ( I do tend to call every forrest with nice snow and quitness a "narnia forrest", but this one really was). It was a bit foggy, and wet, and I can allways smell the trees, which I love. There were places where big, square patches of untouched snow where you could look to the other side, with more hills with snow and trees. It wind was strong, but soft. It was not a painfull, cold wind. It was a soft wind, just pleasant and sweet.

After that we went to Winterberg, a cute German place, where I bought some postcards for my favorite American's and we went in to drink some coffee and eat some ApfelStrudel mit sahne. That was sweet ,and warm, and just all good. We walked around a bit more, to see the nice houses, which do look pretty German to me.

And than the way back. I was tired ( it seems Like I am allways tired when I am in the car) and so I slept for a while. My back and neck were really painful, so sleeping didn't went that well. We have the great ability to make up 'car-games' in a second. And so this trip, we made a new game. It's easy. The basic thing is : "Who first sees a ...... is the winner." No idea what you win, but you win. We've looked for many things. a dead dog, a car with a broken backlight, shoes, a woman with blond hair and glasses, a bald guy, a cross country skiier, a caravan, a tractor, a river, a soccerball, somthing pink, a police car, a car, and on and on and on. I've won MANY. So I am a winner. Loved that game :)

Stopping at McDonalds ( i knwo that's bad, but it reminded me of America SO much. Because somtimes we would go to some place, and on the way back, we went to Mcdonalds and could pick something of 2 Dollars, and that was jsut enough for lunch. And so we did the same today) We could buy something for 2 euro's. I picked the baked potatoes with sour cream. It was sweet ,and when we were home we made fries and watched the movie the Bucket list. WONDERFUL Film.
I remembered today I had made a bucketlist of things I wanted to do when I was in America.. Weird to see how i did not do anything of the list.
Want to know the list?
Maybe next time.

I have pictures
This was my friday, how was yours?
Lyd

2 opmerkingen:

Anoniem zei

Wow Lyd, wat klinkt dat allemaal onwijs gaaf. Behalve die hoge heuvel die je met een rotgang afging. Doet me herinneren aan Zweden. Daar zijn we met een paar DTS meiden wezen langlaufen en daar was ook zo'n heuvel. Misschien niet eens zo heel erg hoog, maar wel als je voor het eerst op de latten staat. Daar werd ook aardig wat af gegild en heel veel gelachen.
Wat heerlijk om met jullie gezin even een dagje eruit te gaan. Leuke afsluiting van een vakantieweek! Dan kun je er hoop ik weer even helemaal tegenaan!
Doei meis, tot gauw (hopelijk met je mama's verjaardag!).
Knuffel van Ellen

Neil The Real Deal zei

Awesome adventure! when you talk about the German forest it reminds me of Canada. Not that is was very much different from those in Minnesota, well the norther part. But when we crossed over the boarder it felt like we were seeing it with new eyes. The further north we went the more beautiful it became, and there came a point where we declared it as Narnia.I wanted to get you a post card in TN but they were all so ugly, i couldn't find one that had any style to it.