Well, I did say that I’d make a Part Two, didn’t I? Unfortunately, I procrastinated again and didn’t follow through in doing this “in a few days” from Part One! I apologize for this. I am blogging more because of my increased online presence and also using the iPhone, so hopefully I won’t be such a stranger to my own blog.
Anyways, the next day after our wonderful meal, we got up really early to go to Essen. There was a gaming convention going on there, called Spiel ‘08. In addition to all the Role-playing games and board games that were featured there, Verdes Innovations was hosting a demonstration and unofficial competition of their V-Cubes puzzles. Again, I have to thank Christian for agreeing to take us there… and also Christine, my loving wife who doesn’t get into these puzzles anyways but she agreed to go because she loves me 
. It was a great experience, and it got me prepared just in case a competition ever comes to the Phoenix area. Christian helped me shoot some video of my turn in competition. I stunk up the place, but it was all in fun and I had support from the other competitors who were very cool with me. Oh, did I mention that I got to meet Mr. Panagiotis Verdes himself!?
The next day, the three of us walked around the Frankenthal area. I have to say that it reminded me so much of walking around the Naperville, Illinois area that, at times, I felt that they should be sister cities! I won’t bother going into detail in this post about the sightseeing; I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Later on, two more of Christine’s online friends became real-life meetups. Enter Torris and Heike, who greeted us warmly and immediately suggested we do a bit of sightseeing and shopping in Karlsruhe. I didn’t buy anything, but I was just wide-eyed at all of the new sights and sounds (mostly German sounds, admittedly).
Over the next few days, all five of us kept hanging out and touring the area. Since Torris and Heike were visiting from the Hannover area, over seven hours away, they stayed in the same hotel as us. We had breakfast with them every morning they were there, and we had some great conversations in getting to know one another. Though Christine speaks German almost-fluently, I certainly don’t but we got along just fine in conversation and Heike knows some English, so that helped in bridging the language chasm. In fact, one night, we went to a nightclub/bar in Mannheim. Amidst the drinks and music, I seemed to have found another language bridge with Torris when it came to music knowledge (since music is a language all its own!). Through it all, I’m thankful that they were understanding of my deficiencies and I’m so glad I didn’t seem to offend through faux-pas! Side note: Because of the language assault on my brain (and my listening to common words from Christine, Torris, Heike and Christian), there was one day where we ordered lunch… and I ordered on my own! Granted, I did a sloppy job of saying what I wanted, but I was successful nonetheless, which shocked my wife!
Another day to remember was when all of us went to the town of Heidelberg, to tour the streets and visit the castle for which the town was named. This was also fun and gave me a chance to practice some new photography skills, taught by Christian. This was the only castle I’ve ever visited, so I have no reference to compare, but it was huge! I was just dumbstruck at the sense of size, not to mention the history behind the castle. My words can’t do it justice; you’ll just have to look at the pics in the gallery to see what I mean. Heidelberg is also a big tourist town, so it was hard to restrain myself from buying anything. In a digression, I’ll have to say that the only time I seriously shopped for anything was in the Muellers in Mannheim. I bought a Yo-Yo (silly me!) and a puzzle/ornament for Christine and I to work on together. I was trying to find more puzzles, but I didn’t hit upon anything really unique besides the ornament and the V-Cube 6 that I bought in Essen. (gee, this wouldn’t have been an Esoterik post if i didn’t mention puzzles, eh? 
)
Our very last complete day there, we did another shopping excursion. This time, it was to get supplies for the party Christian was throwing for us! That evening, we met some of Chris’ friends and had plenty of food, drink, music and great conversations. I can’t remember everyone’s names (as I’m bad with remembering names to begin with!), but we had great times and conversations with Sascha, Dennis, Wango (whom we met earlier at Der Affenstein), Harry, Hans-Peter (who were both incessantly playing with the V-Cube 7 I had brought! ) and Suzanne. These people, along with everyone else there, made us feel very welcome. Refer to the video for the party highlights!
In retrospect, I’d have to say that this experience was more than awesome; it was a learning experience for me that helped me grow in my view of the world. Talking to everyone at the party, not to mention the others we met in our travels, gave me the sense that our cultures are very similar, but differing in enough minor things where we can still learn much from each other. Traveling overseas to another country, or even to ones that border us (I’ve been to Canada), is something everyone should experience at least once because it gives you an appreciation of other people in other cultures… and also let’s you know just how special and unique your own culture and people are. If money weren’t so tight nowadays, we’d continue this learning experience (and making friends!) in Germany and in other countries as well!
No Comments
