I made it to Leo’s okay. At the airport, I thought I was going to miss my flight because my gate was super far away, like I had to take a subway once I got through security to get to it. Yeah. But I made it and once I got to the Frankfurt airport, I had no idea where to go or what to do to get to the train station, but I discovered a shuttle bus that runs from the airport to the train station, whew! And once at the train station, I totally forgot the name of the train station I had to get to. My phone was dead and there wasn’t anywhere with internet (I had it in my emails). So I bought a ticket to a city called Stuttgart, that I knew was close to Leo, but I didn’t know how close.
Once I got on the train, I remembered the name of the correct stop, which wasn’t on this route. Luckily, I remembered at before the next stop which was a transfer station for that stop. I got off and went to the customer service counter and pulled the tourist card. “I told the man at Frankfurt I want a ticket to Pforzheim, not Stuttgart, and he gave me one to Stuttgart. Luckily, I noticed in time or else I would have ended up, who-knows where…I don’t know if he didn’t understand what I was saying or what…but now I spent 56 Euros a ticket to Stuttgart that I don’t need. Is there any way you can fix this?” It worked. She just changed the destination and stamped the ticket so it was fine. I felt bad lying since it was kind of my fault, but I didn’t want to have to pay another arm and a leg to get to Leo’s. At this point, I had about an hour to kill and I found a place to plug my phone in and get on the Internet. Then I had to pee really bad, so I paid 2 Euro to use a toilet. Awesome.
Anyways, I had two more transfers so the time went by quickly and before I knew it, I was pulling into Pforzheim. I got off the train and saw a streak of blond hair disappear down some stairs on another platform. Leo!! She met me on my platform and we had the dramatic “Oh-my-God-I-haven’t-seen-you-in-five-years-hug.” It was fabulous! She looks beautiful as always and we hugged and laughed and smiled and made little squeaking sounds so as to express our excitement in seeing each other in so long. We started talking right away and got in her car to ride another 35 minutes to her house, deep in the Black Forest a top Lovely Mountain. It was dark, so I didn’t see much on the way home, except the blackness of the Black Forest.
When we arrived at her house, we were greeted by her father and I was showed to my room and bathroom. Her mother is a masseuse and works from their home so they have a large meditation room that was set up for my stay. We went upstairs and surprisingly her whole family was there awaiting my arrival to have dinner. She has four brothers (one of which is not here for the holidays) and a younger sister. I was introduced to everyone and ate a fantastic meal, my favorite part being the salad with avocados. It was amazing! We talked for a while and then I busted out the bottle I wine as a thanks to them. We chatted over a couple bottles of wine and then everyone gradually went off to bed. They are the nicest people. It feels so nice to be reunited with such a great old friend and get to meet her family and everything. I’m really excited to be here and get a real German experience.
Today, we went for a little walk in her neighborhood and relaxed for most of the day, doing a lot of talking along the way. Later tonight, we are going to a Christmas market in a nearby city, Stuttgart. I get to meet some of her friends and try some German hot wine. More to come soon!
Until then,
Maribel