The last couple weeks have been a nice break and change of pace. I went to Bayreuth (pronounced Bye-roit) to visit family as planned. What didn't go to plan is that I ended up staying way longer than I had been planning. First of all, my new cousin Lexy is pretty much the cutest baby you'll ever see...and I'm not even a baby guy. My apologies to any readers with babies...I'm sure yours is just as cute. She's got huge brown eyes and a great smile. I've never seen so many people stop and look at a baby like they do with her. Lisa and Rinaldo informed me that my mom gave them a mission on Christmas to get me to want to provide her grand kids. That won't be happening any time soon if I have anything to say about it, but Lexy's definitely a good baby representative.
The other new family member I was grateful to meet was Osvaldo, Rinaldo's brother. I didn't make it to their wedding in the summer, so I never had the chance to meet him. I can't say enough good things about Osvaldo as a host or as a person. This is despite Rinaldo's repeated pleas to “destroy him” in this blog – I've never seen two siblings break eachothers balls as much as these two do. He went out of his way to make me feel at home, which was more than appreciated. Having been on the road for 4 months, this was one of the few times where I truly felt anything close to being at home. That, combined with his great cooking led me to extending my stay from a couple days to nearly a week and a half.
On my second day there we went to watch Osvaldo's team play. He plays pro basketball in Germany and has been over here for 3 years. In the first city he played in, Osvaldo met a family that took him in as one of their own, teaching him how to speak German, and providing some of the comforts that only family can provide. They came out to watch the game too, and I could see why Osvaldo loved them... they were very warm and sweet people. By the end of the night they even insisted I come visit them on the weekend with the rest of the gang, which is what twisted my rubber arm into extending my visit. The game itself was lots of fun. Unfortunately Osvaldo's got a shoulder injury so he wasn't able to play. His team clearly missed his absence since they ended up giving up a 15 point lead and losing the game. The atmosphere in the gym was crazy though. There were about 2000 fans there and it was louder than most Sens games. I'm sure the smaller room contributed to the acoustics, but still... Ottawa fans could learn something from European sports fans! So now I can add professional basketball to my ever-growing list of sports I've seen on this trip.
The following day, Elke and Kui, the mother and father of the family, gave Lisa and I a tour of Bayreuth, which turned out to be quite the cool little town. Afterwords we stopped in at the opera house's cafe. It was fancy in and old lady/doiley kinda way. It really reminded me of my grandmother, as that's the sort of thing she would have enjoyed.
The rest of the week was spent relaxing, with the occasional stroll through town. The baby was still getting adjusted to her new surroundings and the time change, so Lisa and Rinaldo were also pretty tired from that. That was fine by me, to sit down, relax, watch some Sons of Anarchy (or SOA as Lisa liked to call it), or play some playstation.
Finally on Friday we left to visit Elke, Kui, and the rest of the family in Nordlingen, which was about 2 hours away. This was the first town where Osvaldo played basketball and it was beautiful. I mentioned in my previous post about how WWII wiped out most buildings in the big German cities. Luckily Nordlingen was mostly untouched by the bombs since it was so small, and so the medieval town has largely remained the same. The town is over 1000 years old, and nearly every building in the centre is a few hundred years old.
All in all, I am so glad I got to meet everybody I did over the past couple weeks. If you're reading this, thanks Lisa, Rinaldo, Osvaldo, the Molls, and Lexy...although Lexy probably isn't reading this.
I've received a few enquiries as to my cliffhanger from the last post. So here it is: next Friday, I'll be flying to Thailand. As much as I've enjoyed Europe, it's time to move on to the next part of this journey. I'm thinking I'll be travelling South East Asia for a few months, but as I, and probably you, have learned, plans on this trip tend to change pretty easily. I'm looking forward to the change. And not to mention the warmth! I'm also a little nervous which I haven't really felt since I booked my flight to Dublin back in September. If you've been over that way and have any tips, I'm all ears because this is completely new territory for me. I'll be keeping up with the blog as much as internet access will allow, so if you're still interested, you're welcome to continue down this strange and winding road with me. Wish me luck!
As for pictures, I was just as lazy with my camera as I was with everything else the last few days. So no pictures except this one with a cute girl I met:
I guarantee Asia will be the highlight of your trip! C'mon! AP is from there.
ReplyDeleteSending lots of love and hugs. Also, may I request something from you? A magnet from somewhere in Asia. Thailand would be fantastic. I'm starting a collection from places my friends have visited.