Guten Tag! We
just completed our first ever family vacation to Europe! We, meaning the wife,
Caitlyn, and I. And no, that wasn't a typo. Here are some of the winners and
losers from our trip.
WINNERS:
The Wang
family. This trip probably wouldn't have happened if the sister-in-law and her
family weren't living in Germany and hadn't offered us a place to stay. And I'm
not going to lie. Being the lazy procrastinators that we are, barely any
planning was done, so a big thanks goes out to them because this trip
definitely wouldn't have gone as smoothly without all their help and guidance.
The
grandparents. Three weeks alone with Hannah? No problem! Thanks to my parents
for stepping up to the plate and offering to watch over Hannah for us. We
contemplated for a long time whether or not to bring her. I felt pretty guilty,
but can you really blame us for not taking her? Spend a day with "the
Beast" and you'll understand. My parents have probably aged a couple of years,
been traumatized for life, and will probably never offer to do this again, but
at least they got to spend quality time with their granddaughter!
Disposable
underwear. This is the first time I've used disposable underwear, and I am
hooked! I don't like packing a lot of clothes when going on trips, but I do love
the idea of coming back with less clothes than you brought. On a side note, I once
went a month without changing underwear just to see what it'd be like. Not a
good idea. I'm trying disposable socks next.
Winter
weather. I've never liked the cold very much. Mainly because you have to wear
so many layers of clothing, but I think winter and I have become a bit closer
after this trip. Winter time is low season for tourists over there, which meant
we barely had to wait in line for anything. I can only imagine what it's like
in the summer. Not sweating from all the walking you have to do is another
definite plus.
The
Glockenspiel. I came, I saw, I heard. Now I can die a happy man.
$3.75 USD
bottle of wine in Barcelona. Beer that's cheaper than water in Germany. Need I say
more?
The late dining
hours of Barcelona. They eat late, we eat early. Therefore, we never had to
worry about waiting or reservations. That made it very easy to eat at some of
the more popular places around town.
Snow. I'm
from Texas, so you'll have to excuse me when I get a bit excited about seeing
snow in any amount. It was also Caitlyn's first time!
Skiing in
Austria. Given Caitlyn's very cautious nature, I wasn't sure how she'd take to
skiing, but to my surprise, she was skiing like a champ after her first lesson.
I think this was a huge confidence booster for her.
Heated
flooring in the house. My feet have never been happier in sub-zero winter weather.
Small Bavarian
towns. They were basically exactly how I imagined they would be. Quaint, quiet,
and clean.
Caitlyn's first
tooth falls out. As to its whereabouts, all I can say is that it happened in a
mall. I'm going to assume Caitlyn either ate it by accident or it fell on to
the floor without her knowing. Either way, the tooth fairy has yet to visit her.
No tooth, no tooth fairy, no money. That's a legitimate excuse, right?
Hannah's reaction
when we came back. I'm sure you have seen those videos of dogs reuniting with their owners who have been serving
overseas in the military. There's excited jumping, running around, yipping and
yapping, crying, and lots of hugs. That was basically Hannah when she finally
saw us after three weeks. And in the midst of all of that, all she wanted to do was hold Caitlyn's hand. Super
sweet. Super adorable.
LOSERS:
The flu.
The wife purposely pulled Caitlyn out of school a few days earlier to make sure
she wouldn’t get sick before our trip. So of course, what happens? She
gets sick. Her fever was bad enough that we had to change our flight to a later date,
which resulted in quite the hefty penalty.
Leg cramps.
On the date of the changed flight, Caitlyn wakes up and starts crying about
how her legs hurt and how she can't walk. She's practically hysterical.
Naturally, this worries the wife, who starts to contemplate whether we should
cancel the flight again. I'm guessing it's just an ordinary leg cramp, but I'm
definitely not going to be the one who says that we should go on our trip only
for her legs to get so bad that she needs to go to the hospital in another
country where we don't have health insurance. Thankfully, the wife finally
makes the decision that we should go. To think that we almost got thwarted by a leg cramp!
Paris. Ah
yes. The City of Love. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it as much as I thought I
would. With dirty, crumbling subway tunnels, graffiti everywhere, and
pickpockets, I just never really felt safe there. Case in point, on the day right
after we visited the Louvre, there was a man who was going around with machetes
before being shot by the soldiers. You probably saw it on the news. Talk about
a close call! But given that I didn't encounter any of the infamous rude
attitudes of the Parisians that I'd heard so much about, I suppose that makes
Paris somewhat of a winner. Plus, you really can't beat the Louvre or the
D'Orsay.
Chinese
tourists. Oh the horrors that I saw. All I can do is pray and hope that people
don’t associate us with them. But given my skin and hair color, it’s hard not
to. Therefore, any time I talked, I tried my best to enunciate and pronounce
words as perfectly as I could so there could be no mistaking me for a Mainlander.
Unfortunately, I think people just thought I was a Mainlander with good
English. My next option might be to wear a shirt with an arrow that says, “Not with Them."
The fog. We make the trek to go visit Neuschwanstein Castle, and what are we greeted with when we get to the top? I'm not really sure cause we couldn't see a darn thing on account of the fog. Sigh.
The food. All I kept hearing about before our trip was how awesome and
amazing the food in Europe was. You can walk into any random restaurant, pick
any random thing from the menu, and it'll be delicious. Now I'm no food critic.
In fact, I just recently learned how to properly say bolognese, so take what
I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but I was not impressed with the food.
I'm not saying it was bad. It was good, but it wasn't "mind-blowing" as
one online commenter said. Think what the Olympics would be like if judges
handed out 10's willy-nilly. I've only had one thing in my life that I would
consider a 10. That would be the BBQ that one of the teacher's husband at my
old school cooked up for a potluck. Now that was mind-blowing. 13 years ago, and I
still think about it. Or maybe I was just really, really hungry that day.
