Marissa Turner

God love four year old kids.  Little J. was next to me for the flight from Munich to Atlanta, and as we were starting our landing into to the airport, she hollered out with that.  A man three rows up whipped around and I’ve got my hand over her mouth going “Baby, you say we’re LANDING!  We LAND at airports!  Sorry everyone, she’s little!” 

Oops.

I almost committed murder on the plane as well.  You know how kids don’t tell you they have to pee until they can barely hold it.  Well, Little J. pops up with “Aunt Rissa, I gotta go potty.”  Okay, line for the tiny little cube of a bathroom, so we wait a few minutes.  The line goes down, I get up, she gets out of her seat, and we wait in line.  The stewardess is coming back down the aisle, so I hike Little J. up on my seat and cram my butt in behind her so they’ve got room.  They stop when they see us trying to get in the bathroom, and a GROWN DAMN MAN jumps in front!  “I was here first.”  It took all I had not to hit him and tell him that, if she had an accident, he was buying her new pants. 

Bastard.

Other than that, the flight was good.  The kids slept most of the time, and while Baby E. fussed, that was expected.  Other children screamed the whole way through the flight, while D. and I sat there when our two nice children.  Talk about luck.

We had to rush through Atlanta airport through customs, passport check, baggage claim, baggage drop off, and then go through security again.  At baggage, I left the kids with her and scouted our suitcases (all six of them!) and then ran to catch our connecting flight. 

When we finally landed in Savannah, I thought I’d cry with joy (or exhaustion, one of the two) and the drive home was blissful.  We got home, unloaded, and then were deciding what to eat, who was to shower, and who was going to put Baby E. to sleep.  In the end, I kicked her to the shower, and laid down with Baby E. and we both passed the hell out.  D. had to pry him out of my arms and then tried to get me up and moving to the shower.  My reply?  “This is me, getting up.  Here I am, going to the shower.  Look at me go.”  In reality, I rolled over, snuggled into my blanket, and then passed out again.

To wake up at 0300.  I’m still on Germany time, D. was right.  The jet lag coming back is absolute hell compared to the lag going there.

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Well, I’m still in Deutschland.  Flight information was lost, or flat out erased, and so we’re flying out tomorrow.  Well, sort of tomorrow.  If you go by EST, I think it’s the same day.  Right now, it’s almost 2200, and we’d just be getting to ATL.  By the way, using a German keyboard when you’re used to American, is a unique experience.  My spelling has been… well…. let’s say compromised.

Things I will take away from this trip.

‘Hedges!’

‘The kiddie sink is not a kiddie sink.’

‘The little ba-va-vas.’

‘The peeples.’

‘Oh dear God, get off me!’

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I was wrong about “Nurnberg” (originally spelled on this blog as ‘Nurnburg’).  Yes, I spelled it with a ‘u’ at the end that should have been an ‘e’.  D. pointed it out to me yesterday, oops. 

Today was another relaxing day, I had a great time.  D. and her father and Kid 1 went to the Army post while me, Kid 2 and D.’s mom stayed home.  You ever look out the window and just be taken by the view?  I had that happen again today.  Yesterday, there was fog rolling over the mountains I can see from the front stoop, and all I could do was stand there going “wow!”.

Anyway, I got a beautiful amber necklace today for about $13 American.  I haven’t been able to find them in the States for less than $50.  It seems a lot of things are cheaper here, even after the conversion rate of American dollars to Euros.  (Anyone else think coin money is great, besides me?)  Drying racks D. picked up?  I’ve found them online for anywhere from $20 - $60.  They were in the grocery store for 7.99 Euros.

I’ve gotten a few things done on the writing front, mainly because this is a new place for me to write.  It’s like moving from my easy chair to the lounge chair outside when I’ve got writers block.  A new view can either make or break a writing streak, and, thankfully, this view is making mine.

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D. and I went to Nuremberg (English spell check doesn’t like the German spelling) yesterday, and walked around the city.  We toured the Imperial Castle there in town, one of the churches, and the catacombs that were used as beer storage before the 1350’s.  (The earliest reference they have of the catacombs is in 1350-something, I can’t remember exactly).  We also hit Finnegan’s on our way back to the train.

The church she took me too was almost totally rebuilt after WWII.  There are photos inside of what the church looked like after the bombings.  There were bullet divots in the brick, both inside and out, from the Allied Forces shooting up the place.  Statues and irreplaceable art were destroyed, either because of theft, or from the building collapsing from the bombs.  Paintings that had been put directly on the walls of the church were destroyed.  They saved what they could, and I could see empty stands were statues once were, and headless carvings where someone wanting a reminder of the War took it home.

(As a funny note, during the war, people who were without running water stole the faucets they found in the city, took them home, and screwed them into the walls in their own home… only to wonder why the faucet, which was merely attached to a wall, wasn’t giving out water)

The castle was HUGE.  Genuine medieval castle, built originally in 1050, and still around for tourists to gawk at.  It too was rebuilt after the war, but they did as much original stone as they could salvage.

The catacombs were awesome too; they were originally used to store ‘red beer’ way back when, so they had it year round.  During WWII, they were used as an escape route from the Allied Forces coming in, and from the firestorms started to smoke people out of the buildings.  The tour guide explained how, back in the days before indoor plumbing, the wells were getting poisoned due to water collection collecting all the liquid in the area… even the run off of out-houses.  So… shitty water.  Parents could not give their children water, so they gave them the beer!  “They had very well behaved children back then.”  I’m still giggling over that image!

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I’m having a great time here.  We went out again today, this time to the mall… sort of.  It was a big store, with three levels, the bottom of which was dedicated to crafts.  I got yarn, a new set of needles, and tried to teach J. a knit stitch.  She had an issue with getting the needle through the loop, but she’s small still.  Here in Germany, they teach the kids to knit in school.  And, this is going to sound weird, but everything is so clean!  I haven’t seen any litter, not even cigarette butts, like I do in America.

Anyway, it’s after midnight here and I need to get to bed.  Night!

*Edited to include that I’m in Germany*

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