Impossible Germany

The mob sounds like a crowd from a European soccer event.  They chant "Ein prosit, ein prosit, der Gemütlichkeit!" (A cheers, a cheers, comfort of others!)  Someone at the next table stands on the table and tips back a nearly full stein, roughly the size of a human head.  They empty the contents into their mouth as the crowd around them erupts into cheers, encouraging them to complete their task.  If they finish, 6,000 strangers will applaud them and cheer.  If they don't, 6,000 strangers will boo them, making it known that they don't appreciate their lack of masculinity, forgettign that 5,500 of these people will never attempt the same feat.  Among the cheers, the man next to you picks up his stein and holds it out in expectation.  "Prost!" he yells over the crowd.  "Prost!" you respond, clinking glasses.  From the table behind you comes an arm and a new round of prost is initiated.  This is the universal language of Oktoberfest.  That man doesn't speak English, and you don't speak German, but somehow, with the couple of words you both know in each other's native tongue, you learn that he is recently married, on a boys day out with his wife's family from Salzburg.  He flips through the book you are using to try to initiate conversation and exclaims "This is beautiful!" paying particular attention to the phrases from the book asking about pregnancy tests and sleeping arrangements.  Two steins in and countless rounds of "prost" and 15 brave souls who attempt to impress the crowd with their drinking prowess, the room is a little more dull but the cheers come more frequently and the laughter is louder.  Oh, and did I mention it's only 10am?



From Salzburg, I went back to Germany.  I was staying about 30 minutes outside of Munich in a small town called Augsburg.  The hostel was much nicer than the last one and yet again, I had the room to myself! I arrived late and went to bed pretty early so that I could be in Munich early to meet Jenna.

Getting on the train in the morning was a blast.  The atmosphere was insanely fun. On the train, there was a group of kids that were singing crazy songs.  One song they sang was the theme to Pippi Longstocking, another was Crazy Train, and then there were some traditional German songs.  The women wore beautiful dirndls with matching heels, pearl earrings, and beautifully done hair.  The men wore lederhosen with checked shirts, wool sweaters and leather boots.  In America, when there is a festival, you're lucky if 20% of the population wears a costume.  I would say 90% of the population was wearing the traditional Bavarian dress.  Teeny children to elderly men, all in traditional dress.  It was really cool.  Another thing that struck me was seeing people walking around with open beer in their hands.  Obviously, that doesn't fly in America, but it was everywhere in Munich.

I met Jenna at the train station and we immediately set out on a quest for hats.  I wanted to go to Oktoberfest wearing a trachten hat, a traditional fedora-like hat that is popular in Bavaria, so we stopped at a few stores along the way. Most were 20-25 euro.  I didn't really want to spend that much.  There was also a lot of debate about the color.  I was originally going to go with a pink hat, but ultimately decided on a more neutral color.  We stopped in one store and there was a grey hat with a green ribbon and a brown feather.  It cost 20 euro.  The green ribbon was coming off, so I asked if they had another.  They didn't.  :(  The woman behind the counter took the hat and stuck a straight pin in the ribbon to hold it.  She then wrote down on a piece of paper 13 euro to tell me the reduced price.  I happily gave her 13 euro, and merrily went along my way.

We had a hat show....

Keg Hat

The Oktoberfest Sorting Hat

It is traditional to adorn pins to the trachten hat when one gets them.  I had gotten one in Salzburg - edelweiss.  It was explained to me that edelweiss is a rare flower found in the mountains.  It grows in high altitude climates and only blooms for a short period of time.  It was old lore that when a man brought a woman edelweiss, he was pledging his devotion to her and asking for her hand in marriage.  I did not find a man to bring me edelweiss in Germany, but I found a few men I wouldn't mind if they brought me edelweiss.  This is what it looks like.  Not a pretty flower, but cool nonetheless.  

In Berchtesgaden, I got another pin with a mountain and a climber.  I would later get a castle pin in Neuschwanstein and a tent pin with a dangling beer stein and pretzel for Oktoberfest as well.  It was fun to collect them!!

Having found our hats, Jenna, and her roommate/friend Angel Rose and I went to Oktoberfest.  My first impression was "Woah, this is freaking cool."  It was 9:30am and we made it into one of the tents - Hofbrau. There are 14 tents on the grounds of Oktoberfest.  They are named for the breweries that sponsor them.  Some of the more famous ones are Hippodrom, Armbrutschutzen, Hofbrau, Hacker, Schutzen, Lowenbrau, Augustiner, and Spatenbrau. Each tent has it's own personality which is really cool.  We went to two tents - Hofbrau and Hacker.  On this first day, we went to Hofbrau.  

First, a little background about Oktoberfest:

Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810. The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the happy royal event. The fields were named Theresienwiese ("Theresa's meadow") in honor of the Crown Princess, and have kept that name ever since, although the locals have since abbreviated the name simply to the "Wies'n".  With the exception of a few years for epidemics, wars and inflation, the festival has been held ever since.  The only beer allowed to be served at Oktoberfest are those that conform to the German Beer Purity Law or "reinheitsgebot".  This means that only beers with 13% wort (or 6% alcohol by volume) are accepted.  All beer must be brewed within the Munich city lines.  The only beer that meets this criteria is Augusteiner-Brau, Hacker-Pschorr-Brau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner-Brau, Spatenbrau, and Staatliches Hofbrau-Munchen.  

Hofbrau-Festzelt is one of the larger tents there, seating 6,000 people inside, and an additional 3,000 people outside.  This tent is a favorite of the American tourists, and there were a ton of college students here.  

The outside of Hofbrau-Festzelt

  The inside of Hofbrau-Festzelt

Jenna had some friends in this tent, so we met up with them and ordered beer.  Let me tell you, these beer steins were huge.  They apparently hold 4 American beers, and when they are full, they are really heavy.  

First legal beverage with my little cuz.  Weird!!

Seriously, this thing is as big as your head....

Jenna and her friends

Totally legal!  Weird...

About 30 minutes after we got there, one of Jenna's friends wasn't feeling well, so they went outside to get some air.   Unfortunately, after they left, they realized that there was a line about 50 people deep to get back in and they weren't allowed to cut.  I gave my beer to Jenna's friends and told them to have fun, then I went outside to look for my cousin.  We met up and decided to just walk around the fairgrounds.  It was so much fun.

 Jenna being silly

 This little leprechaun was wearing his lederhosen and drinking a beer

 Jenna and Angel Rose with the crazy traditionally dressed group

 This is the line for Schutzen-Festzelt at 10:30am.  This is the reason you need to get there early!

 The Oktoberfest eye

Jenna on the Ferris wheel

Angel Rose and me on the Ferris Wheel

These cookies were all the rage.  They were to be worn around the neck.  Not sure why.

Santa Claus was at Oktoberfest!!

One of the funniest moments of the first day in Oktoberfest was when we were walking down the main road and Jenna suddenly yelled "Bert!"  The day before, she had met a guy and saw him again.  I had no idea what was going on, except that my little cousin was surrounded by 8 guys, holding court.  

I then had my first sausage in Germany.  It was a must.  I knew dad would be disappointed if I was in Germany and didn't get a brat.

After we walked around a bit and rode the Ferris wheel, we needed to go meet the bus for the trip to Neuschwanstein.  It was a two hour trip to the castle.

Neuschwanstin was built by King Ludwig II in 1892.  King Ludwig inherited the throne from his father, King Ludwig I (whose marriage started Oktoberfest).  Built in the Alps overlooking the town of Schwangau, the castle took 16 years to be completed.  Unfortunately, only 170 days after he moved in, King Ludwig was found unfit to rule due to mental illness and the very next day was found dead under mysterious circumstances.  Originally, it was said that he killed himself, but since, evidence has come to light that he was murdered.

King Ludwig II had a homoerotic fascination with composer Richard Wagner.  No one will say if they were actually in a relationship or if Wagner just feigned interest to get cool things.  There are many elements of the castle that were designed to be acoustically pleasing for Wagner including a cave in the mountain and the great hall.  He also had a fascination, slightly creepy, with swans, hence the name, Schloss Neuschwanstein, meaning New Swan Stone Castle.  The castle was never completed, but it would have had 200 rooms.  The ornateness of the structure is amazing, but photos aren't allowed inside.  Still, I got some good shots outside.

This castle is the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle in DisneyLand, not Cinderella's Castle at DisneyWorld.  

Neuschwanstein Castle

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

The best part about Neuschwanstein?  It was the castle used in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  My life is now complete.  

After a pretty steep hike to the top, you are met with beautiful views.  Of course, it was cloudy and foggy, but we made do.

Beautiful Bavarian sign

The Castle

Brianna, Angel Rose, Emily and Jenna in front of the castle

I aged myself by pulling out a Heidi reference.  Of course, the girls had no idea what I was talking about.

The entrance

The girls posing on the bridge

When you get up to where the girls are standing in the above picture, there is a beautiful courtyard with one tree.  The tree was a gorgeous shade of yellow.  The yellow against the white stone was breathtaking.  I actually took about 50 pictures of this stupid tree, but, well, that's me.

When I got home, I played with Photoshop.....

This is the view as you exit the castle.  It was just breathtaking from every angle....

We headed back to Munich, and ended up going out for Thai food with the tour guide.  Thai food in Munich....the irony was not lost on me.  Afterwards, the girls headed back to their campsite (yes, they were camping) and I headed back to the hostel.

I got on the train and a girl from Glasgow sat next to me.  Her boyfriend was German and sat in the seats in front of us.  While we were waiting for the train, that was standing room only after we got seats, two guys got into a fist fight literally right next to us.  It was broken up quickly, but this was the first time I realized there was a lot of alcohol in the festivities.  

The train either broke down or was stopped for a bomb scare for over an hour (I think it was the later, but I don't read German) so we chatted for that time.  She was super nice.  Very interested in American politics, specifically Obamacare.  She explained how Scotland wants to separate from England, but she didn't think it was good idea.  She asked me what I thought about Posh Spice and I said, "Well, she's beautiful."  She responded "You think so?  Why do you think that?"  I told her that in America, we value being thin and stylish as the main determining factors of beauty.  She said, and I'll never forget this "Here, we don't think that's what beauty is.  If you have a warm smile, an open heart, and a warm, caring nature, we value that as beauty.  I think Posh needs to eat a hamburger and remove the stick shoved up her arse."  

Here I was 4,200 miles from home, stuck on a broken down train outside of Munich, being schooled on beauty from a stranger from Scotland.  It was surreal.

When I finally got to Augsburg, I got to my hostel to find that my key card wasn't working.  After 2 and a half hours on the floor in the lobby of the hostel, I finally figured out that I could knock on the door of one of the employees.  When I did, she got angry with me because she was "not getting paid for this."  I fought back the urge to tell her that I was not paying to sleep on the floor.  I finally got into my room 3 hours before I had to get up to go to Munich again.

The next day, I woke up, bleary eyed and grumpy.  I got to the train station, headed to Munich, and before I got there, I was in a festive mood again.  It's amazing how infectious the energy was.  The only issue was that I was wearing a dress and it was freezing.  I bought a sweatshirt at the train station, and got a venti cafe mocha with an extra shot of espresso at Starbucks and waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Jenna was running late that morning, but because I didn't have my cell, we couldn't get in touch.  She finally showed up and we headed to the fairgrounds.  

This time, her friend Devlyn came with us.  It was Devlyn's 20th birthday, so that was a great celebration.  We wanted to go to a more authentic tent, so we chose Hacker.  Hacker is known as Bavarian Heavan.  Their slogan is integral to the Hacker-Festzelt philosophy: when surrounded by clouds and stars with a cold Maß (liter of beer) in the hand, you may feel as though you are truly in a "Bavarian Heaven".

We also went in with the goal of acquiring mugs.  It was at this time that I ordered a secret drink - Radler.  It's half lemonade, half beer.  It's delicious.  And while I could have polished off a beer myself, this made it much more enjoyable.  We invited two guys to sit with us, Toni and Frank.  Toni and I became buddies.  He didn't speak English.  I didn't speak German, but we had some fantastic conversations, nonetheless.  Toni and Frank were from Salzburg.  It was a fantastic time.  The passage above describes our experience completely.  I've never experienced anything like it and would definitely go back.  In fact, I promised Toni that in 2 years, we would be back, and would sit at the same table at the same tent on the same weekend.  Guess I need to start saving my money!!

Prost!

Beer!

Devlyn and Angel Rose

Jenna, Emily and Brianna

Our table was the best!

Brianna was the only one to attempt to g'suffa!!

Emily, Brianna, and Angel Rose

Toni tried g'suffa-ing too.  

Eins, Zwei, Drei, G'Suffa! (Thanks, dad, for teaching me this key German phrase!)

We had so much fun!

The girls ordered chicken.  Yup.

Emily, Brianna and Angel Rose wanted to go walk around Munich, and Jenna and Devlyn had moved to a table with Italians, so with great sorrow and promises to return, Toni and I parted.  I went to go sit with Jenna and her Italians.  It was so fun to see her flitting from language to language.  She spoke fluent German with Toni and Frank, and spoke enough Italian to speak to the guys at our table.  When I got to the Italian table, the guys wouldn't talk to me at all.  After about 30 minutes of sitting there like a tool, I told Jenna to have fun, and I decided to go out to take pictures of the fairgrounds.  

Hacker - Our second tent

I was so happy that I got to experience this with these girls

Cheers to the people who dared to go on this ride after drinking beer

This lion said "Lowenbrau" in a deep voice every time the stein went up

Germans are so friendly...so friendly that they kiss strangers!!

See ya in 2 years, Oktoberfest!!

After we left Oktoberfest, Jenna got on a bus back to Florence and I navigated the Munich subway system.  Holy cow.  We think Boston is confusing.  

I got to Marienplatz, but everything was closed, so I couldn't even get a map.  I had no idea what I was looking at or where things were.  I did see some of the actual Beer hauses but didn't get to Hofbrauhaus - the one where I knew some of the history!

Marianplatz

Augustiner-Brau

I spent most of the rest of the day in the train station waiting for my train.  I was tired and cold, but I read, and napped, and charged my phone, and before I knew it, I was on my way to my 3rd country in the same number of days!

The Hills Are Alive

As you may or may not know, I have spent the last 6 months of my life planning a trip to Europe.  After an all-night flight to Munich, I grabbed my bag and hopped a train to Salzburg, Austria.  When I got there, it was raining, and the rain didn't let up until 5 days later when I was in Venice.

Even with the rain, Salzburg was pretty cool.  The first thing I noticed was the milky sea foam green hue of the Salzach river.  I asked multiple people why it was so green, but no one could tell me.  I made it my mission to find out.  Why is that water so green???

I went to check into my hostel and then took to the streets.  Salzburg is divided into two sections, old and new.  I had made sure that my hostel was in the old section, not the new section.  This was the best decision I ever made.

A little bit of history about Salzburg:
Known best for The Sound of Music and being Mozart's hometown, Salzburg has been around since the Neolithic age.  The area was first settled by the Celts in the 5th century BC.  After the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire, Salzburg fell into near ruins.  In the 8th century, Saint Rupert used the area for the site of his new basilica, naming it Salzburg, or "Salt Castle" from the salt that was abundant in the area.  The most striking building in the city, Festung Hohensalzburg, sitting atop the hill overlooking the city, was built in 1077.  The city was a major religious capitol, ruled by archbishops until the late 1800's.  After the becoming more secularized in 1805, it was incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian empire as an independent state.  When Napoleon invaded in 1809, Salzburg came under French rule, but was only that way for a year and a half.  It was then given back to the Bavarians, but only until 1816 when it was finally settled back into the Austrian empire where it remained until the Germans took over during World War 2.  After the war, Salzburg became a part of Austria and has remained that way until present day.

Another interesting tidbit is that Mozart was born here.  He lived in Salzburg until he was 18 and left to study in Vienna.

Finally, and one of the most famous families that lived in Salzburg were the VonTrapps.  We'll get to them a little later on.

The first thing I saw as I left my hostel was the Festung Hohensalzburg.  I wasn't able to get to the top of the fortress due to time constraints, but this fortress serves as a beacon when you're roaming the old city.  You can tell exactly where you are based on the location of Festung Hohensalzburg.

Rick Steves has written a ton of books on Europe, two of which I bought for planning my trip.  In his book on Bavaria, he included a walking tour of Salzburg.  I copied the pages and brought them with me.

The tour began at Mozartplatz.  This is a huge square with a statue of Mozart.  Apparently the locals hate it, and I did think it was a little hokey, but if you've got it, flaunt it, right?

From there, I walked around the corner (literally) to the Salzburg Cathedral.  While I was planning my trip, people kept telling me to go into the cathedrals in Europe, but I just don't care that much about religion, and I'm not Catholic, so why would I want to do that.  After this first day, I realized why I had been given that advice.  From the outside, I could tell that this cathedral was massive, but you don't understand until you get inside just how big it was.  The first basilica was built in 774 by Saint Rupert, who I mentioned earlier.  The building burnt down after it was struck by lightning, and was rebuilt by 1124.  That building was severely damaged in the 1500's and was torn down to be replaced by the modern cathedral in 1612.  I walked inside, out of the pouring rain, and my jaw dropped.  It has to be at least a thousand feet high, built prior to the days of cranes and modern machinery.  Artwork adorns every surface.  I tried to be artistic, and I got some good shots of the interior.

Upon exiting the church, there is another square to the left called Kapitelplatz.  This holds this guy, who looks towards the Festung Hohensalzburg.  There isn't a great story behind him - just that an artist sculpted him in 2007 for the city.

Walking across Kapitelplatz, you get to St. Peter's Cemetery and St. Peter's Abbey.  St. Peter's Cemetery, or Petersfriedhof is one of the oldest cemeteries in Salzburg, dating back to the 700's.  It's a beautiful old cemetery, but one of the coolest things about it are the incredibly ornate graves.  I've decided that when I die, my grave had better look like this.

One side of Petersfriedhof is bordered by a mountain.  Looking up, you notice three windows in the rock.  Tucked away in the corner of Petersfriedhof is a tiny ticket booth and a set of stairs.  If you pay the admission of 1 euro and climb the steps, you find that monks dug into this rock to build two chapels.  They are completely dark and cold and the way you would expect them to be, being built into a mountain, but still really cool.  The books say these areas are where the hermit monks lived.  Not sure if that's true, but it makes me think of a hermit crab dressed as a monk which makes me laugh.

When you leave Petersfriedhof, you walk adjacent to the mountain where there are a lot of random buildings.  The ones I found most interesting were the parking garage that goes into the mountain
(this isn't a great picture, but you can see how hard it was raining!)

...and the place where Captain VonTrapp sang for the last time before grabbing his family and getting out of town prior to the Nazi invasion.

By the way, he didn't sing Edelweiss, that was a song composed by Rogers and Hammerstein for the movie.  It didn't exist before the movie came out.

From this area, you pass through Max-Reindardt Platz (Uncle Max from The Sound of Music) and get to Getreidegasse, a busy shopping street in Old Town.  This street is known for the beautiful wrought iron signs that advertised what each store sold.  This is also the block on which Mozart grew up.  I got pictures of the signs, but not Mozart's house.

Why didn't I get pictures of Mozart's house?  Picture it: 7:30 at night, almost completely dark.  Pouring down rain. I just had weinerschnitzel at Cafe Mozart.  I suddenly come upon a group of 50 or so Asian tourists looking up and pointing and taking pictures.  I look up to see a yellow brick building with the title "Mozart Geburtshaus" emblazoned with gaudy gold script.  I shook my head and moved on.

Walking back to the hostel, soaked and tired, I walked in to find that I had my room all to myself!  My first hostel experience was fantastic.  The showers smelled like sauerkraut and the washer and dryer ate my money, but otherwise it was very nice.

The second day, I woke up super early to get started on my tours.  I bought a super saver tour with the morning being the Sound of Music tour and the afternoon being a tour of the Salt Mines.

The Sound of Music Tour started out great.  Someone picked me up fro the hostel, and we were a bit late, so there wasn't room for us on the bus.  This meant we got a private tour.  Three people, a couple from south of Austin, Texas and me in a van with our tour guide, Eric.  He took us to our first stop, the site of the back of the house where the VonTrapp family lived.  Now, this is not the real VonTrapp family house, but I'll get to that later.

This is from the scene where the kids fall out of the boat on the lake, seen here:



In the movie, there is a gazebo on the property:

This gazebo originally sat on the site of the house, but had to be moved because stupid tourists would jump the fence to get to it.  They moved it to the site of Hellbrunn Palace (or Schloss Hellbrunn) so that people could have better access to it.  Obviously, everyone needed their pictures taken.  Sorry mine is blurry.  I didn't take it.  :)

Next to the gazebo was a garden of dahlias.  I've never seen a real dahlia before, but I am fascinated with the black dahlia and chose that as the name of my phone.  Turns out they're really pretty!!

Across the street from Schloss Hellbrunn is where Maria sang her song "I Have Confidence" (which was later parodied by Family Guy).  

Our tour guide, Eric, demonstrated with the other woman on the tour, appropriately named Maria.

From there, Eric took us to see Nonnberg Abbey.  It was cloudy and we weren't allowed inside because men aren't allowed inside.  Back in the van, with the CD blasting The Sound of Music, we drove through the hills of Austria to Monsee.  While driving, Eric told us the story of the real VonTrapp family.

They had originally lived in Croatia.  Georg VonTrapp married Agathe Whitehead, whose grandfather invented the torpedo.  After giving birth to her 7 children, Agathe contracted scarlet fever from her daughter. Georg VonTrapp moved his family away from Croatia to Salzburg for a change of scenery.  Because his youngest daughter, Maria, was still getting over scarlet fever and unable to attend school, VonTrapp hired Maria, a young "in training" nun from the local Nonnberg Abbey to tutor her.  The children adored Maria and pushed the two together, asking their dad if he would make her their new mom.

They were married and had two additional children, bringing their total number to 9.  During that time, Austria went through a really rough economic downturn, and to combat the recession, Maria rented out two rooms in their villa.  It was one of their tenants, priest Franz Wasner, who heard the family singing and convinced them to go on tour to make extra money.  As the Nazi's gained power, Georg VonTrapp, a captain in the Navy, was given orders to serve under Hitler.  Being very against the Nazis, but knowing that he couldn't say no and stay, they family, including 28-year-old Rupert, their oldest son, decided to leave for America.  Since they were under the watch of the German military, the family went undercover to a restaurant to meet Adolf Hitler and escaped to a waiting train.  They lived in Pennsylvania for awhile and had another baby before finally settling in Stowe, Vermont where they began touring the US.

So, after that long narrative, we saw the abbey where they filmed the wedding scene.  It seems much darker in the movie, but I was struck by the pink marble and the lightness inside.

After that, we went back to Salzburg.

Did you know that Salzburg is known for its marionettes?  Apparently, Julie Andrews asked Rodgers and Hammerstein if they could include a song with marionettes as a tribute to this past time.  Eric tried to teach us how to yodel during the song.  It wasn't pretty.


The Lonely Goatherd from John Dean on Vimeo.


I jumped on the bus for the next tour to the salt mines.  My apologies, but I have no pictures from this.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in the mines, and the bus was moving too fast to get any good pictures. I did, however, find out from the tour guide that the reason the Salzach River is so green is because of the minerals that are carried down from the mountains.  Finally, an answer!!

In the salt mines, we had to put on a jump suit.  Not really sure why, but they were a dark grey canvas number that really did nothing for the shape.  When we were waiting in line, there was a teeny little blonde girl, maybe 18 months old.  She was wearing pink rubber boots and a pink hoodie sweatshirt.  In her little jumpsuit, with the pink boots and the pink hood peeking out, she looked like an adorable little starfish.  If it hadn't been weird, I would have asked to take her picture.  I had to restrain myself from picking her up and snuggling her.  That would have also been weird.

After the tour, we went up to Berchtesgaden.  This city is known best for Hitler's summer compound and during World War 2, was known for being the playground for top Nazi officials.  Apparently, Hitler would bring people to "The Eagle's Nest" to show them his power.  People arrived to this place in a steel elevator through the mountain.  There was one way in or out.

We didn't go to the compound and unless they had told me about the history of this town, I wouldn't have known that it had any ties to Hitler or the Nazis.  There was a classic car show going through the town which made things crazy.  Otherwise, we had 30 minutes to explore.  There wasn't much there, and wasn't much to report.

We went back to Salzburg and I jumped on a train back to Germany, ready to start my next adventure!

Boston Strong

I'm writing an account of the events of the past week, because it seems to me that people who don't live in Boston don't fully understand what it was like to be in Boston.  A mixture of pride, sorrow, fear, elation....we ran the emotional roller coaster this week.  This is why.

Starting from the beginning, on Monday.  Monday, April 15th was Patriot's Day.  In Boston, Patriot's Day is a huge holiday.  Most of the city has off of work and school.  The Red Sox play and a half million people come into our city to celebrate runners, not only from the US, but all over the world.  The finish line of the Boston Marathon is a tourist attraction, even on the other 364 days of the year.  Nestled on a busy thoroughfare right between the Boston Public Library and Old Trinity Church in beautiful Copley Sqaure, a block away from Newbury Street (our 5th Aveune) and a block from one of the staples of our skyline - the Prudential Building, or the Pru as we affectionately call it.  The finish line of the Boston Marathon represents everything that Boston stands for: millions of people who have crossed that finish line knowing that they had accomplished an amazing feat, walking the steps of those who came before us, the new and old combining to remind us that liberty is more important than death.  Patriot's Day is like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, New Year's Eve in New York, or Inauguration day in DC.....it's a holiday that is ours, that we embrace with all of the passion that our Founding Fathers brought when they discussed revolution while enjoying a pint in the Green Dragon, which is still a popular stop for tourists visiting Boston on Patriot's Day.

I was not in the city that day.  Although we had entertained the idea of going to the Red Sox game, we decided against it.  Instead, I was in Burlington, a town 20 miles north of the city getting travel books for a trip I'm planning.  I got the first message on my phone from Boston.com, a news alert saying that there had been explosions.  Well, Boston is an old city.  A year ago, the area was crippled when a transformer caught on fire plunging most of the city in darkness for several days.  I didn't want to think that someone could take a holiday that celebrated our liberty and try to cripple us.  Unfortunately, my optimism turned out to be false optimism, but I didn't know it then.  Immediately, I had 10 text messages from family and friends asking where I was and if I was ok.  I chuckled at the time, thinking that it is one of my biggest nightmares to be stuck in a crowd of 500,000 spectators.  My sister laughed with me, because she knew I would be as far from the city as possible.  As the texts poured in from family I don't regularly communicate with, my humor faded as I realized it was a bigger deal than I had thought.  I turned on the news in my car and listened to what sense could be made an hour after the chaos started.  Returning home, I flipped on the news and saw the video and suddenly, it was real.  This wasn't a gas main explosion.  This was someone deliberately trying to hurt people, my friends, my neighbors, my co-workers, people just like me.

A press conference came on the radio as I was leaving Somerville to have dinner with my little cousin in Providence.  Boston Commissioner Ed Davis said two things that made me pause: 1. stay home.  There was another explosion in Dorchester, 6 miles from the Boston Marathon finish line.  I live only 3 miles away.  They didn't know if bombs were planted everywhere so we were encouraged to stay home.  2. Cell phone service had been shut off in downtown Boston to thwart someone detonating a bomb with a cell phone.  The last time I'd had this issue was on 9/11.  This was further proven when I tried to call a co-worker who was leaving for France that night, and was unable to get a line out.  Since, we have been told that it was just the volume of calls that froze the cell service, but I remember the commissioner saying that the service was being shut down.  As I cancelled my plans and went home, I heard accounts of the hundreds of people who had been taken to the hospital.  Boston has, arguably, the best hospitals in the country, so thankful for that, I realized that even the best hospitals wouldn't be able to save the 50 critical cases that had been brought in. I settled in, waiting for the death count to rise from the 3 confirmed dead.  Luckily, that never happened.  Our miraculous hospitals saved every single person who was injured on Monday.

It wasn't until later that evening that I realized a different co-worker's family was injured in the blasts.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were spent responding to emails from vendors asking if we were affected by the blasts, scouring Facebook for updates from our co-worker, putting together care packages for her, and being amazed at the national press she was getting.  I can't speak for everyone, but I didn't sleep much this week, not afraid, but overwhelmed with the emotions I was feeling and the memories of 9/11/01.....watching the videos of the crowd at the Bruins game singing the national anthem that reminded me of being in a similar crowd on 9/15/01 singing God Bless America, tearing up watching Yankees fans, our sworn enemies, singing Sweet Caroline, a Red Sox staple.....seeing the memorial service for the 8 year old who was killed.....very moving.

Thursday night, I was exhausted.  I fell asleep at 10:30, knowing I would have to wake up early to move my car for street cleaning.  When I woke up at 7am, I had 35 emails in my work account, 5 recent text messages from my sister who lives in Hawaii, which is 6 hours behind us time wise, and 3 personal emails.  I bolted out of bed and flipped on the news.  My sister told me to close my shades, lock my doors and stay away from windows, one suspect dead, the other on the loose, most of the city on lock-down,  MBTA not running at all, and she was going to sleep now that  I was awake.  To my sleepy, foggy brain, it didn't make sense.  I went downstairs to move my car, looking around me, terrified that a crazy terrorist was going to jump out at me.  I realize now this was stupid, but I was still foggy and I didn't have the full scope of what was happening.  When I came back inside, it took me a good 30 minutes to figure out what had happened.  Basically, the suspects robbed a 7/11, shot and killed a cop at MIT in cold blood, shot an MBTA cop, and led the police on a chase that culminated in one of them being shot and possibly blowing himself up and the other taking off, exchanging gunfire with police and throwing explosive devices at them.  The emails were from co-workers, saying that they were huddled in the middle of their houses and could hear gunfire and bombs, others who had heard explosions and were home, afraid.  Cambridge, the next town over was on lock-down  but my town wasn't.  I live a half a mile from Cambridge if that.  The other towns affected were on the western side of the city: Newton, Allston/Brighton (where BU is located), Watertown, Arlington....One of the principals of my company said that we shouldn't come in if we felt unsafe, and my HR manager, my office pal, told me personally to stay home.  Finally, they told us to work from home, that the office was not opening.  Glued to the TV, I attempted to work, unsuccessfully.  In a typical day, I receive 100-125 emails.  Yesterday, I received 15 (after the 35 I got between 4am and 8am).   Around noon, my town called and sent text messages saying "City of Somerville NOT under immediate threat or lock-down  but residents advised to shelter in place," meaning we weren't under official lock-down  but we were advised to be in unofficial lock-down   The entire city of Boston was placed in official lock-down   But you know how there is always that one asshole who defies orders?  Especially in Boston, full of stubborn Irish people, if you tell someone not to do something, they'll do it just to spite you.  Some asshole college student would choose that time to go streaking down Commonwealth Ave trying to be funny....That wasn't the case yesterday.  We were scared.  We listened to the police.  We stayed home, and watched events unfold on TV.

This was the traffic yesterday, at 6:00 on a Friday, in a major city.  People were not outside.

At 6, they told us that they had completed their search, but didn't find the suspect.  We could go out, but it was NOT advised and we needed to be very vigilant.  This is one of the things the news is getting wrong.  I've learned from this experience that the national news is usually 30 minutes late and about 30% accurate.  As reports were coming in for license plate numbers yesterday from Connecticut, mostly broadcast on the national news, not local, I kept thinking "what the hell does Connecticut know?"  But this morning, as I listened to Alison Camarota from Fox News question the governor's decision to give the "all clear," I realized that they have no clue how it went down.  CNN has been botching reports all week, Fox news, nationally has been botching the news all week.  It's been kinda disgraceful.  Officials didn't give the all clear, they just realized that they couldn't cripple the city anymore because then, this jerk wins.  No one that I know went out after they lifted the lock-down or even had plans to.  We were still scared and we wanted the police to have the space to do what they needed to do.  I had settled in for a long weekend.

Twenty minutes later, the Boston Globe sent out another alert - Suspect pinned in Watertown.  My sister sent me a text urging me not to go out because it wasn't over - there was gunfire in Watertown.  Over the next 2 hours, we watched things unfold on TV, online and on Twitter until the Boston.com headline read "Suspect in Custody".  I let out a cheer.  Yes, I was alone in my house, but I let out a cheer and started clapping.  Then, to see people cheering for the police as they drove and walked by and the people on the Boston Common singing the National Anthem....a scene reserved for the Red Sox wining the world series.....Hundreds of people, gathering without destruction, cheering for every cop car that passed, singing the National Anthem.  People who offered to buy every cop they saw a beer.  There aren't words to describe the pride I felt last night.

Yesterday was a victory for the USA, the Boston Police Department, FBI, and everyone who helped capture the suspect.  It was a victory for the victims who now might get some answers.  It was a victory for those of us who live in Boston.  

It's cliche to say that you don't get it unless you were here, but it's the truth.  After speaking to a friend from home last night, I realized how much of the truth it actually is. No, this bomb didn't kill thousands of people, but it stole our holiday, our liberty, our pride and our friends away from us.  It pissed us off.  It united us, a city where people are personally offended if a stranger dares to talk to them is now gathering in the Boston Common singing the Star Spangled Banner.  Neighbor to neighbor, united, Boston Strong.

Moving to Somerville

At the end of April, things started going south in Southie.  It got to the point where I felt very unsafe where I was living, so I decided to move.  I found a cute place in Somerville, just north of the city.  Somerville was founded in 1630 as a part of Charlestown.  It was named on whimsy, and not after someone as most of the other places in New England are.

Some cool things about Somerville:

• The beloved marshmallow treat "Fluff" was invented here.
• The earliest Stop & Shop and Bertucci's stores started here.
• One of the earliest American flags was raised on Prospect Hill, above Union Square on January 1, 1776.
• The infamous "Winter Hill Gang" was founded here.  Later, James "Whitey" Bulger, would become the leader of the gang and subsequently end up on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list and allude police for  20 some years before being captured in Santa Monica last year.
• It's nickname used to be "Slummerville" before a massive gentrification happened in the 1990's and the entire town cleaned up.

I live on the top floor of a 3-floor house in Winter Hill.  The house is on the same street as an industrial laundromat, so parking is never a problem.  The street is very quiet and has big beautiful trees on each side of the street.  I can either get a bus at the end of the street to get to the orange line, or I can drive to Davis Square and get the red line to go into the city.  One is 1.5 miles away, the other is 1.8.  Since it's north of the city, it only takes me about 15 minutes to get to work and it's all back roads. 

So this weekend, I finally unpacked everything.  I do still have a lot of trash to take downstairs (our trash situation is tricky) but I tried to keep it out of the pictures.  The only complaint that I have is that it is very very warm.  Since it's on the 3rd floor and the window situation is weird as well as having terrible insulation, there isn't much of a breeze, so these 90-95 degree days are brutal.  Luckily, I have the best parents in the world who got an air conditioner working in my bedroom.  

Since some of you won't ever see the place, and you might be interested, I've included some pictures for you.  So, without further ado...

The entry opens up into the kitchen

In the corner I have my desk with my printer, desktop computer, office supplies and school books

Next to my office is my craft corner

The kitchen table is in the middle of the room and the sink is along the back wall

My little fridge and oven

The other countertop

The bathroom is little, but I have a tub and it's clean

The bathroom leads out into the living area (and my display of my favorite pictures)

Under my window, I have my library, records, and seating for guests

On the other side, I have my TV and wardrobe

I have a chair and table where I mostly do work

There is a small partition next to my chair which separates the living area and my bedroom

The dressing table and dresser with my shoes in between

The dresser is in the corner

The door opens out onto a fire escape where I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to grow some plants

Opposite of my dresser is a corner with my little TV so I can watch TV in bed

My bed is against the wall that separates the living area and bedroom

So that's my house.  It looks much more crowded and cluttered in these pictures than it actually is.  The best part is that I was able to get everything up here from the time I moved out (thanks to my parents).  And even better is that somehow, I made it all fit.

I'm looking forward to hosting many dinner parties and entertaining in my home.  

Maybe I'll write again before next year!