I will no longer eat “Freedom Fries”

The French deserve a cut of potato named in their honor. I will call them French Fries!

So the last few years in the States have been a tuff place for the French. I to have taken to poking fun at our frog friends across the Atlantic, but I have to say that they are by far the nicest people I have met since I landed in Europe. It started a couple of days ago when I was trying to make my way from the sewer of a city called Amsterdam (more on that later) to a place called La cocque France to help a friend turn a two hundred year home into a bed and breakfast. So I take the train into Paris and have to get across town to another train station in an hour. It’s totally doable but time is tight, I quickly find myself not lost, but misplaced. Evidently I looked “misplaced” because a nice French woman comes up to me looks at my ticket says something in French to me then grabs my arm and escorts me across the train station to my train all by me saying the only French word I know “we”. I thought to myself wow that’s really nice she missed her train and everything. I arrive to my destination safe and sound about 434 kilometers south of Paris into this sleepy farming town.

Nice French Person encounter number 2:
Like I said I am working on this really old house that makes you hungry and pretty dirty; fortunately for us Greg’s neighbor is this super nice old lady that spends all morning cooking for us. Now if you know me you know that I am not what you would call a good eater, in fact I am kind of the opposite, I am pretty much a burrito and pizza kind of guy. So this nice old lady has us over for lunch and has 3 courses set up for us.

(the nice 80 year old lady that cooked for us every day)

First course:
Not to bad, a little soup some wine, I am a little nervous, the wine she serves us was homemade and knocked my socks off, but I am doing all right.
Second course:
Salad; not bad at all (starting to think that maybe I will make it.)
Third course:
Out rolls this big black piece of sausage. Its called blood sausage and looks like hell. She is saying something in French then makes a gesture towards me that I should dig in. I grab the smallest piece I can and the second my fork touches it I know its not going to go well. I cut a piece off and its black inside (from the blood). I look to my left and she’s sitting there with eyes full of glee waiting for me to try her meal. I take a bite (oh god just the memory is turning my stomach) I smile at her while I am throwing up inside. She looks at the other guys in the room to see how they are doing and I take the chance to bust out a move that I learned from my moms cooking when I was young (no offense mom you cooking was great, I am just a bad eater). I politely spit the pieces into my napkin while she was not looking. I got out of there with the cute old lady thinking I was the greatest American she ever met all the while I had that god awful blood sausage in my pocket.
Day 2:
Its rabit day! Yes I ate Peter cotton tail today! And you know what? He tasted pretty good! The nice French lady and I have gotten our style down. She talks a lot in French, I smile and nod, she rubs my head/ beard, and occasionally when she is making a point about me needing to eat more she rubs my stomach (maybe she thinks its good luck). In all seriousness she is really great and it’s nice to have someone get so much enjoyment from making a meal and watching you eat it.
So looking back on the last month makes me think I am some jet setting international playboy like Austin Powers or James Bond (mostly due to my good looks but minus the crime fighting, and scantily clad women following me around) Since October 2nd I have been to Colorado, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and now France for the last week or so. It has all been really cool and very cultural (meaning I have seen more old churches then I thought existed)

(the view from our room)

Belgium:
It was Erins fall break from school so we used the Euro Rail pass that we got for the wedding from her brothers (thanks a ton guys) to head to Brugge Belgium. You might be wondering what or where is Brugge? I was wondering the same thing just weeks ago; turns out its what ever image you have in your head of an old quaint beautiful European town. If you had a couple extra grand burning a hole in your pocket you should give it to Erin and I so that we can have another nice romantic weekend back in Brugge; or you could grab your special someone and head on over to Belgium and stay in this town; it rocked.
One of the days we road to the Nord zee (North Sea in English) with our new friends from the states. These guys work for the airlines and don’t have a home so each month on there days off the hop on a plane and go on vacation (really cool).

These guys are a ton of fun and we think they are going to head to Berlin on one of there days off. The rest of the time we hung out eat some great chocolate, drank some good wine and looked at some more old churches. It was a perfect get away from Berlin with Erin. Later in the week we headed to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam:Amsterdam is kind of like the internet, a little history, a lot of places to buy things, way to much porn, and sometimes you wonder why it exists. I mean really how many times can I be approached to buy cocaine or hookers in one night. What mayor said hey I have an idea. Lets make prostitution legal, then let everyone in the city walk around high as a kite yeah that sounds smart.
We should have staid in Belgium…

Overall the last month has been really really cool. I got to see friends back in the states, travel Europe with my wife, and work on a house and see a side of France most don’t see.
I am really one lucky Guy
Hope this blogg finds you well doing what ever it is you love
Patrick

Around the world in 8 days. Sort of

So we are going to roll the clock all the way back to September 30th 2007.

September 30th 2007 found me on a train heading north out of Berlin. These are the same rails that started the story Erin and I are going to hear today. We bump along for an hour or so and stop in Oranienburg the town closest to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. I am sure you are thinking wow what a fun Sunday.
The day as a whole was not what you would call fun, but I would call it completely necessary for many reasons. First 200,000 people passed threw this camp 100,000 of them died, the second is this was considered the “model camp” or the place the Nazis tested out different ways to torture and kill. The final reason that this was necessary is because horrible things happened here, they should not be celebrated, but they need to be learned from so that society never goes there again. I would say the most important thing I learned from this day and reading I am doing around it is that I often thought of Nazis as this other form of humanity one capable of killing by unspeakable means, a form capable of killing 11 million people, a form just like you and I. Yes I said it, just like you and I. These men and women did horrible unimaginable things, but in the end they where just Doctors, farmers, policemen regular people that got caught up in the propaganda and charm that was the Third Riche. Now I am not saying that I our anyone I know would ever do a thing like this, but there similarities to the rest of humanity are scary and should be learned from.

Now on to happier times:
October 2nd:
I show up at the air port ready to get on the plane. I am waiting patiently in line when I look back and see a guy slugging a bottle of Vodka (or Wodka as it is spelled in Germany). For some reason my first thought was wow that guys smart drinking all of his liquid before they take it away at the security check point. A couple of minutes later I see this guy ducking under the rope lines and making his way to the front of the line. This in turn made the 4 rows of people he just cut off less then happy. Now our drunken friend was at the check in counter trying to board a flight to Turkey (there was no flight to Turkey). He insisted that he did not need a ticket, and seamed very upset that this lady was not going to fly him to Turkey. It was rather comical, but in this day and age of airport security this guy was fighting a loosing battle. A few minutes later the cops show up; this is where things go differently then they would if this scene happened back in the states. The cops just stood around and watch this drunk guy and his friend hold each other and sway back and forth. They decided to take action only after the main guy had fallen over for the 4th time and was drooling on someone’s luggage.
The rest of the flight went well and I soon found myself eating a burrito in Denver with my buddy Zach.
October 3rd:
Today was get stuff done day so that I could have a good rest of the week. I took a midterm for my US History 2 class (got a 100% if you where wondering), checked to make sure the house was still standing (it was and looks great thanks to our roommate Mel) and bought random things to take back to Germany.
Then the jet lag kicked my butt. I was sleeping peacefully in the back of the car by 10:30

October 4th:
The reason I went back to the states was to be in my good buddy Rios wedding. It’s for that reason that I found myself tearing up the golf course. Not being a golfer I was pretty happy with myself I had a few 250 yard drives and maybe one 300 yarder.
After a long day on the lynx I was ready to eat a good meal. Turns out Rios mom lives to cook and cook she did. She made a feast fit for a king or for about 30 of Rios closest friends. Once again jet lag set in and I was in bed by 11, the good side to that is that I saw my 2nd sunrise of the week come up over the mountains (a sight that dam near made me cry)
(The groom in all his glory)


October 5th:
After watching the sun come up I hooked up with Dave, Doug, Mike (Erins brother) and Becca (Mikes girlfriend) at the coffee shop in Estes. We loaded up and headed down to boulder canyon to do a little climbing. I had been promising Mike for years to take him climbing, it was good to finally be able to get him on the rock even if it was not Devils Tower. Don’t worry Mike we will still get on the Tower. The other great thing from that day was that I was in Colorado, it was sunny, I was climbing, and with some great people!! I could not have been happier.
I had to hurry back up to Estes for the big wedding rehearsal. The rest of the day was a blur between busting a 10 year old for drinking beer at the grooms dinner, beer pong, and having a good time with great friends.

October 6th:
The big day. The wedding was at 3 but the grooms had to be ready by noon an hour that came a little to soon after the night we just had. The ceremony rocked, it was really very nice to see two people I care about get hitched. The weather was supposed to be crap, but turned out to be about perfect, some clouds over the divide, sun lighting up the yellow aspen leaves, and it was in Estes so even if it was raining it would still be one of the prettiest places I know of.

October 7th:
Went down to Fort Collins to work on some school work, ended up having to take a test online while I was huddled in between all of our worldly possessions in my garage because I don’t have a key to the house. That night I went over to my friends Tom, Cree, and Skylers house and had a good slab of beef for dinner. Once again it was just great to catch up with awesome people.

October 8:
I show up at Zachs house to help him move into a real house with a real yard to see that he has packed about two boxes. We work well together so we had everything moved by around 2 in the afternoon and managed to not really break anything.

October 9th:
It was once again warm and sunny out so I went climbing with Dave and Zach. I spent most of the day trying to cram the feeling of sun, friends, and being in a really cool canyon into my brain so that when it’s cold, rainy, and flat in Berlin I can remember it. My flight was not until 8:15 that night so I had time for one last burrito (total burrito count for the trip was 6). It was a nice surprise to find out that I was going to have a row of four seats to myself, I grabbed all the pillows and blankets I could piled them up and fell asleep somewhere over the South Dakota/ North Dakota boarder and got some sleep. I did not wake up until we where zipping over Iceland.

October 10th:
I finally land in Berlin at 7:10pm after 22 hours of flying/ time changes and wonder if the last week was just a dream. Life always goes by so fast when all you want it to do is slow down.
Since landing I have just been trying to catch up on school work and figure out where we are going next week. Erin has off next week so I think we are heading to Belgium and The Netherlands. From The Netherlands I head of to somewhere in France to help a friend work on his house that he is fixing up. So if you don’t here from me I am somewhere in Europe and will be back in Berlin on the 28th.
Hope you are all doing well
Patrick

P.S if anyone wants to get married during ski season in Colorado I would make sure that I come back for it, just make sure it's going to snow alot.