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.