Weekend Wrap-Up (Christmas 4-Day) - (Germany) Day 361 - 364

At the Stuttgart Christmas Market

Saturday: We took it easy in the morning as we got ready for the day. We headed to the main train station along with SPC Mac and his wife. We wanted to do something a little different this weekend, so we decided to check out the Christmas Market in Stuttgart via a train. We always hear how easy it is to use a train and we thought it would also be nice not having to drive and search for parking. It would also be nice to just sit back and relax.

We arrived at the train station and headed to one of the self service kiosks. We switched the language to English and proceeded to check out our options. We chose a group ticket that allows us to travel all the public forms of transportation in the state of Baden-Württemberg (the state we live in and includes Stuttgart). The cost was only 34 Euro for all of us and was good for the entire day. We boarded the next train and did exactly as planned…sat back and relaxed as we made our way from stop to stop until we arrived in Stuttgart.

The main train station in Stuttgart is located basically across the street from downtown, so we only had to take the correct exit out of the station and we were there…this did however take two tries as we left the first time out of the wrong exit and didn't quite know where we were. The Christmas market was amazing. This market seemed to go on forever and had everything from ice skating to rides for the kids. Of course it also had every type of vendor you can imagine. It seemed every corner we turned, the market just kept going and going. This would be one we may have wanted to start a little earlier in order to see the entire thing. We did our best and enjoyed some tasty food while shopping and people watching. There were also a number of street performers all over which added to the atmosphere of the whole market. Everyone really enjoyed themselves.

We headed back to the train station and saw it was about an hour before the next train to Heidelberg, so we sat in one of the cafes and had a drink. When our train finally arrived we boarded and took off shortly after. In Germany a lot of the public transit is based on the honor system. You purchase a ticket and then get on, but rarely does a person come by to check it. This train happened to have a ticket checker, and we found out why shortly after he came to us. The train we chose was an express non-stop train straight to Heidelberg…and the ticket we purchased was good for everything except the express trains. The guy gave us a break and only charged the four of us for 2 tickets since we had purchased the group ticket earlier. We had to pay another 52 euro, but on the bright side the train only took about 40 minutes instead of the hour and a half…or more that the slower train takes. We paid, we relaxed, and learned a lesson in the German train system.

Sunday: Sunday as usual was a day of rest…and cleaning. We hung out in the house and either watched TV shows, or cleaned up. We decided to go see "The Hobbit" which was playing on post. The show was long …almost 3 hours. If you like The Lord of the Rings series, you'll like The Hobbit. Not much else went on…a pretty laid back day.

Monday: Today…Christmas Eve, I had the privilege to do staff duty. This meant that I had to get up and get ready for a 24 hour shift starting at 0800. Staff duty has to be one of the stupidest things we have to do here. Other units issue a cell phone to someone for emergency calls which serves as their staff duty, but not us. Instead of using common sense, we need two people to sit at desks the entire time. Luckily I was working with SGT Mex. After chatting for almost the entire morning, he released me for my lunch break. I left at 1130 and he told me to come back at 1500. My dinner break was from 1700 to 2200, so I'm not going to complain too much. I was able to spend quite a bit of time with my wife on Christmas Eve. He's single, so he didn't mind hanging out while I was away.

We both stayed up for most of the night, although micro naps were a common event for both of us. I read a lot, listened to music and played Plants vs Zombies to pass the time…no movies this time because a lot of the time was spent either at home or chatting with SGT Mex.

Tuesday: I spent Christmas morning of course at staff duty, but our replacements came on time. I headed home right at 0800 and after kissing my wife, promptly headed to bed for a nap. I feel bad for the guys that had to pull the Christmas day shift…it just sucks that this is one of those things the command will not budge on.

I woke up about 1400 and hung out with my wife. We opened our presents that were sent from our family and the presents we got each other. This was a strange Christmas, and I can't say that I enjoyed it too much. I love that my wife was here, but it was tough not being with both of our families for the holidays. We have a lot of family traditions that I missed out on. I'm very thankful for Skype, as we were able to video chat with both of our families while everyone opened presents…but that is just not the same. I miss my family…I miss home.

Downtown as we were getting ready to checkout the Stuttgart Christmas Market

More of the Christmas market

...and more of the Christmas market

 

Adventures with the UMT - (Germany) Day 360

Inside the Church of the Holy Ghost

This morning I met up with the chaplain before his formation at 0750 in civilian clothes. Yup…you heard that right…civilian clothes! Today we are having an event called "Adventures with the UMT" (Unit Ministry Team). It's basically a way to get out of the office and hang out with the chaplain and do something different. It's a great way to see people outside of work, in a different light and also meet their family as well.

There wasn't a lot of people who signed up, which I was surprised. In total there were 12 people, but it also made for a little more intimate setting. People could actually talk and get to know each other a little better. We walked from Campbell Barracks to a street train that took us into the heart of old town Heidelberg. From there we visited a statue of the bunson burner man (Robert Bunsen) who lived here in Heidelberg. We also talked about Heidelberg University (considered one of the best in all of Europe). We then headed to the church of the holy ghost. We had planned to climb up the bell tower and get some views of the city, but it was closed for some reason. Instead we stayed in the congregation area and listed to stories of daring escapes from communist east Berlin into west Berlin back when the wall was up. The theme of this event was personal courage.

We then all headed to a restaurant and ate lunch and then finally headed to the Christmas Market ice skating rink. Only three people participated in the ice skating, but that was fine…they had fun. On the way back to the street train we made a number of pitstops for folks to do a little shopping. I was able to talk quite a bit with a sergeant from our company who works in Mannheim. He had heard about the way I have been treated by the company and was pretty pissed. He has a lot of the same views I do and is upset by a lot of things here. It was good chatting with him and hearing his point of view on a variety of subjects.

We finally got back to Campbell Barracks at about 1600 and were released for the day by the chaplain. I headed home and hung out with my wife for a bit, then got a surprise call from our CAM saying we should all go out tonight. We ended up going to a karaoke bar downtown and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We had 3 other NCOs from the ComSec vault go and one NCO from S-1 show up. They all ended up buying me and my wife a lot of drinks. It was nice to hang out with everyone, we all ended up having a great time. We were responsible and caught a cab back to the base…after grabbing a bite to eat, and then turned in for the night. I can say for the first time in a while I actually enjoyed my entire day and just didn't feel numb while going through the motions throughout the day.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Day 353 to 355

The Mannheim Christmas Market at night

Friday: I found out late yesterday (during PT) that today was actually a last minute training holiday. Surprise…everyone has the day off! This actually worked out very well. I don't mention my headaches all the time because they are pretty much a constant in some form or another, but yesterday my head just kept getting worse and worse all day long and I ended up waking up with an extreme headache in the morning. So being able to just relax and lay around for a better part of the day was just what I needed.

I didn't do a whole lot for most of the day and my headache did get better as the day went on, in fact by the time I picked up my wife from work, I was back in a functional state. All in all I didn't do much, so not a whole lot to talk about.

Saturday: We slept in this morning and had a lazy morning just kind of lounging around for the better part of the afternoon. At about 1400 we started to get ready and then headed out to the Mannheim Christmas Market with SPC Mac and his wife. Similar to the other Christmas markets we've been to, there were a lot of vendors, photos with a skinny Santa, and some small rides for the children. We hung out, checked out the vendors, and ate dinner from one of the many food vendors.

We then parted ways with SPC Mac and his wife and headed towards the SAP Arena in Mannheim. My wife bought me tickets to probably the best German rock band of all time…Die Toten Hosen. This band has been extremely popular in Germany since the early 80's. They are still making great music and it's being played on the German pop stations. Not surprisingly the crowd in the arena ranged from young teenagers all the way to some old folks. I've been waiting over 20 years to see this band in concert (since I came to Germany many years ago and fell in love with their music). They put on a great, energetic show and even my wife enjoyed herself…even though she hadn't heard of them until recently. I had a great time…a great early Christmas present that I'll remember forever.

Sunday: Today was our usual Sunday day…lots of cleaning and laundry, then some TV shows. We also watched "The Campaign" which turned out to be a pretty funny movie. I had seen it before, but my wife has been waiting to see it for a while. We also chatted with members from both our families, so nice to see everyone…but of course it makes it tough because we both miss everyone a lot. I hope now more than ever that I will end up just getting a medboard and sent back to Ft. Lewis which is only a half hour from my hometown. Not a lot else went on…a pretty mellow day.

Getting ready to cross the street and check out the Mannheim Christmas Market

 

Die Toten Hosen Live in concert!

Die Toten Hosen Live in concert...what a blast!

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Germany) Day 347 & 348

A view from the Frankfurt Christmas Market

Saturday: This morning after getting ready we headed to the post office once again to mail out some Christmas packages. We then headed off to Frankfurt to check out their Christmas Market. As I mentioned yesterday, each town has their own Christmas Market and we basically just picked a city and left.

It was pretty cold, so I'm glad we headed out and spent the day there instead of going at night. We walked around and checked out all the vendors. The setup was huge, it just kept going and going with vendors everywhere we looked. We not only checked out the vendors and ate our lunch there, my wife also had to check out some of the traditional stores in the mall. It was a good day, it was nice to get out of the house and spend time in the big city.

Sunday: Today was a day of rest…if you don't count the shopping trip we made to the commissary, we seemed to be out of everything. Usually we use the self checkout because it's easy and you don't have to spend extra money tipping the baggers. Today was not one of those days, we had so much it was just easier to have a bagger give us a hand. Other than that we just sat inside, cleaned, cut my hair, and watched TV shows and the snow come down outside. It was a nice day of just hanging out with my wife.

There is always plenty of good food at the Christmas Markets!

Snow - (Germany) Day 346

The Heidelberg castle all lit up above the Christmas Market

This morning I headed into my office and the chaplain didn't come in for a while. He had some appointments first thing in the morning. I basically just did some schoolwork and then played Plants Vs. Zombies on my iPhone until he came in. We talked a little about the plan for next week. I headed home for lunch and headed to the post office to mail off some presents to family back home.

Back in my office I spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out, not much to do at all today. I headed to my car at 1530 and grabbed my PT gear, then changed into everything in my office. Not too long after that the chaplain came in and said my boss just called and said we were released for the day because of the snow conditions. There has been a light snow all day and they wanted to get everyone home sooner rather than later just to be safe.

I picked up my wife and headed home, we then changed into warm clothes and headed down to the Heidelberg Christmas Market. Christmas is a pretty big deal in Germany and it seems every town has a Christmas Market with a number of vendors selling gifts and food. Glühwein is a specialty that you'll see served at a number of the booths. This is a hot wine that will warm you up on the cold December days and nights. At first I thought hot wine might be nasty, but after giving it a try it turned out to be pretty tasty. The Heidelberg Christmas Market not only has all the vendors, but also has a merry-go-round and an ice skating rink setup.

Walking down the street towards the Heidelberg Christmas Market