Asparagus, Incense, and Waiting

Tomorrow is the big day! Romi and I have enjoyed the past few days in Freiburg, but at eight in the morning our train leaves for the Frankfurt-Hahn airport four hours north of here. Then we'll catch a plane for Pisa, Italy! We are ecstatic! It's hard to believe we're actually leaving tomorrow! Our trip will be two weeks, starting off with the first day and a half in Pisa. Then we'll be off to Florence for two or three days. After that we'll spend three days in Rome. From Rome we'll fly to a small town in southern Italy called Bari and spend the night there. The next day (the 9th) we leave Bari for Athens. We'll have a four days to roam around Athens and wherever else in Greece we find interesting, but on the 12th we have an overnight train from Thessaloniki, Greece to Istanbul, Turkey. We'll be in Istanbul for two days before we return to Germany and Romi returns home. It'll be a fast-paced trip but well worth it!

Yesterday Romi and I took a train twenty minutes west of Freiburg to this little town called Ihringen. One of my professors here had mentioned Ihringen when telling me about what are called Straussenwirtschaften. They are basically restaurants that grow their own vegetables, raise their own meat, and serve only locally produced wine. The Strausse in Ihringen was famous for its asparagus (actually the whole region around Freiburg, which is called Baden, is famous all over Europe for it's asparagus) and for its Turkey. Romi and I got to Ihringen and asked for directions until we found the Strausse. It was tucked back into the hills and the woods, so we decided to hike before we sat down to eat. We took about three hours to wander around in the forest, until we wound back around toward the Strausse. But before we finished our hike, we just happened upon a huge vineyard covering the hills. Vineyards are everywhere in Baden; it's one of the major wine producing regions in Germany. For a little while longer we hiked through the vineyard, and it was perfect: the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and it was green vines and hills for miles! Once we actually got to the Strausse, we were starving and exhausted. We both got a quarter-liter of wine and something with asparagus and turkey in it. Romi got an asparagus Flammenkuche (something similar to a thin pizza but with sour cream instead of tomato sauce) and I got a turkey-asparagus skillet with hollandaise sauce. The food was unbelievable. As was the wine. After dinner we had another quater-liter, and our three kilometer walk back to the train station was surprisingly shorter than the first walk to the Strausse! When we got back to Freiburg, we were wiped out but still managed to get ice cream before crashing. (Sidenote: we've had ice cream and bratwurst everyday since Romi arrived...I was really relieved when she told me tonight she was sick of bratwurst.)

Somehow we woke up early this morning and went to church. It was a great service, and Romi met some of the people I know at the church as well as Father Mikhail. One woman I know from one of my classes, Elvira, insisted we ask Father Mikhail to bless us for our trip tomorrow. So after church I introduced Romi to him and he blessed us with the cross. Elvira told us to come back and that they'd be waiting for us.

After church we went to a cafe, had coffee, and then took a two hour nap at my place. The rest of the afternoon, we packed, frantically trying to keep our backpacks under seven kilos for the plane regulations. We've gotten to the point where we are sacrificing extra pairs of underwear, and we've devised a plan to carry as much as possible in our pockets. Now we are just waiting for the sun to rise! Next time you hear from us, we'll be eating pizza margheritas instead (thank God) of icecream and brats! Alla prosima!

~Ross

And so it begins...

24 hours later...I'm here! After a day of flight delays and train hopping, I'm here in Freiburg refreshed and ready to start the trip. Even though I hit a lot of bumps in the road getting here, it's Europe afterall--so I met several interesting strangers along the way. One was a group of oldies from Georgia, decked out in their overalls and dentures (who by the way are on the same flight back to the states as me). Another was a granonla family from Alaska, Cali and Wisconsin on their way to discover their German roots. That's the best part of Europe; everyone you meet is your best friend, all of whom are here with the common goal of traveling and experiencing life.
~Romi

Welcome!

Welcome to the Irons Travel Guide! This is the place to track Irons' as we travel around the globe. I hope you enjoy the adventure as much as the people taking them. "Oh, the places we'll go!" Sit back, have fun, and let's see what kind of trouble we can get into.

In the words of Dr. Seuss,

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Brayor
Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!