The first few days

Dad took me to PDX airport.

After sitting at the gate with a plane overbooked by 5, anticipating if I could get on the plane using standby tickets, I was allowed to board the plane. The flight attendent looked at my ticket and pointed in a direction which I started walking toward until she beckoned me back and told me to sit in first class. First class? I have never enjoyed a 10 hour flight more. (However, the movies, food, and Finnish flight attendant distracted me from actually sleeping..)

After a train ride to Eindhoven, Nathan and Tricia picked me up. Then, after moving them from the hotel to the apartment, going shopping and walking around I finally took a nap for a couple hours. That night we went bowling with Nathan's co-workers (where I had a Red Bull in a glass bottle), ate at a restaurant where we cooked our meat on a medieval-type thing, and then went and met even more people at the city center. At 2:30AM we finally retired. That would be 5pm the day before at home. Gotta love jet lag.

The apartments I am staying at.

The view from the patio into the street.


After many hours of traveling, I made it!

Friday, not much happened except for walking around Eindhoven. Then that evening, we drove to Stuttgart, Germany and stayed in the Holiday Inn. By that time I was able to realize that almost all the Dutch speak English, the German are more hesitant to, and ... I feel less cool when I struggle to find the right accent to say "Dank u wel."

This weekend in Germany, we got to see three castles, hike above one of them, eat some authentic German food, see the Alps, laugh at their word for exit (Ausfart), and experience getting passed by Porsches and Alfa Romeos while we pushed the Kia to its max (111 MPH) on the Autobahn.
Nathan and I started to hike up further and further up a cliff to get a better view of the castle, the lake, the town below, and the Swiss Alps beyond.

Nate snapped a shot of me in front of the NeuSchwannstein Castle.

A view of the Burg Hohenzollern Castle's little garden in the middle.

The view of the landscape below the Hohenzollern castle.

Today, we were back to the usual walking around the city centrum. At lunch with Tricia and another girl, the waiter came up to us speaking Dutch. It only took a second after me saying, "Um..." and he says in a British accent, "Oh sorry! English!" Even my accent for UM is a dead give-away. So far in Eindhoven, I've tried Shoarma (a Turkish sandwhich with almost a pita bread with flavorful chicken and lettuce inside), Fried Calamari that came with Squidy the Octupus (I named him before knowing that he was of a different species..), Japanese noodles with bamboo and veggies in it, and various cafe type food.

Overall, a quick summary:
I fit in quite well due to genetic similarities
Food is good, but usually fried-- they love their frites (fries)
Toilets have a little shelf (maybe for viewing pleasure before you flush? I'm not sure.)
Every bathroom you walk into it has a new type of door handle, lock, sink, faucet, hand dryer, etc. something to throw you for a fun little loop of a guess-and-check game
American music is played at many places, but certain street musicians have instruments I've never seen before
The Grasshopper, a "coffeeshop", is not really a coffeeshop.
Light switches are big square flip-switches.
Ambulances sound like "nagging wives." Someone else's quote, not mine.
Hiking up onto cliffs above castles is exhilerating.
Germany is beautiful-- picture potatoes gunny sacks hanging on wooden houses, with flower pots spilling over wooden railings, with tan cows against the backdrop of the snow-capped Alps.

And that is my trip so far using only bits and pieces.