Ch-ch-ch-chillin

This weekend was fun and a time for some much needed relaxation. We had planned to take the train to Munich and Dachau, but Friday night, we pretty much unanimously decided that it would be a good weekend to just rest.

After school on Friday, Andrea, Jeff, and I walked down to try an Italian place, Da Franco’s, which we’ve been eyeing ever since we’ve been here! It’s about a half hour walk into a neighboring town, but it was definitely worth it! We were the only people in there the entire time, which was really nice because no Europeans=no smoke. The waiter didn’t speak a word of English, but we made it work. All the pizzas there are 5-7 euro roughly, and the wine was 2-3 euro for a glass and a little jug that comes with. We all dined in style and for cheap! I thought I would take half my pizza home, but it was just so good. We didn’t bring our translator with us, so I wasn’t too sure what kind of pizza I was getting. It ended up having salami, cheese, mushrooms, onions, and banana peppers. It was quite delicious, and although I took twice as long as Andrea and Jeff to eat, I took the entire pizza down like a champ! The wine was good, too. ;-)

Saturday, Andrea and I got some work done then walked to the neighboring city of Birkenfeld along the paved path in the woods. It took about an hour to walk there…in the wind…and rain…but it wasn’t so bad once we got there. We teeter-tottered outside a church, visited a floral shop, and went to a couple stores to get some groceries and necessities. We were both dreading the walk home, although neither of us said anything about it, until we stumbled along a bus stop which drops off at the Neubrucke train station, down the hill from our barracks. It only ran every two hours, and luckily we got there ten minutes before it arrived. We shelled out the 2.30 euro each to not have to walk that trail of tears again. If the weather were nicer, it would have been a very nice walk.

Sunday, Andrea and I decided to hitchhike to base (more me than Andrea). Andrea kept pacing around saying, “I can’t believe you’re doing this. I’m so embarrassed for you right now!” We stood outside the entrance to Neubruecke with a “Main Post??” sign and sad faces. We would have gone to post with Bill in his newly rented car, but he went on Saturday without offering to take anyone else to get food, too. And we would have just asked for a ride on Sunday, but he was nowhere to be found all day. Fortunately, a nice German, soon-to-be ex-wife of a soldier was heading to post and offered us a ride. It was very nice because we checked our mail, went to the PX, had some dinner at the Mess Hall (for like an hour!), and then went to the commissary. She picked us up at a set time, and we headed back to the barracks. She was very nice and friendly, and we both enjoyed the ride to and from Baumholder. When we got home, she let us play with her puppies…her little weiner dogs! Sai (sp?) and Grace were itty bitty bunches of fun, and it was so much fun playing with them for a little while before we headed back inside.

With these unnecessarily long wanderings during the weekend, we didn’t get quite as much done as we had hoped, but it was definitely good to relax and not be so go-go-go all the time.