Upward and onward...

After 4 very relaxing days on the Baltic sea in pletzerhaken, I am
excited for the next chapter of "Oktoberfest 2008".

I finished book 1 last night as I fell asleep. Kinda saw where it was
going (minus a few twists and turns) but overall a fun vacation read.
Especially so because it had such a turn of the century European
flair, putting me in the mood to immerse in old-world arts and culture.

Had a quick visit with Jana's bother this am, and hit the road. He was
suited up, and aching to get his kite in the air, and feet on the
water! I programmed a bit of a round-about route to the airport into
the GPS, and enjoyed the drive. not really knowing how long it would
take... Gave myself plenty of time.

Arrived at the airport in hamburg, returned the car, and had time to
buy a new book and get a bite to eat.

Meeting Jana at the Nuremberg airport on the tail end to rent a car
for the next leg of the journey. We will be going out tonight with her
girlfriends in Nuremberg, then leaving for Pilsen and Prague in the am!

Hope I have time for a little laundry tonight!!!

Short, but sweet!

It was just enough to give me a little taste, and wish I had another
few days to get back out in the water with that pesky kite! But alas,
tomorrow I drive back to Hamburg, and fly back to Nuremberg. I gave a
new found respect for those guys out there on ocean beach being
dragged around In the sand and surf!

Peeled the wetsuit off, all-in-all excited by the experience with the
kite. Grabbed a beer, and sat on the beach for a while watching the
masses kiting back and forth across the water..... A lot of newfound
respect, I thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone ripping it up! Sand
running through my toes, beer in hand, salty hair whipping across my
face, life is good. I am at ease. :)

Learning to fly a kite...

The wind came up this afternoon, and I was able to continue with my
kitesurf lesson... This time, literally getting my feet wet. It was
quite exciting!

I jumped into a wetsuit, we assembled the gear on the beach, and after
a quick explanation of launching and landing the kite, it was up in
the air attached to julia. We walked up the beach while she explained
the basics of flying the kite. ane were I the water. She told me to
grab the handle on the back of her harness... We picked our feet up,
and the kite dragged us offshore for a bit. The water is less than 5
feet deep for at least a 1/4mile out. Once we were out to a shallower
sand bar, we continued to walk into the wind to give ourselves as much
space to practice as possible.

Finally in a place we could both stand, with plenty of space all
around, julia switched the kite over to my harness... And it took me
less than a minute to crash the thing. Oopse. Couple more tries, and I
started to get the hang of keeping it directly overhead (12
o'clock)... And learned to make little movements to 11o'clock,
1o'clock and back again. First instinct is to hold I to the "bar" for
dear life, but in playing with the movements of the kite, it was
really a finesse thing that could be done with a few fingers. After
crashing a few more times, we moved onto dragging ourselves with a
motion of moving the kite horizon to horizon (3o'clock to 9o'clock). I
was a little nervous, but got the hang of it, and then crashed the
kite again.

This is where we ran into difficulties. We needed to move back upwind,
and back onto the sandbar. We had floated quite a bit, and were in an
unusually high tide, making it deeper than usual. Walking in chest
deep water didn't work so well. We tried to drag ourselves in using
the kite... With me driving, and were successful in spurts, but the
kite came down again, in deeper water (harder to launch again)... So
we decided to trade the kite back to julia harness. Doing fine, doing
fine, and crash again... Just when we were trading off the kite line.
Crashed inverted. Crash and burn. We had to take in the lines, and
swim to shore to sort them out.

After a good swim, we sorted the kite and lines out on shore, and
started the walk back up the beach again. Doesn't sound like much, but
a good amount of water walking, adrenalin, head back watching the
kite, swimming... N I was already ticketed out. We decided to to out
for one more round.

All the way up the beach, we were about to head back into the water
for another drag to the sandbar... The kite hit a wind pocket, lost
it's float, and crashed hate to the edge of the beach in a seaweed
bed. In about 10 seconds, the kite lines were tangled up, covered in
heavy seaweed, and my short kitesurfing career came to an end. It
took us about 20+ minutes to get the lines de-weeded, untangled. In
the meantime, the wind came up in full force, and the beach was
instantly full of kites being inflated and launched.

P.s.

Read back and look at the "sussgirl" comments. Jana has had bit of fun
adding her perspective to the "oktoberfest 2008" narrative!

No wind

Sooooooo day one of kitesurfing was a bit of a false start. Showed up
at the appointed time, and julia, my teacher, gave me a complete
lesson in the gear.... But we were unable to get any kind of a kite to
fly. Boo. All excited to get wet, and be physical, and nothing. Julia
was very accompdating, and we went paddle boarding (standing on a
super Long surfboard, paddling) around the bay. Nice, but not
"exciting". Hung out and had a few beers at the cafe while the folks
that worked there shut the place down. They invited me to join their
BBQ, but after hanging a few minutes, I opted to return to the hotel.
The surf camp reminds me so much of the river camp in September.
Quiet, and an intimate space for the people living there.

I returned to the hotel for a lovely dinner, n some more time to relax
(with a liter of wine or so!).

It is my overly acitve nature that when presented with the perfect
opportuinty to relax, I don't know what to do with myself. Sigh.

Keep your fingers crossed for some wind tomorrow!

Reading and dozing...

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain, and figured that might be
an interesting twist to my first kitesurfing lesson this afternoon.
Humph. It has since cleared up a bit, and the sun is even peaking out.

Crawled back into bed after breakfast to read some more. The book I
brought with me (the little book, by selden edwards - i heard it
reviewed on NPR a few weeks ago) is thoroughly engaging, and a fun
vacation read! Quite a little journey. It let's you think you have
figured out where it us going... Then throws in another twist.

Couple more chapters, then I am off for some much needed physical
activity!

Time for a nap.

The little Peugot and I made it back to the hotel, I settled down with
a beer to send off emails from the day... And in am off for a little
nap. :)

Awh, nap. Shutting down... ZzzzzzzzzzzZ

Countryside

Driving through the countryside

Did a little loop north to a little town between two lakes, Plon. By
the time I got there, it was setting just how tired my brain was.
Reading signs and adjusting to village speed limits took their toll. I
kept pullung off to the side to let cars pass because i was being such
a grandma driver! I was sleepy, and need to shut off for a bit.

Summer has come and gone on the Baltic sea

First destination was a little beach town north of Lübeck called
Travemünde. Followed signs to parking for the "strand" (beach). Walked
about 5 min and ended up on the beach boardwalk. It was just shy of a
ghost town this time of year, but I could tell that it is quite the
happening place in the summer!

Walked for a bit, then sat down, and managed to get myself a beer and
some lunch (previous blog entry)... Then hit the road again.

Truly on my own for a bit, I have this compulsion to keep moving, but
my body and brain are quite exhausted. Compulsion won out... Turned
the car north, and took a little drive through the countryside.

Girl wonder hits the road solo

Dropped Jana off at the train station around 1pm, set the GPS to get
me back to the highway, and I was off on my own. It was a little
hectic at first (seeing as I had driven on the wrong side of the road
in front of the train station, with polezi behind me right before
dropping Jana off. Oopse.).

I am so thankful that the Sussman's trusted me with the GPS, it is
comforting, but distracting at the same time. First 20 min driving
alone was a bit frazzling, paying attention to signs, traffic, n
trying to figure out where to go, speed limits, and if the GPS was
sending me in the right direction?! Ugh. Not relaxing at all.

I switched to map only mode, and relaxed into trusting that wherever I
ended up would be fine.

Yea! Managed to feed myself... In german

Eine Bier, pommes frittes und Bratwurst bitte. Danke.
Ummm... I don't understand what you just said in return. Ok, I'll just
pay you while we both nod and smile. Danke.

Next up, finding a bathroom?!

Deutsch (amendment)

Ok. So Jana would also like me to fess up to the fact that the
remainder of my pocket list of german words consists mainly of the
various kinds of "fleisch" (or meats) I might find on a menu.
Important, no?!

Johnkim... I think you should reconsider coming. By time you get here,
I will be a pro at ordering. Ha.

Deutsch

Jana is off for a message, n I am relaxing over a cup if tea with my
travel books. She is leaving to head back to Nuremberg tomorrow
(stupid work!), and I'll be left to fend for myself for a few days.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit nervous, but the time will be
good for me to truly decompress, and rely on my own abilities to
communicate.

I studied german for three years in high school, and I am impressed at
how much is still floating around in this brain of mine, but it is
also quite jumbled. Listening to full conversations, I am pretty lost
in the full combinations of sentences, but can usually figure out the
gist of what is being discussed if I pay attention. it is fun to have
a basic clue, but found it is also pretty exhausting on the brain to
work so hard to process.

I am curious about putting myself to the test in the next few days to
use a little german. I try it now and then (ordering coffee, beer,
etc), and am fine with the most BASIC exchange... But never fail, I am
lost when follow up conversation is presented, and just about everyone
switches to English to speak with me. Much appreciated, but in a sick
sense, a little disappointing that I don't have to try harder.

Jana has been wonderfully patient doing a lot of talking, and
answering my questions about what word mean (when I forget them a
minute later!), or to translate what someone said. I have been writing
a few basics down, and have a little list in my pocket.

-"please repeat slowly": didn't understand you the first time, I'm
sure it'll make more sense slowly?! Ha. :P

We'll see how it goes in the next few days! Yikes. Pretty sure I can
find a toilet, and have enough words to feed myself, so you have
nothing to worry about... But it could be sheer amusement getting the
rental car back to the airport!

Day in neustadt and pletzerhaken

After all the traveling around in the past few days, my brain has
gotten saturated already. Today was good and mellow. After checking
out the beach and kite surf place, we jumped into the car, and drove
back to the little town of neustadt (5min away). We got the car
parked, and headed towards the town center when it began to rain.
Thinking it would be light rain, we soldiered on. As soon as we were
far enough from the car, it started pouring. Of course. Popped in and
out of a few shops, grabbed coffee, a few munchies at the grocery
store... We were going to bail and head back to the hotel to chill,
but the rain stopped, so we walked around a little more and found a
place along the water for a beer and dinner. Under an awening for a
lovely sunset, we sat out a second rainstorm before hearing back.
Weather seem to change often, but at least it clears pretty quickly.

Jana's traditional "hamburg" (the town, not the burger) dinner...

Hash made with beet juice, fried egg, pickled herring, beets, and a
pickle.

Not the first thing on the menu that jumped out at me, but not such a
bad combo...

Klüver's Brauhaus in Neustadt

Testing the Northern beer and cuisine to better be able to contrast it
with the South...

Afternoon "siesta"

Kitesurfing place...

Sent from the wonder phone...

Lighthouse in pletzerhaken (along the Baltic sea)