October Trip Part 1: Frankfurt (Oberursel)

I left the house on a Tuesday for my big 10-day adventure, armed with a tiny suitcase and the cheapest train tickets I could find. The trip would be all about my girlfriends - the first four days visiting Michalina, my Polish friend from the IFC who now lives in Frankfurt, then a weekend with Annika and Katja in Karlsruhe, and ending with four days to explore Paris with Paige Wendle.

The first leg of my journey took me from Kleinbottwar to Stuttgart, where I found out my train had been cancelled due to an derailing on one of the high-traffic tracks. So I was upgraded to an ICE (high-speed intercity train) for free and arrived in Frankfurt 2 hours later than planned.

Michalina and her German boyfriend Dennis picked me up from the train station and took me back to their little town on the outskirts of the city, Oberursel. We walked the streets and ate dinner at a delicious Spanish restaurant - lots of garlic and tapas! Then I settled into my guest room there and we watched movies and relaxed for the evening.

The next day we woke up slow, ate cheesy toast with tomatoes for breakfast, and went minigolfing!

 

Dennis was on vacation all week and was able to join us for most of our sight-seeing, or to drive us places. The weather wasn't the greatest, so we also spent a lot of time inside. Michalina taught me how to make Polish pierogies - a kind of dumpling that looks a lot like what we know as Chinese potstickers. We stood like two old housewives in the kitchen, cooking and laughing while Dennis checked some work emails on his iPad in the living room. Did I mention he is a quite successful banker? He is a little older than Micha and has been with the bank since he was 15. He does very well and was quite the generous host! He didn't let me pay for anything, except when I sneakily convinced Micha to let me pick up the tab for his chicken McNuggets on Thursday.

 

Over the course of my stay I also met Dennis' family, tried his sister's amazing raspberry cheesecake, got to meet up with Mirjam (a Webster friend) in the city for lunch, and strolled the streets of Frankfurt with Micha. Again, it was rainy, so we would often find a cafe and plant ourselves there for a few hours to talk about life. We have a lot in common - we are both from small towns in more conservative countries, both Catholic, both have two sisters, both love cooking, both moved back to Germany for love, both deal with language barriers in the job hunt! We understood each other just as well as we did six years ago.

 

We were also able to catch up with Katja and Fabian Joos, who were in town for the German Day of Unification holiday on Wednesday. Dennis and Micha invited them over and we had a BBQ on the balcony. It was really neat to have four of the former IFC students back together and to laugh about old times.

On the day I left, Michalina had a dentist appointment. We went into the city together and I got to see the entryway of Dennis' massive bank (where, oddly enough, the dentist office was located) and he and I had some pizza at a local stand-up cafe while we waited for Micha. We talked about immigration and jobs, and he gave me some tips about being a foreign worker in Germany, since he's been through the whole spiel with Micha already. He said if I ever need any advice, to just call him up. He also said it was nice having me, and they will be sure to let me know the next time they come through Stuttgart.

 

From the station I took a street car to meet with Katja, where we could carpool to our next destination...