Saturday, April 18

One really neat thing about Brenton’s family is that his dad’s company pays for all of their gas. So basically, they can drive anywhere they want for free. On Saturday, his dad did not have work, so he asked Brenton and me where we wanted to go. We could choose between Frankfurt, Saarbrucken, eastern France, or Luxembourg (or pretty much anywhere else within reasonable driving distance, which by the way is basically half of Europe). We decided to go to Luxembourg (which is the name of both its capital city and the country). First, Brenton needed to get a haircut, so he got up early and headed to the barber. When I woke up, Brenton’s mom was awake but his dad was not. She decided to take me to the local pastry shop to get an assortment of German pastries to try for breakfast (awesome!). Ironically, Brenton had the same idea when he came home from his haircut. As a result, we had a ridiculous plateful of pastries! It was pretty incredible! (See picture)

Following breakfast, Brenton’s dad got up and we started our trip towards Luxembourg. Unfortunately, the weather was not good. It was raining and not too warm. It also prevented Brenton’s dad from displaying the true awesomeness of the autobon (not exactly a good idea to go as fast as the car will allow when it’s raining).

After a 2 hour drive we cross the border and arrive in Luxembourg. The lax borders in the EU are very interesting. The only way I even knew that we had crossed into Luxembourg was that the exit signs on the autobon changed from “Ausgang” to “Sortie.” Besides that and a road sign, there was virtually no other indicator to inform us that we had entered a new country.

We drove into the city and found a place to park. We then started walking. We did not have a tourist map or anything, but decided we would feel our way around and have fun exploring in the process. While this can be a fun way to explore a city because it lets you get off the beaten path a bit, it is less fun when it is raining outside (as we soon found out). We first were looking for the famous caves of Luxembourg, a UNESCO world heritage site. Instead we found a park in a sort of small ravine with a river at the bottom. We knew the caves were supposed to be near that place, but could not find them. The park was very green and pretty. On a sunny day it would be the perfect place to relax for a few hours.

Then we found the Notre Dame Cathedral (not the famous one in Paris). We entered inside and walked around the church. It was very large and beautiful. There many stain glass windows, just like any large church in Europe. As Brenton and I were walking around, we noticed a confession booth displayed along the wall and had a glorious idea! Wouldn’t it be fun to get a picture of me confessing to Brenton? (The booth was open so you could see both the confessor and person confessing). We needed a third person to take the picture. Unfortunately, Brenton’s dad refused to take the picture on principle. He said something about it being disrespectful to the church or something. Well, then I thought about asking someone else, but didn’t have the guts to do it. I tried to get my camera to take the picture automatically, but since it was a relatively new camera, I was not sure how it worked. It didn’t work the first time. Just as we were about to try again, this angry Luxembourgish church worker walks up to me and starts saying something to me in German. I then say, I am sorry sir I don’t understand German. He then says in English, “this is a church, NOT a playground.” Hmm…oops. Of course Brenton and I were giggling about it like little schoolchildren when we left and as we were walking around.

While still walking in the rain, we looked across the river and noticed some 19th Century French style buildings. We decided that there must be something interesting in that direction and decided to start walking. As we were walking, we began to get hungry and started to look for a place to eat. All around Europe, there are many Turkish restaurants opened by Turks who immigrate to Europe. Ironically, these places charge twice the price for the same food you find in Istanbul. However, these places are also the cheapest game in town. Because I was coming from Turkey (and it was my first time leaving the country since I came), my one dietary requirement was no Turkish food! Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Turkish food very much. The problem is that its always the same. I need variety. Once I explained this to a Turkish person and they said, “what are you talking about! We have tons of variety! We have the Adana Kebab and the Urfa Kebab and the şiş kebab!” Sorry Charlie but to me a kebab is still a kebab.

Anyway, we discovered very quickly that Luxembourg was a very expensive city. We were having difficulty finding anything for less than 8 euros (except for the Turkish food of course). As we were searching for the food, of course it began to rain harder. Furthermore, after about 1:30 or 2:00, Luxembourg, like many other places in Europe closes for a “siesta.” Thus, finding an open restaurant became increasingly more difficult.

Finally, we found a bar that was serving sandwiches for a modest 5 Euro. We were so starved and wet by this time that I don’t think it would have mattered. They were also serving Die Kirchburg, the Luxembourgish local beer (which we of course partook in). The sandwich was some kind of delicious meat and cheese melt. I enjoyed it, although I don’t think it was traditional Luxembourgish food (if there even is such a thing). Interestingly, the menu at this place was in German. In some places, the menu is in German, in others French. Luxembourgish (the Language)is actually a mixture of French and German. Usually, the people in this area know both languages according to our waitress. As a strange coincidence of circumstances, our waitress did not know French or German, but instead knew English! (By the way, Brenton is fluent in German so having him around helped us considerably).
Also, the direction of the “cool looking buildings” that we thought would lead us in the direction of all the sites to see turned out to be in completely the OPPOSITE direction of where everything was. Our waitress sent us in the right direction and we were a 20 minute walk away from all of the historical sites/touristy things to see. Well…at least it was a fun walk?

We found our way back and easily found the center square. We saw another beautiful church. Following the church, we saw the Palace of the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and the old city. Both places were neat to see. At the old city, we finally found the caves for which we had been looking. Unfortunately, the claves had closed thirty minutes before we got there. Damn. After getting a bit hungry, we walked back to McDonalds and got some French fries. The menu was in French, but luckily for me all of the employees spoke English. After McDonalds we walked around the square a bit more and then headed back to the car. By the way, the car was parked right in front of the Luxembourg synagogue, which looked beautiful. Unfortunately, because it was Saturday, we could only look from the outside and not go inside. Oh well. All in all it was a lovely trip to Luxembourg and it was neat for me to see a new place in Europe.

After the two hour car ride back home, I wanted to thank Brenton for his hospitality by taking him out to dinner. He asked whether I wanted to go to the German place or the American place (because Ramstein is located in Landstuhl, there are lots of Americans living there). Of course I chose the German place. I can see Americans any time I want when I go back to the States. So we sat down and I had a delicious weinerschnitzel (I needed a last hurrah before going back to Turkey). This one happened to have mushrooms over it with cheese melted on top. There was also some type of special pasta under it (Brenton knows the name of it, but I do not). I also had another type of German beer.

Following dinner, Brenton and I decided to check out the local bar of Landstuhl. He tells me that he often comes on Friday and Saturday nights, not to get drunk, but because he always comes away with a good story. The bar is full of military personnel who are off-duty for the evening. It was mostly men because there are mostly men in the military, but a few women frequented the place as well. Brenton explained to me that many of the men are horny and desperate and so it is particularly funny to watch their behavior with the girls. He was of course right, making it an entertaining evening.

We were approached by two guys that had American dollars in their wallet and knew very little English (but could speak German). They were supposedly Russian. Brenton told me to keep an eye on my wallet because it was strange that they were carrying American dollars. Then they wanted us to buy them a drink out of “friendship.” We of course declined. They were sketchy. Later in the evening one of the military girls was dancing on chairs and there were other sorts of stuff like that going on. We hung out there, mostly observing until around 3am, at which time we came home and went to sleep.