Standing In Two Countries At One Time

Can one person really be in two places at one time? It’s every busy persons dream to be able to do so but in most cases, for example, being present at two events taking place at different locations, at one time, is just not possible. And no, commuting back and forth between two weddings like Katherine Heigl did in 27 Dresses is not the same. But the ability to be in exactly two places at one time, is not impossible, A Walk to Remember taught us that. 

The weekend that Matt and I were in Füssen, Germany we used our Sunday to go hiking around the city. Hiking isn’t something I generally make a habit of doing, but as I said, it was a Sunday and the only things open on Sundays in Germany are restaurants, some museums, and gas stations. 

We started off by hiking through the trail to get to the Lech Waterfall. It was worth the walk. The waterfall was very pretty, you could see the snowy mountains despite the fog, and it had ducks. 

Lech Waterfall

Matt loves the ducks! And no, they were not falling down the waterfall

But it was when we followed the trail on the other side of the waterfall that we came across this sign:

Republic of Austria

 So we decided to walk to Austria.

I was hoping for some sort of distinguished border, whether it be boarder control, a sign that said “you are now entering Austria” or even a line in the road. Sadly, there was nothing like that. In fact, we weren’t even sure if we wear near the border or not, we consulted our map and it indicated we should be near it if not on top of it but we had difficulty finding proof. Finally, we noticed a sign on the other side of the road facing the traffic driving towards us. I crossed the road the trudged through the snow bank to see what it said and this is what I saw:

Federal Republic of Germany

So if traffic is now entering the Federal Republic of Germany, then that must mean one side is Germany and the other side is Austria. Right? So I had Matt take a photo of me, where I am straddling either side of what I assumed to be the boarder. 

*Hallo Tyler, ich bin in Deutschland und Österreich

I realize the picture would have been better if you could have seen the FRONT of the sign indicating the Federal Republic of Germany, however, the road was busy and I was already standing in the snow bank. My feet were getting wet and I was not about to make Matt walk any further through the snow just to get the sign. But I am telling you, I AM standing in both Austria and Germany at the SAME TIME. I am standing in two places at once.

*I am also dedicating this post to my friend Tyler. He told me when he reached the border of Denmark and Germany, he would take a picture of himself holding up a sign that said, Hallo Katie! So when I reached a border, I felt it necessary to do the same, unfortunately, I had no sign making materials.

Getting a haircut in a foreign country

I have been dreading this haircut from the very moment I had my last haircut in Canada. My hairdresser told me I would at least need to get some sort of trim while I was away. Four months went by until it was starting to get bad. It had grown almost two inches and was knotted into some sort of rats nest every morning. I did the search online for hair dresser recommendations and found a recommendation from someone who also had long curly hair. According to this random, this hairdresser could cut, colour, and straighten curly hair very well. This is exactly what I needed. On top of that, the hair salon was just down the street from my work. I had put it off for another 5 weeks until I had finally had enough. I got up the courage and walked into the salon. The hairdresser was able to communicate with me in English, so I booked an appointment for the upcoming Saturday.

A number of people had posted on the Toytown English forum about wanting hair dresser recommendations and help translating various terms. A few of the replies contained the following unhelpful answer: “it’s just hair, if the hair dresser cuts it too short, it will just grow back”. While there is some truth to that statement, I am going to go ahead and assume those people don’t have curly hair. Because if they did, they would know that if you don’t cut it properly or cut it too short, you are going to end up with a gigantic puff around your face. Growing back the lost hair is a painful experience. 

 

I have had a number of bad hair cutting experiences in the past and I do my best now to rule them out. This has mostly been achieved by only using one hair dresser, even if that means only getting my hair cut in Ottawa. Here’s what constitutes a bad experience, as experienced by yours truly over the years:
-a hair dresser who decides to try their new ELECTRIC hair thinning contraption on your hair and do it small layer by layer despite your disagreement at how much hair they are taking out. I was 12 and this experience still haunts me.
-a hair dresser who has new highlighting caps (when caps were the popular method) and doesn’t compensate for the fact they have not yet been stretched out, therefore allowing the cap to slip up and your highlights to turn out spotted on the top like some sort of cheetah.
-a hair dresser who literally whines the whole time about how thick your hair is, then proceeds to dry it with some sort of wire bristly brush causing an 80’s look, then begins to straighten it with the flat iron and complains it MUST be taking so long because the flat iron she is using is only an inch wide and the flat iron the other hair dressers have is 2 inches wide. Yes, blame your lack of skill on the tools.
These are all signs that your hair dresser has no idea how to cut or style long curly hair and you should probably just leave immediately before it gets any worse. 

So the night before my appointment, I had Matt help me look up some German terms to help describe what I wanted as I wasn’t sure how much English she would be able to speak. I also downloaded a number of pictures onto my iPod to illustrate my descriptions. The more detail I could provide, the more likely I would be able to ward off any disasters.  

Saturday came and I didn’t need my translated list. The hair dresser understood exactly what I wanted and would double check throughout the cut to confirm my specifications. She cut it, layered it, and highlighted it very similar to my own hair dresser and I was happy with the end result. So here is the rule when finding a new hair dresser, find a good recommendation from someone who has similar hair to you, have a good idea of what it is you want, and take plenty of pictures to illustrate the cut and colour you are looking to achieve.

Here is the final result:

 This picture actually makes it look like there is a giant blonde chunk but it's just because it has all fallen over the brown low lights.

What's in YOUR Fairytale? Guess what's not in mine!

This past weekend, Matt and I went to Füssen, Germany. There is quite a short list of attractions to see in Füssen, but the two that sit at the top of the list, make this spot a very popular tourist destination. They are the Neuschwanstein Castle and the Hohenschwangau Castle.

After the guide at the tourist office strongly recommended we do NOT go to the castles on a Sunday (the lines are much too long since all the stores are closed on Sunday’s in Germany) Matt and I hopped on the jam packed city bus, just down the road from the tourist office. This was the second best choice we could have made. Everyone else had boarded at the previous stop, the main station. When we arrived at the castle, we were the first off the bus and first in line for castle tickets. This meant we were able to join the next scheduled English tour that began within the next 30 minutes. By the time we left the cash, there was a line up behind us to the edge of the door…I am sure those at the end of the line missed the first scheduled tour.

 
We walked the 5 or 10 minutes up the hill to Hohenschwangau. We had about 15 minutes before the tour was scheduled to begin so we took the opportunity to walk around the castle and take a few photos, and that’s when we saw it… The legendary Neuschwanstein Castle, the one that looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale and is said to have “inspired Walt Disney to create the Magic Kingdom”. However, despite the large amount of fog engulfing the castle, we noticed there was something wrong with this view…

Can you see it?

 

But we will come back to this later.

On with the tour of Hohenschwangau! This castle was built in 1837 for King Maximilian II of Bavaria and was later taken over by his son King Ludwig II of Bavaria. As this castle is under 200 years old, it is not your stereotypical old stone castle with grey walls. The castle is gorgeous inside and out and contains brightly coloured walls, pillars, and pictures and original furniture. As photographs are not permitted inside the castle, I will not be spoiling the tour for you. 

The outside of Hohenschwangau however, looks like this. Still pretty on Winter's harsh canvas.

 Once the tour was finished, we had a few minutes to take some outside photos before embarking on the 40 minute walk up hill to Neuschwanstein. Oh ya, the buses up the hill don’t run in the winter, so you can either walk or wait for a horse drawn carriage to pull you up. At the 30 minute mark, you can stop to purchase some souvenirs, grab a small drink or snack and either unload from or load onto the horse drawn carriages depending on your direction as this is where they stop. During the last 10 minute stretch, after we rounded a large corner, we were finally presented with a full view of the western and northern walls of the castle. The problem also came into full view. 

Can you see it now?

 

Yep, it’s covered in scaffolding. We were really disappointed. I was really disappointed after reading and hearing about how it REALLY looked like it belonged in a fairytale. I’m sorry, but none of my fairytale images have scaffolding in them. Two minutes later, we overheard a tour guide telling his group that the scaffolding had actually been there since 2001, but that the eastern and southern sides were free of this blockage. Well that’s a bit of good news, I thought. We eventually made it to the top and I got to see the bit of brick still showing. 

I had to crop a bit off from the right because it contained a random AND scaffolding.

Neuschwanstein was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Building began in 1869, but as the king wanted this castle to be perfect, it was not even finished by the time of his death in 1886. Again, the castle was gorgeous. It had the original furniture including his wood carved bed which took 4 carpenters 4 years to complete and brightly coloured, walls, pictures, and pillars. 

Here’s where the second disappointment came. It also contained a number of rooms that echoed, a very large group of tourists straining to here the guide, and 3 jackasses having their own little side conversation the entire time, making hearing the guide, almost impossible at times. I was ticked. I really wished my mom had been there to “pull a Cheryl” and tell them to shut up! If you know her, you know she would have said something and it would have gone either a little like this:

 “Hey guys…” All of her speeches to people adding their own soundtrack start this way…

“The rest of us paid for this tour as well, but we can’t enjoy it over your carrying on, so shut up or I’ll come over there and help you to do it” 

Or like this: 

“Hey guys…could ya shut up for 30 minutes so the rest of us can hear the tour?” 

The ladder is the general speech given to the movie chatterers and the first is generally reserved for the large drunk parties managing to scream over a musical concerts sound output. I’m not sure where castle tour fits into that.

However, I was too afraid to interrupt and draw the group’s attention to myself. So I tried to move a little closer. We were also a little disappointed that some of the people thought they were above the "no photos" rule. A large string of people had digital SLR cameras slung around their necks and hung down to their waist. They attempted to hide amongst the large group, aim their waists at some part of the room and click the little button. I have news for you, you aren’t being as conspicuous as you think you are, your expensive SLR camera may be better than mine, but it still makes a sound when the picture is being taken. Everyone can hear it.The security guard who has just been kind enough to yell a general "no photos, please!" was talking to you.

But despite being annoyed by the other tourist’s stupidity, the castles were definitely worth the trip. And now that I have come home and read more about the two castles, I have found an additional Neuschwanstein website, the one that mentions it’s covered in scaffolding, and the scaffolding is only scheduled to be there until the end of 2012. So future German tourists, you might get the full fairytale vision that I had been hoping for!