German Hospitality

My body is currently locked in the time-distortion sickness of jet lag. It was an extremely long flight but I am glad to have arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. On the plane ride I flirted with my young, attractive hostess (as one often does when given the opportunity) and she in-turn returned my flirtations with gratuitous amounts of bottled airline wine. By the time I arrived in Germany I was feeling pretty good. I grabbed my bag which seemed strange. As I looked at my bag I realized that the waist straps and pads of the bag were missing. Now, I HOPE what happened is that they were torn off/damaged during the flight. It would be absurd if someone actually stole JUST the straps of my bag, especially while juxtaposed with the camera on the inside of the bag. Whatever, I'll run and cry to REI in August when I get back, for now I'll just work on getting really buff shoulders.

After I had "collected myself" (which is a term I find visually delightful), I made my way to the Hooters restaurant in the Frankfurt airport to meet up with my friend Mani who is the owner. Mani is a 27-year-old, good-looking, well-traveled German guy who used to live with my uncle and aunt in California. I ate and drank a couple beers while I waited for Mani to finish his work at the restaurant. He took care of my meal and offered me a ride to where I am staying now. We pulled up to a house in a nice suburb on the outside of Frankfurt and the neighbor Stefan gave me the key (I felt bad that I had woken him up at 11:30pm). I could tell Stefan was tired so I said a quick thank you and shuffled off into the night. The house here is great. It is owned by a friend of my father's named Kai. On the table of Kai's house was blankets, a pillow, and a note that basically read (and I'm paraphrasing): "Welcome to Germany, choose whichever bed you like, raid the fridge to your pleasure, and here is also some drinking beer money so you can really enjoy your time in Frankfurt." Honestly, I'm blessed to have these people in my life and to be lucky enough to be constantly meeting new people with equally kind-hearts. However, I feel like Goldilocks right now (which of course is a German folktale); eating, drinking, sleeping in another's house. Although, I suppose the bears at least invited me.

I woke up at 1pm today to the doorbell. I had a small panic-attack of "Should I open somebody else's door? Who would be looking for me?" My better judgement said that I should answer the door and if it was someone who only spoke German I had decided to just play my part as the ignorant non-German speaking American who shakes his head in confusion until the situation resolves itself. It was Stefan, my current neighbor, who had come to see how I was getting on. Stefan is a 50-year-old man (who looks late-30s, early 40s) and has two kids. He is a fascinating character. As we spoke he shook his head in open disdain for any adrenaline-prone adventure I brought up. "Skydiving? It is not for me, I don't see the point," he said as he took a drag from his cigarette. We went across the street to a small cafe and had coffee as we talked more. Stefan told me about his youth: He had grown up in many places around the world. He had actually been living in Egypt during the 6-days War. He remembers planes flying extremely low over the school as he studied Egyptian. I hope to have many more conversations with Stefan while I am here. We both agreed to meet up on Sunday and go into the city and then parted ways; Stefan refused to let me pay for the coffee.

The hospitality is amazing, I didn't know an entire group of people could be so kind to a foreigner. Especially someone with my profile: an American (not generally enjoyed by the world), young, scruffy, and ignorant of the language. Yet here I am: my first meal free, beers bought by a friend, a free ride to an open house of a person I've never met (who left me food AND beer money), and a coffee bought for me by the neighbor of a man who I've never met before. As you can tell I am in awe, and I've made a promise to myself that I will emulate this open-armed hospitality whenever I have the chance; my own German hospitality.

Tonight I am doing a Frankfurt pub-crawl. I will take pictures and post what I can tomorrow. I would have posted some pics in this post, but it felt extremely invasive to take pictures of someone's house without their permission. So, imagine a three-story German house in the countryside with green ferns and large coniferous trees in the backyard.

JC