And now the work begins...

As I began writing this post, the soggy, wet Bavarian countryside whisked by as my friends, Dan, Dack and I sat at a four-person table in a German ICE high-speed train bound from Nuremberg to Frankfurt. At the time of the writing, we were a bit worse for wear and seated silently, tired from the 12-day adventure we’d had through Bavaria and Austria, and probably all a little ready to see our travels come to an end and to resume our lives in our respective homes. The rainy weather we were seeing that day was, unfortunately, nothing new for us, having experienced only a few periods of sunshine during our trip and only a few days where we’d stayed completely dry. I could say the rain hadn’t “dampened our spirits” and I’d be mostly right, considering we’d had a ton of fun together and made the most of even the wettest of days. But, day after day of rain, especially on days of biking or big city exploring can definitely sour the mood.

While on the train, I was thinking about home. My new home. The final travel day also happened to be “move-in” day as I’d be handed the keys to my new place in Bad Soden once we arrived. And I was ready. After arriving in Germany way back on June 27th, and after spending most of the last six weeks traveling and sleeping in various hotel rooms, I was beyond ready to have a place to call my own, to get settled, and to finally begin this next chapter in my life. Dack and Dan would be staying with me that night, then flying home to Minnesota the following day. I was excited about having a long weekend to lounge in my new place, unpack, take some village walks, maybe a bike ride or two, have some “in-home” coffee every morning, and just start creating my new routines. The thing I was most excited about of all was going grocery shopping and cooking for myself. I hadn't had a proper kitchen for six weeks, and even before that I’d been bopping between short-term apartments, Air BNBs and our family cabin since March of 2022. It’s been a slog. And during that time I hadn't really cooked a whole lot or had cupboards full of staple ingredients to make the cooking process fun or easy. That coming weekend I was excited buy spices and sauces and baking ingredients and pickles and olives and all those little things I hadn't tended to buy while living in short-term residences. I wanted to fill up my kitchen with those essentials, and even a few completely frivolous items, that make a house feel like a home.

Flash forward a week and a half, it’s Saturday morning and I’m seated at a sidewalk table at Frida’s Cafe, in the quaint little section of west Frankfurt known as Bockenheim. Frida’s is bustling, and my waiter expertly flints from table to table with his kind smile and sunny disposition. Is it all for the tips? Maybe. Or maybe he’s just a amiable, happy Frankfurter. The world may never know. Bockenheim is one part boujee, hipster paradise with cafes, coffee shops, and yoga studios and another part family-friendly urban living with parks, schools, and a grocery store on every block. It’s not the Frankfurt of high rises, sky scrapers and the European Central Bank. It’s the Frankfurt of 3-story flats, narrow streets, and people happily enjoying a sunny, warm, late summer Saturday morning. Bockenheim is also the closest section of “fun,” truly urban Frankfurt for me - a 20 minute S-Bahn away from Bad Soden and just one stop away from my new school.

It’s my second time coming into the heart of Frankfurt since arriving back from our 2-week vacation. The other time was to meet a new colleague for coffee - again at Frida’s - but to also do a little exploring by bike. The ride in from Bad Soden to Bockenheim took roughly 45 minutes, and after enjoying coffee with my new teacher friend, Meghan, I took the opportunity to explore some other areas of the city - mostly notably posh, leafy Frankfurt Nord, the more touristy old town, and the pedestrian friendly area along the Main River. After my self-guided bike tour, instead of retracing my steps, I followed the path west out of town, on the south bank of the river, then crossed over the Main on a cute little 2-minute bicycle ferry to a part of Frankfurt known as “Little Istanbul”, and finally biked due north 20 minutes back to Bad Soden. I look forward to heading down to the river many times in the future, as it’s simple to get to, and I believe leads me even further west to all sorts of other destinations, including the city of Mainz. Cycling here, except for the steep hills north and west of Bad Soden, is proving to be just as fun and easy as I’d hoped. If it’s not nice, quiet trails through parks and forests, it’s dedicated bike lanes and bike-friendly roads. I tested out my route to school a couple times this week, and it’s really quite a nice ride. It’s completely flat and, apart from the final 5 minutes or so of urban cycling, the 30-minute ride takes me through large parks, past bubbling creeks, and along small, quiet roads. With the exception of rainy or snowy days, I’m hoping to make biking to school my normal commute.

The week and a half I’ve been in my new apartment has been a joy. Truly. It finally feels like I’m “here.” Like I’m doing this thing. Like I’m living in Germany again. It’s a really, really good feeling, having time to settle in, unpack, fill my fridge, sleep late, drink coffee every morning, get back into my “Yoga By Adrienne” routine and explore my new hometown. I kind of love Bad Soden. Yes, it’s a bit far from central Frankfurt - again 20 minutes to Bockenheim and 30 to the central train station - but damn, the place is beautiful. Parks and green spaces abound, as do quaint squares, cafes, restaurants and quiet neighborhoods. It’s got a happy, peaceful feel with a constant buzz of people going about their day. And the narrow, ancient streets in my neighborhood quickly rise up and out of town, into the serene hillsides of pastureland, apple orchards, fields and forests. In 10 minutes, up a couple hundred steps and several steep streets, I’m literally in the countryside, flanked by the Taunus Mountains to my north and the Frankfurt skyline to my south. And! And!!! Like I’ve written before, I feel like I’m living the quintessential European village dream life. I step out my apartment door and I’m in a pedestrian courtyard - a fruit and veggie market to my right, two restaurants spilling into the street on my left; around the corner, another courtyard with a coffee shop and a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant; a little further down, a hugely popular, and always busy, French cafe and bakery; walking 100 yards along a narrow street, another popular coffee shop set inside a home from the 1500s, a butcher shop, and several more restaurants; 100 yards the other direction, a grand 15th century church, and two absolutely charming, idyllic little parks - one complete with a gurgling little stream. I’ll stop gushing, but honestly, it all, at times, feels a little too perfect to be real. With no balcony in my apartment, I’ve taken to enjoying my coffee or beer in the courtyard sometimes, book in hand, life happening around me, and a smile in my heart.

As I wrote earlier, I also biked into school a couple of times this week - to figure out a good route, but to also begin sorting through my new library and getting my head around a new school, new job and new challenge. I’m glad I did. There was a lot to sort through. Every librarian has their own way of organizing things, dealing with the endless clutter that comes with donated books, new books, damaged books, supplies, book covering materials, decorations, random notes, pens, pencils, etc…, etc… I’m a bit of a neat freak when it comes to running a library, and of course with fresh eyes, I probably noticed things that, for the librarian before me, understandably disappeared into the background of everyday, crazy, student-centered, “that can wait until later” life. For me, however, it was the right time to clean house. Declutter. I kind of loved it. There’s an easy sense of accomplishment in the task of the “before and after” work of cleaning up, reorganizing and purging. I was mindful not to purge too much, however, knowing that something appearing innocuous today could be critical to my success in December. In addition to the big “reorg,” I began “start of the year” work in the library database, went through some onboarding documents, was able to chat with a few staff members, and, most critically of all, figured out where the coffee was. It was really nice to be at school, and I’m excited for the day when the little people finally arrive.

I’m pretty sure I reflected about this in an earlier post, but arriving to Europe as early as I did this time, as compared to when I did for my previous stint in Munich, has proven interesting. It’s been a lot of time of anticipating and - you know me - stewing over beginning my new job and my new life. In Munich, I arrived in mid-July, moved into my apartment my first night there, started shopping and getting furniture the next day, doing all my on-boarding stuff in the first few days, and then beginning my job within a week. I remember feeling extremely homesick my first night, but after that I didn’t have time to feel homesick. I was meeting new people, taking care of business and just getting caught up in all the challenges of diving in and getting started. This time around, I’ve had way too much time to wait - mostly to meet potential new friends and for my job to begin. I’m not saying I regret, per se, coming to Germany as early as I did. It’s given me time to slowly get my legs under me, to find what turned out to be a really good apartment, and to travel a little and enjoy Europe, and time with old friends, this summer. But…bottom line…it’s been a lot of waiting, and to be honest, I’m damn sick of it. I have no idea what my experience will be like in Frankfurt, teaching here, living here, social life, you name it. Yes, I’ve been in Germany for six weeks, but my “real” life is still ahead of me. I’m optimistic about all of it, but frankly (Frankfurtly?) I won’t know about any of it until all of it begins. I am just really, really anxious for all of it to begin!

Back to the travels… the two weeks in Bavaria and Austria with Dack and Dan were great. We started in Augsburg, staying with Dan’s friends, Helmut and Rita, for the first couple of nights, and we ended in Frankfurt, staying here. My first night in my new place was the last night for Dack and Dan. In between we did a ton, and we were almost constantly on the move. We hiked the mountains behind and around King Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein Castle, we spent a gorgeous day and night at the foot of the Alps in Oberstdorf including an awe-inspiring walk through the Breitachklamm Gorge, we did two full-filled days in Munich, we enjoyed three days in beautiful Vienna, we did a final last hurrah, prosting our trip in medieval Regensburg, and we drank much, much beer.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was our bike ride from Linz, Austria to Vienna along the Danube River. I say perhaps because it wasn’t one of these travel experiences where the gods shine down on you, the heavens part, and every moment is a gift from above. Nope it wasn’t that. It was one of those travel experiences that is memorable for the good times and the bad. One of those experiences that you talk about the most, years later when recalling a trip. One filled with those “jams” that travel writer Cameron Hewitt talks about - the jams that, if you can roll with the punches and laugh at the absurd, actually make traveling, and the tribulations that go along with it, fun. The shop that was supposed to store our luggage in Linz was permanently closed, making for a frantic departure procuring alternative storage space and resulting in us being badly behind schedule and therefore missing the opportunity to visit the Mauthausen Concentration Camp later that day. Two days in the rains came pouring down and, after some hemming and hawing, and because the forecast called for nothing but more rain in the days to come, we decided to pack it in, take the train to Vienna, and cut our bike ride short by a day and a half. Then on our arrival into Vienna, we could not - just COULD NOT - find the place to return our bikes. The directions the bike company had given us, the place marked on Google Maps, just not seem to exist. Finally - FINALLY - we somehow found it. A nondescript shipping container at the docks near the Danube, with the smallest of signs on it declaring it the drop-off point for our bikes. But… but… in between all those snafus, we did have some great times on the ride. Beautiful scenery biking along the Danube, the lovely little town of Au where we spent our first night, the quaint city of Melk for our second night, great conversation along the way, and several stops for coffees and radlers along the river. Like I said, it was probably the highlight. Nah, now that I think of it, it WAS the highlight.

Tomorrow is my first official MSF new staff event and tonight marks the night of the Summer Night’s Festival, or Sommernachtfest, in Bad Soden. Apparently it’s a really big deal, maybe the biggest night in town. So, I’m planning to go, hopefully meeting up with a few new colleagues from school who said they’re coming this way and potentially meeting with a couple of local folks I’ve met during my brief time here. Remember how I said I am anxious for my Germany life to really begin? Well, hopefully tonight is the night!