A European Adventure

A monstrous roar blasted through the quiet of breaking dawn as the bulky plane slowly began its taxi down the runway. It was 5 in the morning. I was seated on netted sling seats between my two sisters in a c5 military aircraft with no windows except for a two small openings on each of the exit doors. After days spent in a stuffy and cold airport, we had finally caught a flight out. Our destination; Europe.

Flying in to Ramstein, Germany, we crammed our suitcases and bodies into a peculiarly small rental car then drove to Neuss as our first stop of many. We toured Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy, within the span of 21 adventure-filled days.

Eating is a magnificent way to immerse yourself in the local culture because the type of food a culture consumes defines the people. One thing you should know about my family is that we are very food-centered people. When we travel, food is a huge aspect of our journey, so we definitely experience a healthy serving of culture in each place we visit.

In Germany, hearty foods such as potatoes, wurst, are staple foods. For snack time, we enjoyed (yes, enjoyed) Liverwurst smeared on bread or crackers and drizzled with some of the most flavor-full mustard that ever touched my young American taste-buds. Heinz pales in comparison. Switzerland had eating habits similar to Germany except for one snack that was very popular called Raclett which is melted cheese on toasted bread. What could be better then warm bread smeared with gooey cheese? In Italy, my dad stopped at literally every gelato shop we passed in the streets and bought my sisters and I a scoop of the local favorite, despite my mother's warnings against hyping us up on even more sweets then we had the capacity for. Popular choices for France are Escargot, the ever tempting French Baguette, and of course, cheese with a selection of fruits and wine to cleanse the palate before the next course. Bread is a favorite food of mine so being in France and experiencing the Baguette in its original, always freshly baked, state, was a small taste of Heaven. The French people also enjoy a snack of radishes sliced down the middle then topped with butter and salt. This light treat is the equivalent of celery sticks and ranch dressing (or an indulgent bag of deliciously salty potato chips) for Americans.

Conveniently able to speak the native language in every country we visited, my dad would send my sister's and I into random hole-in-the-wall stores with instructions on how to order the usual local snack.

In Paris, he debriefed me on my order and sent me out at the innocent age of 9 in to a strange store where entire bodies of beef, lamb, and venison, hung from the ceiling and more liquor then I ever knew existed lined the walls from top to bottom. I shuffled shyly up to the counter where the checker stood grinning down at me, awaiting my next peculiar move, and in my best French accent recited, "Une baguette et une bouteille d'eau s'il vous plaît?" All I remember after that is him laughing at my broken french as he retrieved my order then nodding goodbye as I paid my dues and ran as fast as I could back to the car.

In Switzerland and Germany, the people are much more accepting of terrible accents and feeble attempts to speak the local language. We stayed in a Hostile near the Swiss Alps one night and although we shared a bathroom with every other human being sleeping there, brushed our teeth in deep, trough sinks that looked like they hadn't been cleaned in weeks, and slept in old creaky bunk beds next to walls completely covered in graffiti, I remember that the morning breakfast was lovely. The waitress in the small cafe engaged us in friendly conversation with patient understanding of my sister and I's lack of linguistic skills besides the common greeting and "where is the bathroom?". We enjoyed the house hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream and wheat toast with sweet strawberry jam and butter supplied by the cows grazing in the field outside our window.

Europe has so many different wonders to offer, the history, the architecture, and the food, along with their picturesque fairy tale castles, and beautiful landscape of rolling hills, mighty mountains, and lush, green fields dotted with animals. I remember running barefoot through the hills covered with yellow wild flowers in Switzerland and singing “The hills are alive...” because it reminded me of a scene straight out of The Sound of Music. I loved it there and one day, I will return.