Our First Weekend

Wow.

It has been a busy and exhausting past few days! I haven’t had a lot of free time to write, due to the fact that I get home from camp and pass out.

I can honestly say though, that this past weekend made up for all of the crazy days from last week.

Friday night, we hurried home from work, I took a quick shower, packed a bag, had a few extra minutes to skype with my parents, and then was out the door on my way to Vilseck. Meeting up with the rest of the camp staff, we all got cute and headed out to the bars. Our first stop was to KK’s, which you could tell was more accustomed to their regulars, versus us newcomers. The bartender was an older guy, probably in his fifties. He was beyond excited that our huge group was there- he kept coming over to “pound it” and to just converse with all of us. The music was from the eighties and early nineties, so it was a little old school, but fun nevertheless. Furthermore, the bartender kept playing this same song over and over again, and with the music video projected on the wall, we realized it was him singing in it. So funny, yet so awkward. Leaving KK’s, we went to another bar named Casablanca. Hanging out there for a little while, we ended up going back to KK’s until our curfew came around. Taking a taxi back to base, we all crashed at one of the camp houses.

Saturday morning, we woke up and headed out to the train station for Nuremberg. As this was my first time taking a real train, I just kept thinking I was on the Hogwarts Express and got obnoxiously excited about our ride. Arriving to Nuremberg, we got off the train and realized we had absolutely no idea where to go. We ended up just following the mass of people and wound up in the market place. We spent the day walking around the Imperial castle, by the cathedrals, and just through the town itself. It was gorgeous! Ending the day, we stopped into an Irish Pub called Finnegan’s to watch the Nuremberg soccer game that was being televised. The bar was packed, and Nuremberg ended up winning so it was a lot of fun! Taking the train back to Vilseck, we took a quick nap, and then our new friend Adam picked us up and took us to Volksfest. The place was packed! They had a live band, a beer garden, a hard liquor garden, and a ton of tables set up. When the band started, all the people got up and started dancing on the tables and benches! Although we couldn’t understand what they were saying, it was SO much fun! They did end up playing a few songs from the States: “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” and “Walking on Sunshine,” just to name a few.  I still can’t figure out what their basis is for choosing the songs they did.

Sunday morning we ended up going back to Volksfest. They had traditional dancing, all the Germans were in lederhosen, they had traditional German food (Mom- I tried a bratwurst just for you!) and of course, lots of German beer. We ended up meeting up with our friend Adam again, and met a few of his friends. Hanging out there all day, we were able to listen to a live band again, talk with some of the locals- including the president of the futbol club, and just have a good time. Before we left, the band played “Don’t Break My Heart,” so myself and three other camp staff got up on stage and started doing some line dancing. Needless to say, the entire place was staring at us like we were crazy. I thought it was fun regardless. We made it back home to Graf and we all passed out pretty early. It was definitely hard waking up for Camp the next morning, but I guess that just means we’ll have to go to bed real early during the week.

We’re actually planning out our upcoming weekend right now. Due to Labor Day, our CDC is closed, which means we get a three-day weekend! Hallelujah! I think we’re looking into going to Prague, but I’ll let you know what we end up deciding. Until then, only three days left of camp this week!