I’m sitting on dem Zug (on the train) from Munich to Singen, and I’ll try to catch up on the past week. After eight hours and twenty minutes, the plane arrived in Munich. Michael was there to greet me. We spent a busy, fun, snowy, cold, memorable week together in Munich. You can read about it here.

Now it’s Sunday, February 10, 1999. I’m taking the funf Stunden (five-hour) train ride from Munich to Singen. It’s the same train ride I’ve taken many times before, when I lived in Salzburg, Austria. And most recently 18 months ago, in summertime, on a visit to Germany with boyfriend.

Munich to Singen

Today, it’s all white and snowing. It’s beautiful and gemutlich (cozy) to be inside. Although I couldn’t take the snow on a permanent basis. Two young women from France are next to me. ‘Maybe France is where I’ll end up,’ I consider.

We’re now making a stop in Lindau, back in good old Bavaria, where I’ve often travelled before. The upcoming stops of Ulm and Kempten, I know very well. Ulm is where I used to do my weekly umsteigen (train change), on my Bahnfahrt zwishen (train ride between) Salzburg and Kempten.

I’ve made a list of what things to take to Slovakia, and which things to leave behind. I have a suitcase full of things to leave behind at poor Michael’s small apartment in Munich. He’s going to kill me. What was I thinking? To send over three more boxes. And one box of books I already sent to the Berlitz school in Kosice. Oh my goodness.

I’m here to explore and enjoy! But, not get fat! In my dream life, I want to keep San Diego as my sunny home base. I’d like to spend six months of the year travelling, exploring, and writing. For my freelance job, I’d like to teach English, do more writing, and get published.

As for the coming year, I may want to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s 2000 back in San Diego. I imagine that Dagmar may change my mind. But who wants to spend New Year’s with a three year old in Paris Disneyland?! We’ll see.

Arriving in Singen

Now I can spot a sunny place, and we’re out of the white snow blizzard area. Since the sun is shining, it must be Singen, where Dagmar lives! Sie hat gesagt, das jeder Tag sheint die Sonne, von 9 bis 4, nur bei ihnen. (She told me that every day the sun shines, from 9-4, only where they live.) They are really something special, you know.

It was Sunday afternoon at 14:15 when I arrived at the train platform in Singen. I didn’t see Dagmar at the Gleis (gate), like she said she’d be. Usually she is there, on time, waiting for my arrival. I waited until 15:00, then I was going to look for a phone to call her. Three o’clock P.M. came and I decided to walk out to the front of the Bahnhof (train station) and take a look for her.

As I walked, I found her waiting at another Gleis gegenuber von mir (gate across from me). It was a gate I couldn’t see before, as my train was still sitting there on the track. It was quite lustig (funny)! Because if the train had pulled away, we would have seen each other, both just standing there waiting!

Getting to their House

Once we got to their house, I got a royal tour of the gefahrbenden (colorfully painted) rooms. Mine was actually the library, the Green Room. Sehr schon und gemutlich (very pretty and cozy) with beautiful views out the huge windows. My room had a roof window and snow covered terrace.

 

Monday 8 February, 1999

This is an excerpt from my Kosice Journal, documenting my exodus from a (relatively happy) bustling life in beautiful San Diego, to (voluntarily) take a post teaching English in the newly independent eastern capital of Slovakia 🇸🇰 during a very cold winter 1999.