Bohemian Rhapsody

The first time I seriously travelled overseas by myself, I was eighteen years old. I was just out of high school, I was young, immature and I thought I knew everything but who doesn't when their eighteen. I was a leaf on the breeze and when I took that giant step off the plane away from my family, friends and my childhood way of thinking. I can tell you that I never soared higher then that moment I stepped off the plane on to German soil. But after awhile what goes up must come down and I got one of the biggest reality checks of my life. Now back to the part where I thought I new everything, I thought I knew how the money exchange worked. Wrong! I thought I knew how to use the train system, I was wrong about that too! I was young and in a strange country where I didn’t speak the language, looking back I realize that was the moment when it dawned on me just how scared I was. During my first day I arrived in Düsseldorf after what seemed a century on a train, everyone was dressed up strangely, kissing me on the check and handing me flowers. I was overwhelmed and caught up in the crowd of people, who were leading me away from what little familiar surroundings I had. In my youth, I hadn’t bothered to check what holidays or festivals where on during my time in lower Germany. I had arrived during carnival on Rosenmontag or rose Monday. Carnival is celebrated leading up to lent as a way of letting of steam before the big commitments made during lent. And I can tell you Germans sure do know how to party. It was such a culture shock, I couldn’t buy anything because I couldn’t figure out how their money worked and when I asked someone to help me, they just kissed me, handed me a flowered and walked on. I could go anywhere and arrive in twenty minutes but it would take me three hours to get back and I would be stuck in a crowd the entire time. We have nothing in Australia the equal, what I was going through. Not even Sydney’s Mardi Gras comes close to equaling the sights, smells and sounds of everything that this festival had to offer. I was so out of my depth but it was my first day in Germany, so I smiled politely and went where the crowd of people took me, I don’t regret that because I saw and did things for free that I wouldn’t have ever done following a guide. In my heart I know adventures are not for the faint of heart and I remember just thinking to myself I couldn’t wait to see what day two would bring me.