Altrip, Rhineland Pfalz, Germany - Why am I here? There's a fantastic explanation.

I met Sabrina briefly in Varkala Beach, Kerala. On Christmas Eve last year. Little did I know at that time that I'd run into her again at Hampi Ruins, Karnataka a few weeks later while travelling with my sister and uncle. Even stranger still - I mentioned to her that I was travelling to Germany with a final destination of Berlin - she generously offered me her family's extra room in their awesome Altrip home. And so I've been here for the last three nights! It's been wonderful to relax, do laundry, have "psuedo parents", and sneak in some amazing german wine, history, architecture all while nestled in the beautiful riparian landscape of the Rhine River.

Altrip is a small village of 8000 inhabitants. It's very close to Mannheim where I first trained in. The post office in Altrip is in the back of a vegetable and pet food store, it's very small, but also very awesome. Believe it or not Altrip comes from the Roman Alta Ripa meaning raised up land next to a river ecosystem. Believe it or not Altrip was founded by the Romans in 369 AD. That's one old village.

We went to Speyer yesterday. Martin Luther officiallly split from the Catholic church here in the 1500s. It has a beatiful main street to the largest gothic cathedral in Germany "Dom". There's also an awesome mideival clock tower/city gate on the other and of the picturesque restaurant and shop lined cobblestone street. Nearby we visited a near 1000 year old Jewish Baths in the heart of the City, the ruins have been turned into an informative museum.

Last night my friend Sabrina's father took us to the SAP ice hockey arena to watch Mannheim proceed to kick Berlin's ass in a best of 5 playoff series. They're 1:1 now, it was a great game with awesome perks such as unlimited German buffet and excellent german beers! Dunkelweisen Jaaaa!

Today I woke up very late and in the afternoon we visited Dr. Burklin-Wolf winemaker. Sabrina's brother Glen's good friend works at the Cellar and gave us an excellent and informative tour from fermentation chambers all the way to bottling. There was a 1937 Vintage locked in a basement cellar-cave - it was preserved - and costs 1000+ euros, but many of it's "mates" were pillaged by American and French troops after they occupied Germany at the end of WWII. We ended the tour by sampling 4 different styles and vintages of Reisling in a well appointed tasting room - all after closing time! It was really a treat! BTW the word for wheat and yeast in German sound exactly the same, "heffe".

I finally watched Slumdog Milliionaire on a perfect transfer pirated pre-release-copy. More thoughts on Slumdog later. Let's just say I'm not sure why it won all those oscars. That's provocative perhaps? Well, germany's provocative.