Forchheim and Italy so far...

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Alright, once again I have waited too long to update, and have more to write about then time or memory. Let's see what I remember.

Leaving Dresden and the trip to Forchheim
Our last night in Dresden was spent out partying at a "cheap party" which basically meant they had 1 hour drink specials, starting with beer. We ended up drinking a lot and didn't leave til 4 or 5 am, which didn't do much for me packing or anyone getting much sleep before the 9am train I was going to take. I had bought a "Happy fun weekend ticket" or something like that for my trip to Forchheim, since it lets you ride all the local trains for a weekend day for 33€, for up to 5 people. Since I am only one person and Jeff and Jess were planning on spending a day training around anyway, they decided to hitch a ride with me to keep me company for the 5 hour ride to Forchheim, grab a beer and doener and head home with the ticket. Well, to start off our trip, the first train at 9 was full of bikes and there were already 10 or so displaced bikers waiting for the next one, so we checked the schedules and figured out there should be a train around 10:30 that will work, only to miss that for a reason that was yelled out in German, so who knows what actually happened. So we were pushed back to taking the 11am train, which is the same route as originally planned, just 2 hours delayed. Which worked fine for us, it would have gotten us to Forchheim about 10 minutes before I had told my relatives to meet me, if only the last train was on time. However, there was an accident or something that held up the train we were supposed to be taking was delayed. So, we go on another train to Forchheim, only to hear an announcement (German only) and find out that "the driver is missing", aka on strike, and we have to go back to the other platform and get on the original train, which was now on its way. So, despite planning to get to Forchheim 2 hours before I was going to meet my relatives, we arrived 45 minutes late. Good thing they were still there, since I had no idea where to go...

Forchheim
Georg and Yan met me at the train station on bikes and led me to Georg's house, about 4 km away. After settling down and saying hi to people I hadn't seen in about 8 years meeting some relatives for the first time, I headed up to Irmgard's where I have been sleeping and eating while staying here. She is the equivalent to my grandmother, but the relationship is more complicated than that. To be honest, I'm not positive of the relationship I have to anyone here, just that it goes back to my great-grandparents family (i think) on my mom's side. Anyway, Irmgard speaks no english, and I speak no German, except the couple basic vocab words to get along, so living there is interesting. I am out of time and want to get at leat a little posted now, so I will continue this later.