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03/25/2007: "Mingling with the Europeans"

Yesterday, Mike and I were successful in picking up our friends Tim and Kurt at the Frankfurt Airport. From there we drove West along the Autobahn and through miles of farm land and then dense forests as we descended down into the Mosel River town of Zell. Here we headed South following the twists of the river and landed in the picturesque town of Bernkastel-Kues for lunch and a sampling of their famous wine. The Mosel Valley is best known for its wines. The steep hillsides of mineral rich rock are covered in vines. They use broken shale as mulch to keep what little soil there is from washing away. All harvesting is done by hand with large buckets on the backs of the grape pickers.

The end of the valley brought us into the town of Trier. This was the Northern capital of the Roman Empire. It has a beautiful town and ancient church. The Roman city gate (Porta Negra) still stands aat the end of the pedestrian district. It is here that we met up with our new friend Wazoo. A friend of Tim’s, he is an American who has raised a family here. He took us to his home in Luxembourg where we began our Saturday night of pub crawling. We worked our way down into the old part of town which is truly breathtaking. There are few cities in Europe as beautiful as this one.

Unfortunately for me, the clubs and bars are very crowded and completely smoke filled. Still, I had the opportunity to talk to a few locals. The city of Luxembourg is half Luxembourgians and half international expatriates from around the globe. Though most speak English, there are three official languages: French, German and Luxembourgish.

In the first bar, I met a Northern Swede who comes from above Stockholm, but has lived in other parts of Europe for some time. He was tall, blond and extremely drunk. Upon hearing where I was from, he did not hesitate to tell me how much he disliked America. Though he had never been, he felt that we had the attitude that we owned the world. He was very upset that we had invaded Iraq and didn’t hesitate to tell me, as his passionate gestures caused him to fall from his bar stool. once he made it back up, I asked him how he felt about his government and after telling me he hated it, I explained that there is a difference between a country’s government and its people. And that we have the good fortune of replacing our government every few years if they are not representative. So I pointed out that this past election we had changed the ruling party in the house and senate and that President Bush’s approval rating was below 40%. For the most part, we too were not happy with the war.

As expected, the world’s impression of us has been diminished and not only have we destroyed a country and destabilized a region, but we have a reputation to repair around the world. Intorducing yourself as an american, now opens the door to a conversation that is not always a pleasant one. But it gives an opportunity for Europeans to meet the people of our country and not just form an opinoin based on government action.