Trier - Blogged by N8

The day after my birthday, I was able to visit the ancient city of Trier, Germany on a "Wounded Warrior" trip. I begged my good friend from Poland Miroslaw, or as everyone calls him, Mike, to go with me and he agreed. This is Mike and myself outside the ancient Roman archway that leads into town. It is over 2,000 years old!



The town is full of old cathedrals and religious landmarks. This is me next to a fountain of the Angel Michael.



We also happened upon a couple of funny things in town. This is me next to the smallest car I have ever seen. In order to get into it, you have to open the whole front of it, dashboard and all.



And here I found "Casino Royal". James Bond didn't happen to be there that day...



All in all, it was a great day and I had a lot of fun hanging out with Mike and enjoying such a fun city.

SHINEDOWN!!! Blogged by N8

As many of you know I am a rock and roll junkie. One of my most favorite bands is Shinedown. I've followed their career very closely ever since I saw them for the first time when they opened for Van Halen in Denver in 2004. So, when I saw that they were coming to Europe on their current tour and that on November 19th Frankfurt was scheduled, I did everything possible to be there for it.



They opened their show with their hit single "The Sound of Madness" which is the title track from their newest album. I love the lyrics to this song because it rags on people that think that life is so hard and that everyone is out to get them when they have no clue how bad things really can be (I created the sound of madness, wrote the book on pain, somehow I'm still here to explain that the darkest hour never comes in the night. You can sleep with a gun. When you gonna wake up and fight?)



They then went on the play "Save Me" which is off of their second album Us and Them. This song discusses the dangers of drug addiction (I've got a candle and I've got a spoon. I live in a hallway with no doors and no rooms.) Notice singer Brent Smith's "crazy eyes" in the picture below...



After that, they played their hit single from their debut album Leave a Whisper ".45". It's a very emotional song and brings out a lot of feelings about struggling in life.



The next song was "Heroes" off of Us and Them. I love it because of the heavily distorted bass riffs throughout the song.



The next song was one of my personal favorites. It was "Fly From the Inside" off of Leave a Whisper. It's a song about realizing your personal potential and what you can accomplish on your own (I found a way to steal the sun from the sky. Long live that day that I decided to fly from the inside.)



The next song was their newest single off of the Sound of Madness album "If You Only Knew." I love this song because it reminds me of my JME that I miss so much! (It's 4:03, and I can't sleep. Without you next to me I toss and turn like the sea.)



The next song was "Cyanide Sweet-Tooth Suicide" also on the Sound of Madness album. It's probably the most hard-core song on the album. It got the crowd pretty riled up!



The next song is JME's favorite Shinedown song. It's "Call Me" also from Sound of Madness. This song reminds me a lot of my life being deployed so much (I kept my whole life in a suitcase. Never really stayed in one place. Maybe that's the way it should be. You know I live my life like a gypsy.)



They then played "Left Out" also off of Sound of Madness.



After that came "The Crow and the Butterfly" which is a softer song off of the Sound of Madness album.



Next was "Cry For Help" again, off of the Sound of Madness album.



After a brief wait. They came out and started an encore. The first song was "Second Chance" which is probably their most successful song yet. It is also off of the Sound of Madness album. This song has been kind of a theme song for my current deployment. Last time around I made a lot of mistakes that I can't take back and I think that God has given me one more opportunity to do it right (sometimes goodbye is a second chance...)



Their final song was their first single from the Sound of Madness album "Devour". I love this song! It is probably the best going-away song for old "Dubyah" (Devour! Devour! Suffocate your own empire! Devour! Devour! It's your final hour!)



All in all it was a great show and I'm so glad I got to be there. It really cured a small part of my homesickness. What's really cool is that during the show I got to shake Brent, the lead singer's, hand. Also, when they were exiting the stage, their guitarist Zach was handing out picks and was bending down to give me one. I took a command coin from the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center with me and gave it to him when he handed me the pick. You see, Shinedown has done several USO shows both in and out of the war zone and I really appreciate their support for the troops. I hope he sees it as a token of the U.S. Forces' appreciation.

Kaiserslautern - Blogged by N8 and JME

N8 got to drive the van for the 'Wounded Warriors" on their weekday trip a couple Tuesdays ago to downtown Kaiserslautern. First they went to the Kaiserslautern dungeons. You had to crouch down to get into the tunnels. Here is a picture of N8 next to one of the tunnels to give you an idea of how small they are. Someone with claustrophobia would not do well here.



Here are a couple pictures of Chaplain S, who is about 5'4" or 5'5" walking through the tunnels. These tunnels are escape routes for the royalty that lived there.





When archeologists were excavating the tunnels, they found many graves. This is a picture of a real skeleton that they found while excavating. It was kind of creepy to see this actual open grave. The stone that makes up the walls of the grave were chipped away so that they could fit the body into it when they buried this person.



After they went to the dungeons, they went to the Protestant church in the city. It was big and very pretty.







This is a memorial inside the annex of the chapel. The statue for this memorial that N8 is standing by is a statue of Martin Luther.



This one is of Johannes Gutenberg.



His is a picture of outside of the chapel.



This is the oldest restaurant in Kaiserslautern. This restaurant has been there since the 1640s.

Burg Frankenstein - Blogged by N8 and JME



Burg Frankenstein is the actual castle where Mary Shelly had the inspiration to write the novel of Frankenstein. The weekend before, the weekend of, and the weekend after Halloween they decorate it and make it a haunted attraction. The actors there don't follow the same rules as they do in the states. They ARE allowed to touch you. They were picking some people up, throwing them in coffins, closing the lid, and jumping on top of it. They would grab people and take them away from their groups. The chainsaw guy would put the motor of the chainsaw right up against people. N8 got chased after by the wolfman. He kept grabbing him and tickling him and would not leave N8 alone for about 10 minutes. By the time he was done with N8, N8 felt like he needed to pray and go to church.

Here is a video that was on YouTube that someone posted that will give you a better picture of what it was like. It is all in German but it is still fun to watch.




In the picture below, they have taken one of the girls from her group and tied her to a torture device. They have a whip out and they are cracking it right next to her to scare her. The other picture is of one of the torturers.





The atmosphere was perfect. The group that went with N8 was perfect. From left to right: Silvia, Chaplain S, Chaplain M, RP3 B, N8, RP1 N. Taking the picture was Master Sergeant R.



This is probably the most fun N8 has had on an outing since being there. Here N8 is having dinner with RP3 B. They are having bratwurst.



This zombie was like one of the guards at Buckingham Palace. She didn't move or blink or anything. It was so creepy!



A guy dressed like this guy was following everybody out and hitting them with a rubber arm. He hit N8 upside the head and he hit RP3 B on the shoulder. He continued hitting people and the whole time Sylvia was saying, "Ha! Ha! Ha! He is hitting people with a rubber hand and they can't get mad at him because it is not his hand." Just as she finished that sentence, we heard a loud SMACK! and she grabbed her bottom and went "Ooowwww!" She then turned around and started to curse the guy out in German.



The next few are some fun pictures of the castle and the characters there.

IDA-OBERSTEIN - Blogged by N8 and JME

N8 was able to go here with the "Wounded Warriors" on Halloween. Ida-Oberstein is the gem capitol of Germany. All the stores in town sell different types of gems. This is a picture of a museum that has all sorts of gems inside.



The chapel that is seen below is built halfway inside the mountain and halfway outside on a cliff. You have to go through a cave to even get into the chapel. Half of the building is just rock on the inside. The walls are just mountain.





Here is a picture of N8 with the city behind him.



There are two castles in that city. One is a schloss (palace - for royalty) and one is a burg (stronghold/fort - for soldiers). This one below is a schloss.



This picture is of the burg.



This picture was taken at the burg. It was really high up. N8 held his camera over the edge to take a picture straight down to see how high up they were.



This monument is on a pathway leading to the castles. You can see how beautiful Germany is in the fall. All of the leaves are changing colors.