To make things really fun, you let yourself be totally preoccupied with the back seat nausea you’ve been trying to shake off for the last 3 hours and allow yourself to fall asleep for 90 minutes before realizing you have mistaken a half-eaten burger for a hand bag. How it ended for me: Happy. Florstadt is 2 hours away from Iserlohn and the people at Burger King get a gold star for holding my purse until Alex drove back to get it. I’m still shaken from my space-cadetness.

What else could you do in Sauerland? Learn about the comedian, Frank Goosen. The video to the left is a favorite skit of his and very much advanced German. I had to listen to it several times all the while everyone in ear shot was giggling. After a battery of questions I could finally crack a smile and realize that my impression of Sauerland and the Ruhrgebiet is not too far off. Ja, schön is dat nich.

So what if drab Sauerland is no comparison to the fairytale landscape surrounding Munich. The Ruhrgebiet folk seem to make up with the lack of depressing environs with the gift of gab. There is no shortage of opinion, dialog or riveting news to discuss, even a conversation about a painful hang nail could draw a crowd. There is something cool about a people who know how to make fun of themselves.