For this post I am going to get a little personal about my life and what I am going to be up to that will kind of interrupt my DIY escapades. I live in a little 2 bedroom apartment in the Tampa area of Florida with my four-legged fluffy baby, Charles, and my long term significant other, Fitzi. Charles enjoys his favorite program on the window-vision (lizards and squirrels), naps in the sunshine, and leading his people around on a leash. Fitzi enjoys photography, videography, long runs on the beach, and absurdly spicy food. The thing others will notice is that Charles is he is a very gorgeous fluffy cat and Fitzi is a goofy, charismatic person with a hard to place accent (speech impediment?). Charles came from the shelter in Ohio as a kitten and Fitzi is a dual citizen of Germany and has been in America for about 3 years. Fitzi also needs to go visit his mother. So my cat is on vacation at my parents home while Fitzi and I are going to Germany… in January… from our home in Florida. Who’s idea was this?
A Brief Biography of Fitzi
Fitzi’s real name is Michael but, just like in America, everyone in Germany is called Michael so he goes by Fitzi. His father is an American who was in the army and stationed in Germany and his mother is a German citizen. Life happened and Fitzi and his sister came around before more life happened and his father had to go back to the states where contact was lost. Fitzi thought his father must have passed away many years ago. He never knew the man so he held little to no emotion in regards to the matter. About 7 years ago Fitzi went to help a pretty girl, met a great master, fought a man who built a ship that would destroy planets who then proceeds to cut off his hand before telling him he was his fath– oh wait. That’s a different story. Fitzi just received a call from a man who claimed to be his father. After a bit of life reflection on a crappy job, 2 vacations to the USA, and one crazy ex-girlfriend later. He sold everything and moved to America about 3 years ago.
I’ve heard this story many times from him since I met him almost 3 years ago as he introduced himself to people. He left his life, his mother, his sister, and his niece about three years ago and has gone back to visit only once. I went that one time as well and was introduced to Fitzi’s mother once before, about a year and a half ago. I met his old friends and saw his old stomping grounds. For this trip it will be mostly in the same vicinity. Our home base will be in Bad Salzschlirf, Germany with excursions to neighboring towns and cities.
Bad Salzschlirf, Germany
Bad Salzschlirf is a municipality in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany.
That is all Wikipedia has to say about this tiny little German town. It has a population of a little over 3000 and covers 5 square miles. Wikipedia doesn’t really help the English speaking community get excited about this little town. The German language is actually a bunch of little descriptive words shoved together to make up the name of something else. Bad means bath Salz is salt and Schlirf actually doesn’t translate very well so forget that. So we are left with salt baths. This little town has some natural salt baths for therapeutic relaxation. It is a village with an aging population and streets older than my country but it is a cute, sleepy little town. This is where Fitzi’s mother settled with her long her boyfriend and Fitzi’s aging cat, Fuchs (translation: Fox) lives.
It is not a destination city by any means. It’s not near any major city that any American would visit. However, it is a slice of small-town Germany that has all the amenities to know exactly what it is like living as a local within the country. I’ll bring you along to small town Bad Salzschlirf, Germany to give you an idea of what it is like and what I am up to.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy traveling with me!
