Odyssey 2006: May 2006

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Sunny England Pics

The York Minster Along the Wall

A gate on the wall

Brothers

Along the wall

Another Brick in the Wall

A typical English street

A pleasant stroll in York

My Nephew

On the banks of the river: York

On the bridge downtown

The grand old duke of York, He had 10,000 men,
He marched them up to the top of the hill...

The Shambles

Walking through shambles

Leaving the shambles behind

A Minster out of the Shambles

York Minster

With tulips

Shelley up the Durham Cathedral tower

Durham surrounds

The University sqaure

The Two Towers

The river, Durham

A Weekend in Sunny England

After chatting with Timshel (my brother) and finding out that they would soon be leaving their abode in England in mid-May, and having just discovered that I'd been offered another scholarship, I decided to him and his family there!!

What we did

I booked a flight from Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport to London Stansted (where I had more than just my privacy breached by the security guard) for Thursday May 4, then another from Stansted to Newcastle in the North where I was picked up by Timshel and Shelley (late of course! No, really it was no problem - thanks for the lift guys). From the airport to Esh Laude (near Durham) we passed the Angel of the North, an undeniably impressive sculpture.

Timshel, Shelley and Reuben were staying at the Paul and Helen Shogren's House (my Godparents). Chis and Clare (family friends) were also staying there at the time in transit between Spain and Australia. It was strange, almost surreal, arriving from Germany to familiar faces and accents and yet people I hadn't seen for ages (Paul and Helen I've only seen once briefly in the last ten year! Chris and Clare have been in Spain for the last few years). We talked for about half an hour before hitting the sack.

On Friday we drove down to York (about two hours) and spent the afternoon there. York's a charming city with half of the city wall still intact. We traversed the wall, spent some time in a cafe and wandered the narrow streets (the Shambles) up to the Minster. We spent the last
hour in the British Rail Museum before heading back to Esh Laude for Friday night fish'n'chips mmm England.

On Saturday Shelley went with Helen into Durham and Timshel and I rode in (about an hour ride). We had lunch and visited the cathedral in which the Durham Symphony Orchestra was practicing (free classical music!!) and climbed the tower. On the way home I broke the chain coming up the final hill and found myself sprawled across the road like fresh road kill. Timshel made me walk to Canada and back to get back to Esh Laude. (it's a joke better told without the explanation - if you want it, email me!). I then went to Mass with the Shogrens (including their 5 kids) and Chris, before returning for a delicious dinner.
After that we continued having a few drinks and a good conversation about important stuff. We also looked through photos and reminisced about the 1995 tour of Australia that the Shogrens, Timshel and I all were a part of.

Sunday morning I slept in before heading to the airport with T&S and flying back "home" to Germany.

People

It was wonderful to see Timshel and Shelley again, and I spent much time with them in conversation sharing experiences and plans. I always enjoy their company and am encouraged by the way they live (Visit their blog: Tales from a family in transit). I also really enjoyed spending time with Reuben, my nephew and Godson, who's now confidently walking
(17 months). Although he didn't remember at first and was quite shy, he warmed to me again quickly and it was a joy to see him again. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise to see Chris and Clare, who I always enjoy seeing - had a particularly good conversation with Chris on
Saturday night. However I found it particularly good to see Paul and Helen again. This was the first time I'd seen them for any length of time since adulthood and although I didn't get the chance to talk to Helen for any extended period, it was great to get to know Paul at least
on a different level.

Geography

England is physically much like I had imagined it. So much so in fact that coming from Germany I felt somehow that I was coming home to England!! Riding through the rolling hills around Durham could have been somewhere around Kyneton (in winter with all the green). The weather on Friday was unexpectedly pleasant (it was actually sunny), but the weather England's famous for arrived on Saturday.
From the air I was surprised by how different the rural areas appear in England to France and Germany. In France and Germany all the farms are neatly organised into squares. In England they're all higgledy-piggledy and all over the place. George Orwell's Animal Farm came to mind as I was flying into Stansted.

A good time with strangers

On my return journey I arrived at the departure gate at Stansted to find a man beaming at me. At first I didn't recognise him. He told says in English (but a definite German accent) "we were sitting next you on the way over". Then I saw his wife... indeed they were. They'd checked in earlier so they could board earlier but they saved me a seat. We got talking (Denglish - aka Germanglish) and it turns out they live just out of Freiburg. They offer me a lift to Freiburg - I accept. I get back to their place it turns out they were just married the weekend before! The trip to England was a sort of honeymoon.

It was a great show of friendliness to a stranger and I returned home buzzing from it. I look forward to catching up with them (Moni and Tobi) again.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

A typical day in Germany

Since the Uni has begun I've been doing a lot of the same stuff. To give you an idea of what I'm up to I'll map out a typical day for you:

Mornings

I usually rise fairly late except on Mondays when I have class at 8.30. Maybe play a bit of guitar (I bought a cheapy here - nothing special but it does the job) before heading into town for lunch at the Mensa (it's a university eating house with a large variety of cheap food to choose from) with the other foreigners.

Afternoons

Can involve many things. If I don't have class it'll be chatting with one or two of the others, or doing some reading in a cafe if the weather's bad. Otherwise I'll be on a lawn somewhere doing the same or playing some frisbee. On Fridays we tend to play a bit of round-ball football at around 5.

Dinner

More often than not I'm out for dinner. Sometimes we have a communal dinner at someone's place, but not as often as during the language course due to lack of facilities to cook for so many. Sometimes it's take away dinner - there are tonnes of Doner Kebab shops here and although it's no Alasya, it comes pretty close sometimes. Sometimes it's eating in a restaurant with the others. We have our favourites: Saturday evening we tend to head to Brennessel (Stinging Nettle) for 1.80€ Spaghetti Bolognese. We also tend to spend a bit of time at the Italian restaurant Bella Italia, the student restaurant Schlappen and the restaurant/brewing house Feierling. Beer goes well with food and I tend to drink beer regularly here - it's kind of the norm.

Evenings

In the evening we usually either go to the Italian Eiscafe Portafino (Gelateria Portafino) for an ice-cream, or we head out to the pubs. Wednesday evenings it's the Stusie bar (Stusie is a student residence of 1500 people - many of us live there - I was one of them during the language course). Afterwards I tend to spend a bit of time with the American before heading to bed.

Mayday: A spontaneous decision

On Thursday over our usual Mensa lunch a bunch of us decided to head to Bodensee (Lake Constance) for the weekend. Monday was Mayday (1st May is Labour day holiday) and Tuesday our broken-legged teacher gave us another day off. So I booked us into the Bregenz (Austria) youth hostel as all the hostels in the German towns were booked out.

On Saturday morning nine of us departed and made the four hour journey with five transfers through the Black Forest and along the lake shore thanks to the Baden-Würrtemberg Ticket (cost us 7€ [$12] each for a 5 hour journey!!). It was a beautiful trip. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great but we still got to see the rivers, mountains and woods of the Black Forest, and the towns up against the lake.

We arrived in Bregenz at around 2 to rain. We got to the youth hostel 10 minutes later to discover that my booking was a dud! I had actually just submitted an enquiry!! WHAT??? AND they were fully booked out! GREAT! The next hour saw a lot of stress and a great test of my German and we saw ourselves an hour later standing in the foyer of a Pension (cheap hotel) waiting to see the manager as all the staff were telling us they were fully booked out and that it was impossible that they could fit us in. The manager arrived and promptly informed us that he would collect the keys for us. There were 9 very confused foreign faces in that foyer in Bregenz that Saturday. The Pension was a bit more expensive than we'd hoped to pay, but it was comfortable and after a few hours in the city we came back and spent the evening reading the hilarious /Xenophobe's Guides /to various different nationalities, and watching a particularly dodgy horror film dubbed into German.

Sunday we spent the morning and afternoon, after a delicious breakfast at the Pension and then a move to the Youth Hostel for which I had made a successful booking, on the foreshore playing frisbee and football (with a round ball of course). We at lunch at about 5pm then some went to Mass while others headed back to the Hostel for some beauty sleep before we all headed out to Bregenz's club. Twas much fun and dancing to be had by all.

On Monday four of us (John, Astrid, Stefano and Magi) headed back to Freiburg while we five (Andreas, Tanya, Caitlin, Michelle and I) stayed on. We took a walk along the foreshore followed by another late lunch which seemed to run into dinner. Then we spent the evening in the hostel
playing 500 until the wee hours (the only way one can play 500!).

It was a little strange for me to be back in Bregenz again. I spent a few days there in 2002 on my stopover in Austria on my way to Russia. Then I remember being very lonely, traveling alone and feeling the effects of not knowing the language. This time both of these factors had
changed. I was with a group of great friends and I could speak German!! It was a very different experience. Not to say that I didn't enjoy Bregenz the first time but it was definitely better the second. Made for a good few days.

Tuesday we headed back to Freiburg, this time via Basel. With a short stopover in Lindau and a five minute peek at the lovely foreshore there, then a longer stop in Friedrichshafen where we sat on a lawn and lunched to fantastic views of the lake with the Swiss Alps in the background!! Incredible! We also had an unexpected guest as a young man (drunk? high? definitely drinking!) decided to follow us from the train station and sit amongst us. Although he didn't answer questions from us, he would make a comment from time to time. "How many people live in this town?" or "It's beautiful with the lake and the mountains" were favourites of his, and he used them both more than once! The scenery along the Rhine to Basel was fantastic and many places there reminded me of the Yarra Valley down under. No wonder a whole bunch of Germans headed that way!

Back in the Burg: Sigh

Home Sweet Home
Touching down in Basel airport I had no feelings of regret for leaving behind a great trip (which it was), rather a feeling of relief and even excitement that I was coming back to Freiburg. This was for a couple of reasons; firstly, in Freiburg I had the sense of security that comes from having a place to stay somewhat permanently and being familiar with where things are, where you can buy various items etc., secondly, and more importantly, I'd developed some pretty strong friendships during the language course and then seen none of the people (except Astrid of course) for the whole time that I was traveling. I was looking forward to seeing these people again and had actually already missed them after such a short time of knowing them!

Back to Normality
It was very pleasant to come back to Freiburg on Thursday (April 20) and join all the others in the city gardens, play some frisbee and lie around in the sun. Friday saw things returning to typical for the language course with a communal dinner & party at Travis'. Also from that point onwards I began spending significantly more time with a particular American...

Uni
Uni began on Monday the 24th with a couple of language placement tests, which were relatively easy. Tuesday my German literature class was cancelled (and for the first three weeks!) because the lecturer broke his foot! I attended my one politics class on Wednesday, but that consisted of basically just administrative stuff. On Thursday my lecturer was sick so that lecture didn't run either! All in all by the end of the week I felt like uni hadn't actually begun yet!

On the note of uni - I've had a few questions about how it is to study in German: it's not actually too bad. Sure, I don't understand everything but I probably get about 70-80% - pretty good when you consider that in Australia I also don't get 100% because I sometimes drift off thinking about something else! I've also read a number of stories in German which is fantastic!! It gives me a confidence in my German when I can read a story in German and really enjoy it!!