Herbstferien - Part II

Hello lovely readers,

Yet again, I have been stupendously busy/lazy and haven't updated you for a while on my life here in the Land of Lederhosen. (I'm not being stereotypical by saying that. This blog has a massive whiff of German tradition about it.) As you may have read in my last post, the week before last and the week before that was the Herbstferien (Autumn holidays) for the Rheinland-Pfalz assistants. My last post outlined part one (the first week), and this one shall tell all you all about the wonders of the much anticipated second week, in which Emma, Tylor, Whitney and I decided to have a few days away moseying around Baden-Würrtemberg.

As I mentioned in my last post, the others headed down a day before me as I had to wait in for my bed to be delivered, so this post starts with me waiting at Trier station for my train to Koblenz. As I waited on the platform, a woman with a dog turned up and sat next to me. I love animals, when she saw me looking at the dog, I smiled with the telepathic message that I thought her dog was cute. This was a bad idea. By doing this, she took this as an invitation to tell me everything about her life, until another woman sat on the other side of me. Grateful for the interruption, I pretended to be checking my phone. All was well and good until the women struck up a conversation and started talking extremely loudly (and a little bit raucously) across me. Thankfully the train came and I escaped... Until the next train where I had a woman sit next to me, offering me sweets every two minutes and telling me that I look and sound Scandinavian. Although both were amusing experiences, by the time I reached Karlsruhe I was pretty relieved to meet the others and not to have to speak to any more randomers!

After dumping my stuff at the hostel, we decided to hit Karlsruhe Zoo. I can imagine that in the summer it would be really busy, but in the middle of October it was a bit of a ghost town. There weren't many people around, apart from a group of adults wandering around whilst swigging beers. I can imagine that they must have had an absolutely thrilling time... We wandered round the various animal pens where we fed some very unruly goats and saw the penguins, lions and leopards being fed (not all at the same time, obviously.) Our prime aim was to see an Eisbär (Polar Bear), but unfortunately we couldn't see it in the enclosure! After this crushing disappointment, we headed down to the Schloss. I was told by the others from their exploring the day before, that there was an epic Kinderspielplatz (children's playground) there. And epic it was. You wouldn't believe that four 20-something year olds would get that excited by a children's play area, but we did. From then on, the places we visited were judged on the quality of their Kinderspielplatz. Carrying on with that kind of theme, we later went to a bar to taste the delights of the local beer. Just before leaving, we found out that there was a slide running through the bottom two floors of the bar. It blew my mind. Of course, we had to try it out and compare it to the thrill of the earlier Kinderspielplatz. All in the spirit of science, you must understand...

 [The feeding of the Penguins]

 [The Schloss at Karlsruhe]

 [Emma and I, in the bar with the slide]

The next day, we went to a lovely town called Freiburg. It was a really good day, except the weather wasn't on our side! It was pouring with rain and ridiculously misty! We had a wander through the town to the Münster (cathedral), and the thing that stuck out to me was the flag of St. George that kept popping up everywhere. It turns out that it is the flag of Freiburg! Another thing that was unique about Freiburg were the channels of water flowing through nearly every street. We didn't work out what exactly the point of them was, but I found them a very useful way of cleaning my boots of the mud that I had acquired at the zoo the day before! At lunchtime, we found a delightful little place which had a fabulous atmosphere. We all ordered the Schweinshaxe, which came with potatoes and this red sauerkrauty type thing. It was amazing! After a bit more exploring, we headed back to Karlsruhe for an early night before our departure to Stuttgart the next day.

[The Münster in Freiburg]

[The water channels running through the town]

[Whitney and I, about to eat our Schweinshaxe]

Stuttgart was what I was looking forward to the most and it certainly didn't disappoint! After dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we headed down to the Cannstatter Volksfest, which was just outside of town. I actually felt like a child as we caught glimpses of the funfair through the window of the S-Bahn. Once there, Whitney, Tylor and I hit the first hard core ride we could find. I must say, that I felt slightly worse for the wear afterwards! We carried on wandering through the various rides and stalls, which sold things like typical German food, sweets and Lebkuchen (the heart shaped German gingerbread with messages written on them in icing). Amusingly, there was also a stall called the "Condom Mobil" which sold all kinds of "interesting" goods. What was even funnier was the fact that it was located right next to the Bible stall! After a quick go on the Dodgems, we headed into a beer tent. Calling it a beer "tent" is a complete lie. Basically it was a massive beer hall, packed with people wearing the traditional Lederhosen and Dirndl, singing, drinking and dancing on tables. It was fantastic. We found ourselves a place at a table with a German couple and ordered ourselves each a Maß (the southern German word for a litre of beer.) After a couple, we were dancing on the benches with the rest of them!

 [The "Condom Mobil" next to the Bible stand]

 [Whitney, Tylor, Emma and I, outside a beer "tent"]

[Just casually chilling in the beer tent with a guy in Lederhosen]

[Whitney, Tylor and I with our Maß]

Feeling a bit worse for the wear the next morning, we started our journey back to Trier. A million train changes later (ok, more like four), we arrived into Trier Hbf. I was completely shattered and retreated into my bed for the most of following weekend!

Monday meant back to school! It was definitely hard to get up at 6.00am again. I also started some classes at the Uni of Trier this week, which was really cool. I'm still really enjoying working at the school, though some of the kids are so loud that it really makes me relish the peace of the staffroom! This peace was disrupted by a massive argument between two teachers yesterday! It was really awkward. I didn't know where to look and I couldn't understand much. It wasn't that I couldn't hear them (they were yelling at the top of their voices) but they were speaking so quickly and one was speaking in Bavarian dialect, so it completely went over my head. Oh well, at least I can't say that it's boring at my school!

On that note, I think I will wrap it up. I've rambled enough for one day.

Thanks, as ever, for reading,

Bel xxx



P.S. I found McVitie's Chocolate Digestive biscuits in Stuttgart!! It made my day. Also, my mum has sent me a jar of the holy juice (aka. Bovril) and some gravy. All is now well in the world!

Herbstferien

My darling readers,

Once again, I have let time slip by without updating you on my antics here in Germany! I do apologise, but time really is flying. I keep meaning to do shorter, more regular posts, but this time, you will have to put up with yet another long, rambling one!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was invited to dinner with a family who want me to tutor their daughter in English. To say I was nervous was an understatement. Not wanting to be late, I overestimated the journey and ended up arriving really early! They made me feel at ease, though, and soon I was helping with the cooking and chattering away in German. I think that the father was really surprised, seeing as our conversation on the phone was very stilted. A bit later, a few other guests arrived (one was an English teacher) so the evening progressed into a delightful mix of Denglisch (Deutsch and Englisch) and... Hungarian. One of the guests was Hungarian, and as the evening progressed, (and wine was consumed) some of the Germans became increasingly confident in their ability to speak the language. Having said that, the wine had the same effect on my German! Overall, it was a really enjoyable evening and I think that I will have good fun teaching Rosie as we seemed to get on really well!

In other news, the Herbstferien (Autumn holiday) for schools in Rheinland-Pfalz started last week and we start school again next Monday. It has been a really nice opportunity to chill out and do a bit of exploring! On Monday, the weather was absolutely wunderschön, so I had a little wander down to the Mosel river. It was really relaxing just sitting on the river bank reading my book in the sunshine! After a while, I saw a tour boat coming in, so decided to seize the opportunity and go on it. It went down the river in the direction that I had never been before (I know the opposite direction pretty well as it is my route to work) which was really nice. I was being such a tourist and taking loads of photos! Afterwards I decided to have a look at the Cathedral, which I hadn't really seen close up since I'd been here. Again, the role of the tourist was assumed and there was more picture taking. It really is a beautiful building!

[The Mosel]

[Trier Cathedral]

On Friday, a few of the other Trier assistants (Emma, Hillary, Tylor, Whitney) and I went to a lovely little town called Cochem. It is a very quaint little town, overlooked by a castle on a hill. Before walking up to the castle, we decided to sample some of the local Federweißer (wine that has not fully fermented.) A couple of us (me included) hadn't had any breakfast and seeing as it was still before midday, it was decided that the wine had been our breakfast! Oh, how my Mother would disapprove... It was lovely, though. I would recommend trying it even if you don't like wine, as it is a lot sweeter and fruitier than normal wine. After walking through the town and going for lunch, we headed up to the castle. It is surrounded by vineyards and we decided that it was very Hogwarts-esque. We then went on a tour of the inside of the castle, which was really interesting and informative. After heading back to Trier, the day was rounded off by pancakes back at Hillary's flat. Yum!

 [Whitney and I with a random man in a Toga with a massive glass of wine]

[The castle in Cochem]

[Me, Tylor, Emma, Whitney and Hillary in Cochem]

This weekend, Beth (one of the Saarland assistants who is living in Trier) had a couple of friends over and on Sunday a group of us made a day trip to Saarland. Our first stop was Saarburg, which was another very quaint German town. One of it's unique features is the canal that runs through it and then drops into a waterfall. There is also a castle on a hill there (as there seems to be in so many German towns!) After climbing to the top and admiring the wonderful view, we then headed to Saarbrücken which is the capital of Saarland. It is a nice town and has lots of good shops. It even has a Primark, which blew my mind! I will definitely be going there at some point in the future! In Saarbrücken, we met up with some of the assistants teaching there, which was really good fun. It was a great day, even though it got really chilly towards the end! Germany is so cold, brrrrr!

 [Me at the top of the castle in Saarburg]

 [The waterfall in Saarburg town centre]

[Beth, Helen, Me, Whitney and Tylor in Saarburg]

Tomorrow, I am heading down to Baden-Württemberg to meet up with Emma, Tylor and Whitney, who travelled down there today. We are going to be there until Friday and part of our travels will include a trip to the Volksfest in Stuttgart. I'm so excited! Hopefully I will have lots of stories to fill you in on when I get back.

Bis dann,

Thanks for reading,

Bel xxx

P.S. I finally have a bed after being here for over a month. No more sleeping on a mattress on the floor! Yay!