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]
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!
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