Jan 2007

Well winter can’t seem to make up its mind around here lately. I’ve been pretty lucky so far as it’s been one of the warmest winters in Germany in over 30 years. I was even able to go for a walk along the Rhine with the sun warming my face last weekend, and then a few days later it snowed. I was like a kid at Christmas, of course there wasn’t enough of it to stick around but I was still happy. Then on Saturday night it was warm enough for me to even walk into town without any trouble. Taking the boys to school in the morning is really the only problem, as it’s around -6 degrees Celsius some mornings and there’s been bad frosts a few times, but nothing to really complain about.

Apart from the weather, there’s been some good, some bad and some out right strange things happened last week. Monday mornings are never great to begin with, but last week I found out first thing that I am not eligible to apply for a working holiday visa for the UK, while living in Germany, as I have to have 6 months left on my current visa and I only have 4 and a half months, go figure. But the stupid thing is that even if I had six months left, my visa for the UK would start (at the very latest) in three months time regardless if I was still planning on living in Germany for the following next three months or not. So the nice man at the Embassy kindly told me there was no other way than to go back to New Zealand, and apply there. Just for those not clear on flight times, a flight from Frankfurt to London is 1 hour, a flight from Frankfurt to New Zealand and then on to London is a total of 48 hours flying time, not to mention the cost involved – does that make any sense to you?

The infamous Rhine and Rhinegau region

I love New Zealand, I really do – but I’ve finally got my wings and I’m just not ready for them to be clipped just yet. So I need a new plan, and at the moment I am throwing around the idea of working in Canada for a year. Of course there’s problems attached to getting a Visa there to, but hopefully still doable. Then there’s the idea of working in a Summer Camp, or a National Park in the North West of the US. I could teach English in Japan, Korea or China. For some strange reason I’ve always wanted to work on a ranch in Montana. Then again I could always return to NZ and do honours. One thing is clear however, and that’s that I need to get a good job, I have had my year off and now I need to start using my skills I gained from my degree and get started. Easier said than done right? I seem to have to make these huge life changing choices around this time each year and each time I wish the right path makes itself more obvious to me sooner. But anyway that can all wait for another day, on to some other news. I have just found out I have two weeks off in April so I am planning a road trip doing a big loop through the south of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, a little bit of France and back into Germany. I’m hoping to be able to couchsurf most of the way and meet some locals. I have even been offered an apartment in Berne, Switzerland for a week already, in exchange for looking after their cats while they’re away. So I might use there as a base to explore around as much as possible.

Ellie

Now to the weird, I was minding my own business waiting for Ellie outside a shop and munching on some pizza, when out of nowhere this ridiculously happy woman stands in front of me and starts smiling, then there is a film crew of around 5 or 6 people watching my every move. No one says a thing, I can’t for the life of me think what to say in German so I just asking “What the hell are you doing?”, but no one says anything, they just move around looking for different camera angles. I wonder if it has something to do with the pizza, or fat people eating junk food, I’m utterly confused and no one will answer my questions. I don’t know whether they want me to move, I’m in their shot, should I keep eating or stand perfectly still. I wait desperately for Ellie to come, and then finally the woman in perfect English tells me they are from a Children’s television show and they are doing a piece on peoples reactions, when others smile at them. It wasn’t till afterwards I realised they never asked my permission to film me, and I never had to sign anything like you would back home, but guess that’s just how they do things around here. Of course Ellie came out, when they’d all gone and I was in utter hysterics. Guess you had to be there.

A Bingen lane, with the Rhine and grapevines in the background

The next day Ellie and I drove out to Bingen, a small town on the Rhine and had a walk around, we both needed to get out and have some fresh air. She’s getting married in London this weekend, and so I’m all excited as I’m finally heading over to the big smoke for three days. One of my old flatties just moved there a few weeks ago, so its going to be wicked catching up with him, even my sisters going to be in town, but with the wedding and everything I’m not sure we’re going to see each other. Although I can’t really afford it, I’m shelling out for a night to stay in a “Luxury Hotel” with a few other wedding guests, as I don’t like the thought of finding my way back to a hostel on the other side of town, after the tube has stopped working and trying to find night buses on my own. Better to shell out, and be safe knowing that there are a whole lot of people staying in the same place, not to far from the venue.

So look out for my next blog, with all my antics in London. Ooh and just so you know, the family’s pretty sure they’ve found their new Au Pair, an 18 year old girl from California. So times running out for me, it’s going to be over before I know it. And of course any life advice is always appreciated.

I have just had a fantastic week soaking up the sun, reading and exploring Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands. A cluster of several small volcanic islands located off the north-western coast of Africa (Morocco and the Western Sahara) the Canaries are a godsend to chilled Europeans looking to soak up a bit of vitamin D in the cold winter months.

The family had gone skiing in Austria, and so I had a week to do as I pleased and got a great deal off a last minute website. I was really struggling to decide where to go as it was a toss up of doing something cultural like going to some of the bigger cities in the north of Italy, Spain or perhaps the Czech Republic, or doing a trip around Belgium and Holland while staying with my sister or going somewhere warm like Egypt, Tunisia or Morroco. As January is not exactly the best month to be traveling around Europe weather-wise, the thought of going to museum after museum just didn’t appeal, and being a solo-western-woman traveling in countries, which have reputations of not exactly being the safest places in the world, I went with relaxing in the Spanish sun, naturally.

I stayed at a whopping 600+ room, 4 star resort called the Barcelo Jandia Playa, and although these massive tourist havens wouldn’t be my first choice to stay in normally, I figured it meant I might have more of a chance to meet some people to pass the time. I really don’t mind traveling by myself, and in some ways prefer it, simply for the reason you can do what you want when you want, with out constant compromise. But a little social interaction is always good, and keeps you sane, oh and it was “All Inclusive” to boot.

Now I hadn’t really thought much about what the island would be like, I just wanted to know if it was going to be warm, but what I had truly not expected was just how dry, desolate and barren the whole island was. Basically the only greenery on the island was imported, and was only clustered around the resorts. I stayed at the southern end of the island where the best beaches are, and they were really stunning. The water a beautiful turquoise, white sand and wind surfers out and about, it really did look picture perfect. Oh and the odd naked German thrown in for the hell of it. Yup, pretty much all of the beach in front of the resort I was staying at was ‘au naturale’.

Thankfully there weren’t actually that many nudists around, most were off frolicking in the sand dunes, and out of everyone’s way. The island is pretty saturated in tourists, and everywhere has not only Spanish and English signs, but also German, French and Italian. In fact, knowing the little German that I do, was more helpful most of the time than being a native English speaker. Simply because so many of the tourists are German, that people in shops and who worked at the resort could speak more German than they could English.

I basically spent my days sitting by the pool, reading. I virtually became a vegetarian the whole time I was away, as the meat in the buffet reminded me of my days at the halls of residence in first year Uni, but I never starved. I didn’t meet that many people, as firstly most guests were four decades older than me, and most weren’t exactly that outgoing. I stuck out like a sore thumb, and the constant staring just about drove me insane.

One thing these Europeans love to do, is people watch, and they treat it almost like a sport. When walking through the restaurant to get food, at the back of the massive room, or even just walking down the street, I felt like a gladiator having to run the gauntlet. You can feel all the beady little eyes on your back, and heads following your path, it was actually quite off putting but then again, they have absolutely nothing else to do - it’s just that they do it so obviously, that gets my goat up.

I wasn’t completely devoid of human contact during my time away however. I met a pretty friendly English couple and some nice Norwegians took me under their wing for a night. I dragged myself away from my books (I read three by the way) and did some Yoga and Pilates classes by the pool. And I also hired a car to tour around the island a bit. Although there’s not terribly much to see, as all the barren wasteland kind of blurs together, it was still worth it and pretty fascinating being somewhere which felt so unlivable, yet people somehow managed it.

I was really quiet lucky with the weather as I only had two days that were not so great, but still t-shirt weather, and I browned up a little. It was exactly the kind of holiday that I needed, not that my life’s all that hectic here in Germany anyway, but it was good to get some sun and chill out. Lots of people thought it was really random I would go away by myself, and the English couple thought I was so brave, which I thought was kind of odd. I simply don’t see the point of sitting at home moaning because no one could take the time off work, or could afford to go. I traveled around Italy in August by myself, and did my road trip around the North of Germany alone, and if anything it’s opened me up to doing things a little differently, and forcing myself to interact with people I possibly would have passed by if I’d been with someone else. It also makes me feel better, knowing that I’m not reliant upon other people to make me happy, its good for the soul, perhaps you should try it.

New Years in Wiesbaden 2007: Utter chaos in the streets, felt like I needed riot gear just to cross the road. People were letting off fireworks in the middle of the streets, in built up city areas with not a care in the world. The NZ Fire department would've been horrified at the complete lack of fire safety. Little kids (and big ones) lighting huge rockets and aiming them anywhere, crackers going off at your feet, shots missing you by inches - bloody crazy and out of control, never seen anything like it.

Spent the rest of the week just playing with the boys, taking them to the park, having friends over, going to the museum and basically entertaining them on cold winter days.

Went out for Cocktails last night with the gang. The family has left already for their skiing trip, but it’s been too warm for much snow, so not sure how much action they’re going to get on the slopes.

Off to the Canary Islands for a week tomorrow, staying at a 4 star ‘All Inclusive’ resort, so as you can imagine I am really excited. I’m going to Fuerteventura, so I hope I’ll be able to rent a car and explore the island a bit. If you’re looking for the islands on an atlas, find Morocco in the North West of Africa, and then the Canaries are several islands grouped together just off the coast, further west.