Germany

After Füssen, I drove on to Lindau, a small island jutting out into the Bodensee, where the three borders of Austria, Germany and Switzerland meet. A beautiful little town, with cobbled streets, flowers in full colour and its own quiet charm. After strolling around the harbour I met up with Peter, a sound technician, born and bred on the island, who had kindly offered to host me, and was putting me up at a pension just around the corner from his house. As it was a beautifully sunny Easter Sunday, the little town was bursting at the seams with day-trippers, ice cream vendors and street performers which gave it a real summery feel.

Peter showed me all around the small town, and taught me a lot about the history of the place and the people. That night we went to one of the local Italian restaurants for dinner, and to a Dizzy Bee concert at one of the bars, which Peter had installed the sound gear for. The band was really good, had a lot of energy and (luckily for me) sang in English. After they’d finished their set, we moved on to another local spot before sleep finally got the better of me.

The room Peter had found me was fantastic, the house was on a quite cobbled street, I needed a huge silver old-style key to unlock the front door, and the room was something straight out of the 1900’s. I was ecstatic, and feeling pretty spoilt.

Waking up the next day, feeling much rested, I drove to Birnau, which is further up the eastern side of the lake, and has a famous Cathedral, and got as close to Easter Mass as I was ever going to get. As I sat out in the sun, amongst the dandelions and daisies, waiting for the mass to be over, so I could go in and look at the infamous ceiling inside, I got to see a ‘Zeppelin’. A rather large ‘blimp’ like aircraft, that were used to carry passengers from Germany to America in the early 1900’s, and are famous to the region. As it was still a public holiday, trying to find a park anywhere, to take a ferry across the lake, was mission impossible, so happy to hang around Lindau some more, I went back and soaked up some of the sun around the harbour.

Peter was extremely fascinating, and we talked a lot about his travels (as he’s a keen diver) and he has a soft spot for New Zealand, of which he has actually travelled all over, even to Gisborne, my hometown. Later that afternoon he convinced me to watch the Borat movie, which I’d been putting off, but actually found pretty funny (mostly shocking, but good for a laugh). We then went to another local restaurant, which specialises in Swabian cuisine. The restaurant was a rather random family run affair, and had more of a guest in someone’s home feel about it, but boy was it good. The menu was written entirely in swabian dialect, meaning I had no chance of understanding it, but quick as anything I was presented an English copy printed off the computer out the back, and asked if it was up to scratch. I had to chuckle at one of the descriptions: Krautspätzle: Sauerkraut and Spätzle mengled together in equal shares and fried; Comparable to a happy marriage. I absolutely love Spätzle, a type of noodle, and will miss it greatly when I leave Germany.

I found Lindau absolutely delightful, and would love to go back. It has a lot of character, and history at ever turn. I was a little disappointed that if there hadn’t been such a thick haze over the lake, I would’ve been able to see the Swiss Alps on the other side – just another reason why I’ll have to go back I guess. Peter was a fantastic host, with whom I am greatly indebted to. Stay tuned for Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Black Forrest.

It has been absolutely beautiful weather for the last week or so. Although the winter was mild, Germany is a lot bleaker in winter than back home, I think mostly due to Germany not having too many evergreens, all their trees are deciduous which makes everything look really grey, dead and depressing – but of course makes for a fantastic autumn.

This weekend I met up with Anna, a girl I met a few weeks ago and we went to the Hessen Open Air Museum. Basically a village with over 100 buildings (mostly farmsteads) that have been reconstructed on 160 acres, and span over 400 years of Hessian history. Out in the middle of no where, we only got a little lost finding it, and were grateful there weren’t lots of people around. Usually in the high season, there’s people all dressed up, and working out in the gardens, and using the traditional hand tools to give you a better impression of how difficult things were done back then. But because we were perhaps a little too early in the season, there were only a couple of workers milling around.

Later on I met Anna’s boyfriend (who looks exactly like John Lennon) at his flat in Offenbach, a city just out of Frankfurt, and we had a walk around and down by the river. Both really lovely people, and who I hope will be able to make it to Wiesbaden soon. I headed back to Wiesbaden just in time for Ellie and Marc’s wedding party, they had for the people they knew in Germany, who couldn’t make it back in February. It was a really nice mix of people, some of who I’d met before. It was also really cool to meet some of the neighbours, as they’d invited the whole apartment block and several actually showed up – it seemed to be a very un-German thing to do. There are a few differences to how Germans throw parties we’ve discovered. Firstly a ‘party’ means dinner is provided as well, and all drinks. A guest must bring a present, which is not usually alcohol unless you are going to a ‘Bring a Bottle’ party which is generally only acceptable for very close friends and students. And if a party starts at 8, then you should show up between 7.59pm and 8.30pm.

I have showed up at several parties here with a bottle of wine, close to an hour late and having already eaten which is pretty normal by NZ standards (well my standards at least) and discovered a fully cooked meal, and I was the last to arrive. I never for a second thought that dinner would be served, if it was for dinner then why didn’t they say dinner? Hmm so lesson learned I will not be making the same mistake again, and we had to rethink the plan for the party a bit – look at me acting as if this was my party! Anyway it was a great success, and everyone had a really nice time and new friends were made.

In the morning, those of us who were alive were treated to a fantastic cooked breakfast by Marc, and we all sat out on the deck in the sun. I grudgingly had to go back to the house in the afternoon to look after the boys, but the weather was so good the boys were happy to play soccer and I pulled out one of the deck chairs and read my book. Ahh bliss. This week Max turns 8, so the mission is on to find a quality birthday present and make a fabulous birthday cake. In other good news, I recently pulled out some of my board shorts and ¾ pants (perhaps a little too ambitiously, due to the fantastic sunny weather albeit a little too crisp) to find most of them ridiculously too big for me! I haven’t lost much more weight over the past few months, but something seems to be happening!

I'm beginning to get a little apprehensive about my move to Vancouver, as its dawning on me more and more, of how I'm feeling really settled and happy here and now I have to leave and start right back at the beginning again. Its going to be difficult, but exciting as well I guess. I know I will enjoy it, and meet new people - but it’s just such a daunting prospect. C'est la Vie

I’ve been looking forward to Carnival time in Germany (often referred to as the fifth season, and referred to as ‘Fastnach’ in the area I’m living in) since I arrived here (can you believe) 9 months ago. It all starts at 11:11am on November 11th, culminating in a week-long street festival leading up to Ash Wednesday (where the rigors of Lent's 40 days of fasting and sacrifice begin) and the highlight of the carnival is massive parades in Cologne, Mainz and Düsseldorf on Rosenmontag.

The whole silly season is really all a bit of a pagan festival that has survived through the generations and is mostly linked to the very old rite of driving out the ghosts of winter, and welcoming spring, using horrifying disguises and lots of noise. It has practically disappeared in Northern Germany. Since Martin Luther's Reformation, Germany is roughly split religiously - with the North and East being primarily Lutheran (Protestant) and the South and West being primarily Roman Catholic. The Protestant Church successfully quashed Fastnach celebrations in the North, but in the South, the Catholic Church was not able to do so, and so the tradition lives on (particularly in the Black Forest areas) the Alpine region of Austria and in German speaking parts of France and Switzerland.

Parking seems to be a bit of a problem in Mainz

Many theorists also believe the origin of the carnival is a 'farewell' to meat... a preparation for the fasting that has occurred just before Easter since the third and fourth centuries. So basically they needed to use up all the remaining meat and animal products before the fasting season. For those not in the know: during the forty days of Lent, faithful Catholics are asked to adhere to many severe restrictions upon eating, drinking and sexuality, so no wonder they needed a bit of a shindig first!

So with all that in mind I was supposed to go to Cologne, the centre of it all for Carnival in Germany, with James and some of his friends for the weekend. But unfortunately they didn’t end up going and I was as sick as a dog in bed anyway, running backwards and forwards to the toilet to throw up all day, not fun. The next day, still feeling pretty miserable and weak in the knees, but thankfully alive I dragged myself down to the parade in Wiesbaden.

Bush getting a bit of Justice

The parade was very long - much longer than any parade I have ever seen. I'm sure it went on for at least a good two hours. It was up to float 80 I think when I left for sushi. There were so many different types of costumed groups, mostly different music clubs and sports groups coming in from all the small towns and cities close to Wiesbaden all decked out in impressive costumes. Lots of floats threw out sweets, and small presents, many had very arty political messages and some floats threw out sponges, but I’m not sure what the meaning behind that was.

The costumes weren’t just for the people in the parade either, lots and lots of people in the crowd were just as equally dressed up, adults just as much as kids. There was a very cute little Pipi Longstockings beside me (a very popular choice for girls aged 2 to 5), sitting up on her mum’s shoulders. And to my left was an exceptional annoying girl who would push me out of the way, and grab sweets at my feet, or dart out on to the road and snatch whatever was thrown from the various floats. Often her mother would force her to run down the road to follow the floats that seemed especially generous. Right behind me was a big bunch of loud, crazy of Italians all dressed up in wacky costumes, who’d managed to get a prime spot on top of a large concrete block, perfect spot to get the attention of the sweet throwers. I managed to score several small bags of popcorn, a sponge and lollies without even trying, others had come prepared with massive bags and umbrellas to turn upside down to increase their catch potential - absolute madness.

Poking a bit of fun at Mainz's rival city - my town

Michael, one of Crystals (the old Au Pair) friends kindly invited me to the apartment of a friend of his who was having a party that overlooked the parade in Mainz the following day. I had luckily gotten the day off work, as the family were away skiing for the long weekend in Austria. I dragged Ellie along with me, and we braved the winter cold – her as a rather confused fairy, with devil horns, and me as a sleazy Mexican complete with faux moustache. We met up with two fellow party goers Liz and Chris, and squeezed ourselves on to the train, bursting full of people dressed as clowns, pigs, broccoli heads, wine barrels and cell phones to name a few. Got to Mainz and made our way to the apartment, we were pretty lucky really – we had a prime spot overlooking the parade and didn’t have to fight for space with the other 700,000 parade goers. If I thought Wiesbaden’s parade was long, I was in for a shock, Mainz’s parade felt like it was never going to end, but it was on a much more grandeur scale and had lots of crazy characters, and pretty impressive floats. And of course 30 minutes after the last float had passed us, the ever efficient Germans had cleaned the street, and you could barely tell of the festivities that had gone on a few moments before. All of Michael’s friends treated us really well, and it was nice to hang out with some actual Germans for a change, it’s very easy to get stuck in the expat world. We got home just on the brink of dark, even though we could have stayed much longer.

Ahh so thats whats in all those yummy German sausages!

So where to from here, hmmm? I’ve been offered a job teaching two groups of kids English in a small village close to Wiesbaden, and possibly some one on one stuff as well, so looking forward to some extra cash rolling in. Also I am sure most of you know by now but I’ll tell you again anyway …. I’m moving to Vancouver in June!! Yup, I’m packing my little bags and setting off for a new adventure when my Visa here runs out. Don’t have a job, anywhere to live or know anyone for that matter but it will all work itself out in time I’m sure. But until then, I’m going to enjoy these next three months. Hopefully I’ll pop over to Belgium in March, before my sister moves back to NZ, and still got my big road trip around the South of Germany, Austria and Switzerland to look forward to in Easter. In other news, my brother has actually moved out of home, and gone to Uni, never thought I’d see the day! And my cousin Tim has announced his engagement, so congratulations cuz! So everyone else, please drop me a line and let me know what you’re up to!

This week, has not been the best so I’ll keep it short. First thing Monday morning I found out my cat Smudge, back in New Zealand had to be put down a month short of her 15th birthday, because of Stomach Cancer. No one had expected it, as she’d just gone in to get groomed, but at least I knew when I left NZ that I wasn’t likely to see her again. So pretty gutted about that.

Smudge, a silver Persian I believe

It just kept getting worse after that really, I’d been looking forward to having a good old catch up with Ellie as I hadn’t really seen her for two weeks because of all the pre-wedding prep and then of course all the post wedding celebrating…. But poor wee thing had gotten quite sick and was housebound. Then I somehow ended up having friends of the boys over every day for four days in a row. Now having four loud, boisterous boys running around is bad enough but not being able to speak the same language as two of them, and the other two pretending they don’t know what you’re talking about (when they damn well do) leads to a near mental breakdown. Add on top of that Max’s massive temper tantrums and violent outbursts which have become a daily occurrence of late – this Friday was more welcome than most.

Trying to be arty, somewhere north of Wiesbaden

Not to be outdone by the stress of controlling Max in his wildly changing moods (pretty sure due to the frustration and extra pressure brought on by the arrival of a new teacher), the German housekeeper and I have been butting heads, as she has returned from a 5 month long break. Silly things blow up out of proportion, and really should not be an issue if you could discuss them in the same language and not have to play charades to explain what you mean. It seems there is a major balance of power struggle happening, which is ridiculous, because our jobs are completely different, and there is no hierarchy.

Didn't know there was a finger smudge on the lense, till after I got home - doh!

But it’s not all bad, nothing ever is. The weathers been pretty good really, the suns shining, spring bulbs are starting to bloom, days are getting lighter, warming up a little. I’ve been organising my road trip around Austria, Switzerland and the south of Germany in Easter and have been overwhelmed with people’s generosity of hosting me along the way. Last Saturday, James and I drove down to Worms one of the oldest towns in Germany and had a walk around. We also stuffed ourselves with giant cones of incredibly good gelato.

Worms Cathedral

On Wednesday as I was getting out of my car a woman asked me for directions, and so I helped her find the place she was looking for. After we’d said good bye, I felt like I should have given her my email or something, as she’d seemed really lovely. But I didn’t want her to think I was coming on to her or desperate for friends so I did nothing. But when I got back to the car, she’d left a note in my door with her email! Of course I got in touch with her, and I got an email back from her saying “when you left, I just thought, that just could not be everything!” So things like that really make your day.

Why?!! Prost means 'Cheers' in German

Then today (Friday) Ellie, who is alive and well now finally, thank goodness, got in the car and went exploring some of the area north of Wiesbaden. Then stopped for lunch in a town along the Rhine for Schnitzel! Absolutely stuffed, I showed Ellie this cool new supermarket I’ve just discovered (thank you again James) and I tried on silly hats, ending up buying a Sombrero so I can dress up as a Mexican, for Carnival which is on this weekend and Monday. Well I am off now to catch up with the gang, and ease in to the weekend. Look out for next weeks blog all about Carnival season in Germany

Tchüss!