The Big OE

Ok so what’s new that I’ve done in the last few days? Last week, I met up with René, a guy living in New Zealand, who grew up in the city across the river from my town here in Germany and he’d come back home for the summer, to see the family and show his Kiwi girlfriend around. I was invited to Torben’s (one of René’s friends) birthday party out in a small village in the country, and even though I didn’t know any of the other guests, I dragged myself along and had a fantastic time meeting a whole lot of new people, using my random German knowledge and being able to discuss New Zealand things with Amelia, René’s girlfriend. Only downer was one particular guest, who became a little obsessed with yours truly and would follow me from room to room, and was incapable of reading body language - I'm sure you've met the type before.

Rene, Amelia and Torben

I stayed the night, so I didn’t have to drive all the way back, and in the morning while everyone was still sleeping I got up and walked all around the small village. Every single person that passed me, most likely on their way to church, stopped and said hello. Even the two cars that drove past stopped to talk, ok one was to ask directions to the church, and the other was someone who’d been at the party the night before, but it was like entering a weird little happy bubble, and makes a nice change from the city life.

A couple of days later I joined up with René and his group of friends, and went to a soccer game. Now those of you out there who actually know me, will know I detest sport, and would rather pluck every single hair out of my body with pliers, than watch sport, but as I promised my self not to turn down new opportunities, I accepted René’s invite and watched my first ever European Soccer match, in a stadium with 50,500 others. It was an end of the season match between Frankfurt and Berlin, the atmosphere was pretty impressive, and it was worth going just to be able to watch people’s theatrics! Some random stuff I was surprised by was that the big screens didn’t show any of the game being played, like they do back in NZ at the Rugby.

When the goalie got kicked in the face after two minutes, they didn’t replay it on the screen to show what happened in close up, and when I asked why not, they said that the crowd would get too violent. This is when I noticed that all the Berlin supporters were kept in a separate caged off area, with loads of security around to apparently protect them, from the crazy Frankfurter supporters. The only thing they did show on the big screen was when a goal was scored in other games that were happening at the same time in other parts of the country. I have to admit I spent most of the time talking to Torben, who is training to be a Priest, and I’m not one to miss a chance for some religious debate, thankfully he was as interested in the game as I was. Any who, Berlin won 2 to 1 and the supporters had to be escorted out by police to protect them from any troublemakers in the Frankfurt squad, all a bit over the top if you ask me, still a good day out.

The Birthday Boy

Today Mike had his Sponge Bob themed birthday party, which didn’t go to badly really. As it was fantastic weather wise, we just loaded the kids up with sunscreen, sponges and water guns and let them go crazy for four hours. No major dramas, apart from trying to keep all the kiddies out of the house, and yours truly got absolutely drenched in a sponge war. One thing I’ve learnt from all this birthday nonsense is that kids are happy with the basics; it’s the parents that are fueling the booming birthday party supplies machine. Kids don’t need licensed napkins, cups and plates – they barely notice and it’s not worth the money. Give the kids a few balloons, a few games and give them time to play together and they’ll be fine.

Kenji and Laurenz

All this talk of fun in the sun, reminds me I haven’t really said anything about going swimming in Germany yet have I? Ok well for one thing, swimming pools are few and far between, there is really not the space or the climate to justify the expense of a pool in most areas, so the public pools are bursting at the seams. The pool that I go to is always busy and instead of separating the pool into lanes, it’s a free for all and people go all over the place. This means you swim at your own peril and a foot can come at you from any direction. I have not seen one person swim free style here, they all do breaststroke, and the men are obsessed with Speedos! You definitely don’t see anyone covering up in board shorts here.

Oh and something else random that happened this week, I went to get my haircut, which always seems to be an experience in another language, and the hairdresser somehow shaved my neck and gave me a rash, I kid you not! They all seemed to be obsessed with reinventing the 80's. Ahh well, at least it will grow back.

I have just had a fantastic weekend chilling out with my old flatmate Hamish, who has been living in London for the past 5 months, and decided to check out a bit of Germany before I left. After missing his flight on Friday night, I picked him up first thing Saturday morning, and although the weather wasn’t great, we walked into the centre of Wiesbaden and chilled out for the afternoon. Did a bit of window shopping, took him to the farmers market, to a nice beer garden beside a lake and got some Thai for lunch. Both feeling pretty knackered after all that effort :o) we headed home for a few hours nap, and went back into town for dinner to a new restaurant that’s just opened up, and then checked out a band playing at the local Irish Pub.

After a big sleep in, he got the grand tour, which I’m becoming quite the little expert at giving. We headed out to the Rheingau, a beautiful wine growing region running along the length of the Rhein River. I took him first to Schloss Johannisberg, a winery that’s been making wine for over 900 years, is famous for its Riesling, and has impressive views over the whole area. Then we carried on to the touristy little town of Rüdesheim, and I convinced him to take the cable car over the vines, up to Niederwalddenkmal, a huge monument designed to symbolize the re-establishment of the German Empire and Germany's unity was erected in the late 1870’s, which has fantastic views and I’ve wanted to check out since arriving here.

After getting the cable car back down and a stroll back through the small village we headed in the car up along the eastern side of the Rhine, past lots of castles and vineyards to Loreley, where a huge rock face marks the narrowest part of the river between Switzerland and the North Sea. A very strong current and rocks below the waterline have caused many boat accidents there and legend says, that a siren called "Loreley" bewitched the hearts of the sailors and when they looked up to the rock, their boat crashed and they sank. Since it was such a gorgeous day we walked to the infamous Loreley statue, jutting out into the river, and then headed to a very traditional Bavarian Beer garden, right in the middle of a forest close to Eltville, where we sat under the trees, chilling out and Hamish feasted on the biggest Wiener schnitzel I’ve ever seen.

It was such a relaxing weekend, with lots of eating and chatting and a bit of sightseeing thrown in. So now Hamish is back in London, I’m back at work and planning my last few weeks here. In other random news I've just found out I've had a whole lot of my photos featured, and I remembered that here are a few random photos of Wiesbaden I took before I went on my road trip and forgot to chuck in. So look after yourselves.

Sorry to leave Switzerland, we drove on to Freiburg, in the south west corner of Germany, close to the French border and is where Alissa has been living and working as an Au Pair, for the last 7 months. She looks after a small boy and a preteen girl, and it was really interesting for me to see how different her life was like as an Au Pair, and how lucky I’ve been with my family.

We took a tram into the city centre and strolled around for a while, before finally settling on a small restaurant near the Rathaus. For the first time since arriving in Germany, I managed to make my first big mistake when ordering dinner. I don’t know a lot of German, but I’m good with names of food, and so was perhaps a little too cocky for my own good. The waiter approached the table, and asked if we wanted drinks, no problem. I then asked for two menus. No problem. Then the waiter brought out a noodle soup, alarm bells didn’t ring as I thought it was complimentary and perhaps a Schwarzwald (Black Forest) thing.

Oh so smug, before the plates come out

Then a plate of beetroot slices came out, which is when I kindly asked the waiter if we could still have the menu’s because we hadn’t ordered our mains yet. The man looked at me, like I’d lost the plot “ das ist das Menü”. So I made the internationally recognised hand gesture of opening a book, that’s when he said ‘Ahh die Speisekarte?’, that’s when the penny dropped and I realised I had ordered the days 3 course menu option complete with Ox knuckles and sauerkraut, or something equally revolting. As quick as anything, I apologised profusely “Es tut mir Leid” and luckily for both of us it was still early enough to change our orders. But never did it occur to me asking for two menus, would be a problem – lesson learned.

Freiburg is a pretty cool city; sadly a lot of it was heavily damaged during World War II when in 1940 German planes mistakenly dropped close to 60 bombs, near the centre. Still there is a lot of old style charm about the place, including an unusual system of gutters (called Bächle) that run throughout its centre. These Bächle, once used to provide water to fight fires and feed livestock, and are constantly flowing with water diverted from a nearby river. The Bächle were never used for sewage, even in the Middle Ages, and it is said that if you accidentally step in a Bächle, you will marry a Freiburger.

Alissa had a train pass which lets her take another passenger for free on Sundays, so we decided to go deep into the Black Forest, to Titisee. After Alissa finally escaped from a man trying to sell her a cuckoo clock, we found a small café hidden away from the large tourist crowds, but still right on the lake front, where I got to indulge again in my beloved spätzle, and I couldn’t leave without trying a slice of a Black Forest cake. Blessed with perfect weather again, we hired a little electric boat and took it out for a spin on the lake, and a spot of people-watching. That night Stephanie, Alissa’s host, cooked a roast dinner, which is just what I needed. The next day sorry to say good bye to Alissa, and a little bit ‘road tripped’ out I drove back home to Wiesbaden.

This road trip was about several things, exploring some new parts of Europe, crossing some things off the ‘dream’ list, and meeting new people - and boy did I do that. Although driving 2,500 kms in a few days is pretty exhausting, I had such a fantastic time and it reminded me of just how spoilt rotten I am sometimes. The people that I have met and have been surrounded by this last year, have been immeasurably kind to me, and will make it so much harder for me to leave in a few weeks time. To make it even more difficult for me, when I returned to Wiesbaden it was as if someone had let off a green bomb while I was gone, and the entire city had woken up and exploded in full bloom. Everything was lush, vibrant and glowing in all its spring glory. Since I’ve been home, the sun has been out in full force, a whole two months earlier than usually, and the city is loving it.

When looking for people to couchsurf with in Switzerland, I was offered a woman’s apartment in Bern for a few days, in exchange for looking after her cat - so I naturally jumped at the chance. After driving through the picturesque countryside, and stopping at various villages along the way, I arrived in Bern, a few hours early, as I didn’t bother going back into Zurich’s city centre as originally planned.

Sabine, and her home was so warm and welcoming and the sun was glorious so I sat outside in her garden that afternoon, chatting and read some of my book. That afternoon, I finally got to meet Alissa, an Au Pair also working in Germany, and who is from my home town in New Zealand. Although we have lived within 2 kilometres of each other for most of our lives, and know a lot of the same people, we had never met. Introduced through email by my step sister Erin, we had been in contact for a few months, and I decided to invite her along with me.

That evening, before Sabine left oh her own holidays in Vienna, she cooked for us what many Swiss people consider their national dish; Rösti, which is basically a fried potato pancake, which I have since tried to recreate and failed miserably. The next day after biding Sabine farewell, Alissa and I drove south to Interlaken, in the heart of the stunning Bernese Oberland. A small city wedged between two lakes, and the Alps as a backdrop, you couldn’t have picked a better location. We walked around the small town, taking lots of photos, and admiring the vistas.

Not really having a plan, and too poor to take the infamous alpine train to the Jungfraujoch, better known as the highest train station in Europe, we drove up to Lauterbrunnen. We were lucky that we were so early in the session, that it really didn’t have a big touristy feel. We could admire all of the water falls, and sights in peace. LOTR fans out there may be interested to know that Lauterbrunnen provided the pictorial model for J.R.R. Tolkien's sketches and watercolours of the fictitious valley of Rivendell.

We decided to venture on up through the valley for a bit longer, and found a cable car, going right up to the Shilthorn. We decided to go to the cable cars first stop of Gimmelwald, a small car less village right in the heart of the Alps. A truly beautiful little farming village, with small little cheese shops, traditional Swiss homes and several bed and breakfast’s. It had a nice lived in feel, and not just a show for the tourists.

We then drove on to Brienz, at the opposite end of the lake from Interlaken. The water was a perfect turquoise blue, which blew us both away. We then followed the road, hugging along the lake side, back to Bern.

That night was late night shopping in town, so after dinner, Alissa and I took a stroll around some of the markets, and old city streets. Bern, the capital of Switzerland is largely medieval with lots of orange tiles roofs, with its most famous sight being the Zytglogge, an elaborate medieval clock tower with moving puppets, and which apparently aided Einstein in his discovery of General relativity.

Another unusual aspect of the old town is its 6 kilometres of arcades, which boasts one of the longest covered shopping promenades in Europe. In somewhat of a quiet protest I didn’t go to the Bärengraben, a bear pit that has been in the city, since the 16th century. We found a café by the Casino, selling the best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life, a little expensive at 5 Swiss francs for a tiny portion, but boy was it good.

The next day, we drove to Luzern (or Lucerne in English) which both Alissa and I have picked as our favourite Swiss city. The city sits right on the shoreline of Lake Lucerne, and as we were blessed with a beautifully warm and sunny spring day, we wasted no time in joining the locals, to sit along the water front and enjoy the view of all the paddle boats on the lake, and Mount Pilatus and Rigi in the distance.

We eventually dragged ourselves away, and walked to the city's most famous landmark; the Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), a wooden bridge originally built in 1333, although much of it had to be replaced after a 1993 fire, allegedly caused by a group of smokers – why am I not surprised? The city centre itself felt like it was already in summer mode, and we were happy to stroll along the streets, admiring the historic buildings covered in intricate murals. The only downside to my day was realising I'd put a huge finger smudge on my camera lense and ruined most of the days photos, and I also had to find a post office to pay a 40 SF (ouch) parking fine I’d got in Zurich.

After a bit of a sleep in, and tidy up of Sabine’s place, Alissa and I reluctant to leave Switzerland, drove back into Germany.

Liechtenstein is a country which has always fascinated me. A tiny country with a paltry 34,000 inhabitants, wedged between Austria and Switzerland is not on the top of everyone’s must-see travel lists, but as I was in the neighbourhood and I thought ‘why not at least check it out’. Famous mostly for their postal stamps, the first thing that struck me about the country is the speed cameras – they were everywhere. With four cameras on every intersection and what also felt like on every power pole, you really got the feeling ‘Big Brother’ was watching.

I tried looking around the capital, Vaduz, but there wasn’t a whole lot to see. I was a little cheesy and got a souvenir stamp in my passport, but that’s about all you could do in the place. The scenery was gorgeous however, and so I pulled over the car, and sat in a field, admiring all the spring flowers, and Alps. Oh and for those that are interested, I found Liechtenstein to have the cheapest petrol out of all four countries. Austria and Switzerland are not too far off, but Germany is by far the most expensive, because of all the taxes. But then again when driving in Austria and Switzerland you need to get a ‘vignette’ to drive on the motorways.

So after a short drive and little more than a flag on the side of the road, I entered into Switzerland. With a wide grin on my face, I meandered down through the hills into Maienfeld, better known as ‘Heidiland’. Cheesy I know, but I grew up listening to tapes, watching movies and reading all about Heidi.

I remember when I was around 14 I rang up the travel agents, to find out how expensive flights to Frankfurt were, because that’s where Heidi had moved to. Who knew that would be so close to my home for a year?

Anyway, Maienfeld itself is relatively small, and although the story is fictional (written in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri) you can go to Heidishaus, but because there was major roadworks, I couldn’t get to it. But I was happy regardless just sitting in a field, soaking in all the views.

I then carried on along the back country roads (thanks to my handy navigator, which let me avoid all the toll roads) along the impressive Wallensee, and finally along the skinny, and somewhat less impressive Zurichsee. I saw a random New Zealand flag flying from this guys workshop, that sells wood, and so I decided to stop. Turned out he just had some kiwi friends visiting, who decided to put it up. I figured you never know, who you might bump into.

That night I stayed with Dule, a Serbian Evolutionary Biologist, at his cool apartment, right in the Zurich city centre. We went out for Thai, and Dule showed me around the sights, then we met up with one of his American friends and checked out a few local night spots. Including one place, that if you had a giant record player, you could play music off the walls. Had a great time with Dule, and his friend and would have loved to have spent more time there.

Next addition is about meeting up with Gizzy locals, babysitting cats, exploring the rest of Switzerland and the Black forest.