Week #6 in Marburg + Carpooling + Isny im Allgäu

Week #6 in Marburg

Second last week of language course! Wow time has absolutely flown by. In 2 weeks we will start real university (eeeep), in which I have a class in German (double eeep). I'm looking into continuing to study German at the same time - I'm already going to be doing a 4 hour conversation course per week, but there's also other options available - I want to have a B2 certificate (C1 is completely fluent and B2 is one level down from that) by the time I leave!

On Thursday our German class (there's 10 of us) went to the Brauerei (Brewery) in Gießen which is about 20 mins away by train. The brewery guide talked in English and it was quite interesting finding out which different types of beer have different malts etc - plus we each got 4 beers to taste! I actually expected the brewery to be bigger, but it was just a small one tucked in the middle of a small German town :)

Craig, me and my German teacher Christina in the beer cellar!

Our German class! We also got 4 beers each with our tour :)

Carpooling

Alot of people in Germany use carpooling as a way to get around - www.carpooling.co.uk and this weekend I gave it a try! I highly recommend it to everyone - it's really awesome. I know, I know, all the things about getting into cars with strangers - and I was a bit nervous about doing it. The thing is, people have to be registered with the site and provide their address (only the site can see that though), mobile number (public) and have the option to add a picture and confirm their identity with a passport copy. You can look at the ratings of drivers (after each trip, the drivers and passengers rate each other) and see what other people have said about them. I guess there is an element of risk though but like everything, you have to look at your options and make a decision based on what you know. I don't want to be that person who never tries anything new, and I guess carpooling with a highly-rated, registered driver could be just as dangerous as going to the bar with the girls, or walking home alone from the bus stop, or going for a jog.

Anyway, it all turned out really well - 3 other people were in the car too (which I checked by the way to see that there was more than one place available so I wasn't alone). Going from Frankfurt to Munich would have probably cost around 90 euro by train, but it cost me 25 euro for a 3 and a half hour drive :)

Isny im Allgäu

When Kieran and I went on our roadtrip in December, we met two lovely German friends (Claudi + George) who were awesome! I kept in touch, and this weekend I went to visit :) I stayed at Claudi's (George wasn't able to be there sadface) and had such a blast!

So I skipped culture class (such a rebel) on Friday and eventually arrived at the train station where Claudi picked me up around 8pm. Her friend Andreas shared a ticket from Munich (her place is about 1 and a half hours away from there) with me, and wouldn't let me pay him for it which was really nice. 

We spent that night hanging out with her friends, who were heaps cool - I learnt lots of German slang :)

Claudi's parents are so lovely - they don't speak a word of English but they are so nice. Her dad is veryyy hard to understand - I think its the southern German dialogue! He also speaks really fast, asking me questions about Australia and what I'm doing etc. I kept up okay - Claudi was a translator when I needed it haha. Her mum spoke more slowly which was easier :) 

I love my room! Their house was very typically German - I loved it :)

Saturday morning we had food with her family, and in the late afternoon we went to the mountain "Hochgrat". The weather was extremely foggy - here is my view from the top of the mountain (we caught a ski chairlift there).

Beautiful, isn't it? Hehe

The snow was so intense - we went for a bit of a hike (I was dying) to the very top of the mountain but the snow was thigh-deep! I was stuggling so much, but at the same time it was awesome fun!

On Saturday night I met another group of her friends who were just as cool! The next day we all went to Lake Constance (the Bodensee) which borders Austria. 

At the lighthouse at Lindau, a town on the Bodensee.

Claudi and I :)

The Bodensee

The weather was still a little foggy, but you can just see the mountains if you look closely.

Town of Lindau

Swan with her nest under the walkway :)

Claudi and her parents invited me to come back in summer, I can't wait to go back one year!

Week #5 in Marburg + Berlin weekend

Week #5 in Marburg

#student life! 

That moment when your celery goes slimy in the fridge, when you honestly can't tell if your milk is off or not and you have to sniff it really closely, when you curse because you put in a 2 euro coin for the 1.70 euro dorm washing machine that does not give change! I bet whoever gets the money from that washing machine makes a fortune from all the extra 30c they get!

My big weakness here is cheese rolls. Yes, cheese rolls. I was a sucker for them back in Oz - mmmm the soft ones from Coles (no bacon please) are soo good. Here in Deutschland they have them fresh at all the bakeries - usually from 40 - 70c each. They are just sooo good and I can't stop eating them! 

Speaking of food (as I love to do) I've found again that German food is so heavy! I came here once before to do a 6 week school exchange back in grade 11 (like 5 years ago.. ahh so old) and I noticed it then too. Do not mess with Germans and their meat, bread or cheese. Or beer.

This week has been pretty routine - going to German class in the mornings, the cafeteria ("Mensa") for lunch (yes Mum I'm eating healthy don't worry! Pretzel sandwiches are healthy, right? Like they have a bread pretzel for the bun of this delicious salad sandwich... soo glorious). After lunch it's culture class (yawn) and then usually I go food shopping or straight home - where a couple of my friends and I cook dinner together. It's so annoying - the kitchen on my level has practically NO utentils - there is ONE plate and ONE mug and ONE butter knife and ONE frying pan but no forks, spoons, spatulas, strainers or saucepans! I am being a cheap bum and refusing to buy the whole kitchen stuff, and turns out we all cook on Courtney's level anyway so I hardly need to use my own kitchen. 

Berlin

This weekend was the cultural excursion to Berlin! Everyone in IUSP (that's my exchange program) went and it was heaps of fun :)

Courtney (and Craig) and I excited for the trip!! 

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Me, Brooks and Sarah :)

What else is there to do on a 6 hour bus trip apart from taking selfies? ;)

We arrived on Friday afternoon (we had the whole day off from classes yaaaay). 

This is most of our group - chilling at the hostel

The hostel was really good - the beds were amazingly comfortable!! I was in a room with my other American friends - it was good to have some girl time :)

On Saturday our class went to the Reichtstag building - which is the government building in Berlin. 

We had to wait quite a long time to get in - so we took some typical tourist-y photos while we were waiting haha.

There was alot of security checks - you had to have your passport, put your bags through a scanner and walk through a metal detector! Inside, it was totally different to what I imagined. The outside looks quite old-fashioned, but inside it is all clear glass walls and modern design.

Here is where parliament can meet, all the seats are in sections according to the political party.

The graffiti of Soviet soldiers is preserved on some walls for history's sake

Within the Reichtstag is a giant glass dome which you can walk to the top
(those horizontal stripes are the ramp)

The view is amazing...

After the history lesson at the Reichtstag, we had free time - so I walked around Berlin a little bit.

This used to be the main train station entrance - now it is a carpark.

It was blown up, but they have kept the pieces standing.

The famous Brandenburg Tor (Gate)
(thousands of people gathered here to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall)

Remnants of the Berlin Wall

Jewish Holocast Memorial... cement blocks of all different sizes
(doesn't look like it from this angle but some of those blocks in the middle are meters tall)

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It's design is meant for you to feel like the walls are closing in on you...

City of Berlin

On Sunday we took a bus to Potsdam where we visited Sanssouci Park (built by Fredrick the Great) which was basically a massive garden with vineyards, little lakes, a giant place - just the usual ;)

Naturally this wonder garden-world must include a golden gazebo.

We also visited Cecilienhof - a building which was used as a conference room where some very important decisions were made (such as the orders to atomic bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki)

There was alot more that I wanted to see - I feel like I didn't even scratch the surface of what Berlin has to offer! Hopefully I'll be back soon :-)

Week #4 in Marburg + Amsterdam weekend

Week #4 in Marburg

So things are really great - my German course is easy but I've found that going over the picky little grammar things is making me alot more confident in speaking it. Living in a student dorm is pretty much what I thought it would be, and I'm really liking all the independence of studying abroad.

I am still getting the top mark in my class - although sometimes I feel a bit like Hermoine (like in Harry Potter) because I'm always putting my hand up and answering questions when no one else does. Haha oh well! I also have culture class in the afternoons - the aim is to sum up 1000 years of German history in a couple of weeks - but the problem is I keep wanting to fall asleep!

My hand is still bruised, but I'm thinking it should be okay in a few days or so. Thank goodness because I'm sick of writing with my left hand in class!

Amsterdam

So this weekend, a group of us decided to head off to Amsterdam. I love the centrality of being in Europe - there are soo many countries that are so close! We ended up renting 2 cars (5 people in each car) and drove there. I wanted be a driver but there was no way I was driving on the wrong side of the road (which is, of course, the right side ;)) 

Courtney & I - Woot, road trip!!

200kmph on the Autobahn!

Josh and I - are we there yet??

Turns out our hostel was right in the middle of the famous red-light district! Awkwaard (again - I stayed in the red-light district at Frankfurt too, accidentally!)

Our definitely-not-seedy-looking hostel! (At least it was next to a nice canal)

We skipped culture class that afternoon and arrived late Friday night.

 

Bright and early Saturday we went walking around Amsterdam. The canals are so beautiful and I love the architecture of the Dutch buildings!

See the wonky angle of the buildings in the pic to the right! Crazy!

We also walked to the Royal Place - it was pretty busy. One bad thing about the trip was that there was alot of people in our group. 10 people walking around together is a big number and can get annoying if we want to get food at a small restaurant or something. Also, it takes ages to get anywhere and no one is decisive! It was good though because there was a real sense of friendship. One thing I've found on my travels so far is that the only person that you can depend to look after you is yourself. I felt like on this trip everyone was looking out for each other, we would all wait for each other and make sure everyone was included in the group. So that part was really really nice :-)

Courtney, me, Daniel, Rolando, Matthew and Tami!

A thing I forgot to mention - it was bloody cold!! Minus temperatures with a freezing wind - it sucked! Should have bought thermals :P

A few of us went to the Amsterdam museum, it was okay - not the best museum I've been to but it had some interesting stuff on Dutch history and stories about Amsterdam, like this room full of treasure chests!

Amsterdam's tourist slogan is "I amsterdam" - which we found outside the museum in giant letters. There is also huge one near the Anne Frank museum (which I didn't get a chance to go to because the lines were too long :()

Sunday was pretty much the same - we walked around the city in the freezing cold haha. Seriously, if your hands were exposed to the wind (thank goodness for pockets) they would start to hurt and burn from the cold!

Anyway, whinging about the weather aside (at least it was kind of sunny-ish) Callum, Josh and I went on a walking tour which was pretty cool - it was all about the Dutch settlement, the canals, buildings etc. 

Then our whole group went on a river cruise down the canals,
the scenery was beautiful :)

On the way back to Marburg, we wanted to go find the Postcard district (with the windmills and stuff) but we got so lost - should have hired the GPS with the car! After driving around aimlessly for a while (stopped to ask a random for directions - turns out she only spoke Spanish - lucky Rolando can too!) we still didn't find it so we just headed home. The hire car only cost us 40 euro each for everything - to the Netherlands and back to Marburg in the middle of Germany, petrol, and the extra few kilometers we did over our 750km limit. All in all, it was a great trip with some great people! :-)