Rachel wrote this detailed account of our Sunday together and so I thought I would share this with everyone here instead of rewriting it again! And don't worry- I'm really bad at writing frequently, but it's hard to get the internet for long periods of time. So when I get to Tuebingen it will be a lot easier. Have fun!
Ok, so Chelsea and I had an amazing time tonight! This morning we rolled outta bed at around 10:30 am and got ready for what we guessed was a Heimat Fest (festival for the town). We went 20 minutes away to a little town called Weitingen and stayed there all day! First, we passed through a tiny Flohmarkt (flea market) and got to see all the fun, old stuff people were selling. Then, we make it to the festival and we see tons of people! Apparently, the town looks forward to it every year and they set up food tents and beer and wine tents. Plus, they had this amazing German polka band! It was hilarious! Well, after eating some kind of food called Scharfsnudlen (noodles with sauerkraut) Chelsea and I hung out at the bench while the town parade went by! We saw horses and people dressed in Lederhosen, and we saw tiny kids dressed like bakers or farmers. It was adorable! After, we simply sat around and chatted with Chelsea host family and their friends. Thats what Germans love to do. Sit around, drink some good beer, eat and talk. Its awesome, so relaxed and calm.
During the evening, Chelsea and I couldn't help noticing the rambunctious group of young guys dancing and singing to all the up-beat and energetic polka music (apparently a favorite genre to the town). It was hilarious! Then we noticed a friend of theirs rolls up with a music cart that when he turns the handle, music comes out (dont know the name of this thing but you'd know what i was talking about if you saw it). The head of their newspaper comes over to Chelsea host mother and she explains to him that we come from America. He gets super surprised and shuffles us over towards the front of the dance floor area and tells everyone in town that we're "hubsche damen nach America" (two pretty ladies from America). Haha, Chelsea and I go beat red! Then the guy who had the music cart plays us some tunes and the whole town starts clapping and singing. We got out pictures taken too from all these random Germans, which made us laugh even more.
At the end of his songs, the guy with the music cart comes over to us and we strike up a conversation because he had worked in South Carolina for 3 months. He spoke really good english and told us his name was Andy Gaus (but he liked to be called Gaus). He's awesome! Such a funny guy and full of sillyness and he was well-liked by everyone in the town (its so small everyone knows eachother anyway). We start talking about tons of things and he realizes that he's a good friend of Chelseas host brother, Temo, so it was fun to talk about our trip and adventures thus far in Germany.
After a while, he shows us that the town always does a tug-of-war with the neighboring villiage, with the fire depatment guys and then with all the girl bartenders (about 10) against the fire dept. guys. It was hilarious! After the merriment, the band played some more lively music and Gaus and Chelsea and I started dancing with his friend (the rowdy bunch of young guys, super sweet people!!!). We all started dancing, and they were singing to us in German and teaching us their songs. Then, a famous song came on about a bird and it has these fun dance moves attached to it, and this is when the night got even more amazing! We mimicked their dance moves and started grooving to the fun music, and everyone was getting into it (young, old, German, American!) and we did the ho-down with them and then we danced to their version of a Dixie Land song.
The group of friends seemed to have such fun with us and were totally fun, harmless and goofy! By the end of the night, we stepped off to the side, still enjoying the music and watching Germans dance, drink and laugh, and talked with Gaus some more. He told us that they have a little concert in their town on Oct. 2nd and that we should come and enjoy their music again. He was an amazing person to talk to, and we could tell by all the other Germans, he was a sweet and kind (and super goofy!) young guy who has grown up in that villiage all his life! How interesting is that? I love this culture!
everyone here is so friendly and wonderful. They always offer you food or drinks, they lend you a jacket when you're cold, they teach you their language and their culture and they love hearing you speak German. They laugh and joke and have a good time and they love to talk and catch up with old friends. Im glad to have had this experience because it was the first time really that we've visited a place and actually interacted fully with Germans. Usually we stroll through a towns streets, talk to the other international people, perhaps talk to the ice cream seller for a moment, but never have i truely met new people and interacted in their old traditions. We had a great time tonight and i hope i have more experiences like this one!!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Wow! So much has happened. I know, I'm pretty bad at this so far...
But I have been keeping a journal- so it's been written down in some form or another.
Anyways, about this weekend; it was a crazy one! To celebrate our two year anniversary, Mike and I decided to spend Saturday at Europa Park (a German equivalent to Disneyland/Epcot). It had many different European countries you could visit, and a lot of various rides.
To begin our adventure, we were up very early to get to Freudenstadt in order to rent a car. Freudenstadt, however, was setting up for it's annual festival, "Nacht der Magie" (or for you non-German speakers, "Night of Magic") and so the roads through it's Marktplatz (marketplace) were closed. Sadly, we only had directions to get out of that city through that road.... it took us a hour to get our of a small city! We asked many Germans, and every time got different answers!
We made it out safely (and with little sanity left) and headed towards Europa Park. Of course we got lost along the way (again) and found out from a very nice German woman that, "Umleitung" means "detour" because another city we had to get through was also closed! We just could win that day!
Finally we found the Autobahn and Michael floored it to 150 kph! I think that means he went over 100 mph, but I'm not sure.... we would have gone faster but it was a rental car- and we didn't want to push our luck! An hour later we ended up at Europa Park! It was so nice to be out of that car!
Europa Park was really cool. ^_^ We didn't have that much time to see everything since we arrived late, but we ran around and did our best! The different countries were very unique and looked wonderful, but the rides were...interesting. There were a lot of Disneyland knockoffs- like Piraten von Batvaria, and a Haunted Mansion, a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and a Splash Mountain. They were are unqie and fun in their own way- but no where near the grandeur of Disneyland. However, I really enjoyed the rides. I definitely thought they were worthwhile and a lot of fun, and they had so much food! There were so many candy and dessert places to eat, it was amazing! And you were allowed to drink, smoke, and even bring your pets! Why anyone would want to bring their dog is beyond me... but they did! They had a lot of shows you could go to, like a jousting show in Spain and a musical in England (you watched it in the Globe Theater!).
All in all, it was a very exciting day, and we both had a lot of fun. But of course we lost the car for 20 minutes in the parking lot. ^_^
After we left the park at 6pm, we headed straight for "Nacht der Magie" in Freudenstadt! It was... episch (epic)! There was over 50 magicians, artists, musicians, and fire manipulators there all performing on 6 different stages throughout the night. The festivities started at 7pm, and we got there around 8:30pm so we missed some stuff but we saw a Turkish magician, an acrobatic show, a fire show, and roasted bread over a fire! We got really close to the main stage and saw the highlight of the festival. Jan Rouven and Mark Terenzi are apparently very famous over here. Jan is a magician, and Mark is an American singer. They did a Rock concert/Magic show together and it was very good. ^_^
On Sunday we had to go all the way back to Freudenstadt to return the rental car, and of course the buses don't really run on Sundays, so we kept getting the bus lines mixed up and ended up walking for 50 minutes, and then another 40 minutes to a Kaufland to eat. Kaufland is like a smaller Costco or Winco. But it was closed! So we had McDonald's and while we were eating the bus to Horb (where we had to get to) left! So we had to wait there for another 45 minutes.... :(
All in all it was an interestingly exciting weekend!
Ciao!
But I have been keeping a journal- so it's been written down in some form or another.
Anyways, about this weekend; it was a crazy one! To celebrate our two year anniversary, Mike and I decided to spend Saturday at Europa Park (a German equivalent to Disneyland/Epcot). It had many different European countries you could visit, and a lot of various rides.
To begin our adventure, we were up very early to get to Freudenstadt in order to rent a car. Freudenstadt, however, was setting up for it's annual festival, "Nacht der Magie" (or for you non-German speakers, "Night of Magic") and so the roads through it's Marktplatz (marketplace) were closed. Sadly, we only had directions to get out of that city through that road.... it took us a hour to get our of a small city! We asked many Germans, and every time got different answers!
We made it out safely (and with little sanity left) and headed towards Europa Park. Of course we got lost along the way (again) and found out from a very nice German woman that, "Umleitung" means "detour" because another city we had to get through was also closed! We just could win that day!
Finally we found the Autobahn and Michael floored it to 150 kph! I think that means he went over 100 mph, but I'm not sure.... we would have gone faster but it was a rental car- and we didn't want to push our luck! An hour later we ended up at Europa Park! It was so nice to be out of that car!
Europa Park was really cool. ^_^ We didn't have that much time to see everything since we arrived late, but we ran around and did our best! The different countries were very unique and looked wonderful, but the rides were...interesting. There were a lot of Disneyland knockoffs- like Piraten von Batvaria, and a Haunted Mansion, a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and a Splash Mountain. They were are unqie and fun in their own way- but no where near the grandeur of Disneyland. However, I really enjoyed the rides. I definitely thought they were worthwhile and a lot of fun, and they had so much food! There were so many candy and dessert places to eat, it was amazing! And you were allowed to drink, smoke, and even bring your pets! Why anyone would want to bring their dog is beyond me... but they did! They had a lot of shows you could go to, like a jousting show in Spain and a musical in England (you watched it in the Globe Theater!).
All in all, it was a very exciting day, and we both had a lot of fun. But of course we lost the car for 20 minutes in the parking lot. ^_^
After we left the park at 6pm, we headed straight for "Nacht der Magie" in Freudenstadt! It was... episch (epic)! There was over 50 magicians, artists, musicians, and fire manipulators there all performing on 6 different stages throughout the night. The festivities started at 7pm, and we got there around 8:30pm so we missed some stuff but we saw a Turkish magician, an acrobatic show, a fire show, and roasted bread over a fire! We got really close to the main stage and saw the highlight of the festival. Jan Rouven and Mark Terenzi are apparently very famous over here. Jan is a magician, and Mark is an American singer. They did a Rock concert/Magic show together and it was very good. ^_^
On Sunday we had to go all the way back to Freudenstadt to return the rental car, and of course the buses don't really run on Sundays, so we kept getting the bus lines mixed up and ended up walking for 50 minutes, and then another 40 minutes to a Kaufland to eat. Kaufland is like a smaller Costco or Winco. But it was closed! So we had McDonald's and while we were eating the bus to Horb (where we had to get to) left! So we had to wait there for another 45 minutes.... :(
All in all it was an interestingly exciting weekend!
Ciao!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Hello all! It's your trustee traveler- hoping you will find this blog (and my travels) as interesting as I find them! Although I wish all of you were here with me, perhaps you can take in a little bit of my time abroad and live vicariously through it!
I've already done so much it feels as if I'm going backwards if I try to reaccount what has happened in these two short weeks! But worry not, I will!
Actually, I have to eat dinner right now (mmm German food is delicious!) but I will write about my adventures when I have the time!
Ciao!
I've already done so much it feels as if I'm going backwards if I try to reaccount what has happened in these two short weeks! But worry not, I will!
Actually, I have to eat dinner right now (mmm German food is delicious!) but I will write about my adventures when I have the time!
Ciao!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
