Some observations on funny words and (re)cycling

Some observations . . .

1. On long words and funny pronunciation
My French teacher calls me 'Gayorg Hopper' even though she knows I'm English. Is it a quintessential display of British linguistic arrogance for me to assume that everyone knows how to pronounce George? As in Orwell, Clooney, Bush? And hope is hardly a step up in complexity either. Speaking of French, I just remembered a funny scenario in today's lesson. We were watching a video clip about the life of a French poet and had to answer some true/false questions. One said 'Dans ses poèmes, il raconte son mal-être et son spleen', which Gemma and I roughly translated in our heads as 'in his poems, he recounts his discontent and his spleen'. We thought that it was a bit strange to talk about his spleen in his poems. Turns out 'le spleen' in French actually means melancholy, not the organ.

I love the long German words. I am torn between admiring their brilliant precision and laughing at their unnecessary complexity. If you use one of them and the person you're talking to knows it, then you've been brilliantly efficient. But what if they don't know it and you have to explain it anyway? Someone told me there's a German word meaning the feeling of obligation you get when someone gives you a present to give them one in return when you didn't really want to. I can't remember what the word is though, but I'll try and find out. Typing in all those English words to Google doesn't find it, unsurprisingly. Another good one is Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. You'd logically think that this must mean something legal, or maybe medical, for it to be so long. Actually it just means speed-limit! There are also some words that you'd be wise not to translate too literally. Like 'Schweinefleisch', meaning pork. I might not be so interested in my dinner if I had to order 'flesh of swine'.

2.On being Green
Freiburg: Germany's 'eco-capital'. (I saw that on a postcard, I didn't make it up.)
Freiburgians (?) are cycling mad. The cyclists here have priority over cars on the roads (seems reasonable) but strangely enough they seem to have priority over pedestrians on the pavements too. Many a time have I been walking home with my weelky Lidl shop and a cyclist has shot past me, always making me think if I had done a star jump at that exact moment it would have ended nastily. Everyone seems to have a bike here. When I told one of my flatmates that I didn't need one until the summer because I have a semester pass for the buses and trams, she said 'but everyone needs a bike in Freiburg. It's the quickest way to get around.' Not to mention the healthiest, cheapest and most environmentally friendly.

Turns out they love all types of cycling because they're crazy about recycling too. I'm still getting used to it; it is a bureaucracy in itself. You have to separate paper, plastic and everything else (Restmüll) and also glass into the different colours (brown, clear, green). People also seem to take a lot of their rubbish home with them so they can put it in the right section rather than chucking it in the Restmüll. Tolle Idee.

3. On Food
In Germany the students aren't stingy about spending money on food. They'll splash out, buying expensive olive oil, really good coffee and organic milk instead of the Sainsburys-basics-Asda-price-Tesco-value type option. Linking in with observation number two, the Germans are super keen on buying organic products. There are quite a few organic-only supermarkets in Freiburg which I go into sometimes and treat myself to some fancy hummus or something similar.


George x

First week of classes

It's the things that you don't think of that are often the most challenging. I finally got my hair cut - turns out the Germans don't use a grade system but rather ask for it in millimetres. I decided to take a punt and ask for a 6 millimetre shave back and sides and to my relief it turned out fine. Being unable to find the equivalent of a barbers (maybe they don't exist in Germany) I had to settle for a hairdressers and for the first time in my life had my hair washed by a hairdresser. Kind of feels like a massage actually which was nice.

I went to an International Food Party in my halls which was fantastic. Food from all over the world; I teamed up with a couple of English folk and all we could think to make were scones or Victoria sponge, which if you think about it are kind of the same thing (flour, butter, sugar, cream, jam...). Finding self-raising flour in Lidl proved problematic and even Vida's excellent idea of looking up a German recipe for scones proved unsuccessful, with the recipe only stating its requirement of 'Mehl' (flour), which was rather unhelpful. We gambled and just picked a type; it worked out fine. The scones went down a treat (phew) and we enjoyed lots of other interesting things from China, Italy, Canada, Turkey, Australia...

I started my classes this week, which was a mixed bag, shall we say. My first was beginner's Spanish, which is taught in German by a Spaniard with a thick Spanish accent. No problem for the Germans, but I found it really hard to understand him, so much so that I preferred it when he spoke Spanish because at least then we were all in the same boat. Spanish seems fun though, I'm looking forward to practising with my friends in Southampton who study it already :)

Wednesday I had my French grammar and translation class. I put that in the past tense because that will be the only time I attend this one. Stupidly I'd not realised that the translation would be German to French. My heart sunk when I looked through the German sentences we were going to translate together in the class. It sunk again when I found out I was the only non-native German or French speaker in the room. The most frustrating thing was that the level of French was fine, but it was understanding the written German that was the source of my downfall. How can you begin to translate a sentence into French if you don't understand what you're translating? Luckily I'd picked more modules than I needed so I bade this class Adieu.

Thursday was better, thankfully. This is my busiest day with three two hour classes. The first was French speaking/comprehension which I was worried about after Wednesday's debacle. The class takes place in a language lab and we put on these big headphones and are then paired randomly with someone in the class to chat with. This seems a bit strange and unnecessary to me, surely you could just chat to the person next to you or move round the room? It became even more unnecessary when I was paired with the girl sat next to me, but we continued to use our headphones to communicate with each other from two feet away. The whole class went well, though, and despite the fact that the majority of the class was German this didn't pose much of a problem as the lesson was held in French. Also, if you're wondering, yes the Germans are amazing at French as well as English. When a German learns a language, he or she masters it.

The next two classes (both German) also went well: the first was a placement exam to make sure we were put in the correct groups. Then I had my class called 'Gesellschaft, Geschichte und Kultur' (Society, History and Culture) which I was looking forward to because it's my only module that is nothing to do with language. The title is very broad and it looks as though we are going to be covering a very broad syllabus, including National Socialism, the DDR, immigration, terrorism, religion and politics.

One rucksack, five cities, seven days

After having been in Freiburg for six weeks and still awaiting the start of lectures, I thought now would be as good of opportunity as any to go InterRailing. After buying a 'Global Pass' (which is an interesting use of adjective seeing as it is only Europe-wide, and therefore by definition not global) Gemma and I worked out a route that would be feasible to do in just 7 days. Within those seven days we could travel for five. After much deliberation we decided to visit Austria, Croatia and Slovenia. The best way to do this thing via Munich.

Munich

Munich was the only one of the five cities that I'd visited before, but after a very successful first visit I was definitely keen on going there again. We arrived by coach (not wanting to use up our first travel day) and made our way to Jaeger's hostel which is near the station. The first time I went to Munich I stayed in a four star hotel that we got on the cheap by booking months in advance; this time we were budgeting ourselves to around €20 per night. Jaeger's wasn't the nicest of hostels, but as we were to find out the hostels got comparatively better the less expensive the city. 

In the morning we went on a free walking tour of the city which I absolutely loved. It was run by an Aussie guy with sunglasses and a backwards beret who claimed it was love that brought him to Munich - the love of history, the love of the city and the love for a local girl. As he emphasised throughout the tour, Bavarians don't do much to avoid their stereotype of beer guzzlers. He even said about half the answers to his questions would be 'beer', or 'liquid gold' as he called it. Much of the tour was Middle Ages history but a lot was, as you'd expect, about Munich's 'darkest hour' and the rise of the Nazis. There's a square called Odeonplatz which is near where the Beer Hall Putsch took place. The Nazis forced people to walk down that street and perform the Nazi salute. If they were caught going down the side alley to avoid it, they could be killed, and many were. To mark this small form of resistance there is a small path of gold cobbles on the ground, which was a beautifully simple monument to those who died as resistors. 

Munich's beautiful town hall

I was a little hesitant to return to Munich because I loved it so much the first time I went there and I thought it would be hard for it to live up to its great reputation in my head. I visited the city in 2012 with Jack and Adam and really loved the Olympic Park, the Allianz Arena, the incredible Rathaus and of course the Hofbräuhaus (which as the tour guide Scott informed us was frequented by Hitler, Mozart and Lenin, amongst others). This visit was equally enjoyable, however. What I really love about Munich is its multi-faceted identity: Oktoberfest, BMW, Bayern Munich, the disastrous Olympics of 1972, the 'home' of the Nazis, the capital of Bavaria. 

I left the great city, and it bade me farewell in the form of a bird pooing on my hand just as I left the hostel. Auf Wiedersehen indeed. 

Salzburg

The 'City of Music' is only two hours away from Munich, so we arrived early evening and we went for a stroll around the old town before it got dark. Salzburg, like many other European cities, was built on a large river with a castle overlooking the city from its highest point. It was too late to go up the castle so we wandered through the labyrinthine cobbled streets which were home to a ridiculous number of Mozart gift shops - everything you can imagine from umbrellas to chocolates to tea towels. The city is clearly very proud of its most famous inhabitant and rightly so. Its beauty also doesn't disappoint - not only does the city boast picturesque architecture, but it is also surrounded by the large mountain ranges that characterise Austria's landscape.

Salzburg skyline

That evening we had a beer in the bar in the hostel before bed. Our hostel was called Yoho and had wooden panelled walls, which despite having never set foot in Austria prior to that day, I thought of as very Austrian indeed. The barman was English - and before he served us he was having a long conversation with someone in Spanish. In fact, the guy working at reception in the hostel in Munich was also English; he'd just graduated from Bath in French and German and spent his year abroad in Munich and seeing as he loved it so much he decided to go back. It reminds me of a comment a tutor made to me in Freiburg: "You're English, but you can speak German?" Yes we do exist! 

The next day we took the funicular up to the castle. We took a headset each to listen to the audio guide, and were taken into many different rooms of the castle by a member of staff. He looked bored, which I've learnt is quite common amongst people working at tourist attractions, but what was more interesting is that he carried around a large padlocked briefcase. I never did find out what was in it. Probably something top secret like his lunch or something. 

Graz

Of the five cities Graz was definitely the one I knew the least about, and it was really only chosen because it provides a nice link up between Salzburg and Zagreb/Ljubljana. Apparently it's Austria's second largest city after Vienna, and although it was by no means a bad place to visit it lacked the historical intrigue of Munich or the beauty of Salzburg. Again we arrived early evening and we headed out from our hostel, JUFA, and found a locals' bar a few streets away. The most noticeable thing was the price difference here. We'd been spending a lot of time in expensive, touristy cities and getting a full meal for €5 was appreciated! We found that the people in Austria could understand our attempt at Hochdeutsch but we couldn't reciprocate, finding it very difficult to understand their Austrian accent/dialect. 

The plan for the next morning was to head to the Altstadt (old town), which seems to be a pretty standard yet successful way of visiting German/Austrian cities. We picked up a leaflet and walked around the sights, including a church that we actually missed the first time round because it was enclosed within the normal street buildings; when we did go in, we found a nice little church with - strangely enough - modern art on the walls. The whole place was deserted. Not even the Chinese tourists had found this one. Later on we hiked up to the top of Schlossberg which gave a magnificent view of the city. There wasn't much in the way of a 'Schloss', but there were nice seating areas and a large clock tower. 

Upon walking back into the city we found that we still had a few hours to kill before our train to Zagreb, so I had a quick look through the guide and found a museum that looked interesting (well the outside architecture did, at least). The exhibit itself neither I nor Gemma could understand. It was by Karl Neubacher, a 'media artist'. If anyone knows anything about his work please enlighten me, because I hadn't the foggiest what he was trying to depict. The gift shop was good though.

Zagreb

Neither Gemma nor I had ever taken a train across a border before and it was an interesting experience for both of us. After three hours on the train from Graz, we entered Croatia. Our train came to a halt in the border station and all the lights went out. About ten border police came onto our carriage (bearing in mind there were only two of us onboard) and asked for our passports. They were checked, in torchlight, extremely thoroughly and after an unfriendly exchange they moved on. Lights still off, we could see a man checking under the train for illegal immigrants. As Gemma put it, "Jeez, why would you want illegal entry into Croatia? I only want a cheap beer and a shot glass." 

It turns out they're super strict about entry into and out of the Schengen area. We met a guy from Australia outside the station who had been essentially interrogated in a Slovenian police station because his 90 day visa had expired. Somehow he'd made it into Croatia and his plan was to follow us to our hostel and get a bed there for the night. He'd been travelling for four months starting in Japan. That's real travelling!

We arrived at the hostel at about half past eleven and decided to try and find a bar for a quick drink. After walking straight past the bar we were looking for and going the whole way round the block, we eventually sat down and the waiter told us in broken English that they were closing in ten minutes, advising me to have a small beer instead of a large one because I wouldn't finish it by midnight. Despite this, he and his colleague proceeded to serve the other customers drinks and even food (did they just not want us to stay beyond midnight?)

The night in MyWay hostel was, as I found very common in hostels, made worse by the very loud snoring of one of the guys in my room. It's strange that people can snore more loudly than you or I could even impersonate. It was also really stormy outside, and this continued until about lunchtime. We did venture out late morning, not wanting to waste out time in a new country. Our day was mostly just a walking tour around the city with a map we picked up from the tourist office. This can be a good way to get to know a city. We looked at the museum options, but the Musem of Mushrooms didn't really interest us (as much as I love mushrooms).

Ljubljana

Maybe my favourite place ever. We couldn't turn down the opportunity to stay in the 'Hippest Hostel in the World', Hostel Celica, which for one hundred years was a prison for political prisoners until Slovenia gained independence in 1991. The building was occupied by squatting artists who protested against the demolition of the building. One room has a window created by the hole that was left by a wrecking ball when the building was about to be demolished. Every room has an individual artist's interpretation (my personal favourite was one created to look like an eye with a circular suspended bed); the corridors are sloped to give a Mediterranean street feel; every room has a main door and a metal cage 'prison' door. There's even a meditation room that welcomes people of whatever faith. The buildings surrounding the hostel were also abandoned after Slovenia separated from Yugoslavia. They are covered in paintings, graffiti and random figures and symbols of all different colours. It's home to alternative bars and clubs by night:

We went on a guided tour of the town, led by a smily and enthusiastic guide called Yannis. He showed us around the market, the cathedral and the main squares while teaching us about Slovenia's interesting history. Ljubljana has lots of quirky shops, interesting and varied bridges and an eclectic mixture of old and new architecture. The restaurants and bars are all along the river which gets lively in the evening. The main thing I liked about Ljubljana was its uniqueness. It's totally different to the usual European city. Having such a recent history of radical change makes it a brilliant place to visit; its identity is still being shaped: it was the first former Soviet state to adopt the Euro and is now fully integrated into the Schengen area. It is also unlike other capitals because it feels small and compact; Yannis referred to it as a 'village' and we even bumped into the city's mayor on our walk round the centre, who naturally Yannis knew personally. The mayor made the old centre pedestrianised so he gets a thumbs up in my book. 

The Mayor of Ljubljana, telling us he'd just won his fourth election

Other interesting things that happened were that I tried raw milk (maybe not that interesting for you but I've always wanted to try this substance that has caused much debate and is even illegal in some countries). The verdict: I couldn't really taste the difference. I also found it impossible to buy a normal black coffee, so when I asked if the lady would add hot water to my espresso she looked at me as if I'd asked her to spit in it. 'But it won't be coffee, it will be water,' she told me. Thanks for the tip.

France, Frankfurt and Farewell to Language School

Last weekend I visited Colmar in France. Although you could probably drive there in under half an hour, the trip took us much longer because there was building work going on on the bridge over the Rhine. We took a train to Breisach, and then ended up walking into France and then taking a bus from there. This was the first time I've ever walked over a border into another country, and thanks to the Schengen Agreement it was as if there was no border. No border patrols, no passport checks. I think this is pretty amazing considering the turbulent history of conflict between France and Germany. Now there is finally peace.

So as we walked into a quiet little village just inside of France, we asked a lady "Où sont les cafés ou les magasins?" Interestingly she could only speak German and a smattering of French, which was funny because the same thing happened in reverse on the other side: "Entschuldigung, wo ist die Bahnhof?" was greeted by a French accented English response of "I don't speak German so well". I found this interesting as it was just the kind of thing I studied in my second year at Southampton: the breaking down of physical and non-physical borders in Europe, in an attempt by the EU to foster some kind of collective European identity. Academic bit over.

Once we eventually arrived in Colmar, after coincidentally meeting a family from York on the bus, we took a mini train tour around the town. Colmar is a beautiful place with picturesque and quaint little buildings which clearly show lots of Germanic influence. There is a part called "Le Petit Venise" in reference to its small canals and gondola tours.

We then visited the market hall which was brilliant: all the things I love about France, from fresh bread to wine to the best quality fruit and veg. We sat down for half an hour and shared a bottle of Alsatian wine with bread, cheese and cold meats. It was interesting sitting in the café and hearing that for once, English was not the first or second language but actually the third, as there were lots of German speakers as well as French. Although at one point I forgot the word for the bill in French (all I could think of was 'zahlen' or 'die Rechnung') I did have the chance to practise my French which again made me realise how much better I am at it than German! But that's why I'm in Germany :)

Last week was mainly an 'admin' sort of week, which in German terms is usually multiplied in complexity by about ten. I have sorted out my German bank account (I feel like a proper German with my Deutsche Bank debit card) and am officially matriculated/enrolled at the university. To enrol at Freiburg you need to go to an individual meeting where they get out lots of different items of stationery and spend far too long doing something which could have been done online. I also got my Learning Agreement signed which, as every other third year languages student will know, is a relief. 

Friday was the last day of the language school. After an hour and a half of general chatting in order to get to know the class better (even though sadly some of whom I will never see again) we were awarded our course certificates at a mini graduation ceremony, with plenty of sparkling wine despite it only being 11am. I was sad to be moving on from this, as I really liked my classmates and my teacher, and it felt like a big change even though it had only lasted a month. Here's a picture of us all:

I was up bright and early (actually not so bright, it was still dark at 6am) on Saturday morning to visit my fourth German city: Frankfurt. After the customary high stress levels of waking up 10 minutes before my tram left (!) I managed to get to the main station in time to catch our coach. For anyone who doesn't know, meinfernbus.de is much cheaper than catching the train and it goes to most cities in Germany. The journey wasn't too bad; it only took 3 1/2 hours with a short stop off at Heidelberg (didn't get to see the castle though!). When we arrived in Frankfurt we had a Bratwurst as a late breakfast and then headed to the Altstadt town centre. This is a really nice square where the Christmas market takes place. Frankfurt is a cool place because it has a mixture of quaint old buildings and modern skyscrapers. We went to the top of one of the highest buildings in the city which has amazing views.

Some other observations....

Best 

I did some karaoke on Wednesday for the first time in my life! Singing 'Don't Look Back in Anger' with Gemma was fun, and we got a free drink each for it. It was a great atmosphere and it felt like everyone was up for having a go which never seems to be the case at home, with the karaoke evenings seeming to turn into an amateur DJ set. All the classics came out, from 'Your Song' to 'Dancing Queen' to 'Hero' by Enrique Inglesias.

For some people this would probably come under 'Wurst', but the fact that Lidl has started selling Christmas stuff makes me happy. There's a small aisle which is already stocking Glühwein and Lebkuchen. I'm really looking forward to Freiburg at Christmas; the market around the Cathedral is supposed to be amazing. Also if Christmas is coming that means I'm closer to coming home and seeing all my friends and family :)

Wurst

I'd seen adverts all around Freiburg for the 'Flohmarkt', which as you can probably guess from the name is a flea market or a car boot sale. I thought I'd give it a go even though I am always disappointed by them in England, hoping for classic books and vintage furniture and finding a mixture of 50 year-old naked dolls and overpriced PlayStation 1 games. Turns out they're just as bad in Germany as they are in England, and probably even more overpriced. I'd been looking for a cafetière for a while, and I found one there but he was charging €15 for it. In the end I found one in Ikea for €5. 

I watched Borussia Dortmund v Arsenal in a bar. With a yellow and black shirted army of German people. It was 2-0 to Dortmund, and Arsenal were pretty useless, which only fuelled the excitement of the German fans, who seemed to be unanimously behind Dortmund. Then Bayern beat Man City and Chelsea (only) drew with Schalke. I don't think I'm looking forward to the next round of fixtures. 

George x

Jogi Löw, Brewery tour and a trip to Basel

So a lot has happened since my last post. Last Saturday I went to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) surrounding Freiburg which was great. We visited the former monastery of St. Peter, famous for its baroque church and library. After a scenic coach ride through the Black Forest, we visited what claimed to be the biggest cuckoo clock in the world. We then went on to the Vogtsbauernhof, an open-air museum in which you can experience how people in the Black Forest lived hundreds of years ago. After the essential beer and (huge) slice of Black Forest gateau, we headed back to Freiburg.

Black Forest Gateau

'The World's Largest Cuckoo Clock'

The next day I joined an excursion to a local vineyard. The Baden-Württemburg area is a wine producing region and after a tour of the vineyard by the couple who owned it, we went back to their house where we were given a delicious barbeque. It was a sweltering day and we were all very happy to try white wine and home-made elderflower cordial in their shady garden.

Tour group with a view of the vineyard and Black Forest

Tuesday was a great day, thanks to the visit of Jogi Löw, the German national coach who guided 'die Mannschaft' to World Cup glory this year. The city of Freiburg packed into the square in front of the Rathaus and when Jogi arrived he was greeted with cheers and singing. And he didn't disappoint - no one realised he'd bring the actual trophy along with him:

It was an incredible sight, which made me think about how much it would mean to English people if we were to win the World Cup one day. Jogi, who had three stints at SC Freiburg during his playing career, is a local to the city and (from what I understood of his speech) coming back to Freiburg was even better than presenting the World Cup to hundreds of thousands of fans in Berlin.

"Welcome home - thank you Jogi!"

On Wednesday I went to Baumkronenweg, which is essentially a tree top walk, with lots of suspended pathways overlooking the trees below. This is brilliant - the bridges are rickety and very high, and after the long hike up there, you can get back to the bottom of the mountain on a huge slide. The slide is dark but the acoustics are excellent, meaning when you're at the bottom you can hear the screams of the people coming down.

I've visited two of Freiburg's five museums so far, which were both excellent. I'll do a blog post about them when I've visited all five. On Friday afternoon there was a trip to the Ganter brewery; Ganter is one of Freiburg's most famous beers and it is sold in almost every bar in the city. The tour was really interesting, especially the part about adhering to Germany's purity laws, which dictate that beer can consist of no more than four ingredients: hops, barley, yeast and water. The tour guide pointed out that the water is the most important ingredient, and that the water used to make Ganter comes directly from the Black Forest. After a tour of where the beer is made, which was described as 'one of the most modern and sophisticated breweries in Germany' we went to the bar and could try any of the Ganter beers. The barman made a comment about the English way of serving a pint (i.e. with little or no foam) being wrong. I beg to differ; I like my drinks in liquid form, please.

On Saturday we went to Basel in Switzerland. First impressions of Switzerland were good; the city seemed clean and friendly. We walked to the river first, which although smaller, bore similarities with the Seine and the Thames. After a short walk we found the Münster (Cathedral) which was a red Gothic building with two imposing towers. Interestingly it was originally Catholic but today is a Reformed Protestant church. After an earthquake in 1356 it was rebuilt by Johannes Gmünd, who was also employed to build the Freiburg Münster. 

View of the Cathedral across the river is Basel's highlight

Later we decided to go to the Fondation Beyeler, probably Basel's most famous museum. The guide book didn't inform us of just how far out of the city the museum is. We walked for over half an hour before asking a lady selling sunflowers how much further it was. 'Half an hour from here' wasn't the answer we were hoping for, but she guided us to the tram which got us there pretty quickly. The Fondation Beyeler houses artwork by the likes of Cézanne, Monet, Matisse, Picasso and Van Gogh. I was really looking forward to this as Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are forms of art that really intrigue me. Unfortunately, the main exhibition was closed and we could only see a collection by Gustave Courbet. For €9 entry only to find that most of the exhibits were unavailable was disappointing. The whole museum was rather strange. They were very strict about what you could take in, even stopping me from taking in an empty bottle of water for fear it might 'damage one of the paintings'. I also made the error of standing a little too close to one of the paintings which set an alarm off, although no one actually came to check I wasn't stealing it. I felt very out of place in the museum; the demographic was 60+, well-dressed. I was there in a Primark t-shirt and jeans. 

Entrance to the Fondation Beyeler

Some other observations....

Best 

One awesome thing they do in Germany is give you money if you return a plastic bottle to the shop. You put them in this big machine that scans the bar code and gives you a voucher to use in the shop. It's usually 0€25 per bottle, which when you can get six bottles of sparkling water for 0€69 is pretty strange because you're sort of making a profit. (Although the money has to be used in the store anyway). I think this is definitely something we should do in the UK, although it has the unintended side-effect of making homeless people go through the bins in an attempt to find bottles that have been thrown out.

German food can be really delicious. I've been eating out quite a lot lately (luckily Germany is a lot cheaper than Switzerland, which I found out in Basel after a slice of pizza and a coffee cost me €12). Last night I had Schweineschnitzel mit Knöpfle und Rahmsauce. This is a delicious combination of pork schnitzel, a gnocchi-like starch and a sauce made from fresh cream. There's also something called Flammkuchen, which is a very thin pizza with sour cream instead of passata. Lecker!

Wurst

So I wanted to buy some normal tea. Just tea. After browsing the tea section in Lidl (which for some illogical reason is really far away from the coffee), I settled on 'Cream Tea', which had a picture of a scone with jam and cream, so naturally I thought it must be the kind we have back home. Unfortunately it was cream flavoured tea, which in case you're wondering, is disgusting. And that's from someone who likes most kinds of tea.

The coffee and milk aren't much of an improvement. The milk just doesn't taste the same. Mostly they drink UHT milk but even that tastes very different to the long-life milk you get in England. The coffee, which is called gold blend, is nothing like Nescafé gold blend. But I guess I'll get used to all these little differences.


George x

3 days in

So it didn't start as smoothly as I'd hoped. My flight from Gatwick to Basel was delayed by about four and a half hours; something about needing some tape and gel to fix the front of the plane. We ended up getting on another plane in the end, one that was scheduled to go to Manchester. They gave us a free drink and snacks, which was clever because people's grumpiness definitely decreases significantly if you give them (1) free stuff, and (2) something to eat. The whole episode reminded me of the scene in Come Fly With Me where Taj, who works for the airline, tells a customer it was their fault that the plane was delayed 'for being a cheapskate and booking with a crappy airline' (Jack, Adam, you know the reference). The delay had a huge knock on effect on my plans. Basically I needed to collect my room keys from the Language School office by 9pm, when they closed. When I realised there was no way I could get there before 9, I sent an email to the office, and in ever-efficient German fashion they replied quickly explaining that they'd give the keys to the Hauptbahnhof (main station) office, which closed at 11.30pm. Relief. Until I worked out that the delayed flight would arrive at 10.15, and I'd need to catch the 10.30 coach from Basel to arrive in Freiburg for 11.30. I got through customs really quickly, and made the coach by the skin of my teeth. In fact I think I got on at 10.34. The journey to Freiburg is 55 minutes, so again it was going to be very tight as to whether I'd get to the Hauptbahnhof before it shut. I arrived in Freiburg at around 11.25, and after a few minutes of running around the large station with two big suitcases I found the office and luckily it was still open. I collected my keys and took a taxi to the address stated on the envelope.

Getting in the building was a challenge, even. Nowhere in the pack did they state that you have to scan the keyring to get into the building and your flat. So I just waited until someone came out. One guy could tell I was confused and helped me find my room, the numbers written at the top of the envelope. Why couldn't they have put 'Raumnummer' or something next to it? I arrived in my room and pretty much went straight to bed after such a stressful afternoon and evening. My flat is quite nice, 7 rooms and two bathrooms, but so far I've only met one housemate as uni term doesn't start until mid-October and the others won't arrive until nearer the time. Apparently they're all German which I think is awesome.



View of the city from the top of the Cathedral

Language school is 3 hours every morning and then we're free to do whatever afterwards. Everyone in the class seems very nice, including the teacher who makes crude jokes every so often that no one is quite sure how to react to. So far I've met lots of Americans and Canadians, and also people from all over the world; Nigeria, Japan, Slovakia, Ireland, Italy... With the guy from Japan I chatted in German about football for a good ten minutes or so. For all the stick football gets in the UK, no one can deny that it's a great unifying force for different cultures all over the world.

 



There are little streams on the streets called 'Bächle' which are unique to Freiburg. If you step in one by accident, legend has it that you'll marry a Freiburger.

There are lots of organised activities and excursions for students, so far we've already been to the top of the Freiburger Münster (cathedral), on a small hike which ended with a great view over the city and a short guided city tour. There are some great things lined up in the next week and a half; a trip to Basel, Switzerland, a vineyard tour and a hike to the Black Forest (which is tomorrow at 8.30am, which could be interesting seeing as there's a Kneipentour (bar crawl) this evening).



One strange thing is the Germans' tendency to not cross the road unless the little man on the traffic lights goes green. I wonder how much of their lives the Germans waste waiting to cross a road even when there's no car nearby.

Overall, though, everything is going pretty well and I'm practising German quite a lot (even with native English speakers which is a bit bizarre) and the city is absolutely beautiful, as I hope you can tell from the pictures.

George x

Hallo, Guten Tag usw.

If you're generous enough with your time to be reading my blog, you probably know me pretty well already. But for the people who don't, I'm George and I'm studying French, German and Contemporary European Studies at the University of Southampton in the south of England.

 

I made this blog because I've moved out to Germany for my year abroad, and I'm attending the University of Freiburg, which is a very old university in the south of Germany (I seem to be a southerner through and through), near the Swiss and French borders.

 

To be honest I'm not sure right now in what direction this blog will go, but it's likely to be an account of what I've got up to whilst being abroad for more than three weeks for the first time in my life. I'd like to give some insights into the differences between the English and German lifestyles, cultures and languages. And who knows, maybe it'll be quite funny and there may even be some pretty photos.

 

I'll also keep people posted on my Year Abroad Research Project, which contributes towards my degree mark (although I'm not sure how much, should probably find out). It's all about the Green political movement in Germany, which I hope you'll find as interesting as I do. It's no wonder the Germans care about the environment; their word for pollution translates literally as 'the dirtying up of the world' (Umweltverschmutzung).

 

Lastly I'd like to thank you for taking a look at this blog. If you like what you see please check back occassionally. It would mean a lot to me if people read my posts. If you want to contact me, go on Facebook or Twitter (we could do a video call on Fb!), or send me an email if you're old school (georgehope@btinternet.com).

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Love

George x