From my blog: georgesbestandwurst.blogspot.com
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
