Today I
write from Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, and I am fairly certain home to the
BEST weather in the world today. The sun is shining, the sea breeze is
refreshing, and the temperature has just hit 24° -
perfect weather to sit on the grass in the park and catch up on a blog entry!
My travels have continued to be action packed, with very little sleep in the
last couple of weeks – yet some great memories to go with the long nights and
early mornings!!!
I have been incredibly lucky to have stayed with the most amazing
people since arriving back in Germany, and to everyone who has opened their
homes to me, I can’t thank you all enough! It has been great to catch up with
so many people who have spent time on my own couch in Adelaide, or travelled
with me over the last couple of years, and I look forward to seeing you all
again on whatever adventures the world offers us in the future.
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| Frankfurt, Germany |
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After a
brief trip across the water to Australia and back, it was on with the travels,
and having only just recovered from jetlag in Australia the week before, my
body was once again struggling to acclimatise in the horrific humidity and heat
of Frankfurt, Germany. (Okay, so it wasn’t horrid by Darwin standards… but
having come from the cold in Adelaide, it was quite the shock!)
Frankfurt
is Germany’s fifth largest city, and state capital of Hesse, however as
Europe’s largest financial centre, home to one of the busiest airports in the
world, and the home of the European Central Bank, I was ready for something
pretty special. I was greatly disappointed! It turns out while the airport and
economy in Frankfurt is booming, the city itself has very little to offer
tourists, and is tiny compared to my great expectations. This disappointment
wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – at least I didn’t feel too bad about staying
in bed all day!!!
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| My Bed... with a view! |
From
Frankfurt, I headed east to Würzburg, a city of approximately 150,000 people in
Bavaria, and home to my next couch-crash victim, Lilly. I first met Lilly in
Wool Bay in South Australia back in 2006, and have since met up a couple of
times while traveling – including one rather hard to recall meeting in a
beer-hall at Oktoberfest 2009 in Munich. Lilly now lives in Würzburg, where she
is studying education, and was kind enough to offer me some space on her couch
in return for TimTam’s, a Cherry Ripe, and two potentially dangerous cartons of
Farmers Union Iced Coffee – which had travelled 16,000km across the world
unrefrigerated!
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| Lilly's Birthday Bash! |
I spent
the next couple of nights at Lilly’s place, teaching her flatmates the
Australian art of Jungle Speed (which it turns out is called Jungle Jam in
Germany!), devouring a kilo of FruitChocs, and seeing some of what the
beautiful city has to offer. My visit to Lilly conveniently coincided with her
birthday party, and my first night was spent drinking local beer on the
riverbank, sampling the very best of Germany’s Kammsteak, Schweinefleisch and Kartoffelsalat, while a
guitar was passed around the circle, and I got the chance to hear a range of
German songs at their absolute drunken worst! I’m not certain if it was the
jetlag, the beer, or maybe a mix of the two… but my memory seems to deteriorate
later in the evening – however I do remember waking up with my face squashed up
against a random German guys feet. Classy!
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| Würzburg Residenze |
The next
day it was time to explore the city, and with a group of Lilly’s friends, and
an American exchange student in town for the weekend, we set about seeing what
makes Würzburg one of Germany’s popular tourist destinations. The site of the
city was originally settled in the 4th or 5th centuries,
and although significantly damaged during a WWII air raid, today the city is a
beautiful, bustling University city with a great nightlife and various visiting
festivals and concerts (Elton John had followed me from Adelaide, and was in
town performing the same weekend I was in town!). Our day of exploration
started out at the Würzburg Residenze
in the centre of the city, before we made our way up to Fortress Marienberg - an impressive castle complex (parts of which
date back to 704 AD) which looks down over the city below, and the vineyards
beyond. After a satisfying lunch consisting of only ice-cream, we spent the
afternoon on the very corny city tourist train, learning the history of the
city, before exploring the ‘Batman Church’, and the beautiful gardens of the Residenze.
Lilly
and I spent the evening at Kiliani Volksfest, the local annual beer festival,
where I met up with Matthias (who had stayed on my couch in Australia), before
tucking into a disgustingly good German beer-hall feast of roast chicken, chips
and beer (Ben will be devastated to know there wasn’t a pork knuckle in
sight!), before exploring the sideshows and rides – not a good idea for those
who have been drinking!!!
The
following day, it was time to say ‘auf wiedersehen’ to Lilly, and move on to
Schweinfurt, a small town only around half an hour from Würzburg, and home to
Matthias, Stefan and Florian. Some of you were fortunate enough to meet these
three guys when they were backpacking through South Australia, and will
therefore know I was in for an entertaining couple of days! Schweinfurt is only
a small town, located upstream of Frankfurt on the River Main, and as it’s name
would suggest, is the town of pigs! The town is full of pig statues, sculptures
and artwork, and I spent my first afternoon wandering along the river, and
through the old streets of the town, stumbling on a range of pigs in all kinds
of unexpected places. The town has ever attempted to take on the awesomeness
that is Rundle Mall, with a family of brass pigs in a side street. Good try
Schweinfurt, but we all know Rundle Mall wins.
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| The best barman ever! |
My first
evening in Schweinfurt was spent at the pub – working for my keep. Stefan is
the barman at a local train-station turned bar, Stattbahnhof, and he kindly invited me to join him at work… and
then had me working!!! I don’t want to gloat too much, but my ashtray
management skills really are top-notch, and I folded the serviettes and menu
cards like an absolute professional! With the tables set up, it was time for me
to enjoy a well-deserved rest, and I spent the remainder of the evening sitting
around the pub talking to the locals, sampling the locals drinks, and
developing quite an extensive vocabulary of inappropriate German words and
sayings. The former use of the pub as a train station means the beer garden is
actually located on one of the platforms – which is great, except every time a
freight train goes past, no one can be heard, and all conversation stops for a
couple of minutes while everyone just looks around at each other and drinks.
Awkward!
I stayed
at Stefan’s house, taking over the lounge room his mum Tatjana had kindly
converted into my own personal boudoir,
and had my own personal balcony to smoke durries
– which you all know I love to do so much!!! Stefan and his mum live in a
high-rise apartment building just outside of town, and while I didn’t utilise
the balcony for its intended durrie
purposes, I was lucky enough to have an amazing view back over the town, and
the massive electrical storm which decided to make itself known while I was
trying to get to sleep.
The next day we were up early (in the afternoon!), and met up with Matt, Flo, and some other friends to head to Schießhaus, a fantastic German beer garden in the hills outside of town. The boys made the mistake of doubting my stomach capacity and competitive nature, and were forced to eat their words when I finished the Schießhaus famed BIG schnitzel meal. I will have it known I was the only one to finish the meal – and I was up against Germans, the kings of schnitzel eating! Exercise was definitely required after such a mammoth meal, and we all walked back into town, before spending the afternoon playing a round of mini-golf, and exploring yet more of what the town has to offer.
The rest
of the evening was quite a unique experience, as I was miraculously deemed
worthy of induction into the highly exclusive ‘Campfire Crew’, and spent the
night out in the rain, in the middle of a paddock, attempting to start a
campfire. I will admit right now I was little help in getting the campfire
alight, however I did show my Australian initiative when I realised the
ignition efforts were proving quite unsuccessful, and decided to make better
use of the newspaper and kindling to make a dry seat so I could laze around
while the others did all the hard work. Of course, to keep a backside the size
of mine dry requires a couple of sheets of precious paper (we didn’t have much
to use!), and I think my idea was actually probably more detrimental to the
efforts than I had expected… however at least my trousers were dry!!!
Eventually
the resourceful Germans engineered themselves a Jenga-style pile of wood,
and managed to set it alight. Of course, I was quick to take credit for this
achievement, and the rest of the evening was spent around the campfire, cooking
Weißwurst on the end of sticks (which
I kept dropping, and ended up with crunchy bits on my dinner!), and chatting
about backpacking through Australia, as the rain continued to fall around us.
After a
week of great laughs, great memories, and the BEST Schnitzel, Döner and Green
Tea in all of Germany (thanks Schweinfurt for these three!), the next morning I
was up early, handed a ‘deluxe’ packed lunch by the wonderful Stefan, and
caught the train to Wernigerode – where my German adventures continued!
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