Pirates, pancakes and parties... My German adventure continues!

Today I write from Copenhagen, where I have spent the past week nursing the fragile Eliza back to full health, and enjoying the very best of what Denmark has to offer. It’s been a great week filled with great people, great weather, great food and great drink – but I’ll leave all that for another entry. For the moment, I will use my summer-tanned fingers to catch up on the rest of my time in Germany!

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Wernigerode is a small town in Harz, Central Germany, and was the next stop on my German adventure. The narrow streets of the old town are lined with countless gothic buildings, and the impressive Wernigerode Castle looks down over the city from within the Lustgarten on a surrounding hill. I spent my two days in Wernigerode wandering the small streets and alleyways of the town centre, exploring the gardens, and walking up to the castle to admire the impressive view. The town is home to an abundance of gift stores and boutiques (well out of my budget!) and had more kitchen gadgets and gizmos than I could have ever imagined – the Germans really have thought of everything!!!

Heading out of Wernigerode early, it was time to catch up with yet another backpacker who spent time on my couch in Australia, and I was on my way to Braunschweig, to catch up with the famed ‘Australian Arne’. Arne stayed with my family in Adelaide for a couple of nights last year, before heading off with me in the Mighty Mazda to camp on the beach on Kangaroo Island, and then to conquer the Great Ocean Road. He also made his spectacular Netball debut for Green Team – and was even lucky enough to drive my car in Australia (an entertaining experience for me, as every time he went to change gears, there would be a small ‘thump’ as his hand hit the window – turns out the gearstick is on the other side in Australia!!!)

Jacobus, Arne and Jana

I met up with Arne at the train station, heading back to his IKEA filled house to meet his beautiful girlfriend Jana, before heading out to explore the city. Braunschweig is located in Lower Saxony, and while it is far from being Germany’s most beautiful city, it has a bustling pedestrian mall, beautiful churches and squares, and some of the best/cheapest/biggest cocktails you will find! What WWII left of the old section of the city is surrounded by a now-picturesque moat, and the streets are packed with market stalls, flower stands, and fruit and vegetable stalls selling the BEST raspberries and strawberries, fresh from the market.

Mmmm... food!

We spent the afternoon relaxing at Arne’s house, sampling the best weißwurst, fleischsalat, bauernbrot and senf Germany has to offer, before heading out to the local cocktail lounge to meet Arne’s friend Jacobus, and begin a very ‘happy hour’, with all Jumbo cocktails half the price of small cocktails. Needless to say, the hour lived up to its name! From the cocktail lounge, we made our way back to Arne’s house to start pre-drinking for the night, and were joined for dinner by Efkan, another of Arne’s friends, and as we soon discovered… not the worlds biggest fan of Vegemite!

The evening saw us party hard, with the local uni campus throwing a massive end-of-year celebration, and as the uni-focussed, successful student I have always been in Australia, I decided I was entitled to join in the fun. Held in the uni grounds, with lecture theatres and classrooms converted into a selection of bars and dancefloors, and the outside gardens turned into an ‘Unearthly Delight’ style hang out space, the party went well into the night, and only after the sun had already begun to rise, did we decide to head back to Arne’s place for an early morning Vegemite snack, and to finally get some sleep.

Breakfast of Champions
...meat salad!!!

We woke up late the next afternoon, and after an afternoon breakfast of champions, it was time to say goodbye to Jana, as I once again kidnapped Arne for the next part of my journey. Feeling slightly under the weather (the happy hour isn’t so happy the next day!), we caught the train north to Bremen, a medieval walled city, and home to Arne’s wonderful parents Ronald and Suzanne.

Arriving at Arne’s family home, I was greeted with the most amazing dinner on the table, and sat down to devour Argentinean beef fillet, fresh pasta and lentil salad, with the most spectacular gorgonzola cheese sauce I could ever imagine. (My taste buds began to think they had died and gone to heaven!) Ronald works as a judge in a local courthouse, and Suzanne works in medical research, and with their three boys all moved out of home, they have spent the last couple of years hosting exchange students from around the world, and catching up on some travel of their own. The dinner conversation bounced between my own travels, Arne’s travels in Australia, and his parents’ recent trip to The Americas, and once our hunger was more than satisfied, Arne and Suzanne took me out to explore the backyard,where we spent the next half an hour picking fresh raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries and strawberries from their beautiful garden.

Now completely stuffed from dinner (and feeding my face with fresh berries from the garden), Arne headed out to celebrate a friends’ birthday party, and I was fortunate enough to be invited along. The party was at Lasse’s house, and was a great night of drinking games, drinking to celebrate finishing a drinking game, drinking without playing drinking games, and then drinking to celebrate the fact people drank without needing to play a drinking game. Needless to say – there was a lot of drinking! As the night progressed, and the drinking continued, I was lucky enough to meet Fabian, a German guy who had spent six months in India earlier in the year, and we spent the night comparing travel stories, memories and laughs of our times spent through the Indian sub-continent. As the smart (aka lazy) traveller I am, I was even nice enough to invite myself to spend the next day with Fabian, as my own personal tour guide – Arne was heading back to Braunschweig, and I had no intention of showing myself around the city!

We met up on the steps of the imposing Bremen Cathedral, and spent the day wandering the streets, river and parks of Bremen, checking out the popular Marktplatz and the gothic and art nouveau Böttcherstraße, and treating ourselves to lunch on the pirate-esque ‘Pancake Ship’, where Fabian (who I trusted to order – I couldn’t read the menu!) kindly ordered me the ‘Indian Pancake’ – not the typical lunch you’d expect to eat on a Dutch ship in Germany, but enjoyable nonetheless! Of course, you can’t eat food in Germany without washing it down with beer, and after lunch we explored the Schnoor district, before making our way to the Hofbräuhaus, where we spent the afternoon enjoying great beer and conversation – and of course more stories about time spent in India and Nepal!

Initially built on marshland on the River Weser, the city of Bremen has a history which can be traced back to the 7^th century. Today, the beautiful city is known throughout the world for it’s Beck’s Beer, it’s Brother’s Grimm fairytale, and of course most importantly, the hotel named after it on Grand Junction Road!!! The cobblestoned city is surrounded by a medieval moat, which followed the city’s impressive walled fortifications, and the river is now lined with crooked lanes, trendy converted fishermen’s houses, café’s and gift shops.

My last night in Bremen was spent around yet another amazing dinner with Ronald, Suzanne and Opa, and early the next morning I set off for the last city of my German adventure – Hamburg.  

Efkan's first Vegemite experience...
ended in the bathroom!