The Land of Goethe and Schiller

It's been an eventful week, dear readers. In the last seven (or maybe eight) days I've been called upon to face a lot of things I didn't really want to have to, including horrible homesickness, internet banking troubles and a haircut I wish I hadn't bothered with.

Luckily, I've also had lots of fun too, starting with the morning I checked my internet banking (at that point still accessible...) to see that I had been paid! I could have cried tears of joy but instead I responded by going for coffee with the other assistants in Halle, the lovely David, Fanny, Anastacia and our visitor Adam from Leipzig, which of course turned into beers. The next day I headed out onto Halle's shopping boulevard with images of myself tossing credit cards in every direction and strutting down the cobbled street laden with bags full of luxurious goods. In reality, though, Halle's shopping leaves much to be desired, and I came home with one sad bag from H&M. Looks like I have miles to go before I can get used to this Shopping In Germany thing!

Thursday night saw me putting on my war paint for the Erasmus students pub crawl. I met Franzi and her bike at the first pub then met Fanny, Charlotte and Jack at the station. When tequila got involved, things definitely escalated quickly. I don't remember too much from the "club" we ended up in, but I can't forget the Currywurst we inevitably ended the night with. Delicious.

After guiding my somewhat weary Leipziger friends to the station on Friday morning I went for lunch with Eliza and Helena, two other assistants working in the region, and then headed to Dresden! I was really excited to see where one of my best friends had ended up, and meet the flatmates I'd heard so much about. Emma, Ross Anne and I stuffed ourselves with Mexican food then headed to hear some blues music but decided on a fairly early night due to feeling sick. After blaming the food, we eventually realised the cause was actually the carbon monoxide leak in Emma's flat! Don't know if anything could have put a much bigger damper on the weekend. But Dresden is a really overwhelmingly beautiful city and it was great to see my girls, and I'd definitely love to go back and visit again properly when the dangerous gas has been eliminated.

After a lazy but stressful Monday, which involved waking up at midday (got to love school holidays!) to discover I had been locked out of my online banking, I woke up bright and early on Tuesday for a trip to Weimar! I didn't know much about this little city in Thuringia, but after about half an hour there I had already fallen in love with it. It's beautiful in a very different way to Dresden: while Dresden is all about grandeur and spectacle, Weimar is stunning in a much quieter, more modest way. It's wonderful to just walk around and take it all in, and I think we visited at the perfect time of year as the autumn leaves made it even more picturesque! We didn't visit the Goethe or Schiller museums, being terrible German students, so I can't report on those. But I would definitely recommend a day trip to Weimar if you're within easy reach, and if you can get one of Deutsche Bahn's ridiculously good value Laender-Tickets then even better, as we managed to get there and back for 7 euros each!

I also took some photos on my new/old SLR too, which I'll be posting when I get them developed! I'm off to the zoo here in Halle tomorrow with one of my flatmates, and tomorrow night I'll be partying with two awesome ladies, so I'll have plenty to report on next time!

Ich bin kein Berliner

Germans like punctuality. Normally I am also a big fan who starts to sweat at the thought of a delayed train, so this shouldn't be a problem. But this weekend left me so sleep deprived and worn out I just took an afternoon nap and slept in for my first ever Irish dancing class here, which is unfortunately miles away. Hopefully I will soon be such a confident cyclist that missing a tram isn't such a problem, but for now my hands are covered in minor bike-related injuries, so I won't be risking getting lost tonight. What better way to be productive, then, than to get a blog post hammered out!

(OK, maybe cleaning the bathroom would be a start. After dinner.)

I barely had a moment to myself last week, from Wednesday to Sunday I had something going on every day. Wednesday was the Lichtfest in Leipzig, commemorating the peaceful demonstrations there that contributed hugely to the collapse of the GDR. For a history student with a particular interest in those weird, distant years where Germany was two countries, being able to take part in such an event was so exciting. The Augustusplatz was full of people, all with candles in their hands, and the German President even came along. (Having read up on him since, it would seem he's a pretty cool guy.) Obviously some of the references in the play and speeches were a little lost on us non-natives, but the atmosphere was something really special, and I'm so glad I got to experience it. Naturally, in the spirit of dissent and freedom, we then headed to a lovely pub afterwards to rebel against having to work the next day.

Augustusplatz

I spent Thursday both very excited and very, very stressed, as it turned out I had booked my train to Berlin a little bit too early. I hadn't even packed, so it was all a little touch and go whether or not I would make it. But I huffed and puffed and power walked to the station, which is thankfully not too far from my flat, and stepped through the train doors with just seconds to spare. I should probably have apologised to my fellow travellers for my sweaty, stressed presence. Two hours or so later I was in Erin's flat in Friedrichshain, one of the coolest areas of Berlin and my personal favourite!

Berlin is one of my favourite cities in the world. There's always something going on in every corner of the city. The first night saw a birthday night out for one of Erin's friends, another language assistant called Chelsea, and after being knocked back from one club for being under 21 ("it's in the law"... I don't think it is, actually, I think you are in a bad mood, Mr Bouncer) we found ourselves stumbling into one that was only charging 2 euros entry to an indie/rock night - result!

On Friday we headed to Berlin Oktoberfest, so that me and Emma could experience a little taste of what we hadn't managed to get to Munich for. Stepping into the slightly empty tent I was a little doubtful, but after a massive beer I was feeling much happier, and the hall was getting busier all the time. Eventually we were dancing on the benches to German party classics (some of which have associated gestures and dances - think Agadoo) and smashing our beers together so enthusiastically we accidentally caused a glass shower. Erin's phone suffering a little from the ensuing beer droplets meant an early exit for us

Ein Prosit der Gemuetlichkeit!

Making such a premature exit turned out to be a good idea, as we were feeling fairly fresh the next day to go and meet Lydia and Rosie from uni for lunch! We ended up in a Korean restaurant, which would never have been my first choice, but I'm happy to say that my lunch was pretty delicious and I'm glad I tried something new, even if eating with chopsticks is definitely not my strong point. At night we headed out for another one of Erin's friends' birthdays, ending up in the Stadtbad, a club that used to be a public swimming pool. The main dancefloor was in the pool itself, which meant a very slopey floor and a very surreal feeling. Emma said she felt like she was in a scene from Blade. Unfortunately, I am definitely not a natural Berliner, and as the morning wore on I was craving sleep more and more. I need to try and develop the hardy German attitude to partying, as I am definitely still too much of a Brit! Sunday morning was a trip to the flea market at Mauerpark, where I got myself a replacement for my Praktica camera (which I left in Britain since it was adding about 3 kilos to the weight of my suitcase...) and some tasty bruschetta.

Tasty food and happy bargain hunters!

After such a fun but exhausting weekend I'm happy to be back in my flat in Halle, and being in Berlin made me realise that although I absolutely love the city, I'm actually sort of glad I wasn't placed in a school there. My commute is much shorter than it would be there, my rent is much cheaper, and I hear German absolutely everywhere I go, whereas in Berlin I did notice a lot of English being spoken. Totally normal for a European capital, but not what I want from this year. Here, if I speak with a bad accent or make grammar mistakes, hardly anyone will switch into English in response. I'd love to spend some time in Berlin at some point, but this year is for learning German, and I'm pretty happy to have been placed in a city where English is still fairly rare.

Apologies for the length of this post, but I hope I did Berlin justice. If that's possible. Since I've not been paid yet it looks like I'll be spending the near future in the Halle/Leipzig area but hopefully I'll still have plenty to report. Bis gleich!

A Weekend in Leipzig

I meant to write this post on Sunday, but I was too tired and said I'd do it on Monday. On Monday I was also very tired and not too well so I said I'd do it on Tuesday, when I'd stopped making my way through the flat's massive selection of herbal teas. And yesterday I met a friend for coffee and my flatmate invited me to the pub, so that was that. Now it's Wednesday and tomorrow I'm off to Berlin so this needs done. Two awesome cities would make for one excellent but ridiculously long post.

SO. Leipzig. It's half an hour away and full of excellent people who also happen to be working as language assistants. And in the spirit of German Unity that meant a four day weekend, we decided to embark on a mini pub crawl on Leipzig's Kneipemeile, Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse. Strangely, we found the street pretty empty, but marched on regardless - this turned into stumbling later on. Two pubs and an unsuccessful attempt to fit seven of us in a photobooth later, we ended up in Flower Power. Thinking it was a club, we were surprised to find it was pretty small and had no dancefloor in sight. But this could not ruin our high spirits and we just continued to drink to music from ye olden days of the 1950s and 60s. We even met another group of Brits which led to free Jager bombs (or at least the German attempt at them) from a very generous lieutenant. Thanks Archie!

 

 Smiley Brits abroad! Jack, me, Sophie, Ruth and Paul. (Jack, here's your photo credit. Doesn't make you a professional but whatever keeps you smiling, pal.)

Friday morning saw headaches all round. When I woke up in Jack's spare room I wasn't entirely sure what was going on at first, just aware that the view from the window didn't belong to Halle. Neither of us had our best moments that morning and I think it would have been easy for me to go home and crawl into bed. But we decided to soldier on, seeking hangover food, and did a little tour of the sights, including the beautiful Nikolaikirche and the MDR Tower with panorama views over the city. Leipzig is lovely, I'm already a big fan. The little shopping passages were especially pretty - I wasn't expecting much, since the Neustadt Passage here in Halle is like something from a dystopia novel, but they were thankfully more like Glasgow's Argyle Arcade. 

Hi Leipzig!

After a lovely but tiring day I headed home for my second plate of pasta of the weekend (student life...) and got an early night because Saturday meant a visit to Leipzig Zoo! I hadn't been to a zoo since a disappointing trip to Edinburgh a good few years ago so I was especially excited for this part of the weekend, and even more so when it turned out to be a gorgeous day for wandering around outdoors! The zoo is massive, but worth every penny of the 14 euro entry fee. Seeing the big cats was my favourite part: I've never seen anything as beautiful in real life as a tiger or a snow leopard, and the big male lion playing with a pizza box like any domestic cat was brilliant. The chimps were also amazing and unbelievably close to us in their behaviour. One orangutan was sitting at the glass at the front of the enclosure, watching the two little girls who were watching him with a somewhat similar expression on his face. 

Beaaauuuutiful!

After a lovely Italian dinner at Vapiano I headed for my train, exhausted from the weekend. Needless to say, Sunday really was a day of rest for me. I feel so lucky to have this awesome group living so near me and I can't wait for more fun with them all!

Tonight I'm heading back to Leipzig for a quick trip to the Lichterfest, an annual event commemorating the Peaceful Revolution, then tomorrow after work I'm catching a train to Berlin for the weekend!!! I'm so excited to visit my favourite city in the world and see two of my favourite girls. Expect a lengthy blog post on my return!