Mein Deutsch ist Nicht Gut

Well, first my flight was delayed. Then because the flight was delayed, my ticket expired for the "Easy Bus" that would take me into central London. Then because the first Easy Bus driver wouldn't let me on, and I had to wait for the second, I arrived too late in London to take the underground home. After a half hour of thinking I could find my way walking, I gave up and flagged down a taxi.

Now sitting here, thinking of the horror it was to get from Freiburg to London--I would do it all over again.

Greg cooking the first night

This past weekend, I flew to Basel then caught a bus to Freiburg to visit my friend Greg that I know from Penn State. Greg's been in Freiburg since February perfecting his German (which is quite good), taking classes, and working at a day care (only when he absolutely has to).

After a weekend of crashing on his couch, I can say I love Freiburg. The city itself isn't very big--more like a rather large college town. It's considered the heart of the Black Forest--which is where the Grimm Brother's fairy tales were written. Germany as a whole is very environmental, being a world leader in green energy, but Freiburg is especially green. In Greg's student housing almost everything is recycled and the roof is covered in solar panels--just as an example. There's also a rather large community of hippies and anarchists that live in tent-like cities in one section of town. Clearly, I adored it.

Ancient Fortress with vineyard

The weekend started with quite a bit of rain (I guess I brought it from London). Greg and I had just enough time to go to an outdoor market and check out a church in the center of town, which I suppose is Freiburg's only tourist attraction (it was quite nice). After we hung out at his place, drinking wine and frying some veggies with his friend Henry, who coincidentally spent the entire weekend with us. 

The next day we (Greg, Henry, and I) took the train to a little German town that's known for a super old fortress that sits atop a hill that is now a vineyard. The town has little shops and lots of places to buy wine, which we naturally did. Back in Freiburg we met up with more people in the study abroad program Greg's in for a Bier Bike, which is apparently a touristy thing to do in Freiburg although people told me Germans take part as well because it's so fun. Basically, all the bar stools surrounding the bar have pedals that when everyone (17 of us) are pedaling can more the bar like a bike. You hire a driver, let two people from the group bar tend, and drink beers while you bike around the town. If anyone is in Germany and has enough people to do this, I highly recommend it. After the Bier Bike, we hung out at Greg's friend's apartment mostly just hanging out and playing music.

Bier Bike!

The next day, we went hiking through the Black Forest, which was one of the main reasons for my visit (minus visiting Greg, of course). I thought the Black Forest would be like a national park--no people except other hikers and campers--but the trial we were on wove through farm land then back into the forest that became so dense it felt like night time. Even deep in the forest there were little cottages I imagine Germans use as summer homes. When we walked through farms, the cows were so close we could pet them if we wanted to.

At the end of our hike we reached a little town (St. Paul's?) and, of course, had Black Forest cake, which was, of course, delicious. In Germany, everything is closed on Sundays and in mountain towns like St. Paul's most places are closed on Saturdays as well, so the town was especially sleepy.

One of the farm house on our hike

The rest of my time in Freiburg was spent hanging out in the city with Greg's friends. Students live in a number of compounds across the city with a mixture of other students in study abroad programs and German students. Throughout July, each compound hosted a block party of sorts with bands and food, so we went to the one hosted Saturday night. The music started as head banging screamo until it eventually morphed into dance reggae,

Sunday morning, it was raining again. With everything closed, Greg, his friend Jon, and I sat in the kitchen drinking coffee, cooking occasionally, talking about anything and everything until I had to leave for my flight around 6. The boys told me this was their normal Sunday routine. I remember being in Switzerland, where everything is closed on Sundays as well, after high school with my friends Molly and Megan. We didn't know what to do with ourselves on Sundays. Although we almost never exercised that trip, Sundays we'd go running just to do something. Yet, with Greg and Jon, hanging around the kitchen all day drinking coffee, I really appreciated the European-style relaxation. With no where to go and nothing to do, it was really nice.

Henry, Greg, and I

Before going to Germany, I really had no interest--not a disinterest, simply no particular draw to go to Germany. But after being in Freiburg, I will always tell people they should visit. Just try to pick up a little German before you go.