Back in Germany

October 16th, 2008 | Posted by AnnMarie in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

I’m now on Day 2 back in Germany. It must feel like a flashback to my solitary reader. It feels like just yesterday I was writing about Day 2 my last time here. Though that consisted of a lovely wedding, whereas this particular trip is about the Frankfurt Book Fair. 

After the obligatory staff dinner, I went to the hotel, quickly checked email, then attempted to get lost. Turns out it’s harder than one thinks. Granted I didn’t walk for miles and miles, but i took shortcuts, wandered onto streets that turned out to be relatively residential, and still… no dice. After walking for about an hour, I resigned myself to not finding anything cool to do in the neighborhood and found my way back, gathering supplies on the way. 

What a different experience this is, compared to the Frankfurt of summer. Then, I visited with friends, was entirely a tourist, and was on vacation. Now I’m attempting to squeeze in a few sights between work and getting some sleep. It’s autumn and the city is a bit quieter. It doesn’t smell so much like a city now that the heat of summer has gone; the scent of sweltering concrete has been replaced with the smell of rain on leaves as they change colour and fall to the ground. It’s a sort of freshness, but not what you’d think. Fall’s scent is the smell of things to come. It is certain and definitive. The capriciousness and liveliness are replaced with something more earthy and solid. 

Far from the romanticized Germany of summer, this is real, workaday life, but in another country. In a way I’d hoped it would be wholly disappointing by comparison. But I’m still enthralled with the type of stimulation I receive here–a new language, different culture, and lots more pork than I’m accustomed to. 

 

 

 

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The Wedding

July 15th, 2008 | Posted by AnnMarie in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

June 28 – Day 2

On Saturday morning we awoke, still tired from the trip, but excited about the wedding. We had some breakfast, then took a short walk in the small town so that we knew where we were going later during the day. We hadn’t realized how small the “Alt Stadt” where all the day’s activities were being held was, so the walk was short. It felt so strange, nonetheless, to be in this environment.

I’m not sure why things seemed so surreal. I think part of it had to do with how much I’d romanticized Europe, having never been there before. I’d spent the entire day before focusing on constant motion in order to reach a destination, feeling over-stimulated and attempting to not look like a total fool in a place I’d never been. All that kept me from recognizing the wonder and confusion I was experiencing. Feeling the cobbles under my feet as I walked the town, I found myself wondering how much of what I was seeing was artifice. I felt like I was meeting a celebrity in the grocery store checkout line after seeing pictures of her for 20 years.

It may also have been the jet lag.

At 11 AM, we made our way to the City Hall for the civil ceremony. All the wedding guests crowded into a hot room, some seated in benches, some standing and craning for pictures while our friends sat at a table with a mirthless officiator. The ceremony was not long, maybe 20 minutes, and was very formal though the bride and groom were somewhat casually dressed. One of the interesting things about watching something like this take place in a completely different language is that it allows you to more closely observe the different ways people communicate. You become more finely attuned to body language or facial expressions, those subtle movements that normally slip into your consciousness under the radar when you concentrate on the words.

After the wedding, everyone made their way to a small area outside for glasses of celebratory champagne and to watch the bride and groom perform what is apparently a wedding tradition. There was a sawhorse set up, with a hardwood log perched atop it. With a two-handed saw, they were to cut the log in half, to symbolize how they would work together in their marriage. It was impressive how quickly they managed to do it!

A second, church wedding was held later in the evening. The church, like the rest of the town, was originally built in the middle ages. There was lovely woodwork on elevated pulpits and the paint looked as if it had been there a while. The floor was marble, and restoration on it had been completed the day before.

Like the civil ceremony before it, it was interesting to listen to something as familiar as a wedding in German. I found I was able to more or less understand what was going on. It didn’t hurt that the bride and groom has placed some programs in English around the church so that we could have a sense of what was going on.

When the ceremony was finished, we all made our way to the hotel in town for a meal, some drinking and dancing. Someone was kind enough to teach me the Viennese waltz, which apparently if done correctly, should leave one dizzy. Everyone had a great time and the party didn’t wrap up until 4AM. The sky had begun to brighten by the time I went to bed.

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from Betzdorf to Siegen to Freudenberg

July 9th, 2008 | Posted by AnnMarie in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

July 27 – Day 1, Leg 4

Traveling by bus seems different somehow than traveling by train. Perhaps it’s my own meager experience stemming back from when I lived in Cape Breton and didn’t have a car and needed to get to Halifax, but I don’t really trust them. They’re always taking the “scenic route” and you’re never sure when (or if, sometimes) you’re going to reach your destination. Even in Vancouver, I avoid taking the bus, even the new trolley ones, because there’s something that seems extra dirty and unreliable about them. The trains, on the other hand, seem more trustworthy. Maybe it’s the rails, and the fact that I can see my destination ahead that allows me to have faith that I will, eventually, arrive.

It was with these thoughts that we boarded the bus to Siegen. The town, according to our tickets, was an hour’s drive away. In reality, it was about 20 kilometres away. There were points during the ride when, looking out the window, we realized we’d literally gone ina circle, and we were on a road that we’d already ridden on just 15 minutes before—we’d gone in a huge circle. I was beginning to get so restless from traveling that I was almost ready to walk the rest of the way, just so that my legs would no longer have to rest at a 45 degree angle.

When we finally arrived in Siegen, there was someone waiting to pick us up, and take us the rest of the way to Freudenberg. When we told him of the route we’d taken to arrive where we did, he was aghast. “All this without speaking German? You are now traveling at the expert level,” he said. I smiled quietly in the back seat, (completely legally) sipping on the cold beer our friend had been considerate enough to bring for us.

The next day was the wedding we’d come here to attend, so that night there was a small family gathering at the home of the bride’s parents just outside of town. We arrived, and there was lots of introducing, hugging, and polite smiling and nodding. People were shy of using English, as I was of speaking German. But everyone was so kind, and pleased that we’d come such a long way to see our friends get married.

By 10 o’clock the bride and groom began to look exhausted, and the rest of the family did as well. I no longer had any concept of what time it might have been, but like an over-stimulated 3 year old, I wasn’t quite ready to go to bed. I was suffering from I-want-to-see-everythingitis. I didn’t want to miss a single thing. We decided that beers were in order to end off the day. There was so much in this little town that I wanted to see—its half timber houses, in place since the middle ages, and cobbled streets. After a day of breathing recycled air, I suggested we sit on the patio outside. My ulterior motive of being able to discreetly gawk around the little town, while still keeping up my façade of being the veteran traveler was fulfilled.

After a short while, I was no longer able to hold up my end of the conversation (such as it was, with its broken German, English, and weird gestures) and almost began to feel like I was already asleep at the table. I gave up, realizing that I would see nothing tomorrow, including the wedding, if I didn’t close my eyes for a few hours now.

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from Köln to Betzdorf

July 9th, 2008 | Posted by AnnMarie in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

June 27 – Day 1, Leg 3

Arriving in the Köln train station, we knew we had to make good time. It was rush hour, and the bride and groom were expecting us to have arrived already. The ticket agent in Amsterdam had given us some instructions on how to get to our tiny final destination in Freudenberg, but it seemed too bizarre that someone a country away would be able to get us so close to such a small place efficiently. We went to a ticket office to get an update.

We purchased train tickets to a tiny town called Betzdorf. From there we were to catch a bus to Siegen, as the train tracks were closed for repair. The ticket agent in Amsterdam had been right. I was amazed. Somehow a network of countries, each smaller than the province of BC, had figured out how to move literally millions of people daily–comfortably, efficiently, and accurately. And not just to downtown centres, but into the middle of what would soon seem like nowhere. During my regular daily commute on the SkyTrain from downtown, I’ve often been appalled at stalled trains, people’s refusal to actually let one off the train, crowding the doors both inside and outside so that it’s impossible to maneuver either the train or the platform. I never would have imagined that somewhere, somehow, people were embarking and disembarking in a dignified manner, getting to where they needed to go—even if it was far away—all using public transit.

We boarded a train for the ride to Betzdorf. I was still feeling so excited, but it was by this point, the excitement was beginning to be tempered by the fact that I was tired and ready to be there so I could change, wash up, and have some proper food. Disorientation was also starting to set in. I was in another country.

Leaving Köln, the train cut east, making it’s way through an increasingly rural area. There were vestiges of industry—mining, steel plants and the like—but many of these areas were once again being taken over by greenery. As we moved closer to Betzdorf, there was more and more farmland, and I eventually began to wonder, “Where the hell am I going?”

We arrived at the Betzdorf train station to find that basically no one spoke English and the bus stop where we needed to board to get to Siegen in 5 minutes was not apparent. Gravitating of course to someone in uniform, we attempted to get out what we were looking for with little luck. When a random man standing by heard me say “Siegen” he began speaking to me in German and amazingly, I understood! Something inside had woken up and kickstarted those language lessons I’d taken my first year in university over 10 years ago, and I could (mostly) understand what he was saying. We went with him to the bus stop, chatting, he in German, me in English, and actually having a conversation. I felt what would be my first surge of new confidence—I was traveling.

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From Amsterdam to Köln

July 7th, 2008 | Posted by AnnMarie in Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

June 27 – Day 1, Leg 2

The flight was uneventful. Once we settled in and were on the plane, I read and daydreamed and slept a little. I knew the next while would be fairly sleepless, as there were things to do and so much to see. Because we flew north, the view was stunning. While it was night time, because of the time of year and our flight path, at no point did the sun dip below the horizon, making it seem like dawn for hours.

We landed in Schipol Airport in Amsterdam around mid-day on Friday the 27th. As we had originally intended to arrive in Frankfurt and travel via train to the wedding destination in Freudenberg from there, we were a much longer way from where we needed to be—many hours worth. But I was grateful to have a stamp on my passport—the first one.

We worked out a train route that ran from Amsterdam, across Holland into Köln (Cologne), then on to Siegen, and finally Freudenberg. I was with seasoned travelers, so didn’t want to appear too excited, but I was secretly glad for the long train ride so that I could see a bit more. Looking out the windows alone was beautiful. What they say about Dutch light in art is so true. It doesn’t look like anywhere else I’ve ever seen.

It became clear we crossed the border into Germany after a while, as there were German flag hanging everywhere—out of windows, in shops, on people’s cars. The Euro Cup finals were to take place in just a few days, and everyone seemed excited.

Before even speaking with anyone, I realized just how different things were where I now was. From the window of the train, I watched the buildings go by. The architecture was so different. There were old buildings that looked as if they came out of a storybook—half timber houses, or slate shingled homes—but even buildings that were clearly new seemed to have been built with an eye to the future.

As we entered Köln, I could see the spires of the Cologne Cathedral and I could feel my heart flutter in my chest. This was the first time of many that I wondered to myself why I had waited so long to come here. But it took over 600 years for the Cathedral to be built, so in those terms, waiting 31 to come to Europe suddenly didn’t seem so long.

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