Monday, April 26, 2010

Frühlingsfest macht Spaß!

German's love festivals.  Seriously.  Love might not even be strong enough, and Germans definitely don't require many reasons to organize a Fest.


This past Friday I went to Hannover's Frühlingsfest (Spring Festival) with Bill and Sara where we had lots of good fair food, beer and Lüttje Lager.  I foolishly bet Bill in a basketball competition, and I even convinced Sara to go on this ride called "Air Crash" with me (though I think she may have regretted it later!).





Prost!

Two Week Blur: Quedlingburg and Hameln

So the past two weeks have been a bit of a blur and included daytrips to Quedlinburg and Hameln and a trip this weekend to Münster.  I haven't been too good about my blogging quota as of late, but I'm hopefully going to catch up a bit this week.

Thought I would share some photos from the past two weeks or so though!


The weekend after Osterferien I went to my third (and most likely last) Hannover 96 match.  In case you didn't know, Hannover has been struggling this year and is facing the threat of relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga next year if they don't pull it together in the last few games.  This game was against Schalke 04, a NRW team out of Gelsenkirchen which was at the time number two in the Tabelle (and now tied with FC Bayern for first).  The weather was beautiful and so was the game with Hannover pulling out a miraculous 4:2 result.







Last Sunday Bill and I met up with Jackie in Quedlinburg, a small town in the Harz region of Sachsen-Anhalt known for its Fachwerkhäuser and historical castle dating back to Heinrich I and the Ottonian Dynasty.  On the way back to Hannover, Bill and I had a stopover in Halberstadt and were treated to an amazing array of beautiful churches and buildings in a pretty small city.




Tuesday saw a long-awaited trip to Hameln, die Stadt des Rattenfängers (the Pied Piper of Hamelin).  Hameln is definitely a town that has embraced the touristy side of its history, and you can find rat and pied piper signs, statues and souvenirs on every street corner.  Apparently there are some mixed feelings about the city which you can see expressed in postcards saying things like "Hameln ist OK."  The city even had a pretty little Fachwerkhaus McDonald's in it's city center.  Did I mention the rat rolls?

Last and most likely least, since my arrival in September there has been a major construction project on a bridge joining Linden (area I live in) and Calenberger Neustadt (neighboring area my school is in) and this past week they've been tearing up the Stadtbahn lines which has been interesting to watch.  Unfortunately, it has also made my short daily walk to and from school a bit of a pain.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Multikulti in bester Form

I definitely live in a very multicultural flat share.  Both of my roommates are home right now, and we all have our doors open.  I'm currently signing up for courses at the university while listening to American rock music [in English].  Poisy is watching German TV [in, well...German].  My new roommate Florent is skyping with his sister in Paris [in French].

To answer any incoming questions, yes I did get a new roommate.  When I returned home after my Eastern Europe Extravaganza, I was surprised by a strange guy in the apartment.  Turns out that Poisy found a new roommate while I was gone.  He's 24, his name is Florent and he's French but speaks pretty solid English and German (impressive, right?).

Secondly, I'm currently signed up for three classes at Leibniz Universität Hannover, but I'll probably drop one within the next few weeks or so:  1) Inorganic Chemistry I [in German] 2) The divided Germany from Cold War to Reunification [in German] 3) Theories of European Unification [in English]

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Osterferien Update: Two Stories and a Joke

So I'm making a final push to finish these Osterferien updates before the end of the week, but I just remembered two stories I wanted to share.

First, Bran "Dracula's" Castle is about 30-40 km from Braşov, and to get there I had to take a maxi-taxi that leaves from one of the city's bus stations on the outskirts of the city.  To get to the bus station, I had to take two different city buses.  While Braşov is a pretty nice city by Romanian standards, the bus network signage still pretty much sucks.  What should have taken about thirty minutes ended up taking about ninety--things weren't helped (including my mood) by the fact that it was drizzling and the buses were running less frequently since it was the weekend.  When I finally got on the right bus, I grabbed a seat and quickly had my guide book out to check to make sure my route was right.  All the sudden the bus hit a pothole, and I looked up and noticed that everyone was frantically crossing themselves and looking kind of frightened.  I quickly stood up to see what was going on, startling a few old ladies in the process, just to see that we were passing a church that is apparently pretty important in the area.   I sheepishly took my seat and tried to pretend that I hadn't just spazzed out.

Second, I have to be honest, I went to Romania not knowing a single word of Romanian.  I tried to learn a few words when I got there and thankfully figured some phrases out that were pretty similar to Italian/Spanish, but I definitely used English as my working language on the trip (English has taken over as the default second language everywhere it seems).  In most cases this worked out fine at hostels and such, but I did have some minor problems (sometimes).  Turns out that in Romanian accented English, beer sounds incredibly similar to bill.  So when thinking we were talking about the bill, this seriously happened once in Bucharest and once in Braşov, I ended up getting another beer (don't mind if I do).  The other time this was an issue was in Sinaia, Romania where I had stopped to see Peleş Castle.  I was trying to buy a ticket to get to Braşov where I had booked a hostel for two nights, but the lady at the ticket counter and I had some serious communication problems.  After repeating everything twice in both English and German, I had finally managed to convey what I wanted, but we were stuck on the question of how I wanted to get there (there were about six different trains I could take all at different costs and speeds).
  
Thankfully, a nice Romanian university student (we ended up talking for a bit later waiting on the platform for our respective trains), came to my rescue and interpreted for a bit and got things sorted out.  When it came to pay I only had a 100 Lei bill (4 Lei = 1 Euro) and the ticket cost about 27 Lei.  Turns out the lady didn't have enough change for me.  After a few minutes of what I dare to call communication, she took a few customers behind me to see if she could get enough change for me.  No go.  The Romanian student then went to ask her friends, apparently no one had change to break my bill.  In the end, I had to go to a separate office to get change for the lady at the original ticket counter.  I then noticed that she had sold me a ticket for a train that was supposed to have left thirty minutes before, when I asked the Romanian student she asked the lady at the ticket counter who said it was fourty minutes late every day, and I still had time to catch it.  Such is life in Romania.


 Joke: So I'm sitting at this one restaurant in Braşov, slowly poring over the menu deciding what to treat myself to.  Under one section, I find something quiet strange.  Apparently this restaurant serves fried crap.  If my life were a TV show like Seinfeld, the scene would have continued with me questioning the waiter on the crap and the crap with salt., just to order something else and respond with "Sorry, I'm on a no crap diet!"

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Osterferien Update Budapest: Are You a Buda or a Pest?

Fun facts about Budapest:

1) The modern city of Budapest, the capital of Hungary, was created in 1873 from the formerly separate cities of Buda, Óbuda and Pest.

2) Approximately 25% of the population of Hungary lives in the greater Budapest region.

3) The same geothermal activity responsible for many of the baths in Budapest created one of the world's largest cave systems (right under the city).

4) At the time I was in Budapest, the exchange rate of Hungarian Forints to the Euro was approximately 270 HUF : 1 €.  To things in perspective, the nicest meal I had in Hungary cost about 2800 HUF or about  $14.50 (USD).

I had originally planned on taking a bus from Braşov to Budapest but when that was canceled on the day I arrived to Bucharest, I ending up scrambling for a ticket on a night train.  At first I was a bit worried because you don't hear the best things about night trains in Eastern Europe.  It's never stories like I had so much fun and met so many cool people on the night train but more like I got mugged and harassed by people who didn't speak English.  I really lucked out on this--I don't say that because I, in fact, didn't get mugged or harassed (don't buy into all the hype), but because I actually did end up having a good time and meeting someone cool.


I ended up springing for a six-bed sleeper car (instead of the cheaper plain seat or couchette), and thankfully I only shared it with one person meaning the normally cramped car was quite roomy.  My traveling companion through the Romanian countryside was Marian, a 30-year-old engineer from the outskirts of Bucharest who was traveling to Budapest to install a new machine.  I don't remember the name of the company he works for, but they apparently make most of the bottle caps for Pepsi and a few other big bottlers in the area.  It was a fun ride because my timidness was balanced out by Marian's excitement to practice his English which he said he has been using more and more in his daily work.  We talked about current politics, the efficiency of German trains, the status of post-communist Romania, bottle cap making and how great Florida is (he has two friends there but has never been).  Marian shared the coffee his wife packed for him with me, and he even bought me a croissant in the morning (I bought more hot coffee to reciprocate).  I was kind of sad to say goodbye to Marian in the morning as we rolled into Keleti station in Budapest but ready for my Hungarian adventure to begin.



After checking into Paprika Hostel I decided to wander around a bit for some food and ended up happening upon some of the best falafel of my life.  Seriously, foodgasmic.  Later on I decided to head back to the hostel to find out what this caving trip they had explained to me was really about, and even though I was a bit reluctant at first, I decided to sign up.  I had an awesome time, and we crawled and squeezed our way through this amazing cave system with at times huge caverns and other times tiny passageways.  I ended up meeting three brothers from Buffalo traveling Europe for a bit (any other Hankins thinking what I'm thinking?), and we grabbed a celebratory beer before heading back to the hostel to get washed up and meet the others out at a bar.  I, being a bit sleep-deprived, stayed out later than I should've and definitely overindulged in the cheap and abundant Hungarian beer which resulted in Subway at 4:30 am (it's like I never left the US!).  The next day was rough...really rough.  I was surprisingly sore from caving and a bit, well...dehydrated, but I soldiered on and walked around the city for most of the day.  I then decided to treat myself to an afternoon at the Széchenyi Thermal Spa, the largest medicinal bath in Europe, which was definitely quite a cultural "experience" (code for there were tons of fat Hungarian dudes wearing speedos).  Check out the awesome pictures on Wikipedia.  



I gave myself the night off from partying and went on a nighttime walk around the city highlighted by the Buda Hills and Buda Castle which were absolutely amazing at night.  At times it definitely felt like I had the city to myself!  I made my way to Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion before heading back across Chain Bridge to the hostel.



I spent my last full day in Budapest walking up Gellért Hill to the Citadella, walking up and down the banks of the Danube River and hitting up both the awesome covered Great Market Hall near the Liberty Bridge in Pest and an Easter Market at Vörösmarty square complete with Hungarian Folk Dancing and awesome food stalls.  That night I grabbed a few beers at this ridiculously hipster "deconstructed" hipster bar with creepy baby doll part sculptures and plastic gasoline tank hookahs.  The next day, before my early afternoon bus to Vienna, I took in the House of Terror Museum which is a beautifully designed memorial to the victims of Fascism in Hungary and the Soviet-instituted secret police during the Cold War.  I ran back to the Easter Market to grab a quick lunch before hitting the road to Austria!



Note to others: don't eat a really big fatty Hungarian meal before running to catch a long bus ride.  Just take my word on that.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Osterferien Update Romania: It Began in Bucharest and Ended in Braşov

Here are three fun facts about Romania:

1) Romania is pretty much tied with Bulgaria as the poorest country in the European Union.

2) Romania was under communist control until the dictator Ceauşescu and his wife were executed by firing squad on Christmas Day 1989.

3) While seemingly intuitive but easy to forget, the official language of Romania is Romanian which is a romance language with surprising similarities to Italian (and the people are just as loud and just as public about displaying affection).



Flying into Baneasa Airport in Bucharest led to a bit of a culture shock--the areas around the airport and the main train station seemed pretty torn up, dirty and full of people trying to take advantage of impressionable young people like me.  Get outside of these areas, though, and Bucharest is really amazing.  There was a huge city garden near my hostel, Parcul Cişmigiu, that was filled with people obviously enjoying the sunny, early Spring days.  You could feel the history of the city, like Berlin but less renovated and much, much more raw, and really see how modernization was competing with the lingering effects of a stagnant communist economy.  



One interesting thing I noted, Ceauşescu hated all of the ancient churches in Bucharest, and so he tried to hide a lot of them by building high rise apartment buildings all around them.  He apparently was pretty eccentric and also started building the Palace of the Parliament which I've heard is either the world's largest or second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon (conflicting reports).



After Bucharest, I headed to Braşov in Transylvania but made a stopover in Sinaia to visit Peleş Castle--the residence of King Carol I of the Romanians.  Just behind Peleş is Pelişor Castle which was built to house the king's nephew and heir and his bratty consort.




After Sinaia I got back on a train headed to Braşov and the Carpathian Mountains where I had a fun time day-tripping to Bran "Dracula's" Castle which was cool on the outside and disappointingly boring on the inside and then exploring Braşov and all of it's small Transylvania town glory.  Braşov was surprisingly really nice and had lots to see for a city its size (including a Hollywood-inspired Brasov sign on a nearby mountain) and amazing food for dirt cheap.



After two nights in Braşov I boarded my first night train which would take me to Budapest, Hungary, but for that story you'll just have to wait.


 

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Osterferien Update: The End

I hate having to ruin the story and jump to the end (it's like skipping to the last page of a suspense novel), but today marked both the last day of my trip and Osterferien and also the longest leg of my journey.  After about eleven total hours of traveling, I finally made it back home to Hannover from the Czech Republic.

So I wasn't able to update this past weekend, but Happy Easter just the same (or as we say in Germany "Frohe Ostern!").  Here's the awesome Easter package I got from my parents back home, and if you work for the German Zollamt, ignore the giant bottle of prescription allergy medicine in the middle.


Actually, the Zollamt didn't ignore it, they saw it and made me trek to the Hannover Hauptzollamt in the rain (to be fair they probably didn't ask for it to rain, but they also probably didn't ask for it not to rain) to open the package in front of them and explain the medicine.  Sending any form of medicine, OTC or prescription, is strictly verboten in Germany, but the younger guy helping me said he thought that I was living and studying in Germany for a year was cool, and he let me take them.  Take that, German bureaucracy!

Expect rolling backlogged updates on my Osterferien trip over the next few days--I've got material to last me through Spring!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Osterferien Part 1: Berlin, Bucharest, Brasov and some Budapest

I'm currently in Vienna, but I wanted to share a few pictures from my trip so far.  After a great Fulbright Conference in Berlin I caught a flight Thursday morning to Bucharest, Romania.  Took a train to Brasov in Transylvania with a stopover in Sinaia.  Had an adventurous time on a night-train from Brasov to Budapest.  Bussed it from Budapest to Vienna.  Seriously, how's that for planes, trains and automobiles?

 

P.S. Guess who went caving in Budapest?  Pretty BA if I do say so myself!