Feb 28 - visit from Katherine, Karneval, and Austria

Visit from Katherine

Guess it's about time I update this! I've been getting super busy, so haven't had much time for blogging :). Lots of fun times since my last post. A few weekends ago Katherine came out to visit and we had a great weekend, despite being in such a small town! The first night we went out with Daniel and his friends to a little Irish pub in Juelich. Really cute pub, but Katherine and I realized, to our chagrin, that smoking is allowed in pubs here, and we did NOT enjoy that. Our clothes and hair smelled terrible. Was still fun regardless though. Next day we went to Aachen, where we saw the very cool old Dom and town hall, which apparently Charlemagne once lived in. I also discovered 10 EUR shoes...4 pairs of boots to be exact haha. Katherine was able to control herself more and just bought 1 :). Then we met up with some of my work friends and went out for dinner and then to a bar. Funny enough, we Canadians get excited about German beer, while the Germans just get excited about the tasty, high percentage Belgian beer. The grass is always greener, I guess... although it seems the greenest is in Belgium... Sunday we slept in super late and managed to leave the house for a walk through Juelich, stopping at the Zitadel and a little duck "lake" (lagoon, maybe...), and we found 50 CENT GELATO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been something like 4 times since. I was SUPER excited to discover that. So yes, some of you may be thinking, but whaaat, a store was open in Juelich on a Sunday? Yes, apparently some restaurants, and gelato. Woohoo! While we were eating the gelato we became surrounded by a giant mob of drunk Karneval people, who were all in some Karneval club sponsored by the Irish man who ran the pub we were at Fri. He was a very friendly man, and came over and talked to us. And he was very surprised we knew he was Irish haha. But anyways, this Karneval group...very strange things to me. There are organizations of people that are sponsored or pay money to be a part of these groups. They all dress in costumes, and will take part in the Karneval parades. And apparently party lots the whole time. Pretty much an excuse to get drunk, although some of them have legit marching bands/dancers and spend months preparing for the parade. This particular group was dressed in blue and white striped shirts, and had other interesting accessories. They were very lively, and were singing Karneval songs loudly. Was fun to see. Oh, and most of these people were over 40. Nice to see a holiday where grown-ups can go wild :P.

Karneval

Karneval is a holiday which takes place in several places around the world, where people dress in costume over several days and party very hard before lent. The centre of Karneval in Germany is Cologne, and it gets so crazy there that some of the locals will actually leave during it,... except for the ones who are totally into it. Most people at our research institute were not into it, mainly being turned off by all the "annoying Karneval songs" and drunkness. I still wanted to experience it though, so fortunately had a few friends who also wanted to take part. At the research centre cafeteria on Thurs there was a Karneval party, where everyone dressed in costume, drank beer and danced to music. I stopped by there with Ezequiel for an hour or so during work. It was a fun atmosphere, with lots of hokey/folk-y Karneval songs that sort of reminded me of Boney M christmas songs...that kind of happy feel to it. Some did get annoying after a while though. But it was cool that there were songs that entire crowds of people would sing together. A lot of the songs are in the Cologne dialect, so even Germans don't understand the words. Karneval actually starts on Thurs and continues until the following Wed (or is it Wed to Tues? I can't remember.) Some people will actually party for the entire week, and then take a week off to recover. I chose to just do two main days of Karneval myself, and it was more than enough for me.

Saturday I got up really early and caught a train to Cologne, where I met my friend Kathrin, a German girl from Dusseldorf who Mike and I met in Oz. I went with some of her friends to a brewery there. There was an hour line-up at 10:30am to get in! Inside was packed and smokey (wahmp wahmp) so I was only able to handle it for a few hours. It was fun though...lots of great costumes, and Kathrin's friends were fun. Was great to catch up with her too. The brewery was in a cool, big old two story medieval-like (or actually medieval?) building, and the basement had no ventilation, so it got reallly smokey. Eventually I left and met Ezequiel, a work friend, and his friends, and spent the rest of the day partying outside by the river or in small bars nearby. It was a fun day/night...didn't get home until 2 or 3 am.

Sunday I got up late, and thinking what a nice day it was, decided to go for a bike ride. Sure enough, as soon as I got about 4 minutes away, I noticed a dark cloud looming in the distance. In anticipation, I turned around and started biking quickly home, but I wasn't fast enough. I got caught in a huge hail storm. I thought hail was more exciting and fun than the rain that could have been soaking me though. On my way back I saw people in costumes with bags of candy and flowers, and was really disappointed to realize I had missed the Karneval parade in Juelich!!! nooooooo!!!! I then turned around and went out again for a run/walk, now that I am on a hard core physio schedule to prepare for soccer, which I am hoping to play with friends here in April...That night went to Aachen for cheese fondu at work friends. The trains back to Juelich are especially terrible on Sunday, so I had to stay over there, and Monday (a day off) we went back to Cologne for the big Karneval parade. I didn't have my costume with me (an eighties work-out girl), so I got to wear Ezequiel's long brown monk costume, which he had lost all the accessories to. It was pretty funny.



The parade was SUPER LONG. We never saw the start or end, but watched for something like 4 hours. There were tons and tons of Karneval organizations who had large floats and costumes and marching bands. Lots of the men wore old fashioned wigs, like Beethoven or old lords or something. The best part - they threw chocolate, candy and flowers into the crowd the whole time! Of course we didn't prepare for that, so between 3 of us we just had my purse, and so that became SUPER stuffed and heavy. It was funny, like trick-or-treating for adults. Of course, the kids got to go up to the front of the crowds so they got TONS of candy. We in the back had to scramble for ones that were thrown near us :). Ezequiel's friend was super into catching the candy (and was much better at it than Ezequiel and I), and he didn't let us leave for a long time, so I gorged on chocolate all day. I felt gross after. I couldn't help thinking how expensive it would be to supply all the candy and flowers - they were throwing tons of roses! and tulips! and daffodils!! Oh, I tried some excellent German street food that weekend. I tried a Thueringer sausage, which was quite good. I can't remember what the other stuff was. After the parade, there were tons of people partying everywhere. Monday is one of the craziest Karneval days. All we wanted to do was sit down, so the only place we found that had room to do so was a pizzeria. We finally left at 6pm, exhausted.

Innsbruck, Austria

Although I was absolutely exhausted from the weekend before, I had yet another exciting weekend planned. I took Friday off work and left Thurs night for Munich. Funny enough, the cheapest way for me to get to Innsbruck by Fri morning was to plane to Munich, and then train to Innsbruck in the morning, and fortunately it gave me time to have a quick visit with friends Anna and Svenja in Munich! Was really great to see both of them, and we spent the night catching up in a cute little pub near Anna's place (no smoking allowed - whew!). Of course, I didn't arrive until late so it was a late night (3am), and I had to get up at 5:30am to catch the train to Innsbruck! Oh, and me not being myself after getting run down from Karneval weekend....I forgot my passport!!!! And my toiletry bag! So not like me. I was SO worried I wasn't going to get on my plane, but then they didn't even check any ID! Thank god. The good thing about the European Union...

Anyways, had a sleep-filled train ride to Innsbruck, where I at one point encountered a very scary blue-mouthed druggy guy. Sad, because he looked super young too. Incredibly scary though, with this blue dye all over his mouth and lips. He sort of passed out in the booth next to me (thankfully not mine!) and when the train stopped, the train employee called some paramedics and they took him out and were talking to him. Christian told me that in Austria, the government gives junkies the option of a safer, less potent version of heroin that dyes their mouth blue to identify them. I think it also helps weed them off of it..? I could be wrong though. But some people go to the doctor and hide the blue pills under their tongue, and then go sell them in the street, so some people still overdose (such as this guy...). I think I am going to have nightmares about the blue people.

It was so good to see Christian again. He picked me up from the airport, took me to a ski rental place, and then we stopped at his apartment. He was in the middle of renovating it, so it was covered in dust and didn't have a proper bathroom yet (although he really tried to have workers come in and install everything while we were skiing, though it didn't work out quite as planned). So we had a dusty weekend with a new toilet, but no shower or bath. You can get pretty creative with "showering" when all you have is a kitchen sink and a bath with no running water upstairs... it was funny. He will probably cringe that I posted this (if he reads it), but it was too funny I just had to.





Friday and Sat we skied at two resorts in the Alps surrounding Innsbruck, which is a town jammed in a valley between the mountains. The hills looked right down on the city, only a short drive away. So jealous that Christian can just take a quick drive to go skiing in a great resort right after work! It's super cheap too! Only 30 or so EUR for the whole day, and Christian has a pass he can use at all surrounding resorts which is something like 280 EUR for the entire year, including mountain biking in summer! One of the resorts started right at the edge of the city, and you actually could ski over a tiny path of snow which crossed some streets/parking lots near the bottom to get to the gondola. There's some good steeps too. For some reason my legs were just exhausted that weekend, so I was kind of pathetic at skiing. There was lots of snow though (although it was very warm so was a wet snow), and great weather, nice clear view of the city and the gorgeous mountains surrounding. It was hilarious though, you could totally tell you were in Austria, land of the hard-cores, because people were walking up the slopes with backcountry skis, instead of taking the chairs/gondolas. We thought about doing that (Christian does it regularly), but based on the skiing shape of my legs that weekend, it was a good thing we didn't!




We also spent a lot of time catching up, went out dancing a couple nights, explored the very cute downtown area, got some more gelato...haha. Oh, and I tried some GREAT Austrian food for lunch at the ski resorts. One was a ball of breaded cheese floating in some soup which was delicious, and the other was a macaroni and cheese-like dish with crispy onions on top. I will have to ask Christian what they were called. Was very sad to say goodbye at the end, but was a really great weekend. The lack of passport almost got me in trouble on the flight back, but a little explaining to the supervisor and a driver's license got me through. My flight was delayed and I was afraid I would miss my connection in Hamburg, but I ended up just making it. Unfortunately, my bag didn't...so I was without a toothbrush/deodorant (the only toiletries I remembered to bring with me)/phone charger/plug adapter/runners/etc for the night and Monday. My suitcase arrived last night at 12am!! I was verrry happy to have it back.

Now I am recovering again, after an active weekend with almost no sleep. One more crazy weekend to get through in Ireland with some friends, then I am taking it easy!!!

Feb 8 - Weekend Trip to Belgium

Brussels

I really enjoyed Brussels. I wandered around and saw different sights, looked in little shops, ate waffles, enjoyed the views of all the old buildings...it was great. It was VERY COLD though. I could be wrong, but I was thinking it must have been around -15. My legs never get cold usually, even in Edmonton, but here they were COLD! Even in the hostel, I had to sleep with a hoodie and scarf, and a jacket draped over my blanket! Buildings there just are not made for those kind of temperatures. Even cafes and shops were cold. I think it also didn't help that I was walking around outside for hours on end though.



I got up fairly early (although I had to - breakfast ended at 9:30!) to start exploring. First I went to see a flea market...it was quite large, and all the vendors laid out antiques and other used goods in boxes and on blankets on the ground. I was impressed that they were able to withstand the cold. It was a little too antique-y for me though, so I carried on. My next stop was Manneken Pis. Hilarious. It's a TINY statue of a little boy peeing, but he's poised on this huge pedestal. He kind of looks like a cupid too. That one is very popular with the tourists. I made sure to stop and have a look in the little chocolate shops around, and ate my first waffle. This was my "local" waffle - i.e. how the locals eat it - plain with icing sugar on top. It was delicious!! The dough was really sweet and tasty.

The next stop was Grand Place - a big square surrounded by really old, beautiful buildings (including the Town Hall and a museum). I didn't go in any of the buildings (I think a lot of them were closed actually, some guy was telling me he tried...), but enjoyed the view from outside. I also stopped and took pictures of Beurs/Bourse. I am not sure which is the German or French name, but it's an old pretty stock exchange building.




I then navigated the metro system (it was also cold in there) to get to the Atomium. What a sight that was!!! Just look at the picture! It's Belgium's Eiffel Tower - a giant structure of metal balls and rods made to look like an iron crystal. Apparently it was constructed for the World Exhibition in 1958, when people still believed that atomic energy would save the world. The coolest part was that you could take elevators up to and escalators in between all the metal balls, and inside the metal balls were museum exhibits! Of course I was WAY too cold in there to stop and look at the exhibits, but I enjoyed the escalators.




Next I stopped for a hot chocolate to warm up while I waited for a little "Creator's Market" to open (it and other stores closed during lunch hour - strange!). A hot chocolate consisted of hot milk with a little shot glass of chocolate chips - funny!! The creator's market was neat - there were some very talented local artists/designers. I bought a couple prints from an artist there. Afterwards I wandered and saw some churches, another peeing statue (this one was a dog peeing on a fire hydrant - he wasn't quite as popular as Manneken Pis though), and stopped in a few cute little shops, including a cheap and delicious tea shop. St. Michiels Cathedral was huge and gorgeous - a lot like Notre Dame in Paris except I didn't see any gargoyles.



By the end, my legs/feet were killing me but I forced myself to walk to get one more waffle - this time the "tourist" one, i.e. slathered with an obscene amount of toppings. I got strawberries, whipping cream and white chocolate. It was...too much :). I felt horrible afterwards. I couldn't even finish all of it, at least all of the whipped cream. It was tasty though. However, I can see why the locals prefer keeping it simple :). Afterward I painstakingly made my way back to the hostel, and after resting for longer than I should have I went to the train station, arriving only 5 minutes before the train I had intended to take was going to leave. Fortunately(?), that one was cancelled anyways, and the next one was delayed by half an hour. Apparently trains are not that reliable in winter. Good thing I didn't arrive earlier.


Bruges

Sore feet and all, I refused to take any kind of taxi or bus from the train station to my hostel in Bruges, and made my way on foot. I hadn't realized the "easy 15 minute walk" would be 25 minutes along the side of a huge highway...again in -15 weather. As miserable as it was, I finally made it to my next hostel, which was actually located just outside of the town of Bruges, but fortunately still within walking distance. I was preceded by a South Korean fellow who I thought the hostel people were quite rude to, so I befriended him. His credit card hadn't been working and he had to pay for the room with his remaining cash - in coins! Fortunately this hostel only cost 10 EUR. I needed an ATM as well, and despite the front desk people warning us not to go looking for dinner in the town ("it's too expensive! bring 100 EUR with you!") we went anyway. And we found both an ATM and a delightful, reasonably priced restaurant in the heart of Bruges. (On the way we saw a TON of drunk people wandering in huge groups, all carrying wine/beer glasses, down the street - weird.) We had a steak dinner with delicious sauce (fortunately Byeong Soo, the Korean guy, liked sharing and was indecisive, so we got to try 2 sauces - peppercorn and mushroom), fries (actually no better than fries in Canada, I think), salad, a starter soup, and a dessert for 17.5 EUR. Turns out that was actually quite cheap for a meal in Bruges, or at least a dinner. I tried the Bruges beer - Brugge Zot. I think it was the most delicious beer I have ever had. I had it again while I was there, and even though I was cold and it probably helped me remain cold, it was worth it.




I have to mention that I was verrrry happy that this hostel was actually very warm. Yay! The lady at the front desk was just horrible though. Not a nice person and not helpful at all. I had to look up and find the transit website to find out when the bus that went to the train station left, even though she said there was no website. (No way was I walking there again.) But anyways. About Bruges...



It was also cold and snowy in Bruges. Snow covered the little cobble stone streets and boy it was slippery to walk on! Fortunately no accidents though. Byeong Soo and I explored the town together on Sunday. We are both the same kind of traveler - like to wander around and explore on our own, so it worked out well. Most of the buildings in town were built in Medieval times, so it was really interesting and cool to see. There was lots of brick and stone, and the town was set up like one would expect in that era - like a protected, walled fortress. There was a canal and walls that surrounded the town, and between the canal and the walls was a grassy area with windmills situated on little hills. Kids were out sledding down the hills, which was fun to see. There were also canals that ran throughout the centre of town, with little stone bridges to cross. I had really wanted to do a trip through the canal, so I was a bit disappointed that they were totally frozen! Of course, that didn't seem to stop the ducks though! We still saw several floating in a little patch of water they must have melted through the ice with their body heat!

Another thing I was looking forward to was seeing the main square, with the famous tower of Belfry that you can climb a bunch of stairs to get to the top. This was a major component of the movie "In Bruges" and so I was really excited to see it. It was somewhat disappointing, because they were doing construction in the square and the tower was closed for renovations :( :(. We saw some very cool old churches too. There were tons of churches because (I think) this is a major training area for new priests. At lunchtime we stopped to "warm up" at the cheapest cafe we could find in the area (still around 15 EUR for lunch though). At first I thought it looked cute and quaint, but then the Shakirah playlist, unfriendly waiter and the smoking chef kind of ruined the atmosphere. It was also cold in there, not helped by the beer...



I realize I am not painting the most positive picture of Bruges, but I did enjoy it. It was a lot more touristy than I expected (the town was pretty much dead besides all the tourists wandering the streets, although I suspect this was also due to the fact that it was a Sunday), but it was still beautiful. There was a little chocolate shop at every street corner, some that could only be found in Bruges. After exploring for a few hours, we had seen most of the town, so we made our way back to the hostel to catch a train to Brussels (where I would continue on to Germany.)

The train back was BRUTAL. I have now decided that I LOATHE taking the train for long distances. I had to catch 4 different trains. And one thing you take for granted when flying is the SINGLE destination. Not the case with trains, you have to remain constantly alert to make sure you don't miss your stop. Meanwhile, you are trying to understand the foreign language on the loudspeakers and signs. Also, the warm airport - train stations are COLD. I know, because I had to spend about 3 hours waiting for transfers at various stations - an extra hour for one because my previous train arrived 16 minutes late, and exactly one minute after my next left. After 7 hours of this, I arrived home at 10pm - 2 hours later than I had hoped - absolutely fried. And to find still no internet at home after 7 days, I was not a happy camper. Of course my experience is nowhere near as bad as Byeong Soo, who had waited 10 hours in a train station in Amsterdam to get to Bruges, without any certainty of a train ever showing up (tracks were frozen). So, decision has been made - avoid trains in winter at all cost, and stick to flying :). I don't care what sights I miss!



Back at home...I am finally writing in the blog, because after 10 days (and 130 EUR for a new router), I finally have internet again! Yay! I was so bored, I signed up for a membership at the fitness centre. Turns out it's a bit cold for the exercise I had originally planned to do here, so aerobics/pilates/etc will be a nice substitute. I already went to one class - dance aerobics - and wow was that funny. Apparently I am a slow learner when it comes to dance. Some moves I never mastered. I was laughing at myself the whole time. I guess it didn't help that it was in German though. Good times.

Feb 3 - Being Social

Well, I haven't had internet at home for the past week pretty much. My landlady gave me a VERY short internet cable, and I kept accidentally pulling the modem off its precarious position on top of the TV (and no, there was no better place to put it)...it fell a few times and I think the last time was one time too many - it hasn't worked since!! The landlady was very good and every day I came home there was improvement - first no lights, then blinking lights, then solid lights but no LAN light...but I think the modem is broken. May have to pay for a new one :(.

But...due to the lack of internet, I made sure I was very social this week, and that made up for it. Hung out with my new friend Marcus who works at the research centre and lives in Juelich :). First night we and Daniel got together and played board games at Marcus's place. It was some German board game...very simple but lots of strategy. Was fun. Turns out Marcus' place is about the same size as my tiny place, and he's been living there for 3 years! Second night, after Marcus brought me some packets of vanilla sugar (they don't use liquid vanilla), and individual packets of baking powder (what's with all the single servings here??), he came over and we made chocolate cookie dough. We made some sample cookies in my little toaster oven. They tasted a bit different, but still good! I made the rest the next day at work in the oven there. Everyone was very confused but thankful I shared haha.

Thursday night Marcus organized beers at a pub in Juelich to celebrate him getting his PhD. I got a Weiser (wheat ale) that came in a GIANT glass!! It was about a foot tall! Very tasty. Also tried the traditional Cologne beer. It was just a light beer, not bad though.

Because I foresaw a boring weekend with no internet (and Marcus is gone back home to Denmark for the next ten days), I decided to take a last minute weekend trip - with pretty much no planning. I used the rideshare website to get a ride from Aachen to Brussels. First this meant busing to Aachen, which took about an hour. Aachen is really cute, a larger town/city with lots of old buildings. I met the driver, a 30ish year old adventurous guy, and the three other passengers. I, the only girl, was in the front, while the three other guys were in the back - haha! The driver was a really interesting person, so it made for an enjoyable ride. We passed through three countries on the way - Germany, Holland and Belgium - and no border crossings! The roads were snowy (it's super cold here!) so the going was a bit slow, but fortunately snow tires are mandatory in Germany (not the case in Belgium...hence the slow going).

We were dropped off in Brussels, and it was a ten minute walk to my HI hostel (and a COLD walk!). It's in a really cute part of the centre of town, with narrow cobble stone roads, very quaint little restaurants, galleries and bars, really old buildings and cathedrals. I had a traditional Belgian meal with a few meatballs in different sauces and fries (although I replaced with salad), and some beer. The meal was really tasty, but I think the beer wasn't my favourite...pretty bitter. By the way, apparently Belgians were the REAL inventors of "French" fries. Maybe I should have just tried them...

Have lots of exploring to do tomorrow, some waffles to eat, some chocolate to taste, some beer to drink. Then I will make my way to Bruges. I am SUPER excited about seeing Bruges, and have been wanting to go there since watching the movie "In Bruges". Then I will hopefully catch a train back to Juelich Sun night.