How do you cramp 10 days' worth of mania and randomness and history and beer and fabulous German food and fantastic fun and dodgy hostels into a single blog post?
ahh, sehr inpossible.
think my German has taken a triple flip up on the scale of improvement; carrying an English-German dictionary around has certainly been the best pre-travelling idea that popped into my head. Have learnt so many words I needed to know practically, and I found it absurd and odd that LFA German doesn't introduce these vocabulary... such as: words for pig, meat, open and close (shops), concession, a number of words which all mean SAUSAGE, etc.
Ahhhh. Bikini bottom.
Spongebob-madness went even madder in Germany; the three of us (Ailin, Yiwen and I) are practically loonies and there were several moments when all 3 of us were crazy in our own ways, making random associations and jokes and acting unlike our age (either too old or too young) and constantly switching roles at that (maybe it was just me). At one sec I was the mother, at another I was the baby; at one moment Yiwen was the dad and at the next a silly baby; Ailin can be the naggy mother and the next minute the whiny Taiwanese girl. We were all a mixture of randomness, so random that we created a game along the journey called RAG - the Random Association Game.
But it was all fantastic fun. :) 3's a nice number, tho Yiwen had to sit alone a lot of the time (cuz us 2 girls are wussies and must sit together on bus trips), but it's a nice size for a travelling group, no huss no fuss and deciding what to do in a day was done prettttttty quickly I guess. Fair distribution of silence and noise, of sharing and withholding, fair share of sun and rain, of history and culture (of museums and beer), of tramming and walking, of Angry Service Personnel (ASPs) and Random Extremely Nice Strangers (RENS), of nature and countryside and city walls...
Went to a section of the Berlin Wall and to a museum called Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, 'twas about WWII and the Cold War - fancy stuff. Went to Dachau near Munich, the first concentration camp ever established during WWII. Paid a visit to Hofbrauhaus, a beer hall where Hitler had his first speech (am I right?) directed towards a large crowd of people, but ohhhhh that place was just LOVELY with the oom-pah-pah Bavarian band playing and there were people in lederhosen and ladies in traditional German dresses, long beer tables of stout, hearty men drinking to their fill, women by their sides with a 0.5 or 1-litre mugs to accompany them too. Ahhh the 3 of us had dinner there one night, with sausage, beer, pork knuckle, potato dumpling, sauerkraut, pork stew, goulash.... mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. There were 2 other people at our table - this Japanese girl called Mo Moy who was reading Psychology there, and a native Munich-ese called Sigi. Language was a problem at first, with my limited knowledge of German and theirs of English, but it was so much fun just enjoying the atmosphere of the beer hall and relishing in hearty fellowship.
Ahhhhhhhh, Bavaria!
Other fantastic memories: Our 3rd hostel had a toilet which smelt of piss. Not a very nice welcome home each day, but these are the pleasures of backpacking whey-hey! Still, all our hostel staff were incredibly friendly and helpful, particularly this nice jolly German guy at Luxor Hotel in Frankfurt who spoke such fluent Mandarin! He even threw in some Hokkien... wah, amazing. This guy's been to Singapore, Taiwan, China, etc. (in Asia) and had lived in Taiwan for more than 10 years. Amaaaazed at his multi-lingual abilities. Besides staff workers we realised that Germans are incredibly 自动 and well-mannered; whenever they saw lost Chinese tourists (i.e., us) they hardly hesitate to ask if they could help in any way. I think German girls are gorgeous :D Not in a "aw man! She's fit!" way, but they look like women of strength, character and discipline. Beauty!
There was a carnival carnival carnival in Hamburg wheeeeee! We actually stumbled upon it one night as we were walking around. It was hugeee and we went there a 2nd time the following night and didn't get to explore some parts of it, but we sat this puke-a-delic ride that went 360 degrees round and back and forth and upside-down and whoaaaaaaa it was crazy. We each had different reactions; Yiwen I heard was swearing haha, Ailin was laughing non-stop and I was squealing and whining. sehr interessant. hee :) Took a bumper-car ride too. There were lots of food, lots of sweet nothings and chocolates and crepes and German cakes and desserts...
Ahhh... fat haven...
Oh, and the markets! Haaaa... en qi the market-nut. I just LOVE going to markets and fairs! where you catch a small glimpse of what food and lifestyle is like in the daily German life; went to a cool bazaar-like place in Berlin where there're stalls selling 2nd-hand cutlery, kitchen tools and plates, Jewish lamps and candelabra and cups, cloth, old photographs, old cameras and gadgets, instruments, old vinyl records, etc. Dat vas kool.
what else did we do? lots and too many to list! Fond MEMORIES of everything really, especially when we were crazy in the Augustiner with our mugs and having games of 猜拳 and ji-go-ba, at dinner tables when we did imitations of cartoons and Little Britain, of us taking care of each other when we each fell sick at different times (heart warms), walking in the rain arm-in-arm, reading about WWII and the Nazi atrocism together, experiencing the same fear of hungover ASPs, feaaaaaaaaaasting on German delights like Wursts and Brezels and what-nots. It's been an awesome trip, but anyways I'm glad to be back to get things a bit settled before I leave again for Spring Harvest. Leaving on the 3rd, so will be back on the 8th. See you all again soon... will post up pictures of Germany in my next entry! :)
Auf wiedersehen~
