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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Adventures in Poland, Part 1

I am sitting on the floor. My back presses against a door to keep it open, whilst my knees I struggle to keep to my chest so that people can try to get to the bathroom. I am wedged in between a sleeping teenager, a girl my age attempting to read, and a rotund drunken man who has begun to sing a song in what I assume to be Polish.
The journey lasts three hours.

By the time I arrived in Krakow on Friday, it was already dark at 5.30pm. After a full 13 hours of travelling, finally I had arrived, and boy, was I exhausted! So, I felt exhilarated to see once again the bright face of my dear friend Justyna, buried underneath several layers of clothing and a thick beanie, waiting for me with a big smile warmer than her outfit. In the meantime, a thick fog had spread over the city, smothering anything that was more than a few metres away. As a result, I didn't really see much of Krakow until Sunday, as Justyna had something special planned for Saturday. That night, we ordered a 'spinaci' pizza (minus the spinaci) and I told her about my adventures on the train. Which included being proposed to by the drunken guy and making friends with the girl (and being invited for a smoke with her and two random guys in the bathroom). Exciting, indeed!

Day 1: The Trip to the Tatras

Wake up at 7am. It's dark. Shake off the grogginess, shower, put on three layers of everything except underwear. Laugh at yourself in the mirror.
Drive two hours in the fog. Watch the early morning sunlight being filtered through it as you cup an energy drink in your hands as though it were warm.
Arrive. Park. Watch people load baggage onto carriages pulled by two horses. Your breath comes out in steam. You feel sorry as your friend comments that several horses have died from the trip. You feel even sorrier when she says you're about to spend around 8 hours hiking (and the last time you excercised was around two weeks ago).

Walking slowly uphill, you're already about to die after twenty minutes. The cold presses on your head, and your backpack is heavy and drags you backwards. You know that in 40 minutes you will leave the easygoing tarmac road, and it will be rocks, mud, and frost all the way uphill for three hours after that. You think 'There's no way I can do this. I can't. I won't.'

You stop. You breathe in, long and heavy. Something catches your eye. Clusters of long, thin, slightly curved ice tubes, a silvery-white colour. They look like strands of fibre optic. As we approach the bare soil, we notice not one, or two, but hundreds of these shimmering bundles everywhere. Fascinated, I ask my friends what these curiosities are. She replies; "I don't know, I've never seen them before."

We continue to hike. My initial frustration has left me, and we trudge rhythmically forwards and upwards, through forests, past waterfalls, over frosted boulders reflecting the pastel yellow sun. I notice that the ice tube clusters seem to have gathered only where the soil is exposed. I briefly recall a Geography lesson from years back.
And then it hits me.
"It's transpiration!!", I exclaim.
"Huh?" Justyna raises an eyebrow.
"You know when you have evaporation? This is water vapour from plants, or in this case, the ground, going up to the sky and being frozen on the way."
And, as though to prove my point, we come across a large patch of bare soil, not only with these little tubes, but actually icicles emerging from the ground, pointing like spears to the sky. Happiness wells up in my chest, gives me strength to continue.

As we climb higher and higher, I stop to gaze, gobsmacked. Imagine a panoramic view of berserkly rockied mountaintops, with snow falling down the sides. As we try not to slip, walking uphill over a frozen stream, a steep side of the mountain comes into sight. It is glinting in the light, and when we approach, we stop in our tracks as we the reason see why.

A glittering waterfall of ice stands magnificently before us. Large falling bodies of water, frozen in space and time, drop steeply to the ground. You can see every wave, each ripple- carved into the waterfall's surface, still and shining, caught in a flow over the sides of the mountain. Like the folds of a woman's dress flow over the curves of her body, so the river drapes the mountain.

Wonder upon wonder is thrust upon us, everywhere we turn, we see magnificence and beauty. And when we finally reach our destination, a tiny hostel nearby a frozen lake which is dwarfed by the sheer size of the surrounding mountainrange; we felt not tired, but re-energized, reborn, filled once again with that initial wonder and fascination, with not only nature, but life itself- that wonder which we somehow lose in the process of our mind's petty rountine: work, stress, worries - and in the process of losing this wonder, we forget how to live, what it means to be truly alive.

If there ever was a time in my life where things were so dark that I wished I were dead... well, this day made me grateful that that wish never came true.









END OF PART 1

Blogger's Note:
The trip will be divided into three parts in an attempt to do justice to the experiences that I attempt to describe. Also, since my funds are running a bit low, will not be sure if I travel anywhere else until mid-December. But, more on that later...

Also, what would you, dear Readers, like to hear about? Tips on travelling with a student budget, good places to eat/visit? Have any of you ever been to Poland, and what was your experience?

Comments below :)

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

"Yeah, it's a shithole. But we love our shithole."

Welcome to my home city: Gelsenkirchen.

The caption to today´s article is a quote from one of my colleagues who is from this very special city. You might get an idea why he said this later on.

Anyways, you probably haven't heard of Gelsenkirchen before. That's probably because it is one of Germany´s smaller cities. GE forms part of the North-Rhine Westphalia, hosting around 267,000 people. Previously it had a large coal-mining industry, and for this it was known as “the city of a thousand fires” due to the flames of the mine gases during the night. Something interesting to note is that during World War II, it formed part of the Buchenwald concentration camp for women.

One of Gelsenkirchen´s biggest attractions is the Veltins Arena, a huge football stadium which hosts the local football team of Schalke 04. This means that it is quite common during all times of the day to see drunken people smelling of bratwurst and walking about wearing blue and white singing in chorus (including on the trams). You might also bump into several men who are, most openly and proudly, taking a piss in full view during your leisurely stroll in the park.

(the photo below right I took today, waiting for the tram. It shows the main street of Buer, where there are many shops, cafes, etc)


Other interesting things to see/do here in GE include visiting theme park of ´Movie Park Germany´ (which is fantastic fun, yet on the more expensive side. During Halloween the park stays open until 10pm, and they hire people to wear sick-looking, yet highly realistic makeup, and to run around wild with buzzing chainsaws and give the visitors the fright of their life - see photo), the zoo of ZOOM Erlebniswelt (which I have still to visit, maybe when my budget allows), and also, the Kunstmuseum in Buer, which has a really cool section of ´Kinetic Art´where you can touch the works and interact with them, like clap your hands and they do something like make funny sounds or create light effects (It´s also free of charge). Check it out: http://stadt.gelsenkirchen.de/de/Kultur/Kunstmuseum/

Gelsenkirchen today hosts Germany´s largest solar power plant, and simultaneously, Germany´s tallest chimneys. Several times a week I hear alarms going off, either the ambulance, the police, someone´s car, or the fire brigade. And, since I´ve been living here, I´ve seen the damaged windows of attempted burglaries at least twice. In the same street.

Along with a high rate of unemployment and the fact that half of the city seems to be under construction, one would think that it is not exactly the ideal place to live. So I refer to the above quote. Nevertheless, the city sticks to me like the smell of raw garlic, and admittedly I a fondness has taken root in my heart for this place.

I love how, whilst I´m waiting for the tram in Buer after a long day, the light of the setting sun bathes everything in a soft golden light, and the metal cut-out of a man standing holding an umbrella on the opposite building looks a little warmer. I enjoy shopping for groceries at Netto or the SuperBiomarkt, where everything is still in German - but now, most things I can understand, and the young man at the cashier smiles at me, because now I am a familiar customer to him.

It´s exhilarating too, whenever I feel heavy or down, or simply like I have too much on my mind, to be able to walk for several minutes and then to be in a park, surrounded by foliage and tall, dark tree trunks. I enjoy treading along the path which is lost under the reddish-orange leaves (that have long fallen off the trees), they crackle like a fire burning under my footsteps.
If you, too, walked along this path, you would eventually arrive near a wide green lake, complete with ducks and swams swimming on its surface. And on this lake, you too could watch the coloured lights dance, as the sun sets in its reflection.



Short note:
Next week´s blog will be late.
Because.... I will be in POLAND.....
;-)

Sunday, November 4, 2012

A Diversion from Travelling: On Germany and the Germans

Hello once again, dear Readers! For this blog entry we will be taking an inside look at what it is like to actually live in Germany. Are the Germans really like the stereotype? Are they tall, cold and reserved, do they really feed only on copious amounts of beer and sausage, and simply drink water to surprise their liver? Can they only speak English with an enthusiastic 'Ja!' every three words? Read on.

So, I've been living in Germany for the past two months, and I think I've gotten at least a basic impression of the strange, yet alluring people known as 'Germans'. And the one thing that really hits me is that no two Germans are alike. Especially if they come from two different regions. For those who aren't German and reading this, Germany is made up of sixteen states, known as Bundesland. These states are actually more like little countries, so German sounds significantly different if its spoken by someone from Hannover, as compared to someone from the Bavarian region. The Hannover German is considered to be the 'high' or 'proper' German, whilst the Bavarian German - isn't really considered German.

This makes the language a little more difficult to learn. Apart from adding in lots of grammatical rules, with plenty of exceptions, it also has which have three genders. The Germans just like to add in extra rules, for fun. And we non-natives are left speechless (pun intended) even whilst attempting to form the simplest of sentences. As illustrated below.


Yes. German has its own style of doing things. It likes to be different, to stand out, to prance about in lederhosen whilst everyone else is still wearing skinny jeans.

On the other hand, German is remarkably creative. It has a way of wording things that allows for a greater capacity for expressing oneself, for greater understanding. Which I love. One of my favourite words is 'waldeinsamkeit', which has no translation in English. It refers to the feeling of being alone in the woods. Google Translate calls it 'forest solitude'. Which doesn't really quite sum it up. So at least, the 101 rules that come along with learning the language serve some kind of purpose.

Apart from their language, the Germans generally have laws for everything. You can't find or download original films or music online (unless you want to pay a hefty fine), it is illegal to tune pianos at midnight, and a pillow is actually classified as a 'passive weapon' and hitting someone with one can lead to charges of assault. There is even a law determining where you can walk, when you can walk. Like if you want to cross the road, and the little stick man on the pedestrians' traffic light is red, woe betide you if you cross the road. You may get a fine if a policeman sees you; otherwise you simply receive a few withering looks and comments about your mental state of mind. This goes for all times of the day; it is not uncommon to see people at 2am on the sidewalk of an empty road, waiting for the little stick man to turn green.

Apart from being adept at making the most finicky of laws, Germans tend to have other talents, such as having great taste in clothing. Both men and women tend to dress well, choosing colours and cuts to suit their own style. Although to be fair, that's significantly easier when you're tall and blonde.

Germans are also gifted in the time-management section. It is very rare that I meet a German who wastes time. Yes, they use Facebook and spend time socializing like everyone else, but almost everyone in their spare time either plays an instrument, does sports (usually badminton or table tennis), reads a good book– fixing cars or motorbikes seems to be somewhat of a favourite pastime amongst men. One of my German friends spends his leisure time making money by surfing Ebay for old crap, fixing it up a little, and reselling it.

No wonder the German economy is so strong.

Other things to note about Germans and Germany: the love of Wurst is not exaggerated in the stereotype. Germans really love their sausage. They even have butcheries dedicated solely to sausage; and in Berlin, the well-loved Currywurst (a fried pork sausage drowned with warm ketchup and liberally sprinkled with curry powder) even has its own museum ( see http://www.currywurstmuseum.de). On the other hand, they also have a thriving vegetarian community, and all restaurants have a vegetarian section on the menu with plenty of appealing options to choose from. However, be warned – 'Vegetarian' in German ususally means 'drowned in cheese'.

Apart from the stereotype about German love for sausage, German love for beer is also not exaggerated. Here one can find many ways to drink beer – such as mixed with cola or fanta or even as a marinade for your sausage. There are over 200 types of German beer, including chili-flavoured beer, banana-flavoured beer, and even chocolate -flavoured beer, and boy, can they drink!
Germans seem to be generally suspicious of beverages that don't sparkle and you will generally have trouble finding still bottled water to buy. Which is odd since Germans also seem to be suspicious of drinking tap water.

Germans also seem to love foreign food (or rather the eingedeutscht version) and anywhere you go in Germany you will notice an abundance of thriving restaurants, particularly Kebap Häuser, where a typical dish is a doner kebab with a generous side of sauerkraut. The Germans have also borrowed the Italian concept of gelateria and turned it into what is known as an Eis-Cafe, where any kind of dessert with ice cream may be found, from waffles to strudel, to simply ice-cream cream on its own (also available in spaghetti form and known as Spaghetti Eis).

There is really so much to say about die Deutschen that I really could write an entire book about them and their culture! Actually,there is one: 'The Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans' (I borrowed it off my professor). They worship football, cars, David Hasselhof, and recycling; they don't know how to queue; and they hold a special place in their hearts for herbal remedies. And dogs; in fact, their dogs go with them everywhere, on buses, trams, and some Germans even have little buggies to attach to their bikes so that their dogs can come for the ride.

Anyways, that concludes this blog on the Germans, next week: A focus on the one city I haven't written about yet: my hometown!

An insider look at the special city of.... Gelsenkirchen.

Auf wiedersehen, meine Lesen!

(extra note: the above blog is dedicated to my avid reader, Katja Drope :D hope you like it, Kat!!)




References:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/4399866/Ten-crazy-German-rules.html

http://nasenbohrer.com/










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