I dunno if I've mentioned, but I've been sick since I got to Germany, kinda sniffly and sore throat and blah. At Peter's birthday he brought this up and encouraged me to go to the doctor since I'd been not feeling well since I'd been living at HIS flat which seemed way too long to be sick. I reluctantly agreed with him and started looking up doctors. I found one literally right down the street (one block yay!). Her blurb online seemed friendly and she had a nice face so I was like what the heck and dropped by before work on Friday. I was so nervous about speaking German, but the staff kindly spoke English with me and the only problem I ran into was trying to convert my weight and height into metric but they were like ah, it doesn't matter anyway...
The doctor comes in and starts speaking flawless English-and then tells me she's actually from Maryland! What a great surprise! She was super nice, told me I had bronchitis and hooked me up with an Rx and sent me on my way. Totally easy! She also said my program health insurance would cover everything. Love that! I dropped by the pharmacy, got a schokocroissant and headed to work. there wasn't much going on, and since we usually leave at 2 on Friday my day flew by.
I didn't have plans for the weekend, so American Guy (AG) invited me down to Nürnberg. I was really excited since I've been dying to see Bavaria. So I went home, packed a backpack, and caught the ICE down south. It took a while to get there, but i was well stocked with snacks and German Glamour so it was a nice ride. When I arrived in Bavaria and switched to the regional train to get to the small town he lives in I was amazed how much different the accent was. I could hardly understand it! Plus everyone says Grüß Gott! or Servus! instead of the usual Hallo! That threw me. Everyone is very friendly though...why do Southerners always have that reputation? ;)
I met him pretty late, but I was amazed there were so many Americans around the train station! He laughed at me and reminded me of the huge Army base there...oh right. Still strange to hear in the middle of Bavaria.
Saturday was an early start. He's used to getting up at like 4 every day for work so sleeping til 7 was almost too much for him...we were going to head into town to find a bakery and get some breakfast, but his car was blocked in by his German landlord. We went to talk with them and they were the sweetest people! They were so cute and Bavarian. The wife was really excited to meet a German-speaking American (me!) and kept telling me in German I had to teach AG and get him to learn. I don't think he has enough time for that though! And besides, working on the base is such an American bubble...though he offered to take me on base so I could buy American products (with dollars!). I couldn't think of anything I really needed but I'm sure later this week I'll think of something and regret it :P
Once unblocked, we drove into the town. The countryside is just beautiful-mountains and green fields and flowers and picturesque farms. So cute. The town was also cute-very small. We got some pastries and coffee and headed to the train station to take the next train to Nürnberg. Once there, we headed toward the city center. I was really pleasantly surprised-I didn't know what to expect from Nürnberg but it was beautiful and really interesting. It looks like a German postcard.
We ran smack into a German-Turkish street festival (which I loved of course). We tried this kebab stuff in flat bread, it was really good. AG tried this weird yogurt drink that's basically sour milk. It was disgusting, but he'd had it when he lived in Russia so he'd grown to like it. I was not so accepting.
We browsed the festival a bit more and found more food, trinkets, and Turkish music. Of course I liked that :) We passed these guys in crazy costumes but it started to rain so we kept moving. Lots of old architecture and history to be seen
Nürnberg has a castle and these cool city walls, so we climbed up to see that. We were going to go in this cool Bier Garten but once again the weather prevented it. So we stopped for tea and a cake. Gotta have my tea time :)
We walked around a bit more, glanced in an art museum (but i vetoed it since i'm sick of art museums haha) and eventually dropped by C & A. I was joking about C&A selling dirndls and then ta dah they actually had them! It was literally like a whole section with dirndls and lederhosen in every color. So I convinced AG to try on some Bavarian clothes with me. He was a good sport :)
I told him he ought to buy some if he's going to live in Bavaria for the next two years. We'll see if I can convince him! I loved mine...they were all so cute!
It was starting to get late and the weather wasn't improving, so we walked around a bit and then popped into an irish pub AG likes. The staff were all Irish and really nice, and we ended up chatting with this woman from Donegal who knew some of my Irish friends. Crazy, right? I swear all Irish people know each other. That was really great and made me kinda homesick for session and everything...I love pubs.
From there we headed back to his town. Since it's small everything closes early and it was nearly 8 by the time we got back. We went to a German resto and had some very traditional meat and potato dumpling dinner. Felt very German ;) And, to top it off, we came outside and found ourselves in a sea of dirndl and lederhosen clad people going to this festival. We followed them and found an Oktoberfest-esque tent with maß beer, people dancing on tables, live band, and lots of food and carnival stuff. I couldn't help teasing him that he really needed to get those lederhosen so he could take part in this stuff...we totally could've changed and joined in! We looked around for a while, but both of us were tired from all the walking so we headed home. Still pretty cool to come across though.
Sunday I had to go back to Berlin, so we got lunch and then it was back on the ICE train for me. I was sad to leave...it's really nice down there. Maybe I'll go back and see Munich. I was really sleepy though, so I ended up sleeping most of the train ride and I didn't have a seat mate until the last 30 minutes of the trip. Then it was back home, cleaned up my room and did laundry and found out Belma, the Swedish girl in the first bedroom is leaving today :( That sucks. I'll miss hearing her moving around on my side of the house. I guess it'll be way quieter around here!
Back to work tomorrow...
nope, only 5 hours!
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