A little Travel Never Hurts

Hello again! I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s post, and if you did, you’ll probably enjoy this one! After my first three weeks I had really fallen into the rhythm of German life, and not a ton happened. Despite this, I hope I can make this post entertaining and interesting for all of you guys.

   So after my fun weekend on the 17th and 18th, I started yet another normal school week. It wasn’t especially exciting, so I took some of my free time to explore the city. I also spent a while trying to find a tin suitable for making pies, but to no avail.

          

  Come the weekend, we had a bit more to do. Friday afternoon was nice and calm, but on Saturday morning my host mom and I rode our bikes across the Rhine to the Fahrradmarkt, a “bicycle market”. It’s a weekly gathering where people sell used bikes, and we were heading there to try to find a better bike for me to ride. I really wanted a street bike so I could get around faster, and luckily they had an almost perfect bike for just that. It was cheap and fast, but did need a little work. Unfortunately we had ridden our bikes there, so we had the tough job of trying to make it back with three bikes and two riders. I wasn’t very good at this circus act, but my host mom was fantastic at it. Anyways, we got the bike home, despite the troublesome process.

   Right after getting home, we packed for a short trip to the town of Paderborn. Paderborn is a small town about 2 ½ hours from Köln, most well-known for it’s university. It’s actually where my host mom studied, and she still has friends there, hence the trip. Because we don’t have a car, we were getting a ride from two other people attending the get-together. I was going to Paderborn, but I would actually be staying with one of my good friends from language camp who also lives in Paderborn. Once we arrived at the get-together, we had some delicious cheesecake and saw the house. Then I was dropped off at a nearby bus stop, and took a bus to the Paderborn Innenstadt. Once there, I met up with Sam. Sam was one of my really good friends at language camp (and the first person I met in DC), so it was great to see him. He showed me around Paderborn, which was a really nice town. The Innenstadt was pretty nice, and it actually had a Dom of it’s own, the Paderborn Dom. Sam showed me his school, I got currywurst, and eventually we caught a bus back to his house. We had pasta for dinner, and then watched a new German classic, “Fack ju Göhte.” It was a hilarious movie, and we had a great time. Eventually we went to bed, after the long day.

          

          

     The next morning we had a delicious breakfast with Sam’s host family, before spending a bit of time exploring Sam’s neighborhood. Soon my host mom arrived to pick me up, and we headed back to Köln. It was a great weekend, but once again good to be back. The next school week was actually a little bit different, because 10 English students were spending the week at our school. They were from a town about an hour out of London, and had already hosted 10 of the German students at my school. It was fun to have them there, so I could speak English and also so I could help them around (they didn’t speak any German). They gave me plenty of sympathy for staying 10 months, many saying they couldn’t do another week. Unfortunately on Friday they had to leave, and I also had my first Klausur. Klausurs are the big exams we have in all our major subjects (Math, English, Deutsch, etc.). I took my math Klausur, which I actually found surprisingly doable. I had studied quite a bit, so I was well prepared.

   After school, I spent my afternoon trying to find a lot of typical German candies and snacks, so I could send them to my family back in the US. I picked out a good selection of candies and snacks that are very German, and got them all packed up. Once again we had a busy weekend (and this time a three-day one!), and on Saturday morning I made an “American breakfast” for my host family. I made biscuits, pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. The biscuits didn’t turn out great, but the pancakes, eggs, and bacon were great. After the early start, we started our trip to Bielefeld, where we first stopped at a birthday party for a few hours, before finally heading to my host-cousin’s house. We stayed the night there, but before we went to bed we had a delicious dinner and spent several hours laughing and having a great time. Finally we went to bed, pretty late.

   The next day we visited Bielefeld’s main tourist attraction, the Sparrenberg Castle, a restored castle originating in 1260. The form it takes today is from the 16th century, and has since been very well restored. It sits atop a hill, towering over Bielefeld, visible from much of the city. It was very impressive, especially since it was the first castle I had ever seen. The massive, meter-thick stone walls look like the came straight out of a fairy tale, and the famous tower looks like it could house a princess. We went on a short tour of the system of tunnels underneath the castle, where the soldiers would rush around in times of battle. It was well defended with numerous cannons and gates, and well prepared with a bakery and a dining hall. We ended the tour in the tiny dungeon, which at times would house up to 30 people. Very soon it started to pour rain, so we didn’t get a chance to climb to the top of the tower.

                   

          

    After the fun visit to the castle, we visited my host-grandparent’s house, in the nearby town Bunde. Immediately after arriving, we had a delicious and very German meal of Kartoffelpuffer and another type of potato pancake (can’t remember the name, I’ll try to think of it). Kartoffelpuffer are pancakes made of shredded and mashed potatoes, which are then shallow-fried, making an absolutely delicious treat. Usually served with applesauce, you can’t miss out on them if you’re ever in Germany. After the meal we went to the nearby park, which is special for having been an ocean  hundreds of millions of years ago. They actually found the intact fossilized skeleton of a prehistoric manatee here. The park was very nice, and the weather was perfect.

     After getting back, my host-dad picked my host-sister and I up, so we could stay the night over there. It was tons of fun, and we played billiards, watched the Hobbit (second movie, I liked it), and had a great time. In the morning  (Monday) we took a tour of the factory of the company he works for, which was very interesting. Finally we went back to my host-grandparents house, and drove back to Köln after another delicious meal.

   And that’s it. Those are my 4th and 5th weeks in Köln (Sep. 19-Oct. 3), next post will cover the last week before my fall break, so don’t miss it! I should post it soon, I seem to be on a roll with posts, so hopefully I can finally get caught up by the end of this week! Thanks for stopping by once again, and if you want to see some more of my pictures and experiences (closer to the time they occur) follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andronicus_c/.

Tschüss!