Finally made it to the continent

I’m writing this blog from an internet cafe in Amsterdam, having just returned from 2 days in Germany, alas I have as yet failed to make it as far as Dresden, where I have my placement, due to some truely woeful lack of checking my e-mails, but I’ve at least made it to the Fatherland, so my blog is slowly gaining much needed relevance!

Having finally finished my projects (my turbocharger ended up performing slightly less well than expected – in fact less well than a blank metal sheet, which was really quite bad!) I jumped in the car, stayed the night at home and was on the 9:30 ferry to Calais the next day, I then spent 3 days in Paris for heading off to the beautiful German town of Siegen to stay with a friend who is a student there. Unfortunately I badly misjudged the size of Belgium, and thinking that I’d make it by 5:00, only actually arrived at 9:30 at night. No matter. Parties at the University of Siegen only start to get going at about this time, and by the end of the evening I had introduced everyone to the drinking game “Ring of Fire” with some rather messy results. The next day I attended a meeting at the Uni to discuss the plot development and underlying themes of the TV series Lost (I kid you not!) This further revealed the gaps in my German and I am now determined to study very hard before I get to Germany. After that we went on a tour of Siegen (taking in two castles, a bunker, lots of shopping streets and a Mongolian restaurant which should apparently only be visited by those with strong stomachs!) That night there was an open air concert at the Uni and I have fond memories of bopping in the rain to a song with where the audience response was “kaffee und ziiiggaaarreetteen!” The next morning I got in the car and found my way here, through torrential rainstorms along the Autobahn and some heavy traffic around Utrecht in Holland.

It was only a small trip but I am now looking forward to my summer in Germany so much more! I love the German way of doing things; in England buying a big German car is a sign of having a mid-life crisis, while in Germany you buy one because you don’t really see why you should take Autobahns at anything less than 250km/h. At the festival at Siegen you got sausages for 1 Euro, beer for 1.50 Euros and 50 centimes back if you returned your beer bottle! – A very good idea for actually getting people to tidy up after themselves and also so lovely and cheap! The morning after the party when I arrived, my friend was actually up hoovering the flat, rather than letting everything fester for a few weeks English style. There were 4 types of recycling bin in the kitchen. You can’t find a shop selling cigarettes in the evening but you can buy them from vending machines by the side of the road. There was a guy at the party whose name was Bender. Nowhere but Germany!

Just about to run out of credit here at the internet cafe but once again, so excited about summer, and I will write next week, although then I will be back in England…