When I was in year 12, I was lucky enough to do a work experience exchange to Germany. I spent two weeks working in a primary school in a town called Gladenbach in Hessen. It was fantastic and I suspect has something to do with the fact that I’m working in a primary school this year. But this is not the important part. The important part is my exchange partner. She’s called Katharina and all kinds of awesome. And she invited me to go see her this weekend.
Me and Katha at the Marburg Weihnachtsmarkt.
She lives in Marburg, which is a town in Hessen. It’s famous for the Elizabethkirche, which is named for St Elizabeth, a Hungarian princess who married the Lord of the Wartburg, and moved to Marburg after his death and worked tirelessly in hospitals, helping the poor. I think it’s kind of cool that having being to the Wartburg this year I went back to Marburg. Though I suspect that St Elizabeth did not travel by ICE like I did.
Now that I’ve done a very brief history lesson, let’s move on to the actual weekend. Katharina met me at the railway station and guided me back to her flat, where I finally got to meet her boyfriend, after first hearing about him over two years ago. He seems like a thoroughly decent fellow, and he also gets bonus points for a) cooking for us and b) saying my German’s good.
One of Katha’s neighbours has blue sheep as Christmas decorations. No idea why.
Katharina’s WG is pretty much like mine, except for the fact they have two bathrooms. It’s also quite christmassed up, which is cool. I’m so excited for Christmas now. Or at least, I feel really Christmassy. Which is a feeling I haven’t had for three years. Oh the excitement.
One of many happy Christmas signs.
After a brief session of list making, we headed into town, walking the back way so we could see the pretty houses. They had towers. And bay windows. And I’ll bet my advent calendar that at least one of them has an inglenook fireplace. What I’m saying is, they’re perfect houses. We headed to a department store first though left disappointed. But then we headed into the old town, where it is impossible to be disappointed, because even if you don’t find what you want, it’s so pretty, especially with the Christmas lights.
Look how Christmassy. All of the lights.
I did buy Christmas presents, but seeing as people read this blog, I can’t tell you what they are. But I will tell you that I keep buying things that could potentially break on the way back to England. Whoops. I also bought Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher by Walter Moers, because The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear is one of my favourite books, and if you think I can walk past a book called The City of Dreaming Books by a fantastic author and not buy it, you, my friend, don’t know me very well at all.
We then made our way to the Christmas Market where I had a fond reunion with Apfelwein. For those who have never heard the story, the first time I ever got drunk was on Apfelwein. Mixing cola with it doesn’t help if you then drink another glass of it straight. A crepe and an accidental meeting with friends of Katharina’s family, we then headed back to her WG. For Feuerzangenbowle. Don’t know what that is? Follow me to the next paragraph.
Feuerzangenbowle can refer to two things. One, a German film from 1944, and two, an alcoholic drink which includes burning sugar.
Excited yet?
Apparently, it’s a German tradition to watch the film and make a Feuerzangenbowle in the lead up to Christmas. And who are we to argue with tradition? To create a Feuerzangenbowle you need: a bowl, a sugar cone, matches or a lighter, rum, and a mix of red wine, orange juice and various spices that you can buy ready mixed. The mix of stuff goes in the bowl, the sugar cone gets suspended over the bowl, the rum goes on the sugar and then you set the sugar on fire.
Fire can be really pretty.
Tasted as fantastic as it looks. We then settled down to watch the film. I’m not going to lie to you, I was struggling to understand what was going on at the start, because alcohol plus major tiredness does not lend itself to understanding an old German film. And I may have fallen asleep halfway through. But what I saw was good. It’s a funny film. Maybe one day I’ll finish it, and then I’ll be able to tell you how it ends.
On Sunday we headed up to the castle, because this year Marburg is celebrating the Brothers Grimm. Dotted all over town are statues representing certain fairytales. My favourite were the Seven Dwarves but I couldn’t get a decent photo of them so have Cinderella’s shoe instead.
Neither glass nor fur.
We went to an exhibition called “Echt Hessisch?” about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tales, which was really interesting. And all of the boards were in English and German, so I understood everything. Everything, I say. We had a wander round the university museum that’s attached, and then we headed to Gladenbach to Katharina’s parents’ house.
It was awesome to see Katharina’ s family again and it was really cool that their dog remembered me. What was also really cool was the fact that I understood about 90% of what was being said, as opposed to the 50% two years ago. That’s not to say no English was spoken this weekend. Me and Katharina were definitely conversing in Denglish as opposed to German or English. But it was in favour of German which is completely different to the last time I saw her. This whole year abroad to improve your language thing really works! Who woulda thought?
We watched a film called Mein bester Feind, which has Moritz Bleibtreu in it, who the German students amongst you will recognise from The Baader Meinhof Komplex and Lola rennt. It’s set during WW2 and there’s a case of mistaken identity but in a good way. While it is set in WW2 it has a sense of humour about it, and I’d recommend it.
Sadly, I then had to head back to Marburg so I could catch the first of three trains back to Ilmenau. It was a fantastic weekend, with much catching up and enjoyable company. Hopefully this weekend won’t be the only time I get to see Katharina during my time in Germany. I’ve still got five months left, after all.
Kat's Blog of Stuff 