Geneva and Interlaken

This week I took my first ever solo trip! I figured Switzerland was a good place to start my travels for the summer, since it's so close by. So I went to Geneva and Interlaken for 2 1/2 days.

I started out my trip with Geneva. All my traveling was done by train--I love European trains. They're fast, comfy, and on time. Much more than you can say for Amtrak or NJTransit. I don't think they're terribly expensive, either, considering the distances traveled. So it took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Geneva from Konstanz, I had to change trains once. I got there about noon on Tuesday. After eating lunch and checking in to my hostel, I set off exploring. It was SO hot--over 80 degrees, which I was unprepared for. I was happy, though, because Geneva and I have a language in common--chocolate...I mean French! It was so fabulous to hear French again! I could actually understand everything going on around me for the first time in a month.

Geneva seems like a pretty small city and almost everything there is to see is clustered in one really walkable area. So I walked around and saw the Rhone River and Lake Geneva, which are a beautiful turquoise color. The Jet d'Eau is at the spot where they meet--it's the tallest water fountain in the world. It was pretty cool to see. Then I wandered into the Vielle-Ville, or old city, walked around a bit, and went into the Cathedrale Sainte-Pierre. Geneva was a big hub of the Reformation, John Calvin used to hang out there. While Protestantism is all well and good, I have to say, their churches really aren't any fun to visit because they're so boring to look at. But the cathedral in Geneva has a tower you can climb, plus it's on top of a hill. So of course, because that's what I do, I climbed the tower, and the view of the lake was lovely. I went back down to the ground and went to a nearby art museum. By this point I was limping somewhat--my flats are super comfy for my feet but not so much for my heels--they tend to rub them a little raw and also rub off any band-aids I put there. So I was moving pretty slowly for the rest of the day. After the art museum, which was pretty unremarkable but nice, I headed back down towards the river to get a view of the Jet d'Eau close up, as well as to see the famous flower clock. Being in the main section of Geneva is like being on 5th Avenue in NY. Everything is designer and everything is insanely expensive. A meal at McDonalds, for example, costs about 10 Swiss francs, which is a little more than $11. So I passed a lot of expensive stores, looked at the flower clock, and the Brunswick Memorial, which is a famous person's burial place. Then it was time to look for dinner, since I hadn't really had anything filling for lunch and my feet were killing me. Unfortunately, it was about 5:00 and Europe doesn't really do dinner that early, haha. I finally found a relatively inexpensive pizza place that was open, and then headed back to the hostel and enjoyed French TV while doing some work-I think the best part was seeing what American shows the French choose to watch. That night it was 7th Heaven, and then a French show that had to be from the 80s or early 90s, judging by the outfits, and then in the morning I was treated to a French episode of Phineas & Ferb. The downside to traveling by yourself is that evenings can get a little quiet.

So in the morning I woke up and headed off to see the gigantic broken chair and the UN. Then I walked around a little more by the river before heading off to Interlaken on the train. I got there around 1 pm. The train ride from Bern to Interlaken was beautiful because you could see the biggest mountains of the Alps, still covered in snow, the whole way. I dropped my bags off at my hostel and started walking around. There's not tons to do in Interlaken unless it's in the way of adventure sports, so I was able to see the town pretty quickly and have a traditional Swiss dinner of cheese fondue. Interlaken may be a small town but it is beautiful. The mountains that overlook it are lovely--I wish I could come back in winter when the whole thing is snow-covered and not just the tallest peaks. There are people everywhere para-sailing, and you can watch them land. I saw another flower clock, guess the Swiss have a thing for those. The one in Interlaken has musical dwarves that chime the hour, though, which was cool. It depressed me a little to be back in German Switzerland, where I once again have no idea what's going on. Had a few problems with my hostel but they lowered my rate by a ton without me even asking, so can't complain. Switzerland is EXPENSIVE so every little bit helps...I also got to watch The Simpsons, Grey's, and Private Practice in German, lol. Educational, I suppose?

So Thursday morning I got up, ate breakfast, and hung around awhile before heading out of Interlaken on a boat cruise across Lake Thun. It took about two hours to get to Thun, the town on the other side. The ride was incredibly scenic--got a little boring by myself but it was gorgeous. From there I got a train that went straight to Zurich, where I could get a train back to Konstanz, and here I am. I'm really tired but I had a great week!

Thoughts on traveling by myself...it was really great until the evenings, then it got a little lonely, but I did get some work done! However, evenings are really long when you're by yourself, because tourist sites close around 5 or 6, and it doesn't take that long to eat dinner alone, and then you're stuck for several hours. I wish I'd brought my laptop, but then I would have had to worry about keeping it safe. Watching foreign TV was fun, though! Overall I enjoyed it, and never felt unsafe, although I was also in well before dark both nights-I think I wouldn't have felt so safe had I been out at night. Then again, it's not hard to be in before dark when dark isn't until 9:30 or 10 pm...ah, Europe.

Pfannküchen, rain, and the Alps

So since I last wrote I've had some more social activity and experienced how gorgeous Konstanz can be!

The weather has taken a turn for the worse, but overall is still pretty nice--I was supposed to go to a barbecue Saturday that unfortunately got rained out. So Sunday Thorin, my new friend, invited me to go to Cafe Aran, a popular cafe here, with some of his friends. We walked all the way across town to get there, but it was a nice walk! We hung out in the cafe and then checked out a street fair on the German-Swiss border. The best part was this thing they had for kids--it was like plastic hamster balls but in a kiddie pool! It was so funny to watch. I was excited because I had learned weather words that morning and everyone was talking about the terrible weather and I could actually understand some of what people said! Unfortunately, then it started raining and buses don't run very often on Sundays because it's Europe and nothing is open on Sundays. So we only got a bus part of the way home and then proceeded to get soaked. But it was fun!

I spent the early part of the week with some more meetings, and I finally a) have a residence permit and b) am registered as a student! So I can start my research, once they clean the asbestos off the books for me...the library here has a lot of great resources but most of it is closed due to a little asbestos problem, so they have to clean the books before they let you take them out. So it takes a few days. I've been working on some stuff I brought with me in the meantime, and keeping up with my German lessons.

Wednesday I was really excited because the haze over the Alps finally lifted (as it does rarely, apparently) and we could see them! I could see them from my balcony, but decided to take myself on a walk around the lake and the center of town to get a better view. It was absolutely gorgeous--the pictures don't even do it justice. It made me really excited for the trip to Geneva and Interlaken I'm planning for next week. In the evening, Thorin invited me to get German pancakes with some of his friends who are from Russia. The pancakes (Pfannkuchen) were delicious! They were like French crepes, very thin, but not folded, so they were pretty much the size of a pizza in America. I got mine with Nutella, of course. It was a really fun evening.

Thursday I had lunch with Alessia, one of my Italian friends! We had a really nice time and hopefully I can learn some Italian from her when I get settled into German a bit more. I met two of her friends, one of whom was giving a presentation in English that day, so he was excited to practice. His class was on 9/11 literature, which I found fascinating. I saw him today and we had a longer conversation about it. I personally can't believe that there's enough 9/11 literature to make an entire class on it, or that it's been long enough that there can be a class already. But it was really interesting to hear him speak about it.

Today I met my language partner, Ulf, for the first time! The university has a tandem conversation exchange through which you can learn various languages--Ulf is a native German from outside Stuttgart who wants to refresh his English before taking the TOEFL to study abroad in Toronto. We mostly spoke in English today because I still don't know a lot of German verbs. But he's very nice and next week we are going to meet in the city so he can show me around a bit more! I'm excited to learn some more verbs so we can alternate speaking German and English.

Right now what everyone in Germany is talking about is Eurovision: it's kind of like the European version of American Idol, except that each European nation sends a competitor. Azerbaijan won and this came as a shock to many people, apparently.

So now that I have library privileges, this weekend I'll probably prepare for my trip to Switzerland, start my research, and keep up with the German!

My GIANT Pfannküchen!

zoomed in on the Alps over the Bodensee

the lake and the Alps

kids in the hamster pool

Altstadt und Meersburg

So I finally finished up grading and finals on Wednesday evening/Thursday afternoon (a few latecomers...), and decided to celebrate by doing some exploring!

Thursday I went to the Altstadt, the "old city" area of Konstanz. Unfortunately, although it was gorgeous weather the entire time I was stuck inside doing work, it rained a lot yesterday. So I wandered around the old section of the city. It's full of windy streets and tiny shops, a lot of clothing boutiques but a little of everything. The buildings date back to the 13th and 14th century. Since Konstanz is on the Swiss border, it preserved much more than many German cities during WW2, since the Allies didn't bomb it for fear of bombing Switzerland. I visited a German bookstore (and an English one as well!) and got myself the first Harry Potter in German to motivate me to learn faster. I was looking for some books to help me with German grammar, which I'm finding impossible without instruction, but no luck yet.

I also got to see the Münster, or church. It has a hugely tall tower, which I of course climbed. All by myself--like, no one else was even on the stairs. Possibly one of the creepier things I've done so far. But the view from the top was nice--apparently on a clear day you can see to Austria, so I'll have to go back.

In the evening, I met up with Alessia, a friend of one of my friends at Rutgers, Kelly. She is from Italy, and we went to a pizzeria and had a very nice evening talking and eating,despite the pouring rain. The downside was trying to come home: buses run on very limited schedules after about 8:30 pm in Konstanz, so it took forever, we were waiting for ages for a bus. But on the way home we met a friend of hers, Thorin, who lives in my dorm complex! So it was nice to meet someone who lives here, since I didn't know anyone before.

Today I decided I was going across the lake to Meersburg. It's a 15-minute ferry ride (and I'm pretty sure I succeeded in getting sunburned during that 15 minutes-need to buy sunscreen), and Meersburg features an adorable town area and the oldest castle in Germany. There are two castles there, the Altschloss and the Neuschloss. I wandered around and ate fish and chips at one of the only cheap places in town, recommended by my guidebook (I'm sorry, I don't really like German food! I don't do red meat), and then went up the hill to the castles. Meersburg is known for wine so the hills are covered in vineyards. The Altschloss was cool, I made friends with a guy dressed as a knight. It was very old, and the woman gave me a guide in French (I guess they ran out of English), and I kept awkwardly running in on tours in German. The Neuschloss is bright pink and under renovation. So I wandered the adorable little German streets for awhile and came across a brass band that played "When I'm 64", by the Beatles. They then almost got run over by a truck that was trying to back up in the narrow and windy streets. So since they stopped playing, I decided to get some apfelstrudel! I'd seen signs for it all day and it sounded delicious. So I sat outside and ate apfelstrudel with vanilla ice cream, and it was very, very yummy. Overall, I really liked Meersburg--it was quite charming.

After that, I headed back to the Altstadt in Konstanz to take some more pictures, since it was so nice out! I got to see the Imperia statue, the most scandalous part of Konstanz...it is a statue in the harbor, of a prostitute. She has a naked man in each hand, the emperor in one and the pope in the other. It's a metaphor from a Balzac short story about church reform, apparently. Then I came home to relax! It's been a long two weeks since I arrived, but hopefully on Tuesday I'll get to start my research. I know I'm settling in and getting used to hearing German because I can finally pronounce the German word for "excuse me"-entschuldigung. I had a lot of trouble with it when I first got here. But today I tried to only ask for things in German and mostly succeeded--when I need something explained I need to ask for English, since I understand very little, but I was able to order food and ask for tickets without using English!

My latest language-learning strategy has been to find American TV shows dubbed in German on Youtube. I found the pilot episode of Friends, and some episodes of the Nanny, so I'll have to look for more.

Imperia statue in the KN harbor

my delicious apfelstrudel--are you jealous, Dad?

my first view of Konstanz, except 12 days later

me and the Altschloss in Meersburg

main street in Meersburg

one of the building murals in the Altstadt of Konstanz

odds and ends

sunset over the mountains from my balcony

So I've spent the last several days mostly hibernating in my apartment writing final exams. Just finished the exams and moving on to grading 80-odd undergrad papers!

Interesting events:

- Butterbretzels, or buttered pretzels, are amazing. yum yum.

- when I went to the grocery store on Saturday, my cell phone thought I went to Switzerland. It sent me a text in German, the only part of which I understood was "Wilkommen aus Schweiz!" (European cell phones text you when you leave the country to let you know you're roaming.) I mean, it was only a few miles off, but I'm not sure it knows it's back in Germany yet, haha.

- I found pancake mix at the grocery store! I spent about five minutes trying to determine what was flour and what was sugar, and eventually turned around and discovered shake and pour pancake mix! it was fabulous. I had pancakes for dinner Saturday night.

- on the downside of my shopping adventure, I bought turkey breast when I meant to buy chicken, and celery salt when I wanted table salt. Oh well, almost the same thing...it's difficult to shop when you don't speak the language, but everything you successfully find does feel like a victory! (my kitchen is pretty much fully outfitted now and I feel great about it)

- Swiss chocolate makes finals ten times better.

- I'm still having some issues with jet lag, but maybe those will be better when finals are over and I can actually have a chance to leave my apartment.

- my online German course is going well and I feel like I know a few more words now. Still way more nouns than verbs, but we'll see. I can now identify vegetables and various body parts, as well as all the layers of my bed linens. Useful, no?

-I now have health insurance so I am free to get run down by insane German cyclists.

-realized the other day that I can see Switzerland from my apartment. Then I kind of felt like Sarah Palin.

-planning a fun weekend once Thursday hits and I'm done with everything remaining at Rutgers! Exploring Konstanz and also planning to check out Meersburg, the town across the lake.

German words of the day:

-Genau!---Germans say this literally EVERY 5 SECONDS. I haven't even been around that many German people and I have already noticed this. Thanks to Alex I know that it means "right" or "exactly"

-Tschuss!--"bye". Again, thanks to Alex, I now know what cashiers are saying to me when I leave stores.

Insel Mainau

Schloss Mainau, the castle on the island

me with the tulips!

...it's everywhere....

the view from my balcony

So yesterday's challenges were overcome, with some inevitably embarrassing moments along the way that happen when you're in a new place. My kitchen is much better equipped, I figured out how to work the buses, and even managed to eat lunch at the uni cafeteria with minimal incident. They serve cocktails there. Seriously. There's a full bar. Of course, along the way, I managed to purchase only knives instead of assorted cutlery so I had to eat my omelet with a knife when I made dinner; couldn't figure out how to get off the bus and didn't know any words in German to yell to the bus driver so someone else had to do it for me; could not open the door to the mailbox room so the caretakers had to come help me...etc. I kind of feel like a mute because I can't communicate, but I'm definitely learning nouns, just need to learn some verbs to throw in there.

Today I had to be up early to meet Johannes from the Welcome Center at the Bürgerböro, kind of a town administrative office, to register myself as a foreign national in Konstanz. It was quick and easy and I got a book of coupons for things to do! (immediately used one today at Insel Mainau, of course) Then Johannes showed me a little of downtown Konstanz, and we got me a bank account and a cell phone. I can't wait to go back and explore when I'm done with finals, it's beautiful at that end of the city! I told him some of the words I learned yesterday in my online German lessons and he said my pronunciation was very good :-) yay!

So then I met up with my friend Alex from Richmond for lunch! It was really nice to see a familiar face. We got lunch at the uni, and after some bus mishaps we made it to Insel Mainau, which is a botanical garden on an island in the Lake Bodensee. The tulips were blooming and it was gorgeous! We also got to see the castle/mansion thing on the island. After another shopping trip (to get spoons and forks...), I headed home for the day.

word of the day:

Ich möchte=I want

Arrival

So I've arrived in Konstanz safe and sound (and very sleepy)! The flight was horrendous due to everything from turbulence to drunk people, but it eventually ended and I arrived in Zurich, where Yasemin from the Welcome Center was waiting with a cab to pick me up.

On the hour long ride from Zurich Airport to Konstanz, I got a glimpse of riverside Konstanz--it's gorgeous. My first thought was that it looks like Epcot. I can't wait to go back and take some pictures! It was also incredibly strange to cross the border of a country and not see any police or even have to stop.

So when Yasemin and I arrived, we found that my building is up a hill and my apartment is a 5th floor walkup. So we lugged my suitcases up 5 flights of stairs and now I am in my adorable teeny tiny yellow apartment, complete with kitchenette, balcony (with an amazing view), and itty bitty bathroom. I'll post pictures soon once I decorate a bit--even after my shopping excursion this afternoon I could not find tape. Is adhesive an American thing or something?

So then I had to head up to the university for some meetings about my residence permit and stuff like that. The staff at the welcome center were SO nice, and showed me all around the student center and cafeteria. One person they introduced me to even told me about a French-German conference that is going on this weekend, partially about issues with Turkey/Muslim immigration--I may go to some of the lectures that are in French. Walking around the university is weird because I literally don't understand anything anyone is saying. I hope that changes, it's a strange feeling. After all these meetings I feel as if I am processing a TON of information on a very jet-lagged brain. I've been awake for 26-27 hours straight by now.

After I left the university I had to go get some basics, so I headed to a shopping mall. Trying to navigate the overwhelmingly large grocery store was difficult. It's hard to find things when you can't read the aisle tags. I need to go back tomorrow when it's not 5:00. My kitchenette has a fridge, stovetop, and sink, but no microwave or oven, so I'll be limited to things I can make on the stove. I survived my shopping trip, managed to find some dinner, and am planning to go to bed soonish even though it's still light out--I'm exhausted.

Tomorrow's challenges include some more extensive food/kitchen supply shopping (my kitchen has no supplies at all so a visit to the euro store for a pot and a pan and a plate will be necessary...) and some homework...can't wait til May 12th when I can finish Rutgers' finals and completely enjoy Germany!

Things I learned today:

-they have cigarette vending machines in Germany

-excuse me: entschuldigung (can't quite wrap my tongue around that one yet)