So here it goes, the start of a (proper) travel blog for my time in Germany. This time round I'll be a boy about it, meaning I'll try to have an incapacity for emotions and go straight to the good bits. Seeing as I'm now a nigel-no-friends, I'm presuming I can actually keep this up.. I usually have a knack for starting things and never following through. But I'm giving it a shot ladies and gentlemen. Scene one, action!
Twenty-seven hours on a plane turned out to be okay surprisingly. The only thing that was close to disastrous was me walking to the wrong terminal during transit, which happened to be on the completely opposite side of the Abu Dhabi airport.. and just 20 minutes before my plane was due to leave! I must've looked like I was going into cardiac arrest or something because the attendants driving the buggys around the airport scooped me up and whizzed me off to gate 5, not gate 55 as I had thought. Here is a photo of me looking solaced, riding in the back the abovementioned buggy (another kind man in a buggy was chasing us trying to take this amazing photo):
Me in an airport buggy.
Passport stamping, baggage claiming and quarantining completed, I walked out to Frankfurt Airport and was welcomed by the open arms of my favourite German of all time, Johannes Gebhardt. I did my embarrassing and uber loud excitement shriek (think, drunken night at Fridays Riverside and I finally find you after epic texting) and dropped all my bags and sumo squashed him. You have no idea how comforting it is to arrive in a foreign country 10,000 miles away from home and have someone there, seriously.
Arriving on Sunday meant that nothing was open. Looking at the calendar on Johannes' wall, I actually worked out that each Sunday is officially a public holiday - how I love Germany already. Despite being jetlagged, I ventured out around Karlsruhe in the blistering cold and visited a few museums, parks and sausage venues before demanding Johannes to take me home, crying that I had frostbite and a mild case of pneumonia. To be fair, there was some kind of freak windchill that day, we both could barely walk straight. I got to eat this magnificent dish though (the sausages REALLY are that great):
Delicious sausage in salsa sauce and curry powder: devine.
Six in the dark and arctic morning of the next day, I had to train it into Darmstadt which for the next 6 months will be my home. Johannes had entrusted me with a set of directions before ushering me and my 5 tonne bags onto the rail. Successfully arriving at the uni, I looked for the masses of students so I could stand with the pack.. where were the students?! Why was I the only one there? "Where.. where am I?" Suddenly I heard my name and turned around and see a pretty girl walking towards me.. had I met her before? I stared at her like a creep for a good 20 seconds or so trying to figure this out before she advised me that she was there to pick me up. She introduced herself as Gamze and we then went to join the others, another German student who was also there to help out (Malik) and ONE other student (Johnny from USA). Yes, only 1 other new student was there on exchange with me from outside the EU*. Amazing.
Johnny and Malik, Gamze and I.
Once all the accommodation paperwork had been completed, we headed towards the tram with our luggage to go to our student dorms. This resulted in a priceless first-day incident. We spotted the trams from afar and decided to make a bolt for it. Malik and Gamze had gotten there first and jumped onto the first carriage. Johnny and I, with luggage in tow, had to run to the last carriage which was stair-less and flat from the platform. Alas, we didn't make it. The tram left with Malik and Gamze who had no idea we had been left behind. No phone, no idea where we were, no idea what to do, all Johnny and I could do was just nervously piss ourselves laughing. Some few minutes later they returned and we all had a good chuckle together about how the mentors had lost their students on the first day.
My dorm is sublime. It's clean (seldom), close to uni, I get my own room and I share the bathroom with only one other. There are four bedrooms and two bathrooms, one kitchen/chill out space. Most importantly, my roommates seem like fantastic people. There are two guys, Stephen (shhhtefun), Jakob (yaaacob) and one girl Clara (..Clara). Clara is very adorable. I told her that my room was the most depressing space right now and that I needed to start a jungle in there; she nodded (probably in confusion) and left. She came back 10 minutes later with a potplant and told me that I could be its carer. Speaking of my housemates, they all left today with their respective boyfriends/girlfriends/family to do a bit of travelling around Europe before the semester starts which means I'm home alone now and this is extremely devastating for me. But it makes me miss you guys a lot more.
The door to my dorm.. as can be seen, I apparently live in Derek Zoolander's Centre for kids who wanna read good.
Yesterday I had taken my language class placement test to see which level of German I will be doing. Guess what y'all? My german isn't that dismal as I have successfully scored a place in the second level class! First class was today, 9-1pm, and will be like that five days a week for four weeks.. insane.
Preferred means of transport for me is the tram, which I get to travel on for free! This will be how I get to uni and the city everyday. The public transport system here is amazing, so amazing that I don't need to wait more than 7 minutes for one to arrive. In fact, here is a picture of me on a tram from this morning:
Enjoying an 80cent massive up'n'go on the tram. Kudos to the random school kid who took this for me.
That's about it kids. There's nothing much more, I'm just buzzing around like a fly being excited about everything and anything. Germany really is a beautiful country, and if I could just teleport you all here then this place would just be heaven on earth.
Til next time. Sending all my love from the northern hemisphere!
*Students usually arrive in the winter semester. Apparently there are already heaps of Australians and Americans here. Including the EU students, there are around 50 or so new exchangers!
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