Scott's Adventures

So, heading off from Amsterdam, soon enough I had crossed the border into Germany. First stop was Marburg, where I was reunited with my dear friend Jule, a year after we took part in numerous adventures together in Sweden. Arrived on a nice and sunny day, so soon enough we were enjoying the sun from the comfort of her balcony, complete with a Radler (half beer/half lemonade) and Cornetto from the conveniently located petrol station across the street. First evening in town saw me off to the uni campus to watch a dance performance put on by sport students. Later we relaxed back at Jule’s while I got to know a few of her lovely friends as well as getting reacquainted with German beer, while afterwards we headed off to a local student party, set in quite a large garden with some lights spread throughout. Was a great first evening back in Deutschland!

Spent the weekend and pretty much the rest of the week relaxing around Marburg. On Saturday we wandered around the Oberstadt (Upper City) and caught up with Simone, another of the gorgeous Germans I met in Sweden. This evening was spent partaking in the German phenomenon known as ‘reinfeiern’, translated as ‘celebrating into’, in regards to birthdays. I don’t remember doing this in Australia, but here it’s quite common for everyone to gather with the birthday boy or girl some time before midnight on the day before the birthday. As soon as the clock strikes twelve, the celebrations begin. In this case, we were celebrating into Anne’s birthday (please note for future reference, in German, Anne is pronounced more like Anna than Ann), complete with singing, wine, and dramatic speeches. Yet this was only the entrée before the main course, a garden party on Sunday afternoon. Jule and I were responsible for preparing an Apple Crumble – well at least Jule directed while I duly followed instructions. Result – a completely empty tray, so I dare say it was well received. Unfortunately so much so that the birthday girl missed out, oops! Anyway, many of the guests brought along a dish to share, combined with some generous dishes prepared by our hosts. This resulted in serious overeating over the next few hours, but everything was absolutely delicious, so there was no excuse not to really! Was a beautiful afternoon spent in the garden, complete with food as mentioned, beer, radler, some fun and games, and getting to meet lots of nice people. Party migrated indoors after the sun came down and the neighbours had had enough. Though back to the balcony, the scene of the reinfeiern, to celebrate out of the birthday (not as common). Was a really lovely day and I appreciated everyone’s efforts to make me feel welcome as the only ‘foreigner’. Danke Schön!

The rest of the week was spent relaxing, enjoying some more delicious German cuisine, enjoying some more delicious German beer, and catching up with friends. Jule and I made the one hour trek down to Darmstadt to see a couple of fellow Linköping’ers, Sebastian, better known as Turner, as well as Jan. Turner directed us to a student party being held in a warehouse somewhere in town, so we managed to hit the dance floor there for a little while which was a lot of fun. Coming home we had an encounter with a shopping trolley and a pit stop at an all-night Turkish bakery, followed by a big late-night/early-morning cook-up back at Turner’s place. Quite an eventful and fun-filled evening, and particularly great to catch up with the two guys again. The next day we took a quick tour retracing our steps around the city, at least in daylight this time, as well as checking out a few extra sights. A short but sweet pitstop in Darmstadt!

After almost a week in Marburg, it was time for a weekend trip in order to see some more of Germany. Details to follow….!