English? 1 Euro.

So we drove, we saw things, we made our ancestors proud. Well, we did more than that, but I really wanted to do a parody of that Thor quote, because it's wonderful. I just finished a 5 day roadtrip through Eastern Europe (and Austria), and it was quite the adventure. In those 5 days, we hit up 5 different cities and saw a bunch of really cool things. Also learned a lot about Eastern Europe. I start with a few things: 1) Eastern Europe is awesome and will often surprise you, 2) Slavic languages are really hard, and 3) horse meat is exactly as weird as you'd think. 

February 20th: Tübingen – Salzburg
We began our journey in the late afternoon on Thursday, because Anna had a dentist appointment. But that was fine, because Salzburg is only a 4 hour drive from Tübingen. We ate some PB&J's on the road and stopped a couple of times to get gas, stretch our legs, and buy random things for the car (stickers that allowed us to use the roads, safety vests–because some European countries have funny driving laws–etc.). 

We arrived in Salzburg around 21:30 and checked into our very swanky hostel, the Meininger Hotel. It was a combination of a hotel and hostel, but the hostel part was basically a hotel with bunk beds. It came with towels, (skin compatible) soap, the whole nine yards. The five of us got a room to ourselves, which was all very nice. We settled in and watched some news about Ukraine before heading out to do some evening exploring. 

Salzburg is an absolutely gorgeous and old city, and it is pretty cool at night. Oh and Mozart was born there, and the people that The Sound of Music is based on lived around there–two things that the city and all its tourist shops will never let you forget. We wandered around the city center for an hour or two and looked at its many wonderful shops before reaching a freezing point and deciding to go into a bar to grab some beer and get warm. We made a point in each of the places we went to try some local or national brew. And the Austrian beer was mighty tasty, but unfortunately, I forget the name. 

So that was about our evening. Very chill in both senses of the word. 

February 21st: Salzburg – Ljubljana
The next day, we checked out at 11AM, put all our things in the car, and proceeded to explore Salzburg in the daylight. Before heading to any city monuments or anything, we checked out a bunch of stores along the main street, which included a really cool music shop which sold any number of instruments, where Lasse bought a kazoo and Anna bought a triangle, and a dollar store, which contained any number of bizarre items. 

We then wandered up the hill (Salzburg is situated in somewhat of a valley) to a small castle-type-thing. The view of the Salzach River and the fortress were absolutely incredible, and we sat pondering on one of the walls for a while. Afterwards, we wandered through the city, had some delicious bread from the first bakery in Salzburg, and then hiked up another small mountain to the fortress, where we didn't go inside, because they charged 8€. After a few hours, around 14:30, we headed back to the car, because we had a 3 hour drive to Ljubljana. So with that we sad goodbye to Salzburg.

The drive to Slovenia is an absolutely gorgeous one. It's a large highway that winds through large, snowy mountains. God, nature. So good. However, the 3 hour drive turned out to be longer and more expensive than planned. It turns out that you have to pay tolls, very expensive tolls, to use the tunnels, which go through some of these mountains, which left us paying 18€ more than expected. There was also a large traffic back-up at the tunnel just after the Slovenian border, where we sat at a stand-still for a half and hour or so. After that, there was some confusion about the directions once we actually got to Ljubljana, but by some stroke of luck, we didn't manage to get too lost and we arrived at the hostel only an hour later than the expected time. 

Our hostel, known as the Vila Veselova, was a really nice and home-y place, with free coffee, tea, and questionable juice syrups (which with water could be made into juice) and colorful walls. The receptionist checked us in and told us about what there was to do in Ljubljana both during the day and at night. And after settling in, we wandered into the city center. Not having eaten a real meal all day, all of us were pretty hungry, and after a failed mission to find kebabs, we went to a bar that served pizza and burgers, where we watched the Olympics, drank Slovenian beer, and ate delicious pizza. 

By the end of that, it was nearly midnight, but we decided to stay out anyway. We first wandered into a karaoke bar, which was half empty and rather uncomfortable. We promptly left and found a Disco Bar known as Pr'Skelet. This club was basically a night club placed on an archaeological dig, or at least, I think that was the atmosphere they were going for. And it was awesome (and wicked cheap).

February 22nd: Ljubljana – Zagreb

We had a pretty early wake up call the next morning due to the 10AM check-out time, but we chilled in the hostel for the free breakfast and because the rain outside was rather miserable. Instead, we ate, watched the Olympics, and talked with two guys who were staying in our hostel, one from California and the other from Germany. That was nice, but we did want to see Ljubljana during the daylight hours, so we left and went out to brave the rain. 

Our resolve to see Ljubljana shrunk with each wet step, but we did make it to the famous Dragon Bridge, at least. We also stopped in some tourist shops along the way, which minimally mediated the rain's soaking effect. 

Before long, we stopped at Zvezda bistro, which Klara, the Slovenian girl from Deutsch Kompakt, had recommended. And boy, was it worth it. There was hardly any room inside, probably because of the rain. So we sat outside, between two heating lamps that were working on hyperdrive. But we all ordered cake, and it was so tasty. 

Afterwards, we went back to the hostel and the car, because we refused to wander up to the Ljubljana castle in the rain. So instead, we drove up the large hill. The castle is a rather modest thing compared with the fortress in Salzburg or other ones that I have been to, but it was nice nonetheless. There were some nice views of Ljubljana, albeit some were very obscured by trees. 

After while, we got kind of bored so we went back to the car to go to Zagreb. However, we couldn't leave without trying the illustrious horse burgers recommended to us by the receptionist at our hostel. Now, I know about the whole horse meat scandal from last year. However, in Eastern Europe, people do eat and like horse meat. So we stopped at a place called Hot Horse to try their burgers. I didn't like them very much, but hey, at least I tried it. 

Then it was onward to Zagreb. The ride was shorter and a little less scenic than the one from Salzburg to Ljubljana, but nice nonetheless. Oh, and fun fact we didn't know: there is US style border control at the Slovenian-Croatian border, where we were talked to by not-very-happy Croatian border control. But hey, now I have new stamps in my passport. 

We got to our hostel, the Palmers Lodge, in good time. The hostel was nice and clean and the staff was friendly, but beyond that, it wasn't terribly remarkable. We stayed there only briefly before heading out to explore Zagreb at night. Zagreb is a pretty and picturesque city, but I found Ljubljana to be prettier. After looking at the main cathedral, we went to the bar street where we commenced a five-bar bar crawl, which first brought us to a loud place with an awesomely eclectic playlist. We drank some Croatian beer and left just in time to be accosted by a Baltic band, which invaded the place. We then went to a place called the history club which played the History Channel. And then to three more places. In between, we stopped for döner, which was an awesome decision, as it was different from any döner I have had before and absolutely delicious. 

February 23rd: Zagreb – Bratislava

The next day, we got out of our hostel at 11AM and did a little bit of exploring, but we could only do a little bit, because the ride from Zagreb to Bratislava was more than four hours. Also, it was raining again, which made exploring not particularly great. Before hitting the center of the city, we stopped at a grocery store (grocery stores are open on Sunday!) to grab some really cheap food for the road (Eastern Europe for the win!). We then wandered through the main platz in town and ended up in the middle of some kind of festival–Carneval, maybe?–but we weren't quite sure. There were a bunch of women, who seemed to be dressed up at black-face ladybugs and that was about all we got. After that confusion, we went back up to the big cathedral, took a few pictures, and headed back to the car to get on the road to Slovakia. 

I can't tell you much about the drive from Zagreb to Bratislava, because I was asleep for most of it. But we did get controlled at the border again by gruff men and the parts of Austria that I was awake for were beautiful. 

We arrived in Bratislava without any problems, and I was really pleasantly surprised by the city. My only conception of Bratislava was what I had gotten from Eurotrip, which doesn't exactly paint the city in the most pleasant of lights. However, Bratislava is absolutely beautiful. But more about that later. First the hostel. Art Hostel Taurus is absolutely awesome, and if ever in Bratislava, I highly recommend staying there. It's extremely modern and funky and the room have single non-bunk beds (awesome!) and it's all very nice. 

Now, back to Bratislava. We wandered into the city and what we saw was absolutely beautiful. There is a very clear demarcation line between the old and new parts of the city. The old city is absolutely gorgeous with beautiful white buildings and old restaurants and pubs. The new city, to put it simply, looks like it was built by Communists. However, it was really, really cool. 

After some exploring, we started to get hungry and decided to look for dinner. We were just planning on grabbing some döner, but in the new city, we happened to come across a place simply labelled at 1. Slovakian Pub. We checked the menu and it was incredibly cheap, so went in. The pub is old with wooden floors and paintings on the walls. And the food was absolutely delicious. I mean, just look at it. All in all, we fed 5 people with huge meals and a round of beer for 40€. Eastern Europe is the best.

Afterwards, we wandered around and went into a few bars, but everything closed pretty early because it was Sunday. So we went back to the hostel and called it an early night.

February 24th: Bratislava – Prague

The next day, we ate breakfast at the hostel and checked out at 11AM. After loading up the car, we walked up the hill to the Bratislava castle. The original castle was destroyed through various political moves during the late 1700s and early 1800s and was only rebuilt post 1953, so the entire thing is incredibly modern-looking. However, the hill it rests on offers very pretty views of Bratislava. 

We hung out up there for a little bit and took some pictures. Afterwards, we went back into the main part of the city, where we stopped in shops (most important a children's toy shop which sold, amongst other things, a children's book called Did You Poop on Me?–or at least that's what I am assuming it was called, the title was in Slovakian, but it was about a mole trying to figure out who pooped on his head), took more pictures, and ate more tasty döner. We then made our way back to the car, because it was another long drive from Bratislava to Prague. 

This drive was fine. The roads in the Czech Republic are a bit questionable. But ultimately, we ended up spending most of the making a homemade deck of Cards Against Humanity, which kept us occupied. We got to our very swanky hostel, Mosaic House, in good time. This hostel is actually a hotel, where they put a couple of hostel rooms in the basement. It also has a bar and lounge and is carbon neutral, which is cool. We wandered out to exchange currency and grab some dinner. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to play our Cards Against Humanity and then we went back into the center of town to go to a bar. We ended up finding a dive bar close to our hostel to drink some pilsner and hang out before heading back to the hostel to get some sleep. 

February 25th: Prague – Tübingen
Then next day, we woke up around 10:30 in order to make our 11AM check-out time and after loading up the car, we wandered out in search of food. Our quest led us to the James Dean diner. Now you may be saying, Sarah, you are in Prague, why aren't you eating Czech food? And to that I say, I wanted some bacon, eggs, and toast, damnit. And I don't regret it. I can't remember the last time I had a "typical American breakfast." 

After that, I gave them the same Stadtführung around the Jewish quarter the last time I came to Prague. (If you want to read about it go to the Prague post from November.) This ultimately led us over the Vltava and to the castle. However, this time, I actually went back to the beautiful and Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral, where a few Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors are buried. It was originally founded in the 900's so yeah, it's really old and cool. We sort of got to go inside (there's a small part where you can see most of the cathedral and don't have to pay for it) and there's a series of absolutely beautiful stained glass windows. 

After that we went to the main part of the castle and chilled in the courtyard for a while trying to figure out what important figure was coming to visit the castle. When nothing happened for a while we went to the front and watch the guards marching. Then, just as we were about to head back into the main part of the city, the car procession started. It was only 4 cars long. We managed to make it back to the gate in time to see some Chinese official–a woman, and beyond that I have no idea who she is–get out of the car and be greeted by the Chinese anthem performed by a Czech military marching band. 

After all of that hullabaloo, we went to a museum store so Anna could get a postcard, played with some swords, and then went back to the old city. We did some wandering and eventually reached the new city, before deciding it was probably time to head back to the car to start the trek back to Tübingen. 

It started slowly. We were all very tired, and it hadn't even been an hour before we stopped to take a nap. After we hit the German border, however, there started to be a problem. Lasse was always of the mindset that we didn't necessarily need to stop the second the gaslight came on. So the gaslight came on, and then suddenly there weren't any gas stations for miles. We got down to 20km, and Lasse conceded that maybe we needed to stop. So we pulled off at the closest exit to try and find gas. By that point, the meter told us we had 8km left. We drove through a small town, which didn't have a gas station. 5km. Then we came to another town, which had stop lights. More promising. We reached the gas station with around 3km to spare. After that little fiasco, we were all quite giddy and hyper and spent the rest of the ride blaring music and singing. We made it back to Tübingen just after 10PM. 

–––

So gang, that was the trip. It was absolutely incredible, and I am shocked that we didn't have any major issues. But it was all good. I guess, if I had to pick a favorite city, it'd be Ljubljana closely followed by Bratislava, if only because both of them were so surprisingly wonderful. 

With that, the future. I don't really know what I am going to do these next few weeks. But I do have an interrail pass and a sense of adventure. So maybe I'll explore Switzerland and France before heading up to Belgium for Louise's birthday. Then, of course, there's Ireland. Which is going to be a blast and a half. In other news, since my autofocus broke during the roadtrip, I am now the proud owner of a brand-spanking-new telephoto lens. It's beautiful and I can't get over it. Anyways, that's what I have got for now: bis später, dudes. 

I brought the lasagna

Hey gang, so Italy happened. However, there were a few hatchets thrown into our plans, hence writing this blog post much sooner than expected. However, I'll get to those later. Overall, it was very fun, and rather struggle-full on the account of the fact that many Italians speak very little of any other language than Italian. 

Thursday Night and Friday Morning: The Journey

The journey commenced on Thursday night. Our plan looked something like this: Tübingen to Horb to Zürich to Chiasso to Milan to Bologna, which took a grand total of 16 hours and involved staying in the Chiasso train station for roughly 5 hours waiting for our very early train to Milan. The first few connections went off without a hitch, and we got to Chiasso around 1AM. So we waited in the the absolutely freezing train station for five hours. I was very not prepared for such cold, so there was very little sleeping done. But I did get to read Harry Potter auf Deutsch. 

In our attempt to find our train once 5:30 AM actually rolled around, we met two guys from California who were studying at Pepperdine's remote campus in the french-speaking part of Switzerland and were going in our same direction–albeit with the final destination of Venice to party it up for Carnevale. They told us of their plan to get to Milano Centrale–much easier than Hannah's and mine. There was one problem, however. Their plan involved switching trains at an intermediary stop and the train (a very janky thing that was straight out of the 1970s) didn't announce stops. So we got out a stop early and had to freeze in some random Italian train station again, but luckily, there was another train coming in time to take us to the next station before the Milano Centrale train got there. 

Everything else went pretty well. We got to Bologna by 10AM (2 hours later than Hannah expected–she thought we were taking a fast train), but the 3 hour train ride from Milan to Bologna gave us a little time to get some sleep. 

Friday: Bologna
Hannah's family friend, Denise, met us at the train station to take back to her apartment, where would be staying with her, her husband, and her four small children. So it was quite the full house. It took us about 30 minutes to walk there. Which was absolutely lovely except for the whole being a turtle thing. We dropped our stuff off at her place, changed, and then went out again to do a little bit of exploring with her. 

Denise first took us to a large and beautiful church and monastery with all sorts of rooms and a very pretty courtyard. The entire time there were monks chanting (or there was a recording of monks chanting) so that was simultaneously cool and eerie. After that we walked past Bologna's leaning tower (questionable Italian engineering and architecture is not limited to Pisa) and then wandered through the town looking for a restaurant that Denise liked. She also tried to show us the Bologna canal, but alas, they had drained it. We finally found the restaurant after some google mapping, and it was absolutely delicious. I got tortellini covered in bolognese sauce, and it was quite delicious. 


The rest of the afternoon consisted of napping and then being awoken by rowdy children, but that wasn't too bad. Hannah and I watched Oz the Great and Powerful with them until around 7, when we decided to hit up The Girl with the Pearl Earring exhibit that was going on a little ways from their apartment. Denise said that Bologna was the only stop in Europe on the thing's tour, which seems a little strange, but whatever. Everyone was quite excited. The painting itself is cool, but underwhelming if only because it seems so small. The rest of the exhibit was a bunch of still lifes (which are not particularly interesting to me) and a few other more interesting works. 

We got home in time to babysit for Denise and her husband, as they wanted to go out to Valentines Day dinner. So the rest of Friday night was watching Star Wars Episode X with their kids and then heading to bed. 

Saturday: Venezia

We got up pretty early to head to Venice. The train ride was almost two hours long, and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to explore the city. We got there around 11AM and (after talking to a sassy Italian man about where to find a map) managed to walk straight into a protest of some sort (we believe it was something about education costs). Whilst still near the train station, we bought Carnevale (the Italian name for Mardi Gras–albeit the Italian version lasts much longer and might even be crazier) masks and then proceeded to make our way through the snaking streets of Venice. The map was not entirely useful, as the main transportation roads of Venice are the canals (I literally didn't see one car while I was there) and the streets are kind of just for funsies and those poor souls that don't have boats.

We ended up wandering through some very small alleys, going into random churches, and eventually found a lovely little restaurant where we ate four-cheese gnocchi for lunch and chatted with our waitress in German. Afterwards, we continued walking and eventually (after much and great struggle) found our way to the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco (otherwise known as Saint Mark's Basilica–the most famous Venetian cathedral with beautiful Byzantine architecture right along the Adriatic), the line for which was very long due to the mass amount of tourists in Venice for Carnevale. Despite this, we ended up getting inside in relatively short order.

The Grand Canal

Afterwards. we wandered along the coastline with all the other tourists for a while, and went back to a slightly (very very slightly) less-touristy spot to take a gondola ride. Since it was 100€ to take a boat regardless of whether you have 2 or 6 people in the boat, we teamed up with 2 Turkish women and a couple from England to cut the costs. And the ride was very, very cool. Our gondola driver (is he a driver?) spoke a little English so he told us a few things about the city and the architecture, before dropping us off where we started. From their Hannah and I made our way to towards the train station in order to get back to Bologna in time for apertivos. 

Now, somewhere along the line, some Italian said: I have a grand idea. Let's let people order a glass of wine and then get as many free appetizers as they want! And to that, I say, amen brother.

Sunday: Firenze

Duomo

On Sunday, the train was a little bit less early, because the only options were fast trains that we had to pay a little bit more for. So we got to Florence in a little over a half and hour after riding on a really swanky train (it's quite strange the very large discrepancy between Italian trains). We got to Florence around 10AM and commenced the wandering. We accidentally stumbled into the tourist information office, which had been moved from its logical location into the Cattedrale Santa Maria Novella, which, while close to the train station, doesn't make any sense. After getting a map, we happened upon a chocolate festival in the plaza of said cathedral (dangerous business) and then made our way towards the Galleria Uffizi, which houses a metric fuckton of paintings. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of it for you guys because the Italians are very serious about not taking pictures in museums. So we wandered through there for more than two hours (and got to see Botticelli's Birth of Venus...oh found out that the painting in our bathroom is a famous Botticelli painting, Madonna of the Magnificent, and no one in our family had any idea, lolerskates.) 

We then walked to the other side of the center to see the David, which was incredibly cool (and much, much bigger than I expected) but alas no pictures allowed their either. (I tried to very sneakily take one with my phone and an Italian woman yelled at me...eyes like hawks those guys.) And whilst waiting in line, we met a nice young American couple from California that recommended to us a sandwich place that was right near the Galleria Uffizi. So after seeing the David, we went down back that way to have the best sandwiches ever. Oh my God. So good. Oh and they had 2€ unlimited self-serve wine, because Italy is wonderful. (All'Antico Vinaio, Via del Neri 65, for any one that wants to have the best street food ever.) 

Then Hannah was nice enough to indulge my nonsense and take a picture of me "touching the butt" of the David replica statue that's in the Palazza Vecchio. Afterwards, we went to both the Duomo and the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Novella, which are both incredibly beautiful. 

Duomo Ceiling

We then wandered over to the other side of the Arno River for a quick look see, got Fanta Lemon from a Snack Bar, and got to the train station to make reservations for the train back to Bologna. And that was when Hannah found out that her wallet was missing.  

Late Sunday and Monday: The Holiday from Hell
Thus commenced the remainder of our trip. Otherwise known as the Holiday from Hell (a reference to Come Fly With Me, in case you missed that). We ran around Florence for a little while looking for it, but it was gone. The next few hours were a flurry of canceling credit and debit cards, figuring out how to cancel German debit cards, figuring out how to lock German residency permits. Then the next morning was a series of getting shuffled from Italian police station to Italian police station until one would give Hannah a police report because Italians aren't very good with bureaucracy. So I guess this is as good of time as any for a Mad-Eye Moody-style PSA: CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

We then took a 1:30PM train homeward, but due to a 14 minute delay from Milan to Zürich, we missed our train from Zürich to Horb, which added another 4 hours onto to our trip, as we went from Zürich to Basel to Karlsruhe to Stuttgart and then to Tübingen. We also thought that we were going to have to spend the night in the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, because our train from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart was 10 minutes late. So when we saw that the Tübingen train was still there, we ran like mad women (and the Germans definitely laughed at us). Let me tell you, I don't know if I have ever been happier than I was to be on that train home. And so we got home around 2AM. 

So yeah, that was our trip. A bit of a mess, but the beginning was very fun. So with that, I shall leave you guys. Bis später, dudes.

Entspannungsphase

Otherwise known as the Pre-Italy and Eastern European Roadtrip Round-Up

Yay! Finals are over! Happy Entspannungsphase to all! (More Cold War jokes.) Well, they have been over for a few days, but I didn't have anything interesting to report to you. Or I guess I wanted a few semi-interesting things to accumulate. Because otherwise there would have been a bunch of little blog posts like my last one and that just would have been sad. 

So with that said, I shall start with the sad part. Louise left Tübingen to go back to Belgium! :( We had a grand goodbye Kneipentour, which actually end up taking us to roughly 3 bars, because it was a Monday and so everything closed around midnight. But we found Last Resort, which stays open until 3AM on a slow day. So we got drinks and hot dogs (from the little hole-in-the-wall hot dog shop upstairs–nomz) and had a merry old time. But it was very sad saying goodbye. But at least she lives on this continent, and 6 hours is convenient enough. 

baby's first mac n' cheese

Then there was Tuesday. On Tuesday, I spent most of the day grocery shopping or watching Arrow, because on Tuesday night, it was Mac-n'-Cheese-Abendessen night. I had realized that the German Gymnasium students in my conversation group had never had (in some cases never heard of) mac n' cheese. Which was a very sad thing that needed to be remedied. (Lasse had also never had mac n' cheese.) So I made a kilogram worth of mac n' cheese, and invited 5 German teenagers, 3 Americans (Hannah, Julius, and Yasmine), and 2 Norwegians (Lasse and Brian) and together we ate said kilo worth of homemade mac n' cheese and a bunch of chocolate chip cookies. (I wanted it to be a really American eve.) Because I am unorthodox, we also put bacon, barbecue sauce, and peas in it. I don't care what you haters (read Pookie and Dobby) say; it was delicious.

Then Wednesday, I went shopping with Hannah in Reutlingen, which is a town that about 10 minutes away from Tübingen by train and has a much bigger Altstadt with a few more shops...ok a lot more. (However, let's be real, Tübingen is so much better.) Then we got back, I went to Clever Fit for the first time in a while, watched more Arrow (it's so bad it's good), ate the last of the chicken that was in my fridge, and then went to Hannah's to chill and try some of the Germanized Chilean food she made. (Lolerskates empanadas with pizza dough and döner meat.) Then we went to Münzgasse to hang out with the rest of Deutsch Kompakt, because so many people are leaving. (So sad.) 

And now I am here, blogging to (for?–what is the appropriate preposition here?/English is silly) you lovely people. In a few (roughly 7) hours I leave for Italy, and begin the adventure that is now coming to be known as Entspannungsphase. Let the craziness begin. 

In any case, I may be falling off the grid for the while. But everyone needs that every now and again, right? So with that said, bis später, dudes.

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”  –Herman Melville, Moby Dick

ExComm

So my weekend has been the opposite of interesting–unless you are a Cold War history nerd. Then you might have had some fun. Until tonight, I had not left my apartment since Thursday with the one exception of going to Kaufland to get frozen pizza. Instead, Yasmine and I spent the weekend studying the Cold War (and taking short breaks to watch the Olympic opening ceremony or Arrow). We called our little study-party ExComm (as in Kennedy's board of advisors during the Cuban Missile Crisis), because we have gotten to the point were history jokes are starting to get really funny. But despite the hermitage, it's actually been a pretty good and productive weekend. 

Also, everyone is leaving and that is so far from OK. 

With that, until I am free from finals, that is all. 

Anna und die Holztruhe Teil 9

Hey gang, also das ist mein letztes Spiegelschrifttext. Sad face, ich weiß, aber vielleicht schreibe ich etwas später. 

„Wer sind Sie“ fragte Anna. Sie kannte ihn nicht, aber sie hatte keine Angst vor ihn. Er hatte sie vor dem Killerkaninchen gerettet.

„Ich stelle die Fragen hier, Mädchen. Wer bist du? Wie bist du hier angekommen? Warum bist du hier? Ich sehe schon, dass du aus einer anderen Welt kommst. Deine Kleidung ist so...altmodisch.“

Anna sah ihren Umhang an, und dann sah sie ihn an. Er trug keinen Umhang sondern ein taillierter Mantel. Sie sah nur den König, der so einen Mantel trägt. „ich komme von der Erde. Wo bin ich jetzt?“

„So viele Fragen.“ sagte er. „Entschuldigen Sie bitte.“ antwortete sie.

„Wenn du das wissen musst, diese Welt heißt Mag Mell. Jetzt, wie bist du hier angekommen?“

„Ich bin durch ein Portal angekommen. Der Zauberer schickte mich hierher. Er hat mir erzählt, dass etwas hier meinem kleinen Bruder helfen kann.“

„Wie heißt du?“ „Anna“ antwortete sie unsicher.

Der mysteriöse Mann sah plötzlich gequält aus. „Gott, ich muss dich sofort zum König bringen.“ „Warum?“ fragte Anna.

„Wir können dir helfen, Anna, aber Mag Mell ist jetzt gefährlich für dich. Es gibt einen Krieg gegen unseren guten und gerechten König. Er hat viele Feinde, und jetzt hast du auch welche.“

we're not sentimental, we're just oil-filled machines

It's officially the beginning of the end. Of first semester that is. And while I still have another six months in Deutschland, many of my friends are leaving very soon, which makes me incredibly sad. Of course there are still adventures to be had as well, but for now, it's just a wee bit sentimental and very sad. So with that, I'll do a bit of a round-up, and then get all sappy on you guys. Get stoked.

So this past week has been a mess of trying to balance studying for history with seeing my friends that are leaving. Which means that I spend most of my days studying and then going to various dinners and parties at night. This past Wednesday, I finished my drum in art class, and then we had our last Stammtisch, which was a more low-key affair than usual but still in the Schloss Café. Then Thursday was last Donnerstagabend of the semester with Unterwegs, which was sad but at least there was really tasty (and free) food. Then Friday night was a Chinese New Year Party, which was thrown by Jiamin, who went all out and made delicious "gluttonous fermented rice dumplings" and had us each pick out our fortunes. Mine was I am going to "live longer forever." Which I guess is cool, immortality and all that. Then Saturday night I stayed in, did some studying, and after that ceased to be productive watched The Wolf of Wall Street. Which was an awesome and simultaneously appalling movie (if you know, you aren't some kind of money-obsessed, completely unempathetic "twisted Robin Hood" like the lovely main character Jordan Belfort). Then Sunday I studied all day and spent the night (early morning, really) watching the incredibly lame Super Bowl with all the other Americans from Deutsch Kompakt and a few Europeans. It was good fun and there was so much food (like stuffed peppers, nachos, wings, 12 avocados-worth of guacamole, potato skins, mashed potatoes as a by-product of said potato skins, and then beer, naturally). It was awesome. 

This is what 12 avocados-worth of guacamole looks like

So yeah, that's about all the things that have happened to me in the past week that have been fun. So sappy stuff now. I cannot believe that in less than a week first semester will be over. It's all gone by so fast. And it's even crazier that so many of my friends are returning to their respective countries and that I only have roughly six months left in this lovely country. But it's also super cool that within those next six months I can go and visit them. :D

And now with that: adventure time in a little more than a week! Hurrah! :D In this case, the Abenteuer starts in Italy. More specifically northern Italy in Bologne, Venice, Cinque Terre, and a few other places which I forget right now. Then onto Eastern Europe for my first real roadtrip. So excited. So in any case, bis später, gang.

Anna und die Holztruhe Teil 8

Bevor sie wusste was passierte, stürzte sie. Ein Portal stand offen, und sie war hineingefallen. Innerhalb des Portals war es windig, stärker als ein Tornado, und alles war dunkellila. Sie schrie, aber sie hörte keinen Schall. Plötzlich fiel sie nicht mehr.

„Wo bin ich?“ fragte sie verwirrt. Sie landete weich auf einem grasigen Hügel. Hier gab es Bäume, aber das war nicht der magische Wald. Dieser Wald sah wie die Erde aus, aber die Bäume waren nicht in den Boden gepflanzt. Diese Bäume schwebten 100 Meter über dem Boden. Es war ein schwebender Wald und total wunderschön.

Sie starrte darauf, bis etwas kleines ihren Fuß anstupste. Es verblüffte sie aber nicht lang. Es war ein kleines Kaninchen. „Hallo“ sagte sie. Sie erinnerte sich an den Geschichten, die sie als Kind gehört hatte. „Kannst du sprechen?“ Es legte seinen Kopf zur Seite. „OK, keine sprechendes Kaninchen.“ Aber dann knurrte es sie an. „Nettes Kaninchen“ sagte Anna. Das Kaninchen zeigte ihr seine Zähne und dann fiel es sie an. Sie schrie, aber sie fühlte nicht seine Zähne.  Sie öffnete ihre Augen und das Killerkaninchen war eingefroren.

„Bitte schön“ sagte ein großer Mann.

„Was? Was ist das? Wer bist du?“

„Frage später. Jetzt müssen wir rennen.“