Der Teufel fährt Panda.

Hey-o lovely people. So, over these past few days, I have played more wine Fußball (Monday), which was quite lovely and we went to a hookah bar afterwards and attended a Kaltes Krieg-themed party (Tuesday), wherein I tried my first ever Russian food (it was delicious). Hmmm, other things. I finally got strawberries from a market stand. And my God, was that awesome. Also I purchased my own cookware on account of the disappearing cookware in my apartment. It's currently being hoarded in mein Zimmer. So that's all well and good, however, now I am going to tell you about my day today.

Heute sind die Deutsch Kompakt nach Bodensee (Meersburg und Konstanz) gereist. (A map of which is above.) So the Bodensee (I guess in English, people call it Lake Constance) is a large lake on the German-Swiss border. It's the largest lake in Germany and the third largest freshwater lake in Europe. It spans across two German states (Baden-Württemberg and Bayern) and provides drinking water for a boat-load of people in Germany. That's the official stuff. Unofficially, it seems to be the place where old people go to vacation or retire. 

Wallfahrtskirche

After a super early wake-up call and a kick-ass bus nap, we arrived at this super pink church, known as Wallfahrtskirche Birnau. Inside it was interesting... To me, it looked like an overzealous old woman decorated it. It was rather distracting. Inside, the main colour scheme was bright pastels--like the kind you see in little old lady's houses, and the ceiling was painted in a super ornate fashion. Also, I am fairly confident that we were the only people in there under the age of 55 (although David claimed that the median age was 150). Then we took an extended Wanderung to Pfahlbaumuseum, which consisted of a lot of corn fields, but was still rather pretty. 

So: the Pfahlbaumuseum. I guess it's a UNESCO "world inheritance" site (UNESCO Weltkulturerbe, I don't know if I translated that correctly) or something. It's a super cool museum about the stilt houses of Neolithic Stone Age and Bronze Age peoples. The stilt houses (Pfahlbauhäusern) have been reconstructed, of course, but it's still super cool. In the beginning, there's a fully automated part, wherein you begin in a science-y "sea expedition" boat-looking room. Two people, a man and a woman speak in German (I believe they also have an option of putting it in other languages) about going out scuba diving. After a little while, two doors open and you are put into a large square room that looks like the bottom of the Bodensee, where the man and the woman talk some more. Then a part of the wall moves aside and you are put into a circular room with TVs on the side. The TVs start out showing crackling ice, which eventually melts and then the Pfahlbauhäusern are constructed on the screen before your very eyes. I guess it's much cooler to experience than my description, but I tried. Finally, one of the walls pulls up and you are outside with your tour guide (in our case a very nice Schwäbisch lady). She led us through each of the houses, showing us living quarters, where they kept the animals, and other things. I dunno, I don't really care to go into too much detail. All in all, it was pretty alright. 

Mittagessen mit einem Blick

Afterwards, we hopped back onto the bus, and it took us to Meersburg, a small, German-y town right on the Bodensee. When we got there, we went straight up to the Schloss garden and stopped to have a picnic. Deutsch Kompakt had bought us 'belegtes Brötchen'-s (which is what the little meat and cheese sandwich things that they sell in bakeries here are called), apples, and juice, and so we nommed whilst overlooking the Bodensee. (We were lucky that we had a good day for it too.) Afterwards, we checked out the 'Burg,' which is an old castle-type thing directly overlooking the Bodensee. I guess it was also home to Annette von Droste Hülshoff, who was a 19th century writer and composer, which I guess if a big deal. I don't think any of us were particularly into that angle so much as just messing around in the castle. My friend dubbed Ms. Droste-Hülshoff 'the original overly-attached girlfriend' on account of the various pictures around the castle, and we enjoyed making fun of the weird cherubs with antlers coming out of their asses. 

For comparison

After the Burg, we had a little bit of time to bum around, so a bunch of us (predominantly Swedes and Spaniards) went to a cafe and got some coffee or ice cream. Of course, I got ice cream. And my God, was that awesome. Fun facts from our cafe hangout. So I don't know if I said this before, but I guess Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes can understand each other when speaking their own languages. So a Norwegian can speak Norwegian with a Swede, who is speaking Swedish, and they can have a fully functional conversation. Is that not super cool? It's also particularly helpful when the Swedes are having a conversation that there a Norwegian around to translate it. Also can I say how shitty I feel that I only speak two languages (I guess one and a half would probably be a more accurate number, but we'll round up). In Deutsch Kompakt, all of the Europeans (and quite a few of the Americans) speak at least three languages (and do it really damned well). Having met and talked to all these guys, I want to now pick back up French, try to start Spanish again, and try learning Portugese and Swedish or Norwegian. But I guess I should stick with bettering my German first. Anyways, I digress.

It was delicious, and I regret nothing.

Then we had to meet up with the bus so that we could get on a ferry to Konstanz. We got on the ferry, bus and all, and had a lovely 20 minute right across the Bodensee. Upon arrival, we were shepherded to the restaurant, which we would later be eating at (so that we knew where it was) and then we all went and explored yet another church/cathedral. (I think I am getting a little sick of the looking at churches thing.) Then we had Freizeit until Abendessen. So a bunch of us went and rented some paddle boats. A few others decided to swim in the Bodensee (I guess they had the foresight to bring swimsuits), so we paddled over to where they were and hanging out. They hopped on our boats and got us rather wet, but it was still very fun. But unfortunately, we only had a half an hour with the boats, so we paddled back and gave them back (although we were rather tempted to high-jack them. It was high time to head to dinner. We ate at a place called 'Sedir,' which Andrea, the head of Deutsch Kompakt, described as a 'student restaurant,' which I guess is just code for saying that the prices are rather cheap. In any case, we literally invaded the restaurant, which was not terribly bad. We watched the waitress turn down various folks who came in. Two guys came in saying that they wanted a table to ten, and the waitress proceeded to tell them that they had 'gar nicht Platz.' It was also pretty hilarious hearing David question with dismay why the waitresses were putting people at tables with people they don't know (something that happens in Germany)  and then saying how that would never happen in Sweden, because apparently in Sweden you never talk to people you don't know. Anyways, I digress again. The food was quite delicious. It was a Turkish place, so naturally, I got some Döner, a Döner Teller to be more specific. The rest of dinner consisted of a discussion about how to eat in Europe (continental style with the fork in the left hand and knife always in the right, as opposed to the American way where you cut something and then put down the knife to put the fork back in your left hand), table manners in Asia, and China v Hong Kong v Taiwan. It was all super interesting. 

Boats, boats, boats

After the restaurant, we were shepherded to our bus stop, which oddly looked like a Chinese Pagoda (weird, right?), and then we got on the bus for another two hours, wherein I promptly passed out. And now I am here, having uploaded all of my photos to Facebook and blogging, partially for you lovely people and the rest for self-indulgence. 

Anyways, other than that, I guess the only thing to talk about is my plan for Oktoberfest. Julius, Theron, Yasmine, and I are leaving at 3PM on Friday for what is going to be an insane 48 hours. We are sleeping in tents at the "All Inclusive Munich Campsite" somewhere on what appears to be the outskirts-ish of München. They also have 10€ all you can drink beer and sangria. Dreams do come true. We are kind of taking a 'take nothing, leave nothing' approach, in that we are bringing just about nothing. Which is probably better for everyone. 

Final thing: happy stipend receiving day...woooooo! So yeah, that's about it from my end. Bis später, Kinder.