Ich kam in wie eine Abrissbirne.

Hey, gang. As I mentioned before, this week has been the last week of Sommer before the Semesteranfang, which is, in deed, tomorrow. Therefore (as I also previously mentioned) a group of friends (Harvey, Graham, Johanna, Kyle, Hannah) and I went on a 3 day hiking adventure to a tiny mountain hamlet called Spielmannsau. Although I am not sure if the word hamlet accurately describes how tiny this place is.

To begin: our journey started just before 9AM on Thursday when we met at the Hauptbahnhof. Our first train left at 9:15. Since we wanted to save money, we bought a Schönes Wochenende ticket, which means that a group of 5 can travel on any Bahn (except IC Bahns) for the day. This, however, meant that we had to travel on four different trains. Naturally, our first train to Wenzingen am Neckar got in late. Which meant that we had to wait in the rain for 25 minutes for a train to Plochingen, and then from Plochingen we caught a train to Ulm. We said hello to the Ulmer Münster for a second time and sat in a very nice cafe to get out of the cold and rain. Luckily from Ulm, we got a direct train to Oberstdorf, which meant sitting in a super cozy train for 2 hours, sleeping, and reading On the Road. All of those things were quite wonderful. 

We got to Oberstdorf just as the rain began turning to slush and then snow. Before I talk about the weather, however, I shall talk about Oberstdorf. Oberstdorf is a lovely town in the middle of Bavaria. The train station strongly resembles an REI, and all of the buildings in the town are cute-sy and matching and lovely. It also happens to be a tourist trap, but it seems, largely only for old Germans. It's also 813m above sea level, which is roughly 2667ft high. 

Es schneit!!

However, we were not staying in Oberstdorf. Upon arriving at the train station, we waited 20 minutes for a bus to take us out to Spielmannsau. Spielmannsau is 983m (3225ft) high and is lucky if it can be big enough to be considered a hamlet. It consists of a hostel, a restaurant/biergarten, what appear to be a house, and a barn. There was a chicken just roaming around and it's in the middle of the mountains. And it's perfect. Since Spielmannsau is more than 100m higher than Oberstdorf, this meant that the sleet/slush in Oberstdorf quickly turned into full on snow in Spielmannsau. And it was beautiful. We kept reminding each other that it was, in fact, October 10th. 


Anyways, we arrived at Spielmannsau around 4. Since it was so tiny, it was incredibly easy to find our hostel, the Mountain Hostel. We went in, and a guy, who was the quintessential stereotypical hiker, and who I presume to be his girlfriend quickly escorted us to a room with 9 beds on the top floor. It was super chill. They didn't demand that we pay immediately or anything. The hostel itself was also the nicest hostel I have ever stayed in. It was super lodge-y feeling. Not a substitute for the Loj, but seeing as I was Loj-sick this weekend with Peak Weekend going on, it was a lovely place to be. We dropped our bags, and immediately went outside and played in the snow. That was super fun, and luckily not terribly cold (at least for me). 

After playing in the snow, we started making dinner. Otherwise known as installment three of pasta night. We still had pasta and pesto from our dinner a week ago that we brought. Boiling the water went more smoothly this time. After dinner, we hung out until around 11, when we decided it was just about time to go to bed. Because Loj time exists even whilst not at the Loj. 

We woke up around 8 for our hike. But we probably didn't get going until 9 or so what with rallying the troops, making sandwiches and packing backpacks. Unfortunately, what with the foot+ of snow, the original hike that we had planned wasn't particularly feasible. Everyone had tennis shoes, instead of hiking boots (except me, seeing as Simon keeps on saying we're going to hike the Matterhorn when he comes to visit, wanted to be prepared). So instead of hiking to the Austrian border, we did a little ~4km loop and ended up back at the hostel around noon or so. The hike was lovely. It was the most wonderful winterwonderland. Unfortunately it was quite foggy, so we couldn't see the mountains in all of their glory. 

Mmmm, I love me some nature.

Upon getting back to the hostel, we napped, and around 2, Hannah and I went into town to pick up food for our fourth installment of pasta night. We had pasta and sauce, but we also were hoping to get some meat and vegetables. We found an Edeka very near to the Busbahnhof and bought a bunch of feast for both dinner and breakfast the next morning. We got back around 4 or so, and after people futzed around with their technology (the place had wifi, which was rather sad, as the lack of wifi one wonderful thing about the Loj), we started making our glorious feast of pasta with tomato sauce, bratwurst, zucchini, onions, and peppers. We also made or attempted to make apple cider. Which for what we had (two packets of mix and a bunch of apples and some sugar) turned out quite well. After dinner, we hung out in our room again and there were various different types of shenanigans (the creation of der Dangerschrank, zum Beispiel) and then went to bed relatively early again. 

In the morning, we feasted again, but this time on 16 eggs. Harvey set off the fire alarm trying to make toast, and we left the hostel around 11, in order to catch the 12:30 train back to Ulm. We wandered around Oberstdorf, seeing as we had some time to kill. But that was a slight challenge seeing as all the old people in Bayern seemed to have descended upon Oberstdorf for the street fair. (Seriously someone in Germany must have yelled "Straßenmarkt in Oberstdorf!" and all the old people came in packs.) T'was utter insanity. 

The very packed Drunk Train

We made our train easily, and even managed to get prime seats (two of the coveted four-person tables). So we were quite comfortable for the first two hours of our journey. Then there was Ulm. Our train to Plochingen had straight up been cancelled. Luckily, we thought, there was train to Stuttgart. This train, however, was both 20 minutes late, and full of drunk people (most of which were wearing lederhosen and dirndls) going to Cannstatt for the last day of the Wasen. Seeing as the train was late and packed, we stood with all of our stuff for an hour and a half. But luckily we were standing by some drunk Spaniards, who kept us entertained. About an hour in, they started singing. There was the Macarena (something which I don't think I have ever heard someone sing the lyrics to), I Knew You Were Trouble (better than the goat version in my opinion, the screaming was perfect), and Stand By Me, amongst other songs. It was quite comical. 

After transferring in Plochingen, we got on a slightly (but only slightly) less packed train to Tübingen, wherein a dirndl-ed girl vomited, and we spoke with a man, who wore glorious Bono glasses. It was particularly funny when a guy standing next to us, stated in surprise "you're speaking German?" Yup, bro, wir können Deutsch sprechen. 

We got back around 6, and I went home, did laundry, managed to cut my finger pretty badly on the vent/cheese grater on the very short ceiling of my laundry room/dungeon. That wasn't pleasant, and the laundry room kind of looked like a crime scene. So yeah, that wasn't great. 

But yeah, other than that the only other big bit of news is that: Ich habe mein Flugticket nach SCHWEDEN gebucht. Woooo!! Super stoked. Even if it is in the dead of winter (December). We are gonna have a blast and a half. 

And now, classes officially start tomorrow. But only one of my classes starts this week. All the rest start next week. When I am more sure of what I am taking, I'll lay it all out, but for now, it looks like I am gonna do a poli sci class, an econ class, a history class, Swedish, creative writing in German, and an art class. Should be an interesting semester. And I guess this means that the study part of studying abroad is officially starting. And that's about it for now. Bis später, Kinder.