Easter Weekend & Mosel Excursion

Friday morning, I left for Paderborn (a bit southwest from Hannover) to visit my good friend, Juliane. (She studied at my high school for a year back home in Nebraska.) She invited me to stay with her and her family during the Easter weekend.

The train ride was about 6 hours and I learned the hard way that the bus system does not run on Good Friday. Luckily, it was not raining as I walked from my dorm to the main train station. I found out how punctual and smooth traveling by train in Germany is...or at least I should say, my first real train trip went smoothly.

Paderborn is a bit smaller than Trier, but had some similarities...for example, the university there is about the same size as the Uni Trier and there is also a similar main market, except no roman ruins that far north. Her family, however, lives about 45 minutes from Paderborn in a small town, Lügde. It was a great experience staying with her family for a couple days to see what a 'typical' German family is like.

Some interesting things I noticed:
-there are doors to every room in the house and they are usually shut, but that does not mean that you are not welcome to come in (and the only way to lock the door is with the key)
-it is very expensive to build or buy your own home in Germany and that is why it is common for smaller families to live in apartments (Julianes family lived in a fairly new home, and it was their first home)
-Breakfasts (consisting of rolls/bread, a hard boiled egg, cheese, and coffee) are always eaten together as a family
-Lots more people have dogs there it seemed and they are always walking them or taking them places...I loved that!
-Kids rooms are the same size, if not bigger, than the parents room

I came to really enjoy her family...Holgar-the dad-, Mandi-the mom, and Ronald- her brother. Her dad was so excited to talk with me and had so many stories and things he wanted to tell me about that Juliane and Mandi had to keep telling him to not talk so much. (I enjoyed it though and I learned a lot from him.) He was quick to laugh and he wanted to practice his English, which for me, was harder to understand than his German, and Juliane and Mandi kept laughing and telling him to give me a break. But, they were all so nice and hospitable!

Saturday...they took me to a monument on top of a nearby mountain, called 'Hermans Denkmal'...it was made in the 1800s to honor a famous battle between the Romans and the Germanic tribe there long ago. I guess you could compare the size and appeal to that of our Mount Rushmore.

We also visited a museum in the hills where you can walk around actual farmhouses, schoolhouses, barns, etc. dating back to as early as the 1400s. It was incredible and I took a lot of pictures. (Which I HOPE to be posting sometime soon if I ever get the internet for the laptop.)

That evening, Juliane took me to her boyfriend's parent's home for a grill-out where two other couples who are her friends were also there. (I wish Ben could have been there with me:)...That was probably one of the more difficult times I have had trying to understand German. They had so many slang words in their vocabularly and talked so fast that it was a little hard to follow, but I guess I can say that I learned a lot and was exhausted by the end of the night. But, it was fun...ate, laughed, and even played a game, called, 'Wer bin ich' or 'Who am I'.

Sunday, we all ate together and visited. Julianes mom was so sweet that she even had an easter basket for me! But, I learned that they are not religious and that was a bit hard for me since after all, it was Easter. Sunday night, I left for Trier again and finally got back after 7 hours on the train at 1am.

MONDAY....was a blast! All of the international students and I took a bus to Cochem, a small town on the Moselle River. We visited the castle, 'Burg Cochem', which was originally built in 1000 and then rebuilt in the 1800s and used by the German Reich. It was incredible!

We saw:
-a secret door, yes...a secret door! It was used in case of a emergency exit down to the basement
-an actual armor used in the 1700s
-a wild boars head that was hunted down a couple hundred years ago
-the actual well used that was nearly 200 feet deep

Then, we went to a wine vineyard, which had been in the family for over 400 years! (Vineyards line the hills all around this region.)

The drive back was beautiful because the big bus somehow made its way through the small streets of nearby towns also along the Moselle River...the rain put me to sleep though since I was pretty exhausted after a full weekend.

Today, we watched the film, 'Die Letzen Tage' or 'The Last Days' for my orientation class...it was about the White Rose, a group in 1943 that wrote a flyer voicing their negative opinions on the Nazis and then put them all around their university. They were sentenced to death because of it.

Well....after my NOVEL, I should probably leave the University for the day and go grocery shopping. (Everything here literally shut down from Friday until today.)

Tonight, we are all going as a group to a local restaurant. Should be fun and of course, I always enjoy tasting the different kinds of food! (Okay, so I have still not tried the meat here, but who knows...maybe before I leave in August...hmmm)

Hope everyone had a lovely Easter!