As you can see from the photo (sorry it’s not that good, but that’s
the only one where most of us fit into the screen) we ended our trip by meeting up with some of our flat mates. Finally Colin, Emily, and I could talk to other people. All we had to do was spend all day together on trains first. Currently, I only have permission to use Colin and Emily’s names along with one other flatmate who wasn’t on this trip, so excuse me if I’m vague at times.
We were supposed to go from Berlin to Radolfzell, a town where one of our German flat mates is from. However, our first train arrived around ten minutes late, and we had 10 minutes to reach our connecting train… if the arrival time had been correct. This resulted in us having to wait two hours for another train that would take a few hours to get to our final destination. We did find a fun way to pass the time though. Colin suggested a game that he plays with his family after vacations. The game is like twenty questions, but a person thinks about something everyone saw on the trip and everyone else has unlimited guesses until they figure it out. This entertained us for quite a while, but an hour before we arrived we were feeling quite restless.
Upon arrival, near midnight, our German host and one of our Canadian flat mates met us at the station and there were hugs to be had. We then walked back to our German friends house met her parents, who spoke very little English, and were served some dinner. Our host recounted to us about her trip to Amsterdam with a few of the other girls from the flat. Two of them had to go back to write essays, and two were asleep when we got in. That left our Australian friend out though. She had lost her passport on their buss service towards Radolfzell! We were told about what had happened, where she was, and that she may or may not join us for adventures in south Germany. With that awful news we fell asleep pretty fast thanks to exhaustion.
The next morning, we went to the nearby town of Konstanz right on Lake Constance. Our host had arranged a tour of the town with a friend of her uncle. He uncle, aunt, and a couple of others joined us on our “my English is so bad” tour. Of course the guide had great English and only needed help a couple of times to search for a word. The tour was informative and fun, but I just enjoyed it as a way to walk around the town. One too many free walking tours for me maybe. After the tour all the adults left and we went to get some curry worst. Our host really wanted everyone to try this so she could see our reactions. Turns out this was the first thing I ate in Germany, so both she and her parents had already asked me if I liked it. I had it again when everyone else did if that tells you anything. During this time we also learned that our Australian flat mate would be joining us, and that the train station she’d be arriving in fit in well with our plans!
After our curry, we had some time to kill. This led us to our hosts home university for a quick walk through some of it. The campus was beautiful and had an amazing view of the lake from the dinning hall and court yards! Afterwards we actually ferried across the lake to Uhldingen-Mühlhofen and walked around that side for a little while. During this whole time it had been slightly drizzling, just enough rain to be annoying but not enough to stop us from enjoying ourselves. After walking around we ended up at the train station and didn’t have to wait long for our Australian friend to arrive. It was shortly after this that our hosts day picked us up in groups of two and took us to his house where we met our hosts step mother and dog! Her boyfriend arrived shortly after we did as well, so Colin, Emily, and I had gone from just a few people, a day before, to a full room.
We were offered a variety of drinks and after relaxing for a while we took a walk to a nearby Stilt House outdoor museum. This museum talked about the artifacts found in the Lake Constance, and the people who once lived there in the Neolithic Stone and Bronze ages. We had a tour of the site, with just us and our guide who was very good. He had taught himself English without ever visiting an English speaking country, which I would’ve never guessed. To end the day we walked back to the house and got to enjoy a lovely barbecue. By most Texans standards this would’ve actually been a grill, but my taste buds didn’t seem to care what they called it. After dinner, we took a train back to Radolfzell, and mad plans to visit Switzerland the next day! I’ll save that story, and the rest of this trip for another post. SO…
Until next time,
Reed
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Read more from Reed at https://reedingatcolchester.files.wordpress.com/
To find out more about the Exchange program with University of Essex, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/exchange/essex
