Frühling in Franken

I seem to have neglected my blog for quite a while now so I think it’s finally time for another post.

The time is going so quickly and I can hardly believe I only have about three weeks left as a teaching assistant! So now I’m really trying to make the most of my time living in Nürnberg and teaching my classes.

The weather has finally become nice and sunny (annoyingly it decided to arrive after Issy had gone home – sorry, Is!). So of course what better way to to enjoy the sunshine than by visiting the Nürnberg Volksfest? This was basically a large fair but of course, being Germany, it’s all based around the beer tents. It’s a bit like Oktoberfest, only a bit more… modest. I went there with two of my trusty American companions, Alix and Eric, and we sampled all the delights the Volksfest had to offer, from beer and Schlager music to the air-rifle stand and the ferris wheel. There was also a fantastic parade of classic cars, or ‘Oldtimers’ as they call them here, with everything from VW Beetles to Corvettes and Mustangs.

The highlight, however, was definitely the ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’ beer tent where a brilliant band played all kinds of classics from ‘Living on a prayer’, to ‘Timber’, ‘Call Me Maybe’ (I know these aren’t all really ‘rock hits’ exactly but the crowd loved them) and German hits like ‘Auf uns’ and ‘Atemlos’. The hall gradually got fuller and fuller until hundreds of people were standing up on the benches, beers in hand, singing along to every song. The atmosphere was amazing and everyone was so enthusiastic and friendly. The whole thing also felt more genuine than Oktoberfest as it was mainly the locals getting together for a great time (oh and of course drinking ridiculous quantities of beer).

I realise that the few blogs I’ve written have been slightly dominated by themes of beer-drinking and Lederhosen but I promise there’s more to my year abroad in Germany than just these stereotypes. I also love eating sausages, watching football and yodelling from the mountain-tops (or is that last one for Switzerland?). In some cases, many stereotypes are certainly justified. For one thing, beer really is a vital part of life here and Franconia (Nürnberg is the largest city in this region) has hundreds of small breweries. In some restaurants it will actually be cheaper than water! At the Volksfest I decided to have a bit of a rest from it and when I asked for something non-alcoholic I was met with a baffled expression and the words ‘Was ist los mit dir?!’ (‘What’s wrong with you?!’). Clearly you have to be either ill or mad to refuse beer. This directness is definitely something you experience a lot here and if you do something wrong you certainly know about it! Apparently the Franconians also have a reputation for being a bit grumpy but I’ve found the majority of people have been really welcoming. Nowehere is this more true than with one of my favourite classes in school, 5D. They are about eleven to twelve years old and are endlessly energetic and enthusiastic. Most lessons they give me hugs, sometimes presents and we even have our own handshake. It’s been amazing to see how they’ve come on with their English and I think they’ll be the class I’ll miss most after I leave. Everyone in both my schools has made me feel so welcome and I’ve been able to work with some brilliant pupils and teachers. It’s also been really nice for most pupils to see me as more of a friend than a teacher as this makes them much more willing to talk to me in English. In one of my schools I had a fantatsic time playing in the annual football game on the side of the teachers against the school team. We lost by quite a margin but it was such a fun game and it was great to feel so involved with the teachers and pupils. My ever-bouncy year 5s were there to cheer me on too and chanted my name after I snuck in a goal for the teachers. That day is certainly one I won’t forget in a hurry.

Over the Easter holidays it was amazing to have Issy here to stay with me. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great but we had a fantastic time together and managed to visit some lovely places despite the rain and the cold. One of the highlights was Bamberg; a beautiful old town where we enjoyed some delicious milkshakes by the castle overlooking the town. As always, the time Is was here went far too quickly and it would have been lovely to have more time and sunnier weather!

Now though, it’s time to make the most of being in Nürnberg, which is really looking gorgeous now that spring has arrived. Updates to follow as they happen. Until then here are some pictures of this gorgeous city.

Sunny Nürnberg

Not a bad spot

At the Volksfest

More of lovely Nürnberg

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Beer, Lederhosen and Hiccups: A Day at Oktoberfest

It’s been a while since my first blog and I’ve done a lot since then including fulfilling my ambition of going to Oktoberfest! Now that it’s actually November I feel I should probably write it up before I forget it all.

The day of Oktoberfest started at around 5am or so, as my train left for Munich at 6:30am! I thought this would be plenty early enough to avoid a lot of the crowds and get to the Oktoberfest site in plenty of time before it got too busy. How wrong I was. I was lucky enough to get one of the last seats on the train before a stream of Lederhosen and Dirndl-wearing locals got on board. Despite it being just 6:30 in the morning, most of them were already drinking and quite a few were already drunk. They were all a good laugh and sang songs most of the way to Munich, so that made the journey more entertaining at least.

In Munich I met Dan, a fellow member of last year’s German Society committee in Exeter, along with his friend David. He guided me brilliantly by Facebook to the tent they were in and I eventually found them after a lot of queueing (which in Oktoberfest means a huge crowd rushes towards a door and hopes for the best). The atmosphere was fantastic and there was a real buzz and feeling of excitement in the beer hall which was packed with hundreds of excited people from all over the world. I knew it was going to be pretty multicultural when I heard a man, who sounded remarkably similar to Johnny Vegas, next to me in the queue say to his friend ‘Eh, why don’t we get one of them pretzel things before we go in?’. So much for the ultimate authentic German experience.

After quite a bit of waiting we were able to get our Maße (the huge tankards of beer) and I was seriously impressed that the women serving them could carry at least 6 at a time! There were plenty of brave (I think that’s the right word) people around who would get up on a table and try and drink an entire Maß in one and they were cheered on by the crowd to finish the whole thing. I felt decidedly un-German struggling on with mine. At 9:30 in the morning drinking large quantities of German beer is far from an easy task.

All this fun continued until an inexplicably-angry security guard came along and told all of us sitting in a certain area that we had to leave. None of us had done anything wrong but he pushed us out of the tent without letting us finish our drinks and even knocked some people’s drinks to the floor. So that was a somewhat bizarre and disappointing end to my first Oktoberfest, but it allowed us to explore the rest of the Oktoberfest site a bit more as well as parts of Munich.

It was great to wander round the city with Dan and David, even though I was plagued by hiccups for most of the day (sorry to you both, you must have been sick of it!). Maybe drinking that much so early in the day is something best left to the expert Germans. It was great to see more of the city and we saw something amazing on the Eisbach – the river creates constant waves and there were loads of surfers taking it in turns to brave the cold waters. It was amazing to watch!

Here’s an idea of what it was like:

After seeing a few more of the sights I said goodbye to the guys and headed back to Nuremberg. The first train I could get, however, seemed to take rather a scenic route back and took way longer than I expected it to. Without anyone to talk to or any battery on my phone it felt like a very, very long journey home.

However, that couldn’t spoil what was a great day and my experience of Oktoberfest is certainly something I won’t forget!

Neu in Nürnberg

Well, I’ve been in Germany for over two weeks now and I’m only just getting round to doing my first blog. I’ve never blogged before so I don’t know how often I’ll be blogging in the course of the year. Hopefully I’ll have enough interesting things to talk about.

I’ve been so busy since arriving – opening a bank account and registering as an inhabitant of the city (with a mere hour’s wait in the queue) were two of the boring admin things. The British Council training course in Maria in der Aue, near Köln, was the fun bit! I was expecting we’d be put up in a hostel but actually it was a lovely conference hotel situated in the tranquil German countryside. The weather was glorious, the food was great (having seconds was almost compulsory) and the people I met there were all lovely. I’m hope I can meet up with them lots during the year!

‘So what’s Nuremberg like then?’, I hear you ask. Excellent question! In a word: wonderful. It’s a really picturesque, interesting city with plenty to do but not too much hustle and bustle. Most people here are really welcoming and friendly. If you look confused at a tram stop/U-Bahn stop/in a shop/basically anywhere (things that happen more often than I’d like to admit) then they come up and ask if you need help. This is lovely but the regional dialect is pretty strong here so most of the advice they give me goes straight over my head!

I’m teaching in two different schools here and I’ve just come to the end of my first week. The teachers and pupils I’ve met in both schools are really friendly and (so far) are pleased to have an English language assistant from Wales in their school. I also have Fridays off so a three-day weekend means more time for travelling (or maybe more sleep)!

Obviously, the other important thing to talk about is food! It seems that all the food here is not only delicious and well-made, but also really reasonably priced. Of course, I’ve sampled beer, Nuremberg sausages and Schnitzel but, following in the tradition of Exeter Uni German Society 2013-14, I’ve eaten more Italian food than anything else. There’s one restaurant which has already become a favourite, as the food is great and the waiter is really friendly. Upon hearing I’m from Wales he mentioned that he had some Welsh customers the other day and that a lady with a beautiful voice had sung a few songs. Apparently she was a soprano so I’m just going to presume that it was Katherine Jenkins. So it just goes to show that, wherever you are in the world, you’re never far away from a Welsh person singing.

That’s your lot for now. So, as the locals say (even they prefer Italian), ciao!