“Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller…”
(28) It’s over!
So, my time in Rostock is very nearly over. Today is my last full day here as my Bus is at 12pm tomorrow. The past week has been a mixture of emotions; excitement, sadness, stress, and everything in-between.
Last Friday, I went to a beach party organised by the LEI. We had a BBQ, played music and chatted as the sun set. I didn’t stay out for much longer past midnight, as the next day I had to get up early to catch a bus to Hamburg.
Sarah, Camille, Vanessa and I did a day trip to Hamburg on Saturday to have a look around, have lunch and do some shopping. It was a really great day, (there are a few photos below) and I said goodbye to Sarah as she went travelling for a couple of weeks and isn’t back in Rostock until after I leave.
On Sunday afternoon, I went to the university botanical gardens (also a couple of photos below) and had a look round as a break from revision. It was only quite small, but really pretty and lovely and relaxing in the gorgeous weather.
On Monday evening, our friend Anna and her flatmate Saskia cooked me, Camille and Vanessa some typical German food. (There’s also a photo below). They cooked us a massive selection of different food and all of it was delicious. It was a really fun evening of chatting, eating and drinking.
On Tuesday I had my last exam. It was a module that I also had with a few of my French friends so we went for lunch together after the exam. In the evening, Camille, Vanessa, Soeren, and I cooked lasagne together and then all of us Erasmus students had a goodbye party. There was lots of drinking, lots of fun and few tears as some of said goodbye.
On Wednesday, my bags were collected as I’m sending them home with sendmybag.com rather than dragging two big heavy suitcases with me round Berlin. However, this meant I had to stay in most of the day to wait for them to be picked up. I think this was when it really hit me that I’m going home.
Today, I’ve also spent time with friends and am going out for dinner with a friend later, as I’ve either sent home, sold or donated my stuff so have nothing to cook with!
Amongst all this, I’ve also been collecting Scheine (certificates to confirm my grade for my modules), done lots of admin things such as closing my bank account etc, cleaned my room and my flat, and also had fun with friends doing things like going shopping, and having ice cream.
It’s been an amazing year with amazing people in an amazing place.
(27) Translation
Today is the 20th July. I’ve so far done 6 exams, 1 assignment and have 1 more exam to do. I fly home in 9 days. I’m half packed, I’ve got all my important forms signed, have done some celebratory shopping, have sold or given away most of the stuff I’m not bringing home and have little left to do apart from a bit of revision, some cleaning and to say goodbye to my friends here.
It’s crazy how quickly this year has gone. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I first arrived in Rostock, yet I feel like so much has changed since then; I’ve made some amazing friends from all over the world, I’ve become so much more confident, my German has massively improved, I’ve started learning Spanish, and I’ve found a love for translation so much so that I’d like to pursue a career in it. (Just to name a few.)
My above-mentioned recent assignment was a 1000 word translation from German into English. Part of the translation that I chose to do included a poem. Poems can be very hard to translate as you have to maintain the meaning, but also have to choose whether to maintain the style (rhyme etc.) as well. I really enjoyed doing this assignment and was very proud of it, especially the poem, so I thought I’d share it with you:
I walk through the soft Hallig* grass,
The flowers are abloom.
The island wears a coat of feathers,
That the herring gulls deplume.
My Hallig, you precious gem,
Upon which the ocean waves rage.
Your terps greet the open sea,
The light white sky a cage.
The flowers sway in the summer breeze,
The smell of the wormwood so bitter.
The cliff edges are like a song,
From ancestor and benefiter.
The organ of the sea plays a wonderful song,
You hear the hiss, swoosh, and rumble.
On the island edge, the horizon breaks through,
And the waves foam, roll, and tumble.
My Hallig, you precious gem,
Upon which the ocean waves rage.
You Nordic fairy-tale, you fighter you,
Have a place in my heart ‘til old age.
*For reference, The Halligen (singular Hallig) are ten small German islands without protective dikes in the North Frisian Islands on Schleswig-Holstein’s Wadden Sea-North Sea coast in the district of Nordfriesland.
(26) Schwerin
On Saturday the 16th July, I took a break from revision and went on a day trip to Schwerin with my friend Sarah.
Schwerin is the capital and second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
We left Rostock Hauptbahnhof at about 1pm, and it took about an hour to get to Schwerin. When we got there, we walked into the town centre and had some pizza and then found a really cute looking waffle place that we had to go to!
After we’d eaten, we walked to Schwerin palace to have a look around. The palace is really beautiful and has some beautiful gardens too. We enjoyed looking around and taking in the beautiful views.
After we’d looked around, we walked back into the main high street and did a bit of shopping and then went back to the train station and had a subway dinner whilst waiting for our train.
Even though I have been taking breaks from revision and have still been enjoying spending evenings with erasmus friends, it was really nice to take an afternoon off and explore a new place with a great friend.
This is only a very short blog post as the main thing to do in Schwerin is to see the castle, and below are some photos that I took there:
(25) I Amsterdam
This weekend I did some more travelling, and for the first time during my year abroad, I visited a place where they don’t speak German: Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In the evening of Thursday 7th July, me and my friend Chelsea took an overnight bus from Rostock to Amsterdam, with a change in Berlin. We arrived in Amsterdam at about 11:30am on friday morning. We got the bus from the station to close by where we were staying and then walked to meet Carmen to get the keys to the apartment. (We got accommodation through AirBnB). Carmen showed us around the apartment; it was a cute little place and we had our own room and a shared bathroom and kitchen. she’d laid out towels for us to use and little bottles of shampoo, conditioner etc. like you get in a hotel. We freshened ourselves up, and then walked to the centre. (which only took a few minutes as we were in a great location!)
We stopped and had some lunch at a local cafe and then had a wander around. Amsterdam is a really beautiful city. Whilst exploring, we found the cheese museum so we had a look around that and enjoyed some free samples (some of the cheese was very brightly coloured, blue, pink etc.)! We spent most of the afternoon wandering around, and stopping for a drink every now and then. We then came across the “Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution” and so decided to have a look around – it gave us a very interesting insight! We then stopped off at a place for dinner, but after ordering our food, looked down a few minutes later to see a mouse at the foot of the table next to us! We very swiftly asked them to cancel our orders and went somewhere a little more upmarket for dinner! After a few drinks, we went back to our apartment.
The next morning, we got up and walked to a different part of the city, where the “I Amsterdam” sign is, so that we could take some typical touristy photos. We had some breakfast with a lovely view of some of the museums and then took a walk through Vondelpark, as the weather was so nice. After this, we went back into the centre to queue up for the Anne Frank house. We queued for about 2 hours, amusing ourselves and taking it in turns to leave the queue to get chips or a drink. Visiting the house was well worth the long wait, it was very moving to walk around the house and to read all the information. I think it’s really important that people visit places such as this. After this, we again wandered around some of the city, stopping at a cafe for a drink every now and then, and of course, in the evening we had to see what the red light district was really like. I don’t know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn’t that! There are girls in windows everywhere and it’s surprising how many people are walking slowly past trying to choose a girl, or queuing up for the live sex shows! We then did a bar crawl through some of the pubs, sampling the local beer, before heading pack to the apartment.
On the Sunday, I got up, got dressed and packed my bag and went straight to the central station. There I said goodbye to Chelsea, as she was continuing doing some travelling (lucky! – I still have exams!) and I travelled to the airport, where I flew to Hamburg then got the train back to Rostock. It was a really great trip, with someone who has become one my closest friends during our time abroad. Below are some photos:
(24) Camping!
This blog post is going to be a bit of a weird mix of things – it’s mainly about my camping trip this weekend, but also about the spate of bad luck I seem to have had in the past few days (most of which was whilst camping, but some not). This camping trip was organised by the Local Erasmus Initiative, so there’s also a little bit about how much of a great organisation I think this is (don’t get offended if you’re a brexiter)! So, without further ado…
We all met at Rostock Hauptbahnhof at 16:00 on Friday, in order to get the 16:34 train. It was only a short journey and one change to our destination of Mirow. It was then a 3km walk to the campsite, but me and Sarah got to ride in the minivan that came to pick up all our luggage with Soeren (the perks of being best buds with someone in charge)! We arrived at the campsite and started putting up tents until everyone else arrived to help. After we were all set up, we had some free time to go swimming in the lake and then we started grilling. Half way through the BBQ, the heavens opened and it absolutely chucked it down, so we had to wait it out under the marquee. Thankfully it only rained for a short time, and then we continued to grill and drink and chat until the early hours. However, on that night I managed to lose 10 euros and lock my SIM card (great start Beth…)
On Saturday, we got up, had a freezing cold shower, and then went and had breakfast at one of the cafes on site, before getting ready to go canoeing. Some of you may know that I have a massive fear of canoes due to some traumatic childhood memories (thanks Mum and Dad) but I conquered my fear and even though me, Sarah and Soeren were the last canoe to go in the water, we were actually the first to our destination 5km away. We had a short break there for lunch and then rowed back, stopping to look at the local wildlife. That evening we also had a BBQ and played some drinking games with everyone.
On the Sunday, we again got up and had breakfast and then got ready to go on what was supposed to be a 20km bike ride.. it was actually about double that, but I kept up and made it in good time! Despite putting on sun-cream and insect repellent, I got horrifically burnt and even more horrifically bitten. I estimate about 50+ bites, all huge, and have had some sort of allergic reaction to some on my foot which means it has swelled to double the size (cue buying allergy tablets and cream in the pharmacy today to try and help). Because the bike ride was longer than we thought, we missed the train we were supposed to get and ended up getting a later train home. But the journey home was fun, with lots of singing and beer-drinking, even though we were tired!
I got back to my flat to discover that my internet was still not working (it had stopped working on Friday but I didn’t have enough time to fix it before going camping – thankfully I managed to fix it after an hour or so on Sunday). I also stood on some glass from a cup I had dropped on Friday as I had obviously missed that bit whilst hoovering (told you I was having a spate of bad luck)!
Despite all the bad luck I had ( I think I’ve mentioned a good 6 or 7 things and that’s not even counting the trouble I’ve had with things like Student Finance or paperwork over here), I had such an amazing weekend with my Erasmus family. There is such a sense of community even though we are all different nationalities, and we always have such a great time. The trip also meant I did things that I wouldn’t usually do and it was so cheap because most of it is funded by the Erasmus programme, and a lot of the money I’ve spent on trips like this was also given to me as funding by the Erasmus programme, which is a part of the EU. Trips like this, and my amazing Erasmus family have made my year abroad so much fun and as I wrote in my previous blog post ((23) Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you), has really helped me in my confidence and my learning of the German culture (and many other cultures) and language. I think it’s a great shame that this funding may be lost after the brexit, and that it may be harder to organise placements, meaning that future language learners (or other university students wanting to do a year abroad) may find it tougher to have and fund a year abroad. It has genuinely been one of the best years of my life. But hey ho, there’s nothing I can do about what the British public voted for, except for sit and wait to see if half of my degree will be rendered practically pointless and if my dream job will be harder to get into. As my Irish friend Sarah says, “that’s your luck.”
Below are a handful of photos from my trip:
(23) Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you
My lovely readers,
Usually you have to wait a while in between my blog posts, but this week, you’re getting two within a few days!
You see, today marks a mere 7 weeks until I fly home, and until the end of my year abroad! And whilst I still have 5 weeks of lectures and 2 weeks of exams, and a few trips planned in the meantime, I’ve already had to start saying some of my goodbyes.
A couple of people have already gone back to their home universities, and three of my friends were here in Rostock working as teaching assistants and their contracts ended at the end of May – which means over the past two weeks, I’ve had to start saying goodbye!
Two of my friends left the last weekend in May, another left on Wednesday, and one left yesterday!
As I said, I still have 7 weeks left, so I plan to make the most of the rest of my time here, even though I do need to crack on with revision (sigh!). But it’s just started to dawn on me how my year abroad is very nearly over! (Don’t worry, you can still expect at least another 4 blog posts from me until then!)
The people that have just left Rostock are amongst some of the many people that have made my time here so amazing, and I can’t thank them enough for it – we definitely have some great memories. I know that soon I’ll have to say goodbye to everyone else too and we’ll all be going back to different corners of the world. Although I’m sure (I hope) with a lot of people it’s not “goodbye”, its “until next time”, it’s still sad to think that this year is over.
But, as the quote goes (although I’m not entirely sure on the source):
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
(22) The hills ARE alive with the sound of music (aka my trip to Salzburg)!!!
Anyone that knows me well, will know how much I absolutely love musicals, and how The Sound of Music is one of my all time favourites. Anyone who knows The Sound of music will know that it’s set in Salzburg, Austria. So, I’m in Germany with an opportunity to travel… of course Salzburg is at the top of my list! And I finally got round to going there this weekend just gone!
On the 2nd June, I took an overnight bus from Rostock to Salzburg (it was a 14 hour journey with a stop off in Berlin, but it was so worth the very numb bum!). I arrived in Salzburg at about 10am, and went to the tourist info desk at the main train station to pick up my salzburg card: this is a great little card that you buy for a fixed amount that then means you can use the public transport and visit many different museums or tourist attractions at no extra cost. It’s very good value for money, I would have spent more just during my first day if I didn’t buy it! (http://www.salzburg.info/bdb02_sehenswertes/salzburgcard_folder_en.pdf) .
Afterwards, I walked into the main centre and started doing my sightseeing. Just in that first day I went to Mozart’s wohnhaus, Mozart’s Geburthaus, a cruise on the river Salzach, up the Mönchsberglift and into the modern art museum, the toy museum, the christmas museum, the panorama museum, and I had a walk around the different parts of the old town. After this, I checked into my hotel and then went to a nearby restaurant for some dinner.
On the Saturday, I got up early and made my way into town to go on a salt mines tour. We drove up into the mountains and went into one of the working mines there. We had to wear overalls and then went on a small train down into the mine. The tour guide told us about the process of mining salt and the history of it, as we went through the mine watching different animations and light shows, going down mining slides and funiculars, and going on a small boat. It was really interesting, although I don’t recommend it for anyone who is claustrophobic! We then went to a place called Berchtesgaden and had the chance to get some food, and have a look around the quaint little town. After this, we drove back to the bus station, where I had some ice cream as I waited for my next tour; the sound of music tour! This was, without a doubt, the highlight of my trip. We visited many different places that featured in the film, we sang all the songs, we ate “crisp apple strudel”, we took lots of photos, and learnt a lot about the history of the film and Hollywood’s filming secrets.
On the Sunday, I had a little bit more of a lie-in before going to the Stiegel brewery. Here, I had a tour and was told about the brewing process and the history of the brewery. I then had the chance to try 3 of the beers and also got given a small stein as a souvenir. After this, I went on a tour of the festival halls (another place where the sound of music was filmed) and learnt about the history of that building and it’s function. I then went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress which is a castle that sits on the top of a small hill in Salzburg, and so offered beautiful views of the city. I then went to the bus station to have dinner before getting on the bus back to Rostock.
Below is a slideshow of photos from my trip:
(21) A visit from my Parents
Firstly, apologies for the delay in this blog post; my parents left Rostock over a week ago but I’ve been so busy since then (with partying with friends before they leave, uni work, and recovering from being ill), I’ve only been able to write a little bit at a time. But, without further ado, this is an account of my week with them:
Thursday 12th
After a very long day of travelling, and a lot of trouble with the bus, my parents arrived in Rostock at about 5pm. We went to their hotel so they could check in and unpack, and then we caught the tram into the town centre to get some dinner. Then I left them in their hotel to get some much-needed rest, whilst I went to a friend’s place for a few drinks.
Friday 13th
Because the weather was nice, we took the opportunity to go to Warnemünde as Mum and Dad hadn’t yet been there. We went to a bakery for breakfast, and then walked along the pier and through the town, obviously stopping to have ice cream. That evening we went to a Greek restaurant for dinner and ate way too much, but it was delicious!
Saturday 14th
On Saturday, we went on a day trip to Lübeck. We caught the bus at 9:45 and arrived there at 11:15. We walked from the bus station into the main town centre, stopping along the way to look at different things such as the town gate. We went to the marzipan museum which was really interesting and spent the rest of the day doing some sightseeing (there’s a crazy amount of churches in Lübeck!) and also stopped off a couple of times to have food or a drink and then we caught the bus back to Rostock at 17:45, arriving at 19:30.
Sunday 15th
On Sunday, we had a bit of a chill day because the previous days had been quite busy so we had a little wander in the town and along the harbour and then went to the Trotzenburg Brauhaus for some traditional German food, and there I also managed to finally buy a stein with Rostock written on it! In the evening, I met up with a few friends for some drinks, which resulted in going to a club until 5am!
Monday 16th
Me, Mum, Dad, and a group of my friends went to Karl’s erlebnis dorf (http://www.karls.de/roevershagen.html) which is a place where they grow strawberries and then make all sorts of different things out of them such as cake, ice cream, beer, wine etc. and sell them. But there are also different attractions for kids and an ice sculpture exhibition. We looked around the exhibition, watched some of the sweets being made and tried some of the different food there. Then in the evening, we went to an Italian place for dinner.
Tuesday 17th
I arranged an english guided tour of the former pre-trial stasi prison at 11am on Tuesday, which me, Mum and Dad found very interesting and insightful. We then went to an American diner for lunch before I had to go to my spanish lesson. After my lesson, I met Dad at the supermarket closest to my flat so he could help me carry a case of beer back to mine for pre-drinks later and then we got some food from a bakery and went back to the hotel to see Mum. We chilled for a bit and ate our food before I went back to mine to get ready to go to freibier with my friends.
Wednesday 18th
We went to Warnemünde again on Wednesday. This time stopping to get chips, as well as ice-cream, to help cure my awful hangover. We also went on a boat tour around the harbour for an hour. We then went back to their hotel to get ready to go to a place called hopfenkeller for dinner, and then after dinner, Mum and Dad came with me to the weekly stammtisch.
Thursday 19th
Mum and Dad’s bus was at 12pm so I met them at their hotel so they could check out, and then we went to a cafe for some food before I waved them off at the bus station.
It was really nice to have them visit for a week, but was strange knowing that that would be the last time they would visit me in Germany as I only have 9 weeks left here now. It’s crazy how quickly it’s gone!
(20) Hiddensee
On Sunday 8th May, I went on a day trip to the island of Hiddensee with my friends Sinean and Alasdair, and I completely fell in love with the place.
Hiddensee is an island on the Baltic coast, which is just west of another one of Germany’s islands Rügen. (I’ve also been there (8) LEI-Rügenfahrt.). The island is car-free which means that it’s 1300 inhabitants must travel everywhere by foot, bike, horse and cart, or boat.
So, at 6:50am, we all met at Rostock Hauptbahnhof to buy our MV ticket and get on our 7am train to Stralsund. Once in Stralsund, we walked around the town before heading to the harbour to buy our ferry ticket and wait for the ferry to arrive. At 9:20am, the ferry departed, and we sat on the deck to admire the views of the Baltic coast until we arrived in Neuendorf, Hiddensee.
Once there, we headed over to a shop where we could rent bikes for the day, paid our 5 euros each and headed off to explore.
First we cycled through Neuendorf, stopping to look at anything that interested us, such as the coast, or some of the old buildings and little cottages. We then headed off to the next subdivision of Vitte, and then onto Kloster. We made several stops along the way, to take photos, have ice cream, and to explore some places by foot (usually the places that involved lots of stairs). We saw lots of wildlife including birds, cows, horses and even a snake. We also spent lots of time on the beach, skipping stones and even swimming/ having a splash fight!
I couldn’t tell you exactly how far we cycled, but Alasdair reckons it was about 20km – not bad for someone who hasn’t been on a bike for about 10 years! Lots of the cycling was also on really bumpy terrain, or uphill which was a lot of effort in 20+ degree heat but offered some absolutely amazing views. (FYI going downhill on a bicycle definitely makes it worth having to go uphill in the first place – especially when it’s a really big hill and you go speeding down it!)
We made our way back to Neuendorf with enough time to have cake and a drink before our ferry back left at 16:35. When we arrived back in Stralsund, we had some time to kill so we had some food and another wander around before catching our train, which arrived back in Rostock at about 9pm.
I could write pages and pages about what we did and how unique and amazing this island is, and I could have taken hundred of photos to show how beautiful it is but I still wouldn’t be able to do it justice. The three of us could barely believe we were still in Germany. I would recommend visiting Hiddensee to anyone and will definitely be going there again someday.
(19) Potsdam
From the 30th April until the 1st May, I went on a trip with the LEI to Potsdam.
On the Saturday morning, we had to meet at 8:10am at the main train station in Rostock. There, we were welcomed with a shot of either mint or cherry schnapps before we had to get on the train.
We were all quite tired from the early start (I’d also been out for dinner and a few drinks with Camille, Chelsea, Sinean and jess the night before so hadn’t had a lot of sleep – but I highly recommend das Kumpirhaus in Rostock!) however, it didn’t take too long for us all to perk up.
We had to get on one train to Oranienburg and then use the S-bahn to get to our hostel. This journey took slightly longer than planned due to the fact that we had to make an extra stop because a few of the boys had drank a little too much alcohol! Once we finally got to the hostel, we dropped off our bags and then made our way to Schloss Sansoucci.
We had a tour of the castle and it’s grounds and the whole place was really extraordinary. Unfortunately, I don’t have too many pictures as you couldn’t take photographs inside of the building but the décor was very extravagant with lots of detailed paintings and gold gilding. Whilst there, we put a potato on the grave of Friedrich der Grosse. Here’s why:
LEAVING A POTATO ON FREDERICK THE GREAT’S GRAVE
Most people visiting Potsdam are there for one reason—to view Frederick the Great’s palaces. But in addition to the grandiose architecture, you can actually visit Frederick the Great’s grave.Frederick the Great wanted to be buried on the grounds of Schloss Sanssouci, his summer palace. As a relatively benevolent Prussian emperor, he was much revered by people around the world. One of his accomplishments, though, is a bit odd for such a cultured emperor. He’s largely responsible for introducing the potato crop to the region. During his reign, he made a special point to promote the potato: Rumor has it that he actually stationed guards around the crops to make them appear valuable and therefore more desirable.
As a sign of respect today, visitors place potatoes on his tombstone.
After this, we met a leader from the Erasmus Society in Potsdam who gave us a quick tour of the rest of Potsdam, including Alter Markt, which had some really beautiful architecture.
In the evening we went to Baumblütenfest; which was a bit like a wine festival with music and food stalls. The food and drink was great but by the time we got there, there were lots of drunk people stumbling around and the music wasn’t anything that spectacular. This meant that we didn’t stay very long but getting home ended up taking us 3 hours! We got on the wrong train, as a police officer told us we could take it to get to our stop, but we ended up at the other side of Berlin so had to travel all the way back again, which resulted in someone getting lost too. It was awful at the time but at least now we can laugh about it!
The next day, after very little sleep, we woke up, had breakfast and went to Filmpark Babelsberg. This is a film studio with a children’s theme park attached. Naturally, we went on all of the rides, went to some of the shows, and ate lots of food including ice cream (so happy the weather is nicer now!).
After this, we travelled back to Rostock on the train whilst trying to keep ourselves awake by drinking beer and playing music on the train carriage. All in all, it was a great weekend with great people and Potsdam was a really pretty place.
Auslandsjahr der Bethany 