After Freiburg, I worked at the tradeshow called DRUPA in Duesseldorf for two weeks straight. That's right, no weekends off or anything. I was really lucky to have found this job, though, that allows me to work in one long block instead of breaking up my summer into tiny little hectic pieces of working as a hostess, waitress, promoter or the like for two to four days in a row interrupted by continual searching for more employment to save up for the return flight's fare... But still, two weeks straight is stressful. Especially, if you stay with a friend and her 70 year old mother in a villa surrounded by a gate and the unusual schedule of that friend waking up at 5 a.m. to go to back to sleep at 10 p.m. I am really grateful she let me stay with her, considering that the trip from Moenchengladbach was supposed to save me commuting time to Duesseldorf, whereas Gerhard's place in Cologne/Rath would have supposedly taken me longer. In the end, I am not so sure that it really helped a lot (since her place was located at the end of the following itinerary: train from Duesseldorf to Moenchengladbach, train from Moenchengladbach to Rheydt, bus from Rheydt to house, walk to house for 10 minutes) and I certainly felt continuously bad about messing up Claudia's schedule and ringing her out of bed at night just to let me into the house...
Often, there were no buses running anymore and I walked from Rheydt trainstation to the house or vice versa, if it was a weekend... I felt like I was back in highschool with a curfew and no vehicle. However, she and her mom were lovely hosts and spoiled me whereever they could and I am very grateful for that! Often though, I chose to spend the night at my colleague's place so that I could go out with him and my other colleague without having to worry about waking Claudia. Overall, it worked out just fine and it was a fun two weeks!
This fun was mostly due to my colleagues and I going out every night and enjoying the pleasures of German beer! I indulged pretty much every night, though with Alster (a mix of beer and Sprite), as to save up the taste to last for another whole year in the States! I also tried to eat German every day and that might be why I have not really lost any weight while I was there, despite my irregular meals.
After that stretch of work and before setting out for Italy, I met up with my long friend Sarah Mueller with whom I used to share a horse in Braunschweig. It is incedible how small the world is, but we actually ran into each other one night before even managing to meet up after the show to catch up on things! She and her boyfriend were riding their bikes while I was going for a walk with Frank along the Rhine... Which is something we did every night, by the way, because neither of us knew people there and would have spent the evenings pretty much alone otherwise. This way, we got to hang out around Germany's romantic spots, such as the ruin of Friedrich I's Barbarossa Burg in Kaiserswerth, for example. For some one as tradition-hungry as me, that was great, of course! That is me in the picture standing in the castle...
And on a sidenote: If you think the dog that Claudia is depicted with is normal-sized, think again!
And just some more images from beautiful Germany...
Kaiserswerth Old Center:
Bathroom Art:
No comments:
Post a Comment