Germany

           As a reward for finishing three out of four finals, I took a week-long break to Germany to visit one of my best friends growing up, Kaila, who is studying for the year in Tübingen (south-west Germany). The flight over with Lufthansa was the true definition of luxury after spending too much time on Ryanair this year. For a trip of less than three hours they offered me a meal and wine or beer, which of course I accepted eagerly even though all I truly wanted was water, which shows me how messed up the U.S.’s drinking law is—deprivation apparently leads to hoarding….

I arrived in Munich in the night and met my couchsurfing host Baran in the train stop. Although I’ve never done couchsurfing alone and had some reservations, Baran and I immediately hit it off and it turned out to be pretty fun. On Thursday he showed me all around Munich, including the beautiful English Garden where we ate a traditional German meal in a beer garden. I don’t know how people can say portion sizes are huge in America if they’ve ever set foot in Bavaria—in one sitting people were eating pretzels bigger than my head, towers of meat dripping with sauce, and multiple liters of beer.

We walked around for a while longer and then headed to the Isar river to sit and relax. The river served as a perfect fridge to chill our beers, and people lined the shores, waded, drank and juggled while the sun set. That night we went to another beer garden to watch the Germany vs. Italy Eurocup game, but Germany lost so it was a pretty somber atmosphere.

Baran and me in the English Garden

Throughout the day Baran tried to teach me some German in preparation for next year, and I think it´s safe to say that if it took me 8 years to become fluent in Spanish, i´ll probably have grandchildren before I master German. The words are longer than I have breath to pronounce, and trying to make the ´ch´ sound in the back of my throat came out more similar to gagging than the pronunciation of an actual letter.  

The next day I took a long bus ride to Tübingen, and it was so great to reunite with Kaila after almost a year. She’s having an equally amazing time studying abroad, so it was so much fun to catch up and share stories. I immediately fell in love with Tübingen, which is a pretty small city (even smaller than Granada) and has such charming buildings and parks. That night I got some beers with her roommate Miles and his sister Milena, who was visiting as well.

Beautiful Tübingen

On Saturday we went to a huge outdoor swimming pool since it was ridiculously hot for German standards (although basically chilly for Granada´s), and spent the whole day lounging, swimming, and hanging out with some of Kaila’s California friends. That night turned into the biggest thunderstorm I have ever seen, with lightening every two seconds, but somehow we still managed to get out the door and meet Kaila’s program director/friend Jan for some drinks. He works in the California State University office, which also shares space with the Tufts office, and on this particular weekend the Tufts Dean of Admissions happened to be visiting, and also came to drinks with Jan. If I were a millionaire Tufts would have been my first choice school in a heartbeat, and here I found myself in the tiny town of Tübingen with the Dean of Admissions buying me rounds.

Riverfront island

Milena, Kaila, and me

Smelling that fresh Tübingen air

It rained every subsequent day of my stay in Germany, but I still had a fantastic time since the trip was really about the people I was with. Kaila, Miles, Milena and I baked, made elaborate meals (Greek stuffed tomatoes and fajitas), played cards, and drank amazing German beer (I will never drink a Bud’s light ever again). I think I spent 90% of the trip laughing, which, now that I think of it, is how I spend the majority of my time when I’m with Kaila or any member of the Wanberg family. 

We managed to do a lot of sight-seeing as well when the rain cleared up occasionally, and the beautiful town is nestled in luscious green hills. All the buildings have red rooves and I think I would have probably died from its quaintness if I had been there during Christmas.

I reluctantly returned to Granada´s final exams and heat after such a wonderful week. In fact, during the flight it became clear that I was almost back in Spain when Lufthansa decided to serve us none other than packaged strips of ham. I missed pretzels and sausage already....

(Side note: Spain won the Euro-cup while I was in Tübingen, which is great except that it occurred on one of the few occasions that I was OUTSIDE of the country. Also all the Germans were still depressed from Germany’s loss to Italy. I’m sure the atmosphere would have been a little more thrilling in Granada, but I’ll take a week trip to Germany if it means missing the game!)