So, after my Autumn holidays, reality hit me with an almighty thud. Don't get me wrong, I love my life here, I love my school, and it beats lectures hands down! But having been to Edinburgh, home, and visiting good friends in my holidays, the loneliness of Diepholz was not really beckoning me!
Amazingly, I seem to fill my time here. I don't have many things that I do regularly, but I seem to acquire random invitations to places, or like this week, I have just been sleeping...but then again, I have had an exciting life of late!
For this blog, I have to rewind. I have done quite a lot, and my memories are becoming quite vague!
So yes, back to my first week back after half term. School began, I had a new timetable, and I just got on with it, despite feeling sad... The fear has officially set in now, the fear being that I will never learn German....the fear is exactly what I need, and I feel like I've thrown myself into German a little more. I'm still not speaking enough, but at least now I know it's not for want of trying!
Anyway, first week passed, and then Janni came to stay! It was lovely, and oddly me knowing a friend would be coming to stay got me through the relative melancholic first week back!
Janni's train was inevitably late, yet upon his arrival we had dinner, and headed out into the night of Diepholz...even on a Saturday night, it isn't particularly the place to be! However, we frequented the new cocktail bar that has recently opened, and actually had people in it, and it wasn't half bad. We didn't go mad, deciding a clear head for Hamburg the next day would be the best idea.
We went to Hamburg on Sunday! Hamburg is such a brilliant, vibrant city! I really badly want to go back, and I am already planning to take any visitors that may come over (Deborah Britland, you're next!) there. Sadly, the day was slightly marred by horrendous weather, that left us soaked through and freezing...nevertheless, it was a great city.
So we stumbled off the train into City Hafen, which is a growing industrial area, with some beautiful archtecture. Janni has dragged me into appreciating architecture after my stay in Konstanz, and there were some really impressive buildings. We then decided to find this little cafe we'd heard of, which took some doing, but was definitely worth it! It was so small, had a menu of about 5 things....however was cheap and cheerful, and so cute! The food was really yummy and North German, and moreover, the cafe was WARM AND DRY, something I had longed for since my arrival in Hamburg! Full of food and Hamburg beer, we dredged back outside into the cold of Hamburg....
This is when we found the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, what is to be a great orchestra hall. Like everything else in Hamburg, it was under construction, but we got to see the outsides, and what it has the potential to be like, and I was impressed! A future visit to Hamburg when it is completed is a must, any music fans take note, I will take you there!
After a quick tour of the Altstadt (standard, when in German cities...), we jumped on a train to Bremen. I was entirely determined to not have our day ending on a sad note (we were thoroughly downhearted due to horrible cold Hamburg weather), and thus made Janni go to Bremen Freimarkt-like a Christmas Market, but without the Christmas!
This was so worth it, lots of happy people, lots of beer tents, lots of bright lights...enough said. We were happy, and back to Diepholz we went!
Janni stayed two more days....the next day we visited Bremen again, and I did a proper tour de la Stadt, ending in us drinking in the Becks Bistro (Becks is made near Bremen...) and eating some traditional North German grub! During his stay we also visited Bremerhaven...I do not recommend it as a winter destination, but I am sure the beach and sea is very pretty in summer! We did however go to the Einwanderer Haus, detailing the millions of people who fled Germany in the 18 and 1900s. We ended up spending all afternoon there, and it was quite geekily, the best 10 euros I've spent in a while!
And this marked the end of Janni's stay. Svenja came to dinner one night, which was lovely and full of good chat and giggling. I am so thankful to have Svenja here as a friend!
So yes, I will publish this very haphazardly written post...and will write about my Prague visit soon, probably over the weekend...I have big gaping time holes to fill!
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