Oktoberfest

Hä Dear Reader!

This weekend I went on my first trip away from Konstanz – a road trip to München (Munich) to visit the Oktoberfest with my German friend and an American girl. To get to München from Konstanz we had to drive through Switzerland and Austria, giving us a good view of the other major German-speaking countries.

On Friday, we had a look around München city-centre and visited the Rathaus, to get the obligatory tourist photo, plus the struggle to fit the whole building one frame! I’d like to go back for a better explore at some point, when there are less tourists, and at a time when I can watch the Glockenspiel carillon moving around.

After our site-seeing, we went to the Augustiner-Grossgaststätte, one of the traditional Bier Kellers in München, for a Weiβwurst Frühstück – a Bavarian speciality consisting of white sausages, sweet mustard, Brezel (pretzel) and beer. According to the Bavarians, you should not eat the skin on the white sausage, as only the tourists eat it – it should either be sliced off or the innards sucked out, leaving the skin on the plate.

In the afternoon we went Lederhose shopping for my friend – we spent two hours in the shop trying to get the right fit and colour for him. Eventually we managed to get some which looked really good – but only after the shop’s owner, “der Meister”, had sufficiently touched him up and made me look at various men’s bottoms to give my opinion on how fitted the Lederhose were: the tighter around the bottom the better apparently! It is possible to spend a fortune on Lederhose as they can cost anything from around 100Euro upwards; one Brewer that we met spent over 1,000Euro on his Tracht!

In the evening, I was given my first view of the Oktoberfest – a huge funfair stretching out across the Theresienwiese (or Wies’n for short) – not at all what I was expecting! Naïvely, I was thinking of a more traditional Oktoberfest – as though it had never changed from the original celebrations of the October 1810 of the wedding of the Bavarian Crown Prince and Princess Therese. On this day, the happy couple celebrated their marriage by hosting a huge party and horse race on the Theresienwiese, named after the Princess; the party has been repeated ever since, but was extended into September for the better weather. In my head I was imagining a glorified street party in multiple tents, with lots of beer and traditional music, and though this does occur, it was the sheer modernity of festival which shocked me!

Dressed in my mother’s old dirndl, which she has gifted to me for my German knowledge development, we wondered around the carnival watching people dressed in their finest Tracht – Dirndls, Lederhose and anything in-between! There are so many varieties of Dirndls for ladies to wear; it seems that anything goes in terms of length, style and colour – so long as the top is low-cut-ish; there is ribbon cross-hatched across the front; and an apron, with the bow tied so as to indicate the marital status of the wearer. We happily munched our way through chocolate covered fruit and caramelised nuts, staples of German festival food, and got lost in the crowds swarming around and going on rides.

Early on Saturday, we headed back to the Oktoberfest to arrive at the beer tents for 9am, which is when the tents open at weekends. We decided to go to the Spatenbräu Ochsenbraterei, as our new Brewer friend brews beer for Spaten, so we felt we should sample his efforts. By five past nine the tent was heaving, and we struggled to find a table amid the throng of around 5,000 Tracht-ers. Luckily we managed to grab a bench, and by ten past were happily slurping at our Maβs of beer (or Radler, given it was still early!). The beer itself is brewed specially for the Oktoberfest, so that it is less gassy and so it is possible to pour out a full litre without too much of a frothy head on it.

The Oktoberfest was soon in full swing, with a traditional oompa band leading us through traditional German drinking songs, such as “Ein Prostit, Ein Prostit, Der Gemütlichkeit” during which one must raise their Maβ and then Prost with all the people on the table with you; as well as more modern songs like Sweet Caroline. Needless to say we were quickly all up on the benches dancing joyfully, as though we had all been long-lost friends from years gone by…

Sleeping Companions

Ach Dear Reader!

Despite sleeping with the window firmly closed, I have managed to acquire some new sleeping companions, leaving me with more bites than face at the moment. My body is covered in bumps and bites, but at least I have stopped waking up in the middle of the night due to itching.

Apparently it is normal to have lots of biting insects around in September because of the lake, and as soon as the weather changes for winter they will no longer be around. Although I have been very much enjoying the beautiful sunny weather, I'm ready to lose my new facial and body decorations! My fellow internationals do not appear to be as affected as I have been - perhaps I am acting as the bait so that they don't get bitten...

It seems though that the temperature is changing - each day it is getting colder and I've started having to wear a coat in the daytime. I've even resorted to walking to uni because it is too cold to wait at the bus-stop for the same amount as it takes to walk.

Yet, do not worry dear friends, I have not swollen or frozen so badly that I am unrecognisable - nothing a nice mug of tea and some Photoshop cannot sort out!

Rothaus Brewery

Liebe Grüβe Dear Reader!

Today (Wednesday) I visited one of the many German breweries in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest): Die Badischen Staatsbrauereit Rothaus; known as Rothaus for short. The Rothaus brewery is the highest brewery in Germany, lying high up in the mountains, with very little around it! It was started in 1791 by a monk, but the original buildings are no longer still standing due to a large fire and it had to be rebuilt in 1905. Apparently, since Rothaus began the beer recipe has not changed and, though the technology has advanced, the process has remained mostly the same.

Our visit began with a tour around the brewery, in the same order that the beer also travels. The smell of beer accompanies you around the trip, though it does change slightly as you venture around. Unfortunately, I cannot remember all the processes, so I’ll just give you some of the highlights from my own understanding and memory. According to the Rheinheitsgebot (German purity laws for beer) there are only three main ingredients to make beer: water, malt and hops. Yeast is also added at some point during the process to act as an enzyme, but is removed later on in the beer making.

To start we were shown some huge copper vats, which is used to mix, heat, separate and generally serve as a multi-purpose for the beginning stages of beer. If anyone would like to (re-)explain the process to me, then feel free to post in the comments section below! It is here that the malt is broken down into malt sugars, ready for the yeast to do its work at helping the beer to ferment.

We then stood beneath some of the storage silos where the beer is kept for fermenting – they were huge, containing 180,000litres of beer each! The beer is kept there for roughly a week at 8-10°C for normal beer or 3-4days at 15-20°C for Hefeweizen, which is another type of beer that tastes a bit different. It is here that the yeast is added, from either the top or the bottom, depending on what type of beer is being brewed.

Next we went to see the packing place for the Zäpfle, the 33cl bottles of beer – filled at a rate of roughly 55,000-60,000 bottles per hour! I quite enjoyed watching thousands of little bottles speeding around the room at breakneck speed, but I’m not sure how well I would cope going quite that fast round so many tight bends…

Interestingly, the non-alcoholic beer is made in the same way, but is then sent to a special place in Germany to have the alcohol removed. There is only one place in the whole of Germany that does this, and still manages to keep the taste of the beer intact. Now I can understand why Alkoholfrei Bier (alcohol-free beer) is as expensive as the real thing!

After the tour, we were given the opportunity to try as many of the beers as we wanted, accompanied by freshly baked bread and sausage-meat-spheres. As a result we tried all the types of beer that Rothaus makes; though I am still not enamoured with the taste of beer (perhaps I should try out a few more breweries), I feel I can at least now distinguish some of the types of beer from the others, even if I’m not quite sure what the various names are!

PROST!

Prost Dear Reader!

This weekend I have warmed up for my visit to the original Oktoberfest in München, by going to the Deutsch-Schweizer Oktoberfest am Bodensee in Konstanz. The Konstanz Oktoberfest claims to be the third largest in Germany, with the other being Stuttgart. However, with only two beer tents and an eerily deserted fairground, one has to wonder how little the rest of Germany celebrates! Perhaps they have their own beer festivals at another time of year…

My Konstanz Oktoberfest experience was split into two very distinctive halves (I hope at some point to rectify this and have the proper experience altogether): Saturday evening and Sunday evening.

Saturday was madness and, having followed Tracht-wearing people (i.e. Dirndls and Lederhose) to the right place, we queued up to get an entrance pin. As many of us are newly registered official Konstanz residents, we were given a Gutschein by the nice people at the foreign office for the pin, which has given us free entry for the whole festival. There were people streaming everywhere and I did feel rather out of place not dressed in traditional clothing. We decided to try out the Paulaner Festhalle/Bierzelt (Beer Tent), which was jam-packed full of people dressed appropriately. Suffice to say that in jeans, we stood out like a sore thumb. Any attempt to make it near to a table was met with a cry of “NE!” as people desperately tried to save seats either for their friends or for people rightly clad. We ended up standing between the crepe stand and the toilets – possibly not the most glamorous location, but we could observe the German (and Swiss) people having a whale of a time, while we sedately drank our München-brewed beer (or apple juice if you were me).

Determined to get into the full Oktoberfest spirit for ourselves, we went again on Sunday night. The contrast could not have been more different – the place was empty, save for a few tables in the middle of the room. We sat (note, we had a whole table to ourselves – something which is unheard of at the München Oktoberfest) nervously and order a Maβ: a litre of beer served in a special glass, known as a Stein. I ordered a Radler – a mixture of beer and lemonade – and though I made very little headway with it, probably less than a wine-glass-worth, it was good fun to have around. A litre of liquid is surprisingly heavy, but despite this the Germans seem intent on waving it in the air whilst singing drunkenly to traditional Volksleider/drinking songs. Here, I was slowly initiated into the ways of Maβ drinking:
Firstly, whenever you get a new Maβ at the table, you must all chink glasses and cry “Prost!” before drinking.

Secondly, every time the music stops, you must shout “Prost!”, cheers again and then drink.
Thirdly, there are special songs devoted to yelling “Prost!” and then drinking – it is obligatory to join in with this.
Fourthly, if someone challenges you to a drinking race, you must accept. The race starts with “Prost!” and the winner is the person who drinks the segment first. The glasses are patterned with grooves, with four in each glass – thus making up the segments.
Fifthly, if you are bored/drunk/keeping time of the music/in need of attention, bang your Stein upon the table. Continue this for as long as necessary, along with rhythmic swaying, raising your hands/glasses in the air and foot banging as directed by the conductor of the band.

To further my rehearsal for the München Oktoberfest, I have also now stood on a bench and bobbed up and down a bit. In full embracing of the stereotype, Germans really do dance on their tables in Lederhose whilst drinking beer.

All I need to do now is the get the costume sorted, plus find a man willing to dance with me donned in Lederhosen, and I will achieved one of my “aims” for this year!

Volleyball

Guten Morgen Dear Reader!

Yesterday, I attempted to learn to play Volleyball - a sport which appears to be taught in every country apart from the UK and Ireland. Suffice to say that my team with a Brit and an Irish, as well as being made up of 5 girls and only 1 boy, managed to successfully lose all 6 games out of a total of 6. However, we definitely had the best team spirit out there despite adversity!

Volleyball is relatively painful - the idea is to keep the ball in the air, by propelling it upwards using your palms and lower arms. Bare in mind that this ball is going at a rate of knots from the sky and everyone runs towards it with mad lust in their eyes, the sport becomes fairly scary quite quickly - especially for the more athletically and co-ordination-ly challenged, such as myself.

Yet, as the games continued, I feel I did improve. I very nearly managed to actually serve a ball over the net (it went in it, but quite high up - the first attempt almost hit someone on one of the neighbouring courts) and at one point actually managed to successfully hit the ball over the net itself in full play. Unfortunately my team were so busy being shocked that I had achieved something vaguely like sporting prowess, that we managed to forget that you have to keep the volley going!

Luckily I appear to have come out of the experience relatively unscathed - though my right hand is suffering from having tried to enthusiastically hit the ball single-handed! I'd like to try beach volleyball next in the sunshine, though probably without the skimpy outfit...

Imperia

Servus Dear Reader!

Last Thursday I went to visit Imperia with a new German friend of mine from München (Munich), who is also new to Konstanz. We ventured over to the harbour to find this mysterious being and were greeted by a 9metre high, 18 tonne, revolving stone statue of a prostitute – this is Imperia. She is the first thing that people see when they come to Konstanz by boat and, much to the annoyance of the locals (seriously, they had riots about her), has become a recognisable symbol of the town.

Imperia comes from a Balzac novel about the time of the Council of Konstanz. For those who do not know (and I didn’t either until the International Office told me), for a few years prior 1417 there were three different popes, all claiming to be the real pope. As a result the Catholic world was in chaos, and so in 1417, a council was formed to elect the new real pope. This took place in Konstanz, in what is now known as the Konzilgebäude, but was originally a warehouse for corn and one of the largest buildings in the whole of Germany at this time. As it turns out, the cardinals did not elect any of the three possible popes, and instead opted to vote in Pope Martin V.

According to the Imperia story, Imperia was so beautiful that all the men fell in love with her instantly, including Pope Martin V and the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund (who I believe was king in this area). In this way, Imperia could control the entire area, and this is why the pope and king are both depicted as naked sitting in Imperia’s hands. Every time she spins she looks towards the Konzilgebäude and then out to the Bodensee, and she has been turning once every 3-4minutes since 1993.

Meersburg Photos

To get to the Altes Schloss and the main Altstadt from the habour, you have to go up a massive hill! This is the view from the bottom of the hill:

This is a picture of the wonderful view you get from the castle - in the far distance is Konstanz. As you can see it was extremely sunny!!

Afterwards we headed to the Wine Festival. Here is a picture of the brass band, who were the main attraction (alongside the wine of course!)

Wein und Wurst - What a Wonderful Weekend

Guten Abend Dear Reader!

On Sunday, I visited the town of Meersburg, literally translated meaning castle (Burg) of the sea (Meer). It is located on the other side of the Bodensee, and is only a short ferry ride away from Konstanz. The town is built on the side of a steep vineyard, from which local wine is produced and celebrated at the annual wine festival (more about that in a bit).

I visited the Altes Schloss (Old Castle) which is the oldest inhabited castle in Germany, dating from 628AD, and overlooks the Bodensee from its position right on the edge of the hill. There are a couple of interesting features inside this moated and turreted castle, for example, a well that has been constructed inside its own room, so the water supply could not be cut off; and an escape route leading from the depths of the castle down to the lake's edge. Out of the windows, overlooking the lake and a small bit of the more modern town, are truly breathtaking views. I cannot describe how stunning it looked in the glorious sunshine, with the colours all vibrant and the lake glistening. For those who know Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, a famous German poet-ess (1797-1848), this is the placed where she lived and died; her bedroom and study have been preserved, much to the joy of her fans.

After the castle, I went to the 37. Bodensee Weinfest Meersburg 2011, in the pedestrianised Altstadt (old town). The wine festival takes place once a year for three days, and the wine is all produced from the vineyards surrounding the Bodensee. In the main square, tables were laid out looking over the main stages, from which a huge brass band dressed all in Lederhose and Dirndls, were playing. Around the side of this all, stood all the various wine stalls; and it was in this setting (a wonderfully stereotypical image), that I had my first Wurst (sausage) within Germany. After munching our way through Bratwurst mit Kartoffelsalat (potato salad - German style, so had a surprising amount of vinegar in it), we walked further into town onto one of the side streets. Here we managed to commandeer a table from which we could observe the wandering brass quintet, dressed in Tracht (traditional dress) of course; made friends with Germans and bought one of the celebratory wine glasses. For those who are not aware, it is traditional in Germany for events to have their own cups with the place, date, name and sometimes decoration - for Weinfest, this will be wine glasses and for Weihnachtsmarkte (Christmas Markets), this is mugs. Almost every stall within the market will use the celebratory cups, and each time you buy a drink you pay a Pfand (deposit), which is returned when/if you bring the cup back to the stall. If not, you are free to keep it - as I plan to do for this year to build up my collection of celebratory German event cups...

The Bodensee-Schweizer Oktoberfest starts on Friday, as well as the real Oktoberfest in München (Münich). No doubt I'll end up at least at one of them if not both, but stay tuned to find out which and when. Tschüs!

Making A Home

Guten Tag Dear Reader!

I have now been in Konstanz for just over a week and have been attending a German language course at the university. It has been a lot of fun learning about the Bodensee from my teacher (in German, of course) and also meeting her son, who came in to talk to us about being a Jugendliche (teenager) in Konstanz. I also realised just how little of the grammar rules I actually remember!

In the afternoons we have been dealing with various orientation and a lot of administrative exercises, as there are so many forms to fill out and formalities to go through. Luckily though, we have had plenty of evenings to do stuff in.

Most of my new friends here are international and (usually) English speaking - so hopefully we'll be having plenty of adventures and journeys across the German speaking world. For those who think this is cheating, we have been expanding the group outwards and meeting lots of German students as well, who have been making us practice our German speaking skills! We've been trying out cooking ourselves as well - much to the surprise of our respective parents.

We live all over Konstanz, so I've been visiting other student accommodations - not just my own. It's given me plenty of opportunities get to know the town as well as the bus system, although, unfortunately, the buses stop really early, so I have spent at least four evenings this week trudging back home in the dark and getting progressively more lost. I can now find you a very beautiful gravestone or a sex shop, depending on what you desire! However, fear not, Konstanz is very safe and it feels very secure walking home - even at past midnight.

On Friday, we went out to a club called Kantine, which is literally is in the middle of nowhere. It is interesting to see that in German clubs everyone wears normal clothes without any dressing up, as well as Kantine also having a Wurst (sausage) stand. It was a lot of fun and felt far more manageable than an English club, as there was an outside area, which was much less claustrophobic.

Yesterday we went on a historic tour around Konstanz - walking around the harbour, the Altstadt (old town) and the minster. Yet, rather than bore you with lots of history and no photos, I will wait until I revisit to tell you about it all.

Today I'm off to Meersburg, which is over the other side of the Bodensee. I'll be seeing the city and the castle (making sure not to forget my camera this time), and possibly visiting the annual Meersburg wine festival as well. Will post again soon, but until then, Auf Wiedersehen.

Wilkommen in Konstanz

Hallo Dear Reader!

Ich bin jetzt im Deutschland :)

Konstanz is stunning, especially in the beautiful sunshine we are having at the moment. The lake, Bodensee (Lake Constance in English), reaches right out beyond sight until it meets the sky in the same wonderful blue. Parts of the town are very old, as the Allies would not risk bombing so close to Switzerland, and the centre is quite small. It is like living in a holiday resort, surrounded by tourists, and chirping of cicadas in the evening. I think I will be happy here and am starting to get over my nerves for speaking German to German people.

I arrived in Konstanz on Friday evening and have moved into my new home: one of the student halls, not far from the Universitaet Konstanz. Outside my front door, it is even possible to see all the way to university - 15minute walking in a straight line. My flatmates are all physics students and all seem very nice. They are also all German, so my language skills are already being tested. They are a bit stressed at the moment as they have exams coming up; our breakfast this morning turned into a science lesson, featuring the workings of a microwave!

Yesterday I began settling in properly. My family and I went to buy crockery, which was a slightly bizarre experience, as one shop sold knives but no forks, while another sold forks but no knives! We went for a drive outside the centre of Konstanz and found a nice park to walk in - we didn't realise such an innocent looking path would lead to a nudist beach...luckily I managed to avoid any frontal viewing, as my sister marched us away at full speed, wondering what sort of place I was coming to!

Last night I went on a Kneipentour (Pub Crawl) with some of the other international students. We started in a beer garden right on the habour called Hafenhalle, which was just stunning. They also seem to do food there, so I hope I'll get a chance to sample some of the local cuisine in the coming weeks while the weather is good. There were various stag nights out that evening as well, which seem much more tame than in the UK. One set had the groom strip down to his lederhosen, stand on his head, and have the young ladies of our group write upon his body. Another group had the groom in a large chicken hat come to our table and ask if he could cut the tag from one of our bras...One of the American girls in the group offered and the groom staggered off happily to his waiting group of stags.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the year brings now - I start language classes tomorrow. Wish me viel Glueck and lots of luck!

Diversion to a Far Off Land

Halò Dear Reader, Ciamar a tha thu/sibh?

Again it seems that I have managed to lose my way to Germany and have instead headed northwards to the Scottish border. Fear not, dear friends, my compass has not gone wrong, as I have gone to Gretna Green for my Aunt and Uncle’s renewal of their vows for their pearl wedding anniversary (30 years), in the traditional anvil ceremony at the Old Blacksmith’s Shop.

For those who don’t know, Gretna Green is one of the first villages inside Scotland, and for this reason was a popular destination for young couples eloping to get married many years ago. In England, the law stated that the couple must either have their parents’ consent or be over 21 years of age, and had to be married in Parish Churches (with exceptions granted for Quakers and Jews). Yet, under Scottish law, the couple could marry without consent at the age of 16 and it was only the solemn promise that was needed to make the marriage legally binding, wherever it was held. Blacksmiths, as well as inn keepers, were called to witness and perform these marriages; so many in Gretna Green would wed couples as a secondary occupation, known as the anvil priesthood. Our destination, the Old Blacksmith’s Shop, is one of the oldest “marriage rooms” in Gretna Green, having performed marriages since 1754. On one occasion, it is believed that the anvil priest here returned home after a funeral to find eight couples waiting on his doorstep wanting to be wed. Anvil priests were said to work ‘doctors hours’, a reference to the fact that it was once possible to be wed at any time, day or night.

The ceremony is fairly simple; the anvil priest would ask the couple if they wished to be wed and they would make their vows to each other. The anvil priest would then strike the anvil with a hammer, declaring the couple to have been forged together, and they were wed. The ceremony was quick, so as not to disturb the blacksmith’s work too much, and also because the bride’s parents would usually be in hot pursuit – trying desperately to prevent the marriage from occurring. Even today, the ceremonies were performed in quick succession; within 5-10 minutes of our party leaving the room, the happy couple led by a traditional Scottish piper, the next wedding had already been ushered in. For those partnerships that did not have sufficient time to have the ceremony performed, they would be put into bed together; and the parents would be persuaded that they had arrived too late and the children had been married – only for the ceremony to be hastily performed later on. The only way to end these marriages was through an Act of Parliament annulling the marriage.

Following the ceremony, we went on to Dumfries, to have a traditional Scottish meal in The Globe pub, which was known to be Burns’ Howff (favourite haunt). The landlady, with a veritable Bodleian of Burns knowledge in her head, provided us with entertainment, including the traditional haggis ceremony, in which the haggis is piped into the room and Burns’ poem, Ode to a Haggis, is performed. Burns is said to have written this poem addressing the haggis after being informed that he would have to eat haggis with the servants, rather than feast upon French ragou upstairs with the gentry he had been entertaining.

Returning back to the castellated tower (having been assured that it was not simply a castle, as I had presumed wrongly it seems), and the bride and groom held court. We played table top versions of Highland Games and I was initiated into the Confrerie de Sabredour. Not a secret society as you might have thought, but instead a society of Sabreurs, who specialise in the art of Sabrage – chopping the corks off the top of champagne bottles using a sabre. I am pleased to say that my official first sabrage was successful, with not a drop of champagne spilt; my sister was also successful, and in her usual flamboyant style, achieved an arc of champagne to fly speedily across the room.

And so dear reader, I must now venture to the new life, which has been so nervously anticipated and excitedly awaited…

HALLO DEUTSCHLAND – ICH KOMME GLEICH!