Germany, Switzerland, Christmas & New Years

It was great to be able to take a break from school and London, to widen our perspective and once again see the forest for the trees. It’s funny how wherever you are in life, you can become encumbered by the trifling concerns of the present to the point of forgetting how lucky you are to be where you are, and to appreciate what you have.

We began our trip in Germany, where we visited the Spreng family in their beautiful home near Stuttgart. Neither Fred or I expected to see as much wildness and uninhabited open spaces as we found in Germany, and it was warmly welcomed. The landscape and flora of England – with the fields and neatly trimmed, well-kept hedges and tiny roads – were left behind for a wildness and openness of Germany, complete with a considerable blanket of snow, wild boar tracks and deer sightings. Participation in outdoor sports seems nearly universal in Germany; we saw so many people out on skiis, or just walking around the plentiful trails and woodland.

The food was amazing – so much wurst (sausage) and fleisch (meat) to be consumed. So much good cheese, and mouth-watering homemade Schwaben food, which is traditional for the area of South Germany we were visiting. I (unsurprisingly) fell in love with the raclette, a kind of Swiss cheese which is melted using a grill on the table, and then drizzled over potatoes, onions and other deliciousness.

For Christmas Dinner, which is eaten on the 24th in Germany, we had meat fondue, where you dip cubes of raw meat into a broth or hot oil to cook it, and then into one of many delectable homemade dips. We were also treated to an amazing home-cooked Indian meal, prepared by two friends who were also visitors, taking a break from their studies at the Prague Film School. We were also treated to a film screening of their student-produced films one evening, which were all exceptionally well done.

Other activities included visiting the local castle for some mulled wine (Glühwein) and traditional German Christmas treats; walking through the fields and forests; cutting down a Christmas tree in the Sprengs’ yard; visiting Ellwangen, a beautiful little village nearby (pictured above); and of course sharing Christmas Eve with the family. It was quite difficult for us to be away from our own families for the first Christmas ever, but this was lessened by having each other there, as well as tearful skype sessions and phone calls home.

After Christmas we travelled north to Berlin by train, which – due to snow and train cancellations – ended up taking a ridiculous 16 hours! We landed in our hostel at 1am and were warmed by good conversation with an American expat and some whiskey. Then we explored Berlin for two days, learning about that city’s interesting and dark history through World War II and the following years being split between Soviet and US rule. More interesting still was to visit my friend Maria and her family who live just north of the city, and to get some first-hand insight into what it might have been like to live in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Here's Fred standing by what remains of the wall, now the East Side Gallery, covered in artwork.

Also while staying with Maria, we were taken to a huge wellness centre, where hundreds of Germans come to be naked and steamy together in a collection of outdoor saunas and heated indoor/outdoor salt-water swimming pools. It was my and Fred’s first foray into public nudity, and despite the initial discomfort it was overall a relaxing and freeing experience to be so very exposed and have it feel so natural and unexceptional. Still, not something I think I will get into the habit of doing on a daily basis any time soon.

We spent New Year’s back in Berlin with Maria and her boyfriend at his friends' lovely dinner party, where we had another excellent raclette experience and then set off a number of fireworks. It seemed a bit dangerous to me that everyone in the city set off their own fireworks in the streets all night while consuming copious amounts of alcohol, but it seemed to turn out alright.

We also partook in the New Year’s tradition of dropping spoonfuls of melted lead into cold water (we're doing this in the photo above). Whatever shape your lead turns into can be interpreted as what the next year will bring – Fred’s took a very phallic form, while mine closely resembled a collection of mouse droppings. Any suggestions on how to read that are welcome!

Saying goodbye to our more than gracious hosts, we then returned south to Stuttgart, where we were picked up by our friends Flo and Anna (who we had visited at the beginning of the trip), and were driven into the Swiss Alps, to a small skiing village of Engelberg. Words can’t describe how beautiful it was there, or how amazing (though painful) it was to learn to snowboard in such an awe-inspiring setting. We were a group of about 20 twenty-somethings representing an eclectic mix of nationalities, ranging from Serbian to Indian to Columbian as more of Tim’s friends had joined us from the Prague Film School. After two days of falling down the mountain, my tailbone was bruised beyond belief and I switched to skiing, but Fred picked up snowboarding very quickly.

We stayed in the Alps for 5 nights and then flew back to England, to move into our new flat in Highgate, where this picture was taken, in our sweet new kitchen!
 

And so dear friends, that is a quick and dirty recap of the past two months! And so begins 2011 – or as the Deutsch would say, "zweitausend elf". Personally I think any year that has an elf in it is bound to be a good one!