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Now the title above is the gist of how much German I actually know (it's a hard language to understand lol, it somewhat sounds like French to me - weird huh). This past weekend I started my spring break by visiting my close friend Alex in her hometown! I flew all the way to Dusseldorf from London (and let me tell you it was like the shortest flight ever, I didn't even get through my movie - sad emoji). The evening I arrived we pretty much chilled at her parents house, watched movies and ate a lot of Haribo gummies (if you don't know what they are try some it will change your life). There is even one of their factories in her hometown!
The next morning we rested up, ate and watched some Netflix before heading to the Schloss Burg (translates to Castle)! We drove a good 10 minutes to the site before we took what looked like a ski lift up to the main area of the Castle (it was real scary up - yes I am semi afraid of heights).
Once we got to the top I could instantly see the history and culture within the region. Every color choice, architectural choice all reflect the rich German culture. We began walking around the area, and taking many photographs (Alex is master photographer of course and got some artsy shots for me in addition to the ones I took).
The German is very interesting to me despite the fact that I absolutely suck at speaking or comprehending it, we have a pretty similar alphabet but they create words with completely different meaning!
Everything I saw was so captivating to me, for the first time it really felt like Europe to me! Even though the U.K. has a lot of culture, being in London sometimes it just feels like a really large city. But being in Solingen just has this calm energy about it (something my mom would really appreciate - thought of her a lot in the area).
After walking around and taking what seemed like 200 pictures, we went to a cute waffle cafe (Wafflehaus) right by the entrance of the Castle. I ordered some tea (for my throat - boy has it been acting up too much sugar), and then I ordered wheat waffles with hot cherries and cream (whip cream). It was absolutely amazing, probably one of the best waffles I have had in my entire life.
Since it was a Sunday the Castle area was closing early, so once we finished our food we made our way down the lift. Wow going down is 10 times scarier than going down I can tell you that (but they provide great photos of Solingen). We spent the rest of the night eating pizza and watching Harry Potter movies/Netflix (great chill night to calm down from all the excitement).
My final day (or couple of hours to make it more accurate), Alex and I went to a mall in her town and walked around for a little bit. Now its no where near what I am used to living in close proximity to the Mall of America (well now that I live in London for the time being, I guess that would be the High Street). The streets of Solingen were already alive and jumping for the celebration of Karnival (just think Halloween because that is the closest I can do to describing it).
Weird observation the buses in Germany run on electricity versus on gasoline like in the U.S. (meaning there are electrical lines carrying it all of it's path - interesting right?).
On my way out I got to pass by the Haribo factory (which was sadly closed due to Karnival - ugh so annoying)!
Even though my time was short in Germany it was really a great experience!! I liked experiencing a little bit of the German culture! I hope to come back to her hometown one day. Alex and I will reunite soon for St. Patricks day in London which will be sooo much fun, but for now I have returned to the U.K. only to leave for my 2 week long trip to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam!
Adventure Time!
-Zenobes