Schokolade

So I have arrived safe but perhaps not quite sound in Germany. Today is Tag der Deutschen Einheit or "German Unity Day" a holiday which commemorates the reunification of Germany. As you can see Google.de is celebrating this with a special logo. As a result of this holiday all the shops are shut, so I've not yet been able to buy a German sim card or buy any food or anything (read: tobacco and alcohol). It's fine, I've been meaning to re-read The Easy Way anyhow

So how has the transition been? A lot of good and a lot of bad. As soon as I heard the dissonant drilling of the alarm I knew my day was just going to be a wrongun'. I couldn't find my phone charger, car keys went missing after putting my bags in the car and then after I said goodbye to my Mother at 6:00 am at Gatwick and tried to pull my suitcase to check in - nightmare. The suitcase - which I'll have to carry from couch to couch until I eventually find somewhere- is unpullable, uncarryable and was 2 kilos overweight. I'm not saying I packed too much... the design of the suitcase is just fundamentally flawed! I may as well be trying to carry all my things in my arms while pulling myself up a hill by metal cordoned wire.

Once in Konstanz it took me 15 minutes of heavy breathing and pausing to get myself from the Train Station to the Train Station bus stop. Obviously I missed my bus, but actually I needed the half an hour rest. Bustling onto the bus was another humiliation all together - red in the face, heaving and huffing and thrusting an endampened piece of paper with the word Jugendherberge (Youth Hostel) written on it into an unimpressed German bus drivers face - wasn't the best first impression to imprint onto my new hometown. I collapsed near the bus driver with the evidently mistaken idea that he might let me know where to get off - of course that didn't happen. I also happened to sit next to a "down and out" (every German town needs a token "unfortunate") whose stink of yesterday's booze only intensified with familiarity. He of course also had a guttural hacking cough - which to his credit he tried to politely direct away - but it was so appalling I couldn't help giving him sympathetic glances every now and then. Probably why I missed my stop.

Anyway, after having to heave my belongings off the bus, on the bus and then back off again I arrived at the Jugendherberge which was of course situated at the top of a large hill and handily situated next to a graveyard. Oh how hard I'll laugh about that hour one day. I arrive sodden with sweat, tears and blisters. I have to wait another 20 minutes until 2 o clock when the place opens before I can begin the arduous process of signing up for a German membership card with a significant language barrier. It is at this point that I start having surprisingly great conversation with a German guy passing through Konstanz. He ends up coming with me to my Erasmus meeting and helping to break the ice by aggressively (to my standards) introducing me to the surrounding members of my group. I felt like I was in nursery again with my mum introducing me to my potential new friends. It was quite nice actually. My new friend also has a car and he very nicely drives me to my first Couchsurfer and stays chatting for a while, helping us both see the complete unawkwardness and naturalness of the situation before departing off into sunnier skies to Oktoberfest.

The youth hostel. Thankfully I wasn't staying in the tower.

Everyone will be glad to know I have been very lucky with my Couchsurfee. He is very kind and gracious and made an amazing cream mushroom pasta for dinner. He unfortunately found out that his friend passed away and was understandably quite upset. I gave him a hug and after my offer of a cup of tea was laughingly rejected I suggested an episode of Doctor Who. A new convert! Anyway, to round off the story I went for a run to explore the local area and I saw a cat. I stroked it, it bit me so hard it broke the skin. I arrived back to the house crying and after applying iodine he ended up consoling me over my missing cat. I felt like a pretty terrible human being.

This post is called Schokolade because I bought a cup of German "hot chocolate" and it tasted like bitter disappointment, the only way unfilled chocolate anticipation can taste. I didn't want to awkwardly wedge it in my post so I'll just leave it here at the end...