This weekend marks our last big group excursion; this means it was paid for by our program (bottomless wine bottle included!) and was most of our group of study abroads.
In fact, this was the end of my travel for the most part; next weekend, I have a class trip to
Normandy for four days (really exciting, actually), and after the program, I have a few day trips in and around
Belgium.
But this excursion was our last big group hurrah, until the farewell dinner, and it was well worth the trip.
I’m still not exactly sure what we were going to see—we ambled around the Alsace region of France and the Black Forest region of Germany for three days, looking at wine country and cutesy villages. It was a great tour of areas I wouldn’t have seen on my own, but I don’t feel like we had a central purpose. But, well, that’s okay.
Excursions mean an early start, and our “space bus” left Brussels about quarter to 8 on Friday morning. I forgot to tell my teacher I’d be excused from class, but eh—the general consensus is that most of us have given up on non-essential workload. Anyway, it was a very long ride to Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace. We stopped once for an awkward picnic, but I slept most of the ride; I had a pseudo-stomach bug for the weekend that kept me from feeling top notch. Please note I ate rich local delicacies anyway, but I did in fact feel bad.
Anyway, Strasbourg is a cute little city, without too much to do. Like I said, it’s the capital of the Alsace region; we’re probably all aware of the historical tug of war between Germany and France over Alsace & Lorraine (until this weekend, I didn’t know you could have one without the other!). Strasbourg briefly served as a national capital, when Alsace declared its independence on November 11th, 1918, as WWI was officially ending. This only lasted about 12 days, but hey, give credit where credit is due.
Our day in Strasbourg was nothing too special; a terrible bus tour followed by a better walking tour. Our guide was really great, and managed to dress up a city that may otherwise be a bit dull. The weather was gorgeous, too, so a few of us took the opportunity to catch some sun sitting on the town square; it was really relaxing to just sit still and enjoy a nice pretzel.
Dinner was quite an affair—we went to this traditional Alsatian restaurant, built into the basement of an old house. There, we drank wine from the region, had an appetizer of tart flambé (which is kind of like a pizza), and had these tremendous main courses. There was, of course, the ice cream and dessert, by which point everyone is either half asleep or half drunk (including our resident director, who was at our table). A large group of us (again, program directors included) decided to go out for a drink, since it was only 10 pm, which led to 20 Americans winding their way through the streets in search of a bar large enough.
When we found one, we didn’t know what to do—Belgium is known for its beer, but what the hell we were going to do in France? To be economically, two friends and I split a bottle of sangria, complete with tiny dishes of fruit. Then a wave of my friends came in, saying the hostel had been boring…so we got more sangria. We were there a very, very long time, with shenanigans ensuing—a saucy French waitress, some sort of hole in the time-space continuum on the way to the bathroom, and a former professor rambling at a group in French for about an hour.
Upon boarding the bus the next morning, most of our group was hungover; a few exceptions were still drunk. This was really promising for the day we had ahead of us. By now, with my hangover and stomach thing, I felt like death. We visited a medieval castle that had been refurbished by Wilhelm in the 19th century, back when that territory was German. It was fully furnished from the time and meant to serve as a museum. The best part was not realizing how high in the mountains we were until we got to the castle. The view was incredible, as the fog rolled off the mountains.
As we departed the mountain on a sickening roller coaster ride in our space bus, we took in the view; there was a nearby monkey preserve (Monkey Mountain!) but it was just not going to happen. We made our way to a nearby small town, after driving through the vineyards for what felt like forever. We had lunch there, with the meanest sandwich counter man ever (I don’t even speak French, and I can hear the differences between the numbers 1 and 2!) then hung out in a tea room for a while—we were all to exhausted to take in the small town charm. After this, our group made its way down the hill to the beautiful Dopff Winery, where we had a tour (I was pushed into the French group with the promise of translation, to make the groups smaller) and a wine tasting. Maybe they do a special college student tasting—we got to drink our small glasses instead of the spitting out and cleansing of the pallet. At this point, my hangover was gone, proving that alcohol is the cure for that disease. We also got to keep the glasses too, with their logo on it. The wine was all fantastic—as someone who’s been enjoying the occasional 3 euro bottle, this wine was an incredible treat! It was a really nice experience, even if I felt underdressed for the occasion.
After this, we crossed into Germany—if you look at a map, you’ll realize this isn’t really a big deal! It was about an hours drive. We stopped in Freiburg for the evening, which was perhaps my favorite place on this trip. It’s a very small city outside the Black Forest, with a pretty cathedral and good ice cream (cheap!). We took a brief walking tour, and then had dinner at a modern brewhouse. We very rarely go anywhere modern, but this was the kind of place I know the Carolan clan would love. Dinner was also excellent, with mugs of the house beer and a giant leg of pork too difficult for me to fully attack. Since we had to head back to Strasbourg, this was a faster dinner than usual.
We got back to Strasbourg around 10 and decided to go out. This whole night became a big bust, including the 4 euro I paid for a beer. Also, there were skinheads from Lichenstein in our hostel. Oh, and were like 14. And drunk. And weren’t just being annoying but offensive and hostile towards a ton of women in our group. I came downstairs really shaken from it, and as soon as someone asked me what was wrong, I launched into a tirade, resulting in our program directors going upstairs. One of them told them off in German while the other was, I guess, just his muscle. In the end, we had no real serious encounters with them, though I was possibly angrier than any other single instance in my life. This kind of set the ton for the night, which is not worth going in to except to say that we drank and played texas hold ‘em on a boat.
By the next day, everyone’s spirits were much higher. It was kind of a pointless day, spent exploring the German town of Trier. Trier’s big attraction is a roman arch from over 2000 years ago, which has been used and resued throughout the town’s history. It was a nice city and all, but it took as longer to get there then we actually spent there. Also, after 3 days with the people you also have all of your classes with, you kind of want to just get back home. We got in around 8 pm after being stuck in my first Belgian traffic jam.
My cousin Alysssa’s confirmation party was Sunday—I was supposed to be her sponsor and couldn’t, so my mom stepped in. Figuring out the time difference, I decided to call her for her day and talk to whoever else was there. Little did I know that this was apparently an event of Thanksgiving-like proportions, and I was on the phone for 90 minutes talking to family I barely even talk to when I’m in New Jersey! It was good, though it made me a bit homesick.
This week has been a lot of work—I was originally supposed to have a ton of papers in the next 7 days, but some rescheduling was led to the same amount of work spread out much better. So I haven’t completely pulled my hair out yet. I have, though, reached that point in the semester where I just want to be done with school—which is sad, because that’ll mean I’m done with Belgium! But I will be glad to return to the states, which will occur in a month. Get excited!
No comments:
Post a Comment