Aachen Adventures!

Hello faithful readers! When I left you last, I was feeling a little bit discouraged about still not having an apartment, but I was excited for my upcoming visit to Aachen.  Well, I’m pleased to report that not only did I have a lovely weekend in Aachen, but I also found a place to live upon returning to Wuppertal! I like to do things chronologically, so first I’ll recap my trip to Aachen.

This past weekend was Easter weekend, or Osternwochenende.  The Germans take their Catholic holidays very seriously, even though hardly anyone is Catholic anymore, so I had both Friday and Monday off work.  Since Inka was going to Berlin to see her family, and I still don’t really have any friends in Wuppertal yet, I decided to hop on a train and head to Aachen.  Both Steve and Shane are co-oping in Aachen, but what’s even more exciting (sorry guys) is that my long lost Norwegian friend Helge is going to med school in Aachen and he lives there as well!  Yay for having friends!

I slept in on Friday, woke up, and made my half hour walk to the Wuppertal Hbf.  I bought my ticket to Aachen for the weekend, as well as my Bahncard 25 and a ticket to visit Josi in Stuttgart in two weekends.  I was especially proud of this because I conducted the entire transaction auf Deutsch, even though it probably sounded awful.  Deutschebahn has very kind and patient employees.  When I arrived in Aachen, I was greeted at the Hbf by Shane and Zach Kramer, who was also staying for a weekend visit.  We headed back to Shane’s place where we were eventually tracked down by a Viking.  That’s right, Helge Rustenberg the Norwegian wonder and I were reunited! We spent the rest of that evening catching up, eating, tossing a couple back, and feeling some much needed friendship.   

Look who I found!

On Saturday, we decided to take a day trip to The Netherlands.  That still sounds so crazy to me, a “day trip” to a different country.  Oh Europe.  Aachen happens to be located right near where Germany borders both The Netherland and Belgium.  We hopped on a bus and went across to Vaals, Netherlands.  There isn’t that much going on in Vaals, but we spotted a crazy looking tower on top of a hill in the distance, so naturally we decided to hike towards it.  When we finally reached the tower, we realized that we had found the Drielandenpunt – the spot where the borders of Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands all meet!  Usually I don’t get scared of heights, but this tower had a cantilever type platform and the floor was SEE THROUGH.  The tower is about 300m high, so it was pretty freaky.

The brave boys.

The Tower!

Sunday, we were invited to have Easter brunch with Susan, an intercultural training expert from the Carl Duisberg Center.  It was so awesome to see a familiar face and talk with her and her family about our German experiences so far.  The food was delicious, but the company was even better.  It’s very nice to know that there are people out there that want us to have the best experience possible.  The rest of Sunday was spent wandering around Aachen.  We went to a cool old house turned museum that was filled with beautiful antiques, and then visited the Aachener Dom. After a day full of walking, we headed back to Helge’s place where we got a Kasten and watched Lord of the Rings Return of the King (extended version, of course).

The Aachener Dom from the outside.

Such an elaborate, tiled ceiling! 

Me and some beautiful stained glass windows.

I headed back to Wuppertal on Monday with only one goal in mind: find myself an apartment.  I had gotten a couple of responses from WG-gesucht over the weekend, so I contacted the most promising.  I went and met with the potential roomies (and potential roomie cat), and they turned out to be fantastic!  The apartment is beautiful; it’s in an old building, but the interior has been newly redone.  The two other girls that live there are both awesome.  They are a tad older than me, but are still studying at the University.  Both of their majors are… get this… English! How perfect!?  So, I will have no problem communicating with these lovely ladies, and hopefully I can really improve my German through living with them.  Meeting Franzi and Anna (and Sookie) was the prefect way to end a great weekend!  You can look forward to a post about my new place after move in this weekend!