So as mentioned in my previous post, I spent the first two-ish weeks back in Europe in Germany and was lucky enough to get to spend all of that time with friends from my Bible school. My timing coming from Canada was even convenient enough to put my back in Germany right in time for two weddings of close friends of mine and it was so special to get to share that experience with them. Unfortunately I don’t have a ton of pictures from this time but I’ll put the few that I have in here as well.
On August 6th I landed in Frankfurt in the early afternoon where I was picked up by 4 friends of mine who were all staying together prior to the first wedding. My travels went totally smoothly despite everything with Corona and how border controls can be difficult right now so I’m really thankful for that. We drove to the home of our friend Kari who lives somewhere near Frankfurt though I honestly couldn’t tell you specifically what the town is called. That whole first afternoon jet lag was hitting me pretty hard; definitely I would say that for me that’s the worst part about traveling. That evening though I was able to wake up enough to play a few really fun games of beach volleyball at a facility a few towns over. We met another friend from Bible School there and definitely enjoyed our evening spent together playing mediocre but hilarious volleyball.
That first night I slept so hard, I was so exhausted which definitely helped me stay awake for the most part the next day. In the morning we played some games together and prepared some things for our friends wedding. Later in the afternoon we packed up the car and drove up to Düsseldorf which is where the wedding of our friends Tim and Judy would be held. We hung out there at the church were they would be hosting the wedding which was also where we would be sleeping. Around 7:00 things started to get going though it definitely was different than most traditional weddings. They had already had their sort of “ceremony” at the courthouse earlier that day. Because of Covid regulations in that part of Germany it was easier to just do this at the courthouse with only their immediate families and then have a party with a larger group later.
In total I think there was only about 50-60 people there which actually was really nice. It made it possible to spend a lot of time with everyone including the bride and groom which you might not get at a larger wedding. They started things off with some worship and music and then said their vows in front of everyone. Even though it wasn’t a formal ceremony I think it was really cool that they did that with their friends and it was really sweet to hear them. After that we had dinner which was a kind of build your own Döner situation. It was so good and definitely more chill than most wedding food but if you know Tim and Judy it’s no surprise that that was their food choice. Another reason it ended up being such a good choice was because it was also so so so hot that week in Germany so it was nice not to have super warm food. Everything about their wedding was so well suited to them and it made it so personal and amazing.
The rest of the evening after dinner was pretty much just the hanging out, party, and dance part of the wedding. I would guess about half of the guests were classmates of ours from Holsby so there were lots of people to catch up with and talk to. Around 4:00 a.m things finally really calmed down and pretty much everyone who was still there went to bed. Needless to say we were pretty tired the next morning but it was definitely worth it. Much of the morning was spent just helping clean up the church and helping make brunch for everyone who had stayed over. Around noon we were pretty much all cleaned up and ready to go and by that point it was already so hot outside and in the building that it was really nice to leave and be able to be in a car with air conditioning.
The next two nights I stayed at my friend Stefan’s house and on the second night we celebrated the birthday of another friend of ours, Annabel, with a big group of people.
We were able to use a small cabin near Stefan’s place that he helped build with his friends. This was really great because it was far enough away from any houses that we could pretty much be as loud as we wanted. In the late afternoon and early evening we pretty much spent the whole time in the pool because it was still so hot outside. But once it cooled down a bit we could have a fire and barbecue some meat and other things for dinner. This kind of bbq thing is something I’ve done really often with my German friends and I’m not sure if it’s really popular in general or if it just happens to be something my friends do a lot. Either way I really like it and it’s a really fun and easy way to make food for a lot of people.
Pretty much the rest of the night after eating was just spent hanging out together and talking and catching up. Around midnight a few of us went back to Stefan’s house where we stayed overnight. The next day I took the train to Annabel’s place where I stayed with her and Isaac (another friend) at her apartment. The rest of that day was pretty chill because we were all really tired. We just hung out, played some games, got ice cream and watched some movies. It was also really hot again so we didn’t really feel like doing anything too strenuous or exciting. We also slept outside on her balcony because it was way cooler out there than inside.
The next day was also very full and very hot. Another Holsby friend, Johnny, picked us up in the morning and we drove about two hours to an Europa park theme park. We spent pretty much the whole day there from about 10-6. Though we had to wear masks inside and when we were in line, the one benefit of being there during this time is that numbers in the park were drastically reduced so we never really had to wait more than 30 minutes for a ride. Compared to some other theme parks I’ve been to that was really nice and it allowed us to do pretty much all of the rides we wanted with minimal waiting time. They had a lot of really big roller coaster there which we really loved and I loved going into the different “countries” and doing the different rides, especially the water ones. We definitely had an awesome time the whole day, and by the time the park was closing we were pretty tired so we drove the two hours back to Annabel’s apartment and just watched a movie and went to bed.
Wednesday was a really chill day which was really welcome after a busy few days. Annabel and I went out for breakfast in the morning at a cool little café nearby while Isaac was still sleeping. After that we browsed through some thrift stores which is always fun and interesting depending on the things you find. We kinda just wandered through a bunch of stores and stuff for awhile, not really on a schedule just chatting, looking into different places and running a few errands. When we started to get hungry again we went back to her flat and made some lunch. Isaac wasn’t there as he had gone to help our friend Mari run some errands and organize some things for her wedding which was that weekend, so Annabel and I just spent the afternoon relaxing together, playing some games and going to get ice cream (We ate a lot of ice cream this week). When Isaac came back we ate something and watched a movie before going to bed. There was also a bit of a thunder storm that night and we were able to sit up on the roof and watch that from a distance which was pretty cool.
Thursday was another pretty full day for me. Annabel and Isaac had a few things that they had to do to help out with our friends wedding on the weekend, so they spent the day doing that before meeting me again later. While they did that I took the train to Reutlingen to meet up with my friend Jan who I would spend the day with before going back to his place where we would meet Isaac and Annabel. It was raining a lot when we got there which we honestly didn’t mind at all after the heat wave that had been going on for the last few days. We walked around there for awhile, got very wet and saw a few different things before taking the train to Tübingen, another city nearby.
Tübingen is pretty well known for being quite an international city with a ton of young people because they have a big international university. It also has a really beautiful old town and castle which overlooks most of the city. So we pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon there wandering around.
In the early evening we went back to Jan’s place where we met with Annabel, Isaac and Friedi. We spent the evening together hanging out, talking and spending time outside. We grilled some meat over a fire for dinner which we ate with some salad and buns and enjoyed watching a meteor shower late into the evening. We finished off the evening by watching How To Train Your Dragon, though I’m pretty sure most of us slept through the majority of the movie so we just went to bed after that.
Friday began the weekend of the second wedding that I went to while in Germany. In the afternoon the five of us drove about an hour to the wedding venue where we spent some time helping to prepare the venue. That evening many of the guests who were invited from farther away arrived. Some from Holsby but also many guests from Austria because that’s where Mari (the bride) is from. We enjoyed the evening spending time together, walking around in the vineyards which surrounded the venue, playing a lot of spike ball and enjoying the beautiful sunset.
Saturday was the day of the wedding so we spent the morning doing our best to help with whatever needed to be done before it would start. At 3:00 the ceremony started and it was great that they were able to have it outside despite the forecast of rain. I haven’t been to a lot of weddings where I previously knew both the bride and groom so both these weddings were really special. Joe and Mari also got together during our time in Sweden so it was really exciting to see things work out so well for them because they are actually the cutest. It was also really cool because though Joe is German and Mari is Austrian, they did the whole ceremony in a combination of English and German, translating both when needed.
After the ceremony there was a bit of time where they took some pictures and we moved a few things around. Right after they finished it started pouring rain so it was good timing to move into a tent that they had set up for the program. The program was really enjoyable with a bunch of fun games and some funny slideshows and performances from other guests and friends. After that was dinner which was a variety of things, pulled pork, vegetables, different types of bread and some different grilled meats that you could take fresh off the grill. It was all super great and I again really enjoyed that it wasn’t overly fancy.
The rest of the evening was spent pretty much just hanging out and doing a variety of activities. They had a fire with s’mores once it stopped raining and we played volleyball and spike ball in the dark which was really hilarious and fun. Sometime around 1 or 2am was when things started to quiet down and people started going to bed. Because most of us were sleeping at the venue it was pretty much that once a few people went to bed most people followed suit shortly after. It was such a fun and special day overall and I’m so glad that it worked out that I could be there to celebrate with so many friends.
Sunday was my last full day in Germany and it was all really chill. We spent the morning helping to clean up the venue and get everything put away. Annabel, Isaac, Jan, Friedi and I left around noon and all of us except Friedi stayed over at Annabel’s apartment that night. On Monday morning we were up early so that I could catch my train to Salzburg.
I feel like this whole week just flew by, I guess that tends to happen when you’re surrounded by such amazing people. Overall it was just such a great week and it was such a blessing that I could come back to Europe even in the middle of a pandemic like this. It still feels a bit surreal that I’m actually back here, (now in Austria) and I’m so excited for what these next four months here will bring!
Coming (hopefully) soon will be more about my first weeks back in Austria!
Kelsi's Travel Times 