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Random observations about Germany

observations about germany - image of munster

Happy early (almost mid) September to you! I cannot believe another month has passed. When I started drafting this email of observations about Germany, it was only a week after coming back from our trip. It’s now been almost a month. Totally mad!

Getting down to business, in early August we were off to Germany for a friend’s birthday party. We flew to Düsseldorf and then spent about 4-5 days in Munster in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was a wonderful stay for so many reasons!

And as goes tradition after a trip, I’ve gathered some random observations about Germany:

>> It was my first time back in Germany since I studied there in 2007-8. It was a blast to be back!

>> I definitely do not remember any German that I learnt 10 years ago. Unsurprising, but a bit shameful! I wish I spoke better German.

>> While in most countries we’ve visited I’ve been the person who can get by with local languages, this time around I mostly relied on the Brit’s good knowledge of German. I was impressed!

>> Our hosts treated us to so many amazing food! Delicacies from Bavaria, tea and cake (every day!), sausages, Austrian schnitzel, etc.

>> So. many. sausages!

>> We went swimming in the canal in Münster and it was a wonderful experience, it was much warmer than I thought it would be and we had so much fun. 

>> We also went to a freibad, which reminded the Brit of his childhood times in Germany. It was really fun and much bigger than I imagined! I thought it’d be a public pool, but there were multiple pools, and slides and fields to play volleyball and such. 

>> We discovered the surroundings of Münster, also named Münsterland, where we visited two castles. One more traditional castle and a big palace where we took a sneaky peek at a wedding.

>> I had more sausages and bread in that week than I have probably since the beginning of the year (combined!). It was a treat, but I haven’t had any since.

>> We went to see Münster play at the local football stadium. It was really impressive and I wasn’t feeling all that well, which brought up all my anxiety. In the standing stands, with men smoking around us, I struggled to make it to the beginning of the game, so the Brit and I stood at the back of the stand for the whole game. He’s my favourite person for that reason.

>> We went to a German party, our friend’s 30th birthday, which was extraordinarily fun! BBQ (with sausages!), wine and beer, a bunch of food, a quiz about the birthday girl, and a DJ. We danced until well past midnight, but we were so tired we went home. The rest of our party came home around 4am apparently! I had heard Germans knew how to party!

>> We spent a day visiting the city centre of Münster, where the old burgh used to be. The photo above is from the main street, it was lovely! We ate at the market, visited some university buildings, the botanical garden, and saw the main medieval cathedral of the city. The best part was that we had some local guides to let us in on the history and give us some of their best tips! 

Have you ever been to Münster? What did you think?xx


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