Hanne

3 April 2009

So, I have arrived here in Freiburg! After 30 hours of on-the-plane, off-the-plane, on-the-train interspersed with some hobo bench sleeping at Bagkok airport, Clara’s mum picked me up from Freiburg train station. Already we have eaten both Bretzeln und Kartoffeln. And this is not even Bavaria…

I actually wrote a brilliantly witty, gobsmackingly concise blog entry a couple of hours ago, only to find that when I pushed ‘submit’ KB had logged me off. Doh. Live and learn I guess, and next time I will write then paste then post!

And just for the record, the reason I am using KB is because aside from the unfortunate logging out incident, it is easy to use and I can actually find the ‘blog’ function, unlike on facebook or the kiwiviking site Sam and I set up, to which I promptly forgot my password. (Sorry, Slyr!)

Freiburg is a small student town in Southern Germany, around the same size as Dunedin. So far I have just been for a drive around the inner city, which is entirely a pedestrian zone. There are bicycle parks all round the outside which stretch for aaaages, and no vehicles in the centre where the uni campus is based. I think this is a brilliant idea – don’t even get me started on the ‘Pedestrian Mall’ at Auckland uni! There is also a fair bit of motorcycle parking – more than Symonds Street, anyhow- but motorbikes would be outnumbered 10 to 1 by the leg driven variety. Then again, the ‘hill’ that Clara’s suburb of Hochdorf occupies would have an elevation of around 15m….

Now I know that when I say ‘Germany’ the first thing that most people think of is ‘Autobahn’. I have seen the autobahn as my train left Frankfurt station but we left all the cars behind. And no, I don’t have bike over here… will have to wear my Honda T-shirt around lots and try to make friends and/or save the speed for a VFR when I get home. (I am wearing my KB shirt today, just btw). It actually didn’t feel like we were going all that fast on the train but maybe that was because it was so quiet. Eerily quiet, barely a ‘whoosh’. The information screen clocked us in at 168kmh, but you only felt any of the speed when we took corners. Man, those train trains have the awesome camber to them.

One thing that is worth mentioning also is the view from the train. I looked out to see a freight train laden with carriage after carriage of brand new audis. Clones upon clones, so new they still had their ‘audi’ wrapping paper on. That was kind of freaky because it looked as if they were amassing to plan their invasion of the human civilization. Or maybe that was just my sleep deprived brain going a little overboard. Whatever, it looked awesome.

It was also awesome to see an electrical thunderstorm from the air as my flight came down to land in Bangkok. Fork lightning stabbing from the clouds into the heart of the city and lighting up all the ground and the plane. Actually I said ‘wow’ out loud, which could have been embarrassing, but turned out to be a good thing because it made the dutch couple next to me smile and they offered me a piece of chocolate. Whittakers fruit and nut. Mmmm….. The storm did make the landing a bit bumpy but having had lots of practice as pillion puts me in good stead for flying, I have decided. In both instances the engine is noisy, there are lots of vibrations and you have to trust completely in the rider/pilot and go where the vehicle takes you.

The torrential rain was also neat to behold from the terminal because the roof was made of glass and the water streamed down the outside. Looking up it felt as if I were inside a waterfall. And those were my trippy weather experiences so far. At the moment things are quite normal. T shirt weather, and sunny. And there are 2 motorbikes parked down the road. (There, noe I at least feel I have filld my motorcycling mentioning quota, which makes it more legit for me to post this up in these forums’ blog space!)

Safe riding until next time,

Hanne