Hanne

25 June 2009

Ah, Bavaria! Where the skies are blue, the men wear Lederhosen and the pretzels are abundant… Well, the weather did not play its part very well, but other than that last weekend’s trip to see my host family was very successful. And very catholic. Actually, I met a bishop, visited three churches and was given a Madonna figurine by a woman in a souvineer shop. Oh, and a random man on the train professed his undying love for me. So it was an interesting trip…

Altötting is a small town in Southern Bavaria, halfway between Munich and Salzburg. It is also the most popular catholic pilgrim destination in Germany and belongs to the ‘Shrines of Europe’. Pilgrims come from all over the world to see the ‘Schwarze Madonna’ in the small chapel and leave paintings about the miracles she has helped with. These paintings are really fascinating, some of the mare centuries old and some from this year even, but they all say ‘Maria hat geholfen’, meaning ‘Maria helped’. When I was on exchange (2005/6) I would spend hours looking at them (there is not really much else to do in the middle of winter except visit churches and eat). This time the chapel was bustling with tourists and you couldn’t really stand looking for too long or you would get run over by one of the pilgrims who was circling the church carrying a cross.

Like most people in Bavaria my host family are catholic. They are also very proud that the current pope was a bishop in Altötting and was born in Marktl, not very far away. On the first day I was there we went to visit the Pope’s old house which has now been turned into a museum about pilgrimages and the Pope and Altötting as a religious site. I learnt that there is a difference between ‘Walfahrt’ and ‘Pilger’, because the ‘Pilger’ travels by foot from religious place to place searching for enlightenment, whereas someone on a Wahlfahrt is making a one-off trip. They are allowed to take a train there, they don’t have to walk.

That afternoon we visited one of König Ludwigs castles, Herrenchiemsee. This castle is on an island and was built in the model of Versaille. There was even a trapdoor for the dinner table so the King could sit down, have the table lowered to the floor below, set with dinner and winched back up. Fancy stuff! Then we took the boat to ‘Fraueninsel’, where the nuns live, and there happened to be a Bishop coming out of the church. So we shook his hand and my host Dad was very excited.

The next day we went to visit a salt mine because it was wet and underground the weather was of no consequence. We dressed up in miners costumes and slid down a slide then learnt all about tunneling techniques and went for a ride on a boat over an underground lake! The lake was quite salty, 27% (Actually, I licked it and can confirm that 27% is very salty indeed).

It just so happened that that on Saturday evening the Summer Solstice was being celebrated so that night I went with my two host sisters and host brother to a medieval festival. There were all sorts of people dressed up in knight costumes who kept reaching into their pockets to check their text messages! But they constructed a bonfire that was about 5m tall, VERY impressive. Especially with the accompanying drumming and fire dancing. We were all quite ready for summer to begin because the high was something like 14 degrees that day. Burn fire, burn, bring us warmth!
Perhaps the fire did awaken Summer a little, at least I think it provoked Summer into batting one eyelash because the next afternoon we got SUNLIGHT! At 5pm or so, but it was a chance to rejoice and play soccer in the garden. And it also provided the perfect opportunity to pose in a Dirndl dress. What is a dirndl? The female version of Lederhosen, one of those dresses that the buxom beer waitresses wear and almost fall out the top of. I borrowed one off my host mother and suddenly felt like yodeling! And I have some excellent photos.

I think it was just as well I was only visiting over the weekend because otherwise I might have popped. The food was amazing; I can tell you one thing and that is that in Bavaria they really know how to eat. Potato salad of course, and pretzels, and always huge portions and at 4pm coffee and cake. I swapped recipes with my host mother and now know how to make warm potato salad and also a sweet rice bake. She is going to make my cookies (well, I stole the recipe from my sister. And now it is spreading like the swine flu!)

So now we come to the end of my stay and to the train ride home. I had to take five different trains and was traveling for around eight hours, but it was the second train trip that was really an ‘experience’. I hopped on the train. Found a seat. Honky Dory. Then this young man sat down opposite and said hello, I said hello, and he asked if I would like something to drink. No thank you, I had water. Then he disappeared. Cool. Then the nun to my left leant over and said ‘don’t be afraid, he is a nice young man, I know him’. Then a grandmother who was on the way to look after her four grandchildren for 2 weeks sat down, also opposite me, and the man came back and handed me an apple juice. So I said well, thank you. And I thought OK, nothing is going to happen so long as the nun and the grandmother are sitting there, so we chatted for a bit. He was from Iraq and was going to work for his brother in Munich, and did I have a boyfriend? Yes, I did. But in New Zealand, not in Germany? It doesn’t really matter where, I am taken! (The second time he asked I lied and told him I was engaged). Then the nun and the grandmother hopped off the train, Crap. And then he started telling me that he loved me and did I love him back? I told him no, I don’t even know you, and was suddenly very busy examining the time on my phone and willing the next half hour to go by as quickly as possible. And then he wanted to know WHY I didn’t love him back. And THEN he tried to kiss me. A stranger on the train. My crossed arms and clear denial of his affections (‘nein’ is not that hard to understand) were obviously not getting through to him, but luckily they were to the woman in the opposite booth. She was about to come over when we arrived at Munich train station. Thank goodness. No, I was not going to come and live with him in Munich thank you, I was going home now, and goodbye. I was incredibly glad to get on the next train. And my bag sat on the seat next to me, reserving it for the next leg!

So that was my eventful weekend in Bavaria. It was really nice to see my host family again and much easier to stay there than last time. Life can seem pretty tough when you are sixteen and forbidden to go salsa dancing, but now that I have my own freedom and was there of my own accord I could concentrate on talking to the people and didn’t need to feel trapped by any rules. I knew I was going home afterwards and could enjoy the experience. I am sure that I will be back again some time in the future, but this trip is certainly not one that I will forget!

I will leave you with some bayerisch, (more vocab here! http://www.bayrisch-lernen.de/)

Pfià de

Hanne