We decided that as it was our last month as citizens of Europe we had an obligation to try and see as much of it as physically possible. I'd already done Copenhagen, Amsterdam (x2), Groningen, Paris and virtually the entirety of NRW. It was time to add two more cities to that list: Berlin and Prague. The Deutsche Haupstadt came first, on our first full weekend back after the Easter holidays. We packed our shorts and our sunnies (the weather forecast was good), Kate brushed up on her fun facts about the Brandenburg Gate and we boarded the 7.05 inter-city express out of Duisburg. As soon as we arrived, I remembered all the reasons why Berlin had been my first choice of where to spend my year abroad. It´s certainly not the prettiest city I´ve seen (though some of the buildings are superb), but there´s so much culture and history there, not to mention so much hipster chic, and when I was walking round I really felt at home. It's just one of those cities where you can walk around for hours, content to soak up the atmosphere, which is pretty much exactly what we did; we thoroughly beasted all of Berlin´s famous monuments, walking at least two miles all over the city in the blazing sunshine and taking snapshots (or at least Ally and Kate took snapshots, my camera chose to die, an act I will never forgive it for). It was also lovely to catch up with some Sheffies who I hadn´t seen since we finished second year last June. Big thanks to Alex, Lucas and Rachel for showing us how to rock it up Berlin style. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend and I'm looking forward to getting myself back there sometime soon.
Prague was a different experience again. We chose to take the over-night train down because it was cheaper than flying, but unlike for my trip to Copenhagen (when I had a carriage to myself), the little compartment was very crammed and uncomfortable and there was very little sleeping achieved. It was worth the difficult journey, though, because Prague is stunning. I could have spent my entire two days there simply taking enough pictures of beautiful buildings to fill the hard-drive on my computer. We walked from architectural masterpiece to architectural masterpiece, mouths hanging open; Charles Bridge, the Astrological Clock, the castle, the palace, the Old Town Square, the museum, the Municipal House... we must have covered them all and all in the sensational Czech sunshine. At nights, true to form, we searched out bars. Recommendations from my home friends Charlie and Tom lead us on the first night first to a reasonable and excellent restaurant called Stoleti and then onwards to a quirky little locals bar (Duende) just up the street where they sell beer for just 20 Czech crowns. That's less than a euro, people. Both places were tucked away down the back streets, representative of what all of Prague must have been like before the stag parties arrived. The second night we tried a bar just behind the church in the Old Town Square where we must have been the only people not to be dressed as zombies (the reason behind the hordes of zombies mooching around the city I still don't know). We did, however, get picked up by a sort-of bar crawl of Canadians, Aussies, New Zealanders and a couple of Brits, who were on a camping tour of Europe's more famous cities. We took a trip to a funky underground bar with them, but opted out of their plans for Prague's star five-story club, which, from the outside, looked liked an over-priced temple to hen-party tourism. Instead we took a short walk and ducked into a likely looking place (actually opposite the bar from the previous evening) where we got chatting to a couple of Czech blokes. We enquired as to traditional Czech alcohol, and they provided us with what can only be described as a strange green herbal concoction smelling of ginger. Apparently there were eighteen different herbs in it, but I can't confirm this. I can confirm, however, that it was pretty strong and pretty horrible. After being plied with a couple more of (different) traditional Czech drinks, and Czech blokes in tow, we muzzily wandered off into the night and ended up in the bar we'd started off in the first place, where we remained until 6am despite the fact it was virtually entirely dead (no zombie pun intended). The journey home the next day (incorporating a three hour bus journey, I might add) was hungover to say the least.
There have also been some equally enjoyable shenanigans closer to home, specifically an event that took place in the interim weekend between these two excellent trips. Anyone who is anyone knows that the Eurovision song contest was held this year in Düsseldorf and who were we, living a mere fifteen minutes away, not to take advantage of this? I say fifteen minutes, some of my friends travelled much further than that. A lot took the hour trip from Münster, but full commitment points go to Lyndsay for coming all the way from Holland and to Matt for coming all the way from France. Despite the fair amount of embarrassment that ensues from having to support Blue (and, I think in all cases, Jedward) we painted ourselves blue, white and red and waved our union jacks with gusto. It was a great atmosphere, thousands of people gathering in Johannes-Rau Platz for what was essentially a massive outdoor Euro-disco, and is definitely one of my most favourite moments of this year. I think we were all surprised that Europe took Jedward so well (they are now frequent players in the German charts) but there was the little groan of disappointment from the Brits when Germany crept ahead of us at the final hurdle.
After we got back from Prague, the countdown to the end began. I de-registered as a German citizen, closed my bank account and started packing my life here into suitcases and boxes. Kelsey, Kate and Carol helped me paint my room back into ship-shape condition and I began saying my goodbyes at Heinrich-Heine. On the Thursday, I got given a goodbye gift from the girl I have been taking for Nachhilfe all year and got to play games (and dish out goodies) in my final lesson with 7a. I took sweets for both my Klasse 6 groups (earning myself a round of applause from 6a and a cheer from 6b) and thank you presents for the teachers I've been closest to. I also got thank you presents myself, from Petra and Jan and also from the school, Herr Winkler presenting me with my very own Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium much in "corporate-friendly blue". Everyone said lovely things and I have to admit I got a bit teary.
Of course, we wouldn't be being true to form if there wasn't a big ol' piss-up to send us on our way, and boy did we do it in style. We didn't just go out to party; we treated Düsseldorf to a round of pub golf. Beginning (of course) at the Irish pub, we smashed our way through nine holes, including Guinness, Altbeer, Vodka Ahoi and an Irish Car-Bomb to top it all off. There was chugging. There were forfeits. There was extreme bladder control. Our outfits and plastic gold clubs attracted a lot of attention and we ended up picking up a group of Germans around the second hole who, fascinated, followed us from bar to bar so that they could play along. I think we probably covered all the essentials of one of our Germany nights out as well, what with the karaoke, the chatting to strangers, the losing people, the funny looks from passers by and the huge volume of drunken photography. What a perfect night to end on. Or not quite end on, should I say, because the following day we decided to grillen und chillen (chill out with a barbecue) at Carol's. It was a great excuse to have one last relax together with a beer and say goodbye to some of the excellent people we've met over the year. Maxime and Chris departed with promises to come visit and Sheffield and tears were shed when we (after many hugs) said goodbye to Kelsey. We hung out the window and waved her all the way down the street. I spent Sunday gathering up the last remaining items dotted about my room and stuffing them wherever they would fit in my vast amounts of luggage before Mum and Dad arrived on Monday with the car, ready to transport it all. We went out on Monday evening for a slap-up German meal at the Schackt Brauhaus, afterwards taking advantage of the hottest day of the year to sit outside Hundertmeister for a cocktail and one last giggle. Too soon it was time for hugs and bis balds and we all went out separate ways. I took my very last night-time walk home through Duisburg, got five hours sleep and went to teach my final lesson, which happened to be Vertretung. Just goes to show, education doesn't care if it's your last day or not, you still have to preside over an hour and a half of chaos. I then got my lovely goodbye, handed in my keys and left HHG for very last time. I went and met my wonderful parents, got teary again, and went to finish off sorting the last bits of my life into boxes. My room is back to the stark white state I found it in, the car is packed and I'm leaving... now.
There have been so many points this year when I have had to stop and think "wow, my life is awesome": dancing in Balkan music in a disused candy factory in Copenhagen, singing Karneval songs at the top of my voice at a Düsseldorf street party, lying on my back in a park in Münster listening to acoustic guitar, train-hopping across Holland, waving inflatable microphones and cheering my support at Eurovision, climbing the steps up to Prague castle just to gaze at the view, chatting up Tubelord in an obscure Duisburg bar, fighting dirty for sweets at the Rosenmontag parades, basking in the Berlin sunshine at Alexanderplatz, hanging out in the square late at night to drink beer and swap stories, walking round Paris in winter, roasting Bratwursts on a disposable BBQ behind Carol's building, buying hot Glühwein at a Christmas market in Cologne, feeding penguins at the zoo, playing drinking games in a shabby Amsterdam hotel room with a bunch of random Dutch boys... I could go on. And on and on and on.
But this year would have been nothing, nothing, without the people. I have made some incredible friends throughout the course of this and I want to thank each and every one of you for making my year abroad something truly special. First, Kelsey. You've been stuck with me ever since I had to steal all your toothpaste when we were room-mates in Altenburg and somehow you're still my friend; thanks for being there through the ups and downs and for putting up with nine months of similarly stupid behaviour. Kate, Carol, Lara, Ally and Jo - my local lovelies, fellow Dortlube members and pub golf partners in crime - thanks for letting me crash your friendship group and stick around. You've given me more giggles and lovely memories than I could possibly shake a stick at. I will see you all again, and soon - this is simply happy bis bald tard! Then my fellow Sheffies... Freebs, thanks for kicking this whole shebang off with me at Manchster airport all those months ago; I probably wouldn't have made it here without you. Soph, thanks for having me to stay and showing me Cologne and for being at the end of a Facebook thread when I needed some contact with home. Lynsday and Matt, I can't believe I wasted two years of my life not being best friends with you. You'd better know that you're both now pretty much indispensable to me and we are most certainly carrying on our Münster shenanigans when we get back in fourth year. And speaking of Münster, I need to thank those Münstites: Cerys, Linz, Sammy, Amy, Jon, Sarah G, Pete, Amelia, Emily, John R, John P, Gina, Lukas, Johan, Sarah H... thank you for letting me (and Kelsey) crash all your parties, for providing beds and floors, for making us feel like part of the posse and for just generally being brilliant. You're the most ramshackle and hilarious bunch of people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. To everyone at Heinrich-Heine, teacher or pupil, but especially to Jan, Petra and Franzi, I want to say thank you for being so supportive and welcoming and making me a part of your world for nine months. I've really enjoyed my job and just hope that I've done it well. Finally, there's everyone else that I've met along the way who have at various points helped me out, partied with me, gave me music, kept me company, invited me to things, lived with me or simply just been my friend: Hanna, Nicola, Hannah, Maxime, Chris, Heather, Sona, Lena, Andrey, Julian, Thomas, Miriam, Nadja... the biggest thanks to all of you, too, for adding your own excellence to an already excellent year.
When I think about how I felt about my year abroad way back in September, I'm ashamed. I was so negative, so disbelieving of all the people that told me that it would be the best year of my degree. I never would have imagined that I would be sitting here, nine months down the line, teary-eyed because I don't want to leave. This year has changed me, I think. There's something about having to cope entirely on your own in a foreign country and about setting up a life and a network of friends virtually from scratch that makes you a much more confident and flexible person. I don't really have any fears for my future any more; the miscellaneous experiences of this year have taught me that I can pretty much cope with whatever life throws my way, even if it's at 7 o'clock in the morning. I'm proud of myself too, because I think the Georgie of a couple of years back wouldn't have been able to do something like this at all. I consider coping with this year to be one of my greatest achievements; it's testimony that I'm finally independent and, in the majority of respects anyway, an adult. But, life-enhancing rubbish aside, the main thing is that I have enjoyed every single solitary second of this experience. Every last bit of it. The job, the travelling, the parties and especially the people... it's been one hundred percent incredible. I'm going to miss it very, very much.
And that's it. I have (at last) nothing left to write. But 'WTW?' is by no means dead. The year abroad side of its existence may have drawn to a close but it will still operate, and frequently, with reviews, views and any other rubbish I may need to get off my chest. This is not the end. I'll be back very soon so, as always, stay tuned. In terms of my year abroad, though, I will leave you with one last thought: I thought that this year would be awful. I thought that I would hate it. I thought I would be lonely and friendless and counting down the days until May 31st. Instead, I've ended up loving it more that I could possibly articulate, I've met the most incredible people and these last few days I've wanted time to back-pedal so I can stay here just that little bit longer.
Isn't it amazing just how wrong a person can be?
Prague was a different experience again. We chose to take the over-night train down because it was cheaper than flying, but unlike for my trip to Copenhagen (when I had a carriage to myself), the little compartment was very crammed and uncomfortable and there was very little sleeping achieved. It was worth the difficult journey, though, because Prague is stunning. I could have spent my entire two days there simply taking enough pictures of beautiful buildings to fill the hard-drive on my computer. We walked from architectural masterpiece to architectural masterpiece, mouths hanging open; Charles Bridge, the Astrological Clock, the castle, the palace, the Old Town Square, the museum, the Municipal House... we must have covered them all and all in the sensational Czech sunshine. At nights, true to form, we searched out bars. Recommendations from my home friends Charlie and Tom lead us on the first night first to a reasonable and excellent restaurant called Stoleti and then onwards to a quirky little locals bar (Duende) just up the street where they sell beer for just 20 Czech crowns. That's less than a euro, people. Both places were tucked away down the back streets, representative of what all of Prague must have been like before the stag parties arrived. The second night we tried a bar just behind the church in the Old Town Square where we must have been the only people not to be dressed as zombies (the reason behind the hordes of zombies mooching around the city I still don't know). We did, however, get picked up by a sort-of bar crawl of Canadians, Aussies, New Zealanders and a couple of Brits, who were on a camping tour of Europe's more famous cities. We took a trip to a funky underground bar with them, but opted out of their plans for Prague's star five-story club, which, from the outside, looked liked an over-priced temple to hen-party tourism. Instead we took a short walk and ducked into a likely looking place (actually opposite the bar from the previous evening) where we got chatting to a couple of Czech blokes. We enquired as to traditional Czech alcohol, and they provided us with what can only be described as a strange green herbal concoction smelling of ginger. Apparently there were eighteen different herbs in it, but I can't confirm this. I can confirm, however, that it was pretty strong and pretty horrible. After being plied with a couple more of (different) traditional Czech drinks, and Czech blokes in tow, we muzzily wandered off into the night and ended up in the bar we'd started off in the first place, where we remained until 6am despite the fact it was virtually entirely dead (no zombie pun intended). The journey home the next day (incorporating a three hour bus journey, I might add) was hungover to say the least.
There have also been some equally enjoyable shenanigans closer to home, specifically an event that took place in the interim weekend between these two excellent trips. Anyone who is anyone knows that the Eurovision song contest was held this year in Düsseldorf and who were we, living a mere fifteen minutes away, not to take advantage of this? I say fifteen minutes, some of my friends travelled much further than that. A lot took the hour trip from Münster, but full commitment points go to Lyndsay for coming all the way from Holland and to Matt for coming all the way from France. Despite the fair amount of embarrassment that ensues from having to support Blue (and, I think in all cases, Jedward) we painted ourselves blue, white and red and waved our union jacks with gusto. It was a great atmosphere, thousands of people gathering in Johannes-Rau Platz for what was essentially a massive outdoor Euro-disco, and is definitely one of my most favourite moments of this year. I think we were all surprised that Europe took Jedward so well (they are now frequent players in the German charts) but there was the little groan of disappointment from the Brits when Germany crept ahead of us at the final hurdle.
After we got back from Prague, the countdown to the end began. I de-registered as a German citizen, closed my bank account and started packing my life here into suitcases and boxes. Kelsey, Kate and Carol helped me paint my room back into ship-shape condition and I began saying my goodbyes at Heinrich-Heine. On the Thursday, I got given a goodbye gift from the girl I have been taking for Nachhilfe all year and got to play games (and dish out goodies) in my final lesson with 7a. I took sweets for both my Klasse 6 groups (earning myself a round of applause from 6a and a cheer from 6b) and thank you presents for the teachers I've been closest to. I also got thank you presents myself, from Petra and Jan and also from the school, Herr Winkler presenting me with my very own Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium much in "corporate-friendly blue". Everyone said lovely things and I have to admit I got a bit teary.
Of course, we wouldn't be being true to form if there wasn't a big ol' piss-up to send us on our way, and boy did we do it in style. We didn't just go out to party; we treated Düsseldorf to a round of pub golf. Beginning (of course) at the Irish pub, we smashed our way through nine holes, including Guinness, Altbeer, Vodka Ahoi and an Irish Car-Bomb to top it all off. There was chugging. There were forfeits. There was extreme bladder control. Our outfits and plastic gold clubs attracted a lot of attention and we ended up picking up a group of Germans around the second hole who, fascinated, followed us from bar to bar so that they could play along. I think we probably covered all the essentials of one of our Germany nights out as well, what with the karaoke, the chatting to strangers, the losing people, the funny looks from passers by and the huge volume of drunken photography. What a perfect night to end on. Or not quite end on, should I say, because the following day we decided to grillen und chillen (chill out with a barbecue) at Carol's. It was a great excuse to have one last relax together with a beer and say goodbye to some of the excellent people we've met over the year. Maxime and Chris departed with promises to come visit and Sheffield and tears were shed when we (after many hugs) said goodbye to Kelsey. We hung out the window and waved her all the way down the street. I spent Sunday gathering up the last remaining items dotted about my room and stuffing them wherever they would fit in my vast amounts of luggage before Mum and Dad arrived on Monday with the car, ready to transport it all. We went out on Monday evening for a slap-up German meal at the Schackt Brauhaus, afterwards taking advantage of the hottest day of the year to sit outside Hundertmeister for a cocktail and one last giggle. Too soon it was time for hugs and bis balds and we all went out separate ways. I took my very last night-time walk home through Duisburg, got five hours sleep and went to teach my final lesson, which happened to be Vertretung. Just goes to show, education doesn't care if it's your last day or not, you still have to preside over an hour and a half of chaos. I then got my lovely goodbye, handed in my keys and left HHG for very last time. I went and met my wonderful parents, got teary again, and went to finish off sorting the last bits of my life into boxes. My room is back to the stark white state I found it in, the car is packed and I'm leaving... now.
There have been so many points this year when I have had to stop and think "wow, my life is awesome": dancing in Balkan music in a disused candy factory in Copenhagen, singing Karneval songs at the top of my voice at a Düsseldorf street party, lying on my back in a park in Münster listening to acoustic guitar, train-hopping across Holland, waving inflatable microphones and cheering my support at Eurovision, climbing the steps up to Prague castle just to gaze at the view, chatting up Tubelord in an obscure Duisburg bar, fighting dirty for sweets at the Rosenmontag parades, basking in the Berlin sunshine at Alexanderplatz, hanging out in the square late at night to drink beer and swap stories, walking round Paris in winter, roasting Bratwursts on a disposable BBQ behind Carol's building, buying hot Glühwein at a Christmas market in Cologne, feeding penguins at the zoo, playing drinking games in a shabby Amsterdam hotel room with a bunch of random Dutch boys... I could go on. And on and on and on.
But this year would have been nothing, nothing, without the people. I have made some incredible friends throughout the course of this and I want to thank each and every one of you for making my year abroad something truly special. First, Kelsey. You've been stuck with me ever since I had to steal all your toothpaste when we were room-mates in Altenburg and somehow you're still my friend; thanks for being there through the ups and downs and for putting up with nine months of similarly stupid behaviour. Kate, Carol, Lara, Ally and Jo - my local lovelies, fellow Dortlube members and pub golf partners in crime - thanks for letting me crash your friendship group and stick around. You've given me more giggles and lovely memories than I could possibly shake a stick at. I will see you all again, and soon - this is simply happy bis bald tard! Then my fellow Sheffies... Freebs, thanks for kicking this whole shebang off with me at Manchster airport all those months ago; I probably wouldn't have made it here without you. Soph, thanks for having me to stay and showing me Cologne and for being at the end of a Facebook thread when I needed some contact with home. Lynsday and Matt, I can't believe I wasted two years of my life not being best friends with you. You'd better know that you're both now pretty much indispensable to me and we are most certainly carrying on our Münster shenanigans when we get back in fourth year. And speaking of Münster, I need to thank those Münstites: Cerys, Linz, Sammy, Amy, Jon, Sarah G, Pete, Amelia, Emily, John R, John P, Gina, Lukas, Johan, Sarah H... thank you for letting me (and Kelsey) crash all your parties, for providing beds and floors, for making us feel like part of the posse and for just generally being brilliant. You're the most ramshackle and hilarious bunch of people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. To everyone at Heinrich-Heine, teacher or pupil, but especially to Jan, Petra and Franzi, I want to say thank you for being so supportive and welcoming and making me a part of your world for nine months. I've really enjoyed my job and just hope that I've done it well. Finally, there's everyone else that I've met along the way who have at various points helped me out, partied with me, gave me music, kept me company, invited me to things, lived with me or simply just been my friend: Hanna, Nicola, Hannah, Maxime, Chris, Heather, Sona, Lena, Andrey, Julian, Thomas, Miriam, Nadja... the biggest thanks to all of you, too, for adding your own excellence to an already excellent year.
When I think about how I felt about my year abroad way back in September, I'm ashamed. I was so negative, so disbelieving of all the people that told me that it would be the best year of my degree. I never would have imagined that I would be sitting here, nine months down the line, teary-eyed because I don't want to leave. This year has changed me, I think. There's something about having to cope entirely on your own in a foreign country and about setting up a life and a network of friends virtually from scratch that makes you a much more confident and flexible person. I don't really have any fears for my future any more; the miscellaneous experiences of this year have taught me that I can pretty much cope with whatever life throws my way, even if it's at 7 o'clock in the morning. I'm proud of myself too, because I think the Georgie of a couple of years back wouldn't have been able to do something like this at all. I consider coping with this year to be one of my greatest achievements; it's testimony that I'm finally independent and, in the majority of respects anyway, an adult. But, life-enhancing rubbish aside, the main thing is that I have enjoyed every single solitary second of this experience. Every last bit of it. The job, the travelling, the parties and especially the people... it's been one hundred percent incredible. I'm going to miss it very, very much.
And that's it. I have (at last) nothing left to write. But 'WTW?' is by no means dead. The year abroad side of its existence may have drawn to a close but it will still operate, and frequently, with reviews, views and any other rubbish I may need to get off my chest. This is not the end. I'll be back very soon so, as always, stay tuned. In terms of my year abroad, though, I will leave you with one last thought: I thought that this year would be awful. I thought that I would hate it. I thought I would be lonely and friendless and counting down the days until May 31st. Instead, I've ended up loving it more that I could possibly articulate, I've met the most incredible people and these last few days I've wanted time to back-pedal so I can stay here just that little bit longer.
Isn't it amazing just how wrong a person can be?
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