Blaubeuren

I just got back today from a week in Blaubeuren (well, 5 days - we went there on Sunday). Nothing super exciting happened, but I felt like I should write something anyway because I have been away from the outside world for so long that I don't want to forget how to talk to people.

Blaubeuren is a little town about an hour away from Tübingen, on (in?) the Schwäbische Alb (Swabian Highlands). It has about 4,000 people, I think. On the first day we got there we had to do a 'Stadtspiel', where we were given a list of questions about Blaubeuren (who is the most famous athlete from Blaubeuren, what is the Blautopf, who is the schöne Lau, etc.), and we had to go into town in teams of 4 and ask people on the street or in shops/cafes/etc if they could help us answer the questions. It was actually pretty fun, and I understood most of what everyone said, except for an old man who had a really heavy Schwäbisch accent.

(Answers: I forget his name, but the athlete from Blaubeuren won the 5000 m race in some Olympics in the 90s; the Blautopf is a spring behind the old cloister that is really pretty and blue; and the schöne Lau is a character in a fairy tale who was imprisoned in the Blautopf because she was so sad because couldn't have children and she will only be let go when she laughs wholeheartedly 5 times)

In Blaubeuren we sort of kept our normal schedule - class from 9-12:30 every day, lunch, and tutorium in the afternoons. We also had group theater projects (I played the role of Oma in a skit about a Schwäbisch family trying to decide what to watch on tv on a Saturday night), and every night there was a German film we could watch.

Before I say more about the adventures we had, I would just like to say that the food in Blaubeuren was AMAZING. We stayed at the Heinrich-Fabri-Institut, which is owned by the Uni Tübingen and seminar classes and programs like mine go there for retreats and stuff. There are 2 buildings of bedrooms and then one building where the classrooms and dining hall are. And the food in this dining hall was fabulous. Every morning for breakfast there was lunchmeat, cheese, fresh bread, orange juice, cereal, and yogurt, and also NUTELLA, and for every lunch and dinner there was a great salad bar with really fresh vegetables and usually German potato salad. The meals we had were things like schnitzel, maultaschen, wurst with spätzle, frikadelles, and other delicious German things. Food-wise, I think southwest Germany is my favorite region.

So, anyway, back to the adventures - this is why I ate so much of said food.

On Tuesday, instead of tutorium (which, I don't think I've explained, is where the uni students who help with the program teach us useful things about living in Germany, like how to separate the trash and how young people talk to each other), we went on a hike to some (seemingly) nearby ruins. On this day, it was about -8 °C and had just snowed a few days before, so it still felt like winter. We picked up the trail from behind the Blautopf, and at first it was fine - kind of narrow, so we had to go single file, because if two people tried to walk next to each other one would have fallen off the trail down the side of the mountain, and kind of icy, but not too tough. Parts of it were really icy, but there were convenient trees to grab onto in order not to fall. At the top of this part, we crossed the road going up the mountain, and went on to the next. This trail was wider, and less icy, but instead a lot steeper. It reminded me of the hike I did to Festung Königstein because it was easy at first, but by the end (20 minutes later), we were all out of breath. Once the whole group got up there (I think there about 30 of us that went on this expedition), we continued walking through the (thankfully now flat) forest towards these ruins that we wanted to visit. There was lots of snow. I kept trying to keep the snow from sticking on my boots and thus making them wet, but eventually I just gave up. My boots are not waterproof. I wish they were. Suddenly the forest ended and there was a huge flat plain covered in about 2 feet of snow, and it was colder and windier than the lakefill in January. There was so much snow, in fact, that we couldn't tell where the trail went. There was a small town at the top of this mountain as well, so we weren't completely lost in the middle of nowhere, but it took us about 10 minutes and 3 wrong turns (through LOTS of snow) to finally find the way to the ruins, even though the guys leading our group had hiked this way before. Eventually, after more steep hills and then some stairs, we got to the ruins of an old castle that had been built in the 11th century, you know, nbd. There wasn't a whooole lot to see there, so we didn't stay very long... it was more about the journey than the destination :) We took a different way back that was more direct, but much steeper and more ice-covered. It was probably the hardest hike I have ever done - in some parts you had to go backwards down the hill because it was so steep and it was easier to find rocks that way, and there was one part that was so icy that I just put my hands down behind me and pushed my way down the ice using my feet as a sled-like thing. By the time we got back down to the bottom (ca. 3 hours after we had started) we were all slightly wet, either from sweat or non waterproof boots or both, freezing, and ready to go home. I think the best feeling of that day was when I got to my room, stripped off my wet clothes, and got into bed and watched tv for a half hour before dinner.

On Wednesday, after lecture we went into Ulm, which is about a 15 minute train ride from Blaubeuren. When we first got there it looked kind of icky and dirty around the train station, but the old part of the city by the Münster is really cute. Since our muscles weren't tired enough from the hike the day before, we decided it would be a great idea to go to the top of the Münster tower, which is a journey of 768 steps, which is a lot more than it sounded like. We couldn't even go to the top, only about halfway, because the top of the tower was too icy for them to clean off and let people in. That worked out okay... I don't think I would have made it. 400 steps is a lot, and 768 is a LOT more. After that we got Kaffee und Kuchen in a cafe, stayed there and talked for a while, and then I went shopping a little bit. I had found this shoestore that sells 'übergröße' shoes, Diechmann, online, and it said they had a location in Ulm. As it turns out, it was right in the center of town along with everything else, so I went there and found a pair of boots in my size!!! I am so excited because they are cute and look European and are comfortable and I can wear them with anything.

I'm really glad the program organized this trip, because it was a really good way to get to know the other students - since we live all over town, it is kind of hard to spontaneously hang out with new people, because everything has to be planned. Living together for a week was good, but now I am definitely happy to be back in Tübingen with my own room and the ability to do laundry and use the internet.