Hannover, Germany
+ PHOTS ALBUMS LINKS AT THE END!
The weekend of September 26-28 I went up to Hannover, Germany, on one my biggest adventures yet. I decided to get away from any group travel this weekend and just travel solo, which I felt completely comfortable with since I'm male and have traveled through Europe before. This was my first time in Germany and some of my first attempts to ever speak German, which was challenging.
Hannover, Germany, may seem quite random, but it is near where my great great great great grandfather, Henry Grobe (was born way back in 1805 and came over to the US on a ship in 1849!) was born. He actually came from a small town outside of Hannover, but it was still cool to see the general area.
In order to save money, combined with the fact that there aren't many hostels in Hannover because it is not incredibly touristy, I decided to use CouchSurfing. If you have never heard of it, it is where people from all over the world communicate via the internet and can stay at each others houses (usually on their couch) for free! Also, it is assumed that the hosts will feed you some and show your around or point you in the right direction. I messaged a guy who is about my age, 20, and he said that he would definitely host me. I decided that I wanted to go, so I said I would come and I made my train reservations! My mom was freaking out, and that was warranted, but I knew, in the back of my mind, that I would be okay.After a lot of prayer and thought I headed out Friday morning to Basel, where I then took a train to Cologne. I stopped in Cologne for a couple of hours because I wanted to see the famous Cathedral there, which is incredible.
The Cathedral is very gothic and very grand and it was really cool to see such a historical building. After more anticipation and waiting, I got on my train to Hannover. Upon arriving in Hannover and walking towards the statue at the front of the train station where my host, Niko, told me to meet him, I was extremely nervous. I was praying that I wouldn't be killed or robbed or molested or left in a dark alley or this or that, etc, etc, haha. But, he was normal and turned out to be an awesome guy. He picked me up and took be to his place via Subway and once there I tried a couple of the German beers he bought me. Germans, or most of them, are obsessed with beer, at least young German guys. I don't care for the taste, but I drank two so as not to be extremely rude to my guests. That night I just hung out with him and his brother, Max, who is 18. We talked about our different cultures, and our views on the opposing country, politics, morals of the countries, etc. It was really interesting to listen to their ideas and to learn how they viewed certain things. The picture below is the view from my window at Niko's house.
Saturday I woke up, I was able to stay on a bed because Niko's apartmentmate wasn't there, and took a shower and Niko prepared breakfast for us. Afterward, a few of his friends came over and soon we headed out to see Hannover. We (Niko, Christian (his apartmentmate's brother) and I) started by walking through the "forest" which I was told is the largest forest that is in a city, in the world, so I don't know if that is true, but it is very interesting! I saw the HCC which is where important meetings are held, the Opera, the Governors house, a church that was partially destroyed by bombings in the 2nd World War, part of the royal gardens, the University that use to be the Palace for the King of Hannover and much more. The picture below is of my host, Niko and I.
Saturday was a very special day. First, the weather was great, which was very unusual - Niko said it had been very cloudy and gross for two weeks before Friday, so I was grateful it was so nice outside. Also, Saturday was the day that Hannovers Football Club (Soccer) took on one of the great German clubs, FC Bayern Munich. Hannover's team supposedly is not that great, so they were not expected to put up much of a fight against Bayern. We tried to go to a Biergarten to watch the game, but their TV wasn't working, so we went to an Irish Pub instead. In the first half Hannover scored! During halftime, we went and got Kebap's (a Turkish inspired food - there are a ton of immigrants in Germany) which are pretty much Kebab's, but wrapped in a pita bread type thing. The second half was less action packed and as the final second ran out, it was official, Hannover won! That was the first time they had beaten FC Bayern at home since 1988! It was cool to be there for that.That night we were thinking about going to Oktoberfest, which is the second biggest behind the huge one in Munich, but because it was roughly 30 minutes away and I had to wake up early to make my train in the morning, we decided against it. Niko and Nikolas (his apartmentmate) had some friends over and we just talked and some played video games and we ate some spaghetti, it was just another chill night which was a nice change from all of the touristy rush-to-every-possible-famous-spot-in-this-city nights of other and future weekends! The picture below is be in front of the Hannover train station.
Sunday morning I woke up at 7:20 and Niko at 7:30 and he took me, by Subway, to the train station. He was even nice enough to take me all the way my train car. I told him goodbye and we thanked each other for the great cultural experience. He took a risk too, I could have been a serial killer or something or really strange or just dangerous in some way. It was neat to see that there are such kind and hospitable people in this world. I had never been to Germany before, but I got a great taste of life there by staying with Germans who in turn became friends. God is so good and he really does watch out for us I believe. I was so scared before I arrived there and I was repeating the song with the lyrics:As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people
Surround us, Lord
Surround us, Lord
We need to be in your presence, surround us, Lord
Take those lyrics for what you will and remember that God is great!
This weekend I am going to meet my best friend, Derek in Paris with many other from here and I am very excited for this - we are all going to have a really good time!
I hope that you are doing well, whether you are reading this from Texas, California, Switzerland or any other place in this world. God bless!
Wade
P.S. Here are some links to photo albums:
COLOGNE & HANNOVER
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001013&l=54266&id=1534470084
SWITZ
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001010&l=7453c&id=1534470084
PARIS
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001004&l=58a90&id=1534470084
PARIS
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001003&l=67b8f&id=1534470084
SWITZ
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000995&l=5d8db&id=1534470084
