Alright, so no pictures, because I'm just illegally using the library computers again, but brief summary of recent happenings:
Yesterday we went on an historical tour of the city. It's gorgeous (I think I might have mentioned that before...?), but I'll post pictures and more info tomorrow. (We're going to the Irish pub again tomorrow for half price burgers and an 8 euro pitcher of beer.)
After the tour, a friend called me on my brand-spanking new phone and the two of us decided to go on an "adventure" - we got on the very first bus we'd never been on before and rode it to a stop we'd never gotten off at before. Then we just explored. I bought some more very cheap stuff to make my room look less dismal, and we ran into a girl who's been helping us foreigners adjust. She's from some Central Asian republic and speaks Russian. She asked me to do a tandem partnership with her, with me teaching her English and her teaching me Russian. Sounds like a good deal to me! Plus she says I can get credit for it, which would be sweet.
After wandering around, we found a little restaurant called "Anna Maria Pizza Bar." The woman who works there speaks very little German and even less English. (She's from Italy.) She was very nice. She showed us pictures of Venice and told us stories in a mix of English, German and Italian. She told us how her brother's a gondolier and after 9/11 he bought American flags to hang around his gondola (she showed us pictures of that, too). We had gnocchi (€6,50) and gelato (€0,50!!!).
While we ate, I started a conversation with this old German man who was just sitting and drinking. He was also really nice and told us stories (in good Hochdeutsch) about his travels around the world.
After a while a bunch of people starting pouring in. And they all only spoke Italian! We realized we were in Constance's Little Italy (Kleinitalien). I spoke in Italian a bit, and then we headed out.
After that we met Chrissy, Kirsten and two German guys we'd met before near the train station (Bahnhof). We went to a pub called Heimat ("Homeland") and had some Raddler (a Bavarian specialty). After that we went back to their flat in Paradies - much nicer than Sonnenbühl Ost! - and just chilled for a while. We'd missed the last bus, so we had to call a taxi, which took forever to get in.
So that was the first "adventure" of the trip!
Oh, and one more thing before I close: I know I said it was chilly, but I didn't mean it comparatively. It's been in the 40s here all week, and today it's in the 50s. What temp is it back in MN? Yeah, Constance sounds pretty good right now, doesn't it?
4 comments:
Good morning! Yes it is another day well below freezing (16 degrees right now I think), so Konstanz does sound good!
Kevin beat his personal times in all his events Friday night and Saturday. He is swimming again today but we will miss it because we went to hear Annaliese sing (just got home). Fun to see them - we got some photos and will send you some in an email Colin.
Sounds like you have met some very nice people (nette Leute!). Food doesn't sound expensive there either.
Can't wait to see more photos. Are you happy with your new camera?
Annaliese leaves Thursday
Love ya!
It's about 80 here now - ein wunderschon Tag!
I don't know proper gender use. I think it's das Tag? Would that make it eines wunderschones Tag? And just skip the umlaut - it won't let me use ASCII.
Ich kenne nicht. Actually my German sucks.
It sounds as though you're diving into the new culture once again! You have a wonderful gift for immersing yourself and reporting back to the rest of us! Thanks!
Hi Colin!! We finally caught up reading your blog. Great to hear you got there safe and are having a good time getting to know the area. It sounds cool. Look forward to hearing more!
Kim, Paul and Abbi
Thanks for the post- fun snippets from your adventures in Constance! Even a Little Italy! I enjoyed the bit about the gondola in American flags. Keep posting Colin! Much fun!
Post a Comment