From Italy
I took a wide array of trains to get to Germany, where I was to be reunited
with Thomas and his parents.
I had
chosen a train that went along the Adriatic coast and would meet up with my
nighttrain in Bologna 2 hours before its departure. When we stopped in the
middle of Adriatic coast no-man’s-land and a gargled stream of Italian through
the loudspeakers announced “gurgle gurgle gurgle locomotivo gurgle gurgle gurgle” I regretted not having taken a
train with at least 5 hours buffer. However, the problem with the locomotivo was fixed in half an hour and
I arrived well on time.
The next
morning in Muenchen I met up with two other night-train travelers from the
conference and we had some coffee before taking our respective trains further
into German territories. 2 trains on and I was met by a jetlagged Thomas, who
had arrived in Germany only a few days earlier from NZ directly.
We then
spent some nice days with his parents, most notably celebrating Thomas’
birthday and eating large amounts of cake.
Then it was
on to Freiburg. One should not complain when one doesn’t miss one’s train
connections, especially after one has incessantly complained about the lack of
a decent railway system in New Zealand. Nevertheless was it not much fun to run
from Gleis S2 underground to Gleis 18b within 30 seconds and with 2 backpacks
because each train had at least 10 minutes delay so that connecting trains were
only barely within reach.
But we hadn’t
been in Freiburg for 5 minutes when we met a familiar face who could
immediately fill us in on some university gossip.
We stayed
with Martin & Sandra, our 4 month NZ guests. Because they spent so much
time with us in NZ, this was a bit like coming home. And as they live close to
the river I went for runs in the morning, with views of the forested hills
around us. Ah, Freiburg …
Lots had
changed at Freiburg-soil science since last year. A new professor, new
colleagues, new renovations, but the same old coffee & cake at 10 am. And still
enough familiar faces, friends, to catch up with.
Although
Freiburg isn’t big and the amount of friends manageable, it still felt as if
were running from one appointment to the next without time to breath. I don’t
think there is an easy solution to this phenomenon, other than not visiting
Europe at all, or moving back permanently.
However one
way to combine a fun activity with social interaction is to invite all your
friends, friends-of-friends, relatives and partners from the wider region to
engage in an invigorating Black Forest hike. After some initial train-issues
all ten of us managed to get to the starting point, assemble, and march off into
the dark forested hills, up a mountain, down the mountain to a wonderfully laid
picknick table.
I was asked
later if the Black Forest isn’t boring and tame compared to our adventures in
NZ wilderness, but that isn’t the case. Of course it depends on what you
expect, and in the Black Forest I expect carefully managed forest, grassy
fields with wildflowers, picturesque farms and huts, views of the Rhine graben
into the Vosges on the other side in France. In NZ you expect incredible
steepness, rockfall and the sensation of being on another planet. With 10
people that you know well and haven’t seen in a year, it is much nicer to feel
as if you’re all in the same well-explored universe.
With that
feeling lingering I once again boarded a train, to France for some true holiday
time with my father and brother. And a paper that needed revision and
resubmission.
