Germany through the eyes of a teenager

By Gaurika Chaturvedi

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I went to Germany as an exchange student and my host family took me to some really beautiful places. The first was Zugspitze (the tallest mountain in Germany) which is in Garmisch Partenkrichen.Image-2 I was wearing so many layers of clothes seven to be exact and my host family was amused to see that. Most people have gone skiing on mountains but have you ever sled down one ? It is the most amazing experience ever and I was ever so hyper about it. “It’s pretty simple really you sit down on your sled and put your right foot down on the snow slide to go right and the left foot down to go left , if you want to stop or slow down just pull the head of the sled up and put both your feet down” my friend explained. “Oh that sounds easy enough!” I responded excitedly. Image-1It wasn’t. I fell a gazillion times !!! And I didn’t sled once without falling! Plus when you sled down and your feet are on the snow slide, the snow hits your face so while going down you shouldn’t have a single opening left uncovered otherwise by the time you’ve reached the bottom there will be a layer of snow on your face and a glacier in your jacket, trust me I was so cold! After one round of sledding we went up to this cafe kind of place and had lunch- we had curry wurst, pasta and hot chocolate which was heaven after all the snow! Curry wurst is something you have to have when in Germany. Its basically just a sausage in gravy with fries but it tastes so delicious that  just thinking about it makes my mouth water! We went for another round of sledding then and my last ride down was my best I fell the least on it and didn’t fly off the track !

 

 

We also went to this place called Partnachklamm  which is a  gorge or canyon type structure which has a streamImage-4 flowing through it and we walked right next to it tracing its path through tunnels and walking on slightly caved in part of one of the two mountains which had been carved by this stream. It was an experience to just listen to it flow and smile and watch all your worries drift away with the water. It was beautiful and when you looked up you could see a piece of the blue  sky through a small slit in the trees and rock. It’s a really calming place to just think about the beauties of life.

 

 

 

The next weekend we went to this climbing park, Kletterwald Rothenburg, and it was legendary !! It was a very elaborate adventure camp and interestingly nobody set you up.You were supposed to tie yourself to the obstacle course and complete it yourself and I had soooooooooo much fun that day though by the end of it my arms were so sore of climbing and holding ropes! I am proud to say that me and my friend completed the two hardest ones, bat and gorilla! There were quite a lot of new levels that I hadn’t seen before in the adventure camps in India . There was one were ten logs were hanging and at the bottom of each log there were two plastic tubes coming out on which you had to put your feet and move on, I was so afraid to go onto the next because I thought if I’d put one foot then I would pull theImage-5 log to me and fall off. I wasn’t afraid of falling but I was afraid of going off track because without ropes on me I would’ve died and that’s a failure. There were also these long logs which had been cut along the side to make a flat surface and they were hanging by three ropes and you and to cross them. There were three of them hanging and the hardest part was getting on to the next one. I suppose the best was the free fall in bat. You had to climb to around a height of 8m to a platform and jump. My friend and I stood there for a very long time debating whether we should do it or not. Finally I sat down on the edge of the platform and wasted five more minutes after which I just jumped and I didn’t regret it.

 

Image-6We went to Kristal Palm beach on the weekend after that. It is like an indoor swimming pool place, except it has several pools and  slides! We first went into the wave pool which was really crazy. There was this massive inflatable octopus type thing in the middle which everyone was trying to climb onto. After so much of effort I finally managed to get on top with the help of my friends. Next we went to the diving pool and my friend taught my how to dive and though I realized I was horrible at it, I agreed to go on to the highest diving board and try it out. I got to the edge and to prevent myself from getting cold feet just followed instructions without thinking. I was there to jump, I jumped on my first go and that is when I realised that it indeed was an amazing and a not to be missed jump. After that we went to the slides which were my favourite part! There were a gazillion of them and we went on each one! My favourite however was Pegasus – that slide has a free fall and while you’re free falling there’s one part of the slide which is transparent and when you look out your stomach lurches in that hate but love way and then you have a roller coaster type loop! To begin with I wasn’t so sure that I’d do it,”What if I get stuck? What if I can’t complete the loop and slide back?” But when we got to the top I forgot all my emotions and went through! I loved it and repeated it n number of times.

 

 (Trigger warning: torture)

Image-7My friend’s school took us to the concentration camp in Dachau and after all the fun and games you’re brought back to reality in the cruelest way. There were montages with pictures of skeletons covered with just skin lying there in a pile as if they’re garbage.I understand that it’s a really depressing place and it’s quite traumatic even if you didn’t go through their pain and why would you want to go there while you’re on vacation but I believe that out of all that you can take back some inspiring stories of endurance and unity. How people tortured themselves to practice and survive their regular beatings, how there were no divisions, no bias and everyone stood together and endured together as fellow human beings. They accepted their differences and realised that the only way they’ll make it through this is by being united.

I will warn you though, if you are easily haunted by suffering you might not want to go.

After that we were all very glad to go to Munich (München). The one thing people go to Munich for is to shop. There is one massively long and wide street full of just shops, it’s called Marienplatz. All the girls from my school went from shop to shop of various different brands that weren’t available in India. Personally I feel that if you look for the street side shops you’ll find more unique things to buy. Near a church  there’s a small area where a street market is set up, you’ll find fruits and vegetables being sold but you’ll also find quite a lot of odd trinkets and crafts being sold there too. So grab a bunch of strawberries and look around. I guarantee you will find some really interesting and unique things there!

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