Well, the summer is nearly up, for me at least. Not that that necessarily is an end to the fun, oh no, school provides its fair share of fun too, but as of the 31st of August, I shall no longer be free of school and the stress that it can provide. However, this summer has proved to be one of my best yet, I haven't had a day to myself, but I almost like it that way.
My summer began with a trip to Germany with Luke Sproule and Rowan Shield at the beginning of July. And boy was it fun. What a fantastic way to start my summer. I was admittedly rather dubious about the prospect of spending nine days with just those two, but it was quite a worthwhile experience. I undertook a greater deal of responsibility, and thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process. We left early in the morning of the 30th of June, and having been moved to seats with extra leg room for the duration of the flight, and arriving 25 minutes early, we arrived in Germany with the sun beaming down on us from the sky above our heads. After a quick look around we quickly found our hostel, left our bags in the luggage room, and went for a walk to see what we could find. Upon arriving at the Glockenspiel, we found ourselves tagging along with a free tour group, which was one of the best things incidentally that we could have done. The organisers of the tour had connections all over Munich and were able to get us discounts on a lot of tours and exhibitions all over the city, so not only did we enjoy our tour, but we enjoyed the consequences of it as well. It was a brilliant way for us to hear all the funny little stories of Germans past and present, and I would definitely recommend the tour to any potential visitors.
I managed to be in Munich for 4 days in total, and I didn't drink, which I'm rather proud of, as many people consider it the beer capital of the world. The same however couldn't be said about Luke, Rowan, Dunch or Owen (our new Irish dorm mates). Pub crawls were the order of the evening, and Owen and Dunch in particular couldn't get enough of them. Being awoken at 3 in the morning by a crazy southerner wasn't necessarily an unusual experience, but once you were awake, you had a good laugh. The fountain/clubbing incident was one of our particular highlights, with "DUNCH, WE'RE GOING CLUBBIN!" being repeated endlessly throughout the course of the week.
After our initial day of getting broken in, we made our way to the Allianz Arena where we did a stadium tour, and as an avid football supporter, it was one of the highlights of my holiday. It was a hot spot for my photography during the week, and I was delighted to get my photo taken in front of the stadium, as it is by far the biggest stadium I've ever visited, a slight improvement on the greyhound track where Lisburn Distillery ply their trade.
Our next stop was Dachau, to visit the first Nazi concentration camp estabilished by Hitler in 1933. Entering through the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' gates was an eery experience, and despite having been there before, I was more able to understand what had happened there due to the fact I'd matured in the four years since I was last there. Despite Dachau's dark history, the town itself is actually a lovely quaint little town, historic and friendly. Before we got the train back to the middle of Munich, we had a walk around the town, and took in a bit of the scenery.
That evening we were informed of a groundbreaking event, something that would shake the course of Luke and Rowan's lives. Bruce Springsteen was playing at the OlympiaArena. I was quickly bunged onto the train and told that we wouldn't be buying tickets, but just sitting outside the Arena and listening. Basically, I thought it was kinda crap. Bruce isn't my cup of tea, but I was able to explore the OlympiaPark and view the talent of the local footballers in the SoccaFive Arena. After two and a half very long hours, I was allowed to go home, and we made our way back to the hostel. The next day we returned to the OlympiaPark, but this time to go to the BMW world, a brilliant free exhibition of all of BMW's newest cars and prototypes. It was then that the heavens opened, and the majority of the Pacific Ocean landed on Munich. We were soaked to the skin (thank you whoever invented coats), and spent the next few hours rather damp, which isn't a pleasant experience to say the least.
But enough about Munich, Stuttgart was where we spent the majority of our time. Having done the exchange with Remstal Gymnasium two years previous, we made it a priority to go and visit our exchange partners. Rowans laziness in contacting Timo aside, Luke and I got to visit both our exchange partners and spent a good bit of quality time with the families that had so kindly accomodated us two years previous. And as they were last time, they were overly accomodating this time as well. When we stayed with the Schanbachers, we spent a grand total of €4.30 on our breakfast. Mr Schanbacher paid for our lunch, our tea, our train tickets, and basically made our lives so much easier. The Muth's were no less generous, letting us stay the night on the Tuesday and taking us to Esslingen where we were treated to one of the most amazing views over the entire town. Thorsten unfortunately is in Israel for a whole year, so visiting again in October is rather out of the question, but I would be delighted to visit any of the people we met in Stuttgart whenever I can.
The three of us made a good few friends through the course of the week, namely Canadians, I managed to be in Munich for 4 days in total, and I didn't drink, which I'm rather proud of, as many people consider it the beer capital of the world. The same however couldn't be said about Luke, Rowan, Dunch or Owen (our new Irish dorm mates). Pub crawls were the order of the evening, and Owen and Dunch in particular couldn't get enough of them. Being awoken at 3 in the morning by a crazy southerner wasn't necessarily an unusual experience, but once you were awake, you had a good laugh. The fountain/clubbing incident was one of our particular highlights, with "DUNCH, WE'RE GOING CLUBBIN!" being repeated endlessly throughout the course of the week.
After our initial day of getting broken in, we made our way to the Allianz Arena where we did a stadium tour, and as an avid football supporter, it was one of the highlights of my holiday. It was a hot spot for my photography during the week, and I was delighted to get my photo taken in front of the stadium, as it is by far the biggest stadium I've ever visited, a slight improvement on the greyhound track where Lisburn Distillery ply their trade.
Our next stop was Dachau, to visit the first Nazi concentration camp estabilished by Hitler in 1933. Entering through the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' gates was an eery experience, and despite having been there before, I was more able to understand what had happened there due to the fact I'd matured in the four years since I was last there. Despite Dachau's dark history, the town itself is actually a lovely quaint little town, historic and friendly. Before we got the train back to the middle of Munich, we had a walk around the town, and took in a bit of the scenery.
That evening we were informed of a groundbreaking event, something that would shake the course of Luke and Rowan's lives. Bruce Springsteen was playing at the OlympiaArena. I was quickly bunged onto the train and told that we wouldn't be buying tickets, but just sitting outside the Arena and listening. Basically, I thought it was kinda crap. Bruce isn't my cup of tea, but I was able to explore the OlympiaPark and view the talent of the local footballers in the SoccaFive Arena. After two and a half very long hours, I was allowed to go home, and we made our way back to the hostel. The next day we returned to the OlympiaPark, but this time to go to the BMW world, a brilliant free exhibition of all of BMW's newest cars and prototypes. It was then that the heavens opened, and the majority of the Pacific Ocean landed on Munich. We were soaked to the skin (thank you whoever invented coats), and spent the next few hours rather damp, which isn't a pleasant experience to say the least.
But enough about Munich, Stuttgart was where we spent the majority of our time. Having done the exchange with Remstal Gymnasium two years previous, we made it a priority to go and visit our exchange partners. Rowans laziness in contacting Timo aside, Luke and I got to visit both our exchange partners and spent a good bit of quality time with the families that had so kindly accomodated us two years previous. And as they were last time, they were overly accomodating this time as well. When we stayed with the Schanbachers, we spent a grand total of €4.30 on our breakfast. Mr Schanbacher paid for our lunch, our tea, our train tickets, and basically made our lives so much easier. The Muth's were no less generous, letting us stay the night on the Tuesday and taking us to Esslingen where we were treated to one of the most amazing views over the entire town. Thorsten unfortunately is in Israel for a whole year, so visiting again in October is rather out of the question, but I would be delighted to visit any of the people we met in Stuttgart whenever I can.
Americans, Australians and the odd Irishman (or woman). Luke especially made a couple of new friends, in particular Doug the Australian. Doug was so impressed by Luke's knowledge of Australia and everything to do with it that he was dubbed an honorary Australian. Whether or not Doug had the necessary privileges to do such a thing is another matter, but it was funny nonetheless. Special mention has to go to Owen Barnes and Dunch O'Riordan, who made the evenings and early mornings that much more entertaining, and gave me the idea to purchase the leih, which definitely made the train journey to Stuttgart that bit more entertaining.Contrary to popular to belief, I only spent 9 days in Germany, which is hard to imagine, given the sheer amount I was able to write, and I possibly could have continued to write had I not been worried about boring you all. A bunch of us from Craigmore (and two others) ventured all the way out to sunny Belfast in the middle of July for a bit of shopping and general banter. Sally McConnell, Sam Jane, Christina Grant, Ross McGrady, James Taylor, Katherine Elliott, and the two Uprichard brothers made their way out on an epic day of craic.
The day began with a spot of lunch in Castlecourt, one of the more upmarket regions of Belfast, in a rather gourmet diner called Subway. After my usual concoction of BMT, cheese, lettuce, onion, salad cream and sweet chili sauce we made our way to VICTORIA SQUARE. It's not quite as good as I'm making it out to be, but you can't beat a good Starbucks or a good laugh at the overly expensive grey jumpers in House of Frazer. On that note, in both those shops, Ross, Steve and I witnessed the fitness. A complete tank. He filled an American Football jersey. That's just not meant to happen. But, we somehow got a photo, partially down to my secret-agent-esque photography skills. He's HUGE. No joke.
However, without a doubt, the highlight of our day. Ice Age 3-D. I saw it in Germany, in German of course, but seeing it in 3D and in English was just the icing on the cake. Never have I laughed so much in the cinema. Quite the larf it was indeed. And then afterwards, we witnessed the fitness for a second time when none other than Dave Murphy was spotted outside the Odeon. He was rather impressed with the Prawn Star t-shirt I had purchased in Topman, as was I. That t-shirt epitomises who I am as a person. Greasy, dodgy, and damn hot. But t-shirts aside, the trip to Belfast was a success, one which hopefully will be replicated sometime in the near future.
The main time consuming activity this summer however has been the addition to my life of a money earning job. I can now add accountant to my lengthy list of professions/skills, and happily so. Not only has it been a sturdy source of income after the pocket draining trip to Germany, it also has kept me active mentally, and I've made a lot of friends in the office. It also allows for easy access to Courtney's house which is a serious upside, given that it's less than a five minute walk to her house.
I honestly have a lot more to say, but I think I'll leave the wedding party and Castlewellan for another post.
Have a nice day and God bless.
Gary
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