Over winter break in 2018, I got on a plane by myself and flew for 16 hours before touching down in Frankfurt, Germany. This was my first time travelling out of the country and travelling alone. To say I was anxious was an understatement. Despite my nerves, I made it safely to my destination fully intact with all of my things.
After reuniting with my best friend, who I hadn’t seen in nearly a year and a half, we hopped on a train which would take us up north to Celle, Germany. Katharina (Katha for short) and I met when she did an exchange year at my high school. We clicked immediately and have stayed in touch consistently since she went home. I was so grateful when I got the chance to go and visit her in Germany! She had seen where I grew up and met my family, so now it was my turn.
My first week in Germany was spent following Katha around her school, meeting her classmates and exploring her small city. In Germany, you can’t get your driver’s license until you turn 18, so all the teenagers ride bikes. This was a struggle for me at first because I was used to driving and very limited physical activity, but it was such a fun way to see the city.
The timing of my trip was very well-planned because I was there two weeks before Christmas which meant the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) was in town, so I got to see all of the festivities and experience a bit of the culture that Celle had to share. The buildings and the cobblestone streets were my favorite things to see in all of the places I visited.
While visiting the Christmas Market, I got to try some awesome German cuisine. On my first night in Germany I tried Glühwein, which is essentially warm wine. It was better than regular wine, which I’m not a big fan of. This drink is especially popular around the holidays because of the cold weather. It makes for a tasty way to warm up. Another treat I had was called “Schmalzkuchen.” They were small fried dough bits that camecovered in powdered sugar and packaged in a paper cone. It was fun to walk around the market and munch on the warm dough. One last thing that I tried in Germany that was delicious was Currywurst. It’s a pork sausage with curry seasoning. However, I didn’t try the actual sausage—I was all about the fries. They also season their french fries with the curry seasoning and it’s to die for. French fries are already my favorite food, but these fries were the best I ever had.
One goal I was determined to complete while visiting Germany was to have a hamburger in Hamburg, just because I thought it would be funny to be able to say. Hamburg was only about a half hour train ride from the Celle station, so one day of Katha’s winter break we decided to spend the day exploring Hamburg with her friend Christoph. Walking around, again, I was in awe of the buildings and the way the streets were constructed. It was so interesting to me to think about how people hundreds of years ago paved the roads and built these beautiful buildings.
One thing that my friend insisted we had to see was the Elbphilharmonie (The Elbe Philharmonic Hall). It’s a concert hall that is 26 stories tall and its tallest point measures 108 meters, which is about 355 feet. The view from the top floor was really pretty. Even though it was a foggy day, you could still see the whole harbor and all of the ships sailing through. After walking around for a while, we began to get hungry so we searched Google for a place that sold hamburgers so I could achieve my goal. It was a train ride and a short walk through another cute part of the city. When we finally made it, the place wasn’t busy at all so we were seated and served immediately. We all ordered cheeseburgers and fries. One thing I noticed while eating out in Germany was that you had to specify that you wanted still water, because apparently most people there prefer sparkling water. Our burgers arrived at the table and we stuffed our faces. It was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had and the french fries in Germany in general are better than any I’ve had in America. After a day jam-packed with walking and sightseeing, it began to rain and we decided to take that as a sign to head back.
A few days into my trip, we went to a Christmas tree farm. Of course there was Glühwein and a nice crackling fire. Katha’s bearded collie dog, Monty, tagged along to help us pick the perfect tree. We walked around for way too long before finally settling on one, and Katha’s stepdad, Helmut, sawed it down. We took it home and while Helmut trimmed it, we laid down wrapping paper and taped it to the floor. I was confused at first but while we got the tree set up and began adding ornaments, Katha’s mom, Claudia, explained to me that they always put candles on their tree. My response was “Where’s the nearest fire department?” Claudia just pointed to a bucket filled with water a few feet away from where I was standing, next to the tree. We would never do this at my house because with our luck, we’d burn the whole house down. Luckily that didn’t happen during my stay.
The following Monday began the first day of Christmas. December 24 is usually Christmas Eve in America, but in Germany, it is the day that you exchange gifts and visit church. The beginning of the day went by pretty slow, Katha and I blasted Christmas music and sat by the fireplace. Once it began getting dark out, we all got dressed up and sat down at the table for dinner. Katha’s family loved fondue. In my mind, I was thinking about melted cheese fondue, but this was not the fondue I knew of. Various types of meats we cut into small cubes and oil was poured into the fondue pot, a candle lit underneath to get the oil hot. We had an array of dipping sauces. After we finished dinner, we made our way to the living room to exchange gifts.
To my surprise, I was given a few things from Claudia and Helmut. They bought me a lovely (and very soft) blanket for my flight home, a ‘voucher’ for a sweatshirt souvenir, and a few travel-sized products that Claudia thought would be essential to have. I also gave Claudia a gift as a thank you for hosting me during my time in Germany. Katha made me the sweetest scrapbook filled with pictures of us from her time in America and she left the back blank so that I could fill it with pictures from my trip. It almost made me cry, and every time I look at it, I miss her a little more. Once we finished the gift exchange, we decided to go downtown for a church service. I’m not a very religious person, but I was excited to a) participate in their Christmas traditions and b) see the beautifully built churches that were hundreds of years old. We found a seat on the top floor of the church where you could see the stone statues carved into the ceiling and walls. They passed out candles and while everyone sang a psalm in German, they all were lit and illuminated the church radiantly.
The second day of Christmas (Dec. 25) was for having dinner with your family. Claudia and Helmut went all out for this dinner. We had roasted potatoes, brussel sprouts, and the main star of the dinner—a roasted goose. I was a little skeptical at first because I had never eaten goose, but my first night in Germany I tried duck, so I figured I might as well go for it. Also, I didn’t want to be rude. It was surprisingly delicious, despite being slightly overcooked. I facetimed with my family because it was Christmas morning there by the time we finished eating dinner and I got to see my dog and watch my siblings open their stockings. It was bittersweet for me to miss Christmas with my family because I had spent every Christmas of my life with them, but it was exciting to be in a new country with my best friend and experience German culture.
The final day of the German celebration is meant to be spent with extended family, but none of Katha’s family lived close by, so we didn’t really do much that day.
The final place I wanted to see while I was in Germany was the Jewish Memorial, located in Berlin. We rented an Airbnb on the outskirts of the city, a short walk from the train. It was the cutest little apartment, and I would live there forever if I could. We arrived late at night our first night so we watched a movie and went to bed so we would be well-rested for our day of sightseeing. We woke up early to get ready and make sure we caught the right train. We ended up getting off near the Brandenburg Gate. Unfortunately, there was some sort of rally happening so we weren’t able to see it well or walk through it, but it was still cool to see. The trains in Berlin have small prints of Brandenburg over the windows. Our next stop was the German Parliament building, called the Reichstag building. We had the opportunity to go inside, but the line was all the way down the sidewalk and it cost a stupid amount to just go inside, so we decided to take some pictures in front of it and move on to our next destination. After an ungodly amount of walking due to an event obstructing the direct path to the Jewish Memorial, we finally arrived.
As you walk deeper into the memorial, the gray blocks began to tower over your head. It had just rained so there were small droplets of water on the sides of the blocks. It was a very cool thing to see and nice to know that Germany was able to pay a beautiful tribute to all of the Jewish people who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Our final stop was the Berlin Wall! It stretched for blocks with hundreds of different paintings covering the stone. This was the most crowded tourist attraction we had been to, and it was a struggle to find the right time to pose in front of the pictures because so many people were trying to do the same thing, but we managed. At the end of the wall they had a coin-press machine, which I was really excited for because I wanted to start collecting them, so I put a five cent coin and two euro coins into the machine and got the coin pressed with a little symbol that read ‘East Side Gallery’. It was starting to get dark out at this point so we decided to head back to our apartment, but we had to make one stop. Katha lead me into a bakery shop to purchase two creme filled donuts, which they called Berliners. Claudia insisted that I had a Berliner in Berlin since I was so adamant to have a hamburger in Hamburg. The next morning we ate our Berliners and headed for our bus back to Celle.
My last week in Germany was spent getting to know Katha’s friends from school and helping Katha plan and set up for the New Years party she was throwing. It was my last chance to have fun while I was in Germany, so we dressed up and headed to this old abandoned bar that a lot of people locally used to throw parties. This was where Katha’s party was being held, co-hosted by another friend of Katha’s. We got drinks and waited for people to arrive. The most essential thing at any German party is the beer. They love their beer pong and take it very seriously. One guy cut his finger on a bottle and still kept playing. We played a few games ourselves, but I was not very good at it and I refused to drink beer because no matter how many times I gave it a chance, it never got better.
When it got close to midnight, we all gathered on the street outside with our fireworks and sparklers and everyone began counting down to one, but in German, so I wasn’t aware of how close we were until I heard a number towards the end of the countdown that I recognized. “Frohes neues Jahr!,” everyone shouted. Everyone lit their fireworks off and we hurried to get pictures with our sparklers while they were still glimmering. Once all of the fireworks were finished, we went back into the bar and took a shot of whiskey to cheers to the New Year. It might have been my favorite New Year celebration to date.
The day before I was due to leave, Katha and I rode the train through the German countryside, down to Frankfurt. We stayed at a hotel near the train so that I could take it to the airport the next morning. This was our last hoorah before I would see Katha again, in who knows how long, so we decided to make the most of it. We made Trillers in our hotel room (something we did the first night we met in America), ordered room service, swam, and used the sauna. It was the most fun I had the whole trip simply because it was Katha and I have wholesome fun as best friends with no one else around to worry about. The next morning, we reluctantly got ready to go to the airport. We arrived earlier than we needed to to make sure I had time to check-in and go through security. Katha walked with me the whole way, until she wasn’t allowed to come with me. We hugged each other tight and Katha started crying which broke my heart. I didn’t spill any tears, and I can only attribute that to the fact that I know in my heart that we’ll see each other again.
My time in Germany is something I will remember for the rest of my life. I can only hope to return again within my lifetime, which I think I have to do because Katha will always be my best friend, no matter how far away she is or how long it’s been since we talked. We are joined at the heart forever and no time or distance could change that.
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