"Des gibt e gaudi!"

One of the most fascinating things about living in Mainz is the dialect. It is very entertaining to listen to and in in day to day communication it is difficult not to burst out laughing. For example, one time I was alone in the caretakers' office when suddenly a rather roughly clothed and dirty looking man comes through the door without knocking and asks, "Hasst du de Schlüssel für de Pfoste so dass isch i'ren komme kann?" (en as in Provence), "Wie bitte?". After asking for the third time I found out that the man was asking if I had the keys to lift out the post so they could drive into the pedestrian area. 

Another time, Petra from housekeeping burst into the office door yelling angrily, "Könnt ihr jetzt endlisch de Kannsche zu schraube?! Uff de Domstras schreck isch de Tode zum lebe!" ("Will you screw the wagon together?! On the Dome Street I scare the dead to life!").  To make matters worse, I was with Herr Krizowski who is Polish and had no clue what she meant either.  We ended up writing a note that the Kännchen has to be fixed but we found out we were wrong when Herr Krause saw it and laughed.

In one of the first few weeks at the job, we wanted to report a leak from a drainage pipe above a door in the basement of the Erbacher Hof annex, Haus am Dom. We brought the caretaker responsible for buildings owned by the 'Bischöfliches Ordinariat' or 'Episcopal Ordinariate' in English. He then reported the leak to the the man he knows from the plumbing company through this description, "unne im Flur läuft obbe de Brüh ras" ("Beneath in the hall, above the door, the brew is coming out")

And these are just a fraction of my daily experiences.  At home my grandparents speak the same way! They have introduced me to expressions such as, "Goggelores" which means joy, or "Gaudi" which means fun. I was also corrected to saying 'Kreppel' instead of 'Berliner' to a dougnut-like pastry filled with jam. On a Sunday, the day after I went out in town, my grandmother asked me, "und, habt ihr pa Biersche gemacht?" ("so did you have some beers?"). I responded, "Wie meinst du Papier??" ("How do you mean paper?"). This has become just as famously funny as the "Eatse Taya" - the German pronounciation of 'Ice Tea'.  

What I've discoverd about German dialects is that all of them seem to be avoiding the sound "ch". The best example is the word, "ich", or I in English. In Mainz they say "isch" (ish), in Berlin they say "ick" and in Bayern they skip it all together and just say "i" (Ee). Most people don't say "nicht(s)" for nothing, preferring to say "nitt" or "nix". 

The great thing is that the people know how funny the dialect can be and make fun of themselves for it. For example my boss once said, "my German is as good as my English" - he doesn't speak English. There are also many jokes about misunderstandings between people because of the dialect. Yet the dialect creates an astounding sense of identification among people. Although the dialect that my grandparents speak is generalized as "Menzerisch", and to the untrained ear can even be understood as being from Frankfurt, they speak differently from the next village, not even 5km away. For example, Petra said, "Domstras" but my grandparents would have said, "Domstros". Likewise, they call the Straßenbahn, "die Strosbahn" and call their street, "die Poststros". 

Budapest: Round 2

Tamas, Will and I

Didn't I say that I had a feeling I would return to Budapest? Well, I certainly didn't expect to return within the same year, let alone 6 months after my first visit. However, the nature of the trips were so different that I have been able to grasp a much better understanding of the city and its people.  My first trip in May was a very touristic trip. We checked all of the important things to see off the list and took pictures next to them.  Budapest was a veritable zoo, should it be put very bluntly.  Nonetheless, it was important to have seen the places and museums I went to last time with my class because I certainly would not have had the chance to  visit them with Tamas and William.  

The view from a hill in Buda overlooking Pest.
The building to the right of the green bridge is Tamas' university

I met the guys in Freiburg, where we became very good friends and so Tamas invited us to Budapest to have a reunion - which was a brilliant idea.  When arriving on Saturday morning, I immediately realized the importance of having a "local" with you. Tamas could navigate the nigh on lawless roads of downtown Budapest and arrange an apartment that we could rent out at a very cheap price for the weekend.  But most importantly, Tamas showed us parts of town where only Hungarians go.  For example the shopping mall where we went go-karting on Friday and Saturday because it was so much fun. Or to the residential area on the hills of Buda where we had an excellent Hungarian dinner prepared by his mother.  Moreover, he introduced us to his friends with whom we went out with Friday and Saturday night. 

Our apartment was very colorful

 Although we didn't dedicate all of our time to see the important sights, I enjoyed the city much more because I could experience what it has to offer. Naturally, it would have been better to have more time so we could have seen more of the city and spent more time together.  However, there is no cause for worry, the next reunion is planned for London, England next year.  At that time I will have completed my gap year and will soon start university :)

Hanseatic Holidays

Standing in the Reeperbahn at 1:00 in the morning going into Saturday is an experience unlike any other.  The bright lights illuminate the streets, packed with people. The area is enormous and seemingly never ending. Around every corner lie more bars and clubs with every possible theme; Irish, English, Japanese, 99cents, etc.  One must be weary of the stubborn prostitutes who legally stand on the streets and beckon wandering men to spend 30-45 minutes with them for a bargain price of 30 euros.  What is most astounding of all, is the acceptance of all of it as ordinary.

9 hours earlier, on Friday the 1st of November, I was getting off the train at Hamburg-Altona station where I was met by Anton. It was really great meeting him again. It had been 1 and a half months since I left Stockholm for Mainz so I was looking forward to some social contact.  In addition, I had a very inconvenient train trip.  Granted, the first hour was great. The train drove along the Rhine past beautiful scenery such as the Loreley and the many fortresses built into the hills along the river.  However, it soon got worse.  As we were entering the Ruhr, the scenery became duller and the train became fuller.  Since it was a holiday, the Deutsche Bahn decided to cut 5 wagons off the train thereby rendering all reservations meaningless and allowing many people to stand. As a result they asked everyone heading towards Hamburg to change trains in Dortmund and then to switch again in Hannover to get on a train towards Hamburg.

After dropping off all of my things at Anton's house we headed out to the city for some late afternoon sightseeing.  We went to the Miniatur Wunderland, the largest model railway in the world with 13km of tracks laid down.  The area is divided into different themes covering Switzerland, Austria, different parts of Germany, an airport, Scandiavia and the USA.  The attention to detail was extraordinary. At every street corner there was some sort of activity associated with daily life.  The trains, cars and airplanes moved according to some highly complex program that made it seem just as in the real world.  I found one of the most interesting exhibits to be a timeline of Germany history where small 1x1m show casings were made to show a certain time period, starting with hunter gatherer times all the way through the 20th Century.

As an unforeseen but very foreseeable consequence of going out the previous night, we woke up in the afternoon that Saturday.  As a result, it was not going to be much of a sightseeing trip but rather one for hanging out and chilling which was perfectly fine.  That evening we had a fantastic dinner prepared by Anton's grandmother. It was a lamb chop with a side of beans and tasted very good. And all together it lasted two and a half hours! The time just passed by without anyone seeming to have any objections or becoming restless of the other's company, which I found very nice.

The next day there wasn't a lot of time to procrastinate.  My train was leaving at 11:24 from Hamburg's central station.  All in all, I was effectively travelling from 10:30 to 17:30 until I finally reached home. However there was no doubt that the trip was worth it and that it was simply far too short.