At the conclusion of my conference in Istanbul, I flew to Frankfurt, Germany where I saw all sorts of crazy happenings at the airport. When we landed, the plane taxied to a place where we would have to exit the plane directly onto the tarmac rather than into the gate. We were told that immigration would be meeting us at the exits of the plane and we were asked to have our passports at the ready. It turned out that they were looking for one person and he knew it because he was the last to get off. As the rest of us were taken by bus to the terminal, he was escorted to a waiting police car. At the immigration desk which permitted people out of the airport and into Germany, I saw a man being refused entry which is the first time that I saw that. Once through immigration, I found a man yelling at a customs official, claiming that the official was tricking him to go through the wrong customs line so that he would be taxed. Fortunately, I just walked through it all and found my friend Steff on the other side of baggage claim. It is always nice to be met in the airport when you are flying to another country.
Steff and I know each other from when she was a law student at the University of Canterbury. There are a good number of Germans in the masters program at the law school and in fact, this year the program is 100% German students. I have met or have lived with a number of the law students and none of them expected to find so many other Germans in the program. They each thought that they were taking a great opportunity to spend a year in New Zealand, primarily to improve their English skills since they don’t really need the masters degree to practice law in Germany. The university likes the Germans to come because although the students pay domestic tuition rates (currently NZ $4664 per year), the German government subsidizes their studies by paying the university the difference between the international (currently NZ $24700 per year) and domestic tuition rates which is substantial.
Most of my friends, including Steff have just recently departed from New Zealand and are in various points in the process of becoming a lawyer. The process of becoming a lawyer in Germany includes four to five years of study followed by an internship and tests. The geographic location of the internship depends on where your parents live, not where you want to live. The availability of internships is limited. If there aren’t enough spots for all of the people who want one, those who don’t get a spot must sit and wait until internships are offered again in a few months.
Generally, after about 21 months of internship, the would be lawyer takes a written test followed by another few months of internship and then an oral test. Once the school, internship and tests are completed, the process of finding a job begins. Even at this early stage, the lawyer can apply to become a judge. Being a judge, especially a female judge is seen as being advantageous because you are a state employee. In the rare event that a German woman wants to have a baby (the state is currently paying women to have children to stop the negative population growth), she can take advantage of the long maternity leave for state employees and she knows that her job is secure.
My former flatmate, Sebastian is also from the Frankfurt region and he wanted to meet up with us, but we were unsure about how to get in touch with him. As we were discussing it, Sebastian called. He had managed to track down Steff’s new mobile number by contacting mutual friends in StudiVZ, the German equivalent of Facebook. While we waited for Sebastian to get to the airport to meet us, Steff patiently waited with me in line at the Deutch Bahn (DB) office in the terminal. There is a very convenient train station right in the airport, but there was a not very convenient long queue to speak with a clerk.
I would be using a Eurail pass for my travels in Europe. While living in Europe, I had not been allowed to use of the passes which was fine because flying is usually less expensive and can be less time consuming that taking the train. But for this trip, I would be visiting a lot of people and the pass worked out to be very convenient. There are several different types of Eurail passes available, depending on how many countries you want to travel through and for how many days. I had chosen a Select Pass which allowed travel in five countries for five days over a period of two months. Each time that I used the pass, I was required to write the day and month in the assigned space on my pass. The exception to this was if I was taking a night train that departed after 7PM for which I was allowed to enter the next day’s date. Therefore, it required some strategic planning to take full advantage of the pass. Once aboard the train, I would need to show my pass and my passport to the conductor who would then stamp over the date that I had written to prevent fraud. Unfortunately, Select Passes are only offered to individual travelers (as opposed to groups) if they are willing to travel first class, so I had to suffer through that. The pass cost €393 which was equivalent of only two of my five days of travel and so was very worth the cost.
However, simply having the pass does not guarantee you a seat. Seat reservations can be purchased for Inter City Express (ICE) trains in Germany and equivalent fast trains in other countries. Reservations are compulsory on all trains in Denmark and are required for night trains if you want to book a sleeper. I later found out that seat reservations are €3.50 for most trains and are more for sleeper cars. I paid €65 for a bunk in a two person sleeper between Frankfurt and Milan. I would discover that seat reservations were not actually necessary for many of the 1st class cars because there could be a lot of seats. However, there were some trains such as those that passed through Frankfurt that were full and so I was very glad that I had seat reservations. I think that it just takes experience to know when a reservation is needed which I didn’t have and I didn’t want to risk not getting a seat, so the cost was worth it to me. However, my friend Gerke usually opts not to get a reservation. If she cant find a seat, she goes to the café car to buy a coffee for less than €3.50 and then spends the duration of her travel nursing her coffee in one of the café car seats.
I had fortunately, printed out a detailed list of all the trains that I wanted to take including the date, the number and the destinations thanks to the fantastic website, www.db.de. I say fortunately, because the man behind the counter at the DB office where I was buying my seat reservations was a bit frazzled and was even more so when his printer ran out of paper. His disorganization would later be a problem for me, but when I finally got my tickets and got over the sticker shock, I was pleased to leave the DB office after only an hour of waiting.
Steff and I sat in a café to wait for Sebastian who for some reason had trouble finding us in Europe’s largest airport. Sebastian was one of my flat mates in Flat 54 which was a really good flat. Unfortunately, the term ended last June and Sebastian and Gerke went back to Germany. Sebastian was only in New Zealand for six months as part of his studies and was now back in the Frankfurt area, waiting to resume his studies.
Once we finally met, we set off for Sachsenhausen which is a neighborhood of Frankfurt, located on the south side of the Main River. We parked our car and instantly, I was aware that I was in Germany. It was around seven in the evening and the sun had already set. We walked along the sidewalk of cobble stoned streets, closely lined with four story buildings on each side. Trees lined the sidewalks and the occasional tram rumbled along the tracks on the street. We passed staircases to take us down to the subway below, connecting the neighborhoods with everything. There were cafes and stores on the first floors of the buildings and the clinking of cutlery and the laughter of the patrons sitting outside could be softly heard on the quiet streets. I was mesmerized by the neighborhoods and was certain that I would want to live there if I were to work in the area.
We found a very traditional looking café with seating outside on covered, wooden benches. Unfortunately, traditional food doesn’t offer much for a vegetarian like Steff, but I was in heaven with my brat and sauerkraut. There is nothing quite like the good sausages that are made in Germany. My former flat mate, Henrik had always complained about the sausages available in Christchurch and now I understood what he was talking about. Sebastian and I drank Apfelwein (apple wine) which is a traditional specialty of the area. The Apfelwein is served in a Bembel (jug) which is salt-glazed stoneware usually grey in color with blue detailing. After dinner, we wandered over to a Greek café so that Steff could eat as well.
Steff and I know each other from when she was a law student at the University of Canterbury. There are a good number of Germans in the masters program at the law school and in fact, this year the program is 100% German students. I have met or have lived with a number of the law students and none of them expected to find so many other Germans in the program. They each thought that they were taking a great opportunity to spend a year in New Zealand, primarily to improve their English skills since they don’t really need the masters degree to practice law in Germany. The university likes the Germans to come because although the students pay domestic tuition rates (currently NZ $4664 per year), the German government subsidizes their studies by paying the university the difference between the international (currently NZ $24700 per year) and domestic tuition rates which is substantial.
Most of my friends, including Steff have just recently departed from New Zealand and are in various points in the process of becoming a lawyer. The process of becoming a lawyer in Germany includes four to five years of study followed by an internship and tests. The geographic location of the internship depends on where your parents live, not where you want to live. The availability of internships is limited. If there aren’t enough spots for all of the people who want one, those who don’t get a spot must sit and wait until internships are offered again in a few months.
Generally, after about 21 months of internship, the would be lawyer takes a written test followed by another few months of internship and then an oral test. Once the school, internship and tests are completed, the process of finding a job begins. Even at this early stage, the lawyer can apply to become a judge. Being a judge, especially a female judge is seen as being advantageous because you are a state employee. In the rare event that a German woman wants to have a baby (the state is currently paying women to have children to stop the negative population growth), she can take advantage of the long maternity leave for state employees and she knows that her job is secure.
My former flatmate, Sebastian is also from the Frankfurt region and he wanted to meet up with us, but we were unsure about how to get in touch with him. As we were discussing it, Sebastian called. He had managed to track down Steff’s new mobile number by contacting mutual friends in StudiVZ, the German equivalent of Facebook. While we waited for Sebastian to get to the airport to meet us, Steff patiently waited with me in line at the Deutch Bahn (DB) office in the terminal. There is a very convenient train station right in the airport, but there was a not very convenient long queue to speak with a clerk.
I would be using a Eurail pass for my travels in Europe. While living in Europe, I had not been allowed to use of the passes which was fine because flying is usually less expensive and can be less time consuming that taking the train. But for this trip, I would be visiting a lot of people and the pass worked out to be very convenient. There are several different types of Eurail passes available, depending on how many countries you want to travel through and for how many days. I had chosen a Select Pass which allowed travel in five countries for five days over a period of two months. Each time that I used the pass, I was required to write the day and month in the assigned space on my pass. The exception to this was if I was taking a night train that departed after 7PM for which I was allowed to enter the next day’s date. Therefore, it required some strategic planning to take full advantage of the pass. Once aboard the train, I would need to show my pass and my passport to the conductor who would then stamp over the date that I had written to prevent fraud. Unfortunately, Select Passes are only offered to individual travelers (as opposed to groups) if they are willing to travel first class, so I had to suffer through that. The pass cost €393 which was equivalent of only two of my five days of travel and so was very worth the cost.
However, simply having the pass does not guarantee you a seat. Seat reservations can be purchased for Inter City Express (ICE) trains in Germany and equivalent fast trains in other countries. Reservations are compulsory on all trains in Denmark and are required for night trains if you want to book a sleeper. I later found out that seat reservations are €3.50 for most trains and are more for sleeper cars. I paid €65 for a bunk in a two person sleeper between Frankfurt and Milan. I would discover that seat reservations were not actually necessary for many of the 1st class cars because there could be a lot of seats. However, there were some trains such as those that passed through Frankfurt that were full and so I was very glad that I had seat reservations. I think that it just takes experience to know when a reservation is needed which I didn’t have and I didn’t want to risk not getting a seat, so the cost was worth it to me. However, my friend Gerke usually opts not to get a reservation. If she cant find a seat, she goes to the café car to buy a coffee for less than €3.50 and then spends the duration of her travel nursing her coffee in one of the café car seats.
I had fortunately, printed out a detailed list of all the trains that I wanted to take including the date, the number and the destinations thanks to the fantastic website, www.db.de. I say fortunately, because the man behind the counter at the DB office where I was buying my seat reservations was a bit frazzled and was even more so when his printer ran out of paper. His disorganization would later be a problem for me, but when I finally got my tickets and got over the sticker shock, I was pleased to leave the DB office after only an hour of waiting.
Steff and I sat in a café to wait for Sebastian who for some reason had trouble finding us in Europe’s largest airport. Sebastian was one of my flat mates in Flat 54 which was a really good flat. Unfortunately, the term ended last June and Sebastian and Gerke went back to Germany. Sebastian was only in New Zealand for six months as part of his studies and was now back in the Frankfurt area, waiting to resume his studies.
Once we finally met, we set off for Sachsenhausen which is a neighborhood of Frankfurt, located on the south side of the Main River. We parked our car and instantly, I was aware that I was in Germany. It was around seven in the evening and the sun had already set. We walked along the sidewalk of cobble stoned streets, closely lined with four story buildings on each side. Trees lined the sidewalks and the occasional tram rumbled along the tracks on the street. We passed staircases to take us down to the subway below, connecting the neighborhoods with everything. There were cafes and stores on the first floors of the buildings and the clinking of cutlery and the laughter of the patrons sitting outside could be softly heard on the quiet streets. I was mesmerized by the neighborhoods and was certain that I would want to live there if I were to work in the area.
We found a very traditional looking café with seating outside on covered, wooden benches. Unfortunately, traditional food doesn’t offer much for a vegetarian like Steff, but I was in heaven with my brat and sauerkraut. There is nothing quite like the good sausages that are made in Germany. My former flat mate, Henrik had always complained about the sausages available in Christchurch and now I understood what he was talking about. Sebastian and I drank Apfelwein (apple wine) which is a traditional specialty of the area. The Apfelwein is served in a Bembel (jug) which is salt-glazed stoneware usually grey in color with blue detailing. After dinner, we wandered over to a Greek café so that Steff could eat as well.
I know that I was worn out when Sebastian brought Steff and I back to the airport and bid us farewell. Steff had offered me a place to stay at her family’s house in Manheim, I city about 70km south of Frankfurt. With 307,640 inhabitants, Manheim is the second largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after the capital Stuttgart. It was at his workshop in Mannheim that Carl Benz produced in 1886 a light weight three wheeled vehicle powered by a single cylinder petrol/gasoline fueled motor. Today, Daimler AG still assembles cars and trucks in Mannheim. Other industries in Manheim include BB, BASF, Roche, Freudenberg, John Deere and Siemens.
The downtown area is laid out in a grid, but there are no street names. Instead, the 143 square blocks of the downtown area take the form of a grid reference. Using the large castle which is located downtown as a reference, the first block to the left of the castle is A1 followed by A2, A3, etc and to the right of the castle is L1 then L2, L3, etc. The street numbers go around each block starting at the corner which is closest to the castle. The addresses include the block number and the house number. For example, a building could be L3, 21 which is the 21st building on block L3. Many of the streets have now received proper names, but the grid reference system is still used.
We arrived at Steff’s house to discover that her father had cleared out the parent’s room so that I could stay there and have my own bathroom which was really nice of him. The next morning, he went out early to get special rolls from the bakery for breakfast for us. Although I took German in high school and university, I did not appreciate at the time just how very important speaking another language would be at the time. I really wish that I had paid more attention and had not wasted so many years studying Latin so that I might have a much better base in German. I can guess at a lot of written words and if I know the topic and can catch a few words I know, I can guess at what is being said, but my spoken German is nonexistent. So, I could not speak with Steff’s father directly because he didn’t speak English. He had recently retired after forty years at Siemens where he had taught how to design telecommunications systems. It turned out that he had a collection of antique telephones dating back to the early 20th century. I think that the old phones are fantastic because the handsets have a heft to them that feels like quality. And, I am old enough that I still remember rotary phones and the joy of trying to dial a number quickly (and the inevitable sore dialing finger from trying to make the dial go around faster).
I hadn’t been sure what my quick visit to Frankfurt was going to look like when I arrived because we had made no plans and I had anticipated spending the night in a hotel. It turned out to be a really fantastic experience and it was really good to reconnect with Steff and Sebastian. From their end, it sounded like they were excited to meet with a connection from New Zealand because both were going through degrees of reverse culture shock. Especially since their time in Christchurch had been stressful at times, but overall really nice and a sort of holiday from the frantic pace that was about to overtake their education process now that they were back in Germany.
I would be catching a train from Frankfurt to the town of Epinal France that morning and had bought a seat reservation from the main train station. However, Steff was clever and discovered that the train passed through Manheim and so saved us a lot of driving because I could catch the train right there and almost an hour later than if I had caught it in Frankfurt. Steff’s father took us to the station where I discovered that seat reservations are canceled if you are not in your seat fifteen minutes after departure. Seat reservations are indicated on a digital display above each seat which turns off after fifteen minutes to free the seat for people without reservations if no one has yet sat down. I was worried about this since it was my first train of the trip, but fortunately, there were a lot of seats available and so I was able to quickly settle down for the first of four legs of my journey.
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