Germany, A Land, A Home, A Love

by Sadhbh Reddington (Ireland)

I didn't expect to find Germany

Germany. Home of Volkswagen cars, Bratwurst sausage and the Schwerin Palace. Famous for it’s beer-drinking festivals, amazingly intricate architecture and most of all, the humongous variety of sausage and bread on offer. When I heard, back in 2017, that our school trip was going to be to Munich I had tried not to freak out too much, as not to disturb any of my fellow students with one of my volcanic-like outbursts of pure excitement and glee but, on the inside, I was screaming. Munich! Finally, all my studying, three years of hard work was finally going to pay off. I was finally getting to travel to the country that I had dreamed of seeing ever since I muttered my very first “Guten Tag”. When you’re that excited for a trip, it’s extremely hard not to feel that good type of anxious glee anytime you prepare for the trip, or in my case, even think of it. Nothing was going to ruin this trip for me, as far as I was concerned, I would only accept perfection from start to finish, nothing more or nothing less. Germany served me well. Perfection was what I wanted and perfection was what I got. The whole trip was an unbelievably euphoric type of heaven from the beginning to the end. It was quite simple really. From the minute I set foot onto German soil, I fell in love with the country. Nothing could rain on my parade, nothing could quell my hunger to explore every inch and corner of this wonderful place, and the itinerary met the criteria quite well. From exploring elements of Germany’s dark past through the concentration camps to letting our hair down and fully going hell for leather in the indoor water parks, we were amazingly busy and every activity seemed to have importance. My favourite was a trip to the saltmines in Berchtesgaden in Austria. It was the most surreal, amazing experience and one I have not forgotten and most probably never will. From licking salt straight off the cave wall to choking on a mouthful of salt-filled water and wheezing through watery eyes, trying to pay attention, this particular activity certainly was eventful but that is why I loved it so much. We got to see so many different parts of what Germany had to offer; History, geography, leisurely activities, no activity had more importance than the other because to me, I could have spent time just staring at clothes in the shop windows, or examining the different architectural styles of the buildings and I would have been happy out. It wasn't the activities that mattered to me. It was the country. It was the fact that I was in the country that I had dreamed of since I had first opened a German book in my first year of secondary school. It was the fact that I could stop someone in the street randomly and have a full conversation with them in their mother tongue, which isn't mine. It was the fact that I sat cross-legged on a dusty cobbled street with my banjo cradled in my lap, jamming with a fellow musician and watching the people pass by. I was here. I was home. And I never, ever wanted to leave. There’s an old saying that the best way to learn a language is to surround yourself in it and cheesy as it may sound, it’s a tried and true method because my German has most definitely improved through my time spent in Germany, which was minute, just a couple of days. It really opened my eyes to the fact that it’s effective to open a book and memorise off a list of German verbs but the best way to learn is to learn the language from the people that speak it. The musician with the pink hair who played German folk songs on the accordion, the random strangers I talked to in tiny Austrian streets, the tour guides in the Concentration camps, they all contributed to my learning. I left Germany sad and bereft because as soon as the plane left the ground I felt like I was leaving one home to return to another.I didn’t expect to find a new love.I had arrived in Germany with one home and I left it with two, one current and one I would be sure to return to in the future.