I have very special relation to Germany. When I started to learn German in the 8th class of primary school, I hated that. I had bad marks, was totally unmotivated to learn words ang grammar and thought that will never reach the level of speaking, that you can understant someone. However, it completely changed when I changed the high school and rolled in the most advanced German course that was there. Again, I was the worst, but with the difference, that I was higly motivated to change it. I was super lucky to have a teacher who was always ready to motivate us all. When I was 17, I decided to do an exchange in Germany, in a beautiful city called Oldenburg. I loved that year (I actually had whole blog about it written but somehow my website was deleted, so I cannot put link here.) ANYWAY… because of this year experience, I managed to reach C1 level in German and I started to really love German language. After coming back to Prague, i always tried to keep in touch with Germany people, to visit different “Stammtische” and just to somehow not lose the ability to speak German. But as we all know, to speak foreign language ( English doesn’t count) in our home countries is just too inconvenient.
In order to not lose my German skills completely, I decided to apply for a summer school at the Julius- Maximilian’s University in Würzburg. You might ask, why I chose Würzburg and not for example Munich or Berlin or some other “cool and living” city in Germany? From 2 reasons:
- I LOVE smaller cities. Especially in Germany. I love to ride bike to school and have everything close to the place where I stay. I was raised in Prague which I love and I am happy for all opportunities that I got thanks to being in a big city, but I always love to spend some time somewhere else
- Veronika, my friend from Prague studies in Würzburg and was searching for someone, who will be in her room during summer. So why not. 🙂
The decision was definitely correct. Würzburg is a beautiful small city with impressive historical monuments like the Saint Marie Chapel, The Residence ( with a gorgeous garden where you can have walk with your GF or BF without any disturbing turists around), Marienburg Fortress, or “Alte Mainbrücke” which is very similar to the Charle’s Bridge in Prague because of it’s statues. Generally the landscape in Würzburg is very similar to Prague, because there is also riverside from which you can see the bridge and the castle at the same time.
ABOUT THE SUMMER SCHOOL
My course was the C1 course, the highest lever that was possible to study during this month. I have already done C1 courses in Oldenburg, however since that time I had forgotten maaany of things. In first 2 weeks, we had two teachers. One of them, the morning one was great, the other one was really bad. Frau X was never prepared for the lessons, didn’t show any interest in us, students and generally it was not nice with her at all. I was almost always very close to sleeping ( I know new word in German for that – wegdösen! :D). Sophie (❤️) was so great. She was always ready for the lessons, was always prepared to answer every question, when she didn’t know how to answer, she just honestly said that. Shw tried to make our lessons interesting and interactive. Most of the time, I had really a lot of fun. Regarding the new things that I learned… I cannot really say, that I learned a lot of grammar during this course, but I definitely improved my skills in speaking and generally improved my vocabulary. The lessons vere every day from 10:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. so it was quite intense. However, we didn’t have lessons every day. One day we were not at school at all, because Sophie had birthday. The other day was trip to Rottenburg, because in Bayern was some Christian celebration ( which is quite interesting, because public holidays are only in certain cities (like Würzburg) but in some city only 60 km from Würzburg, people need to work normally (and shops are open – important information for me 😀 ).
During the course, we had also tour in the university archive, where I unfortunately came late. It was interesting, but nothing special. We had also some talk about the studying opportunities at the Würzburg’s University. But it was boring. Really boring.
TRIPS AROUND WÜRZBURG
Veitschöchheim
This was one of our first compulsory trips which all participants of the Sommerakademie had to participate on. We went to Veitshöchheim with a boat (which took us like 1 hour – it was crazy terribly hot and I got burned from the sun :D). The bad thing on group trips is, that you always need to wait for something or for someone. We were supposed to meet at 11 a.m., but the boat went off at 11:45, so again, almost 1 hour of waiting in the strong sun… not so fun. Anyway. When we arrived to the Veitschöchheim, we had only 5 minutes to get to the garden, where was already our guide waiting for us. I came with no expectetions and I must admit, that it was really amazing. Very huge garden in baroque style with more than 200 sculptures. I really loved that. The guide told us much interesting information. Our tour was in German, but it was really easy to understand the guide, because she somehow understood that we are an international group, so she tried ( and did wery well) to speak sloooow and un-der-stend-able German. After the tour, me Nikoleta, Tatjana und Caslav went to the city to eat ice cream and drink ice coffee (really huge one for Tatjana).
Biking tour (Randersack, Sommerhäusen, Ochsenfurt)
Xavi came to visit me the second weekend. We were planning bit later, but it was hard to be without each other, so why to suffer? 😀 He came on Friday late in the night (1 a.m.), after we were with other participants of my course in the Main Post (Newspaper here in Bayern). Just quickly about that tour. They forgot to tell us, that it is literally forbidden to wear during the technical part of the tour (which is the most interesting, because you see there, how the paper is printed and all these things) sandals. And of course, I was that person, who had sandals ( what else, when outside is like 30+ degrees), so me and other 8 people needed to wait, till the others will see it and than continue with them in the boring part. It destroyed a bit my mood, but I was happy, that Javier will come, so… no problemo.
On Sunday, we decided with Xavi to borrow a bike (10 € for 1 day) and go for a bike tour. I didn’t know at all where to go, so I just decided to go on the left against the river stream. Finally, it showed up as a great decision. On our road, we visited really beautiful villages, which all of them looked really lovely and quiet. We stopped for a while in Sommerhausen, where we had coffee and were walking from one artist gallery to the other. This village is gorgeous! Almost every second house is a gallery. We decided to have as a goal destination a small city called Ochsenfurt (which is 23 km far from Würzburg). There we had lunch, ice coffee, normal coffee, ice cream and felt extremely happy ( who wouldn’t with tons of sugar in your stomach). On the way back, we managed to steal a looot of plums. Like 5 kilograms. Or 6 maybe. In the evening, we went for a great dinner to a beach bar (Stadtstrand) in Würzburg. Very weird thing in Würzburg ( not sure if in all Germany ) is, that you cannot almost anywhere pay by the card. In allmost every restaurant, it is possible to pay only by cash. Strange. And also bit annoying since withdrawing of the money costs me 5€ :(. Even more later, we had a coffee and in the evening, we went to observe Perseids. I doscovered just randomly, that Sunday was the perfect day for observing and it fit perfectly to our plan, because Xavi was leaving to Prague at 2 a.m. Sound like a perfect evening, no? 💑
Rottenburg
Another trip which was compulsory. I don’t have so much to comment, Rottenburg is just an old city overcrowded with turists. You cannot buy there in the centre anything which would have normal price. The good thing on Rottenburg was, that me and Mitchell ( my New Castle babe) went to Lidl, bought there coffee for 1 € and went for a walk to the vineyards. There we just chilled, talked about everything and somehow survived till the evening so we could go back to Würzburg.
Stuttgart
Luckily/Unfortunately I am not the type of person, who would be able to just have “chill weekend” with no special plan. So also when I knew, that the third weekend of my stay here is nothing special to do, I decided to go somewhere. Other guys went to Norimberg, but I have already been there so I didn’t feel too much like going there. So I just decided to go to Stuttgart, since it is not so far away. Even if people told me, that there is “nothing” to see, I wanted to try on my own. Because every city has something to offer.
On the way there, I went with BlaBla Car with Luisa, who was really lovely and interesting girl. She listened to hard metal and wore only black clothes. She dropped me on the Stuttgart airport, because Stuttgart is the first city, where it is forbidden to enter the city in a car which is older than 2 years. But it was not that bad, because it is very well connected with S-Bahn. My host in Stuttgart (Sharon from India) was waiting for me at his place. We went to drink a beer to the Teehaus ( a hill with a view over the whole Stuttgart). However, it was quite cold, so we went home pretty early. In the morning, we had breakfast together and Sharon than left to Frankfurt to visit his friend. It was very nice from him that he let me sleep at his place even if he wasn’t there. I went to the Free walking tour, where we were only 5 people, which made it to be really comfortable atmosphere. In my opinion, doing these tours makes even more sense if you are in the city, where for the first sight is not so many to see. The guide tells you story to every single fountain and than you start to like the city much more and find it more interesting.:)
In the afternoon, I went to visit a wonderful library with a great view. It was not old library. Exactly the opposite, very modern and minimalistic. Lovely. Later I met Mohammed from Couchsurfing (who comes from Egypt) and we went together to the museum of modern art, where we could see also VR exhibition, but it wasn’t really astonishing. And you must to queue. Which I definitelly do NOT like. In the evening, Thilo (another guy from Couchsurfing) invited me to go with him to listen to a concert of Alligatoah (German rapper – you might know him because of the song “Willst du mit mir Drogen nehmen”). We were not inside because there were no tickets left, but we sat outside, drank wine and were talking a lot, about everything. It was really such a great night. We were continuing by the lake, where we could see a looot of rats. Drinking the rests of wine from cups. Interesting.
On Sunday, I met Giannis, Greek guy and we went together to the Fernsehturm (TV tower). The first one that was built in this style in the world. It was cool, we did after that a veeery long walk back to the centre through forests. On the main railway station, we visited the exhibition about “Frankfurt 21” project. It is a very controversial topic there now. They are building there a huge underground railway station, which is great and will on one hand help a lot to the transport, but on the other hand, takes way too much time and costs incredibly a lot of money. The exhibition was from “Deutsche Bahn”, so it was oriented on the positive side of that project. But I actually like it. It looks smart and cool. At 3 p.m., I went for a lunch with Sharon to the “Hans im Glück” restaurant which I already know fro Oldenburg. They are offering burgers and salads. But the most important on this restaurant is it’s interior. It looks like in a forrest there! (What was less positiv – they charged me 3,5€ for TAP WATER!!!). We also had ice cream and after I was hurrying to the Thilo’s place, because we agreed to go for some bike trip. It was short one, but beautiful. Unfortunately, I had stomachache, but I managed.
I was supposed to leave with the Blabla Car (again Luisa) at 19:30. But you know what happened? Just before Stuttgart, there was some huge accident and she stayed there for 3 hours, so I spent a great night sitting on the ground at the airport trying to concentrate on my new book (A Brief History of Humankind). On the way back, I was just sleeping. Aaah! But another guy, who also went with Luisa had really interesting job. His job was to make games. Like the rules and stuff. I loved that job. I think it is one of those jobs, that you wish to do as a child and than think that it will not be possible. But he found his way to do his dream job. 
Soulmates 👪
Apparantely, everywhere where you go, you will find someone that you can talk with. But there are usually only few, that you get closer to. And it doesn’t really matter if you know the person for a long time or only for short, with somone you just has the “match”, with the otherone not.
I met here for sure people that I higly appreciate and learned a lot from them. Even if it’s nice to write about them without their allowement, I will do it, because I am writing only positive things, so hopefully nobody will be unhappy about that.
NIKOLETA
Girl from MonteNegro, who studies Germanistik. Such an interesting person! In some things, she is completely the opposite of me. Town girl, who hates to hike, she wears make-up (but guys, so beautiful makeup! I think she is the first girl by who I can say, that her make-up really fits to her and make her interesting), doesn’t like sport. But in other things like point of view on people, discussing, daily situations and things that makes us funny, she is the same! We had so many things in common, so much fun together. She gave me always energy to do stupid stuff, like to sing and dance only to make her laugh:D
TATJANA
Right hand of Nikoleta. She just got married 2 month ago, is a german teacher and generally super funny and open-minded person who knows what to do. I loved to talk to her, because she can give a very mature opinion on things but at the same time is still crazy and dis stupid things with us. 😀
and together, we like to be called die “Heilige Dreifaltigkeit” , please.
MITCHELL
Guy who is 18, but has so so many experiences with parties and generally night life. 😀 I lovet to spend time with him, because I think, that our souls just matched. We were on the same wave with jokes, always made fun of something. Party animal who doesn’t want to sleep 💗
L CLUB
I decided to write dedicate a whole part of my article to the L-Club. Place, about which my German teacher said, that is the place, where all junkies in the morning go, shoot some drug and stay they till the afternoon. But exactly this was the place, where I felt after the whole month like between my people, between people that I can talk about everything with.
First time when I visited L-Club, I went with Joanna, Mitchell just randomly. Actually, our plan was to go to the Odeon, which is a fancy club, where youo are supposed to wear a shirt, dress or something like that. To look “good and fancy”. Well, this kind of thing is really not for me, I hate when someone is gudgmental because of clothes or yoour face or whatever. And especially, when everybody is only going to drink anyway. And I also hate when somebody says, that those places, where people take drugs are so bad, dirty etc. I need to strongly disagree. For me, when I see bunch of drunk people is much worse experienxe than to see happy people on MDMA. People on drugs are from my experience nice, open-minded, never pissed of because of some stupid thing. I have also never seen in my life anyone on drugs to be in a fight. So because of all these reasons, we decided to go to the L-Club even if we knew, that there might be noone. There are so many stereotypes around us! Anyway. The first time in L-Club, it was great. We were there only 10 people and beside one girl (who was apparently drunk), it was great. So great. They played TECHNO and we stayed till 5 a.m. I loved that night, because of so few people. I felt there a little bit like in a family. But it was nothing against the Friday, my second visit of L-Club.
On Friday, the things went completely differently. I spent my whole night with Hugo and at 4 a.m. I decided to go to MS Zufriedenheit. TECHNO club which is situated a little bit far from the city centre. But luckily, he took me there with a car, so I didn’t need to walk or wait for a bus (which was not working at that hour anyway). There was already Elwira (girl from Poland, who is just in love with Techno and goes for it everyday, when she can). I met her on Wednesday in L-Club and just goot her number, which was the best decision that I could make. Already in MS Zufriedenheit I met one Italian guy, who was so so friendly to me. But than, he disappeared. After MS Zufriedenheit, me, Elwira, Niko and Gustavo went to Niko’s flat to wait one hour till L-Klub will be opened. We were listening more TECHNO, drinking coffee and than we went! Everywhere around L-Klub was police. They controlled very properly everyone if they don’t have some drugs with them. Guys also needed to take off their shoes. They were lucky, that they didn’t look into their underwear.:D
When we entered L-Club, I was really surprised, how many people are there. It was so lovely. the club has a garden, where are everywhere some colorful scarfs, flowers… It was just lovely <3. And guess who I met! The Italian guy! He told me, that I am a beautiful “bambolina” and that he came only because of me. And from that time, the mrning was just amazing. Everybody that I was talking to was so nice to me. So nice that I cannot even describe. I met there also a guy, who’s mum is Czech, so we spoke a little bit in Czech. I was dancing and dancing till 1 p.m. and at 1:30 (13:30 of Czech time) I went home. Well, first to the Nico’s house to calm down and than with Gustavo to my place, because we live close to each other. I need to admit, that I hate, when I kill the whole day with party, but this was definitelly worthy. I have never been in a club till 14:00. If you do it, it’s the right place to go. 💖
