Day 11 (James): Ebersberg — Wolfsing — Munich — Manchester — Stoke-on-Trent (Reflecting on the trip)
Today was the day we said farewell to eachother for a little while as I flew back home to England and Molly was about to embark upon her 6 month placement here in Germany. It was emotional to say the least but I’ll spare you the details of how I sobbed like a baby during passport check at border control to the point where security had to ask me to stop because I didn’t look like my photo… it turned out he was joking (I did not find this amusing).
We started the day the same as our 10 prior… with croissant and coffees. We found a place just around the corner in this delightful little village that we stayed in Ebersberg and planned our day. FYI, there is a reason the Germans aren’t particularly known for their pastry…
We set off relatively early to find Mol’s new home in Wolfesing — just east of Munich. As we drove more and more into the german wilderness, we became more skepticle as to where on earth this place was located.
It turns out that Wolfsing is a tiny little village made up of Tierärztliche Klinik für Pferde (the place Molly is working and living) and then about 3 other buildings. That’s it. We met Dr. Rüdiger Brems who is the head honcho here and Mol’s new boss (and landlord?) who was completely lovely and welcomed us both with a handshake and a friendly smile. He asked one of the young girls to show us to Mol’s new room and we moved in.
After getting our bearings on the place, we decided to find the nearest supermarket to buy some food and stock up on groceries. Luckily, there was an Aldi in the next little village. We shopped for food and a pillow (she forgot to bring one) and headed back to the clinic to find the kitchen where we found 2 little old German ladies cooking soup and insisted that we’d try some. Molly jumped at the chance (of course) and made up an excuse for me. For those of you that know me know that I am annoyingly picky with food. Not taking no for an answer, I reluctantly tried the smallest amount and was very pleasantly surprised. I helped myself to a bowl and the old ladies laughed with confidence in a “of course you like it, I’ve been cooking for over 50 years” kind of way.
The time had come to take me to the airport and prepare for our farewells. It wasn’t until we got into the car (which was much lighter now that we’d moved the luggage out) that I realised I’d left my boarding pass and paperwork in the room. I went back to get it and saw Mol’s suitcases, half unpacked and with mine not next to them for the first time this trip… this is where it hit me that I was leaving her here. The journey to the airport was solemn and quiet as we both intermittently teared up. We got to the airport and found an overly priced place to park.
We found where I had to drop off my luggage and said our emotional goodbyes in a quiet corner of the airport. I reluctantly left to pass through security on time and reached the point where Molly couldn’t pass. I won’t include just how much I lost my cool at this point in this blog (I’ve proabably shared too much already) but it turns out that neither of us are attractive cryers.
The waves of emotion got stronger as I navigated myself down towards the departure lounge alone. It wasn’t until an armed security officer noticed and gave an unerving glance that I realised what this looked like - there was a twenty-something year old lad who was crying his eyes out walking alone through an airport with no luggage or backpack (my backpack broke previously so I had to shove everything I had into one small suitcase which I’d already dropped of)… very suspicious indeed. I found a spot to wait for my plane and held the tears back.
The time came to board the plane home. It was my first experience of a cheap easyjet flight and, apart from the strange smell, was adiquate enough for a quick 2 hour flight.
We rolled our way towards the runway and just before the engines ramped up for takeoff, the brakes slammed on and we came to a halt. The pilot exited the cockpit and leant over my seat to look out of my window (I had the wing seat). He returned to the cockpit and announced that we couldn’t take off as there was still ice on the wings and that the ‘de-icer team’ had been called. From the few times I’ve flown previously, I’d never known this to happen and had never even heard of a ‘de-icer team’. It wasn’t long before a truck drove up beside the plane and pointed a strong bright light at where the ice had formed. I assumed this light was a heat source to melt the ice off the wings but then it exploded with a strange pink goo.
We eventually took off and, with a little bit of turbulance, landed in Manchester a few hours after. Got through border control (without crying this time), picked up my luggage and ran into the loving arms of my mother who was picking me up. We stopped for a pint and a catch up before dropping me off home to my housemate. It was strange driving left around roundabouts.
Got home and was greeted by my housemate Josh for a big catch up on our weeks. We stayed up chatting until the early hours of the morning and it was no surprise what he’d been up to in my absence (pictured left below). Started on my washing ready for my last weekend before returning to work. A good chance to practise my driving on the left side of the road again.
Reflecting on the trip.
This blog was initially meant for our parents so that they could see where we were and what we were up to each day without worrying (or worrying as much anyway). It turned out that a lot more people were following than we’d planned so apologies for the blogs not being the most well written.
Writing a blog a day meant that we could look back and reflect on the amazing experiences we have had in the short 11 days we spent travelling. You’d be surprised at how much you forget just a few days after it’d happened.
There isn’t any one of these 11 days that haven’t left a memory, a story in my mind and it would be impossible to pick only one of these as a favourite. If I had to pick a couple of highlights from the trip, it would be our first full day in Bruges-Belgium walking the city in the pouring rain and smelling the succulant pastries, Our first meal out in the French city of Metz where I practised my French for the first time, Walking hundreds of steps up to the Basilica in Lyon and looking out onto the beautiful city, Our first night on the sunny South Coast where we had a little tipple and got drunk, Watching the lightning storm from our hotel room in Cannes, Waking up to the sunny sea view from the ville in Italy, Driving the Fernpaß through the Alps and Our last night in Germany where we drank with the locals in a small german village. My favourite place during this entire trip however was in Molly’s extremely square car as we drove thorugh country to country and the belly laughs and memories we had in there.
It’s hard to choose a favourite country because they each had their own attributes that made them great; Belgium, with their sweet pastries and colourful architecture, France with its strong coffee, buttery pastries and historical monuments, Italy and their pizzas and ultra laid back attitude, Austria and the breathtaking Alps and finally Germany with their beer and hands-down the nicest people of the countries we visited (of course this is a sweeping generalisation).
I’ve learnt that it takes a lot of patience to travel and it is very easy to panick if plans don’t go the way they are meant to but as long as you remember that whatever happens, whether it be good OR bad, is all part of the journey and the experience you are having. The language barries and trying to communicate over what to order, or directions to a certain area can be fun if you put yourself out there, give it a go and not be afraid to look a bit of a fool. Molly found herself getting more flustered than myself when somebody spoke to us in their language and her immediate reaction would be to nervously giggle and then reply to them in very broken English (and sometimes with a strange accent). I found this very amusing. My approach to every country was to learn 2 or 3 sentances in each language to get us by and the simple polite manners for respect as you’d expect (thank you, please, hello, goodbye). People seem to appreciate the effort whether you butcher the language or not.
Molly and I have been side by side, every meal, every activity and every mile (or kilometre if you’re European) during this trip and It has made us that much closer as we are still learning new things about each other every day. We worked out on the last day that we had never actually gone longer than 3 weeks without seeing eachother since the day we met over three years ago until this 6 month placement.
I can safely say that we have caught the travelling bug. I never thought that I was made for travelling because I like my home comforts far too much. The life we will have when Molly moves back home is unknown but what we do know is that we will continue to travel in some way or other as much as we possibly can. What I do know for certain is that in 10 years time we’ll never regret the travel we did or the money we spent being able to do so. Most of the people I have spoken to since returning home have said that they don’t have many regrets but the one thing they wish they’d have done more in life is travel. It doesn’t have to be a trip to 50 countries but if travel is something you long to do then I strongly encourage you to do some research and find a trip suitable to your needs and don’t think twice about doing it. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the day to day runnings of your life but when you experience just a tiny little snippet of what is actually out there then you quickly realise that most of your worries and stresses are so irrelevent to the rest of the world that they simply do not matter and there is no point in dwelling on them.
If you managed to read this far then thank you for your interest in our little European trip and the feedback we have had from you has been wonderful to read. I can assure you that this is just a tiny little scratch on an Earth-sized surface that’s just waiting to be explored.
JollyJourneys out.
