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- День 15
- воскресенье, 24 июля 2016 г.
- ☁️ 30 °C
- Высота: 417 м
ГерманияNeuffen48°33’13” N 9°22’35” E
A 40th, Christian Metal, and the Med.

It already felt somewhat like home returning to the cosy village of Neuffen after venturing down to Switzerland and Austria. My brain had integrated a small percentage more of the German language, although this particular breed of it spoken around Neuffen was still bafflingly different to anything I'd been taught in school.
Gesine welcomed me home with such enthusiasm, and I felt such a deep gratitude for her friendship, and that of her Aunty, both making me feel so safe and belonging in this place.
It was the time we'd been thinking about for at least a year: Gesine's 40th birthday party. In fact, it was the instigative idea for me to come to Germany in the first place. It was to be held at the Bible college that her Aunty worked at (where there also happened to be a Frau Holder), which was a beautiful old medieval times building, with a leafy and spacious courtyard in the centre, ideal for holding events.
Coinciding with this event was the arrival of a certain Australian musician, Paul Colman, who played in the Christian boyband Newsboys once upon a time.
He had been coming to Germany periodically for years, to tour small venues, organised by a character of a man called Didi, a good friend of Gesine's.
Paul and Didi were a funny pair, and while they were around Gesine and I spent a lot of time with them, attending Paul's show, and hanging out laughing and swapping stories. They came to Gesine's party, which her brother Thomas and family came to as well. I felt so joyful here with my honorary German family.
There was lovely food and people gave speeches, and it was a sunny late summer's day in Neuffen. The elderflower syrup was still going strong, one of the most memorable flavours of the summer in Germany for me.
Besides the party, this second stint in Neuffen also saw Gesine and I returning to Nitzenhausen to help Thomas and the family with a few more projects. It was so good to be there again, I remember lots of trampoline time with Noemi, and soccer time with Nathanael. The kids had their little dramas and feuds, but always settled down, and I was so happy to be like big sister during my time with them.
Paul's visit to Neuffen had been building up towards a bigger event that Didi had been part of organising, which would be on the last night I had in South Germany, before I headed off to Croatia. It was the performance of a Christian, German heavy metal band, who were apparently very popular. Such an intense combination of things as far as music goes.
They played two shows, the first night was unplugged, much more mellow, and the second night was the full blown metal experience.
I ended up helping out backstage in the kitchen, preparing food and drinks for the crew. It was a lot of fun.
After the show on the first night we were all sitting outside talking and drinking, some people smoking cigarettes, and I got to know the lead singer Fabian a little bit. He was going on a bit of a rant about how mainstream it was for Germans to go to Australia, and I had to reiterate that I was in fact from New Zealand. He was a very good looking guy, who knew that he was, and I think he was trying to use a point of potential conflict to flirt with me. I found it amusing, he wasn't actually my type, but it was flattering, particularly in the days and weeks that followed when he drunkenly messaged how much he liked me.
In any case, I learned how to cut a hole in a watermelon and use a stick blender to make a slushie inside the watermelon, before adding whiskey to top it all off. I made some lovely connections with people there, and the last night was a little bittersweet as I knew I wouldn't be back in Neuffen for a few months at least. It had been the perfect start to my European adventure.
After the second show we were all outside again, this time under a warm rain, and I recall one of the guys telling me that he particularly liked girls when they had wet hair. Why were these men so damn over the top honestly, it was a bit much.
I didn't sleep that night, and made my way in the very early hours of the morning to catch my flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I got into my seat, and passed out immediately.
As the sun rose over my first day on the Mediterranean coast, I woke up to the plane approaching landing in a very different place to where I had just been. A golden sunrise, iconic red roofs and sandy stone buildings, and I could almost feel the dry heat already. I was going to love this place.Читать далее