MOIN! MOIN!

Europe » Germany
November 8th 2006

Published: November 8th 2006

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The Travelling Twines

Pilsum Lighthouse

Moin! Moin! That's how people greet eachother in Ostfriesland, a section of Lower Saxony in North-western Germany where I spent a year as an exchange student 10 years ago and where Cameron and I have just spent a week catching up with old friends.

Saturday, 28th October our friends Rob and Tina drove us to Leer in Ostfriesland. That weekend we caught up with my third hostfamily. It was wonderful to see them again after so many years. We had a great night out in Emden staying at a friends house and up until the wee hours drinking and swapping stories. The following day we drove out into the countryside to have breakfast at my hostbrother and his wife's new farmhouse. They had so many animals - horses, ponies, guinea pigs, rabbits. It was great!

Sunday evening we caught up with my friend Ursula and also took a walk around Oldersum - my old village I used to live in. It's so strange how ten years later everything looks smaller!!!

Monday we spent with Ernst and Christiane. Ernst was my counsellor in the Rotary club during my exchange. They took us a for a drive

Inka and Jantje

Singing "Frogs don't cry!"

out to Papenburg, where you can see a huge shipyard. And we were lucky enough to see a finished ocean liner called the Norwegian Pearl - which was set to sail out to see the following weekend. What a sight!!

Tuesday we went for a wander through the city of Leer. The weather had been so strange for the whole week we were in Ostfriesland. Typical Autumn weather - rain, wind, sun, then rain, wind and again sun!! We were lucky to catch some lovely sunny patches throughout the week.

Wednesday we were with my first hostfamily, Sabine and Gerfried. Some of Sabine's family were also there, which was just lovely. We did a tour around Ostfriesland on the Wednesday to take in the sights of the famous Lighthouse at Pilsum and the fishing village of Greetsiel. It was soooo windy and sooooooo cold and just sooooo beautiful. In the evening my hostsister Mareike came from Hamburg to visit. It was lovely to see her again.

Thursday afternoon Sabine trusted us enough to lend us her very nice VW car for the afternoon to drive into Leer to visit my penpal, Christa. I first

Meg, Jantje, Tjarko and Cam

Jantje and Tjarko (hostsister and brother in Oldersum)

met Christa 10 years ago when I gave a talk about Australia in a primary school. She was 9 and I was 18 and we've been writing to each other ever since. It was really lovely to see her and I know she was very excited about being on our Travelblog.

Friday we were with Dieter and Sabine. Dieter was the Officer for Student Exchanges in the Rotary Club and we became really good friends during my year there. They took us for a drive out to see the Moors and one of the first politicatal prison camps and prisoner of war camps of the Third Reich in Germany. It was also a training ground for S.S Officers who then went on to the concentration camps. Sabine also works in a museum in Papenburg informing people of this unknown area. It was very interesting and moving.

Saturday morning we caught up with Tina one more time in Leer and also got to meet her lovely sister, Katja. We went for a walk in a beautiful park nearby and enjoyed a delicious lunch with them. Tina then drove us to Nieuweschans where we caught the train to