Camping - German style!

Hi everyone, it’s Lucy here and I am writing to tell you about our latest exploration: German camping!

On the weekend from 3-5 June Emese and I went camping with 8 of our friends in Freilingen, Germany. The weekend was really fun and I am so thankful that we were able to get the chance at doing something this fun with all our friends. And, I was able to form a comparison between the Australian and German camping because back home I have camped quite a lot (and to be honest, I think I enjoyed the way the Germans camp more – well at least the way my friends camp over here).

We left on the Friday around 2pm and we met outside the Student accommodation to pack the cars and drive together. The car ride was quite fun and only took a little over an hour. It was supposed to take an hour but we all had to stop once because traffic was halted while a man cut a tree down. We all got out of the car, and of course the boys had to walk to take a look at the action. Luckily it didn’t take long, maybe 5 minutes, and then we were on our way again.

After checking in and seeing where we would be camping we decided to set everything up. One of our friends had really cool camping gear so we had EVERYTHING we needed. Under a pavilion we set up tables and chairs with a Grill and a music table. On the music table we had someone’s laptop, and a big stereo which ran on batteries that played music either from a CD or from the Laptop. Very cool in my eyes!

Our first activity was grilling dinner. We cook some meat, potatoes and drank some beer and coke. Later that night we just chilled, talking and listening to music. It was also a really clear night so we went up to the top of a hill and laid down watching the stars for a while.

The next morning everyone woke up SO early, which is pretty usual for camping. We all got up around 8, had some coke and bread for breakfast and discussed the days plan. We decided we wanted to go down to a big lake for the day. We had a big blow up boat which fitted 4 people and we were able to have fun with that. During the afternoon we were tanning, chilling, swimming and playing in the boat. At one point Emese and I got into the boat and just drifted to see where it would take us. Then unfortunately we had to row back against the current which was pretty tough.

The weather then was starting to get a bit cloudy and windy, and it looked like it would rain. Strange because at the lake it was SOOO hot. We put up walls on the pavilion so we were sheltered and nothing would get wet. Later in the evening it started raining a bit and then it turned into a massive storm and we took down one wall of the pavilion and watched the lightning and thunder across the sky.

In the morning we all woke up feeling good, quite early again at like 9. We didn’t really have anything for breakfast so we decided to pack up straight away. Everything was so organized and went smoothly it didn’t take that long. We also had showers and packed the cars. On the way home we stopped at a Subway and we all ate there for lunch. After we all got home, we were so exhausted and everyone just wanted to sleep pretty much.

All in all, camping was a blast! It’s always nice for a change of pace on the weekends and I definitely recommend going camping during the German summer!

Auf Wiedersehn, Lucy