The beginning of summer

Summer came out of nowhere here in Germany. All through April and into part of May we had nothing but cold, rainy weather that surprised just about everyone. For me, I didn't know what normal was, so I just rolled with it and assumed that at some point the sun would come out. Travel to Frankfurt...travel to Barcelona and suddenly when I came back it was summer! Highs in the 80s which doesn't sound like much until you factor in the humidity and the fact than neither my place of work nor my home have anything nearing air conditioning.

So after a stressful week of student-led conferences, assembly and a sauna of a classroom, I had been planning on coming home Friday afternoon and doing nothing.

Thank goodness for Christine. She suggested that we walk down to the public swimming pool near her flat just so I could see where it was. So we did. Then we found a nice bench there and proceeded to have multiple heart attacks while watching children do exactly what they are never allowed to do at pools in England or the US. Running, diving, back flipping...tossing people in after wrestling with them, throwing other people onto of swimmers' heads, etc. But after a while you realize that no one has cracked their skull open yet so you can relax a bit.

As the sun moved, we decided it was time to go somewhere and get a drink and maybe some dinner. We walked along the road to the City Galerie then cut across the Alt Stadt where we discovered a nice outdoor seating area of a restaurant called Al Teatro, an Italian restaurant aptly named due to its location next to a theater. After I downed my cappucino and Christine her weissweinschole, we had our dinner of risotto and spaghetti with salmon in the lovely, cobbled backstreets. Being the complete nerds we are, we took turns going to the bathroom so we could see how fancy (aka posh) the interior of the restaurant really was.

By this time my water bottle was empty and we went in search of a fountain I could fill it up in, forgetting that we were not in Barcelona anymore and that water was not free in Augsburg. We wound our way back to the Rathausplatz and walked down the Maximillianstrasse past all the cafes with their big screen TVs on the "WM" or World Cup. Once we got to St. Ulrich's instead of taking the traditional left turn down the steep street, we decided to go in the back alleys behind the church where there was a quiet little neighborhood that led back to the Rotes Tor.

Murdock's Irish Pub had set up their outdoor eating area in a shady grove with big colored lights strung across the trees, but it looked a little too dark for my liking. Next to it, was the oudoor theater where they hold a summer opera or musical. The sign said that Puccini's Turandot would be starting the end of June so I started to hum and lala the only song I know from that opera: "Nessun Dorma". Christine like a good friend kept walking and as we were half-way around the Rotes Tor, I could hear whiffs of song which I immediately recognized was in fact "Nessun Dorma". We tried to peak through the cracks in the makeshift fence around the outdoor theater to see who was playing the piano rendition of it, but never could find out where it was coming from.

Walking back from Rotes Tor, we took the park route. Along several of Augsburg's roads are canals that are much lower than the streets so paths lead down from the regular sidewalk into lovely wooded park areas that follow the canals. As we were walking along, we rediscovered a small, quaint English-style garden, hidden behind foliage and a rod-iron fence. After strolling through the manicured hedges, we sat on a bench and chatted about literature, friends with lovely jobs and poetry. I struggled to remember all of William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "This is just to say..." which bothered me because they're such short poems! We sat until the sun had fallen enough that the park lanterns turned on, peaking through the trees. We followed the trail of lanterns back up to the sidewalk where we had the weird experience of walking by two Americans chatting. This never happens in Augsburg so it was quite a shock.

We followed our traditional route past City Galerie, walking along our own canal until the road splits at Jakobertor, left to my flat, right to her flat. The sun almost completely set and here it was 10:30. It felt like summer, but the kind of summer I always wish I had. One that did not include sitting at home in air conditioning because the only other option was to sit in the library or go to the mall. It's a bit surreal to live the life you've always seen in films or read in books.

So begins my summer. I still have 6 weeks left of teaching, but also 6 more weeks of evening strolls, World Cup games, cafe sipping and other adventures that come when living in a smallish, big European town.