A trip to Marburg
Friday dawned, and with it the final day of the IS 
The unfortunate thing about these Esperanto events appears to be that as soon as I begin to relax into them, they appear to be over! What I did on Friday morning eludes me, but I had a rather exciting afternoon in Marburg together with a Brazilian guy now working as a doctor in the USA, and a girl from Kazakhstan who is studying in Moscow. It was a strange combination, but they were both really lovely people and it was fun not to have to go on my own. I’ve wanted to visit Marburg for ages, by virtue of the fact that so many people have told me what a lovely town it is, so it would have seemed a crying shame to be staying so close to it in Biedenkopf and yet not get chance to see it. Babel, for reasons I’m not entirely clear on and thus couldn’t explain to the others on the umpteen occasions they expressed regret that he hadn’t been able to make it, had seemingly no interest in sightseeing, but I wasn’t really too fussed; sometimes I rather like having the independence of being on my own, and I was secure in the knowledge that my German should be good enough to cope with any situations I encountered. Ultimately, however, it was nice to have company 
Especially when it got dark and the area around the station looked a little bit dodgy!
Marburg would naturally be a delightful place, but the atmosphere was accentuated by the fact that it had been snowing during the night. Not a lot by any means, but enough to cover the streets in a thin layer of white which, whilst it made everywhere rather slippery also made it rather pretty When we came out of the station we were a little unsure which direction to go in, but there was a helpfully placed map outside which we proceeded to study, trying to locate the whereabouts of the famous castle. We set off in what we thought was vaguely the right direction, although we couldn’t actually see the castle itself and it was pretty slow going as a result of the snow and ice. We were suddenly diverted in our tracks when we unexpectedly came across the Elisabethkirche. My friend who lives in Marburg had told me that night before that the church in Marburg was very old, but knowing that it was Protestant I hadn’t expected it to be quite as beautiful as it was, if that doesn’t sound silly. It was actually totally amazing, a wonderful example of Gothic architecture so grand that it reminded me almost of the cathedral in Cologne. There’s been a church on the site since the 13th century, which I believe makes it one of the oldest churches in Germany.
We stayed a while to soak up the atmosphere and take some photos. It also gave us an opportunity to warm up, because it was bitterly cold outside. Daylight hours were limited though, and we needed to press on to the castle. We seemed to have lost our bearings slightly, so one of the people I was with suggested that I stop someone in the street and ask for directions, me being the only one of us who spoke German. I had actually been keeping a little quiet about the fact that I spoke German so that I didn’t get nominated for such communication exercises, but I’d accidentally given the game away when we arrived at the Elisabethkirche and I went up to the man behind the desk and asked whether we needed to pay to go in (it wasn’t entirely clear, part of the church is publicly accessible but there’s a charge for entering the altar area towards the back). There was a reasonably friendly looking lady coming towards us, so I stopped her and enquired. She seemed a little surprised that anyone could be in Marburg and not be able to find their way to the whopping great big castle which towers above it, but nevertheless she gave me a series of rights and lefts which would have doubtless been very useful if I was capable of appreciating them. As a parting gift, she offered the very sound advice that we should simply walk uphill
It was only afterwards when we had inspected the castle and were sitting in a little cafe drinking coffee, that I realised it was actually quite an astounding thing that I had just stopped somebody in a street in Germany and asked for directions. It may sound silly, but a while ago when Babel was working in Herzberg and I went to visit him there, we got lost looking for the train station. It was absolutely imperative that we should find it within the next 15 minutes, because if I’d missed that train I’d have missed a flight back to England; problematic, when my parents probably thought I was in Wantage or some such 
Babel suggested in a forceful manner that I might like to ask somebody for directions, but I couldn’t/wouldn’t do it, and in the end he had to do it himself, despite the fact that his German isn’t quite as good as mine. It does sound stupid, and I seem to remember Babel quite reasonably being annoyed, but I was just too scared to do it. I seem to have made a lot of progress over the last couple of years
Anyway, as I said we found the castle and spent as long as we could bear in the cold taking photos of it. The building now houses a museum or museums, but we weren’t able to go inside and inspect them because it was now so close to closing time. I think that on a sunny day there would be an amazing view of Marburg and the surrounding area from the castle hill. There was a lovely view the day we were there, but the sky was still thick with snow and so we could scarcely make out the outskirts of the town. I would definitely like to go back there sometime, perhaps in summer.
As night began to fall we went to drink coffee and then looked around the shops for a bit because the others were keen to buy German souvenirs. It was unfortunate that I had forgotten that Friday night was a meal to thank everybody who had helped in the trinkejo and gufujo. By the time Babel had text me to remind me it was too late to get back. In fact we only just about made it back for dinner at all, and there was so little food left I felt incredibly hungry until about 3am in the morning when Babel bought me a packet of crisps
Friday evening was the internacia vespero which, with a few notable exceptions, was crap. I feel bad for slating people when I am utterly devoid of talent myself, but I feel proud because at least I recognise the fact that I can’t sing, dance, or tell funny jokes and the fact that I speak Esperanto doesn’t give me a licence to nevertheless do such things badly to an international audience. I didn’t really enjoy the internacia vespero during the IJK, but in comparison that one was highly professional It would be mean of me not to admit that there were some highlights though, specifically some absolutely hilarious parodys of Esperanto accents
After the talent show was over, we headed to the trinkejo for one last time. I was lucky in that I wasn’t needed to help serve this time, and I think I had the most enjoyable evening of the whole week on Friday because I was able to talk to so many different people. Ah and that actually reminds me that I’ve forgotten to mention something which happened on Thursday, and which got 2009 off to an even more surreal start than the fact that my boyfriend mistook me for someone else 
I met someone who I have been alternatively hoping to and hoping not to meet for over seven years now. I actually don’t want to talk about it much here, or indeed probably at all, because it’s rather a complex business and also a private one. I had known that this person might be at the IS, but when they didn’t turn up for New Year’s Eve I assumed they weren’t coming. And actually I felt like I really didn’t want them to come. Not out of any malice, because they’re not a person towards whom I seriously bear any ill-will, despite various things which might have happened over the years, but just because it was so very strange and rather scary. That is to say, there was a time when meeting this person would have been very important indeed. But that time ceased a very long time ago, and I no longer felt like I *needed* to meet them. Our lives are in completely different directions now, and I for one have had to fight very hard to get mine in the direction where I can say, in the nicest possible way, that this person is an irrelevance to me and me to him.
Nevertheless. Nevertheless, we finally did meet, sort of accidentally as it were, and in the end I’m glad that it happened. In a way it sort of feels like closure now, to a story which had already dragged on for far too long. It wasn’t a terrible experience by any stretch of the imagination, it was pleasant and relatively untraumatic. I would happily bump into that person again at other events in the future, without so much as blinking an eyelid. So I guess on balance it was positive
Babel and I eventually went to bed some time around four, conscious of the fact that we needed to have vacated our rooms by nine. I was impressed that despite us both having had quite a bit to drink (I was certainly rather drunk!) we nevertheless managed to be out of bed and packing our stuff at eight without feeling noticeably worse for wear. Some people struggled to get up an awful lot more Having had breakfast, we went for a final stroll around Biedenkopf then said our goodbyes to various people before heading out to the station to catch the train to Marburg at 10.46. Due to a slight misunderstanding with someone else we initially started walking towards the wrong station, and then the train itself appeared to be inexplicably early so we were just in the middle of crossing a rather substantial bridge across the railway line when it pulled into the station. Eek 
I was really scared we were going to miss it, or that one of us was going to make it and the other not. I needn’t have worried though; Babel impressively managed to jump over a fence or some such, and we squeezed on with seconds to spare
That train journey was rather pleasant, although I had a hideously painful sore throat. The following train was less pleasant as it was excessively crowded and some idiot was trying to push through the carriages with a drinks trolley We had a couple of hours to spare in Frankfurt so headed back to the Birmingham pub for some more food (excellent schnitzel!!) before doing a spot of shopping. I know, I know; that sounds most uncharacteristic of us, but I appeared to have overestimated the amount of euros Babel could drink and so we had spare currency to burn
I would like to say the journey home was uneventful but firstly I would like to make the point that Frankfurt airport is just as much of a hellhole as it was last time I saw it. It’s ridiculously large and confusing and the security procedures are a joke. Why two security checks? Why is it suspicious that I’m carrying a purse full of small change? Why herd passengers into an enclosed area without a toilet or a functioning drinks machine while they wait for their flights?
Babel and I didn’t have seats next to each other, and I was feeling exceptionally tired, so when I boarded the aircraft I decided not to read a book but rather to have a bit of a nap. I expected just to doze lightly, you understand. Sure enough I drifted off, and awoke vaguely after an unspecified amount of time to find I had been handed a sandwich. This disturbed me intensely. Why hadn’t the plane taken off? I mean, it was an hour since our scheduled departure time and we were still on the ground, being served sandwiches and chocolate to keep up our morale. It was quite clear that we hadn’t taken off, incidentally, because I couldn’t have slept through takeoff and when I looked out of the window (I thought) I saw a light from Frankfurt airport.
I was so disturbed by the situation that I asked the man to my left why the plane had been delayed, concerned I had missed an important announcement about the engine whilst snoozing. He explained that it was something to do with waiting for a connecting flight. Okay, fair enough, but I was still rather put out and decided to get my phone out to text my mother so she wasn’t worried about where I was. I turned it on and quite blatently wrote a text message, was however surprised that I was failing to pick up the signal of any network at all. I was also put out when the man on my right told me I wasn’t permitted to have my phone out. I told him that only applied when we were in the air not on the runway, but since I had no signal I turned it off anyway to oblige him. He looked at me like I was a weirdo.
And then it clicked!
I’d slept through take-off
Sure enough, we were virtually about to land in Birmingham. Whoops!
After that everything went smoothly: car retrieved, a final meal in a Harvester and back home. In terms of summing up the week, I’m struggling to know what to say. I spent the majority of it being terribly, terribly scared. I spent significant parts of it feeling very inadequate, very sad, and very lonely. Despite that, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the vast majority of it. I didn’t enjoy it in the same way, and perhaps not as much as the IJK; it was amazingly exciting going to Hungary, the weather was sunny, it was almost magically perfect in places and I opted out of a lot of the Esperanto activities, instead having chance to spend a lot of very happy, couply time with Babel. For me then the IJK was one of the best holidays I’ve ever had, but because I was spending time with someone I love as opposed to because I was at an Esperanto congress. The IS was different because Babel had a lot of stuff to do, and some days/nights I didn’t spend very much time with him at all. In fact two people independently expressed surprise that he was my boyfriend because they hadn’t really noticed us being together. Partly for that reason, and partly because of the fact that to be honest there was sod all to do in Biedenkopf in mid-winter, I’m not going to look back at the IS and think “wow, that was one of the best weeks of my life”. It wasn’t, but I enjoyed it in a different way and think I gained some useful experiences from it. Because Babel was so busy, I was forced to be more independent and talk to new people without him having introduced them to me first, which was really a new departure for me. I wouldn’t want to have to do that on my holidays on a regular basis, but nevertheless it was good, really good, and I’m glad I went
Tags: Esperanto, internacia seminario, marburg