More than one year ago 7 school males and me went out to that place they call the cold "Deutschland".
We had thought we'd find huge snowy fields, warm houses, scarfs and gloves, but when we reached it, the great Germany, it wasn't December, neither January. It was April. Spring time, when the sun shines, the swallows come back and the flowers bloom.
I had always thought, since I knew about its existence, that Germany was a cold, icy place. Snow and Kartoffeln. I still remember Heidi playing in white fields.
But, have you ever imagined how Germany could be in spring? Well, we hadn't. But when we realized that we wouldn't have seen any white fields, we weren't totally disappointed.
I mean, how could you be disappointed in places like those?
Colourful flowers everywhere, peaked roofs and smiling elders; no cars but bicycles and leverets which run near you while you're riding towards school.
We were there thanks to the Comenius, European project which gives students of the UE the opportunity to travel and meet other students of the Union countries. I was a guest of Luisa's, a nice German girl who showed me sweet corners of her Rheda-Wiedenbrück, a village of the Nordrhein.Westfalen region.
Somebody said that we don't remember days, but moments; and this is what I remember, pictures of my luggage filled of winter sweaters and 25 degrees outside. My first time on a bicycle after a loong time. The "Kartoffelnsalad" and the barbeque in the garden. And the trees, the houses, the colours and all of those German air that make you feel so little in front of their motionless beauty. Even my sick-and-allergic-nose, which would have asked me for mercy anywhere else, stayed silently red before that storm of petals and pollens.
And the beautiful strong accent, blond hair and blue eyes everywhere and the gorgeous smiles of our German friends who took us around that place I called my Wonderland.
So... Yep, I can say, at the end, that Deutschland is a country where spending sweet spring days; but, I still hope to return and, this time, see it as I've always dreamed it. A snowed Germany.
