Weather weather weather

My last post ended with an ecstatic “the sun is shining!” and while it’s still shining here in Lippe, the disastrous weather in Germany has somehow struck again…

This weekend, I was supposed to road-trip down to Vienna with a friend, for a weekend of clubbing/dancing/museums/delicious food/gorgeous architecture/general big-city fun.  Most of you probably know that Vienna is, without a doubt, my favorite European city – so I’m pretty bummed not to be there.  What went wrong? Parts of southern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and even Hungary are having serious flooding problems, due to, you guessed it, rain.  Highways down south have been either closed or so traffic-jammed that we decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to drive into the unknown…we’d also heard that the night before people were stuck on the roads and sleeping in cars.

So, I spent the weekend in Detmold, and as it was sunny and beautiful here, chilled in the park on Saturday reading and working on my tan (I’m sadly still freakishly pale).  I’m sort-of over the fact that what was supposed to be my last travel-hurrah of the year was cancelled, and for such a boring reason, but I’m also sure that, when I look back on this year in Germany, the terrible weather will be something that really stands out.  From this cancelled trip, to many many many days exploring a new city from under an umbrella, to the fact that I’m pretty sure my mom and I saw snow nearly every day of her trip here, the weather has influenced a good bit of my time here.

On a slightly related note, the sun here sets later than in the States – and I funnily don’t remember that from Tübingen.  Today, for example, the sunset time is 9:43, while at home in Cleveland, it’s 9:00.  Somehow it really makes a big difference, and the light evenings have been messing up my schedule a bit – it seems really silly to get ready for bed at 10 when it’s still light out!