Beethoven was really that girl (& I’ve found my fav gardens so far)

Today was officially my last full day in Germany! And I spent it exploring Bonn, the town I’m staying in just out of Cologne.

I had a pretty relaxed morning after going to bed well past midnight. It was one of those nights I just really didn’t feel like sleeping, which probably wasn’t a good idea. I think I woke up around 9am, and realised that not only was I the only person in my dorm, but everyone else had already checked out! Either they were quiet or my earplugs are incredible, maybe both. When I eventually got out of bed I saw a little piece of paper folded up in one of my shoes I had left out and turns out Franzi checked out that morning and left me a note. How cute?! We spoke the night before about Europe travel and she was telling me about where she’s from, in the east of Germany close to the Czech and Polish borders. Since I would be in the general vicinity of that area she offered for me and the fam to visit if we were ever in the area and needed somewhere to stay. Are you joking me?! I completely melted this morning when I read her letter to me, it was a good page long and she was just so nice.

 Honestly, I believe we see the best of people when we travel. We’re all a little bit intimidated and confused, so being with other people travelling bonds you so quickly. Even though she was in her home country, being in a hostel by yourself everyone has something in common that breaks the ice so easily. I mean you’ve never met them before, now you’re living together pretty much. In no other situation would it be normal at all to have a 5-minute chat with someone then feel completely comfortable to invite them, their brother and mum to come stay with them in 5 months’ time. But hey, that’s the joy of the hostel life.

I organised my stuff for the day and went down to the kitchen for some brekkie. Considering I didn’t have to take a train anywhere, I didn’t have anywhere to be by any specific time, so I lazily my way through the morning. I think I left the hostel around 11am, maybe a bit later, and made my way into the town centre, which was around a 10-minute walk.

My first stop of the day was Beethoven-Haus, which was the house Ludwig van Beethoven was born in, and has been renovated into a museum dedicated to his life and work. The space was quite confined, so much so you had to walk across the street to the souvenir shop to buy tickets to go in. Something I do love about the German tourist destinations is that they’re never overpriced, and always have a student price that’s half that of an adult. I think my ticket ended up being €3. Australian museums could never. To be fair the setup wasn’t that complicated, if you just strolled through in and out you could see everything within the hour, but I was actually quite interested. It was a museum that promised anything but Jesus paintings so I was keen to hang out there for a bit.

They also had an audio guide you could get on your phone and it was actually pretty interesting, I listened to all the little sections as I went. I think I spent over an hour and a half looking at the exhibitions, laid out over 3 storeys of the home. I also learnt a little fun fact that Beethoven eventually went deaf during his career and several of the sonatas he composed were when he was deaf and also suffering from tinnitus. I was so interested in understanding how exactly he managed to do that, but the museum clearly disagreed with me. It went something like ‘he’s deaf,’ then ‘he’s depressed,’ then ‘he’s composing again,’ then ‘yeah so these are the rest of his pieces he did after he went deaf’ and I was just there like is there something I’m missing here? You can’t just go deaf and the continue on composing like nothing’s changed. I mean slay, I guess, go Beethoven. He also got a cast of his face made just before he died because he thought everyone in the future deserved to know what he looked like. Honestly, seems like icon behaviour. Eventually I got a bit tired of the repetitiveness of how much he loved himself, and decided to go for a walk towards the main square of Bonn.

That area was definitely the prettiest part of the town I’ve seen so far, and though it was quite warm, there was a consistently aggressive breeze keeping me cool, it was great. I wandered through it’s little streets until I ended up in what must be the main square. There were many restaurants with al fresco dining, pretty cobblestoned streets, and a prominent (guess who) Beethoven statue in the centre, right in front of what I assumed to be the old post office. It was a picturesque scene, topped off by the fact that just around the corner was a fruit and veg market, where I bought some cheap raspberries and snacked on them as I continued exploring the centre.

I also came across a nice church (who’d have thought a German town would have a nice church?) and decided that if it was free, I’d have a look inside. It was, so I ducked inside, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved the interior. At this point I’m a bit churched-out so I wasn’t expecting to be that overwhelmed with emotion. And I wouldn’t go that far either, but it was definitely a unique church, especially interior wise. There was a massive timber organ covering the entirety of one of the short sides of the hall itself, and beautiful stained-glass windows. The arches inside the church were also covered with colourful patterns. I appreciated this detail, they looked like candy canes from some perspectives. The church wasn’t well advertised as being open to the public, so there were only a couple of people inside at the same time as me, which was a nice break from the busy square.

When I finally felt ready to actually see people again, I continued through the little streets before I made it to arguably the most coveted location of the day, the Haribo Outlet. That’s right, there’s a Haribo Outlet. A 2-storey Haribo store, complete with a full wall pick-and-mix, an oversize Haribo mascot and lots and lots of bags of gummy bears. You could buy them by the kilo, or by specific colour, if you happen to have a preference. My self-control got a full workout, and somehow I made it in and out without buying the entire store. The only thing that enticed me out of that shop was the next (and final) stop of my Bonn exploring, being the University Botanic Gardens. That’s right, their University have their own Botanic Gardens. Curtin’s got nothing on that. And these aren’t just any Botanic Gardens. For one thing, they’re free to enter (big plus to me), for second thing, whoever designed these gardens really outdid themselves. I spent a ridiculous amount of time exploring all the different sections of the garden, pretending to read the little panels of info that were only in German.

I was hoping to find a secluded bench in the shade to have some lunch. It was perfect timing I was midway through a Fourth Wing and Bridgerton rant with Lilly over snapchat we decided it would be easier just to videocall instead of sending 5-minute vlogs back and forth. Turns out we had more to debrief about than we initially thought, I ended up walking around the gardens, showing her some views here and there, whilst we caught up on Lilly starting to watch Bridgerton (!!), what we thought of our first book of our 2 person book club selection (The Murder Rule) and breaking down what the hell is happening with ‘It Ends With Us.’ Honestly we were yapping for well over an hour I’d say, but what can you expect? You put Lilly and Lauren on a Snapchat video call once a week and don’t expect for me to be booked and busy for the entire day? Seems like a you-problem. We’ll be here yapping.

Eventually when I said goodbye (mostly due to my phone overheating) the only part of the gardens left to explore were the indoor greenhouses, which I was very much looking forward to. It was the perfect way to round out a long day of exploration. The greenhouses were so stunning inside, though extremely humid as they were all tropical plants (I walked swiftly through to avoid getting sweaty and gross). They had an abundance of ferns and running water through the displays, joining to another greenhouse that grew water-plants. The lily pads were huge, almost a meter in diameter I’d say, and so cool to walk through. The last greenhouse was desert themed, with elaborate displays of catci and succulents. This was probably the least impressive of the 3, and a bit random, but still cool to check out all the same.

Emerging from the greenhouses I decided I had sufficiently explored the city for the day, and hopped on the tram to take me back into central Bonn. Walking back through the centre I popped into Aldi to get a little salad for dinner (I was craving some iceburg lettuce) and carried on back to the hostel, arriving around 6pm. Shower and some food later I’m hanging out in bed writing this, the only other plans for tonight include figuring out tomorrow’s timeline (travel day!) and making sure I remember to drag myself to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Can you guess where we’re heading to tomorrow? It's a country close by (obviously) and another new country for me to tick off. Ok I’ll tell you, we’re going to Belgium! We’ve got 2 cities to visit in Belgium, the first being Ghent, which I wanted to visit after seeing a single Tiktok about it. Hopefully it lives up to the minimal hype 😉

See you next time!

Currently MIA,

Lauren x