We got up bright and early and waited for Michele with our 7 bags in front of the house ;) He was with another friend, Anna that works with him who also didn't know anyone else. Then we all drove to the Kletterarena to meet up with the rest of the group. Some of the people I recognized, but most I had never even seen before. After a little confusion of what van we were taking and where to put our stuff, we got going. We drove with Mick who drove 150km/ hr the whole way. Still took us about 3 hours.
By the time we got to the campsite we were starving, but our bags were taken in another, slower driving van, so we had to wait. We set up our tents at the campsite while we waited. Camping is different in Europe.. it's like a parking lot of tents and cars... reminds me more of the way people camp at festivals in the states. The tent I borrowed from Bjorn is like ancient! It kept collapsing because one of the poles was broken... the center one. We just had to hope it didn't get too windy or there would be no way to keep it up. I just made sure our stuff was at least protected and hoped it didn't blow into the pond. The other van finally arrived and we shoved some lunch down and packed some up to bring with us.
I guess I'm used to climbing where we camp, but this was different. We drove to the climbing site. It was also quite colder than I thought it was going to be. Leave it to me to where a halter top and shorts in 60 degree weather :) OK, not really freezing, but the rock gets really cold and especially out in the woods when it is all shaded.
We went to a couple different places and it was cool because the group kind of broke off into smaller groups based on levels. Michele, Anna and I climb at almost the same level. Since we were kind of the outsiders of the group we went our separate ways and found some things to climb. The rock was really sharp, so my fingers are all cut and bloody. It's nice when it's rough because it's easier to grip, but it can be brutal. I was climbing this one route and all of a sudden this furry thing ran out of a hole I grabbed onto and then back in really fast. I screamed and everyone ran over. It was hissing and growling like crazy! I had no idea what it was and the other climbers said it was probably a sieben Schläfer (seven sleeper) but didn't know what the English word for the animal was. They said they are only about 3" big and thought it was hilarious that is scared me so bad. I felt pretty silly, but all I saw was this rush of fur and all this noise... it could have been a bear for all I knew :) I just kept climbing and steered clear of it on my way back down. We climbed for about 8 hours! Skylar mostly wandered around and read his book. He wasn't really in the mood for climbing. By the time we headed to the campsite, we were all exhausted and starving.We all cleaned up a bit, put on some warmer clothes and headed for the little restaurant at the campsite. It was decent enough and they had Käse-Spätzle on the menu so we were good. Anna is a vegetarian too, so she kindly helped us out with the menu. There was about 20 of us and the waitress was bringing our drinks two by two. Without even thinking about it, I took a sip and got reamed by half the table! Apparently I was supposed to wait for the toast before I could drink. Whoops. However, no one waited for everyone to get their food. Actually, many people were done before we even got ours. Then the waitress brought us all a little bottle of liqueur for a shot. I didn't take mine as I was already falling asleep in my beer that I didn't even drink half of. So the group first puts the bottle cap on their nose, then they stick their tongue in the bottle. Usually they would then all toast each other's bottle, but people were too far away, so they just drank them. Such silly German customs :)
The tent had blown over when we got back, but I just fixed it up again. As long as it kept us dry, it would be ok. I didn't have a pad for the ground either and it was so cold! My sleeping bag is really warm, but without something for insulation underneath it, it doesn't matter. Woke up freezing a few times throughout the night though.
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