Above - the view of the village from the castle.
Above - a little rain.
Above - the castle.
Above - The village of Oybin - just look at that sky!
Above - the restaurant.
Above - my meal.
Above - the rocks among the forest.
Above - low lying mist.
So we got in Heidi’s new red beetle car and drove to Oybin. And it started to rain. The weather here is so changeable. Showers, sun, cloudy, hot, rainbows, wind… We arrived in Oybin, which really is half way up a mountain, and the torrential rain had eased off. We walked through the forest (in the mud, in flip flops!) and up the mountain as the rain began falling again. When we reached the castle at the top it was fine again. We went in the castle and walked around. The views were spectacular – there were rocks, huge rocks, huge like I’ve never seen before, jutting from out of the forest. We walked around, our umbrellas up one minute then down the next, until we were back in the village. The houses were so particular, so perfect. Everywhere so clean. I felt like I was standing in a life size model village. We stopped in a restaurant for dinner and, despite the rain, sat outside, but under the canapé. The restaurant, from outside, can only be described as looking like something from out of a fairytale, either that or how I imagine Austria to be, which, considering I’ve never actually been to Austria, could be the most ridiculous comparison ever. Anyway, the meal was delicious – I had a choice from the ‘meatless’ section of the menu! I chose Kartoffentaschen mit Frischkäse gefüllt dazu eine kleine Salatbeilage und Toast which was like small parcels of batter filled with a potato and cheese mix. As we ate it started to get greyer and greyer – rain was imminent. By the time we’d eaten the main course it was colder and a storm like I’ve never experienced before had arrived. Fork lightening and claps of thunder so loud we were having to shout at each other in order to be heard. We sat drinking hot chocolate whilst waiting for the storm to pass. We then made our way back to the car to go back to Herrnhut. Although we were completely inappropriately dressed I wouldn’t have had the weather any other way – to see the lightening in the picturesque village only served to make the whole experience even more like something our of a picture book, it also made for some interesting photos of low lying mist and streaming rain. After we’d got home and I’d showered I went up to Heidi’s apartment for a cup of tea with her, her flatmate Renée, and Renée’s aunt and uncle who were over visiting for a few days from America after having attended the same wedding as Renée in Portugal the weekend before. Originally I was going to go to Leipzig with them the following day (Saturday), we were going to leave at 6h and have breakfast at Bäckerei Paul (Karin’s bakery – Karin from the first week of teaching who invited me for afternoon tea and to a missionary meeting) and then to Leipzig, but as Renée and her aunt and uncle had been on a day trip to Prague they were exhausted and decided against going to Leipzig. We decided to all eat breakfast together at the more humanly hour of 9h the next morning. American pancakes were to be on the menu.
