During the first week of being in Weiden most of my family’s focus has been on getting me an ID card but now that that I have jumped through the numerous hoops of that process and come out victorious we have been traveling and checking out the local areas surrounding Weiden, Vilseck, and Grafenwoer.
During the 4th of July the family got out of the house to check out a crag called Weissenstein at my new climbing area, Frankenjura. I didn’t have a guidebook for the area at the time so it took a little longer than expected trying to translate a print off of the directions and by the time we got there Olivia had to be at Grafenwoer for helping out at the July 4th celebration. Dad and I decided to stay at the crag to get a bit more climbing in and let my mom drop Olivia off at her work and swing by later to pick us up. We were both surprised that after an hour and a half she had not returned but I could not have picked a better place to get stuck on a sunny afternoon so I just kept on climbing until she arrived two and a half hours after she left. It turns out that she had left the post going in the opposite direction and only figured that out when Weiden started showing up on street signs. She had ended up just getting on the autobahn from Nurenberg to find our location, which was the biggest surprise for us when she showed up driving from the opposite direction we had arrived from. All and all it was a pretty fun time to climb and great to have some near boiling Gatorade that was ice cold 2 hours earlier! After we all piled in the car and made our way to the main post on Grafenwoehr, we ate hamburgers and sat in the grass as Olivia worked, hurriedly stocking cases of beer for the large numbers of soldiers that arrived for the celebration. The event was on a grassy field the size of a football field with a stage on one side, three food stands on the sidelines, face painting for kids, and a drink tent dead center for the larger kids. It was a good time sitting in the grass after a day of climbing and listening to my parents tell stories about scary events in their lives. Good time!
After the 4th of July I got on the job hunt at the NAF office by dropping off four job applications and having the lady working there sign me up for another four. I feel like I will get a job pretty soon but you can never tell. I really am going to put in the effort to get a job at the Outdoor Rec place because that would be the best possible job to have in this area. Leading rock climbing and canoe trips would be a good way to make money!The day after dropping off all of my job applications I was feeling the need to rock climb so I took my mom out and had a great time climbing at the same place we had earlier in the week. She was a little scared to be belaying me but soon was use to it. I was very surprised to see her get up some of the more difficult beginner routes not showing ay fear of the heights or foot positions. She actually looked like she was enjoying it even climbing past a beehive that was only three feet from the route! It was a great time and now she has project route that she is sure she can do with a little more energy.This weekend I got a facebook message from my friend Chris Welhelm that he wanted to come down to Weiden to check out the town. On Friday afternoon he arrived while I was still at Vilseck getting my belay certification so I can go on the Outdoor Rec trips to better get to know the surrounding climbing area. By the time I got back my dad and him had already had two beers and were starting on their third. We decided to head out to dinner and ate at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed a great meal. After that we headed down town where we more or less walked looking for a good place to go until we settled on the shisha bar literally 30 steps from the house. The rest of the night was filled with searching for bars with more than ten people in it and this was a Friday night, crazy! Weiden does not have the nightlife that Hedelberg has but maybe that’s a good thing! The next day Chris and I got out to Weissenstein again to do some climbing and had a great time. The highlights were Chris kicking the beehive tat my mom had passed just days earlier into a swarm of pissed off bees. I was asking Chris to step over the rope as I belayed him right as the bees got angry to I just decided to quickly lower him as quickly as possible and get my anchor by climbing another route and traversing over a little at the top. The other route ended up being a challenge but I’m happy to say I did not weight the rope until I hit the anchor! Great time climbing with Chris and hopefully he will come back for more.
On Saturday we decided to go to a Jazz festival in Regensburg, about an hour from Weiden. We had a great time walking around the city and checking out the different venues that were set up. There was so much music it was hard to see it all. At every corner there was a different band and all of it was good. It was interesting to see that no one was actually dancing to the music but were instead sitting in chairs not even tapping their feet or bobbing their heads to the beat. I can imagine it was a little different that a Jazz club in Havana! On the walk through Regensburg I got a guide to Frankenjura climbing that is in both English and German! I’, very excited to have this book because it outlines so many crags and climbing areas that it seems that it would be impossible to go to all of them in a year. It says in the book that there are over 10,000 routes in Frankenjura, absolutely insane!! I can’t wait to climb at more areas here.All and all it has been a good move and we are starting to get to know the areas surrounding us. The scenery is a lot different than Heidelberg due to the tons of forest surrounding us on all side. The climate is a lot cooler as well. I don’t find myself sweating out just sitting in a car anymore, which is very nice! I think it is going to be a good time living here and hopefully I will get a job pretty soon!
During the 4th of July the family got out of the house to check out a crag called Weissenstein at my new climbing area, Frankenjura. I didn’t have a guidebook for the area at the time so it took a little longer than expected trying to translate a print off of the directions and by the time we got there Olivia had to be at Grafenwoer for helping out at the July 4th celebration. Dad and I decided to stay at the crag to get a bit more climbing in and let my mom drop Olivia off at her work and swing by later to pick us up. We were both surprised that after an hour and a half she had not returned but I could not have picked a better place to get stuck on a sunny afternoon so I just kept on climbing until she arrived two and a half hours after she left. It turns out that she had left the post going in the opposite direction and only figured that out when Weiden started showing up on street signs. She had ended up just getting on the autobahn from Nurenberg to find our location, which was the biggest surprise for us when she showed up driving from the opposite direction we had arrived from. All and all it was a pretty fun time to climb and great to have some near boiling Gatorade that was ice cold 2 hours earlier! After we all piled in the car and made our way to the main post on Grafenwoehr, we ate hamburgers and sat in the grass as Olivia worked, hurriedly stocking cases of beer for the large numbers of soldiers that arrived for the celebration. The event was on a grassy field the size of a football field with a stage on one side, three food stands on the sidelines, face painting for kids, and a drink tent dead center for the larger kids. It was a good time sitting in the grass after a day of climbing and listening to my parents tell stories about scary events in their lives. Good time!
After the 4th of July I got on the job hunt at the NAF office by dropping off four job applications and having the lady working there sign me up for another four. I feel like I will get a job pretty soon but you can never tell. I really am going to put in the effort to get a job at the Outdoor Rec place because that would be the best possible job to have in this area. Leading rock climbing and canoe trips would be a good way to make money!The day after dropping off all of my job applications I was feeling the need to rock climb so I took my mom out and had a great time climbing at the same place we had earlier in the week. She was a little scared to be belaying me but soon was use to it. I was very surprised to see her get up some of the more difficult beginner routes not showing ay fear of the heights or foot positions. She actually looked like she was enjoying it even climbing past a beehive that was only three feet from the route! It was a great time and now she has project route that she is sure she can do with a little more energy.This weekend I got a facebook message from my friend Chris Welhelm that he wanted to come down to Weiden to check out the town. On Friday afternoon he arrived while I was still at Vilseck getting my belay certification so I can go on the Outdoor Rec trips to better get to know the surrounding climbing area. By the time I got back my dad and him had already had two beers and were starting on their third. We decided to head out to dinner and ate at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed a great meal. After that we headed down town where we more or less walked looking for a good place to go until we settled on the shisha bar literally 30 steps from the house. The rest of the night was filled with searching for bars with more than ten people in it and this was a Friday night, crazy! Weiden does not have the nightlife that Hedelberg has but maybe that’s a good thing! The next day Chris and I got out to Weissenstein again to do some climbing and had a great time. The highlights were Chris kicking the beehive tat my mom had passed just days earlier into a swarm of pissed off bees. I was asking Chris to step over the rope as I belayed him right as the bees got angry to I just decided to quickly lower him as quickly as possible and get my anchor by climbing another route and traversing over a little at the top. The other route ended up being a challenge but I’m happy to say I did not weight the rope until I hit the anchor! Great time climbing with Chris and hopefully he will come back for more.
On Saturday we decided to go to a Jazz festival in Regensburg, about an hour from Weiden. We had a great time walking around the city and checking out the different venues that were set up. There was so much music it was hard to see it all. At every corner there was a different band and all of it was good. It was interesting to see that no one was actually dancing to the music but were instead sitting in chairs not even tapping their feet or bobbing their heads to the beat. I can imagine it was a little different that a Jazz club in Havana! On the walk through Regensburg I got a guide to Frankenjura climbing that is in both English and German! I’, very excited to have this book because it outlines so many crags and climbing areas that it seems that it would be impossible to go to all of them in a year. It says in the book that there are over 10,000 routes in Frankenjura, absolutely insane!! I can’t wait to climb at more areas here.All and all it has been a good move and we are starting to get to know the areas surrounding us. The scenery is a lot different than Heidelberg due to the tons of forest surrounding us on all side. The climate is a lot cooler as well. I don’t find myself sweating out just sitting in a car anymore, which is very nice! I think it is going to be a good time living here and hopefully I will get a job pretty soon!
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| Mom getting stoked on Climbing! |
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| Weissenstein |
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| 4th of July at Grafonwoehr |
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| The Jazz fest |
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