akaCLL

Write about a stranger you met on your Europe trip! and if they taught you anything.

It occurred to me only months after, fairly recently, that perhaps the blooms on her blouse and my dress had something to do with our coming together. 

It was the day of a Neo-Nazi demonstration in Halle, Germany, and I was leaving the city to be safe, following the cautions of my friends and fellow volunteers. Right as I was walking into the train station I passed by a crowded parking area, as well as a man with an eyepatch on his left eye and a poster, a caricature of Angela Merkel and some German words I did not recognise. I repeated over and over to myself to look straight ahead and feign indifference, which faltered when a group of policemen started walking towards me, all we-mean-business -- the man had gotten into a little tiff with someone just behind me. 

I was still a little shaken when I stood in front of the ticketing machine, and I was not expecting a voice directed at me, a slew of German. I turned and was relieved to see a white-haired lady with a kind face.

"UH, ze kein deutsch"

broken german - "I don't speak German"

She seemed amused that yet, I replied in German. I muttered an apology and she understood. Excitable, this old lady, and she made me feel so at ease. She explained in English, an airiness to her voice, as if not at all bogged down by whatever it is that our voices nowadays sound weighed down by, that she had bought a pair of tickets (it was cheaper with some sort of bundle I think) and was looking to let me have the extra for a lower price. A fantastic coincidence it was that we were both going to the Leipzig city centre, and I agreed before she promptly held my arm and we walked towards the train platform together, her lugging her little suitcase. She asked me the usual: where I was from, what I was doing in Halle... I told her about the volunteering that I was doing, teaching English at a small education centre supporting refugees in Halle, and she told me about how she used to be a teacher. 

We were no short of things to talk about. Christa was travelling all around Germany for the fun of it, she can't sit with her back to the direction of train travel and she offered me some nuts from a little ziplock bag while I offered her some of my raspberries. She showed me on the map where she lived (I have forgotten :(), told me about the places she had visited thus far in her adventure around her homeland, and I showed her the pictures I took when I was in Munich just before I came to Leipzig. We exchanged phone numbers so that I could Whatsapp her some of the pictures she liked. And till today, she still texts me to wish me well on special occasions, Christmas, New Years. Christa types in German, and I google translate her texts and my responses, although sometimes I give up and use English.

We spent half of the day together. After having some free drinks at a VIP area of the train station (Christa is a member and she let me in! cheap thrills.), we visited the Marktplatz, the church that was unfortunately closed for renovation, walked the shopping streets where I looked at some shirts and she very confidently said she preferred the yellow one. We decided on what we should visit by dropping by tourist shops and looking through the photographs on the postcards. I looked to google maps for directions, she asked shopkeepers. She had trouble walking, and we linked arms the whole way, and stopped to sit when she needed to. My favourite pictures I took of her include her taking pictures of postcards (y not save the $$) and her joy after buying a bratwurst sausage to eat:

We were chomping on chewing gum when she led me into a department store, fished out her comb, and took advantage of the mirror of a jewelry display. She also stole a few spritzes of some tester perfume. I just laughed, got a spritz too, and not long after we split paths to go see the things we each wanted to see.

A different kind of sentimentality... not a resistance to split ways but foremost a sort of contentment with having met at all. She filled my heart that day and continues to. She, kind of like Peter whom I met in Switzerland, revealed to me a deep sense of dissatisfaction with what is familiar and known, a courage and light-heartedness that comes with a blatant and sincere undertaking to explore one's own country and to do so at her pace, so fully assured. For her to be able to say; I don't know where I'm going next, when I'm leaving, what I'll see. Just to take the breaks when her legs bother her, to buy a big yummy sausage when she fancies it, and to use a department store's resources at will. Her feet had a heaviness that barely seemed to weigh her down, and when I think of her my heart feels light enough as to sway, as if it still remembers her airy voice and gentle laughter.

I was thinking about her one day, and looked through our pictures. I remember her stopping by a flower shop in the train station and her saying how much she loves flowers. Then, looking at the pictures, I realised and couldn't help but think 

and how much I love flowers too.

Thank you Naila for your prompt and for helping me make a space here for Christa. xx