Saying Goodbye to Germany
14
Sep
2010
My time in Germany has been so wonderful, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I have always dreamed of living and studying or working abroad since I was very young, and my parent’s German friend Ute gave me a German picture word book and taught me the plural of Apfel (apple). That memory is so clear in my mind and is one of the main reasons I decided to take German in high school and continue studying it at university. Although UC wasn’t my first choice, I stuck with it knowing I had this amazing opportunity to co-op in Germany.
I think one of the first things I used to tell people was “in such and such amount of time, I’ll be co-oping in Germany”. I’m sure the majority of my friends can vouch for that. When you are looking forward to something so much, there’s always that little part of you that wonders if it will actually happen. I’m so unbelievably glad it did.
Being in Germany has opened my eyes to so many things, big and small. Traveling is now one of my first loves, meeting new people from all over the world is something I won’t be able to stop doing, and missing the taste of a freshly baked Brezel is something I will never be able to let go.
I think the most important thing I have learned is that seeing the monuments and buildings of old is great, but getting to know people from that country or experiencing the culture of a place is so much more important. You could be in the most beautiful place in the world, but if you are with someone you don’t get along with, your trip will always be marred by that fact. My time in Germany was made great by so many wonderful people, born in so many different countries, from Germany to Canada to the Netherlands to England to France to Spain to Australia. You never know who you’ll meet, and I think that’s the greatest part about wandering the world.
I can’t even begin to be grateful enough to compensate for the amazing six months I’ve just had. I can only hope the rest of my life is full of such wonderful places and people.
Last Weekend in Deutschland
13
Sep
2010
This past weekend was my final one in Germany, but hopefully not the last weekend I will ever spend in this wonderful country. My friend Karo was kind enough to invite me to her home village of Pfedelbach for their annual Beer festival, Bierdorf. Karo picked me up from work around 1:30pm, and we made the short 60km drive north of Stuttgart to her picture perfect village (you can see a vineyard from the windows of her house, if that’s not picture perfect, I don’t know what is!).
Her whole family was home, so I got to meet her Dad, Mom, and brother. We had coffee and I got to know them all a bit better and practice my German. Most of the time I speak in English to Karo because she wants to practice and has such a nice accent in English; however, of course, if we are with mostly German people, we speak in German, which is what we did the majority of the time I was at her house. It is great knowing that I can go visit Karo’s family and be completely fine speaking to all of them in German (or in a bit of the Swabian dialect as I am good at shhh-ing my ch’s and st’s, for example “ist” becomes “isht” although Karo always yells at me for this). Her parents come from a town north of Swabia, so their accents are extremely easy to understand, and Karo also speaks proper Hochdeutsch and takes care to use words I generally know.
After some delicious spaghetti bologonese for dinner, Karo and I met up with her friends at the Bierdorf and started trying the variety of different beers that were there. This fest was unlike any I have been to as it had many different beer stands all serving different types of beer from all over Germany. We also met all of Karo’s brothers friends, who were pretty hilarious. They even said I looked German, but of course this illusion was shattered when I opened my mouth and my American German came out! One of them had studied in England, but they still all talked to me in German (everyone’s second language comes out better with a bit of alcoholic lubrication, trust me! Sorry parents, but I am 21).
However, because everyone’s second language does, in fact, come out easier with a bit of beer in the system, the Germans all started testing out their English on me once they had drunk enough beer. This was pretty funny as they all had varying degrees of skill in English. One of them was not even German, but Russian, and his English was probably the funniest. All his friends also kept telling him that my German was better than his (not true AT ALL). The best one to whom I spoke English was this guy who has an Australian godfather, and spoke English with an AUSTRALIAN accent. He was talking to me in German, but I could tell he was just itching to speak English, so we switched languages and boy was I surprised. It was, in the same moment, the weirdest and best thing I had ever heard. His English was alright, but he still couldn’t remember all the words, and it was just so weird to hear perfect Australian coming out in some partially broken sentences.
I even met another American at the Bierdorf. He was from Wisconsin (instantly identifiable by the accent) and was studying at Cambridge in England with this German guy from Karo’s village. The world really is so incredibly tiny!
During the day Saturday, we visited the tiny but extremely cute town of Schwäbisch Hall, about 10km away from Karo’s village. We drove through the vineyard covered hills and came upon this lovely village. It is on two hills and a small river runs between them, through the middle of the city. We got some ice cream and walked about the cobblestone streets of the medieval city center. A pretty lovely way to spend an afternoon!
Houses along the River in Schwäbisch Hall
Saturday night we went back to Stuttgart but didn’t do much as Karo had to write her thesis the next day, and I needed to start packing. All in all, it was the perfect way to spend my last weekend: drinking beer with a ton of Germans. I can’t believe I am leaving Germany so soon and will really miss all of my wonderful friends I have made here. This has really been the best six months of my life, filled with new friends and places and great experiences. I can’t imagine it to have been any better.
Frauenwochenende in Regensburg!
06
Sep
2010
This past weekend, Charlotte and I headed to Regensburg to stay with my dear friend Kate. Due to a man running about the Göppingen station who needed to be caught (this is what we understood was happening from the several announcements on the train, I am not even joking), our train was a bit late getting into Munich. This, however, worked out perfectly, as we met my friend Christine there and hopped right on another regional train headed for Regensburg.
I introduced Charlotte to Christine and we all chatted pleasantly during our 2 hour journey to Regensburg. The train took us through some beautiful countryside, and luckily was not delayed by a crazy man running about any of the stations we were passing through. We forgot, in our train hopping excitement, to tell Kate about our delay, so when we got to Regensburg Hauptbahnhof (main station), we grabbed some traditional Regensburg food (McDonalds) and set off to find Kate’s apartment sans Katherine.
Christine and I had both been there before, so we figured we could make it there in a cinch, despite Kate’s only directions being “Go straight until you reach the river, then cross the bridge and turn right”. Now if there were no buildings in Regensburg, these would be perfect directions. However, due to people inhabiting the Regensburg area since Roman times, there were quite a few buildings to navigate about before ending up slight downriver from Kate’s bridge. Luckily we are not too directionally challenged, and made it to Kate’s riverside apartment after a few slight detours.
We were greeted by the German version of Kate, fully dressed up in her newly purchased Dirndl, the traditional dress for a woman of Bavaria. Her dirndl is checked teal with a teal apron and corset. It was so cute and wonderfully Kate! She forced us to chow down on our McDonald’s as we were late and needed to head to Dult, Regensburg’s beer festival, to meet up with her coworkers.
After being at Stuttgart’s Canstatter Wasen in the spring, I can’t really be too impressed by any other beer festival. Dult was a baby beer fest in comparison, but still cute and so much fun! Dult had only two small tents, that combined did not equal the size of one tent at Wasen. Despite this, we still had a blast, drinking from our Maß (liter beer mugs) and meeting Kate’s very international coworkers (French Canadian, American, German, etc.). We danced on the bench along with the other Dult-celebrators and had a grand old time!
Regensburger Dult
Then we went to see Regensburg’s nightlife with one of Kate’s friends who knew the owner of the club, and got us in with no cover and free drinks! It was great, and we all danced the night away. The best part is that half of the club were wearing Dirndls and Lederhosen. I’m not even joking. It was pretty amazing to see!
The next day, we went to Kate’s favorite Café, Café Fürstenburg, where they have an amazing breakfast. We chowed down on our gigantic breakfasts before heading out to walk about Regensburg and do a bit of shopping. In between the walking and shopping, we stopped for delicious ice creams at a café right by one of Regensburg’s beautiful churches. Charlotte and I got potentially the largest ice creams in the world, in gigantic glasses covered with deliciousness. We then did some grocery shopping and headed back to relax at Kate’s apartment.
Regensburg - St. Peter's Cathedral and the Danube River
We proceeded to “make a start” on the chips we had bought while watching Always Sunny episodes and laying about. Of course, we ate pretty much all of the chips, and ended up sitting around relaxing for 2 hours or so. When we finally realized we were about to fall asleep, we got up to head to Dult to ride a few rides and eat some deliciously fatty Dolt food. We got an amazing view of Regensburg at night on the ferris wheel and then I got a half meter long Feuerwurst to munch on, while the girls got Käsespätzle and steak sandwiches. Yum!! We bought some tasty Magenbrot (a gingery, licoricey bread in pieces covered with a sugary glaze) before heading back to Kate’s to watch some movies. Christine made us amazing cinnamon rolls since Charlotte had never had or seen one before (apparently England has no cinnamon rolls!).
We went to bed quite early as Christine and Kate had to head to Munich quite early in order for Kate to pick up her mom from the Munich airport. Charlotte and I had an amazing “lie-in” as she would call it, then watched some Glee before Kate and her mom arrived back at the apartment. Seeing Kate’s mom was so nice and really made me even more excited to head back home to see my family. We went to Hemingways for a huge and delicious late lunch before Charlotte and I had an uneventful trip back to Stuttgart.
Overall it was a fantastic weekend, and so nice to see the girls and spend a lot of time with Charlotte since I will be sadly leaving her in a week! Being in Germany has just opened my eyes to so many new cultures and experiences and I will be sad to leave it and all of my new friends. Luckily I now have loads of people to visit once I am a real person with a career and money! Hopefully that will all work out for the best. Until next time!
Farewells, Movies, and the Stuttgarter Weindorf
30
Aug
2010
This past week was an interesting mix of fun and saying goodbye.
When I got back from Rome on Monday, Stefan picked me up at the airport since it was his last night in Germany and his last chance to see me. We filled each other in on our weekends as he drove to my house to drop off my things before heading to my small town of Gerlingen for dinner. Gerlingen has quite the small town feel even though it is located only about 20 minutes from Stuttgart city center.
Picture I took of Gerlingen in the Spring, but you can get the idea!
I had been wanting to try this very cute and German Gasthaus (guest house literally translated, but really a local restaurant with German food), so we found a good table outside to enjoy the nice weather. We sat outside, drinking Radler (beer lemonade mix), and eating our delicious Swabian food (pan-fried Schnitzel and Käsespätzle for Stefan, and Jägerschnitzel for me). We then walked around the town for a bit and talked before saying our final goodbyes.
All in all, it was quite the perfect farewell with beautiful weather and delicious food. Saying goodbye is really part of this whole living-in-Germany experience and working abroad. Of course it is always sad to say goodbye to people you really care about, but in today’s ever technological world, it is practically impossible to be out of touch.
Although Stefan left for Korea on Tuesday, I have have spoken with him via skype, googlechat, or email or facebook message every day since then. The world becomes smaller and smaller each day, and staying in touch is simply a matter of typing out a few lines of an email or setting aside 10 minutes for a videochat.
Last week was also the end of work for two of my Canadian friends (Jamie and Leon). Jamie isn’t leaving Germany until next Friday, but Leon, who sat across from me in my office, has already made his way back to Canada. He kindly told me to call him up if I was ever in Vancouver and he would make me proper Chinese food, “not like the fast food kind we make for white people”. He was born in Hong Kong, so hopefully I will be able to take him up on that offer someday soon. Sure sounds tasty!
All of this saying goodbye is really starting to make me excited to come back home to the states. As I write this, I have only 12 more work days, and I leave for the states in 16 days. It definitely doesn’t feel like I have been in Germany for almost 6 months as the time has flown by. I don’t think it will really hit me how much I’ve done and experienced until I have two feet firmly planted on American soil.
I didn’t go anywhere this past weekend, but I still had a great time just hanging around Stuttgart. On Friday, Charlotte (English), Karo (German), and I headed to Alison’s (Canadian) house to watch a girly movie and eat loads of junk food. Ladies out there, you will be happy to know that this is a world wide phenomenon. Watching movies in German or English with Karo is always fun because we both find out we don’t know words or phrases that are really quite common in the other language. For instance, Karo asked me what “to be dumped (by someone)” meant and I generally ask Karo about 20 questions much simpler than that when we watch a German movie. It’s nice to have a friend that I can ask semi-embarrassing questions about her language (generally because they are so simple!).
Saturday night, I made a delicious dinner with Karo (pasta with homemade sauce!) before some other Bosch interns came over to hang out before venturing to the Stuttgarter Weindorf, Stuttgart’s yearly wine festival. Baden-Württemberg is actually a large producer of wine, so the celebration is pretty big and very similar to a beer festival, albeit a bit less raucous. We sat in a classy tent (well, classier than a beer tent) and sipped wine while discussing Stuttgart’s controversial new train station (Stuttgart 21, look it up!) and other less political and serious topics. Did I mention that this was all in German? Oh yes, I was with 7 Germans and really didn’t have to lapse into English at all!
Stuttgarter Weindorf at Night (picture stolen from the Stuttgart Tourist website)
After some tasty Riesling, we headed to our favorite club, Shocken, to get our dance on! Karo and I danced the night away with our friends and got back to her apartment long after the last U-Bahn. Thankfully, she lives only about a 10 minute walk away, so we got to her apartment in no time and promptly headed straight for bed.
It was a great night that truly made me realize how much I am going to miss Stuttgart, Germany, and the German people in general. Germany is such a great country, and I have absolutely loved every minute of my stay here.
Next weekend, Charlotte and I are headed to visit Kate in Regensburg to attend a proper Bavarian Beer Festival. I will write all about it next week. Bis dann!!
ROMA
26
Aug
2010
This past weekend was Kate’s birthday, so the “Drei Frauen” (me, Kate, and Jane) met up with Herr Vogel (Derek) for a long weekend in Rome. Kate, Jane, and I all got into the airport around the same time and took a taxi to the apartment we had rented for the weekend. Honestly, renting the apartment was probably one of the best decisions we could have made. It was spacious, clean, adorable, and we had our very own “kitchen corner” stocked with loads of breakfast food and snacks. It was also great because we had air conditioning and a private bathroom, two luxuries hostels don’t provide.
Once we arrived at our apartment, our lovely hosts gave us a map and told us everything we needed to see and do in our short time in Rome. Even our taxi driver was giving us tips when he dropped us off and telling us what we have to do in his very Italian sounding English. We settled into our apartment and promptly passed out since it was about 1:00am by the time everything was said and done, and we had all gone to work earlier that day.
The next morning, we were awoken by a knock at the door from our dear Vogel. We all ate some breakfast, got ready, and headed out for the Coliseum. We conveniently bought Roma passes which gave us public transportation and the best part, two free entries to museums including walking past the enormous queue and straight into the Coliseum. That alone was worth buying the Roma pass (if anyone reading this is contemplating going to Rome!).
The Coliseum was impressive. There is no better way to describe it. As you read about all the history, you just can not believe how long that structure has been standing and how many generations and millions of people have walked about it. It is enormous and conveniently located directly across the street from the Metro. We took our time exploring the Coliseum, and then headed to Palantine Hill and the Roman Forum, which were equally impressive sites. The ruins of so many huge and ancient buildings were scattered about, along with statues and ancient benches and fountains.
The Group in the Colosseum
After walking about all of these cool places, we attempted to find a good pizza stand, but failed and settled for a really touristy place. At least we were fed (perhaps not super well, but it happens), and we stopped at the grocery store to buy some food for dinner before heading back to the apartment. We were all beat from the heat and massive amount of walking and promptly took naps for a bit before making a delicious pasta dinner (ok, before watching Vogel make us a delicious dinner). We ate then prepared to celebrate Kate’s birthday and headed back to the Coliseum to go on a pub crawl that my friends had recommended.
The Pub Crawl took us to three really fun bars, and Kate got in for free because it was her birthday. We ended up at this really cool club right on the Tiber River and conveniently about 4 blocks from our apartment. We danced the night away and I think Kate had a pretty great 22nd birthday celebration with us and the new people we met on the Pub Crawl.
The next day we were planning on going to the Vatican, and because everything I had read said to go around 1:00pm, we decided to sleep in. This was a great decision because as we walked up to St. Peter’s Basilica (about a 10 minute walk from our apartment), we saw that there was practically no line, and walked right in.
The Basilica was incredible. It was intensely ornate, but not overdone. Someone they managed to balance it perfectly with all the marble, gold inlay, and beautiful masterpieces everywhere. Kate and I were staring at this amazing picture that we thought was a painting, but upon closer inspection, we realized it was actually a mosaic that was so fine that it looked like a painting. It was made in the early 15th century which made the mosaics that much more impressive. The oldest part of the basilica is St. Peter’s grave, which dates back to around 100 A.D. and there has been some sort of church on the sight since the 4th century. We also saw the catacombs beneath the Basilica which we interesting in their own right. Many popes have been interred here because who wouldn’t want their body close to the apostle Peter’s?
We opted to skip out on walking to the top of the Basilica (500 steps in 90° heat and humidity? No thank you!), and headed to the Vatican Museums. I think this was my favorite part of Rome. The Museums were enormous and every room was better and more impressive than the last. Not only was there priceless artwork and artifacts around every corner and in every nook and cranny, but every room was more splendidly decorated than the last. I think half the time we spent there, we were leaning our heads back to stare at each elaborately decorated ceiling or just admiring the details on every wall, on every marbled floor or staircase. You could literally spend days just staring at everything.
The Ceiling in the Hall of Maps at the Vatican Museums
Our Vatican experience was amazing, and quite tiring, so we picked up some more things at the store and heading back to our air conditioned apartment. I took over for Vogel and made dinner for everyone, which we enjoyed before heading back out to take our Night Walking Tour, recommended to us by our gracious host Ivan. He mapped out our walk which was absolutely perfect. We saw all the major sites lit up beautifully at night. Our walk took us through the Vatican and past the Vatican Castle. We then walked across the Tiber river to a really cool, narrow street-filled part of town with interesting shops, restaurants, and gelaterios at every turn. We walked through several Piazzas, which were all very lively and filled with street performers, artists, and Romans relaxing near fountains.
The Pantheon was my favorite part of the walk, due to its shear impressiveness. It was built in 67BC and is still the unreinforced concrete dome ever built. No one is quite sure how it is still standing as the dome has a huge oculus or open in the middle of it with no keystone supporting the entire structure, and no one can test the concrete for fear of damaging the structure. Overall, quite impressive.
From the Pantheon, we made our way through some more Piazzas filled with beautiful fountains, to the ultimate Roman fountain, the Trevi Fountain. This was built in the 1700s and is adorned with statues of Neptune and gigantic horses representing the moods of the sea. We all threw coins in to ensure that we would one day return to Rome before heading to the Spanish Steps, where we just hung out and enjoyed the view before hopping on the metro and going back to our apartment.
Kate and I throwing our coins into the Trevi Fountain
Vogel unfortunately left early Sunday morning, so the girls headed out to Piazza del Popolo, the geographical heart of Rome. We stopped at this amazing bakery on the way and grabbed some bread adorned with roasted tomatoes, onion, and olives and a canola or two for good measure. We ate our lunch on the Pincian Hill and then strolled through the Borghese gardens, pausing to sit with our feet in a fountain for several hours to beat the extremely hot weather. Luckily all the fountains in Rome are full of ice cold water sourced from the surrounding mountain springs and there are loads of drinking water fountains all over the city, so you can never be without delicious, ice cold water.
Jane had to leave Sunday night, so we headed back to the apartment after the park so she could get ready and finish packing her things. We all headed to the train station to figure out how to get back to the airport and found the train that takes you directly there. Kate and I bid Jane farewell and went back to the Spagna Plaza (Spanish steps and near the Trevi fountain) to find a cute place to eat. However, we were too impatient and cheap to search for anything so we ended up eating at McDonalds near the Spanish Steps. Hey, there is nothing wrong with a little American fast food comfort! We then went and hung out at the Trevi fountain for a while before calling it a night and heading back to the apartment.
The next day we had flights at around 2:00pm, so we left our apartment, got some lunch at the train station and walked around the shops before heading to the airport and getting home. The whole trip was just great and a perfect mixture of sightseeing and catching up with friends. I probably won’t get to see Derek and Jane again before we go home, so it was good to see them in Europe one last time before we will all reunite in the states.
Paris: Part Deux
16
Aug
2010
This past weekend, I returned to the French capital to spend my last weekend with Stefan before he heads to Korea. You can’t really beat staying in Paris to say farewell. It was also great to see more of Paris since I didn’t have the time to see everything when I visited my Aunt there.
We flew to Paris on Thursday with AirFrance, and it was definitely nice to fly with a real airline, and not RyanAir. You can check a bag! You get a snack and a drink for free! You have an assigned seat! I had forgotten about the wonders of non-budget air travel, even though we had purchased our tickets for this particular flight for quite a budget friendly price.
After a long journey with the French version of the S-Bahn (the RER, a faster train) and several Metro changes, we arrived at our budget hotel, conveniently located…in the middle of nowhere in Paris! All was well though as our room was clean, bright, and brand new, quite a change from staying in hostels that may have had character but were lacking in pretty much every other category. We even had a full bathroom in a room, quite a treat in Paris.
We settled in and headed out to find Stefan’s favorite French cuisine, the street vendor French hot dog. Ahh this delicacy was a sight for this American’s sore eyes, until I saw what the French were doing to my homeland’s classic fast food. A baguette?? Cheese dumped liberally over two not-quite-hot-dog-like sausages? Mayonnaise on top of my beloved hot dog?? What had they done?? The answer is, they had created something insanely delicious that was to consume quite happily two more times on our trip. New goal: make a French hot dog in the convenience of my own home.
As we ate our hot dogs, we sat by the Seine and watched the boat loads of tourists float on by. Then we began to notice that all of the Asian tourists were looking somewhere in particular: right at us! Apparently, they had found us, “French” people in their natural environment (eating fast food along the banks of the river), and what did this merit? Why loads of picture taking of course! Facebook must have been flooded with pictures of Stefan and I the next day as we proceeded to laugh and wave and in general gesture wildly at all the river boats full of Asian tourists who thought it was glorious to have two such wonderful subjects to take pictures of. Too bad we were just an American and a German impersonating what they were all searching for: the French in their natural environment.
Once we had our egos sufficiently boosted by the hordes of tourists, we headed to relax at the Eiffel Tower for a bit. I finally got to see the tower “sparkle” for five full minutes to which loads of people began clapping and cheering until they realized that it did indeed sparkle for five full minutes and therefore clapping was not necessary for the entirety of that time.
Friday, we journeyed to Sacre Coeur, a gorgeous cathedral on top of the hill in Paris’s Montmatre district. It was beautiful. We grabbed a hot dog at the bottom of the hill and sat on a wall leading up to the cathedral as we ate.
Now, a lot of my fellow ICP students have blogged about how horrible they thought Paris was and how it smells of urine and how so many people are trying to get money from you through trickery and trying to act pathetic. And yes, I will agree that randomly, you could smell a slight stench (prompting Stefan to say, “Paris is beautiful, but Germany is light years ahead smell-wise.” True story.). However, was this stench that much different from the lingering smell of sewage that sometimes plagues various areas of the campus of the University of Cincinnati? No. And yes, at Sacre Coeur, there were loads of people trying to tie bracelets on to you and then charging you 5€ for your misfortune or trying to hand you a rose and then not taking it back, but insisting that you pay for it. However, if you are smart and have a good sense of humor, then encountering these sorts can be hilarious! Stefan and I had a grand ole’ time avoiding these guys running at us and trying to tie pieces of string around our wrists. It was like a challenge avoiding them as you walked up the hill!
It was also a bit crazy that they would get so upset with you when you knew what they were trying to do. Some of them would get quite angry, especially when I was yelling at them to go away. I think normally, they are not yelled at by girls, so that especially angered them. However, what exactly are they going to do to you? They can’t stab you in front of Sacre Coeur! It was particularly funny when they would challenge Stefan, who is 6’4” and towering over them. Unfortunately, there were many people, usually younger children who didn’t know better and whose parents weren’t watching them, that got swindled by these men. I guess they probably aren’t really doing anything illegal (although sometimes it could potentially be considered minor assault, especially when I saw one of them push a girl about my age, just terrible), but the Parisian police should really try to clean the area up a bit.
Despite all of this, I wouldn’t say these people marred or in anyway deterred the great experience I had at Sacre Coeur or the Eiffel Tower. Anyways, once Stefan and I had dodged all the swindlers, we went inside Sacre Coeur which is absolutely beautiful. I could have stayed for hours just staring at the insane amount of beautiful detail in every corner of that building. Plus the atmosphere is so calmly and wonderful. Someone has been praying in that church for over 125 years, which is just lovely to think about.
After Sacre Coeur, we went back to the Eiffel Tower to hang out and read our books for a bit. We went to a grocery store to pick up some picnic stuff and returned to the Champ de Mars (field in front of the Eiffel Tower) to continue relaxing and watch the tower sparkle again at night before returning back to our hotel.
Saturday, we woke up early to go to Versailles, but after a bunch of train confusion due to construction, we decided it was just better to head to the Louvre to make sure I was able to see that iconic museum. Luckily we are both under 26 and EU members (thank you Germany student visa!), so we got into the museum for free! We walked around and saw some amazing statues, a huge castle in the basement (literally, the walls of a castle are in the basement), and of course, really cool paintings. We walked around for a while before heading to see the Venus de Milo (it looks the same as every replica I have ever seen, imagine that!) and the big to-do, the Mona Lisa. I already knew the Mona Lisa was tiny, but it was made even smaller by being housed in this enormous hall and hanging on a wall all by her lonesome! We couldn’t even get close to it do to the hordes of people surrounding the painting, so we called it a day and head out of the museum.
The Louvre was nice, but I think I enjoyed the Met in New York city far more. It was also odd that all of the signs were only in French. Yes, it is a French museum in France, but considering the amount of tourists that go there, you would think the signs would at least be in English as well. Every museum I have been to in Germany, no matter how small, has English translations next to every sign. Like it or not, English is the universal language of communication, and as proud as the French are, maybe they should get with the times a bit and realize that not everyone speaks French.
Once we left the Louvre, we went to an area recommended by Lonely Planet for its reasonable food prices and found a cute Brasserie to hang out in for a while since it had started raining and getting super cold. The staff at the Brasserie was hilarious and playing some pretty hip tunes (Girl Talk! Marvin Gaye!). We ate some delicious food and watched a ton of people walk by. The whole thing was quite French since they love to stare at the street and people watch.
Since it was still raining, we headed back to the hotel for a nap, then spent our last night at the Eiffel Tower (again, yes it is nice enough to go there every night!). Overall, the trip was really great, and it was really nice to spend some quality time with Stefan before he heads off to Grad school in Korea.
Rainy Days in Prague
09
Aug
2010
This past weekend, I headed to Prague with Charlotte and Kenny and met Kate and her friend Emily there. Friday morning, Charlotte, Kenny, and I met bright and early at Hauptbahnhof to catch our first connection towards Prague. Bright and early in this case is literal, as our train left at 6:10am. Our IC train arrived in Nüremberg around 9:00am and we caught a bus (or coach as British Charlotte calls it) to Prague, arriving by 1:30pm. It was a pretty relaxing journey since we just slept most of the time.
Finding our way out of the train station and to the hostel was an adventure. We first realized that we had no map and didn’t want to pay for the trams, so we bought a 50 crown (Czech money aka czk) map (which translates to a 2€ map) and set off. Basically we used these brown signs marking historical sights to navigate our way to the hostel. Charlotte and I were in the lead as Kenny followed and hoped for the best. We found the hostel, checked in and decided to wait for Kate and Emily until we set off exploring.
Kate’s co-worker and his wife are from Prague, so they had given her excellent insider information. Once Kate and Emily arrived, we set off in search of authentic Czech food at a local restaurant. After a bit of searching, some slight adventuring (a better term for “getting lost”), and a few turn arounds, we found the restaurant and sampled some delicious Czech cuisine. It is very, very similar to German food and was quite tasty. Our waitress spoke really good English, and the whole experience was made more interesting by the arrival of a group of about 35 Asian tourists. Apparently they knew about our secret place as well!!
After dinner, we went out for a few drinks at a couple little bars before heading back to get some rest before a large day of walking. Saturday started out with nice weather, but soon we were doused with rain that lasted the entire day. Lucky for us, Prague is also beautiful in rain, so we took a walking tour anyways and learned a bit of the history of the city and the effects of communism on the country. It was all extremely interesting as I have never visited a country that had been ruled by communism or met people who had been previously subjugated under that sort of regime. The scariest part is that they were only liberated from communism about 15 years ago.
Our walking tour was still really great, despite the rain, and we met some adorable British boys fresh out of “school” (high school to Americans) who were on their “Gap Year” which basically means they are putzing about and traveling before they start University. The rain had really picked up at the end of the tour, so we went to a Café with the Brit boys and waited out the rain for a bit while sipping some delicious hot chocolate.
After a while, we got bored and decided to go to Prague castle despite the rain. We met up with Jamie (Canadian boy who was visiting his family’s former hockey billet who lives in Prague) on the Charles Bridge and headed up the castle. Walking up a huge hill in pouring rain was not very fun, but we made the best of it, and walked about the inside portions of the castle a bit to avoid the rain. The castle was enormous and is the largest Medieval castle in all of Europe. We saw some nice, rainy views of the city, before we grabbed tea and dinner at a small restaurant near the castle.
Saturday night was a blast. We had met a really nice American girl, Maria, the night before who came out with us again as well as an Australian guy from the next room over. We sipped super cheap cocktails (only 4€ or 100czk) at a Thai-themed bar for a few hours while chatting. Then Charlotte, Kate, and I decided we were getting too tired and should have a red bull. This decision led to all of us becoming extremely hyper and antsy. Kenny and Maria were tired, so they headed back to the hostel, while Kate, Charlotte, the Australian (Michael), and I went to a trendy bar/club that was fairly close to the Old Town Square of Prague.
This place was a blast! We had a drink upstairs before exploring the club which was in the basement. Due to the red bull-induced hyperness, Charlotte, Kate and I danced wildly while doing the “Jamie dance” (Shaking your finger in a “No” fashion while bouncing around) to any of the weird guys who kept trying to dance with us. Charlotte was literally turning the guys around and pointing to random places, telling the guy to find girls over there. It was hilarious. We were also “ghosting” people which involves making ghost noises and waving your arms in a ghost-like fashion around an unsuspecting person before they notice. It sounds kind of weird, but is actually HILARIOUS. All of this interesting behavior caused the Australian guy to dub us “the Craziest girls he’s ever met”. Quite an impressive title from an Australian.
The Red Bull wore off around 3:30am, so we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep. The next day we walked around for a bit and ended up getting our train tickets changed to an earlier time, putting us back in Stuttgart at around 9:30pm.
Overall Prague was a great trip and a beautiful city, despite the rain. It is ridiculously cheap and very touristy, but since we met such fun people, we had a blast. Although famous for its Pub Crawls, I think not participating in one and not going to the largest club in Eastern Europe was a much better option since we ended up having an amazing time.
Also final note, Kenny has told me that I keep saying weird British things due to hanging out with Charlotte and Beth too much and that my beautiful Midwestern American accent has been tarnished! Hopefully this comes back once I am back in the good ole’ US of A. I think I may have to continue to pepper my vocabulary with delightful phrases such as “True lad” (synonymous with the American “Bro”), “have a laugh”, “jokes”, and “knackered” (tired). Fortunately, Charlotte has also picked up American slang such as “awesome”, “take a chill pill”, and other delightful things that sound a bit silly with her Northern England accent.
Farewell to Bethany and Hello to Kenny!
02
Aug
2010
This weekend was a combination of sadness and happiness as my English friend Beth headed back to the Green and Pleasant Land, but my Cincinnati friend Kenny arrived in Stuttgart for his final week of European traveling.
For Beth’s final evening, we all went out and enjoyed the Stuttgart nightlife to send Beth off pleasantly. Bethany has been living in Stuttgart for one year, working at Bosch and practicing her German. She is actually studying German, so her German is excellent (and a bit British sounding!). It was great getting to know her, and having an English speaking girlfriend was really nice. I’m sure we will stay in touch for a long time, and I may even meet up with her in September to go camping with her in Ireland. We are also going to try to meet up next summer in Vancouver in order to visit our Canadian pal Jamie.
Saturday was a pretty relaxed day as I just got lunch with Stefan before heading to the airport to pick up Kenny. His plane was a bit late, but once he finally got out of baggage claim, we had a joyous reunion. Other than Kate and Jane, Kenny is the first really close friend I have seen since being in Europe. We had a nice 45 minute train journey back to my house to catch up and to hear about each others travels. Kenny has definitely out-traveled me, reaching 9 countries in only 2 months. Right now, my country count is only at 4!
Instead of doing something really German (aka going to the Biergarten), we met up with my friends and saw Inception at the English speaking theater. It was a crazy movie that I am pretty sure I would not have understood had I seen it in German. Even Stefan watched the movie in German on Sunday just to check to make sure he had understood everything! Our brains were all blown, so we all just headed home instead of grabbing a drink after the movie, like we had originally planned. Kenny was also exhausted from non-stop traveling and being in Rome for the past four days.
Sunday morning, we slept in for a bit before heading to my small town of Gerlingen to eat a ton of baked goods for breakfast-lunch. Kenny, an extremely indecisive person, kept pointing at random things before deciding he really wanted something else. In a German bakery, you can’t really just tell them to put things back! However, it all turned out ok, and we had a bunch of delicious things for breakfast.
We then hopped on the train and headed to the Wilhelma Zoo, supposedly one of Germany’s nicest zoos. It was beautiful weather, and the zoo was beautifully landscaped. I wish we had been with a smaller group though (5 people joined Kenny and I) as I like to enjoy the zoo, stop and look at all the animals, and read their signs (aka the point of actually going to a zoo and not a park.). However, the others did not feel this way, so we whipped around the zoo.
Despite our fast-paced zoo adventure, we did learn some interesting German names for animals. For example, a sloth is a Faultier which directly translates to “Lazy animal”. Other animals include similarly sensible names such as the Tank nose horn for Indian rhinoceros (Panzernashorn) or River horse for Hippopotamus (Flusspferd). The Germans do love to call something exactly what could be described as!
After the zoo, Kenny and I went to Schlossgarten to see a bit of the city center and nap before heading to the Calwer Eck Bräuhaus for a traditional Swabian dinner. The food was delicious and the perfect way to end our Sunday. We headed home to watch a movie before heading to bed since I had to work on Monday. Monday night, we were planning on going to the Karlshöhe Biergarten which has an excellent view of Stuttgart; however, due to the excessive amount of rain that keeps taking place, we will probably go to Zum Paulaner, another traditional German beer hall. Jamie’s parents are in town, so it will be great to meet them and also get a little bit of adult interaction with adults other than our supervisors!
A Lovely Weekend Touring the Schwäbische Alb
26
Jul
2010
Over the past weekend, I had a great time with Stefan touring the countryside where he grew up in the German Bundesland or state of Baden-Württemberg. The landscape is truly beautiful and spotted with castles and ruins and a multitude of interesting sites to explore. On Friday, Stefan’s extremely nice father drove to Stuttgart (about a 50 minute drive) to pick us up and take us back to his house. We chatted with his parents for a bit and heard all about their holidays bike riding in Bavaria.
After a much needed sleeping-in on Saturday, we had a nice lunch with his parents while hoping the weather improved since it was about 60° F and raining. Stefan told me he had a surprise for me that would be much better with good weather, but regardless of the rain, we headed out for a drive through the countryside, with me marveling at the hills and how intensely green everything was.
A fifteen minute drive later, we arrived in the tiny town of Marbach, home of the Head Baden-Württemberg Stud Farm. Once we arrived, the rain clouds lifted for a bit while we walked around, said hello to all the gorgeous horses (ranging from huge Hannovarians to Arabians to the little Black Forest horses with huge manes), and watched the foals horsing around in the fields (Stefan was particularly happy to learn that yes, horsing is actually a real word used rather frequently).
Once I had geeked out about all the cool horses for an hour and a half or so, Stefan and I hopped back in the car and drove to the Lichtenstein Schloss, Baden-Württemberg’s very own fairytale castle. The site has had some sort of castle on it since the early 1200s, but the current castle was built there in 1840 by the Dukes of Urach, who still own the castle, but allow visitors. The views from this castle are stupendous as it sits on an enormous crag overlooking the entire valley. We got our pictures taken together by some lady who must have been a photographer (she was ordering us around where to stand and talking about light and such), took in the view for a while, and headed back to the car in order to make our way to the goal for the day, the city of Tübingen.
My grandparents’ friend had told me that Tübingen is the most beautiful city in all of Germany, and I must say, she had her points. Tübingen is home to one of Germany’s oldest universities, founded in 1477, and is a lovely university-oriented town situated on the Neckar River which runs through the heart of Baden-Württemberg. We ate dinner at a local Döner place (Turkish kebap), walked through the university, and had a drink at local bar while people watching. It was definitely a cute town that would be more fun to explore earlier in the day when the shops are still open. We even ran into one of Stefan’s old friends who chatted with us for a bit before heading on his way. He didn’t even notice that I wasn’t German (ok, well I really only said hello to him and such, so not that much of an achievement!). All in all, it was a fantastic day filled with the beauty of Baden-Württemberg and Swabia.
Sunday was a beautiful day. A bit chilly, but very sunny: the perfect combination for hiking up to the top of a hill to see a massive castle complex. Stefan and I decided to go see the Hohenzollern Castle, which lies about 30 miles southwest of Stuttgart. The castle is, frankly, pretty darn impressive. Driving up to it, it seems as if the hilltop just suddenly turns to castle as the entire top of this large hill is consumed by man-made walls and turrets. Technically, the castle is called a “Burg” in German, meaning it is a military structure, but personally, I think they may have mixed up the name a bit, as this castle was just as beautiful as it was perilously perched above the valley below it.
Burg Hohenzollern
Some sort of fortified structure has been at the site since the early 11th century, but after being destroyed and falling into disrepair, only the chapel from the medieval castle still stands. The new castle was built as a monument to the Hohenzollern Dynasty and only had one official set of residents in 1945, almost 100 years after it was built. The castle now is still privately owned, but used for all sorts of things, such as the hair dresser fashion show that was being put on when we arrived (super bizarre hearing Michael Jackson music when you walk to the top of a castle, trust me).
After a strenuous walk up a super steep hill, Stefan and I went on a short tour of the beautifully decorated interior and saw the extraordinary view through the old wavy glass windows. We then visited the museum and saw the crown jewels of the House of Hohenzollern, including a scepter and crown. We strolled about the whole of the castle, drinking in the view and taking some pictures of the castle exterior before realizing how late it was getting and heading back to his parents house so his dad could drive us back to Stuttgart.
It was definitely a great weekend exploring Baden-Württemberg with Stefan, and also nice to see him as he had been gone the whole week for his job which is taking care of disabled children. That week, they had taken a class trip to the Schwäbische Alb (yes, to some of the places Stefan and I went, were you wondering where he got the ideas?), so he was along as a driver and caretaker for the kids.
This upcoming weekend should be just as nice as my good friend Kenny is coming to Stuttgart to visit and then going to Prague with me the following weekend!!
Munich and the Dachau Concentration Camp
20
Jul
2010
This past weekend, I visited Munich again with some of my friends from Stuttgart. We purchased Schönes Wochenende (Beautiful Weekend, the Germans are always literal) train tickets and made it to Munich and back for about 20€ each (a bargain, trust me!). Early Saturday morning, we caught a regional train to Ulm for our connection to Munich (München auf Deutsch). It was a rather interesting experience as the Ulm train was packed and the boys of our group ended up standing in the aisles for about an hour until we got to Augsburg and another section was added to our train.
Jamie and I at the base of a Monument in Munich
Other than that minor hiccup, we happily arrived in Munich, checked into our hotel, and headed to the Hofbräuhaus to have a delicious traditional Bavarian lunch. We then walked around for a bit and lounged in the park before heading back to our hotel to get ready for the night. Stefan’s friend Markus met up with us (similar to my last Munich experience) and showed us around the city, taking us to some fun bars and this crazy club with three different enormous rooms playing three different kinds of music. I danced the night away with my English friend Charlotte, whose dancing style I can only describe as “bouncy”.
The next morning, we headed back to city center for some lunch before Stefan and I headed off to see the Concentration Camp at Dachau. (Auf Deutsch, Konzentrationslager Dachau oder KZ Dachau). Obviously, this was not going to be a happy trip, but Stefan and I had talked about it extensively, and he really felt it was something I needed to see before I left Germany in order to fully understand the heinousness of the war.
Dachau is about a 10 minute regional train ride outside of Munich and is set in the picturesque Bavarian countryside. This is where the deception begins. The site begins within the city limits, surrounded by old trees and fields. If you didn’t know any better, you might think you were just walking into a nice nature preserve. During the war, the train ran directly to the site, and you can still the remnants of the tracks and the road the prisoners were marched along.
Gate Leading into the Dachau Concentration Camp, reading "Work Makes you Free" in German
There is no way to properly express how horrific this place is. Everything is preserved, including the building where they stored hundreds of bodies waiting to be burned in the four crematories that are still present. Another building houses the other crematories that had to be added in order to deal with the high death rate. People aren’t lying when they say the death lingers in the air at Dachau. I think it must be impossible to feel normal when you walk through the gassing chambers that may or may not have been used or through the barracks that were filled six times their original capacity or through the grounds where countless were abused and killed for no reason.
The shear size of the camp is overwhelming in itself. Originally, it was built to hold 6,000 people, but at the height of the war, this didn’t matter, and the camp was filled with terrified innocent people. Now only two barracks remain, but the foundations of all the others are still there, in perfect rows. There were over 30 of these massive buildings which were 100 meters long and 10 meters wide.
After walking about the camp, Stefan and I went into the museum where we saw a documentary and walked through the exhibits with original photographs of the camp as it was. The Nazis documented practically every atrocity they committed there with no shame. The pictures seem to demonstrate how proud they were that their regime of total command was functioning so well within the camp. Other photographs taken by the American liberators show how the outsiders came to find the wretched place and the sympathy they felt for its victims. Our audio guides gave us recorded accounts from the survivors and liberators in their original languages that made the whole experience that much realer. The accounts from the actual people that survived or liberated the place are astonishing, and it is so difficult to think that real people were doing these things to other real people.
I don’t think I ever want to go back to Dachau, but it was certainly an experience I think everyone should have in order to truly understand how terrible this war was and why the German people still feel so responsible. It is certainly not something to joke about or to be taken lightly (at least in my opinion, but maybe not in the opinion of the many other tourists there, snapping pictures and wrangling their seven year old children that for some reason, they felt were appropriate to bring along). My German friends have all said things to be about how they feel guilty even though they weren’t even alive when it happened, and I can now better understand why.
This camp was built only 70 years ago, less than a lifetime, and in a place deemed to be part of the civilized world. Once you’ve witnessed it for yourself, only then can you really start to understand the atrocity and the full impact that the Third Reich had on Germany and the rest of the world.
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