I hear Mozart…

Tomorrow morning we leave for Salzburg! I was in this city for exactly one day a little over a year ago, and I am still blown away by how beautiful it is. I can’t believe I will actually be living and studying there for nine months! It really hasn’t sunken in yet. I can’t wait to REALLY get to know the city and see all the things it has to offer outside of “The Sound of Music” and Mozart. Although, I really can’t say anything bad about Mozart because he is fantastic. I’m excited for the next phase of this journey to begin and to get back into the routine of school. I’ve missed the intellectual stimulation of having novels to read, class discussions and homework every night. Well, I’m always reading, but it’s nice to read for more than just pleasure sometimes. Anyway, time to finish packing and get to sleep. Stay tuned for photos of the lovely city that is Salzburg.

A Relaxing Day in Munich

On Wednesday, Mike and I took a day trip to Munich.  Munich was the first city in Germany we spent time in; last summer we were there for about six weeks with a group of students from UC.  Six weeks is a good amount of time to get to know a place.  I remember the first two weeks being overwhelming; we didn’t know where anything was, the transportation system was confusing and we felt uneasy trying to get anywhere on our own.  We were unfamiliar with the proper etiquette when dining at a restaurant.  But after two weeks, we started figuring things out.  We found the places where we could get what we needed, the places we liked to go to relax and have fun; we figured out the transportation system, how to act so that we blended in with the people who lived there and didn’t stand out as tourists in unfamiliar territory.  We began to see that although we were in a foreign place, we could find our place in it and become part of it, rather than remaining outsiders who were merely there to see the sights and observe the culture from the outside.  Being there began to feel normal…more like home.

Being back in Munich, I felt truly comfortable for the first time since we got here.  I could remember where everything was and how to get there.  It was all very nostalgic; walking the sidewalks from the U-Bahn station to the Pension am Kaiserplatz were we stayed, walking the paths of the Englischer Garden and sitting beside the water at our favorite beer garden there, The Seehaus; seeing all cafés we had gone to on Leopoldstraße, and getting groceries at the little supermarket in our neighborhood.  It was almost as though we had never left and we still going about our little routine one year later.

It was a beautiful day– in the low 70s, sunny, a light breeze.  When we arrived we stopped at Marienplatz, the city center, and got lunch at The Glockenspiel Café, a place our professor took us to last year.

Marienplatz

After lunch, we got on the U-Bahn and went to the Münchner Freiheit stop, in neighborhood we stayed in last year.  When we were here last summer, this U-Bahn station was under construction.  We were surprised to find it finished; it looked so different from what we remembered.

Münchner Freiheit U-Bahn Station

Exiting the station onto Leopoldstraße, a busy street lined with cafés and shops, we walked a few blocks away to stop by the Pension am Kaiserplatz.  It was such a nice little hotel, and the area around it is really pretty.

Pension am Kaiserplatz

Entrance to the Pension, always lined with bicycles.

We used to sit on those steps nearly every night, drinking a beer and watching people go by.  After the Pension, our next stop was Rewe, the grocery store we always went to only a few blocks away.  We bought a few beers, Augustiner, and our favorite snack, Haribo Gummies.  We took our purchases and went to the Englischer Garden, where we found a park bench and just sat, enjoying the beautiful sights and weather.

When we finished our beer we walked a bit and then went to the Seehaus, a beautiful beer garden in the park right next to the lake.

Seehaus from across the lake

We got a giant pretzel and a few beers and did some more sitting and relaxing.

After hanging out here for a while, we took another walk through the park, stopping at another area where we spent a lot of time last year.  It’s called the Eisbach, after the stream that runs through it.  Here you’ll find people picnicking, playing Fußball, sun bathing, and when it’s a little warmer out, swimming in the stream.

We eventually made our way out of the park and back to Leopoldstraße, where we had coffee.  It was then time to head back to the Hauptbahnhof to catch our train back to Pocking.  It was a great day…great to be back in Munich and to visit all our favorite spots.  Perhaps because it was where I first experienced Germany, or because I was able to be here long enough for it to feel like home, I will always love Munich the most out of all the cities in Germany I’ve been to.  I wish we could have stayed a few days, but I’m sure we will come back a few more times this year.

We now have exactly one week until we get to Salzburg and we start what we really came here do to: school.  I’m ready for classes to begin and to have something to work on everyday.  It’s been so exciting traveling around this past month, but now I’m just ready for some stability…ready to have my own space, my own routine, and to just be in one place for a while.

Thank You + Weimar and Hamburg

I want to say thank you to everyone for all the wonderful complements on the blog.  I’m so glad that you are enjoying the writing and photos, and that I’m able to convey our experience to you; the kind words really mean so much to me!   I’m really having a lot of fun writing it.  I also want to thank everyone for all the Happy Birthdays.  It’s sad not being able to spend this day with everyone I love, but hearing from you all makes me very happy.  Besides missing everyone, I had a very nice birthday.  It was quiet and relaxing.  Had some delicious coffee at a café in town, did some reading, had a great dinner later that evening, and Mike and Toan made me this amazing cake!

Now that I”ve got that out of the way,  I have more stuff to share with you guys!  While we were in Berlin, we took a few day trips to the nearby cities of Weimar and Hamburg and I have many photos to share from those cities.

Weimar is a very pretty town with a rich history in the arts.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Fredrich Schiller lived here; two very famous German writers.  Here they are!

^^Goethe                                                     Schiller^^

Don’t they look just dashing?  They were both, and still are, renowned writers.  Goethe is often referred to as the Shakespeare of Germany.  The composer Schubert set several of Goethe’s poems to music, and a German baritone singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recorded them; they are great and I absolutely love them.  Even if you don’t know any German, the music and Dieskaus’s voice are absolutely beautiful and can be appreciated by anyone.

Besides being home to great writers, Weimar also has great bratwurst.  Every part of Germany has their own version of bratwurst that can only be found in that area.  Like Berlin claims currywurst as their own, Weimar lays claim to Thüringer wurst.  It’s a long wurst, kind of like a foot-long hotdog, served in a very small bun.

We were served these delicious wursts at a small stand in the town square ^^^ by a Metzgermeister (butcher master), who has apparently been handing out these wursts for a very long time…our professor said this same man was here when he lived in Weimar over ten years ago!

After the wursts, Mike and I decided we needed some dessert.  So we stopped at this little café for coffee and Apfelstrudel.

As I’m sure you can tell, we’ve had a very difficult time getting used to all this German food.  It just not the same as those good ol’ McDonald’s burgers back home.  Right.

After forcing all this terrible food down our throats, we went to the Bauhaus Museum.

Bauhaus was a school in Germany that began in 1919 that focused on design, fine arts and crafts.  The Bauhaus style was, and still is, influential in all areas of design.  This museum was pretty cool.  It was small, only one room, but the collection (cool furniture, drawings, and housewares) was interesting to see.

A few days after Weimar we went to Hamburg, a port city in northern Germany.  We went on a boat tour of the harbor and shipping yards.

The boat tour was cool, cold and windy, but cool.  We also went down to this tunnel that goes beneath the harbor, that both people and vehicles can use to cross to the other side.  I can’t remember how many miles it is, but it is very, very long.

They use these GIANT elevators to bring vehicles down.

Pretty crazy stuff.  After checking out the tunnel, we were taken around the Reeperbahn District, Hamburg’s famous red light district.  The guys in the group walked down one of the side streets where the, uh, “merchandise” is displayed in the windows.  The ladies in the group were not allowed to walk down this street because apparently the ladies becomes quite angry when there are other women around.  I can’t say I’m disappointed I didn’t get to take part in this.

Naturally, after visiting a red light district you go to a church, right?  We went to St. Michaelis church, which was very beautiful. We even went up inside steeple where we got a great view of the city, despite the fact that a small hurricane started the moment we got up there.

Before leaving, we stopped by the city square and saw city hall, and there was a cool chinese market set up out front.

After having our first taste of Germany in the south last summer, it was great to spend some time in the north and see what different parts of the country are like.  It’s definitely a whole different world up north; it’s a little colder, the people don’t seem quite as friendly, and the beer is definitely not as good!  Southern Germany seems to be a little like the southern United States; life moves a little slower there and is just more easy going in general.  I like that and southern Germany will always be my favorite part of the country for this very reason.

And of course, because we are back in our favorite part of the country, Mike and I visited our favorite city yesterday, Munich.  I’ll have pictures up tomorrow, hopefully.  Stay posted!

A look at Berlin

While I meant to put up a post every few days while in Berlin, daily 6 AM wake-up calls, all day walking tours of the city, late night beer swilling, and an unreliable Wi-Fi connection prevented me from doing so.  So, now that we are back at Toan’s where the Wi-Fi never falters, I present to you…Berlin.

Because I’ve posted nearly all the photos I took on Facebook and many of you might have seen them all already, I will only put up some of the more interesting stuff here.

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I hope you all enjoy the photos.  There were so many, it was hard to choose what to include and what not to.  But you can see all the rest on Facebook if you’d like.

I’ve thought a lot about what I want to say about Berlin and I’m finding it very difficult to sum up what this city is like.  On our first guided tour with the professor who led this trip, he said that Berlin is a city that is constantly looking into the future and is not looking to recreate or preserve its past.  He also said that  it’s a city filled with ghosts; spaces where things of significance once stood where now only a void remains.  I think this is largely true, and perhaps in some cases the past is not actively preserved, but traces of the past are everywhere…in the graffiti covering so many walls, the pieces of the wall that still stand, architecture from various times throughout Berlin’s history.  To me, this city feels like it exists in all times at once…from when the city was first founded to the present day, there are traces of all of this time coexisting both in harmony and juxtaposition.  Berlin it definitely the craziest city I’ve visited.  It’s nothing like Bavaria.  It’s loud.  It seems so dirty and urban in some places, yet sometimes, there is something beautiful about it.  There are people from everywhere here…you rarely see anyone who looks like the stereotypical German, and the attitude of the people seems a bit harsher here than in the South.  It also seems as though it’s populated only by people thirty or younger.  You see older people, but they are few and far between.  It’s exploding with restaurants and shopping, yet in some parts of town its oppressive past can’t be ignored.  It’s almost overwhelming in a way…there is just too much to take in sometimes.  But, between visiting the tourist spots to just sitting in front of Die Fabrik, having a beer, and watching all the people go by, it was fascinating part of Germany to experience.

In Berlin…

Today we arrived in Berlin for our 10 day tour of the city with a group of students from UC.  We got on the train in Pocking a little bit after 6AM and got here around 2PM.  It was a very long ride, but the countryside here is very beautiful and we passed many pretty towns along the way.

What we’ve seen of Berlin on our way to the hotel looks pretty amazing.  There is so much to see.  But for now, we are hanging out at our hotel, Die Fabrik.  It used to be a factory and was converted into a hotel.  The neighborhood we are staying in is called Kreuzberg, and it’s heavily populated with Turkish people…which means there is delicious Turkish food everywhere.  When we got here we immediately went to a Turkish café and ordered ourselves a Döner, specifically a Dürüm Döner , which is kind of like a gyro in the US, but tastes a bit different (much better in my opinion).  They are absolutely delicious and I will probably eat far too many of them while we’re here.

So, after our 8 hour train ride, we are very tired and must go to sleep so we’re ready for our first excursion tomorrow morning. There will be many photos to come

Fun in Passau and Nürnburg

Wow, we have had a busy couple of days…on Saturday we spent the day with our new German friend  Michael in a city called Passau, a college town and the spot where three rivers come together–der Donau, der Inn, and der Ilz rivers.  It is a beautiful city…unfortunately I left my camera in the car because it was raining and I didn’t want it to get wet, so I have no pictures to show you all! *kicking self*  Na ja, I’m sure we will go back, because it is only a twenty-minute drive from where we are staying.

Edit:  Click here to see some pictures and read a bit about Passau  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passau

Speaking of driving…we have been driven around on the autobahn quite a few times since we’ve arrived, and I must say it is a little frightening at first!  In the US, the fastest speed on the highway that I’ve seen is around 80 or 85 miles per hour, which is roughly 130 and 140 kilometers per hour.  On the autobahn, the normal speed seems to be 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) or more.  It feels very strange to be in a car going that fast and to see other cars fly by going even faster!  The autobahn is NOT a free-for-all, however, where you can go as fast as you’d like, whenever you’d like.  Contrary to what people in the US seem to believe, there are speed limits on the autobahn in certain areas.  Even though I’m American, I’m allowed to drive here with my US driver’s license, however I’m pretty sure I’m not going to try it.  I think I’m a good driver, but I don’t trust myself to operate a vehicle at those speeds; I’d much rather let an experienced German driver take me where I need to go.

Anyway, after walking around Passau, we drove a little way outside the city to the “Passauer Dult,” which is sort of like a mini Oktoberfest.  There was a huge beer hall inside, and little beer gardens outside along with carnival rides, games, and food.  We spent 4 or 5 hours there drinking a few liters of beer (yes, we had more than one!), while we got to know our new friend better.  I did have my camera this time…so here are some photos!

Inside the beer hall.

More beer hall…see the guy wearing his Lederhose?

If you have ever been to the Hofbräu Haus in Newport, Kentucky, these scenes may look familiar.  The atmosphere was very similar; a band was playing and people were standing up on their chairs singing and being crazy.  We didn’t hang out inside for too long; we spent our time outside in the beer garden where it was a bit quieter and we could enjoy the nice weather.

Our new friend Michael.

Michael is a very cool guy and he showed us a great time in Passau.  Danke schön Michael!

We headed out bright and early the next morning to catch a train to Nürnburg, a very beautiful city about 4 hours north of Pocking.  There we were meeting our friends Alex and Katie.  Alex grew up in Nürnburg and  now teaches at the University of Cincinnati, and Katie, who was in Munich with us last year, is traveling Europe with her family.

Katie, Alex, and Micheal.

We spent the day seeing the many sites in the Altstadt (Old city) of Nürnburg.

A few beautiful views of the city.

We went to a few churches–this one is called Lorenzkirche.

We also went to Kaiserburg, the castle you can see at the top of the hill in the photos of the city.

A view of the city from Kaiserburg.

Here are a few other shots from around the city.  It’s really an amazing place; it seems no matter where you look, there is a beautiful scene for you to enjoy.

All in all, it was a fantastic day.  It was great to see some friends and experience a new city.  Tomorrow morning we take the train to Berlin (an 8 hour ride!), where we will be touring the city with a group from UC until the 18th of September.

Tschüss and goodbye for now!  Hope you enjoy the photos!

Hallo Deutschland!

After many months of waiting, my fiancé and I have finally begun our year-long adventure in living and studying abroad.

We left Cincinnati Wednesday afternoon and flew into Newark, New Jersey for a quick layover.  We got something to eat and had our last American beer (not that we’re going to miss it!) at the Sam Adams restaurant in the terminal.

As you can see, my last American beer is not making me too excited.

Micheal, chatting away with his mom, doesn’t seem to have even touched his yet as he’s trying to figure out if his aunt and uncle from New York are at the airport to meet us.

The one thing that did make me excited at the restaurant was this great picture that was hanging by our table…

We finally did meet his aunt and uncle, whom I had not met before, and got to talk with them for about twenty minutes.  After hearing about them for so long, it was great to finally meet them; they were extremely nice and despite having never met me, made me feel like I have been part of the family forever and have known me all along.

It was a little disappointing that we didn’t have a longer layover so that we could spend a little time in the city before we left; I have never been to New York City.  In fact, it was the first time even seeing the city, in person that is, when our plane landed in Newark.  As we descended, I could see the city off to my left…a haziness hung around the buildings that seemed to stretch on forever.  I could see all the people on the highways driving across the bridge into the city, and the harbor was filled with ships coming and going.  And I could see the Lady, staring out across the Atlantic.  It was amazing to see and it was as though I could almost feel the energy of the place.  I could kick myself though for not having my camera out to get pictures of any of this…but I suppose that some things are better remembered in my mind.  I know that I’ll never forget that scene.

We left around 8PM on our flight to Munich.  We flew with Lufthansa for the first time, and it was far better than our flight with Air France last year.  There was a lot more room in our seats, the food was good, and they had a great choice of entertainment.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a documentary, “Stones in Exile,” about the Rolling Stones and their time in the south of France after they left England.  I highly recommend it–not only was it informative and fun to watch, but the look of it was fantastic; all in black and white with some amazing looking still shots.  Very cool, watch it!

I have only one bad memory of the flight, and that is when I decided to lean my chair back so I would be more comfortable to sleep, the man behind me got up and started shouting at me.  Why?  Well, I couldn’t tell you because he wasn’t speaking English or German, but he seemed very offended at my wanting to be comfortable.  So, I just put my chair back up for a while because really, whether my seat was back or not, I wasn’t getting any sleep on that plane because I never can sleep on them.

Around 10AM, we stumbled off the plane in Munich and were immediately whisked away by two friends of our friend Toan.  They drove us to Toan’s apartment in a small town called Pocking.  We unloaded our luggage and then they took us to get some groceries to last us for the few days we are going to be here until we leave for Berlin.  We were both pretty excited about the groceries because we could finally get our favorite German beer…

Paulaner Hefe-Weißbier.  So good.

You can get it in America, but here it’s not pasteurized, has no preservatives, and is most likely no more that three days old because it is bottled an hour away in Munich.  It’s the most refreshing, delicious tasting beer ever.  Be jealous.

Now we are just hanging out at Toan’s place until we leave for Berlin.  The town we are in now is pretty small and very quiet, except for the sound of German cars driving by and church bells going off every hour.  It looks like the stereotypical German town with flower boxes on many windowsills, cobblestone streets, and little beer gardens scattered about.  It’s very nice, but a little too quiet for me.  I’ll be ready for Berlin in a few days.