Week 3 & weekend.

Well, week 3 was definitely an interesting one. It was the first full 5 day week and it sure felt like it.

I was finally able to make it to Brussels for a visit, which was nice. I really like how everything there is on a much smaller scale, a lot less stressful! It was a little challenging getting to the girls' apartment as the GPS seemed to be a little indecisive. Once I'd arrived, I parked infront of an apartment building as the GPS directed. After a few minutes I wasn't hearing from the girls that they were home, so I decided to walk around with the GPS to find the actual building they lived in. After walking a little ways, I realized the GPS was telling me that I still had 5 minutes of driving time... which was odd because I parked once it said I'd reached my destination. So after a few more minutes of waiting, hoping the girls would be home to direct me, I decided to get back in the car and listen to the GPS. So I drove those 5 minutes and parked where it said I should. Right as I parked the girls called to let me know they were home. It took about 10 minutes for us to figure out where in Brussels I was, after looking at a few bus maps & trying to find Christmas trees & roundabouts (they're everywhere!). The girls finally decided that they'd have to take the bus to come find me, which they did. Once they found me, we drove to their apartment which was, ironically, exactly where I had parked originally !! In fact, I had parked directly infront of their building, you can't get a better parking spot than that! But of course, this time around we had to park 2 blocks away. I'm still not sure what the glitch was with the GPS, but that wasn't the first (or last) time I'd trusted the GPS and it guided me wrong... and this time, it made us too late to go shopping :(

Other than that, nothing too exciting or awful seems to jump out from the week... this past weekend (8th & 9th) we decided to lay low & just do a few day trips. So on Saturday we ventured out to Trier, the oldest city in Germany. The main incentive to visit Trier on Saturday was that there is a lot of shopping to do there, and that was basically the only day we'd actually had to shop (stores close at 7pm on weekdays, aren't open on Sundays or holidays).

It ended up being a perfect day, the sun was actually out for once & the temperatures were in the mid 40s, it felt like April! We did see a few of the sights, Porta Nigra was the original city gate (right) & the Roman Baths were pretty neat too...

Sunday we ventured out to Heidelberg to see another castle. Unfortunately for us, the weather wasn't quite as nice. It was much colder and poured rain the entire day... but I guess it could've been worse :) The castle was really neat, not as extravagant as the Neuschwanstein but it was still very cool to see the inside. And since Germany has had this abnormally large amount of snow this winter, and then it warmed up and rained all week... the river running right through the middle of Heidelberg flooded part of the roads. Thankfully it seemed only roads were covered at this point and it hadn't reached any buildings yet... but the forecast calls for more rain so we'll see!

For dinner on Sunday we searched for the "Schnitzel Haus" which was recommended to us by a few friends and was supposed to be worth the trip. After asking a few people for directions & finding the flood waters, we finally found it & were so glad! The menu had over 100 kinds of Schnitzel (101 to be exact). So all 5 of us tried a different kind, and we loved them all (I got the Ratatouille Schnitzel). Definitely a recommendation if you're ever in Heidelberg, it's right along the river, just down the hill from the castle by one of the bus stops :)

Now I'm off to the last week here in Germany. Hard to believe it's over so soon, but it feels like I've been here a few months! It's definitely been an adventure and a challenge for me. I'm looking forward to getting back to Iowa and relaxing a bit... (and not answering my phone!) :)

"Sometimes you can only see as far as your headlights can shine, but you can make the whole trip that way"

New Year.

What a weekend !! I was finally able to travel for a weekend trip, and it was exactly what I needed. Thanks to the New Year’s holiday, we had another 3 day weekend & took advantage of it.

Thursday night I stayed in housing & got an early start on Friday. Friday morning we (Nicole, from UNI & was in Key West with me, Christine from BGSU & I) left early and drove out to Dachau. It was a long drive, but nothing to complain about.

In prelude to Dachau, it’s a memorial site of a former concentration camp just outside of Munich. I’d been told many stories from friends & family that had visited Dachau during the summer, and had pretty moving experiences. This was my first visit to a concentration camp, and it was very moving.

Visiting during the winter months had a different effect too... everything was cold & dull and nothing to it. I think it added to the somberness and just the overall feel of the place. I think it would've been a very different experience in the summer. We toured the grounds along with the museum, some of the cells, the memorials & the cremetorium. Overall it was a good visit. It seems that the concentration camps and everything going on at that time is jsut something you hear about. Having the opportunity to visit a site, especially as well kept up as Dachau is, really put it into perspective for me. I would definitely recommend this visit.

I included 2 pictures from Dachau, the first is the ovens in the cremetorium & the second is the roll call area, where you can see the memorial sculpture which was added after the camp was freed & became a memorial site.

After our visit to Dachau, we headed into Munich to find our hostel. We were a little skeptical about the hostel, but it turned out to be great :) After settling in & resting for a little bit, we headed out for our New Year's Eve dinner. We found a nice restaurant along the way & stopped in. We didn't even think that every place would need reservations for New Year's Eve (silly Americans)... thankfully this place said we could have a table, but only until 8. Since it was just 6:30, we didn't see that as a problem. We looked over their special menu for the holiday and didn't recognize a single item. Luckily our waiter was nice & patient with us, enough to explain that what we thought was a salad was actually a nice arrangement of deer meat. I used my German phrase book to order Lobster Soup. It wasn't extremely filling, but it was very good!

After dinner we asked the desk clerks for advice on where to spend our New Year's. He suggested a nearby park, which turned out to be really awesome. There were different tents set up and a ton of people near by. It seemed almost like a community event for that part of town. We spent most of the evening in the tent with all of the food, as our dinner wasn't too filling & that seemed to be the only place to find an open seat. It was pretty fun & relaxing. We tried the beer, but I definitely wasn't a fan... but at least I tried :)

The entire night we'd heard fireworks going off at the most random times, so we decided that just before midnight we'd head outside to see the firework show & countdown. We went outside & more people gradually came outside too. It was a little odd as there was no big countdown or big clock to know when it was officially the new year. Instead we just went off of our phones, and the only difference between 2010 & 2011 was that a lot of couples began to dance. It was fun. During all of this, fireworks continued to shoot off in every direction, which made it a really cool atmosphere.

After enjoying the fireworks & excitement for a while, we decided to head back to our hostel to see what was happening there. To our surprise, as we left the park, all of the fireworks that had been going off the entire night weren't professional. Apparently New Year's is one of the few times of the year when anyone can buy fireworks to shoot them off, and they do. It felt like we were running through a war zone to get back to the hostel. Fireworks were being shot off in the park, on the sidewalks, in parking lots, in the middle of the streets, on bridges, everywhere !!! We literally had to watch where we stepped to make sure a firework wasn't ready to go. Some of the others weren't even phased by this, while the 3 Americans were ducking for cover at every loud noise. It was quite the experience & definitely a New Year's I'll never forget :)

Saturday we slept in a little & went off to explore Munich. We had lunch at the Augustiner Beer Hall & dinner at the Hofbrauhaus. Both were good & really fun. Since it was New Year's day there wasn't any shopping open, but we managed to find enough churches & beer halls to pass the time :)

Sunday we woke up early and headed off to Fussen to visit the castles. We stopped by the Hohengwenshau Castle on our way to tour the famous Neuschwanstein castle. I remembered the hike being a challenging one in 2008, so we'd decided we'd opt for the bus, especially in the snow. But Fussen had other plans, the busses weren't running that day due to the weather conditions... yikes !! It was a challenging walk, just as I'd remembered, but it was also the busiest day of the year, so it was plenty worn down which made it easier to walk. We toured the inside & had a nice and relaxing day. It was pretty cold & windy outside, so we were glad once our tour finally started. Here's a picture of the castle from the front at one of the view points.

The drive back to K-Town was a struggle. I didn't even think (again) about the holiday traffic and we were stuck in staus (traffic jams) for what seemed like an eternity. There wasn't any accidents or any construction, it was just simply too many cars for the road so everyone was backed up. It seemed we were either going 5 mph or 100 mph, but no where in between. It was pretty frustrating as our 4 hour drive took just over 6 hours, but we passed the time with fun games, madlibs and the German radio station :)

All in all I'd say this was a successful weekend in Munich. Driving is definitely not my favorite way to travel within Europe, but we got to see a lot on a budget. Hopefully next weekend will be fun too!

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."