Cologne

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So, this weekend was Cologne. We slept a good amount the night before we left (my friend David and I) and got into cologne around 13:00 (1:00 afternoon, incase you're bad with military time).

We walked around a lot. When I say a lot, i mean that my legs were so so so so so tired from walking around so much.

Then we went to the Cologne Dome. It was huge and super beautiful. Right next to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station).

After that, David showed me a huge Fussgaengerzone (walking steet) which was an enourmous shopping zone. When i say enourmous, i mean like, so many people and so so so much shopping to be done. I had no money, so it wasn't that entertaining. We walked through and saw a lot of stores

We walked around the town some more and went over the main train bridge. This bridge was cool because there was some sort of tradition where people who are married or something each put a lock up with their marriage date on it. I need to look it up more, but there were hundreds, if not thousands, of locks with names and dates on them. It was cool.


We checked out the next morning and did luggage things and started our day on the town. Our train didn't leave until 4 in the morning the next night, so we tried to occupy our time efficiently to see things and also to waste some time until the train got there

We went to these cool Botanical Gardens, which were pretty big. We spent a lot of time reading about the history of the earth and whatnot, and I took plenty of pictures of plants and squirrells and things. It was pretty cool, but we took so long that we didn't see the whole park.

After lunch, we went to this jail where they imprisioned jews and prisoners of war. It was a memorial exhibit (with the real jail cells that had origional handwriting on the walls from the inmates and stuff) and a museum upstiars that wasn't the best. The jail stuff was really errie. It was creepy to know they had imprisoned and tourtchured so many people in these areas and you could still see the written pleas for help, the memoirs, the jokes, and the love letters on the walls. They were in so many different languages, but there were displays that translated them. It was a good learning experience, but very eerie at the same time.

We went to a movie that night to pass the time. It was called "Maria, ihm schmecht's nicht" (Maria, it doesn't taste goot to him... literal translation) It was a german movie about this german who is getting married to a half italian, and he goes and meets her italian relivies. It was so funny because they over did all the cultural differences between germany and italy people.

Then, we went to the college town bar place and found somewhere to sit down and have a drink and some nachos to pass the time. We had 5 hours before our train left, so we dilly dallied and whatnot It took us a while to find a place, but we weren't in a rush. At the bar, we bought Nachos for 2,30 €, which seemed like a great deal, but we soon found out that they simply opened a durito's bag and poured them on a plate (we ordered a side of Guachamole...). The buses stopped running very regularly, so about 1:15, we saw our chance to catch one back to the inner city. We paid, finished everything quickly and got out of there

However, we didn't realize until we were in the inner part of the city, that we left our bags in the bar. Oh great. we freaked out and had to get on another train to get to the bar. This train happened to go 6 blocks away from the bar. We had to almost runto get to the bar incase it closed before we got there. We weren't sure if it closed at 2, but we wanted to make sure we got there before incase it did. GAH, that was tough because David is such a fast walker, and I'm not as much. They found our bags and stored them for us until we arrived. They were nice, and we thanked them, but we had to wait 15 minutes for the next street car.

We got back, grabbed Döner Kebap, and walked along the river to the station, where we wandered around with super tired legs, looking for a cheap bathroom.



We got on the train, and I totally passed out. That was the best that I ever slept in a moving vehicle. Switched trains in Frankfurt, where I said goodbye to david, and went to struttgart, where I waited a couple hours, and came hom

Yeah, now we start the second month of the Goethe Institut. Oh joy. Classes start tomorrow...

Where are the pictures?

So, it's been a while since I've updated. What has happened the past week and a half? I went to Rotenburg for a day with Goethe. It's this very historical city that was accidentally bombed in WWII, but has been totally rebuilt. Pretty much slept the rest of the weekend because I was tired.

This past week, I stayed up many nights, hanging out with people I probably would never see after this weekend. One month of the Goethe Institut is finished, and next week will bring new people with nex experiences to come. I loved the people I met this past month, and hopefully I'll love the people next month too.

So, now I'm in a small town outsice Cologne. We got here today, and we leave tomorrow to spend 2 days in Cologne. The family we are staying with is super nice, and I enjoyed sitting around talking with the parents and their 4 sons tonight. Here, they speak a much easier dialekt than in Schwaebisch Hall. I like it and it is much easier to understand. It's only me and my friend David here.

Today, we went to the hospital and took pictures of David "working." He forgot to take pictures while he was here, so we had to pretend to take some. It was fun, but also interesting. Healthcare in Germany is totally different. I don't know how to describe it. The hostpital was much older than ones i've seen, and people here don't have the same health codes as in america. The doctors were wearing like, clogs and stuff, and I was able to walk around almost freely into any room. Patients privacy wasn't too much of an issue either. I don't know, it just was very different than in America.

Anyway, I'm trying to think of what I've done since my last post. I finished by B 1.1 Class. Hopefully next month I'll be in a very challenging classroom. OH! Mueler (the store) I think lost my film, so I'll have to deal with that this upcoming week. :( I bought a new digital camera, but it isn't the best. I'm trying it out this weekend to see how the pictures turn out. They might be crappy, but eh, alright.

Ok, now it's time for bed. This weekend is sortof a sleep recovery weekend/tour Cologne weekend. Tomorrow we are in a Youth Hostle, and then saturday night, we are sleeping on the train (we're taking the train back to Frankfurt, where david is flying back home). Then I'm traveling to Struttgart and possibly visiting Ryan for a day or two, and then going back to Schwaebisch hall to do this past month all over again.

Hooray

As soon as I get pictures, I swear I'll post them

PS, we woke up today at 4 am, and we rode the train for something like, 9 hours. OMG, i was so tired when I arrived this afternoon

Who do you think would win between a bus and a car on the side of the mountain?

Obviously, our bus won.

Berlin, and a new class

This past weekend I was in Berlin. Let me say, that was a blast. Die Hauptstadt von Deutschland. Die Stadt, die nie schlaeft. Es war wunderbar! (for translations, please visit www.google.com/translate).

First of all, the trip there was all via bus. It took a good 6 or more hours plus stops to get there, but well worth it. We created a group and went out the first day by ourselves. We went by Checkpoint Charlie, saw some wonderful history learning things, went through alexanderplatz, explored around some awesome old churches and stuff, and went to a club.

Funny story behind the club. We were talking on the bus about really wanting to dance to 90's dance music, and then later that night we saw a poster advertising a 90's dance night at one of the clubs. So, naturally, we went, but all the music was rap music (commonly called Blackmusik here in Germany) that we had never heard before. It wasn't good music either, but we still had fun.

The next day, we all were exauhsted, but we went on a 3 hour bus tour of Berlin. The lady was easy to understand and talked slow enough for the people who weren't good at German to keep up. We saw a lot of the city. Did you know, that the cities of Frankfurt, Munich, and Cologne. and Hamburg could fit inside berlin with plenty of room to spare? Yeah, it's crazy big. Anyway, we got the tour, and then we went out and actually went sightseeing. We went to the Holocaust Mahnmal (holocaust memorial) and Brandenburger Tuer (where they were having the World championchip of Racewalking) and the political building. We had a presentation within the political building, but half our group slept through it cause the man was very boring and hard to understand. He also talked about stupid things, and it was slightly cool in there. I did get a good 45 minute nap in though!

After the political building, we went to the most expensive department store in Berlin. Of course, most of us didn't buy anything, but it was cool to go into because the store actually has a lot of history behind it. Afterwards, while looking for food, Amber and I went off and saw the Judische Museum. That was super cool, especially since I studied it in college. The exhibits weren't the best, but the symbolism behind the archetecture of the building was so cool.

Anyway, afterwards we went back to get ready for a night of out on the town. We first tried to find the Russendisko, which is actually an event at a burger bar somewhere in Berlin (it wasn't going on that night) and then went to a club called Maxim. This club was extremely huge. It was 5 stories tall (which we couldn't find the stairs) and also played nothing but different styles of american dance music. On our floor, we had 90's remix music, and then 80/90's awesome dance music. It was so so so SO much fun. We had a blast and danced so much. Definatly was one of the most fun things I've done while on this trip.

Anyway the next day, we were all tired from two nights of minimal sleep, and on our way home, the tour decided to stop and do a 2 hour tour of Postdam, which is right outside the city. It's where a lot of modern castles are built and whatnot. I was so tired and really wanting to get home that I kindof just walked through it all with the group. It was interesting, but I didn't care too much for it.

The ride home was 8-9 hours long!!! There was construction, so it took forever. We stopped at a McDonalds though. That was cool.

And this week I upgrated into a new class, which is better for me and helping me out a lot more. I'm talking more often and using my thinking skills a lot more. The school here, as I've said before, is all international students, so I am constantly learning a lot about different nations around the globe. It's really quite awesome.

And then 2 nights ago, 3 of us cooked a nice meal for everyone. We were going to make it for 4 of us, but then we invited 3 others to come, and then invited even more people to come. It was so fun. We spent the whole afternoon cooking and then we set up the dinner table for people to sit down, complete with wine/beer glasses, water glasses, plates, bowls, silverwear, and other stuff. Everything was mismatched, and we barely had enough to go by, but we did it. And everyone chipped in to clean up. We rocked out to some awesome music and cleaned everything up. The kitchen was so clean. Then we went out for Ice Cream (which was really good)

What did we eat, you ask? Well, for starters, we had pizza rolls (made by me from scratch) and then chinese dumplings, and homemade chilli... like, the good kind with plenty of vegetables.

And then, the next night, we were basically told never to return to the ice cream place again. Sad day, but all is ok. It was just a cultural misunderstanding between italians and venezuleans

More pictures to come later

BTW, I changed the settings so now everyone can comment... so please, feel free to comment on anything now

Berlin!

BERLIN IS THIS WEEKEND! I am so excited and cannot wait!! My pocketbook, on the other hand, is possibly not going to like this trip...

MUNICH!

So, I just got back from Munich, and it was so so so awesome! On friday night, we had our college-wide bar party. There were a lot of people there, with much dancing and drinking and being merry. There was a fussball table and other stuff to do (i only played that and danced). We concreted our plans for the weekend then too.

(if you couldn't tell, my english is starting to get worse and worse the longer i'm over here)

Then we left really early saturday. We took 3 hours to the train to munich, and on the way, we stopped at Dachau. It honestly was such a cool site, but very overwhelming. One of the people I was traveling with actually ran into someone who he knew from college living in the town. that was odd. But after Dachau we went into Munich.

Some of the munich people were very angry people, while the most of them were super nice. In the italian Imbiss (it's like a cafe where you can get food to go), the worker was pissed off and then got so much more pissed off because we were speaking german with her and she knew english. It wasn't a good situation. Anyway, we toured the city and shopped and walked everywhere.



I know I screwed up those photos, but whatever. Anyway, while touring the city, we went to the Hofbrauhouse. That, was really fun. It was like a biergarden and a beer hall all in one. Super crowded, but quite awesome. We each got a liter of fresh brewed beer. Straight from the brewery (honestly, cause that's where they brewed it). Some of the best stuff I've ever had. There was german/bavarian music, and german food and everything.
Afterwards, we went out on the town again and walked around. We found the Englisher Gartens (English Gardens). It was like a big park where a lot of people just came to hang out. In the center of it all was a Chinese Pagoda, where there was a huge beer garden. We were going to get something there, but it was super expensive and they had a long wait, and there were millions of people standing around.

Afterwards, we took the subway back to the Hostel we were staying at. We had some happy hour drinks there, talked to the bar-tender and then went out clubbing (that's kindof what Munich is known for). There were a million clubs within this one square mile... and when I say a million, i mean, it was like a city comprised just of clubs. We went out with some girls from Ireland and some guys from England (5 of us, plus 4 or more of them equaled a crazy night of indecisiveness)

We got back, and the next morning we went out and about. My roommate wanted to go to mass, so we strolled around downtown again. We went up ontop of a church thing (which is where some of my pictures above are from). It was really really cool. We could see the whole town and it was beautiful (plus the weather outside was amazing!!)

After mass, we went to the Deutche Museum (german museum), which is rated to be one of the best, if not, the best, museums in the world, and we could tell. It was so so so awesome to go there and see a bunch of exhibits. My favorite was the glass exhibit and the paper one. I didn't get to see much of the physics, but what I saw I liked a lot.

Afterwards, we took the S-Bahn (schnellbahn, which literally means "fast train") to somewhere off the map and walked to the olympic part. There was a huge carnival going on at the park and it looked so much fun! We couldn't stay because we had a train to catch, but it was so so so sweet. The rides were kindof like ours, but more awesome. There was also a flea market and whatnot around the area.

Then we took the subway and went back home.

Memories!!!

Illia using the dyson blade dryer and making goofy faces and playing it.
Everyone being pissy, but having fun
The moped that the dog was riding on
Surfing up the river in the Englischer Gartens
Drunk guy on the train on the way home
Clubbing in general
Being memorized by everything while walking around Munich after the Hofbrauhouse (mostly being memorized by water).
Getting super lost on the way to the olympic stadium (our train station we got off at wasn't on the map)
Irish girls
Angry pizza woman
Man flat out ignoring Amber while riding his bike
Creeper man in Dardl Shop creeping on amber
Creeper creeping on me and amber at the museum

Ok, that is all. Here are some more pictures

Interviewen

I interviewed 2 natives of Schwaebisch Hall today during class. It was nerve-wreaking, but my german is getting much better, and I am becoming much more confident. That's good

Other than that, tomorrow I go to Munich! :D Viel spass!