We leave for the airport in four hours, but I'm blogging. Smart.

We definitely made the most of our last day in Germany! This morning, we took a regional train to the extreme Eastern German town (Gorlitz) that borders Poland. We walked around Gorlitz and saw the Peterkirche and Frauenkirche before heading into Poland via the historic walking bridge. It was depressing that no one was there to stamp our passports or anything, but we were definitely in Poland...and let me tell you: it was bland. Unfortunately, I think we just encountered a not-so-bustling bordertown at noon. I'm sure all of Poland isn't this way. We walked probably a good half mile and only encountered two (presumably) Polish living beings. Some of the others walked back to Gorlitz for lunch, but Kathleen and I decided to eat a meal in Poland, and I'm glad we did! We both had a sesame seed encrusted chicken breast covered in a gouda-ish cheese sauce. It was served with fried potatoes, carrot slivers, and a slice of watermelon. When we got the bill, and saw it was 70 zloty (Polish currency), we had absolutely no idea how much that would be in euros, but luckily it was only 20 euros total (and that included an appetizer)! Afterwards, we ventured back into Gorlitz and just barely made it back to the Hauptbahnhof in time for our train due to an unfortunate time mix-up by yours truly. We made it with six minutes to spare, though, so I guess that's just another blessing.

Once back in Dresden, most of us had seperate agendas: packing, buying last minute necessities, visiting stores for a last time, etc. I decided to go to the MusikSchubert (Schubert Music Store...it's just a name, not everything there was written by Franz or anything) and poke around one last time. After I told the MusikSchubert auf wiedersehn, I headed to Pragerstrase to (surprise) TJ Maxx to get an extra small rolling suitcase. I had to pay a good bit extra on the way to Germany because my bag was 10 lbs overweight (the limit is 50 lbs), but this time, I'll only pay $25 to check an extra bag (Haha, TSA. Take that!). Shortly after that, I arrived back at the dorm and we headed to our farewell dinner. We were all served schnitzel, pommes (fries), and a salad. It was a perfect German last supper. The group parted ways, but most of us went to Albertplatz/Neustadt Market to get one last kugel (scoop of ice cream) before we left! It was kind of sad walking through Theatreplatz and Old town knowing I wouldn't be seeing them tomorow, and to know that the automated streetcar lady's voice would no longer make us laugh, but I know everyone's had a great time and this blog will help me remember more of my trip! It's about 1 a.m. Dresden time, and I'm going to take a nap until four or so. It's a strategy. I'm hoping to make myself super sleepy for the long plane ride, and if by noon I've still only had three hours of sleep, I'm bound to tucker out on the plane and fall asleep. Pray for us to have a safe flight! We leave (from Frankfurt) at about 6 a.m. central time/noon Frankfurt time, and should land in ATL at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. If you just feel like tossing up a prayer, we have a bunch of anxious folks ready to get home, so I'm sure everyone would appreciate it: I know I would! It's time for my nap, though. I've had a great time this month, and I'm sure to post one last time once I'm in the states!

Gutenacht the last time from the Deutschland!

The day before the day before we leave (I know, it looks funny).

Today was a pretty gloomy (apparently more European), rainy Sunday in Dresden. Those of us not enrolled in the class didn't have to attend the last lecture at 10:00, but those enrolled did. We decided to kind of hang around and wait on the studious ones before making plans for the day. I think around 2 or so we grabbed lunch at the Hauptbahnhof, and I made a few last minute sweeps of stores looking for cheaply priced luggage (for a more economical price on checked luggage for the return trip) and little last minute souvenirs. Afterwards, I packed...and I mean PACKED. Everything light (or relatively light) is currently in my gigantic bag, anything heavy will be put in the smaller checked luggage when I purchase it tomorrow (most stores are closed all day Sunday).

Kathleen had a great idea to head to Sunday evening church at the Frauenkirche (the reconstructed Protestant church from the Dresden bombings in Old Town that sparked my *probably lame* introspective rant about bombing an unarmed city). They have a 9:30 service and a 6:00 service, so we had plenty of time to make the latter. We entered, and they gave us Orders of Worship/Bulletins and I immediately noticed how well planned they were! The bulletins included the scanned hymn from the hymnal (complete with German text), and all of the German liturgy in order. A little old German man (who clearly was a member of the church...he had a name tag) sat down directly to my left (also, Europeans sit really close. If one has personal space issues, one might not want to sit publicly with them) and I kind of mimicked my actions to his. It was easier to follow when he stood up and sat down than decipher the German notes in the bulletin. The entire service was in German, and it was really neat to sing a Gloria and Kyrie (parts of the Ordinary of the Mass in Catholicism...although, this is a non-denominational Protestant church) printed from the bulletin along with three hymns. Kathleen and I kind of chuckled at ourselves. We just sang the printed music on an 'oo' syllable, because our German diction is so terrible, but it did allow us to listen to everyone singing German around us (a really REALLY cool phenomenon...to hear others worshiping in another language). Another difference I noticed was that during the organ prelude and postlude there was absolutely NO talking. Every single person in the room was sitting quietly, most staring at the gigantic (surely) multi-million dollar gold-encrusted organ. In the bulletin, it even said in English for the postlude, "Please do not leave your seats until the organ postlude is complete." Think of how quickly we rush out from chuch when that postlude starts to play! It's just a different respect of music. The sermon was the most difficult part with which to connect. Although, Kathleen and I figured out it was the sermon of the 'mustard seed.' The pastor kept saying 'senf,' and at first I think we both thought we misheard him (senf is delicious German mustard!), but finally it was paired with 'kleine' (small) enough that we decided our assumptions were correct (we kind of chuckled about that, too, though).

After the service, we recreated a typical German evening for our group and got a bratwurst, ate near local street musicians, got a kugel of ice cream, and wandered around! Later on, we came back to the dorm and watched Taken and Mamma Mia with Katie while Adam did homework and Kathleen periodically packed. This evening has been a GIANT success; I think the church service is definitely in the top 3 of my experiences here. Tomorrow, on our last full day, we're taking a day trip to Poland! I'm so excited, but it's time for sleep! Gutenacht!

Giant Prague Post!

It’s really hard to blog about Prague after the fact (it’s early Sunday morning, and we got home Friday around 4). I can try, though! The train ride to and from Prague was pretty amazing. It’s very pretty German and Czech countryside. Most of our trip followed the Elbe river, and the kind of swoopy German mountains at which we all love to look! We got to Prague, checked into the hostel, and pretty soon it was time for our walking tour. We followed our tour guide, a sweet younger Czech girl, around the Republic Square, the Astronomical Clock (from the 15th century), the palace and corresponding church, new-town of Prague (the NEW town is still from the 14th century, so you can only imagine how old old-town is), and the Charles bridge (largest bridge in Prague, build in the 15th century). We covered a lot of ground, but I think I enjoyed this walking tour more than Leipzig and Berlin.

Prague just had a different architectural appeal. The Czech Republic, on the other hand, is interesting all on its own. We’d been warned about the abundance of expert pick-pocketers in Prague, and so most of the group was a little paranoid about anyone or anything touching his or her bags/pockets/wallets/etc. On several occasions, people from our group walking closely to me on the sidewalk accidentally bumped my backpack purse (which is already incredibly difficult to open when in use as I’d already discovered) and I’d turn around and hold up a hand (what was I going to do? Backhand or karate chop the offender?) or clutch my purse to my back only to discover it was an accidental bump from a friend (not an imaginary foe). The Czech Republic seemed a bit less pristine (cleanliness-wise) than Germany (which is still not quite as pristine in SOME PLACES as the U.S. Although the U.S. can be gross, too). It’s always a bit dirtier in large cities, though, and Prague is by FAR Czech’s largest city. The Czech currency was pretty interesting, too! They use krones (crowns), and there are currently 25 crowns to a U.S. dollar. This exchange TRICKS you into thinking things are good deals, however. I found myself buying a bottle of water for 50 crowns thinking it was a steal (it wasn’t). It’s strange to see a price tag on a McDonald’s Royal (I know, weird) Meal that says 100 krones. I kept switching between thinking it was a great exchange like pesos and momentarily forgetting and thinking, “_____ euros?! That’s insane!” Enough about the Czech differences; back to the itinerary.

After the tour, we headed to a local place near our hostel to get some grub (I believe we had Czech pizza and potatoes and such) and hit the hay.

The next morning, we visited the small, but pretty interesting, Smetana museum. Smetana was one of two really influential composers from (what was at the time Bohemia, but now) the Czech Republic. Probably his most famous nationalistic work was the Moldau, about the river than runs through most of Czech (and of course in Prague). Interestingly enough, the Moldau is almost all that’s visible from inside the museum’s windows, it’s practically floating on the river. After exploring the modest little museum, we headed back up the hundreds of stairs to the palace to see the changing of the guards. Afterwards, we ate the O Krale Brabantllebo which is a pub that has existed in the same location in Prague since medieval times (I think the first time it was mentioned was in the 12th century or something insane like that). It was really expensive, so we only had their homemade bread and cokes, but the atmosphere was too good to pass up. It seemed like we were eating inside a cave in the dark, just how I’d imagine people from medieval times (ha)! Then we wandered around, and eventually headed back to the hostel to change into nice clothes for our dinner cruise on (you guessed it) the Moldau! It was a really neat experience. We had to go through a system of locks to cruise further down the Moldau, and the scenery was pretty impressive throughout. We were served drinks, we ate from a (packed) buffet, and we played spades at my table. All in all, a successful river ride down the historic Moldau!

Friday morning, we headed in the rain (once again…it rained on our last day of a short trip) to the Dvorak museum! It was definitely worth getting damp to go. We got to see hundreds of pictures, lots of handwritten scores (my personal favorite of course was seeing a few handwritten pages from The New World Symphony that we played the final movement of in Wind Ensemble not too long ago), and even a (yet again creepy) cast of Dvorak’s hand (made post-humous). After the Dvorak museum, just about everybody on the trip took the time to do something we’ve all neglected: souvenir shopping. Prague is a MUCH more conducive area for shopping than Dresden, and it’s the first place I’ve actually been able to successfully ‘haggle’ for something (although, some items weren’t open for open price discussions). After our souvenir venture, we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our luggage, and headed back to Dresden. Upon arriving in Dresden, we had probably the most delicious Chinese food I’ve ever eaten (I even ate all the vegetables cooked in…even cucumbers and such. That’s a big deal for me!), and we went back to the dorm to sleep!

Today was a slow day while the sun was out. I slept until 11, we had class at 1:30 (Kathleen and I had a successful postcard adventure followed by an unsuccessful Mensa adventure and a forced McDonalds run prior to this), we wandered around Dresden a bit, then had a Subway supper (yes, subway like the sandwiches. We’re missing American food!) and headed back to the dorms. About 45 minutes or so after getting to the dorms, Adam and Katie barged into my room grinning from ear to ear. Katie said to me and Lyn, “What have y’all been up to?” we replied with something lame, and apparently didn’t ask in return because she finally exclaimed, “Well, we’ve been busy getting engaged!” Adam and Katie have been dating for three years, and a couple of people had suspected they might get engaged while in Dresden. I was so excited for them that I even creepily followed them to take pictures while Katie called her parents to tell them! We all celebrated and played every card game we knew (because it’s Adam and Katie’s favorite pastime). It’s been a great night here in Dresden after a sleepy, rainy day. I’m going to miss it so much!

Our adventurous trip to Lubeck and Travemunde!

We went to a body of water that’s technically a SEA (Baltic, y’all)!
This morning, four of us had planned (well, Adam had planned) a trip to Lubeck (Northeast Germany) and Travemunde (THE BALTIC SEA-TOWN!) and we all headed out on less than three hours of sleep. When we left the Hauptbahnhof at 5:54, we might have been a little bit delirious. Everything was funny for a couple of hours, but eventually we all started to doze (quite unsuccessfully), and pretty soon four hours had passed and it was time for our first train exchange. We knew it was a quick exchange (11 minutes) and we were going to arrive at platform 40 and need to run to platform 141. We all joked about how ridiculous it would be if somehow the numbers 40 and 141 were close: they were literally one platform away (the number sequencing for that gate was 1, 40, 41, 140, 141. Go figure). We were confused about which train to board (there were two right beside each other) and the Lord must have smiled on us, because this (also) confused woman saw the conductor hanging out of the first train and said, “Lubeck?!” approximately ten times, and he nodded every single one. We had a quick 45 minute jaunt to Lubeck, and upon arrival Adam and Katie bought a tiny map and off we went! Lubeck is super-compact and ridiculously easy to navigate, so we were in luck. We dubbed Lubeck Church Tour 2010 because of the probably ten places we visited, eight or so were churches (two dating back to the 13th century, two dating back to the 14th century, and a few from the 16th century and beyond and we even visited an original structure castle from the 15th century)! I think my FAVORITE part about Lubeck was the Marzipan shop. Lubeck was the creating city of Marzipan (crushed almonds, sugar, etc) and they are SERIOUS about selling it. All four of us cramped into a store with about forty other people or so to buy Marzipan goods/souvenirs, but we ended up with some really neat trinkets and such. I really think I enjoyed our mini-tour of Lubeck more than Berlin, but it was probably just because I (we all) felt so independent finding our own way in a super-historical German city! We took a short twenty minute regional train to Travemunde, the closest German Baltic Sea town, and it is definitely no Panama City Beach, Florida. The architecture was mostly white, and kind of reminded me of a beachy Greek theme, and even what would have been labeled the “strip” of the beach was quaint, cute, and not overly populated! From our stop, you could practically see the water (another blessing that it wasn’t very far away). We changed into swimsuits and mostly laid on blankets and such to people-watch. German beach-wear is super sketchy, and I think we’ll just leave it at that. The Baltic Sea was a very beautiful deep, dark blue and it smelled a little bit more salty, but less sea-weedy than the Gulf. We picked a great beach day at a breezy 83 degrees and not a cloud in the sky; we did pick up on that, though, because the beach was packed with families (even on a Monday). We all dozed on the beach, people watched, and of course waded in the Baltic for about two hours, then headed back to our stop. We took a nauseatingly hot and off-balance bus back to the Lubeck Hauptbahnhof (the low point of the trip, and even it wasn’t that bad), then took our short train and had quite a layover in a tiny little train station in some city that starts with a B. I am clearly tired. Anyway, we had about an hour layover in a train station with eight tracks, no restrooms or restaurants, so we played card games (Spades and ERS, just in case you were wondering: Katie and I were losing pretty badly to Adam and Kathleen).Then we boarded our train for a fairly uneventful five-hour trip home (DB trains are weird. One direction can be a different duration than the next) and here I am…awake…for the past eighteen hours…living on three hours of sleep. Aaaaannnd goodnight!

Part 3

Our last day in Berlin was definitely an eventful one! We headed first to Checkpoint Charlie in the moderately heavy rain. Only a few of us had umbrellas on hand (I did…thanks Mom!) but the others stopped to get umbrellas. In case you can’t imagine it, more than ten people with umbrellas trying to walk in one general direction on a sidewalk is a nuisance to any other traffic that may arise. We also looked like a gigantic group of tourists approaching from afar, I’m sure. Checkpoint Charlie was pretty cool. We got to see original pictures, signs, and stories of those who passed through and worked there. It’s really strange to think that the wall was torn down just months before I was born. Next, we headed to the Berlin Jewish Museum. It was way more massive than I think any of us would have imagined. It had floors upon floors of pictures, info, and hands-on activities, and for once it wasn’t all centered around the Holocaust (NOT trying to say that the Holocaust isn’t important, but I’m sure if I was Jewish, I wouldn’t want my culture to be ONLY associated with the negative). We made a quick trip back by the Hostel for our luggage and headed out to catch the train. Katie, Kathleen, Adam, and I ate at (you shouldn’t guess this…) McDonalds to remember what it feels like to refill a drink, or attain one with ice (neither are common practice ANYWHERE in Germany). We thought we were one of the first groups to arrive at our platform, but suddenly the train was pulling into the station. I had the least amount of luggage, so I decided to scout ahead and reserve a ‘Harry Potter car’ (a private compartment with six seats) for our group (just to let you know, this plan had worked every other time previously to today). I noticed more people than usual were trying to board the car with me (we were boarding the 2nd to last car), but I shoved my way through into a ridiculously tiny hallway outside the ‘Harry Potter car.’ I had just secured a compartment with four available seats (through a raving, hardly moving crowd) only to realize that I didn’t see my group. I panicked for about thirty seconds or so (it was already chaos), but then I saw the tops of their heads. As I was motioning for them to come sit, a young lady approached me and said (in perfect English), “These are reserved compartments. Look outside of the door.” Surely enough, she was right: the sign said reserved. I should have thought it odd that she immediately sat down and motioned to a couple of her friends, but I set out sojourning for another compartment. I met up with Kathleen, and we stayed trapped in the tiny aisle of a moving train trying to make our way back to the ‘un-reserved seats’ for almost thirty minutes. Finally, we made some headway and ran into people headed our direction. At first, we were irritated with these boys making it impossible for us to pass, but I finally asked them if they spoke English (they did) and where they were from (Holland). We talked with them for a few seconds and finally realized that they had come from the extreme front of the train looking for unreserved seats, and we had come from the extreme back of the train looking for unreserved seats. Guess what? None of them were reserved. The signs were just permanent. It was at this moment I wanted to make a tiny voo-doo doll of that wretched girl who sent me away from the first compartment and poke it in the knee with a pushpin, but it was too late: she’d been sitting in that compartment for half an hour by this time. We left the Hollanders and headed further towards the front where we knew the rest of our group resided. We had a lot of issues passing through aisles filled with suitcases and people, but we eventually made it and sat down. It was a miracle, because I had envisioned us standing in a tiny cramped aisle with hundreds of people for the entire two hour train ride. Once we got back to Dresden, we went and got picnic materials and headed to our Phillip Glass Kronos Quartet/Dracula viewing. The quartet played music to accompany the (ENGLISH!) movie! It was pretty impressive, and super entertaining. Now I’m tired of typing, though, and it’s time for sleep.

Part 2

We had a 7:30 breakfast time at the hostel this a.m., so we headed out around 9 or so to our tour of the former Stasi Prison, Hohenschonhausen. I actually had no idea, but it was also used as a USSR secret service prison after the war, but before the wall was built (1945-1961). We examined the cells from that time frame, and they were awful. All fourteen of us could BARELY fit standing in an empty cell, and apparently the Russians crammed up to 12 people in each damp, moldy, cell with a giant bed consuming one entire half of the room. It was rough to think of the filth those people lived in for weeks on end. Apparently, because of the amount of carbon dioxide being exhaled and the warmth of so many bodies, the ceiling would literally begin to condensate and drip on the already downtrodden prisoners and create growing mold on their clothes and hair. We also toured where the Russians tortured their political prisoners. Forms of waterboarding seemed to be the worst. It was really emotional to walk into a room in which dozens maybe hundreds of people were tortured. I found myself praying for the poor souls who spent time in there, and it almost seemed as if they were still there partially. Now, that sounds sort of crazy as if I was seeing people, but I intended it to mean I could only imagine the amount of suffering wrought in each room. We then entered the Stasi portion of the prison occupied by (of course) the German secret police from 1961-1990. We headed upstairs and met a much more comfy looking cell. It only appeared comfy, though, because we didn’t know what other forms of torture were going on behind the soundproof walls. Each prisoner was given an individual cell with a bed, desk, sink, and toilet. It looked pretty humane to me on the first glance. Then, our awesome tour guide told us about the more subtle psychological torture. The prisoners could not sit or lay anywhere in the room for twelve hours of the day (the daytime), they were referenced only by their cell number. When brought to interrogation, a red-light/green-light system was implemented so that the prisoner never saw another prisoner or more than one guard at a time. The guards did not speak to the prisoners if at all possible. The prisoner wasn’t allowed to sing, hum, speak aloud, or sleep in a position other than on his or her back. Basically, the prisoner was BEGGING to go to interrogation just for human contact. Just the thought of being on my feet for twelve hours a day in solitude only to be awakened later in the evening if I turned over on my side by accident was enough to make me cringe. We then moved on to the padded isolation cells, which were I guess the typical isolation cells: terrible. Lastly, we went to the 100 identical interrogation rooms. The rooms are literally undisturbed, and have kind of 80’sish décor. It was weird to think that so many interrogations could be going on at once and a prisoner would never see or hear another inmate. We went out to the courtyard and saw the rose bushes planted by the Stasi hired staff physician. Apparently, he liked to defy his oath to help those in need of medical care then run out to garden some of the prettiest rose bushes I’ve ever seen. How lovely. After the Stasi tour, we headed to a quick lunch at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof and then to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche. It was built for the second to last emporer of what is now Germany right before the turn of the 20th century. It was hit by a bomb which hollowed out the steeple and left a gaping, open-air hole in the church in 1943. It remained that way for several years, until they patched in a roof. The lack of a steeple still remains…also a super-creepy semi-mangled Jesus statue. We then saw the new church across the street. It’s where all of the services are now held. Afterwards, we headed to the gigantic mall called the KaDaWe?and spent an hour and a half looking around. It was built by the West Berliners to make the East Berliners jealous (of wealth and freedom, I suppose). Next, we stopped by the dorm to change for the Opera, and headed to Handel’s Orlando. I highly enjoyed it, even though it was a modern adaptation! It’s bedtime, though. ‘Night!

The Gigantic Berlin Post Part 1 (Days 1 and 2)

Most of this I typed the day it happened, so the tenses might be a little iffy at times!

Days 1 and 2

Livin’ it up in the Berl’.
Upon arrival in Berlin yesterday afternoon, we checked into our “hip” BaxPax hostel, and headed out on the town with our tour guide, Klouse! We walked by city hall, the parliament buildings, the West wall, Brandenburg gate (both sides), Fredrickplatz, and the Hotel Adur? (the hotel Michael Jackson dangled his baby, “Blanket,” out of several years ago. I think my favorite part of the tour was the Brandenburg gate. Our tour guide repeated Reagan’s speech there not too terribly long ago, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” which in retrospect I think would have been MUCH cooler if Mr. Gorbachev was there in the flesh to feel the burn of that statement. The walking tour was pretty lengthy, and we were a wee bit tired, but we ended up at a Middle Eastern restaurant on the Spree River at which I had an omelette…go figure. Today was an early day, we ate breakfast at 7:30 and departed at 8 for our train to Potsdam. Potsdam was King Frederick II ‘s summer palace and grounds. We had a pretty sweet guided tour of Sanssouci (his palace) and even got to see his death-chair…yay for terrible morbid moments that surpise you! The Potsdam grounds (not the city itself) are huge! We walked a straight dirt road from the ‘New’ Palace to Sanssouci that was seemingly a short walk. However, it was over a mile long. The ‘New’ Palace appeared like a mirage that kept getting larger, but never any closer. After walking all over creation, we settled on some benches and took a brief nap. We rode the train back to Berlin only to take another short nap at the Hostel and leave for a late dinner. We headed to a sketchier part of Berlin to eat supper (Dr. Hix called it the ‘Harlem of Berlin’), but it ended up being super-delicious and an awesome atmosphere. With fourteen people, it’s usually impossible to sit at one table, so we split into three. I ended up on a ‘date’ with Adam and Katie, but we definitely made the most of our tiny table! Katie and I had summer spaghetti which consisted of spaghetti, feta cheese sauce, and parsley while Adam ate a mushroom/cheese dish that made me wish I liked fungi. We took a brief trip to what looks like Berlin’s space needle (it’s a TV tower), and now we’re back in the Hostel…ready for our SUPER long day tomo

Beating the heat sounds good at this point; it needs some form of punishment.

Well, any day after a mountain climb would typically be a let-down, but not so much today! I have to admit, a lot of us were getting kind of home sick pretty much exclusively for air conditioning.

RANT: It was 95 degrees today, and the sun is much stronger here. Since no one in Germany has air conditioning, you might see a German: A. In long-sleeves, not sweating; B. Doing hard labor in the sun, not sweating; or C. Embarrassing Americans by how much he or she is not sweating. We really do look like sweaty little pigs in comparison. A lot of German women carry big collapsible fans and fan their non-sweaty faces in a lackadaisical manner. Meanwhile, the American women are making tiny paper fans out of pieces of paper, dabbing themselves with already damp napkins, or just looking disgustingly hot in general. As a group, we’ve only come up with a few complaints, and the AC issue is seemingly always on our minds. In Germany, one wakes up sweaty, travels sweaty, and goes to sleep almost sweaty. In Alabama, the humidity is terrible of course, but at least there’s an escape. We dodge the heat from the car to the next air conditioned building. It’s just different here, I suppose. Also, caps on plastic bottles here are ridiculous. Water bottles, coke bottles, you name it. I’ll take a picture and show you; the caps have pointy, annoying wings. Other than those two complaints, though, Germany is amazing and I’d LOVE to come back someday in the Spring or Fall when the weather is mild!

Today, some of us made a ridiculously warm trek to the grocery store a few blocks away (my purchased items today: four .75 liter bottles of wasser *water*, a Capri Sonne (yes, Sonne!), and two Kinder Eggs). Afterwards, we ate a too hot meal at the Mensa (hot pasta in a hot cafeteria with too many bodies is a terrible idea), and headed to class. After the first lecture, those not enrolled in the class were allowed to leave, but Katie and I decided to wait (we had planned a Fountain Tour 2010 and the rest of the group was in the class and had to stay). I fell asleep in two armchairs, and awakened only to a fly looking at me from my arm. I had been asleep for all of five minutes. In any event, we killed time until the others were through, and left on Fountain Tour 2010. There are fountains EVERYWHERE in Europe. Some are sensibly placed, and others are just seemingly placed by eenie meenie miney mo. We knew which fountains had tempted the sweaty, but ill-suited for fountain wading, Americans before, so we wore swimsuits under our light clothes and headed to our favorites. We waded in huge fountains with multiple sources of spraying water, and tiny barely babbling fountains; it was an ingenious plan for the hottest day of our stay. One extremely deceptive fountain ate Katie (well, not really, but she did slip from standing in a calf-deep spot to falling in elbow-deep), but overall it was a success! After fountain tour, we ate at the Bratwurst place near Albertplatz, hit up laundry in preparation for Berlin, and watched an episode of The Office (I guess to remind us of the blessed air conditioning any office building in the US would happily provide). It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and potentially cool off here, so Lord willing: we might stop collectively sweating for five minutes or so.

Until then your clammy friend,

Lorilyn

Yodeling...sort of.

(The bridge mentioned in the National park portion...still can't believe I was there!)

Yesterday was a slow day (or at least during the daytime)! We had class, were late to a concert and ended up skipping it, shopped, then ate the worst bratwurst (60 eurocents could buy) ever, and headed to the Elbe River to watch the game! It was amazing! In the states, no one would be allowed to pack in so tightly to a grandstand (some of us were sitting on the stairs/aisles…a big no-no in the US). I highly enjoyed our aisle view until this rude 20-something guy stood (when everyone else was seated) right in front of our group. It was obvious he understood our English and polite pleas to sit or move, but he chose to just turn his head and text. Finally, Kathleen, a 5’0 tiny (and at the moment irritated) girl from our group went to stand in front of him to show him how it felt to have a hindered view. Unfortunately, this jerk was well over 6’0 and just kind of smirked at her and shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t a Germany fan apparently, and texted during a goal without a flinch (and during that same goal, a few of us may or may not have thrown a couple of eurocents *tiny, tiny pennies* in his general direction). I think he became embarrassed at the crowd’s overwhelming disapproval of his decision to stand when everyone else was seated (and the fact that people may or may not have been intentionally throwing change at him), so he left. After that victory, we got to experience another: Germany beat Uruguay 3 to 2 to place third overall in the World Cup! It was a really exciting game, and during every goal it was exciting to hear a common, “Yeah/Ja!” Since the Germans use ‘Ja’ (sounds like ‘Ya’) for ‘Yes,’ it almost sounded like an English speaking celebration for goals! One of my favorite moments was when the little German guy beside me gave me a high five as the time ran out and we yelled, “DEUTSCHLAND!” in unison! It was a lot of fun. The tram ride back was…well, ridiculous, but we got home safely.

Today, we woke up a bit earlier than usual for a trip to Sachsische Schweiz Nationalpark (it means Saxon Switzerland National Park, but it’s not in Switzerland…it’s in Germany and borders the Czech Republic. It was named that because the mountains appeared similar to the Swiss Alps to the first pioneers). To be perfectly honest: this daytrip, which I knew involved hiking, was the only event I dreaded from day one since being in Germany. I have never professed to be the most in-shape person, but this Summer before leaving I had done my share of working out at the OBC gym, so I’m not out of shape by any means, I just hate the thought of hiking through nature! The word hiking implies incline; the word incline implies increased heart rate. The phrase increased heart rate just makes me think of my atrial fibrillation and coupled with nature made me think of an exhausted Lorilyn trapped on a mountain. In any event, we headed out on a local train from Dresden for a short 30 minute ride to the site of the National Park and upon arriving, I noticed a restaurant on top of the mountain (or at least the yellow umbrellas), and how beautiful the Elbe looked. We took a short cable-operated ferry across the river, and set out on our quest. I never intended to make the entire hike. In fact, up until we reached the challenging part of the hike, I’d been scoping out shady places to sit and listen to my iPod or get some lunch at the base of the mountain. We walked about three quarters of a mile or so to get to the intense part of the hike: almost 900 steep, and occasionally narrow, stairs. Just to give you a reference, the average one flight of stairs contains 24 eight-inch steps. IF the stairs were all only eight inches a piece, which they most definitely were larger for the majority of the time, that would be climbing about 38 stories (but stories through caves and narrow passages). Most of our group headed up and quickly left sight of the less-enthusiastic, but equally as determined folks left behind: Me, the girl with the heart problem; Haley, the girl with back problems; and Clay, the boy with asthma. I would say we stopped about every fifty steps or so for me to let my heart rate catch up, Haley to stretch, and Clay to breathe. It was an extremely long, tiring process, and at one point I’m pretty sure my legs weren’t moving and Jesus was toting me up that mountain (I’m halfway kidding and halfway serious. I had indeed prayed a good bit about this hike)! A couple of times, I wanted to turn back just in case something bad was to happen…but I figured I couldn’t stop because something bad could happen. Bad things could happen anytime, and I could have a heart attack standing outside a hospital instead of on a mountain for all I know! Finally, we saw Iris, our super-fit tour guide approaching. She looked down at us and said, “It’s not so much further,” to which I replied, “How much?” I guess it might have been that it translates to something different in German, but she just said, “Not so much,” again which made me kind of chuckle. Little did we know, we were three turns away from the top! When I saw sunlight, I think I might have seen a little glimpse of Heaven…until I saw Michael standing there with a camera waiting to document the slow-pokes ascent (haha). I really had no intent of making it, but as I kept saying, “Jesus loves us, and He’s going to get us up this mountain somehow.” It happened! Anyway, we then took scenic pictures and sang echoes of “Lonely Goatherd” from the Sound of Music (that sounds really tacky and lame, but we were delirious AND Germans do not know much about the Sound of Music…apparently it’s pretty uncommon in Europe other than Austria). Later on, we walked a little ways to the (surprise!) café I’d seen upon arrival and we had a much better bratwurst and pommes (fries). We got to take pictures on a bridge built between the mountains, and from birds’ nests high above. The descent was actually much more tiring (well, leg wise at least…not heart wise), but went a lot faster! We stopped and rested at the base before catching our train back to Dresden. Pretty sure 90% of us took a nap immediately upon arrival (I totally did), and we woke up just in time for supper!

Tonight, we ate at an indoor/outdoor café near Neustader Market. We sat on the indoor side, and because of the lack of air conditioning anywhere (not a joke) it was warmer inside than outside (which the high today was 93). I had Huhnchen mit mushroom sauce (Chicken) served in an edible pastry with a lemon slice. It was pretty good, but was a little too mushroomy for my taste. After supper, we decided to head to the river one last time to see the World Cup Final (even though Germany wouldn’t be contending). It was almost equally as crowded, and instead of rude-standing-man we encountered chain-smoker-extraordinaire. This dude, sitting inconveniently up-wind of us, only spend a period of five minutes without a cigarette. Then moments later, a buddy of his arrived with a new lighter. Apparently, he had only stopped because of a lack of lighter fluid. Anyway, the game was a bust. After about 110 minutes of play, Spain finally scored. Both teams played terribly, but it was interesting to see who the Germans were rooting for and why. Most of them were rooting for the Netherlands since Spain eliminated Germany from the final, but the Spain supporters were loud and proud as well. We had fun talking about different subjects than soccer, and occasionally laughing at how pitifully these (supposedly) professional players were playing. Anyway, here I am: completely exhausted, and partially embarrassed I have typed this much. It’s about time for this (not) lonely goatherd to hit the hay! ‘Nacht!

I forgot pictures!

How am I supposed to summarize Leipzig in less than five paragraphs?!

Well, Wednesday we woke up and rode the train to Leipzig. Train rides with German ticket collectors can be confusing. All of our group had the same tickets, but the ticket-stamper-guy stamped most of our group, and fussed at a couple of group members whose tickets were seemingly the same. Unlike the trams or airplanes, the trains don't have English translation for their announcements so it's always a guess as to what they're saying. Once we got to Leipzig, we headed out on a two hour walking tour with a guide. Leipzig didn't have quite as much TOTAL destruction as Dresden during the war, so we got to see a lot more original buildings...not recreations on the same site or anything! After the tour, a few of us got schnitzel at a local outdoor cafe, then headed to our Bach competition. We were not competing (obviously: we'd be a rag tag bunch of three flutes, two saxophones, a trumpet, and a bunch of vocalists), but we had tickets to see a certain portion of the competition. We listened to a twelve piece string ensemble (violins, violas, cellos, string basses, and a harpsicord) play a lesser-known younger Bach (his son, that is) piece and two Bach sonatas. It was amazing. These musicians are for real, as I've said before. During the concert, we'd been anxiously awaiting score update texts from the Germany/Spain World Cup Semi-finals, but nothing had arrived. We rushed afterwards to the nearest big screen with Germans in tow, and watched the remainder of the game. It was rough...and let me tell you: Germans. do. not. like. to. lose. On the way back to the hostel after the game, we saw people burning Spanish flags and a lot of people were screaming or semi-belligerent, but of course traveling as a big group has its advantages and we managed to survive unscathed.







Thursday, we traveled to the Bach museum which was pretty neat minus most of the exhibits being exclusively in German and the lack of photography (it wasn't allowed). I think it was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to gaze upon ACTUAL MANUSCRIPTS totally written by Bach's own hand. His final draft penmanship was great; his first draftts were a bit sloppy...but whose wouldn't be? It's weird to be so near to something so old and significant. After the Bach tour, we toured the Thomaskirche (Saint Thomas Church) where Bach worked as a composer and cantor for about 25 years of his life. He composed new music for the church every Sunday except for a handful during that time! The church itself is remarkable; there's been a church at that site since the early 13th century, and the last large exterior remodeling was done in the 1700s. The organ inside was enormous, and we actually got to hear an organist rehearsing when we toured. That's something I won't soon forget; it was so beautiful! After the Bach tour, we grabbed a quick lunch (a road-side bratwurst for a euro-fifty) and headed to the Mendelssohn Haus. This was the first english head-set guide we'd encountered, and I shared a headset with Kathleen who is a good bit shorter than me, so manuvering through the house was pretty comical. The Mendelssohn Haus actually has the original flooring from the 19th century, and had a lot of interesting memorabilia mixed in with the weird stuff (a tuft of his hair, and another death mask. Gross), but all in all, I think it's the most authentic museum in a home we've seen so far (although, the only other one is Weber). Afterwards, we took a collective in our bunks back at the hostel, and headed out to the Auerbachs Keller. The Keller dates back in records to the fifteenth century. Goethe, the famous German writer, visted the Keller often and eventually wrote about it in his work, Faust. It's the only mentioned specific scene in Leipzig in the whole book, and the murals inside that inspired his version of Faust are original. The Auerbachs Keller has been estimated by two sources as the fifth most visited restaurant in the world (strangely enough, next to Caesar's palace in Las Vegas...go figure). We had shnitzel and potatoes, and I loved every minute of it. One of my favorite moments of the trip so far was when two of our groupmates leaned into the famous touristy barrel they have set up (much like the Faust scene) and accidentally put weight on the spigots, and wine began to flow forth (just as it did in Faust)! I was playing photographer for them at that moment with one of their cameras, but boy do I wish I had that picture myself! Haha. After the Keller, we went to a discotheque and danced to American music...which is confusing while in Europe, but almost flattering, and certainly fun!




Today, we had a free day and some of us decided to venture out to the Leipzig Zoo. It's by far the biggest zoo I've ever seen. It took us about two hours to make the shortest suggested loop of the zoo, but it was a nice assortment of animals, and I think we all really enjoyed it (especially the aquarium). Then we headed to the Volkerschlachtdenkmal (the Monument to the Battle of Nations) the tallest monument in EUROPE. We found out that for four euros, you could climb to the top of this 300 foot structure. Well, they didn't exactly tell you there was an elevator that cost a euro. We climbed up the spindliest little spiral staircase I've ever seen to make it to the middle. I stopped at the middle (after about 250 steps in a scary, narrow passage) and the rest of the group eventually made it to the top! The view of Leipzig was beautiful, but I do NOT like heights (as was evidenced by my 1995 plea to not see Pocahantas at Disney world to avoid a ten foot platform with steps)! Next, we stopped and had coffee and cake (at the traditional 4:00 hour!) at the Coffe Baum (yes, only one 'e'...not sure why) which is the oldest coffee house in the world. It opened in 1720, and many big names frequented it in Leipzig: Goethe, Schumann, etc.) we had an apple cream cake that was out of this world, and the break from walking was nice, too! Afterwards, we breezed through the all-German Stasi museum, and packed up our things from the hostel and headed for home!

Pop goes the 4th...but not really in the Deutschland.

(This is THE picture of Carl Maria von Weber, and a few people at cake-time)!

I highly enjoyed spending our Independence Day in another land; although, it was kind of weird to be without barbeque/grills and fireworks! I slept in yesterday for the first time since I've been here (from 1:00 to 10:30), and it was amazing! The sun commences beaming through our gigantic picture window at about 4:00 a.m., so it's usually hard to stay fully asleep for more than about five hours without waking. Four of us had a really fun lunch and unsuccessful grocery trip near the Hauptbahnhof and Studentwerken area; it's amazing how people who have never met can know so many acquaintances and like so many things in common (well, for the most part) :). Then we traveled to the Weber museum on a series of streetcars and (what must have been) deoxygenated buses, but the country out there is beautiful, and well worth the stuffy air! Weber's house/museum was pretty neat, but smaller than I'd imagined. Also, he had a death mask on display, which was pretty startling. After that four hour venture, we set out to find an American hang-out to celebrate with others...no luck there. We ended up being the (slightly) loud Americans at a very quaint, but nice Italian biergarden. Most of us just ate dessert; a lot of us had eaten Turkish earlier...I LOVE durums! They're better than any wrap I've ever eaten, and they scrape the meat off of this huge cylinder spinning on a spit. Anyway, we had a good time just being American amongst Germans (and probably being bothersome, but hey...it's our Independence Day)!

We made a much more successful venture to the grocery store today, in which I bought about 6 liters of water (I'm known among the trip members as the girl who always has 'wasser,' but I'm just taking Cora's "Dehydrated" song seriously!) so my backpack on the way back was pretty uncomfy to put it lightly (PUN INTENDED :)). This afternoon, we had a tour through the Staatliche Kunstsammlugen Dresden (the art museum that just reopened two weeks ago), and it was pretty interesting. They have attendants or docents or whatever in every room...occasionally more. They are super-protective of their art, I suppose...which is pretty appropriate. We saw a Van Gogh, and two very commonly used paintings in text books amongst a bunch of super-old sculptures, beautiful German paintings, and other super-noteworthy things I wouldn't have forgotten had I been able to photograph. We took time today for 'cake-time,' the German break, kind of like England's tea hour. I split a Pear and chocolate ice cream dish with Katie, and it was really amazing. The way the Germans incorporate fruit into desserts is very tasteful, and the presentation looks so much more colorful! Now we're back at the dorms taking a brief siesta before supper and a night out in Dresden! Gutentag!

Four Goals and a little bit of Verdi!

The day truly started with lunch! We had wraps (they have a specific name that I've forgotten) that were a lot like gyros. I chose the chicken instead of lamb. They. were. amazing. Afterwards, we headed to the Goethe Institute for the first time for a lecture. We talked about the differences between the Classical and Romantic eras. I say 'we,' but Meg did a great job of heading up the lecture/discussion! We knew the big Germany v. Argentina game was going to begin at four, and we wanted to be near Hauptbahnhof to watch it with the locals! We ended up finding seats close to a relatively big screen tv outside a hotel's outdoor restaurant. It's really hard to explain how the Germans cheered and booed as one unit...it's really something else. Futbol in Germany is definitely something to write home about (pun intended..this is a blog)! A really sweet South African lady who (of course) spoke English was constantly high-fiving our group and tried to teach us a German fight song. Needless to say, every goal was a gigantic celebration! At the end, we went to grab a quick bite to take with us on the streetcar on the way to the opera, and we boarded our normal tram. Due to the ridiculous amount of people in the streets and cars (everywhere), they rerouted all of the trams...as we flew past our stop, Kathleen and I realized we were more than likely going to have to run to make it to the opera. We quickly got off, and hopped the tram heading the direction from which we had come...only to have it skip the Theatreplatz again. We thought we were the only two having this problem, and were beginning to jog from the synagogue stop when we saw like eight members of our group booking it 50 yards ahead of us. We all ran about three blocks, and had we not, we wouldn't have made it inside. The ushers closed the doors to the Semper after our last group member entered. We were FRONT ROW again for Verdi's Falstaff! It was a LOT easier to follow in Italian (still with German subtitles) than the Russian from last night. It was a lot more comical, too...less tragedy. After the opera, we went to get ice cream and plotted out our plans for tomorrow! My plan for now is to sleep. Gutenacht!

Days 3 and 4!

I don’t even know how to cover the past two days; it’s manageable, but kind of hard to recount! Yesterday, we woke up and had a great German breakfast (meats, cheeses, bread, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, yogurt with granola *it has a specific name, which I can’t remember* and my personal favorite…BANANA JUICE!) then headed out to the grocery store. Everything is pretty normally priced with a lot of American brands and/or strange names for American products. Purchasing groceries can be kind of stressful when it comes to checking out, though. They are really trying to hustle and move you through the line. I bought a huge (like 2 liter) bottle of water, two fruit smoothies, and nutella-to-go for 3 euro. It was a lot of fun exploring there! After the trip, we went to the Mensa (cafeteria) where I had my first schnitzel! It was chicken and came with a couple of lemon slices and French fries with an awesome mushroom sauce. I loved it! The next adventure was a long one to the giant mall including an IKEA! When I was checking out (picture the same stressful situation), I dropped ALL of my change out of my zipper-pocket on my passport holder. Typical American: holding up the line. Oh well. Eventually, we went to the Opera House only to discover our tickets were for tonight (Friday night), so we eventually just got ice cream and played the part of the wandering tourists.

This morning, we toured a lot of Old Dresden and New Dresden with Michael’s old German teacher: Iris! Most of the buildings in Old Dresden are reconstructions because of the bombing in February of 1945. We all kind of felt like jerks during some of the stories about reconstruction. Unfortunately, Dresden was bombed right at the end of the war. It was not really a tactical move…no military presence was there, no factories or installations. The bombing on Dresden (and resulting fire) killed 25,000 people: almost all civilians. It’s hard to hear such a tragic story and not think, “Why?” Although, war is war. I’m not going to try to question it, but as Americans, we have to sort of shudder and keep moving. For all we know there could have been reason to believe someone or something tactical could come from bombing Dresden, but in the end it wasn’t tactical. Anyway, most of the buildings were built by Augustus of Saxony, and (because I’m terrible with German spelling and pronunciation) I’ll use the English translations. We toured a Catholic church Augustus built (even though he didn’t really claim a religion) and the Church of Our Lady. We saw the school of Art, a couple of different houses Augustus built for his son (and mainly for his mistresses), parts of the palace, another church in which Martin Luther preached in 1590, among other things. It was an almost four hour walking tour, and we covered about three miles! Afterwards, we ate at the Mensa again, then some of us went to Hauptbenhof (the train station area) and bought some necessities! We ate ice cream again over on the other side of the Elbe, then waited outside the Opera House to see Mussorgsy’s Boris Godunov!

We had FRONT ROW SEATS thanks to Michael and Meg (I’m assuming). It was in the native Russian, with tiny German translations projecting at the top of the Opera House, so it was pretty much guessing for the plot. It would get comical at times not knowing the plot and wondering why trampy girls suddenly appeared, or why a man singing in falsetto with a wig would occasionally outburst in song, then slink to the background. Anyways, the music. was. beautiful. I don’t think anyone in the entire huge pit missed a note, and the singing was phenomenal…even if it was in Russian! We got to meet one of Michael and Meg’s friends from FSU who had had a pretty large role in the opera. Afterwards, a bunch of us had our first German McDonalds! When I asked for honey mustard, the cashier just smiled and said, “Eh. No honey? Just ze mustard.” It was pretty similar to American McD’s, though minus the tiny, tiny drinks! Over the past two days, we've walked over ten miles, so we've gotten a pretty good perception of people and distances. A couple of things some of the trip folks have noticed: If we don’t speak in English whilst passing groups of German people, they assume we’re German, and will A. Not stare and B. Talk to us in German occasionally. Another thing: if you point or use a mixture of German AND English, it gets your point across better than just the English. And C. It’s really hard to tell if people are laughing with you or at you, but to be honest…it’s almost always funny anyway. When you’re in a department store trying to use sign language and noises to demonstrate the word ‘hair dryer’ to a worker who clearly does not speak English, it’s hard not to laugh at yourself! Well, I'm sleepy. Off to bed! Auf Wiedersehn!

DRESDENNNNN

I can’t believe I’m currently in Dresden!

Well the flight from ATL to Frankfurt was overall ok. The first four hours consisted of me being on edge due to the (no joke) five crying babies/toddlers in our section, but I had a good seatmate (a guy from ATL but originally from Croatia) and with each Lufthansa in-flight TV show and movie, the time slipped away. I only was about to sleep about an hour, though, which was the story for most of the group. We all stayed awake for our three-hour layover in Frankfurt, and took a quick slightly turbulent flight from Frankfurt to Dresden (about an hour). We all collectively lugged our crap up to the International Guest House (mine being the most severely overweight, at a grand total of 60 lbs for my one bag), and were surprised to find the dorms look almost exactly like the picture in the brochure! They are super compact, but very clean with nice furniture, a mini-kitchenette, and our own restroom/shower. Everyone was super tired and wanted to take naps desperately, but Dr. Hix and Dr. Jackson figured it’d be to our advantage to hold out until this evening to avoid further damaging our (non-existent) sleep pattern. We tromped around Dresden to get our street-car passes, and after a while went to our ‘welcome supper ‘ at Brauhaus am Waldschlosschen, an indoor/outdoor “beer-garden” (which leads the imagination to think wild things, it’s really just a huge restaurant that’s very highly esteemed in Dresden). We were collectively ordered a roasted beef with raisin gravy (oh yes), cabbage, and my personal favorite: kroshettes (I might have butchered that spelling, but they’re potato dumplings. You should be jealous). Some of us discovered something which has got to be pretty common, but was seemingly pretty unusual at supper: a few of us had been having phantom-turbulence feelings ever since we left the planes! It’s just the result of being on planes for twelve hours probably. In any event, we took the street-car back to our dorms and now after about 36 hours and approximately two hours of sleep (on the plane and street-car combined), I’m about to go take care of this jet lag and hit the bed!

T-48 Hours!

Well first posts always seem kind of abrupt, but this is my blog for the Germany trip, of course! At church today someone asked me when I was leaving and when I responded, "Tuesday," she said, "Oh. The day after tomorrow!" Made my stomach drop for a second! It's a good thing I'm almost all packed. I'm attatching a picture of Natalie's old room. I've taken over her bed for my packing/sorting area! All of my carry-on mess is in my room! I'm an avid overpacker. I love to have more than I need, so hopefully that will be the case! I've realized through packing I'm more high-maintenance than I thought! Anyway, I'll attatch the picture and take my last Ozark Sunday afternoon nap. Auf wiedersehen (yes, I copied and pasted that. I can hardly say it, much less spell it correctly)!