Frankfurt Airport and Home!!!

7-1-08

I woke up today at around 4:30. Got up, decided not to shower, since I showered last night. Matt and I both did this, plus we left all of our shampoo, etc, in Germany, because there was no point in bringing them back and adding extra weight to our luggage.

Laura and I ate breakfast, only a bowl of the infamous LIONS cereal that we have come to love from Deutschland. IT is chocolate and carmel thingys. like Coco puffs, but not found, they were flat and almost....half circle shaped. But they were so tasty, I will miss those!

After breakfast, we quickly packed watchever had not yet been packed and headed out for the trainstation with all of our luggage.

It was... a trek thats for sure, and we don't even live that far away from teh train station, but let me tell you, pulling luggage up hill on a steady incline on top of a cobbblestone pathway. It sucked, lets jsut put it that way. lol. I had so much. a purse, a backpack, a pillow, and two rollaway suit cases, one large and one small.

As we reached the Train station, Matthew and his Host mother pulled up in her car, she had kindly brought Matt and his stuff to the train station. We said goodbye to her, though I must admit, it was a teary goodbye. Matthew and I have really come to care for his family, they are incredibly sweet people, and have offered to put us up anytime the two of us are in Germany.

We said goodbye, and promised her that if we were to ever sing in Europe (me, hahaha, not likely) that we would tell her where and get her tickets, haha, she's so sweet.

Anyways, we got into the train station, and matthew did jsut fine getting up the stairs, though I must admit, I had quite a hard time, when I fianlly reached the top, I had a huge blister on my right hand! Lovely!

We waited for our train and reminisced about Mayen, the Mayen Ost Train station, etc. When our train arrived, we got on immediately. It was early, but I think we were all wide awake.

After the usual like 20 stops to Andernach, we finally arrived. We had to go down the stairs from platforms 2 and 3 to get over to platform 1 where our next train would be pulling in. My luggage fell on the way down and a nice young man helped me finish getting it to the bottom.

Then I had to rush over to the next staircase. A train was already arriving, though it was not ours, but we could take it and get to Koblenz earlier than expected. I was still at the bottom of the stairs and had to yell up to laura to come and help me get my stuff up the stairs so we could make the train.

We did make the train thank God!!!

After like two stops, we arrived in Koblenz and found our next train to Frankfurt. However, it was running 30 mins late. lol. We thought that this was unfortunate, but we knew that we still had time. Laura thought it was funny, so we took a picture of the sign saying that our train was 30 mins late. I kid you not, 30 seconds after that picture was taken, the sign changed and said that the train would be 60 mins late.

Well right there, we freaked out. Over the loud speakers, we heard that we could catch a regional train from Koblenz to Frankfurt, so we all moved down like 5 platforms. Of course we had to go down stairs and up stairs. Let's jsut say, I probably treated my luggage rougher here than the air plane people would.

My luggage again fell down the stairs. so I just let it go, it was faster that way. Then when we got to platform 1, where the regional train took off from, of course it was one of the only platforms to not have an escalator. So, guess what. Thats right~ I had to lug my luggage up yet another huge flight of stairs. A kind man again asked if he could help me and I said yes. (many kind people helped me on this trip I will add).

We made it onto the train, and were very thankful for it, apparently we were not the only ones held up by this lovely debocal. So everyone and their mother was rushing for this train.

The train set off and it was going alright in the beggining, however, after a while and we kept getting closer to our destination, our train started stopping for longer and longer at every stop. Which there were hundreds!!!!!

We were starting to freak out, Laura kept saying how she just wanted to go home, lol, poor Matt, he was the only one who wasn't freaking out. Finally after what felt like forever, we finally reached the Frankfurt Airport trainstation. Which is a trainstation for the airport right underneath the airport. How cool?

We had to get above ground and find a tram to our terminal. When we finally found Northwest, our plane was already boarding! For luggage, each is only supposed to weigh 23 kilograms. Mine weighed 26 kilos, but the lady let it slip, but Matthew, his was 31 kilos. So guess what, we had to pay 50 Euros for it. Thankfully I still had a 50 Euro left, it was all I had left, and I paid the lady on the spot. Laura had gone ahead, her bag weighed 26 kilos too, however, the lady she had made her pay 50 Euro for it, she was not happy.

So we had to go through passport control, then through security scanning,etc. Finally when we reached our gate, we were so stressed out we got ourselves checked in and got on the plane. Matthew and I were quite lucky in this, because we had a two seater. So Matthew sat by the window, and I sat by the aisle.

Everyone made it on the place, Laura, and Tyler as well. How we beat Tyler, I am unsure, but we did. haha. we were pretty far back in our section, right next to teh bathrooms, but I was thankful for this, because I knew it would be at my advantage to be closer than farther away.

So the flight started, they passed out drinks, and then dinner, I had the pasta and Matthew had the Chicken. Both were good! We also had merlot with our dinner, complimentary if you can believe it!

I watched four movies on the way home: Be Kind Rewind, Nim's Island, 21, and Run Fatboy Run!, I also started Drillbit Taylor, but I only 20 mins in before inflight systems were shut down for landing.

For "lunch" we had cheese and chicken sandwiches on the plane, and then more merlot, accompanied by Mountain Dew(Matt) and Tomato juice(Emily).

When we finally arrived the Detriot airport, we got off as soon as we could. First we had to go through pasport control, which sucked for me, everyone else gopt through yippy skippy. Me on the other hand, I ended up having to stand in liek 3-4 different lines, because as soon as I would get close to teh front, the person in front of me would have a problem and they would have to close my line!!! GAHHHH!

When I got through, I had to grab my luggage which toook forever to come, then we had to go through customs. That went quicker though even though there were only like 3 lines open for around 700 people, I might be exaggerating, but I can't be sure, tehre were a lot of people!

We got through customs, and put our luggage back through, hoping that it would make it onto our next flight. Then we walked from basically gate 12 to gate 38. The detriot airport is long, and their teminals have a lot of space in between. Let's just say it was quite a walk.

We got ot our gate and about 10-15 mins later, they started boarding. We were so close to home. Matthew got the window seat and I got the middle. The flight went by marginally quick, but I think it was made longer, because we were just so excited to get home!!!

We landed in Minneaoplis with no problems. When we got to our luggage pick-up, Matt's dad Mike and My mother Lathy were waiting for us. My mother had brought like 4th of July insipre Red, white, and blue flowers for me! yay. We chatted and waited for our luggage to come.

One of my bags had made it, however, the second bag, they had had to put on the next flight. After a while, I told Matthew and his dad to head for home, my luggage was coming, we just needed to wait a bit longer.

When my luggage finally came, we booked it out of there and spent a lovely day at home.

When we got home, we played with the boys a bit (my two dogs, shih tzu's, Oscar (13) and Bailey (2)). Then we went to the Eden Prarie Mall for Barnes and Nobles (yay more books!!!!!).

The evening was rounded out by panera, a nice walk around town, and a good nights rest.

So that is the end of our Germany excursion. I must admit that life has been ....pretty boring since coming home, lol, no not really, we've been busy for sure.

I will still post picutres, I am buying batteries today, so hopefully, picutres will be up by monday!

Thanks for staying tuned, and trust me, you want to see our pictures, because they are fantastic!!!

Biss Dann! ;)

Leaving Berlin, Mayen, and Germany all together!

Hey everyone~

Sorry it has taken me so long to get everything back in order, which it still really isn't. However, I did promise that I would blog more, as well as do pictures. Pics will have to wait until tomorrow, becuase my batteries are dead, and I need batteries to upload my pics to the computer.

So lets see... Where did I leave off? Oh yes the Euro cup.

6-30/31-08

So after a very intense game between Spain and Germany, in which Spain had a completely intense defensive system. Poor Germans, they could not break through Spains defenses. Plus, Spain had Torres, and Torres is freakishly fast. Matthew noted that whenever Spain went in for a goal, it was always like a one man break away while the rest of the team stayed back and defended their goal; unlike Germany where bascially all of their defenses moved up when trying to take a goal.

Torres made the only goal that was made in this game, and it was so brilliant that I swear it was a complete and total accident.

So the game was won by Espania! We were sad to have lost, but in truth, Spain really did deserve the championship. They were just... better. No offense to Deutschland, but it's the truth.

Well after the game, we booked it downstairs in our Hostel to grab our luggage. We dragged it to the Friedrickstrasse S-Bahn station just down the road from our hostel.

We were lucky to get tehir early, so our s-bahn was relatively not full. However, 2 stops later when we reached the Berlin HautpBahnhof (Berlin Main Train Station), It was Chaos, complete and utter Chaos.

In Berlin there lives around 2.5 million people I believe. Well half a million was in that trainstation with us that night. It was intense~

Even though Germany had lost, everyone was still singing their german Soccor songs, and were blasting their horns, and making just a gerneral muck of things.

We got there about two hours before our train was supposed to arrive. However, when we got to our gate, our train was not listed. So we ended up going up and down escalators that had been shut down with our luggage. I had it the worst because I had a suit case, and matt only had a backpack, I am usure what Tyler had, but after a while, tyler kinda Chastised Matt in the fact that he wasn't helping me. Thanks Tyler.

lol. anyways. We went up and down, dragging my suitcase basically up... stair since the escalators were not operating. we finally made it to the Deutsche Bahn help desk, and I pretty much screamed at the lady in German ( I had to, it was so loud in there, but I was pissed off too). I asked her why our train wasn"t listed, and she said it was, only we needed to look at the big board of departures and not the tiny ones. So we ended up being on the same railway platform, only the train had switched tracks on us, so instead of coming in on track 13 it came in on track 14. Go figure, after all of that running around, up and down, so on and so forth.

I got so mad, I went to our platform by the easiest route, basically leaving matt and tyler in the dust and made it there before them. Matthew was not too pleased with this, but in the end everything was worked out.

I took several videos of the chaos to show to you all at home. I will post them hopefully tomorrow.

Anyways, so we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited for our train. Meanwhile our platform is getting kinda crowded, we thought that perhaps all of these people had a train that they were getting on before us.

Well when our train finally arrived, we basically realized that we were on the completely wrong end of our platform, and that basically the entire train was boarding in Berlin!

So we had to run to get to our wagon. When we finally got to our seats , we had to ask people to move, because we had reserved them and paid good money in which to do so. only like 4 Euro, but still.

They got up without a fuss and told us to enjoy our seats. lol. I am so glad we made reservations, otherwise, we would never have gotten a seat on that train. So after we all got setteled in, we started to realize how hot it really was on this train. Turns out, the AC was broken and there were hundreds of people on this train!

We fell into sweaty, miserable sleeps, until the train workers, knowing that we were all roasting like lobsters in a pot of boiling water, decided to give us a chance to catch a fresh breath of air ( the windows on the train do not open). So we made about a 10 mins stop in Wolfsburg to get off and get some loely fresh air. Let me tell you, the smokers on this trip certainly took advantage of this opportunity.

Saldy, our time was up, over the loud speakers a voice said "Meine Damen und Herren an Gleis eins, bitten Einsteigen" , baically meaning ladies and gentlemen on platform one, please board the train. Everyones heads swiveled down to see which platform we were on, and when we all realized it was us, there was a groan from the crowd and everyone, reluctantly got back on the sweltering train.

Again we fell into fitful, hot sleeps ( just go with it), and eventually there was a voice over the loud speaker of the train, it said, things in German first, like where our train was going, sorry for the inconvienience, etc. then in english it told us about 2 places where were were going when the man's phone rang. He paused for a moment, and then said goodbye, hurridley, and hung up the loud speaker. Everyone in our train wagon at least, laughed out loud, and thought it was a riot.

That phone call must have been someone telling them how to fix the AC, becuase finally after about 2 hours of misery, the AC started working.

Again we fell back to sleep and were awoken to see our tickets ina very loud fashion. By this time, like 3:40 am, everyone on the train was asleep. Usually the man checking the tickets would have done so at the beggining of our travel departure, however, do to all the AC hullabaloo, he was not able to. So instead he had to rouse people from their deep sleeps and ask for tickets. Matt and I woke up right away. Tyler did not, though he held his ticket securly in his hand.

our tickets were checked first, then tylers, the man shouted loudly "Mein Herr" Basically "Sir" a few times, and tyler woke up, clutching the ticket in hsi hand with a death grip and looked around like he had no clue where he was. IT was the most hilarious sight, poor Tyler. Everntually after I said, Tyler, the ticket, he looked at me for a while and eventually it dawned on him what he was supposed to do. hahaha.

However, that was nothing compared to the man across the aisle from us. It took the man about 15 mins, to come around out of sleep to even understand language again. He just kept saying um... until the ticket collectorwas blue in teh face from telling him that he needed to see his ticket.

After that excitement, we all fell back to sleep, but I must admit, not as comfortably so, because, I can sleep when I am warm, but whe I become chilled, nothing can get me to fall alseep. Well... For as warm as the train was it was that cold when the AC finally kicked in. It was so cold, I was freezing, though Tyler and Matt were perfectly comfortable, go figure.

We slept until 5:30 am when our train arrived in cologne. We got off and caught our train to Andernach. I don"t remeber anything especially from this ride, except the fact that it was long, we were tired, and they checked our tickets twice, once by the ticket collector, and a second time by a ticket control officer. (basically, if he comes around and you don't have a ticket, you have to pay 50 euro up front.)

We made it into Andernach, but wanted to catch an earlier train into Mayen, so we checked the board and it said there was one coming 20 mins earlier. So when the train came, we didn"T pay attention to the sign that said to Koblenz. Well... Guess where we ended up??? oh right... Koblenz. So after that fun time, we got off the train, found a new train back to Andernach, and caught it. By this time I had gone to teh bus depot to see when the buses for Hohr-grenzhausen left. I had basically given up the thought of going there for pottery that day.

When we got on the train back to Andernach, I basically made up my mind that it was better to sleep in Mayen then to go and buy more pottery.

When we got back to Andernach, we had missed the train we were originally going to take to Mayen, so we had to wait for an hour. Tyler and Matthew both had books with, I had finished mine Friday and given it back to Paula before she left for Turkey, so I was bookless for the first time on this trip!!!! What a nightmare!

We waited for what seemed like forever, and then, a funny thing happened. We hear a familiar voice, and there comes Felecia Lucht walking up our platform, also going back to Mayen for the day to retrieve things she too had left behind. She had spent her remaining days in Frankfurt and was too going to spend the night in Mayen and catch a plane in the morning.

We chatted with her for awhile (of course alles auf Deutsch (everything in German). Our train came, we boarded, and then took advantage of the premium countryside.

We reached Mayne Ost, tyler was getting off at Mayen west, going to his host house, sleeping, then getting back on a train the same day for Frankfurt and staying in a hotel there where he would set two alarms and have a wake up call from the front desk.

We got off at Mayen Ost, bid Tyler farwell, walke da bit with Frau Lucht until my house, and bid her a pleasant journey homeward. I arrived at my house and promptly fell asleep. Matthew went back into town, and bought some limoncello from a local aalcohol store in town. Then went home and slept.

I woke up around ... 3:40pm. Got up, decided I was definately not going to go buy pottery, talked with Laura, who had also come back to Mayen, and we would travel with her in the morning to the airport. I said bye and went to go to MAtthew's house. When I got there, Matt was still sleeping, so I decided to give him so more time and sat and chatted with his family, told them of our Berlin and train adventures. His family really is the sweetest. We had some apple juice, and some cake, it was lovely.

After about an hour or so, I decided it was time to wake Matthew up, he went and took as shower, while I went and chatted some more with his host family. After a while he got raedy and we went back into town for somemore things, while promising to be back by 7 in time for dinner. It was about 6 pm at the time we left. We went to Rewe, I bought lots of chocolate, when we checked out, they porbably thought I was mad buying 25 Euros worth of Milka, rittersport, and Bueno chocolate. lol.

After that, we walked home and had a lovely dinner of steaks, white sausage, salad, and potatoes squares for dinner.

It was nice to have a home cooked meal after the hustle and bustle of Berlin. Afterwards we had dessert of strawberryes and ice cream. It was nice, we enjoyed talking, an dthen they gave me a few parting gifts when it was time for me to go home and pack.

Got back home, saw Ecky, Marianna, and Tobi. Then went to try to call my mother. Never did get ahold of her, but left her several messages.

I went home, went upstairs and chatted for a time with Ecky and Marianna. Tobi left with his girlfriend for a week on holiday, to her house I supose.

I chatted with them for quite a long time, and then Marianna, sweetly kicked my out and told me to go pack, haha, she's so sweet, I miss her. Before I got downstairs, Ecky offered Laura and I breakfast for the morning and I took him up on it!

I got downstairs, laura had made soup for herself, having had no dinner. I had a bowl of the soup ( I was the one who bought it) and then started packing. After packing I tried desperately to go to lseep, it took awhile but, finally I did.

That all I can post for right now. My wrists are protesting from so much typing. I'll finish up the rest of the home journey tomorrow!

Biss Dann! ;)

Last day in Berlin!!!

Hello children of America!!!

Well, today is our last day in Berlin, and it was a blast, for the most part. 6-29-08 Matt, Tyler, and I slept in till around 10am again this morning. We all got up, showered, checked out, and headed out to the zoo. We got to our train stop at around 11 am. We stopped at an imbiss and had 1? curry wurst, I had 1.15? currywurst and brötchen. It is was tasty. Matthew and I went back to return his shirt, and realized that it is a sunday, and no stores are open on Sunday. Boo. We were not amused!

After that fiasco, we headed on to the zoo. It was 9? for students, so we went in and basically spent the entire day till 6:00 or so at the zoo. It was wonderful. It was a days worth of entertainment, and the Berliner Zoo is definately a must see when you are in Berlin. We saw Knut the Berlin zoo adopted polar bear. My mother and I saw him last summer when he was still a baby, well I can say he is bigeer now. Not huge, he's only about a year older, but he is no baby any more. We saw bears, (brown, black, polar, sun, etc), White Wolfs, Elephants, Giraffs, fish, all types of antelope, horses, camels, leopards, lions, pumas, a tiger, hundreds of birds, alpachas, llamas, huge guinea pig type thing (that the german translation for is like giant fur pig. lol, except it isn't a pig), bats, kangaroos, wallabies, a sloth, a huge orangutan, chimpanzees, baboons, a panda, etc. I think you get the idea that there is a lot to see.

Since we didn't eat anything there, except for me, I was so hungry I broke down and had a 2.30? ice cream thingy, we got outta there, went to a local grocery store that was open, basically all day, bought some beer, chips, pudding, water, and... for like 4?. Then we went and bought a huge thing of noodles for 3.50?. The food we bought at the store is for the train and then lunch tomorrow. The noodles lasted us for lunch and will for sure last for dinner as well. We went to the tier garten, had 2 beers and ate some food, while I told my really awful jokes that basically have no punch line. lol, like Randy the rooster, and all of" A Belgian in Heaven" jokes. My mother will appreciate that. lol. They thought the jokes were dumb, and they were, lol, but we laughed at them anyway.

Afterwards, our bladders were bursting and we needed to get seats for the game tonight! The European Meister Fußball Tournament (Master Soccer Tournament) with Germany vs. Spain for the Euro cup!!!! We are so excited. The game hasn't started yet, it is supposed to start at 8:45, it is currently almost 8pm. After the game, we are getting our luggage and catching our train to cologne, then to Andernach.

Matt and I will probably go straight from Andernach to Höhr-grenzhausen to buy pottery for my mommy. Afterwards we will come home to Mayen, talk with our families, and re-pack for our flight on tuesday. It is so close we can almost taste it! We are so excited to see everyone when we get home. I will try to blog tomorrow, but if I don't I am sure you will understand why.

I plan to still post pictures of our later travels once I get back into the states, so even after tuesday, keep checking the blog, because we will be pasting picture pages from Jena, Dresden, and Berlin!!! We love and miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon!!!! Biss Dann! ;) Emily

La boheme

La Boheme

(6-28-08)

OH MY GOD!!!

What can I say about this Opera? What can I say about the Berlin Opera Company? Fantastic, Phenmoenal, Amazing, Stupendous, breath-taking, Wonderful! I am so completely impressed by the Berliner Opera. I cannot even really express in words how wonderful it is. Tonight, the Opera was at 7:30pm. Although we tried to plan ahead, the u-bahn (underground) took forever to get to the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

We got there 5 mins to show time. We raced up to the second balcony, and took our seat in the eighth row, which is the second row from the top. A woman came on stage, and informed us, that the actor who played the main male lead, Rodolfo, was feeling very sick and would only do the acting on stage, but that they had called all over Europe basically, and finally a man in Rome had agreed to fly out today, from Rome to sing the part. His name is Allessandro Liberatore! He was amazing. He stood off to the side of the stage in a tuxedo, with a spot light on him and sang all of the parts, he was even emoting while doing it, while the man who normally sings the role acted out the part on stage.

The cast was absolutely phenomenal. I cannot say this enough. I was so blown away by the professionalism and everthing having to do with this cast.

The Opera: La Boheme this will be a quick run down for those of you who have no clue what La Boheme is.

Act I: The show opens with basically 4 men on Christmas eve? or day? unsure... Among these men is an artist and a writer (I believe them to be the two male leads, even though Rodolfo (the writer) is pretty much aknowledged as the main male lead). The 4 are a merry troup with one another and they make light of one another with relative comfortablitly. 3 of the men go out on the town and Rodolfo stays in the Apartment to write.

Along comes Mimi (The main female lead), she has lost her key and her candle has gone out looking for it. She asks him to light it for her, and when she leaves, she realizes what she was looking for and her candle goes about again, then his candle goes out and the two are in the "dark" apartment alone together. they search for the key, because I think they are trying to hide their feelings from one another, and then the two basically fall in love. Just like that, not very practical or believeable, but none-the-less, it happens.

Act II: Mimi and Rodolfo go to join his friends in town. (This set and the ensemble simply blew my mind, they had acrobats, fire eaters and players, etc. It was amazing. A troup of about 20 children, and a chorus of about 60-80. The sets changed every act, and each one was... WOW!) The join his friends and along comes Mussetta, who is Marcelo's (one of the 4) "girlfriend", however, she is kind of a lose cannon, she likes to have expensive things, so she dates men who have the money to fulfill her desires. She is quite...self-indulgent. She basically tortures this poor rich man for half of the act and in the end, she and Marcelo are back in each others arms.

Act III: Mimi comes to where Marcelo lives to tell him how Rodolfo has broken things off with her. Marcelo is a bit shocked by this, and eventually Rodolfo shows up to tell Marcelo its off with Mimi, and he says thigsn about how its over, Marcelo prys a bit and evenutally Rodolfo confesses how much he loves Mimi (mimi is in the background listening to all of this, and basically realizes that she is slowly dying from Consumption (Tuberculosis). The two decided to stay together until the first blooms of spring and then they will end it. And marcelo and Mussetta have a roll and the two spilt.

Act IV: Marcelo and Rodolfo are trying desperately to work (Artist and Writer) however all they can think about are the women they love. They can only see their faces when they try to work. The two other men come in declare new positions,etc. A play fight ensues and they are all merry, until Mussetta comes in telling everyone that she found Mimi on the stairs and she can go no further, she is dying. Mimi comes in and says how she will go if Rodolfo does not want her there, but the truth is that the two are madly in love with one another. Mimi becomes colder and colder and her last wish is to have a hand muff to warm her hands in.

Marcelo and Mussetta run off to buy her a muff and to get her a doctor. While they are gone the otehr two leave and they are left alone. The confess how much they love one another, etc. Mussetta and Marcelo come back, Mussetta gives the muff to Mimi and shortly there after, she passes away. No one realizes it at first, because they all have hope with a doctor on the way, but when they finally realize she is gone, the curtain closes. It is a very emotional show, you go from laughter, to emense an emense high, to sadness, to extremely sad. I basically bawled. It was so wonderful. I cried through the third and fourth acts and I will say how wonderful these players did. This Opera has one of my favorite tenor arias. The Rodolfo Aria in Act I. Opera singers, I am sure you know which one I am referring to.

After the show, the curtain call went on forever and rightly so. I felt as though I was clapping for christmas at luther. I felt like they were really milking it. The came out in pairs, then all, then one by one, then all again, then pairs again, etc. It was a riot. We took the subway home, by this time it was raining again. We only had to walk a small chunk in the rain from Friedrickstrasse to our hostel. This opera performance was worth every penny we paid for it. It is tragic, but it is wonderful. I might even say that it is my favorite. Even though I do dearly love Il Barberie di Sivigla ( I think that is how it is spelled, correct me if I am wrong). Tonight was wonderful, in full!

After we got back, Matthew and I finished off our last pudding cup, ate some chips and peanut flips, had some apfelschorel, and went downstairs to have a beer with our friend Tyler, who did not come to the Opera with us. Wonderful, I am still reeling from it. I wish you all a very pleasant night, and I will write again tomorrow with our news.

We plan to spend the day at the zoo, but that could all change depending on the weather! Biss Dann

Berlin Chill

Foreword:

Greetings again to you and yours from rainy ole Berlin City, Germany!!! Matthew and I have been having quite an interesting time here in lovely Berlin. Tons and tons of walking. I swear, if weight is not lost on this trip, I will cry. lol. No, this trip has been so much fun. Matthew and I fly back to the states on Tuesday July 1st.

We have enjoyed our time here so much, but we miss our families, home cooking, and just the normalty of American life.

Some things Matthew will miss: Laugen Bretzel (Pretzels), everything being really old and historical, Schnitzel, and good dark beer.

Some things Emily will miss: Brötchen (hard rolls), Milka Chocolate, (no not käse spatzel, I think I have finally worn myself out of that phase, bascially, eat eat until you can't eat it anymore, lol), using and improving my German skills, German ice cream, and the Deutsche Bahn railway system.

Some things Matthew will not miss: not having ice, not having free water, not having refills, not being able to have as much ketchup as he wants for free, having free choices for drinks instead of having to have beer with every meal because it is the cheapest option, plain sparkling water.

Some things Emily will not miss: not having ice, not having free water, not having refills, not being able to have as much ketchup as he wants for free, having free choices for drinks instead of having to have beer with every meal because it is the cheapest option, plain sparkling water.(lol, look at how American we are). lol. While some of these things may sound silly, they are the truth. You have to pay for condiments, of which you only get one small package. There are no free refills. You have to pay for water, and most water is carbonated. We are quite homesick at the moment and really longing for home and the ones we love. It has been tons of fun, but it is time to head on home!!!!

06-28-08 Chill Day

Well, today was a very chill day. I had tried to plan a bunch of things that we could do, but guess what? It rained basically all day, lovely isn't it. We decided to sleep in today, since all of our days have been early and fairly packed full of things to do. We slept in till about 10 am, and then we decided to get ready and check out since check out is at 11am. Matt, Tyler, and I had planned to go to the Berliner Dom and Charlottenburg. Well, neither of those two things happened. After check out, we were pretty hungry, so we decided to grab some cheap food from an imbiss. We all had curry wurst and Matthew and I each had a small pommes (french fries) with it. The food was alright and there was enough to constitiute 3.50? for lunch.

We were on our way to Charlottenburg, when I decided that we should go to the zoo tomorrow and with our Berlin cards, we get 25% off the entrance fee. I wanted to check out how much it would cost and how much we would get off, to even see if it was worth it. Well it is about 12? for an adult, 9? for a student, and we would get 25% of a normal adult ticket. I think it acutally works out cheaper to do the student ticket, so I believe we will do that instead and spend the whole day at the Berlin zoo. After the price check, we had seen a flee market on our way to the zoo, so we decided to hitch back a stop on the subway to check out this awesome flee market.

While we were waiting for the s-bahn (subway), there was a man in liek a white body suit, with sprayed pink hair with white closepins in his hair, and then one half of his body covered with pink closepins and the other with blue close pins. The front of the suit was open to expose this man's chest. It was awkward, but funny as hell. We couldn't stop laughing silently to ourselves and we took a picture of him. This man had to be in his late 40's early 50's. I still don't know what to think of it, and to top it all off, he was wearing a pair of bright pink loafers. Finally after many trains had come gone and had problems, we finally found one that would take us to the place where we wanted to go. When I talk about this flee market, you just have to imagine like a side street completely filled with personal verndors. We spent at least a good hour and a half there. I spent 20? I bought a pair of old Opera glasses for the Opera tonight and a gift... (oooo... who's it for????)

Anyways, the flee market was huge, there were probably around 100 some vendors. It was bascially an antiques market and I swear, had it been in the states and I would have been able to transport stuff home safely, I would have bough thalf of it up! At the Flee market, there was a crepe stand and I had to give way into having a Nutella crepe. It was so tasty and worth every penny of the 2?'s I paid for it!!! YUM!!! After the flee market,Berlin was just soaked, it had been raining hard core the whole time. We considered still going to the Charlottenburg palace, but none of us really felt we could afford the entrance fee, so then we thought we might do the grounds, but after all that rain, the grounds would have been complete mud. It would have been miserable to say the least.

We thought still about going to the Dom, but I mentioned that there was also an entrance fee for that, and so we all decided that some things needed to be saved for the next Berlin trip, so we went back to the zoologischer garten stop and foudn a grocery store by complete chance. Let me preface this by saying that Berlin is extremely expensive. I had forgotten how much so. This grocery store was like such a wonderful relief.

We all decided to buy dinenr there. Matt and I both got a 1.5 liter of apfelschorel (basically, carbonated appel juice), a thing of 4 puddings, and a bag of peanut flips or in Matt's case a bag of paprika chips, all for 2.38?. That is the cheapest meal we have had here so far!!!! We are so going there tomorrow. Usually on sundays in Germany, everything is closed including grocery stores, however, this grocery store is open tomorrow, so when we go to the zoo, before hand we are goign to the grocery store, stocking up for food on the day, and bringing it into the zoo with us. We are quite pleased with ourselves and our stroke of genius that we will now be getting a ton of food, for very little cash! BOOYAH! We decided to eat our lunch\dinner outside of the Lipstick, powder, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedenknis kirche. We found one bench that was not completely soaked, ate some food, went into the Kaiser building again and went into the powder church again.

We were going to go back to Ka De We, but Matthew and I were draining and so Tyler went by himself while Matthew and I went back to teh Hostel to check in, shower, and get ready for the opera. We got ready fairly quickly and decided that since we were ready with over and hour and a half before show time, that we should spend some time on the internet, so thats what we are doing. It is pre-opera time right now, we are both in black. I am waring a black dress with a black over lay and the 3? shoes that I bought in Köln (Cologne). Matthew is wearing a Short sleeve, black button up shirt that we bought him the other day at H & M for this Opera, since there is a dress code. (We might return it after we are done, we'll see, we were just desperate for him to have something to wear).

Now it is time for us to leave, but not to worry, I will update the rest of the night once we get back!!! Lots of Love, Biss Dann!

End of Program and Potsdam....!!!

6-27-08

Hello loved ones and friends once again. I am pretty proud of myself, minus pictures, I have been keeping you all pretty well informed. I hope you are all enjoying the blogs and not finding them boring.

So today was the end of our program, we all basically set our alarm clocks for around 6:47 this morning, but we slept in till 7:30. hahaha. In our hostel, BBC (The Brits) is filming something. The have basically been filming here since we got here and I believe today was their last day of filming. This was the day in which we had to take breakfast in the basement which is usually used of raving and night clubbing, because they were filming in the nude. Lol. There were posters up saying that only 30 selected people could participate. The two main guys were talking to a few of our girls yesterday and asked them if they wanted to be in their BBC thing, and the girls were up for it, until the guys said " Oh, and by the way, you would have to be naked....." hahaha, yea right! No way man!

So they were filming the nudy scene in the breakfast bar room and we took breakfast in the basement. lol. Breakfast was surprisingly fine. There was no crying, I wished people well and I hope that everything goes well for them. After our breakfast and goodbyes, Matthew and I went to our rooms, showered, and packed. At about 9:10, we went downstairs got a locker for our luggage and headed out to Potsdam.

We were able to take a regional train all the way from the trainstaion closest to us to the Sansoucci park. The ride was around half and hour and we were able to get there just fine. When we arrived in Potsdam, we came to a path and we basically took it and came right upon the Neues Palas. This is a huge Palace built by one of the Friedrick Willhelm's of Prussia (there were 3, I think) I believe it was built by the first.

We decided to do an English audio guided tour and because we had the Berlin card, we were able to get in for 3€ per person! It rocked. It was two huge levels of Awesomeness!!!! The palace is basically almost completely rococo in style. Very lovely. My favorite room in this palace in the Grotto room, this is a huge room on the entry level, it is made to look like an undersea grotto with sea monsters on the walls made out of shells, huge like underwater things (Rocks, minerals, shells, attached to every surface, etc). It is a truly impressive room.

After the Neues Palas, we walked the half an hour walk down to the Sansoucci Palas. There are no reduced rates here besides student rates. The normal rate is 10€ for adults, 8€ for students. After the gigantic Neues Palas for 3€, we were feeling kinda jipped, because the Sansoucci palas is beautiful , however, the tour is like 15-20 mins by audio guide, and I personally like the Neues Palas better.

We were a little placated in the fact that with our fee, we were also able to see the Bildgaleri. This is the first Gallery of its kind for art work. It is a huge rococo building on the Sansoucci plot and it is filled with something around 134 pictures, including 2 Rembrants. The buidling was extremely rococo inside, and out of the three times I have been here this is the first time I have seen this part.

Mom, we did not get to see the kitchens, they are not free this year, nor were they included with our ticket price! As I said, Jipped!

After seeing all the wonderful pieces that Sansoucci had to offer, we walked over to the Chinese house and looked at it from the outside. Matthew and I were going to try to find the house where the Potsdam agreement was signed. I was there with a tour group when I was 16, but we were so incredibly pooped, not to mention we spent 11€ on entrance fees today, that we just decided to go home and stick it out till dinner.

We were able to catch the train right away pretty much, and basically slept on the way back into Berlin. After getting back, we checked into our new room for tonight in our hostel, then we went up and talked with Tyler, a guy from our group who we made our reservations with and is staying with us and heading back to mayen with us on sunday.

We talked and napped a little bit, and then we met up with a friend and went to a Shisha bar. We sat and talked and had a good time, and Cher had to go to the Becks Concert, so after she left, we went to the same restaurant that we ate at for dinner last night, matt and I both had cheap, but delicious Spaghetti Bolognese and a beer.

Dinner was good and soon there after around 8, we decided to head for the Reichstag again!!!

Tonight we got in. We waited in line to get in for about 1 hour, however, this is like the only free thing to do in Berlin, so we didn't complain.

When we got in, we were all pissed that we had forgot our cameras, It was beautiful and clear out, where as the entire day in had been very cloudy and sprinkled and rained a little bit for a while. Matty really enjoyed it, especially since it was free. The glass Dom on top of the Reichstag is so cool, because it just gives you the best view of Berlin!

On our way back from the Reichstag we met a few people from Minnesota and some from Michigan. It was a combining of the two worlds. We chatted with these people for a bit, it was nice to speak some English for a while.

When we arrived back at our rooms, tonight we are in a 5 person mixed. So, it is Matt, Tyer, myself, and an older Japanese couple. bwahahahaha! lol. It is so funny, thank god it is only for one night. I am unsure what precautions to take with old people from Japan, since like Custom is everything to them. haha. We'll have to see how it goes.

Well....it is late here now, and I am quite exhausted. I will update again tomorrow with our goings on, depending on the weather, we are planning to go to the Berliner Dom and Charlottenburg. Lets hope for good weather. La Boheme is tomorrow night, Matt and I are very excited to see it!

Hope you are all doing well. Somebody comment to let me know that you are still faithful to the blog, lol!

Love to you all! Biss Dann

More Berlin...

6-26-08

Hello loved ones big and small, one and all!

We have spent yet another day in Berlin. Today we woke up a bit later and got going pretty quickly after breakfast.

The first thing we did today was we walked from our Hostel to Checkpoint Charlie. We did a tour at the Check point Charlie Museum. the man who did our tour was a bit crabby, and I did not really care for him. He kept trying to rush us, We basically saw like 5 things in the entire museum, which is saying something, because the last time I was there I am sure I spent at least an hour and a half if not more. We saw like nothing of the Museum and I really thought it was a shame.

After the tour, we decided to try to barter with stands people for stuff from the USSR and the GDR. Neither Matthew or I bought anything, but a lot of our friends bought the Russian fur hats with the flaps that tie up that you can untie and put around your ears when it is really cold out. Most of the hats are made from real fur, I was tempted, but didn't.

After some bartering, we decided to head over to the Berlin Hbf to make our seat reservations for our overnight train from Berlin to Mayen Ost Sunday night. We got a train going out at 12:30 am. So basically we will just have to try to sleep on the train. At least this way, we will get to see the Euro Cup final. Tonight Russia played against Spain and Spain won. So it will be Spain against Germany for the Euro Cup on Sunday!!!!! YAY!!!!

While there, we also waited with John to pick up his girlfriend. She had flew in, and had taken the train from like Stuttgart to Berlin. When he saw her, he threw down his things and ran to her. I must admit, I did get misty, it was such a sweet reunion for them after having been apart since May 15th.

So after the reunion, Matt, Tyler, and I grabbed a quick thing to eat at Ditsch, and then we were off for Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center. At the Sony Center there is a History Museum of German Film and T.V. It was very interesting. We also got a guided tour through this one, and our tour guide was 15 mins, late, but in his defense his other group had showed up late and so he had just finished a tour and ran to meet up with us.

We only did the Film part of the Museum with our tour guide. We could have done the T.V. part on our own after the tour if we wanted, but we still had other things to do. The tour was very good, it detailed black and white silent, black and white, and color movies. There were 3 rooms dedicated to Marlene Dietrich alone.

This place was really cool because it really spent a lot of time on old films, and only at the end did it get into modern day films. After the tour, he told us that we could go through the special effects part of the museum. Matthew and I did that with a few others and Matthew enjoyed that part the most. They had a costume from Alien (one of the Aliens), the Darth Vader Suit from Empire Strikes back, and the body suit from Robo Cop.

Matthew has been preaching this whole trip about how he will not leave Germany without seeing an opera. Well, it just so happens that La Boheme is playing at the Deutsche Oper on Saturday night, and we were able to get reduced tickets for around something like 17-18€ per person. We are both really looking forward to it.

After getting tickets, we decided to go to Ka De We, which I basically dragged Matthew to, we went to the 6th floor of 7, this is the food level. Matthew and I basically bolted through it, and Matthew kinda complained that this wasn't really his thing, so after that we left.

Maybe we will go back sometime when we have more time, he was just feeling too pressed for time to stay and look at the levels. So we got on the subway,came back to the hostel, and got ready for our farewell dinner tonight. We all went to the Cafe Orange on Oronionburger strasse. Felecia paid for all the food, which included dessert, the only thing we had to pay for were drinks.

For dinner, I had veal cutlets in a mushroom sauce, with vegetable rice and a side salad. Matthew had a rump roast steak with scalloped potatoes and a side salad. For dessert I had a fruit ice cream bowl and Matthew had Chocolate Mousse.

We really wanted to go to the Reichstag tonight with our friends so we busted our butts to get there in time. We got there at 5 to 10 and there was still a line out side, but there was a man standing there and he had roped the remaining people off and would not let us in, even though it was 5 to 10pm and they stop letting people in at 10 sharp. JERK!!!!! I was so pissed. We were all upset.

We took some pictures of the Reichstag, went to the Brandenbuger Tor, took pictures there, went to the Jewish memorial, and then we spent time walking through that. Overall, the night wasn't Completely ruined, though Matthew and I both had stomach aches from walking so fast just after eating and we both have numerous blisters on either feet now.

The day was pretty ok overall, we got a lot accomplished. Tomorrow, our program ends at 7:30 am after we have breakfast. We are relieved but saddened at the same time.

Tomorrow we plan to take the train out to Potsdam to see the Sansoucci palas, the Neues Palas, and the house where the Potsdam agreement was signed. Hopefully we can squeeze it all in.

Hope you are all doing well, I will update later tomorrow!

Biss Dann ;)

Berlin Biatch!

Hey everyone. Are you excited to here about our Travels? I hope so!

Well, I let you know that we all arrived in Berlin yesterday. It was a very hectic day, but not at the same time.

After I left you, I went and got settled into my room. Our room is a bit larger, 6 girls in this room. But it is going ok. No problems yet. After we took a little time to settle in, Felecia surprised us, by taking us on a one hour boat tour on the Spree River. It was very nice. We saw a lot of buildings. We are pretty close to everything but Ka De We and the stuff next to it.

After the Spree tour, Matt and I came back to the Hostel and decided we would be food, since we hadn't eaten lunch like everyone else.

All I could think of was trying to get cheap food, so I took matt to what I thought I remembered as a cheap place to eat: Potsdamer Platz, I was wrong, I got it mixed up with Alexander Platz. Potsdamer platz is where the Sony center, Gemelde Galerie, etc. are. It is a high class place. Well, matthew and I went into the sony center and we decided to eat at the same restaurant my mother and I ate at when we were there last summer (Alex's). We each had spaghetti bolognese, with nothing to drink. The food was good, but the portions could have been more. We took a stroll around the Sony Center and we saw that there is a Cinema Star Imax Theater there, and guess what? All films showing there are in their original language! So we went and saw the new Indian Jones in English!!! I really liked it, and I think Matthew liked it too! Good Action!

After we got out from the film, we decided to walk a bit. We walked to the Brandenburger Tor (The Brandenburg Gate), on the way we stumbled upon the memorial for "The Murdered Jews of Europe." It is an interesting memorial with huge square blocks of varying heights over a wide expanse. It is very ease to lose someone in there at night of they don't stick close by.

We got to the Brandenburg gate and we saw that it was all set up for the European German Football showings. There were 3 huge screens spread out from the back of the Brandenburg gate to the Victory Column. There is a huge stage, food and beer stands as well as a huge ferris wheel 4€ per person. We did not go. However, we did walk from the back of the gate to the Victory column. Quite a walk, at least 30 mins or more.

When we got to the victory column, we found a bus, took some alternative routes and made it home.

6-25-08

Today, I woke up at 7:30, showered, and ate breakfast at 8:30. After Breakfast, we took a 3 hour tour by bus. We saw basically anything that was worth seeing in Berlin, The Berlin Wall, The Kaiser Wilhelm Gedenknis Kirche, The Sony Center, The Dom, The Reichstag, The Brandenburger Tor, etc. It was a very nice tour.

After the tour, we went to a restaurant called the 12 Apostles. It is a pizzeria and pasta place. Lunch was on Felecia, and drinks we on us. Basically, just like that night in Dresden. I had a very tasty yellow and green pasta with awesome tomato based sauce and mushrooms. Matthew had a very spicy pizza. We each had one pils to drink. Personally, I hate the Berliner Pils, I think it tastes awful.

As I was trying to feed Matthew some of my pasta, I spilled it all over his Germany T-Shirt that he was wearing for the soccer came against Germany and Turkey. He was not happy.

After lunch, We came back to the hostel, I hand washed his shirt and jeans and dried them with a hair dryer. It was my penance since I had told him not to spill on himself and then I went and did!

Finally, I had it all done and we did a bit of shopping, not much, me really, Matthew just came with, to keep me safe and keep me company.

When we were finished with shopping, we went back to the hostel to get ready to go to the Brandenburg Gate for the game. Of course, our group got going way late, so we got there and we couldn't get in at the first check point, nor the second or third. Finally, we stole through the trees of the Tier Garten and we found an opening. Matthew and I had to leave the group behind in order to do so. Too bad, but we wanted the experience.

Well we got it, we were stationed at the 3rd screen back, the one closest to the victory column. It was hot, people were pushing, people were disorderly, it took forever for the game to start. When it did, we had several mishaps, including a vendor stand collapsing from fans standing atop it! When I say people, I mean like 50 people on top of a thing the size of my kitchen, which is very small for those of you who know.

When Germany would score, people would jump up and down in joy, which to be honest, they jumped up and down on my exposed flip flop feet. It was a good time, but when we started, we had a pretty good view, and by the end we had been pushed into the view of a vendor and couldn't see much. We only stayed until half time and then we left, which was also an adventure.

We got on the subway and basically ran back to the hostel after getting out of that mess from the Brandenburg Gate.

When we got back to the Hostel, we stood in the entry way to watch the end of the Game!!! Germany won 3-2!!!!!! Yay!!!! Germany is going to the finals on Sunday!!! We are so excited, because we have watched all the games and taken part in the EM for this year. I love soccer, I wish it was America's favorite sport!

So that is what has happened to far. I hope that you are all doing well and that life is fairly simple for you. We are doing well, tomorrow, Thursday, we go to the Museum of Film and T.V. as well as Checkpoint Charlie. I am excited for the first, but I have already been to the second.

I will update tomorrow with all of our exciting news. I believe that I will have no time to upload pictures anymore. This makes me very sad, because I so want to show you all what we have been seeing in these last few days here. I will try, but I cannot guarantee anything!

Yay Germany!!!! Berlin is awesome. Hopefully tomorrow after the museums, we will try to take in the Charlottenburg and grounds and for sure the Reichstag at night!!!!

Take care everyone. We have less than a week left here!

Biss Dann

Bye Dresden!

6-23-08 Last day Dresden!

So yesterday as I said, we took a tour of the Schloss. It was a guided tour with microphone head sets, the only different thing was the fact that they were all synced with one microphone. The tour guide wore it on the side of her face and it picked up everything. It was nice, because she was such a quiet talker that we were able to turn up the volume to hear everything she said. Of course it was all in German and sometimes we drifted in and out of what was being said. The schloss is not like one would think. Since everything in Dresden was basically destroyed, this schloss was rebuilt to house like royal items. There was a boat cleverly carved out of Ivory, The only Green Diamond of its size, little figurines, a gold china set of art that had more than likely never been used but cost as much as one palace. Can you imagine that? I was just appalled.

After the tour of pretty things, Matt, Eric, and I went to the Semper Opera House and took a tour of it. Thank god there were reduced student rates for 3:50€ per person cause otherwise it would have been 7€ a pop and the tour was not worth that. The opera building was quite impressive and when Matthew inquired as to how many singers the opera employed, the guide said 160 persons, but also mentioned with a knowing smile that they were currently looking for singer roles to be filled. lol. Nice huh? Too bad he cannot have them just yet.

After the Semper Opera tour, Matthew and I went to the Swinger palace right next door and walked through the courtyard taking silly pictures of ourselves! IT was a great time. We then went back to the Hostel till 6, doing our last tagebuchs (journals) for Felecia!

At 6, Felecia took us into the altstadt to a bar called "Planwirtschaft". However, Paula, had found a pottery barn with handmade pottery and I went in search of it. I found a few things I liked, purchased them and then I went to the Bar to meet up with everyone.

We all sat down, our waiter was quite cheerful, probably the nicest waiter I have ever had in Germany. I had a radler, some chili coconut soup, and a planters breakfast. It was way too much food I must admit, but I hadn't eaten since breakfast and I was famished. Matthew had two beers a Dunkle and then his first Guiness! He liked it I think, yay for the Irish! For dinner he had a Long noodles in a tomato sauce with jager schnitzel (bascially hunter's meat) It was tasty.

We enjoyed ourselves there for a while until the food and drink were gone and then set off in search of a jazz club that had been recommended to us by some locals. After a very long search, and Calvin being pushed into a fountain By Renee. Lol, let me just say, huge fountain, very dirty, Calvin sitting on the edge looking into its depths, Renee creeping up behind him and just giving him a slight tap on the shoulder, (she never meant for him to actually go in, it was just to bait him) however, Calvin went in back first with passport, hotel info, and money in his pockets. He was terribly good natured about it and we all took pictures of him making sad faces. It was a good time and we all laughed.

But like I said, we spent a very long time looking for this jazz club and when we finally found it we saw that it was not open on mondays. Poor luck.

The group separated a bit, some going to do their own things and matthew and I went with a bunch to a Bier garten )Beer Garden).

The city landscape looked so beautiful with it lighted up at night! Matthew and I refrained for having anything more to drink, which I think is to our credit, because we were certainly pushed to from every angle. The truth is, that Matt and I just can't spend money the way the rest of them here can. They would all spend as much as they like, but matthew and I are trying to see if we can at least have some money when we come back. (mom, don't worry, I am fine for money, please do not put any in my account for me. I am more than fine, because I have been fairly frugal)! ;)

Finally about an hour later, I was cold, and people had finished their beers so we returned to the hostel. I turned in quickly and so did matthew it had been a long day for sure.

6-24-08 Berlin!!!!

Today, we got up, ate a hurried breakfast, had our rooms checked out by 9:10 and were at the train station in no time. We waited there for an hour for train. Thankfully we only had the one train today. Less stress for sure. We got here and are currently at the hostel waiting to check into our rooms. I will update later!

Biss dann!

Dresden!!!

Hi everyone!!!!

Well, yesterday was very stressful, seeing as it was again a travel day! We all got up around 8, had breakfast, and got out to the trainstation. Our train was delayed around 10 mins yesterday. It was ridiculous, and while we only had one train exchange, we basically had to beg them to call ahead and make our other train wait for us. When we got to the Leipzig train station, we all had to book it for the train. Thankfully we all made it there safely.

After having gotten on the train, we were on it for what seemed like forever. We finally made it into the Dresden Hbf and we went to our Hostel. Our rooms in this Hostel are 2 people rooms, very nice. Since we had 11 girls and 10 boys, there was one room with jsut one person in it. I got that one person room! So nice. Each of the rooms have their own bathroom and shower! Major Score!!!

However, when we arrived at the Hostel they would not let us check in until a certain time, so they let us put our luggage in their storage room and we all went in search of lunch. It is about a 10 min walk into the inner city, and let me just tell you guys. Even though Dresden was 85% destroyed in WWII it is the coolest city building wise that I have ever been too!!! It is so completely insane with all of its gothic buildings. to try to impress upon you how destroyed Dresden was, let me just say that tehre are buildings that are still being rebuilt to this day!

We found a chinese restaraunt and thank god i9t was very tasty. I had noodles with chicken and matt had something with schezaune sauce. We both enjoyed it very much!

After lunch, we went back to the Hostel and we checked in, we got settled in, washed up a bit, etc. Because of the fact that yesterday was miserable with heat and humidity. So we were all basically sweating to kingdom come!

After the hostel, we went on a 2 hour city walking tour. Yay city tour, because they seem to be our lot in life on this trip. haha. (not really laughing)!

Anways, the man who gave the tour was a bit weird, I almost felt like becuase he knew that German was a second language for us, that we must have been deaf, because he would fix his eyes on someone and he would just go to town, almost shouting the info in your face.

We saw a lot of really awesome buildings, since they seem to grow like crabgrass here.

After the tour, we were treated to a gorgeous dinner by our program director Feleica Lucht. Basically it was our money, because we paid for the program, but it was less money out of our pockets.

We went to a lovely beir garden, which was actually really fancy. Felecia told us to oder what we wanted for food, the only thing she didn't pay for was drinks. I had a passion fruit juice and a bottle of water. For dinner, I had a very tender lamb chop with potato rosemary noodles and mixed veggies. IT WAS SOOOOO GOOODDDDD!!!!!

Matthew had a Weinerschnitzel with a ton of Hollondaise sauce, white asparagus, and huge potatoes. It was a very good night.

After dinner, we took the tram back to our hostel, and we prompty upon entering chastied by the Hostel staff to be quite. It was only 10:30 but she felt the need to tell us to be quite several times! It was ridiculous. After we got to our rooms, both matt and I showered, then we spent some time together.

After Matthew left, I spent some time reading in my book and went to sleep. It rained sometime during the night, thank god, because the temp. is down today, but still humid!

Today we are doing a tour of the Schloss and then a few of us are going to do a tour of the Opera house.

biss Dann

Sorry for the delay. The last 4 days!!!

6-18-08

Today was a longer day for everyone. Today we had our last day of classes. Basically, one class was all about Mozart and listening to his "abduction" Opera, talking about his history, etc. Lol. I rocked this class out, and I am sure matt did the same thing in his class. Our teacher, Eva Lacour, likes to believe that she knows everything. However, if I do know anything, I know Mozart. Can we say thank you James Griesheimer? Yes!!!

She fought with me about Mozart not being poor at the end of his life...Ummm... Music Majors, can you help me out here. I am positive that Mozart was so broke at the end of his life! She fought with me, and I conceded that while Mozart had built up a lot of money during his lifetime, he had squandered it all away, therefore being poor!!!

lol. So anyways that was so much fun, we got to hear good music and talk about something that Matthew and I both knew bascially everything about!!! Yay, music majors united!

The other half of class with Frau Lucht was a review game of things that we would have on the test the next day through Jepordy.

After this, we had a small break in which lunch was had. Afterwards, we met at the Mayen Ost trainstation at 1:30 and headed out to a very, very, small city about 10 mins from Mayen by train called Montreal.

Montreal is very small, but has good wine, pottery, and history. When we got there, we were lead on a city tour where bascially every building was explained to us. It was one of the more boring city tours, however, it was ok. We got some nice pictures, and this is probably the smallest German city I have ever been in. It was so small, if you had closed your eyes for like a 20 second nap in a car, you would totally miss it.

After the city tour, we did a wine tasting. We sampled 56 wines and then sampled a Wine Liquor. All were very good, and we got to learn little bit about brewing wine, collection of grapes on the rhine river vineyards. Which is very difficult because the vineyards on the rhine are on steep, steep hills. Very intimidating!!!

We were also fed a pig fat spread, a cheese and onion spread, hard cheese, and bratwurst. It was very good and very enjoyable.

However, I must admit that within the first 4 mins of being there, I picked up my tiny wine glass to admire it, and my fingers were sweaty because of how hot it was. I accidentally dropped it and it shattered all of the table. (what a nice first impression, huh?) lol.

After the Weinprobe (Wine Tasting), I was determined to buy some pottery for my mother. A place in town had been reccomened to me and so I decided to take a later train by myself ( only later by an hour) and check this place out. So I walked back into the city, and when I got there, I could tell straight away this was not the pottery that I was looking for (Star Wars reference, "These aren't the droids you're looking for" , sorry geek moment).

Number 1, most of the pottery was meant for gardens, they were larger pieces, and they were extremely colorful. Meaning the whole piece was one bright color. This potter favored Bright blue and Bright red. Not a fan and nothing like the lovely pottery that my mother and I had bought in Hohr-Grenzhausen.

So...after spending 5mins there, I had to walk back to the bahnhof and wait for an hour. good thing I brought a book with. However, on the way, I decided to see if there was a bus I could take that would leave earlier. The last bus had left at 5, and it was 5:15. So this old man, (very old, walking cane, bowler hat, the whole bit) was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the Bahnhof on my own, so he walked me there. He was very nice. So he left me at the Bahnhof and I proceeded to read, and later he came back, right before my train showed up to make sure that I caught it. lol.

So I got on the train, I get home and matt is waiting for me. I seem to remember making soup, and after matt had checked his emails, he proceeded to go home for an early night. I went to bed late tonight, because the book I am reading is awesome "The Constant Princess" By Phillipa Gregory (Historical Fiction about Henry the 8ths first wife, Katherine of Arragon).

6-19-08

Today was our ending examination. I will be very honest, at school, when I have a german test, I spend quite some time studying for it. I did not study at all, I feel very confident that I aced it. It is mostly because of the fact that this test is meant for both of the classes and the advanced class basically everyone has had german for at least 6-7 years, where as like matts class, it is more like 2-3 years of German.

After the test was over, we took a group photo, one serious and one silly. It was fun, and we bid the lovely Rathaus workers goodbye. They had been so good to us, I really enjoyed them.

Matt and I made our way back home, where we proceeded to check emails, and look for jobs online. Mainly matt, because I couldn't find anything.

Afterwards, I packed for about an hour or so. I must admitt, even though I finally made up my mind that I am going to go back to Mayen after Berlin, I am still worried if I will be able to get everything home without something breaking, being confiscated, or me having to pay extra because my luggage is too heavy.

We'll have to see.

After packing, I meet Matthew and his host Brother Felix at 1:30 for a tour of the Genovevaburg in the heart of Mayen . The Genovevaburg is basically a museum now, but not like you would think. It has many levels. Mayen is the biggest place in Germany for roofing. Mayen has a roofing school and people who want to have their houses roofed come to Mayen to have them do it. So back in the day, people dug under the burg to get stone slabs which they split and make into roofing tiles, the lowest underground, rock surfaced, cold level of the museum is basically detailing how this process goes, its history, a activated ride, stuff about WWII and how this was a bomb shelter for everyone in Mayen, etc. The other levels were like.... I am not even sure, one had to do with geography, and the make up of the land, etc. It was interesting. Felix works there, so he gave us an unofficial tour and we learned a lot.

After the tour, we went back home, where I took pictures of Matt's house, him and his host family. Afterwards, I went home to finish packing and to get ready for my dinner with my host family.

I chose to wear my flower print, long, layered skirt with my new jacket and a white tank top.

Marianna, Ecky, and Tobi took us to the Mendig Vulkan Bauerei (Mendig Volcano Brewery) to have dinner. I had a onion weinerschnitzel and then a bowl of Spaghetti ice cream ( no not actual spaghetti, the ice cream is put through a machine to make the ice cream come out in strands like spaghetti noodles. Rest assured, not actual spaghetti ice cream. It was very nice, because it was their treat to us.

After dinner and pictures, they drove us into Mayen to the Genovevaburg where the Burgfest spieles are going on (basically city festival plays). Tonight, we had been generously given tickets to go see "My Fair Lady" auf Deutsch. (meaning in German, I had though all the dialog would be in German and the songs in English, nope it was all in German. So the play, takes place in the Genovevaburg courtyard, set up with risers with backs and a set. The first half was wonderful. Eliza Doolittle was the best Eliza Doolittle I have ever seen. She was so spunky. So we made it through the first act, which is the best in my opinion. We had our intermission and it started to rain. Now the courtyard is open air. The show, meaning the second act opened and continued to go on in the rain for at least 15-20 mins, before it became obvious that this rain was not going to stop and the actors were getting drenched, as well as the set furniture and costumes. lol.

They really did a good job going on though. Lol. Everyone in the audience was under umbrellas and rain coats, lol and the show just kept going on. I was laughing out loud, because it was just so funny. I felt so bad for the poor actors, but they were real troppers, they kept it up until the man came on stage and said that there was too much rain to go on. I think everyone was pretty happy that they finally stopped, because they would have kept going and we woudl have stayed and been miserable. lol.

Well after this, food was provided, like this little pasta salad, hot tomato soup in cones, salmon puffs, fish and rice, the courses just kept on coming, what else....curry wurst and bread, cheese, olives, and red peppers on a stick, and finally I believe desert puffs came out. Matthew and I had at least 3 each. Plus the drinks were all free. we had champagne, wine, etc. It was lovely. We stood at standing tables in the first floor of the Burg museum and at and chatted with german people who had been at the show. Finally at midnight when it finished raining, Matthew and I packed up for the night and went home. Matthew walked me home and I went to sleep right away.

6-20-08
Today was a long day. I woke up at 5:50, went and ate a quick breakfast, then decided to hurriedly jump in the shower. Ecky took the girls and I with our baggage to the train station. Out train arrived at 7:29 with the rest of our group except for Matt Fleming. Remember how I told you earlier on that our first weekend a kid missed the train with us to Salzburg, yea, that was Matt. Apparently he has missed several trains on this trip, I believe this was his 4th. lol.

So of course Matt Fleming jokes ensued for the rest of the trip to Jena. We had 7 train exchanges on our way to Jena. Which basically just sucked, because we have 22 people, most with all of their luggage. It was rushed, crabby, and frustrating. Basically we spent most of the day on the Train. when we arrived in Jena there was confusion. We were all taken to the Hostel by cab, well our cab misunderstood and took us to the university. We realized basically immediately that we were not at a hostel and we got back on the road to where we needed to go.

After getting to the hostel we settled in. I getting the only three person room on our floor, everyone else had to stay in 10 person rooms. lol. yay, score!!!

We got settled in a little bit, and then matthew and I went in search of food before our city tour. Matthew got French fries and a beer, I had various potatoes things and a peach.

We then proceeded to the city tour. This tour had to be the most boring tour I have ever been on, the woman was American who had been living in Germany for many years, and the tour was in German. lol!!!

After the awful tour (just because it was truly boring) we went to a restaurant where I proceeded to have a strawberry daqueri that could not have been a daqueri because it was basically just crushed ice and strawberry flavoring. it was more like a liquor slushie. lol.

They had a grilled food bar, and Matthew and I both decided to part take, the food was good. There was freshly cut pineapple and watermelon, various grilled meats, salad, bread, and rice pudding bups with strawberry. So tasty!!!

Matthew and I finally decided to head for home and we waited for our bus for 20 mins and proceeded to watch a bachelor's party take place. Basically the groom was dressed in a white disinfected body suit and was having eggs thrown at him, people would pay money for the eggs, people would throw and later in the night, that money was bar money. lol. It was fun to watch.

The bus came and we went back to the Hostel. When there, I showered, looked at pictures, read in my book, and went to sleep. Long day, people were crabby all day, and sleep was really needed!

6-21-08

Today, I woke up at 7:59, had a light breakfast, and got dressed and ready for the day.

The beginning of today was terribly sobering. We went to the concentration came in Weimar "Buchenwald." I have been to a concentration camp previously, Dachau, but I was 16 when I went there and I couldn't truly grasp the horror of it all.

We watched a video on Buchenwald with English subtitles, it had pictures, accounts of people in the camp who had survived, etc. It was hard to watch. We were then given audios guides and cards to show us what buildings corresponded with what numbers on our audio guide tour. Matthew and I went through the big gates at Buchenwald and headed for the first building we saw. This building turned out to be the Crematorium.... All I can say is... The crying for me, started in this building. The trip was very different than my trip to Dachau. I did not understand at Dachau, I tried, but I didn't understand. Today, having seen movies, read books, met people, etc from this time, I was hit with the full effect of it and wept bitterly for every man, woman, and child who suffered and died through this period our history.

We went through what we could in the time we had, saw pictures (horrible, horrible pictures), read letters from a U.S. solider to his wife, etc. It was very hard.

When we were turning our audio guides back in, a few of our group were huddled together crying and from there on I was pretty much crying for a good hour. There just are not words to express all the emotions.

(It was very dark, but necessary, because we cannot forget it, we must not forget it, it happened and many people died for nothing but one man's ambitions).

The bus was quiet on our ride into Weimar. When in Weimar, we went to a restaurant where I had a tureen of potato soup with sausage and matty had a very tasty noodle and marinara pasta.

Afterwards, we found an internet cafe to quickly check our mails and had a hot cocoa and beer.

At 3 we had a city tour of Weimar. Now Weimar is a fantastic place for cultural history. You have Goethe, Schiller, List, Bach, etc. It was amazing. this tour was 2 hours long, but it was so wonderful, I was not bored at all and I took lots of pictures!!!

When the tour was finished, we all packed back on the bus to go back to Jena. At the Hostel we just chilled for a while, I read my book until 7 and then a group of us walked into Jena for dinner. We ended up settling on a tropical food restaurant called Mango. When I order, I was going for cheap, so I picked one of the cheaper things, which was Thailand veggies and noodles. I had no clue what to expect. I got it, and It was phenomenal. Hot, but the sauce was a spicy coconut cream sauce. It was soooooo good!!! I think everyone really enjoy their food.

After dinner, we walked home, waited for John while he used a pay phone, and now I am writing to you lovely people!!!


Tomorrow we leave at 10:15 or so for Dresden. My mommy has looked up some things about it for Matthew and I, so I am going to try to check that stuff out if I can.

I hope you are all doing well. I will hopefully update again tomorrow after our day in Dresden!!!

Biss Dann!

Birthday and Friends!!!!

Well, as most of you know, yesterday was my 21st birthday! And.....drumroll..... It was wonderful!

Matthew really went all out on spoiling me. I am so blessed! When I got to class yesterday, Matthew was waiting for me, very nicely dressed, with a small bouquet of coral roses. As the day proceeded, he gave me one huge bar of chocolate. Later, he gave me another huge bar of chocolate accompanied with a bottle of wine. His host mother also gave me a small parcel of chocolates and a Germany flag for my birthday. hehe. My host family gave me nothing for my family but happy birthday wishes. Oh well, it wasn't as if I expected anything.

After class, Matthew and I went out to dinner at a very nice, but inexpensive Italian Restaurant on the Marktplatz. I had a 4 cheese pasta that was very much to my liking and Matthew had a pizza that was not to his liking, but he was very happy that I was satisfied.

After dinner, we went back to my house to get ready for the Germany vs. Austria soccer game for the euro-cup! We got all decked out in German face paint, flags, t-shirts, etc. We looked pretty awesome!!!

Everyone had met at Mambo ( A Bar in Town) at 7:30 to get seats for the game. When we arrived fashionably late, there were not many seats to be had, so for the first half of the game, I sat on Matthew's lap and eventually one girl left and I took her chair. Everyone was set that since it was my birthday, I could't buy my own drinks! So Ihad four drinks, to placate the masses, and I did not pay for a single one!

Well Germany won, 1 to 0, and we went up and down the streets yelling and waving our flags as the Germans drove by in their cars in a victory parade through the town. I am pretty sure that the car caravan went through Mayen 4 times. It was fantastic. Everyone had huge flags and were honking their horns. Everyone was ecstatic to have Germany win!!!! We were too!!!

After all the excitement, Matthew tucked me in for the night, and I had a very pleasant nights sleep!

6-17-08

Today, after classes, Matthew and I went to Cologne to visit tow friends of mine. One who is studying at the Cologne University ( Christof) and the other Ricardo who is staying with friends in Germany because he has a break from his Uni in London.

We got there at about 2:30 this afternoon, they picked us up and we traveled around a bit. We stopped and got something at a cafe and chatted, then we went to a bier garden and chatted, then we went grocery shopping and Ricardo and I made real Kasespatzle without the help of my dear ingreident Maggi. I also made a fine salad of random lettuces, tomatoes, onions, and a salad dressing that I picked up from Germany when I was here last summer!
All in all it was tons of fun to see them again!!!

Mathew and I had to be back in time for the train to Mayen Ost, the last train of the night was leaving at 8:30, the next one would not leave until 3:30 am. So we rushed to the station. Said our goodbyes and made it home at about 10:19 pm.

It was a nice day and I am so thankful to have had the chance to see my friends again!

Tomorrow will be a busy day with class, a wine tasting, shopping for pottery, and then a party for our program head!

Hope you are all doing well and Mathew and I are looking forward to the rest of the week!

Biss Dann!

Regensburg Photos!!!!

Michael, Matthew, and Emily and the ceiling of the side chapel!
The Side Chapel!

Michael and Matthew in a side chapel of a larger church! ... I know the name, but I forget.

Matthew and Michael in an entryway of the castle!

A Brass or so Dog guarding an entrance to the castle!

I believe this is a building that is a part of the castle.

A Hotel that I believe Michael told us was quite old.

Inside the Regensburg Dom

The Regensburg Dom! It is big, but not as big as the Kölner Dom. Still beautiful though!

Matthew and Michael in Regensburg

Michael and Matthew on the stone bridge looking back!

Judith, Michael, Matthew, and Emily at Latino!

Matt and Michael at Walle Halle

Peace Dudes! Emily, Matthew, and Michael at Walle Halle!

A real painting of someone the Michael is distantly related to (cool huh?) it's in their living room!

Michael the tour guide!

Matthew and I got home safely yesterday, and I am very happy that we had no hitches along the way. When we woke up yesterday, we showered, ate a light breakfast, packed, and headed up to pick Judith up to have lunch.

Lunch went by way too quickly and we had to rush to catch our train. I almost cried when we had to say goodbye to Michael. It was so nice to see him!

We came home, unpacked, and I talked with my mommy for a while on the phone.

Today is my 21st Birthday, though, it doesn't feel like it, and I am a bit homesick.

I hope today will go well. Biss Dann

Besuchen wir Regensburg!

Hello happy smiling friends and family. It is currently quite late here, but this is my time to update the blog, since my blogging time after now will not be so much.

6-12-08

Matthew and I had class today and basically spent the entire day on the train from 1:30 till like 7:30. It was a long time. Michael came and picked us up at the Train station. It was so nice to see him. He must be going through a longer hair phase now too, because his hair has gotten much longer since the last time we saw him.

Michael took us around Regensburg with the car, just giving us a taste for the city. We then headed off to his house, where we met his parents, Gabbi and Peter. They are both very nice and sweet, and I think that they enjoy us, especially me, because apparently I must be funny, because Peter is always laughing at me. Good naturedly of course, hehe, he is so sweet.

We were welcomed with a lovely dinner of Steaks, potatoes, and salad. It was nice to have some home cooking. After dinner, we went upstairs to Michael's room, where we stayed and talked for some time until we went to sleep.

6-13-08

Today we woke up... around 9 I would say. Michael came up to get us at about 10. Then we all proceeded to sit and talk for an hour or so before going down to eat breakfast.
At about noon we decided to head downstairs for breakfast. It was of course a typical Bavarian breakfast with hard rolls, cold meats, big pretzels, jams, spreadable meat (yup, kinda like spam), and very tasty juices made in this Regensburg area, orange juice and passions fruit, and then a mixed vitamin juice with like 20 different fruits.

After breakfast, we all showered and then dicked around on the computer with Michael for a time. when we were finished, like 2:30 pm we got going into town. Micahel showed us all around Regensburg. We went and saw two churches that were attached to each other. Michael has not been in these churches since his grandfathers funeral in one of them. He then showed us a huge palace that is bigger than Buckingham Palace in London. We did not go into it, because the tour cost like 9€ per person and Matthew and I felt that that was just a bit much for students to be paying.

We kept on walking through the city and saw several prominent buildings from the outside. I am not sure that we actually saw from the inside besides the two churches and then the Regensburg Dom. It is basically the equivalent of the Cologne Dom for Bavaria or at least for Regensburg. It is not as big as the Kölner Dom, but it was still pretty nice.

We also walked the old stone bridge, which for Regensburg is a treasure. It is quite old, and it gives a nice view of the very, very, dirty Danube.

We also saw a punk rock band and fest, which was interesting and was gathering a lot of punk and goth Germans. The band was pretty bad and was either from the states or from England. Either was their accent was not pronounced enough to make a definite decision.

After this, Matthew and I were starving, so we went to eat at an Italian Restaurant called Von Tito. Matthew had a huge pizza, I had a very rich four cheese pasta, and Michael had a very tasty tortellini mushroom pasta.

The food was so rich, that I got an upset stomach, so instead of taking rolaids, Michael made me, Matthew, and himself drink a shot of Ramonzotti which is supposed to be good for digestion.

Later we went and got an ice cream cone from a Gelatieria (Italian ice cream) for dessert!

We then went and met Michael's girlfriend Judith at the cinemax to go and see the movie "Nie Weider Sex mit dem Ex", Translating to "No More sex with the ex". this film is actually the U.S's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". Go figure huh? Apparently in Europe and so forth they change the names instead of simply translating them for marketing purposes.

the film was very funny and I am pretty sure that we all enjoyed it. It was my third time in a German theater and Matthew's first.

Afterwards we went to a bar called "Latino" Where we each had at least one drink and we chatted with Michael and Judith. It was a nice place, the music was fun to listen to and the atmosphere was good for talking; the only thing was that it was extremely hot!!!

I should mention that Michael and his family were generous enough to treat for dinner, Ice Cream, the movie, and drinks afterwards today. Matthew and I did not have to pay for anything today and while Michael may not think much of it, we are so very thankful to him and his family for doing this for us. We are poor college students and their treating us really helped us enjoy this weekend! Thank you for being so sweet, lovely, and generous to us!

After drinks, it was quite late, so we decided to head home. By the time we got in bed, I believe it was 2 AM.

6-14-08

Today, Matthew and I woke up at 10, showered, ate another lovely Breakfast, and headed into town. However, Michael had many problems today with his back. I am sure he either pinched a nerve or he pulled a muscle because he was hurting all day.

Since Matthew and I have done the hard core tourist things up until now, we decided to just spend today relaxing!!!

We spent basically the entire day clothes shopping. this resulted in my buying a jacket and a pink top (they are both very cute and European, My clothing shopping will end there, but I was lucky that I got my items on sale).

Later, at around 5 pm we went and picked up Judith and proceeded to go to Valle Halle. It is modeled after the Acropolis in Greece. It is huge, marble, and cool!!! The view from the top was beautiful and Matthew and I were so excited about how much we are going to tease Davin about it when we get back to the states!!! ( Davin, we loves you!!! ;) )

We spent about 30 mins there, dropped Judith back off home so she could keep studying for her examinations, and went home for dinner.

For dinner tonight we had Schweinebraten and Knödel. Basically pig steak and huge potato dumplings, as well as salad and beer. For dessert, Gabbi had made us a strawberry cake. It was delicious and we loved it!!!!

After dinner, Matthew, Michael, and I sampled a few different types of liquor that Michael's father let us try. They were quite potent, and I only tried 3.

We then proceeded to watch some of the Russia vs. Greece soccer game for the Euro cup. Russia won. 1 to 0.
It was fun to watch, Matthew and I both really like Soccer!

Then, Matthew and I showed Michael redonkulous videos on Youtube. For the end of the night, Michael and Matthew played a Resident Evil Game on Michael's Wii and I blogged for quite some time, for over an hour.

Tomorrow, we plan to see a few churches and meet up with Judith at a running Sushi bar in town before we have to get on the train back to Mayen around 2-ish.

We hope that you are all doing well and taking care.

I will try to post pictures as soon as I get back tomorrow, if not, then sorry. I will try to get them up real soon!

Much love, Biss Dann!