Before Dresden Bryant visited. It was nice to see a familiar face from home. I took him to see the sights and introduced him to all my new friends. We also did some of my daily activities together like International Night at Cafe Duck Dich. Sadly he left after just a week.
His departure only made me sad for a short time because that weekend I went to Dresden for the long holiday weekend. I went with my Fremde werden Freunde host, Christina. She said I could bring a friend so I took Meggie. We got to our hotel (4 stars btw!) and fell in love with our room. It had a real bed and a tv and a balcony. We were so excited.
Later that day we walked around the old city and went for Spanish food where I had some amazing nachos. Meggie and I went back to our room and watched various things on German television including A Shot at Love with German subtitles (hilarious).
The next day we took a city tour. We hopped on a bus and rode around the city. We were able to explore the whole city in about an hour and a half. It was amazing to see and hear about how the entire city was destroyed and then rebuilt. It's hard to believe that we could have bombed such a beautiful city. A lot of the stone on the buildings is blackened still from the bombings. Dresden burned for a whole 5 days after the bombing as centuries-old buildings slowly collapsed.
That afternoon we got in the pool. We then moved to the Whirlpool which was not hot. In fact it was the same temperature as the pool... We didn't stay long and instead went back into the city for dinner. We found a place near the Hilton and Meggie had a real burger and I had the most American pizza I've had other that Pizza Hut since I got to Germany.
That night Meggie and I shared a bottle of sparkling wine on the balcony. We felt so classy. Later we went back to the pool. But not before checking out the sauna. We weren't even in the room outside the sauna for more than a couple minutes before seeing several naked people. We decided to turn back and just enjoy the Whirlpool jets.
In all it was a very relaxing weekend and I am not excited to go back to classes tomorrow. Classes are finally feeling real... and hard. I'm hoping that I will still be able to enjoy my time here while balancing all my classwork. Also I wish it would stop raining so much in Germany. It's been mostly cold and totally rainy for all of May. Maybe June will be better.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Erfurt Culture and Bremen
The day before May Day, the German Labor Day, there was a Walpurgisnacht celebration on Domplatz. The festival is names for Saint Walpurga because that is when she was canonized. It is said that witches hold a large festival on this night waiting for spring to arrive. Thus we lit a big bonfire after watching people in witch costumes walk through the crowd with torches.
The next day there were to be May Day demonstrations from both Nazis and anti-Nazis. Some friends and I decided to get out of town and visit Weimar again. It was not a great day in terms of weather but we were able to go to several museums and see some of the sights. We also stopped at a lovely little Italian restaurant and ate pizza (not Burger King). However, we did stop at Burger King so we could get crowns for the funny hat party that night. We all dressed up as royalty.
On May 2nd there was the annual Entenrennen or Duck Race. Thousands of rubber ducks decorated in every way imaginable were put in the river to race. Prizes went to the fastest ducks and the best decorated. It was so much fun.
In Bremen one of the first things we did was drop off our stuff at our hostel. From there we went sightseeing. We started at an area full of small shops called Schnoor. Mostly it's just a funny word to say. It was small and quaint. Then we went more into the old city and saw the sights. Later some of the girls went shopping at a really cheap store called Primark. We ran into Shane there and found out he was going to the same club as us that night. The club was fun but there were a lot of strange people there so we didn't stay long.
The next morning we went down to the harbor and saw the water. It was nice to finally see some legit water. We also walked through this alley with beautiful architecture. On the way back we had to transfer trains a lot and we had an hour stopover in Hanover. The cool thing about that though was I was able to get Pizza Hut! I also was able to see some foothills of nearby mountains as we traveled through the German countryside.
The next day there were to be May Day demonstrations from both Nazis and anti-Nazis. Some friends and I decided to get out of town and visit Weimar again. It was not a great day in terms of weather but we were able to go to several museums and see some of the sights. We also stopped at a lovely little Italian restaurant and ate pizza (not Burger King). However, we did stop at Burger King so we could get crowns for the funny hat party that night. We all dressed up as royalty.
On May 2nd there was the annual Entenrennen or Duck Race. Thousands of rubber ducks decorated in every way imaginable were put in the river to race. Prizes went to the fastest ducks and the best decorated. It was so much fun.
In Bremen one of the first things we did was drop off our stuff at our hostel. From there we went sightseeing. We started at an area full of small shops called Schnoor. Mostly it's just a funny word to say. It was small and quaint. Then we went more into the old city and saw the sights. Later some of the girls went shopping at a really cheap store called Primark. We ran into Shane there and found out he was going to the same club as us that night. The club was fun but there were a lot of strange people there so we didn't stay long.
The next morning we went down to the harbor and saw the water. It was nice to finally see some legit water. We also walked through this alley with beautiful architecture. On the way back we had to transfer trains a lot and we had an hour stopover in Hanover. The cool thing about that though was I was able to get Pizza Hut! I also was able to see some foothills of nearby mountains as we traveled through the German countryside.
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