Eastern Europe Update

Just wanted to post my Eastern Europe IES post on here. I apologize for it's horrible title. Prepare for my Strasbourg/Obama post very soon.

Oh, and only 39 more days until I'm no longer crippled by the Euro! There was a time oh so long ago when it was improving... I actually had hopes of a 1:1 exchange rate before I left. Those hopes, however, have been crushed.

And here's my favorite picture from Budapest. Cultural differences much?


Tschüss!

Backlog like Whoa

I’m pretty much the worst blogger ever.

In my defense, though, I’ve had a very hectic month. Here’s the quick rundown:
Feb 20-22: Munich
Feb 23-Mar 1: Luxembourg, Brussels, Paris
Mar 2-5: Lots ’O Work Week
Mar 6-15: Mike Visit
Mar 16-19: Midterms
Mar 20-28: Krakow, Bratislava, Prauge, Budapest

So, as, you can see, I’ve been VERY busy. Thankfully, though, it will be slowing down very shortly.

I’ll be in Strasbourg this Thursday and Friday for the NATO Youth Summit. All the real world leaders will be there on Saturday. (For those of you non current event followers, it’s a big deal, trust me.) Our teacher (who is the deputy head of staff to a member of the European Parliment), knows that there is a surprise guest coming on Friday, partially because of the sudden HUGE increase in security. He is fairly certain that this will either be Sarkozy (the French President) or Obama! Needless to say, I’m pretty damn excited.

Freiburg was actually chosen as the police head quarters for the summit (It’s being jointly hosted by Germany and France – Strasbourg is just over the boarder in France, only about an hour away. It’s one of those territories that has been contested forever; the residents changed their nationality 5 times over the past century. Now they speak French, but their food is still primarily from Germany. Much of the older population only speaks German. It’s a very interesting region, but I digress.). There was an anti-NATO protest downtown yesterday, and everyone was very concerned it was going to turn into a riot – our later classes were cancelled and most, if not all, shops closed down early. It stayed peaceful, though, thankfully.

Next weekend I’ll be partying around Barcelona on my spring break (YES – a REAL spring break in a Spanish speaking country and a beach!).

I’m just going to give you some highlights of this past whirlwind month so you can only catch the good stuff.

Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris (Feb 23-Mar 1; pics and more pics)
Check out my thoughts here and here. Luxembourg was cute, I really hated Brussels, and Paris was just beautiful. It made me want to study French really intensely. Sadly, I must actually take major classes these next two semesters, but c’est la vie.

My favorite peice in the Louvre was hands down the statues of Cupid and Psyche (below). It just has so much emotion in it. My favorite painting was da Vinci's Madonna on the Rocks. And it was sooo awesome to see Monet's Water Lilies at Musée d'Orsay. If you like impressionist art, go there.


Wine Tasting (Mar 6 - pics)
IES took about half of us on a wine tasting, with really weak reasoning how it tied into our coursework. For my EU-US class they said it was relevant because wine is a common material involved in transatlantic trade; my Regions in the EU class argued that since wine making is an integral part of the Baden-Württemberg region (where I’m living), wine is important to understanding the culture. Anyway, the moral of the story is IES got us all drunk, including one of my teachers, which was hilarious.

I got to taste ice wine, which was so delicious I could cry; it tasted like honey. Note: Only by ice wine from Germany, Austria, or Canada – they’re the only ones who let the grapes freeze naturally. The guy giving us a tour said it was just a pleasure just to make the ice wine, because they would all get together and drink brandy while picking the grapes and making it. The wine was about 20 € (Is the “”€” before or after the 20? I still can’t figure it out.) for a bottle that is half the normal size. Our tour guide even said this price is much lower than market price – they just want people to enjoy it.

Mike Visit (Mar 6-15 - Paris pics and Freiburg pics)
And so, I was drunk when I went to pick up Mike that evening at the train station. We went to Paris, and I’m sure all of you know how wonderful that was =o). In Paris, we went to see all the non-traditional stuff: the Arche de la Défense, Centre Pompidou, and we even found this random pet market. I also liked that all the public parks had ping pong tables.

(I made him do this)

It was just so nice to have him here to explore parts of Freiburg with him that I didn’t even know existed. My homesickness definitely increased after it left, but thanks to my revitalizing Eastern European trip, it’s gone back down to a much more manageable level.

Strasbourg (Mar 12 - it was during Mike’s visit - pics)
I got to go to the EU Parliament and watch a debate. It was good. We had some boring speakers. The End. The region is very interesting – see above digression.


Eastern Europe (Mar 20-28 - Krakow and Bratislava pics, Prague pics, Budapest pics)
It was awesome. Eastern Europe is just so cool and gives you a completely other perspective I’ll be writing an IES blog about this, so stayed tuned. On our way from Krakow to Prague, we stopped at Auschwitz. It was very intense and very sobering. Oh, and I was in Prague when the Czech government fell, which is actually putting EU leadership at risk, because they currently hold the EU presidency. Cool, eh? (I also met a Canadian in Prague.)

I’m hopinghopinghoping to bee much better about this blog, now that my schedule has calmed down.

Wow, this is so long, I fee like Zack. Oh, well. Here’s hoping that I meet Obama!

Until next time!

Munich Love

Munich was awesome.

Before I jump into my Spiel, I just want to show you pictures of this astonishingly beautiful church I saw in Munich, the Theatine Church. I’ve been to a lot of churches in Europe, and this is easily the most amazing one I have seen thus far.




Now that I got that out of my system, let me actually tell you about my adventures. The first day there, we (my groups of friends and I) sightsaw (?) around on our own. After we were done and starving, we went to the Hofbräuhaus, which is the most famous brewery in all of Germany. Here, I had the best beer and wurst of my life, while I was being served by people dressed in lederhosen and a German band played in the background. Side Note: They only sell the beers in liters at the Hofbräuhaus.

The next day we woke up ridiculously early to take a two hour train ride to Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired Disney’s Cinderella Castle. It was breathtaking. Bear with me for a quick history lesson.

King Ludwig II, the king that commissioned the castle, was obsessed with fantasy and King Arthur as a child. When he was a young adult, he saw an opera by the little known composer Richard Wagner; he soon became Wagner’s patron, as well as good friend. After Ludwig’s power was revoked (this was during the time when Germany was unifying under Bismark and all that fun stuff), he dedicated himself to building magnificent castles. He made Neuschwanstein a monument to Wagner’s works and strove to make it a fantasy castle out of one of his operas. Needless to say, the Parliament was not happy about the massive amount of money that Ludwig was spending, so they put him under arrest. He died only a few days later under mysterious circumstances: Ludwig went for a walk around the local lake with his doctor (The Parliament was trying to prove that he was crazy, so the doctor was evaluating him.). Apparently, he was so upset that he had lost all his power, Ludwig decided to drown himself and accidentally drowned his doctor, as well. A bit fishy (forgive the unintended pun). Anyway, when he died only 1/3 of the rooms in the palace were complete. Bavaria opened the castle for visitors 6 weeks after his death, and it has made them untold amounts of money since.

I highly suggest you look at these pictures of the interior (I couldn’t take any inside - Bavaria has them copyrighted, so, therefore, no one can take them. WTF, I know.). Scenes from Wagner’s operas fill the rooms of the castle; each room has its own theme. Ludwig’s master bedroom’s theme was Tristan and Isolde. The woodworking in this specific room took 14 woodcarvers 4 years to complete. If you can’t tell by the sheer volume of this entry, Neuschwanstein is one of my favorite things in Germany.

The next day wasn’t as epic. We signed up for a “Third Reich Tour” – Munich is where the Nazi party was founded, so it has a lot of history. The tour ended up sucking like no other, so we ditched it along with this woman in her late 20’s, who ended up being very interesting. She was in training with the Navy to go to Iraq, but tore her knee before she was deployed. Now, she’s teaching English in France, so that she can learn French well enough to go to the Congo and help women who are victims of violence. Wow, I know. At any rate, she told us that Dachau (the concentration camp) was actually only a 15 minute train ride way. So, on the train to Dachau we went.

It was very depressing, but extremely interesting. We were there for 2 ½ hours, and it wasn’t nearly enough time; the on site museum was so detailed and interesting.

Afterward, we picked up the train back to Munich. This whole weekend we had been riding the train without tickets – it’s called “Schwartzfahr,” or black riding. Of course, this time there was a man checking tickets on the train. He started at the back, and my group, along with about 6 other people, moved towards the front of the train, praying that we’d reach the next stop before he got to us. Lucky, we did. Interesting Note: All of us were foreigners (American, British, Japananese).

Anyway, we made it to the Munich train station safe and sound and without having to pay a fine. While waiting for the train, I decided that I wanted to get a travel bottle of wine from the convenience store at the train station (remember, this is Germany). Now here, you can buy beer and wine at 16 and hard liquor at 18. As I was in the process of purchasing my wine, the cashier asked me “Wie alt bist du?” For those of you non-German speakers, that was him asking how old I was. This means that he thought I was 15. Needless to say, I gave him a look, and told him I was 21 while the cashier next to him laughed at his stupidity. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was pseudo-carded in Germany.

And so, I’ve given you a ridiculously long, needlessly detailed account of my travels in Munich. Right now I’m in Belgium, so I’ll tell you more about that later. Until next time!

WTF?

Ok. I need to leave for the train stop outside my dorm in 10 minutes, but I just have to express my incredulity at one thing.

SOMEHOW from the bathroom to my bedroom, I lost my toothpaste. Only minutes before, I brushed my teeth with the minty freshness that is Colgate, and then BAM, it's missing.

HOW DO I DO THIS?

Let's Talk About Geneva

Hey Party People!

Long time no blog (I know, completely my fault). Anyway, since it’s 12:27 am here, and I have yet to pack for my 6:52 am train to Munich tomorrow (today), I’m going to fake out and post my Geneva experience from my IES blog here. I only picked out the Genevea part, because the other half is a much shorter rehashing of my horrific sledding ordeal.

Geneva was a much better experience [than sledding]. Before I went to there, the IES people in my program said it’s the most beautiful and expensive city we visit. They were right.

When I thought of beautiful European cities, Geneva never came to mind. But it’s this quaint town surrounded by the Alps on three sides and Lake Geneva, and it’s really, truly gorgeous. And expensive. The prices were just unbelievable. I paid a little more than 4 francs for three tiny pieces of chocolate (the franc is worth only a bit less than the dollar)! I have to admit, though, it was completely worth it – the chocolate was fantastic.

I then climbed to Saint Peter's Cathedral’s tower to see panoramic views of Geneva; it was the best four francs I spent the whole trip. The whole city was breathtaking.

I don’t think I’ll ever be going back to Geneva, though, even if I do become rich and successful. There were Rolex and Cartier shops on every corner, and even McDonald’s was expensive. The whole city was simply teeming with ridiculously rich people.

I’m going on my first independent trip to Munich tomorrow until Sunday and then am off on another IES field trip to Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris! Until then!

I think you got all the important facts from there. I promise to give you all the nitty gritty on the most famous beer house in all of Germany when I get back! Until that day arrives, I’ll leave you with some awesome pictures of beautiful Geneva.

Me and the UN: We're BFFs

The View from the UN

Views from St. Peter's Cathedral. It was actually the first Calvinist church ever, but I'm not sure what denomination it is now.

Tschüss! Or I guess in Geneva it's au revoir!

Oh, by the way, Geneva made me so sad that I'm not taking French anymore, and I imagine Luxembourg/Brussels/Paris will make me feel even worse. This trip has just made me even more determined to master it someday.

I really have to pack. Au revoir!

Berlin and I CLIMBED A FREAKIN' ALP

So yeah. I went to Berlin. It was awesome. For further explanation click here and see the following pictures. For those interested in the fact that I climbed an Alp (I know, it’s weird to say it in the singular), keep reading.

Recent Graffiti on the Berlin Wall


Me and the Brandenburg Tor


The Berliner Dom

Checkpoint Charlie!


The Reichstag

I actually was in the chamber where the Bundestag does all it's work. I had a nerdgasm.

Inside the Dome of the Reichstag.

AnywayI signed up for a day trip that read “Lazy Day in the Alps” – it was not. I had forgone skiing (my first mistake), for this so called lazy day. The way it was described was when we got to Grindewald, we would take an extra bus up to the quaint town and be able to sled back down the mountain. I took a bus up the mountain, but a town was not there to meet me. It was a series of buildings where you could pay a ridiculous amount for food and rent a sled. With said sled you can, well, sled back down the mountain or hike up an even higher one and then sled alllll the way down. Stupid me – I hiked up the mountain.

And hike I did – for THREE HOURS. AND I STILL DID NOT MAKE IT TO THE TOP (I had to give up, lest I miss my bus back to Freiburg). But I do have to admit the view was amazing; the sled ride down was not. I do not know how this operation was legal. The only steering mechanism on the sled is your feet. And the path had so many sharp turns and steep hills, I thought I was gong to fly off head first into a rock. It was crazy. So, once I got to the lodge, I paid the €14 (yes, the Swiss took Euros) to take the bus back down, because I was confident I was going to hurt myself.

The Alps

More Alps


WHAT I CONQUERED!
I wish there was a better picture to show you what I actually hiked, but I was at it for 3 hours and and had to quit 45 min from the top, if that gives you some kind of an idea.

Holy Lots O' Pictures, Batman! Oh, well. Until next time!

Estonian Exploits

Hello all!

So, I was just in Estonia for three days! I went to see the Baltic sea, walked on the frozen harbor, and listened to some really interesting lectures. For more info on those exploits, click here. Also, see pictures associated with this post. But it was awesome.

Berlin is amazing, as well. It's so beautiful here, and I never want to leave, though I will tomorrow. I'll clue you in on those adventures in a day or two.

Ciao! (Yes, all the Germans say it.)

Me on the Baltic Sea.



The memorial for the fallen Russian soldiers.



The Town Hall