Koblenz with Christine and Laura

After my sister left, I had one day before I had to leave town again. I caught a ride with Mitfahrgelegenheit (ride share program) to Koblenz, near the border of Belgium. I met up with Christine and Laura for the weekend. Christine's dad met me at the train station with a flower! It was so cute. He was really friendly and met me with open arms. What a change from the normal German hospitality! It was SO nice seeing Laura again. We hadn't seen each other since last Thanksgiving. She's studying in Florida but flew back to Germany for the summer. Christine got in later that night, because she had to work. Christine's brother surprised his parents and was there for the weekend, too. He normally studies in Berlin. We all ate dinner together and Laura, Christine and I stayed up late talking and giggling like 13 year olds. :) It was great. The next day we rode bikes through town and Christine showed me the school which I'll be working at for the month of June. I don't remember how to get back there, but I should be able to figure it out on Monday when I'm back in town. Eeek.. The Elbe and Rhine rivers meet in Koblenz. There's four fortresses around town and the Romans used to occupy the area. It's beautiful! And bigger than I expected. That night the three of us went to a light/lazer show in town. It was AMAZING. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised! It was spread throughout town. First we took a tram thingy up to the fortress above town and met with our tour guide, who happened to be the planning coordinator for the entire event. She walked us through the different exhibits (in German). I liked all of them, but the lazer one was my favorite. There were mist machines in a corner of the fortress and blue lazers set up. I don't know how to describe it, but it looked as if I was going through another dimension with the way the light was bending and the speed of the lazers. There was this sharp sound being played the entire time, too. As I was leaving the exhibit, I was walking past people in the mist and it was so eerie and strange, I literally felt as if I was dead and floating in some in between world. People just show up next to you in the dark mist and you can only see their shape. I guess you just have to experience it yourself. :) Then there was an exhibit with dancers from France. It was neat but kind of.. slow. I liked the exhibit in the castle gardens across town. There were bent pieces of metal hanging from trees and lights were moved across them at different speeds, it looked like fireflys flying around.

My sister's visit and our trip to Barcelona, Spain

My older sister Dana came to visit me the first week in May. That was her first time out of the States. Her plane was delayed for four hours, causing me to miss class but it was worse for her; she had to sit on a plane for a total of 12 hours! Shitty. She was tired when she got here, but I dragged her out into town. From the airport it's a 20 min train ride to the main train station, then over an hour from Frankfurt to Marburg. We dropped her bags off in my room then caught a bus into town and walked around a bit and got something to eat. I wanted her to try a doener, schnitzel, German chocolate and bananenweizen while she was here. She tried everything except the schnitzel. Four days in Germany is not enough! I planned a side trip to Spain while she was here. We flew out of Frankfurt-Hahn (1 hour 45 min outside of Frankfurt hbf) and into Barcelona Reus (an hour outside of Barcelona). I din't know the airport was that far out when I booked the tickets. Woops. We had to wait 2 hours for a bus into Barcelona, so we had a beer or two in the airport. We had to spend the night before in Frankfurt because our flight left at 6:30am and we had to take a bus at 3:30am from the main train station. So I booked us a hotel room close to the train station, so that we could just go to bed early the night before and walk to the train station. I booked us a hostel in the red light district of Frankfurt. I read that before booking, but I guess I didn't expect the district to be so... red light-y. There were people around at all hours and we felt pretty safe, but I had forgotten to tell my sister that we'd be staying there, so she was pretty pissed when we walked by some prostitutes on the street. The guy at the front desk had a coke nail, too. But the room was pretty nice! haha. Barcelona wasn't really what I expected. Spain is something completely different than Germany in every sort of way it seems. It's hard to describe, really. My sister was getting frustrated as the trip went on. She was exhausted from all the traveling and would get anxious when I didn't know where we were going. I'm used to getting lost by now, and I know that we will eventually find our way. I tend to forget that not everyone is that laid back. I feel bad for planning a trip that was so... unstructured I guess, but I think she had a good time nonetheless. We went to the beach one day. The weather was gorgeous! But there were people walking along the beach trying to sell stuff to us the entire day. It was so obnoxious! I played music to try and drown out their voices. It kind of worked... though I still heard little Asian women yelling "Massagie? Massagie?" NO I DON'T WANT A MASSAGE OR A SCARF! We took a bus tour the next day, which turned out to be a great idea! It was a hop-on-hop-off sort of thing, which allowed us to easily see all the major sites. We were given a pair of headphones so that we could hear narrations of the different sites. We both really enjoyed just laying back and seeing everything from a double decker bus. We saw Sangria Familia, Las Rambles, Cathedral and Gaudi's park. There seems to be a lot of immigrants in Barcelona. It was hard finding authentic Spanish food, made by Spaniards. Maybe it's because I didn't research anything before going, but I hope to revisit Spain one day and see a different side. I know it has to be more charming, romantic and authentic than what I experienced. Our hostel was pretty cool. I can't remember the name of it right now. We had a room with two twin beds, a tv and a fan. Finding channels in English in Europe is a challenge! Though I realize you shouldn't be watching tv if you're in Spain anyways. Our room was on a patio with two other rooms, motel style. The three rooms shared one bathroom. We barely saw any of our neighbors the entire time. There was a lounge room with another tv and a computer. There was a balcony overlooking the street, too. The staff were really nice and helpful. We ate at a Hard Rock Cafe one day. I had a burger- IT WAS SO DELICIOUS. I haven't had a burger in months! After Barcelona we came back to Marburg for a few days and just took it easy. She saw Elisabethkirche, Oberstadt and we walked up to the castle. We went out one night with some of my friends and Dana tried absinthe. I accidently set my glass on fire, so I didn't actually have any alcohol left in my drink after that. I was sad to see her go, but I hope she had a good time and I'm looking forward to seeing her in just one month!

Salzburg, Munich and Muehldorf

I spent a few days with my good friend Christine in a small town called Muehldorf, which is about an hour south east of Munich. I was going to use this ride share program to get a ride to Munich, but looked at the wrong bus and train schedules (week, not weekend). So I missed that and I had to take the train. I ended up taking a train from Marburg to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Walzburg, Walzburg to Nurenburg, Nurenburg to Munich and Munich to Muehldorf. It was an all day process! Totally worth it though. It was a lot of fun seeing Christine. She's so sweet! We walked around Munich one night and saw most of the sights in the old part of town. I saw where Hitler once stood and gave to give his speech. Behind the square was an alley with a "gold" stone path, symbolizing where people would walk to avoid saluting Hitler. We walked through a bit of the English Garden which was SO COOL! We saw the permanent wave with some surfers. I could sit there all day and watch them! We also went to Fruehlingsfest (spring fest), which is a mini Oktoberfest. It's held in the same spot with the same beer tents and everything, just at a smaller level. We ate cotton candy and chocolate covered apples and a huge butter pretzel... we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! :) Afterwards we drank some beers in a beer garden and met up with Christine's boyfriend. I was ready to pass out after my pint of beer that night! So good. We all went to Dachau Concentration Camp one day as well. Actually, it was something like 40 or 50 years to the day we visited that the camp was liberated by American troops. It was sad, intense and interesting at the same time. I learned a lot from my visit and changed a little bit, somehow. I tried to mentally prepare myself before going so that it wouldn't make me too emotional. The site has a large museum in the main building. The camp was the first started by the Germans and was actually built to imprison Germans, not Jews or other minority groups. We went on an English guided tour and afterwards watched a film in German. I think everyone should visit a concentration camp if given the opportunity- it's a good lesson in tolerance. Christine and I also went to Salzburg, Austria. It's only an hour away by train. I LOVE Salzburg! It's just so cute and charming. It's clean and just has a special feeling to it. I didn't go on the Sound of Music tour, because I don't honestly care but I did see the outside of the house Mozart was born in. I also tried Mozart kugel (chocolate ball) from the original candy store in which it was invented. There's a beautiful fortress that overlooks the city. Christine and I hiked up to it and did a self guided tour of the dungeon area. I saw a chastity belt! I had no idea those really existed! I thought it was something Robin Hood: Men in Tights thought up. I could spend all day in that fortress. I've been to castles before, but a fortress is really something completely different. It's like a tiny city inside of the walls. I'd like to come back one day and explore it more! I might apply for a teaching job next year in Austria, hopefully that'll be the opportunity to revisit Salzburg. :) We also visited Chiemsee one afternoon. It was nice but kind of busy because it was a holiday and there were a bunch of little bugs flying around. We didn't stay too long. Christine also gave me a tour of the paper factory she works at. She's a process engineer, a pretty respectable position. She's one of the few women to be working in the factory and was the first to hold that position. It's really an inspiration and I really admire her!

Italy

Wow. I haven't posted in MONTHS. I lost my internet for a while there and only could go online at the library. Major inconvenience! Though I was forced to get things done faster and more efficiently when I wasn't able to distract myself with the internet. So, let's see. Where did I leave off... In April I had my "spring break". It lasted about 2 weeks. I visited my host sister from 2006 in Stuttgart, Germany for a few days, where she showed me around her campus and Verbindung (fraternity). She was president of the frat and their end of the year party was the following week, so she was busy preparing her speech for that a lot of the time. We spent a few days her in her village, called Ursendorf. It's about an hour south of Stuttgart with a population of around 300. It's adorable! It was so nice being back there. My first trip abroad to Germany completely changed my life! It was the inspiration for my career path. The last two times I was in Germany I didn't speak in German, so it was nice being able to talk with Isa's mom and friends. I struggled to follow her friend's conversations though, because of their strong southern accents. We were able to go riding one morning which was AWESOME. The temperature that day was perfect and we had the woods to ourselves! We didn't ride for too long, because Isabel had other things to get done. We saw a deer while riding (first I've seen in Germany!). Isa and her family own around 14 Icelantic ponies, which they used to show. They breed, too. Rotary made a perfect match, putting her and I together. I've been riding since I was 7 or 8. Isabel had a bbq for me one night and all of our old friends came. It was really nice seeing everyone! Brings back good memories... though it's obvious things have definitely changed. We went out one night to this club with two levels. There were different rooms with different music and themes, it was cool! Before that I watched Titanic in German and in 3D (not really necessary) with Isa's little sister and her friends. I found 40 euros on the ground that night, too. SCORE. Isabel and I did a little road trip the next day through Switzerland (by accent) to Sirmione, Italy. Isabel had bought a pass for us to drive through Austria (faster than going through Switzerland) but the GPS wasn't working and we ended up going through there anyways. It was beautiful! Though the weather was kind of shitty the entire trip. We stayed at a bed and breakfast outside of town in Sirmione. The man at the front desk looked like Javier whatever his name is from Vicky Christina Barcelona. We had really nice breakfasts each morning at that b&b. We spent one day walking around Sirmione, which is on the Garda Sea and the next day we drove around the southern border of the lake, stopping along the way and taking a ferry with the car to the other side. Isa wasn't feeling too well, so she was a bit tired but the scenery was beautiful and I had a good time. We spent two days in Venice after that. We stayed about a half an hour out of town in a weird apartment which was apparently a bed and breakfast. The guy didn't have any sort of signs or labels on the buzzer, so we sort of just wandered around and asked some people who lived in the complex where the apartment was before finding it. It turned out to be just fine, but we were suspicious. We took the bus into Venice and ended up not paying a few times, because it was complicated and the bus driver didn't speak very good English. Venice was beautiful! And super touristy. But it has a feel that no other city really compares to. Every corner you turn is a new photo opp. It's just stunning! There's so many mask and glass shops. I felt like at any moment I was going to stumble upon a James Bond movie being filmed. It's just so... cool. We drove back through Austria and went back to Stuttgart the next day. Isa had her fraternity party, which was fun! So much beer was drunken by everyone, the supplies seemed endless. It's a tradition to sing old German frat songs while drinking pints of beer

. Even had one of the members playing the piano! It was so German it was ridiculous. Isa did great talking infront of everyone and leading the club. A night I will never forget!