Kräuter

If you've ever been to Germany, you might have noticed their obsession with Kräuter. It is written everywhere and they put it on everything. I'm still not even 100% sure what it is.
The other thing about Germans is that they are very literal. One time we went out to eat and Jon wanted to order schnitzel with Kräuter butter, but he wasn't sure what it was, so he asked the waitress.
She laughed and said, "Butter...mit Kräuter..."
According to my German/English dictionary, Kräuter is defined as herbs, but it doesn't get any more specific than that. I've had Kräuterbutter, Kräuter salad dressing, cheese with Kräuter, and the other day when I went to buy toothpaste, I had to try the Kräuter kind, made by Crest. Really? Kräuter flavored toothpaste? Where does the line get drawn here?

Munich

Ok, so I know that I was going to write about Munich yesterday, but it was TOO HOT in Freiburg, and Germans don't believe in air conditioning, so I spent most of the day trying to keep cool, which meant not having the hot computer on my lap.

I had such an awesome time in Munich, it was a great weekend spent with great people. We left in the morning on Thursday and decided to go there the cheap way, which means all regional trains. We had to stop and switch trains a bunch of times, the coolest place being in Ulm, which is right on the border of Bavaria. We had an hour wait there and found out it was home to the biggest church tower in the world, so we went to check it out. It was pretty awesome, but we ended up missing our connection. Also a fun fact: Ulm is the birthplace of Albert Einstein!

We finally arrived in Munich hot and tired. The eight of us checked into our hostel and then went straight to the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer hall in the world, for a traditional German dinner. I got bockwurst with sauerkraut. I have lived in Germany for 3 months but I am still not a fan of sauerkraut, grosssss. We headed back after dinner because we were too exhausted to go anywhere else.

Being in one hostel room with 7 other people is totally ridiculous and totally hilarious. Since we all knew each other, it was non-stop joking and ripping on each other. The only problem with our room is that there was only one bathroom! Since I wake up so early, I was put in charge of getting people moving in the morning. On average, it took us between 2.5 and 3 hours every morning to get ready, since some people are sloooow movers. It was hilarious though trying to figure out who the sleep talkers, snorers, and loud sighers were, and frightening when the person on the bunk above you moved!

The next morning when we all did manage to get up and moving, we went to explore the city. We saw 3 different churches (Europe is all churches if you haven't realized by now, and maybe a castle or 2 thrown in for good measure) and went to the Marienplatz to see the world famous Glockenspiel chime at 11:00. It was slightly disappointing, but definitely something we couldn't miss while we were there.

In the afternoon we split up. Some of us wanted to go to the concentration camp Dachau, and some people wanted to stay behind. I decided to go. Dachau was the only concentration camp open during the entire war from 1933-1945 and was one of the worst labor camps during this time. Upon arrival, there was a path that led up to the main gates which read Arbeit macht Frei (work will set you free) and all the prisoners saw as they entered the camp. Some American tourists decided it would be cool to shut themselves inside the prison gates and have people take pictures of them stuck inside a concentration camp, which I found to be totally classless and kind of disgusting. Anyway, inside there was a big courtyard where the prisoners had to line up every day for roll call and stand for hours and hours. I visited the inside of a bunker where hundreds of people were crammed into tiny little beds, a really large and extensive museum that told the entire history of the camp, and the crematorium/gas chambers which was the most chilling part of the concentration camp. Most of Dachau was burned down after the war ended, but there were still the foundations of all the bunkers where the thousands of prisoners
were kept. The whole experience was very moving and I'm glad I decided to go and learn more about the darker side of the country I'm studying in.

The next day, we took a two hour train to Neuschwanstein, the castle that Walt Disney based the ones in Disneyworld and Disneyland on. When we got there, we took a bus to the foot of the mountain and then had to hike up to the castle. It was very hot and we were all sweaty. We had to get a guided tour (there is no other option), and we had a 3 or 4 hour wait, so we decided to hike around the gorgeous surrounding area and wandered upon an alpine stream with freezing cold water. We dipped our feet in and immediately felt refreshed. When it was finally time for the tour, some of us decided to do it in English and some chose to do it in German. I chose English and kind of regretted it a little, again because of ridiculous American tourists that think it's ok to bring little kids and let them scream and climb all over everything. The castle itself was actually really interesting. It was built by King Ludwig II and took 17 years before it was complete enough for him to move in. He only lived there for a little more than 100 days before he was mysteriously found dead in a lake in Munich. To this day, no one knows how he died and the castle remained unfinished, but opened to the public only 6 weeks after his death in 1886.

That night, after a terrible train ride home filled with just about every crazy person living in Munich, we met up with Jeff's friend living in the city and she brought us to a restaurant where all the Munich locals eat. I ordered some wieners and they were amazing. I discovered I am also not a fan of potato salad either, though.

In the morning, some of us headed back to Munich, some decided to travel on, and some remained in Munich for the rest of the day. I was part of the crew who headed home early which was kind of a terrible experience filled with long, hot, train rides, OBNOXIOUS children, too many changes, and one train that just didn't show up at all and stranded us at a tiny hick station in the middle-of-nowhere Germany. Coming back to the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof is always an amazing feeling though and we all agreed that there's no place like home.

We Did It

We're amazing!
More on my trip to Munich tomorrow, too exhausted to update tonight!

Freiburg Dancing

Everyone thinks this video is either awesome or really lame.
I think it's awesome. It shows all the cool things in Freiburg.

Always an Adventure

I love how everything in Germany turns into an adventure, whether it's intended to be or not.

Yesterday I needed to go to DHL to pick up a package that I received on Saturday but wasn't around to sign for. I took Jon with me to the next stop down the line on our tram because that's where I thought we were supposed to be, but the only thing we found there was a post office, not a DHL. We checked out the address on the slip and realized we weren't where we were supposed to be. Jon had a public transit map on him and we pulled that out and had to take the tram another stop down and then hop on a 15 minute bus. We ended up in the ghettos of Freiburg, and this DHL actually ended up being a huge machine in the middle of a parking lot! I found a picture of it online so you can get a better idea of what it looked like.

I had to scan the barcode on my slip into the machine, and then enter my name and sign the screen. I pushed a button and all of a sudden one of the gray doors on the right hand side slid open and my package appaeared! It was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life.

I had to carry my 8 pound package all the way back into town for adventure #2. On Sunday I was an idiot and not paying attention at the ATM. I meant to put in my card from my bank at home, but instead put in my Deutsche Bank card. I put in the wrong PIN and then tried to take out more money that I had in that account. The result was that the ATM retained my card and told me to contact my bank immediately. Of course this happened on a Sunday so there was nothing I could do until yesterday. The woman behind the counter was very nice though and I explained to her my sitaution in German. Turns out, you can only get your PIN wrong four times IN YOUR LIFE and then they keep your card. I had entered my PIN wrong 3 times in the past 2.5 months I guess so now I'm getting a new card and new PIN sent to me.

And for those wondering, my package contained all delicious American food: pop tarts, Ranch dressing, cheez-its, Ritz crackers, Oreos, Goldfish, etc. AMAZING! :-)

Bonjour from Strasbourg!

Our best video yet:

"Nothing makes you appreciate Germany more than spending the day in France"--Jon Salvilla

Saturday my friends and I took our usual weekend excursion, this time to Strasbourg, France, which was exciting because usually we visit tiny villages and going to a big city was a nice change of pace. We took the train to the border of Germany and then walked into France because it was the cheapest for us. It was kind of weird when we first got there because we didn't have a map and couldn't find the center of the city--we were just wandering down random side streets and as usual, everything was closed. I used the restroom in a weird trailer which was hands down the dirtiest place I have ever relieved myself, but it was FREE, so I can't complain...too much.

We were dying of starvation and could not find anywhere to eat (although the 2 pizzas for 9.90 at Pizza Hut was extremely tempting) so we ended up walking about a mile back to the one outdoor cafe that we did see open. Jon, being the only person that speaks French, asked for the menu and the waitress seemed annoyed, but we had no idea why. We all picked out what we wanted and Jon placed the order for us. She snapped back in him in French that she already told him there was only one thing on the menu, a weird sandwich with ham, mushy cheese inside, and melted cheese on top of the bread. Ok, but definitely not worth the 4.10 that we had to pay for it, and the attitude of the waitress certainly did not add to our experience, that's for sure.

After lunch, we did manage to find the center of town and realized that Strasbourg is actually a really cool place. We visited the cathedral which was breathtaking, and then went into some gift shops to buy our usual souvenir postcard. In one shop, there was a huge American flag shoved into a corner and Jon did his duty as an American by pulling it out, waving it around a little, and putting it in a more prominent place. The guy working there was not pleased and came over, grabbed it out of his hand, and put it down about 2 feet away. For the rest of the time we were in the store, we were all followed around like we were some kind of criminals. We did find another flag outside though, which Todd epically modeled for the world to see.

We also went to a boulangerie and ordered some French pastries for dessert, and Jon tried to buy some foie gras, but it was 13 euros for just 50 grams. We walked from one end of the city to the other and were totally exhausted when we found the most amazing patch of grass that I have ever laid down on. It was green and perfect; the kind of grass I imagine there to be at places like Fenway Park, and definitely good enough to mention in this blog!

After our sit down, we had to walk all the way back through the city, to the outskirts, then cross the bridge back into Kehl, Germany, take 2 trains back to Freiburg and then the trams back to our respective dorms. It was about a 2 hour walk and a 3.5 hour journey when all was said and done. We were all totally exhausted and I went to bed shortly thereafter. My face was totally sunburned, my legs were killing me, and my feet hurt, but it was all in the name of adventure for another awesome day in Europe!

PS
Strasbourg has some pretty crazy street names....

Only my Two Favorite Cities ON THE PLANET!

Look where I ate dinner!!!


I can't believe that I didn't hear about Cheers Bar Freiburg earlier! They had great student deals. I got schnitzel, french fries, and a salad for only 4,44! The restaurant was set up to look like the bar on the TV show. I didn't take any pictures of that because the entire waitstaff was sitting there. It had more Chicago memorabilia than Boston memorabilia, but I will take it. The food quality was about the same as the Cheers Bar in Boston, ie. not fantastic. Not bad either, though.

Where Our Priorities Are

Next weekend I'm going to München with six of my friends. The past week hasn't been focused on how we're going to get there, where we're going to stay, or what we're going to do, but rather how we're ever going to pull off spelling München with our bodies.

My friends did "Paris" while they were there and I think it came out pretty awesome:
Then there was Basel, which I posted on here before:München, however, poses a problem. We were so excited that there are enough of us to spell it out, but it's not that easy. First of all, there's the issue of the umlaut over the U. None of the letters in "München" have easy, straight lines to imitate. We've literally been discussing this all week, tensions are high already as people are fighting over the "easiest" letters, and insults have been flying. Jon drew up this plan for how we need to pose:

We are still trying to figure out how we're going to get this to work; none of us are that flexible!

How I Decorate

My new favorite thing to do is buy postcards wherever I go. It started when I did my Paris/Rome/Florence trip because it is the cheapest souvenir you can buy, plus I always buy postcards of my favorite places in a city I've been as a memory, since they always look better than any picture you can take. It's also the best way to decorate my room.

Now, whenever we go on our weekend excursions anywhere, we always make sure to buy a postcard to remember the place by. This weekend we're going to Strasbourg, France!
Here is the wall of postcards in my room. Most of these I bought myself, but a few were sent to me. Some of them are kind of crooked, I know. I am working with ghetto .25 cent German tape here! Any donations to my postcard collection would be most appreciated though! ;-)

"Sometimes the children would scream and run away. That pleased me"--Mitchell Holthaus

I've had quite the busy weekend and was barely in my dorm room or on the internet. This is because Jon had a quarter life crisis last week and decided that we couldn't just sit in our rooms anymore while we're staying in Germany!

On Friday Jon, Emily, our friend Joo Young, and I took the train to a place called Titisee (lol). The weather was gorgeous and sunny and we took a paddle boat out on to the lake. It was really funny because we tried to wave to everyone else on paddle boats, but mostly we got dirty looks and stares. I guess that doesn't fly in Germany. When we were waiting for the train to head back to Freiburg, it all of a sudden started torrentially downpouring and hailing! I've never seen it so bad in my life! Thankfully we had a gorgeous day up until that moment so it was ok.

Saturday morning we met up with Jon's new tandem partner: someone who he can practice German with and this guy can practice English with Jon. He said we could go on an excursion on the other side of town. Little did we know that this was hardcore hiking up a mountain! I don't like hiking, and I've said it time and time again. It took us an hour and half to get up the mountain and I've never been so drenched in sweat. The view of Freiburg was amazing though and we performed our talents on a "stage," or rock hanging out over a cliff.

After a relaxing few hours we descended the mountain and I went to the Hauptbahnhof to meet up with Steven, my friend studying in Tübingen (about 3 hours away from Freiburg) who I met a month ago in Florence. We showed him around Freiburg and a great traditional German dinner of Schnitzel and Spätzle.

This morning we decided to go on yet another excursion to a different lake, Schluchsee. It was another gorgeous day and we took the hour train in to arrive at noon. We had a great lunch at an outdoor cafe and then rented an electro-boat with two settings: slow and extra slow. It was another gorgeous day spent on a lake that also ended in a rainstorm!

I'm so lucky to be here with no real classes, no job or responsibilities besides paying rent/keeping myself fed, and being able to spend every day with great friends going on great adventures! Coming up in 2 weeks we're going to Munich and the first week of June we're going to Salzburg, Austria for the Sound of Music Tour!

"Two strikes and you're out. Just like baseball"--My Deutschland und Europa Professor

Today was interesting in that I tried 2 very strange foods: Doener flavored chips and beer flavored gummy bears. I can't decide if either of them were very good at all. The Doener chips made my hands smell bad for a long time, and the beer flavored gummy bears were beer flavored, which I think says enough in itself. I also had white chocolate ice cream which was really really good.

My friend Jon met with 3 different Germans today to practice speaking German, and Emily and I got to meet them too. They were all really cool and it was awesome to speak German to someone our age and let them practice our English on us. Hopefully we'll get to know some more Germans soon, because we definitely speak too much English here!

Actual Conversation

Actual conversation that occurred yesterday between Jon and a random man, while we were looking through a 1 Euro bin outside of a store:*

Man: These are Chinese things, aren't they?
Jon: I guess so
Man: You are Chinese aren't you?
Jon: No, actually I'm Mongolian
Man: Mongolian? You ride the horses then? *makes ridiculous horse riding gestures with his hands*
Jon: Oh yes, every weekend! All us Mongolians do!


*roughly translated from German to English

Zurich

Zurich was a gorgeous city. It has the highest standard of living in Europe and you could totally tell. I've never seen such nice cars just parked on the street before. Of course with a high standard of living comes high prices! I had so much fun comparing prices in Zurich to what I usually pay in Freiburg. A pizza margarita that I usually pay 2,50 for in Freiburg cost 18 francs* in Zurich! A trip to McDonalds for the two of us cost almost 25 francs! Totally insane.

My dad and I arrived on Sunday so nothing was open and we spent the day just walking around and taking in the city. I loved the mix between the old city and the new city in Zurich. The people were very friendly and always greeted you with a Gruezi (hello) wherever you went. I was pumped to say Gruezi back to everyone, since it's the only word of Swiss I know after working at a Swiss bakery for 8 months. I could not understand a WORD of anything said after Gruezi though; even native speakers of German don't understand the Swiss dialect. We enjoyed dinner at a nice outdoor cafe (where I think the waitstaff thought we were German because they gave us German menus, all the tourists around us got the English ones! Haha!) and then we had the closest thing I've had to actual Italian gelato since I was in Italy!

Our hotel was really cool and modern and I have not slept in such a comfortable bed in a long, long time. The view outside the window was of real Swiss bankers hard at work. I also enjoyed watching Two and a Half Men on TV in French, and Malcolm in the Middle overdubbed into German.

The next day we woke up to pouring rain. As my birthday present, I got to pick out a Swiss timepiece, so we spent most of the morning window shopping around until I found the perfect watch. Unfortunately all the blingin' diamond encrusted awesome ones had price tags of over 30,000 francs, but that is always the case, isn't it? I really love the one I got though and it's something I'll never forget.

Sadly, we found out that all the museums are closed on Mondays in Zurich and we couldn't walk around anymore in the pouring rain, so we went back to the Hauptbahnhof (my dad's new favorite word) and went our separate ways. I got on my train back to Freiburg and my dad got on a train to the airport to go back to Boston. I had such a fun few days though and it was great to see my dad!!

*1 CHF = $0.88
More Zurich here

My dad is here visiting me! It's been such a fun few days in Freiburg.

He arrived on Friday afternoon and I went to pick him up at the Hauptbahnhof after enjoying a picnic in the lovely Freiburg weather in the Seepark outside of my dorm. My dad checked into his hotel and then I gave him a big tour of the city. We went into the Muenster and I climbed to the top for the first time, and then we decided to hike up that tower on the Schlossberg mountain which I've spoken about before. It was a LOT of walking and a LOT of hiking and I think I almost killed him. Sorry about that, dad. We went out for some traditional German schnitzel for dinner, and then I had to put him to bed at 20:00 because he was exhausted!

Today we met at 9am and went back to the Muensterplatz to see the extra huge market that's there on Saturday mornings. It is Spargel (asparagus) season in Germany now, so it's everywhere you look! We walked around the city some more and I saw a lot of things I've never seen before. Then I took him back to my dorm to show him where I live. It seemed like we had walked forever and seen everything and it was only 11:00! Spur of the moment, we decided to spend the rest of the day in Basel, Switzerland. How many times in your life are you gonna be able to up and go to Switzerland for the day?!

We arrived at 1 and I tried to find my favorite restaurant with the tortellini. I got pretty lost, but after a half an hour of searching, I did manage to find it and they DID have tortellini this time so that made my day. After that, we walked to the Muenster in Basel and then decided to go to France. The weather was so crazy all day. It would go from being sunny and hot so we would have to take our jackets off, to freezing cold, windy, and pouring rain. I managed to get my pants soaked all the way up to the knees, as usual.

For some strange reason, we ended up going the wrong way down the Rhine river and discovered that we were actually walking in the TOTAL OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF FRANCE! We turned around but of course this made our trip extra long. We made it across the border, but there was nothing to really do and we were too exhausted to go any further, so we walked back into Switzerland to take the train back to Germany.

After eating Doener for dinner, my dad had his first Spaghetti Eis, which he thought was "unbelievable." Completely exhausted, we parted ways and now I'm back in my room. Tomorrow morning we're leaving at 9:15 for Zurich!

My Birthday!

Yesterday I had my 21st birthday which was wonderful. I have met so many amazing people since I've been in Freiburg and I'm so grateful!

I had class in the afternoon from 14:00-20:00, so my day got off to kind of a slow start, but thankfully my classes are really interesting so it wasn't so bad. I actually just got my first homework assignment--reading. I signed up to do a presentation in my Regional History of Freiburg class about the beginning of women's higher education in Germany and I'm really looking forward to learning more about that.

After class got out, I met up with my friends Todd, Emily, Mitch, Jon, and Katie, and we headed to a restaurant on top of the Schlossberg, a mini mountain thing in Freiburg. My regional history of Germany professor recommended it to me and said it had the best view of Freiburg. There is a tram thing that you can take up, but that costs money, so we hiked it. Hiking up the mountain was steep though and when we reached the top we were all sweating, panting, and trying to catch our breath. We walked into the place and it was a LOT more fancy than we thought. Everyone was dressed up, there were white table cloths and roses on every table, and even the waiters and waitresses were dressed extra fancy. There we were, the 6 Americans coming straight from class in our jeans and t-shirts, wearing our backpacks, and trying desperately to catch our breath after the 15 minute hike.

Regardless, we were seated and ordered some Hefeweizen/Pils, and my friend Katie was nice enough to order a slice of Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte for me, which was amazing. The view of Freiburg was gorgeous, and we had a great time sitting there and talking. It was too expensive to actually get food, so afterward we headed over to our favorite Italian place for cheap pasta and pizza before we headed back home around midnight.

I had such a wonderful day with great friends, but I'm still not over the fact that I'm now 21!