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Germany has been amazing!!!! It's been so much fun to see the things I 've learned about in classes in real life. I'm also really enjoying getting to use my German. I understand a lot more than I thought I would, which makes my years of German study feel worthwhile.
Since my last update we've traveled from Dresden to Berlin and then on to Munich. Our second day in Dresden was lots of fun albiet very chilly. Some of Kristi's friends from Germany showed us around the Altstadt and we saw a several of Dresden's famous sites including the Frauenkirche, the Hofkirche, the Zwinger and the Residenzpalas. We also checked out the German Hygience Museum which ended up being incredibly interesting, both the permanent exhibit and the travelig exhibit on War and Medicine.
We had to leave Dresedn on our thrid day aroudn 5 o'clock in the evening so we thought we'd go and check out more of the palace before we had to leave. Unfortunetly this was not possible, President Obama was visiting Dresden, the first US president to do so, and was staying in the Altstadt so a large poriton of that area was fenced off and police were everywhere! Most of the people in Dresden were pretty excited for Obama to come but also a little annoyed at the inconvienence of so many roads and routes on public transport being shut down.
From Dresden we headed to Berlin to stay with Krisit's aunt. I absolutely loved Berlin!!!! There is so much history there. All of the World War II and Cold War historical site were so interesting and so were all of the great historical, art and cultural museums!
Kristi's aunt was a hostess and took us out to several very interesting restaurants. She and Jurgen took us out to Unsichtbar, a restaurant where you eat in complete darkness, it was an interesting and somewhat disconcerting experience but I really enjoyed it. They also took us out for some traditional Austrian food where I had a gigantic peace of Schnitzel and asparagus.
Germany is in love with Asparagus. Apparently it is now asparagus season so everyone eats it all the time while they can. I don't have a problem with that as I really like asparagus but I find it humorous that it is everywhere, also it is only white, no green asparagus to be seen.
Next we headed out to Munich, we got in super early in the morning, dropped off our bags and then headed to Neuschwanstein, a castle about 2 hours outside of Munich. The Walt Disney castle is based of of Neuschwanstein, so I was really excited to see it. When we got there we discovered there was also another castle there so we got to see 2 castles in one trip. Neuscwanstien was absurd in its opulance- paintings and gold covered sculptures were everywhere. I learned, however, that it was never finished because Ludwig II died and everyone thought he was crazy so they didn't finish it. We also learned not to buy postcards at the first available store.. they were 40 cents cheaper in the next store.. oops.
Day 2 in Munich we went on a tour of the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, which is aobut 20 minutes outside of Munich. It was a very worthwhile and educational expereince. There is no way I could describe the place, it's horror defies words but I think it is very important that we educate ourselves about such atrocities to prevent them from happening again.
After the tragedy of Dachau, it was good that today was sunshiny and nice. Krisit left this morning, I hope she gets home safely- she has a long way to go solo! Dana and I continued on with a bike tour of Munich which I really enjoyed, our tour guide's name was Jolly- not joking that was really his name, but I guess he was from Austrailia... hehe :.) It was a great tour and I learned tons about Munich and got to take a nice bike rid and enjoy some beer in the Englischer Garten.
I have absolutley loved Germany and most definelty want to come back some day! Tonight we head to Florence. Yay, warm weather! That's all for now! :.)
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