Jon is here in Germany visiting me and last week we went on a super trip to Paris, Dublin and London.
Well, actually we didn't really get to see much of Paris. You can read that story here
I decided the story was not done justice through print or picture alone so I combined them and added the missing details with some drawings. Click on the small pictures to make them bigger and then click next to see the next picture. Hopefully you are able to read the captions on the pictures since they tell the story.
Dublin was the best. When we got to the airport we went to the information booth to find out how to get from the airport to the city itself. They were advertising "The Dublin Card" so we asked about it. For 45 euros we got a card that got us free admission to over 30 attractions and discounts at restaurants and stores as well as a free shuttle into the city from the airport and free gifts at certain places. It was awesome! It also came with a guide book and a map which was very helpful. We had two full days in Dublin and we got to do so much! In alphabetical order, we saw: Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, Dublin Zoo, Guinness Storehouse, Kilmainham Gaol (Jail), National Gallery of Ireland, National Museum of Ireland Archaeology, National Wax Museum Plus, The Old Jameson Distillery and St. Patrick's Cathedral. That was just the stuff we did with our Dublin Card! We also took a horse drawn carriage tour of the city as well as a hop-on hop-off bus tour both of which were great and we walked through Phoenix Park. With all of the tours and museums, we learned a lot about Dublin and Ireland's history which was really interesting. You can see some of our pictures here
After Dublin we went to London. Unfortunately, we only got one day in London but we got to see everything we wanted to see. We walked pretty much from one end of the city to the other and made sure to see everything along the way. We also got to meet up with a friend of ours from UMass for awhile and see the Science Museum. You can see London pictures here
Despite the Paris mishap, this trip was awesome! Now spring break is over and it's back to classes. I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Love you all
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
The Zoo
Sorry it's been awhile but once we started classes we all stopped traveling for a bit.
Classes are going pretty well. I have one class in English taught by a professor from Oregon, that's cool and I have three German classes. The German classes aren't what I expected but they aren't too bad. I'm taking writing class, a short story class and a culture class. They are all more similar to my high school German classes than my college ones but oh well.
Yesterday, I finally convinced my friends that we had to go out. We decided on the Basel Zoo. The zoo was awesome. It was stuck somewhere in between the old fashion zoo where all the animals are in cages and the modern zoo that's decorated to look like the animal's actual habitat. They had way more animals than we expected. You can check out some pictures here: Zoo Pictures
We had a minor incident on the way home. We had chosen Basel because we were under the impression that we could still get their on the weekends with our semester tickets. Apparently, this is not so. No one checked tickets on the way down but on the way back they came around and the guy looked at our tickets and started saying things we didn't understand. Then he informed us that we could only get so far with this ticket and not all the way to Basel. We had the map that came with our original tickets and showed him that Basel is on the map. He then explained that the tickets we had in March were tickets for high school students and college students while the tickets we have now are only for college students. We still have no idea why that makes a difference but apparently it does. He was nice enough to not make us pay the $40 fee for not having a ticket probably because he saw the mix of rage and confusion brewing on our faces but he did write us up and make us pay the price for a ticket from Basel to the first stop on our tickets. This was kind of annoying but it ended better than expected.
We've done a lot of exploration of Freiburg since our classes started. We found some great restaurants including a sausage place that serves American style hot dogs which were delicious. Here's a picture: Food
We also found a really good and really cheap Italian restaurant. We found something similar to an American mall with all sorts of stores that we didn't know we had, that was nice. We finally found IKEA and bought some stuff for our rooms. When we first got here we would ask people how to get to IKEA and they would shake their head and say "oh, no. you can't get there from here without a car" There's actually a bus that says "IKEA" on it that takes you right there, it's pretty simple. It was just like every other IKEA and had everything we needed.
Things are going pretty well.
Love you all
Classes are going pretty well. I have one class in English taught by a professor from Oregon, that's cool and I have three German classes. The German classes aren't what I expected but they aren't too bad. I'm taking writing class, a short story class and a culture class. They are all more similar to my high school German classes than my college ones but oh well.
Yesterday, I finally convinced my friends that we had to go out. We decided on the Basel Zoo. The zoo was awesome. It was stuck somewhere in between the old fashion zoo where all the animals are in cages and the modern zoo that's decorated to look like the animal's actual habitat. They had way more animals than we expected. You can check out some pictures here: Zoo Pictures
We had a minor incident on the way home. We had chosen Basel because we were under the impression that we could still get their on the weekends with our semester tickets. Apparently, this is not so. No one checked tickets on the way down but on the way back they came around and the guy looked at our tickets and started saying things we didn't understand. Then he informed us that we could only get so far with this ticket and not all the way to Basel. We had the map that came with our original tickets and showed him that Basel is on the map. He then explained that the tickets we had in March were tickets for high school students and college students while the tickets we have now are only for college students. We still have no idea why that makes a difference but apparently it does. He was nice enough to not make us pay the $40 fee for not having a ticket probably because he saw the mix of rage and confusion brewing on our faces but he did write us up and make us pay the price for a ticket from Basel to the first stop on our tickets. This was kind of annoying but it ended better than expected.
We've done a lot of exploration of Freiburg since our classes started. We found some great restaurants including a sausage place that serves American style hot dogs which were delicious. Here's a picture: Food
We also found a really good and really cheap Italian restaurant. We found something similar to an American mall with all sorts of stores that we didn't know we had, that was nice. We finally found IKEA and bought some stuff for our rooms. When we first got here we would ask people how to get to IKEA and they would shake their head and say "oh, no. you can't get there from here without a car" There's actually a bus that says "IKEA" on it that takes you right there, it's pretty simple. It was just like every other IKEA and had everything we needed.
Things are going pretty well.
Love you all
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
What I've been doing
Ok, I have a lot to cover so let's go.
In the beginning of the month my parents and grandparents came to visit. That was a lot of fun. They rented a house in Fischbachtal where we all stayed. They got there on a Thursday but I had some stuff to do with UMass so they picked me up on that Sunday. We went back to the house and explored the area around it. Lissi, my exchange partner from High school, came to visit and we all went to Wertheim. Wertheim was very nice. We went to the glass museum where I got to blow glass and make an ornament. On Wednesday we picked up my friend Jess from Freiburg and headed to the black forest. We took a train to Titisee, an adorable touristy village. Once we got back to Freiburg we headed to Munich. Munich was awesome. There was so much to see but it was Good Friday so a lot of it was closed. Luckily, the bus tours were still running. We took a bus tour that you could get on and off and saw a lot of the city. We got off at the center of the city and explored around there for awhile. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy t-shirts and to the Hofbrauhaus for some huge pretzels. After that Jess and I went to the art museum which was nice. I definitely want to go back to Munich and see some more. On our way back to Fischbachtal we stopped at Dachau. That was really interesting and we saw a leonberger which is funny because our next stop was in Leonberg to take dorky pictures with the leonberger statue. I also got a printer in Leonberg which has been very useful. We spent Easter (also my mom's birthday) chilling out at the house. The day after we went to one of my favorite German towns, Rüdesheim. We took a boat down the Rhein and did some more touristy shopping. On tuesday we went to Bad Camberg where I stayed in High School. I was very excited to show my parents the house where I stayed. Lissi took us to Limburg and then we all went out to eat with Lissi's family at a really great restaurant in Bad Camberg. On Thursday, we went back to Freiburg. On the way we stopped in Triberg which is also in the Black Forest and went to The House of 1000 Clocks! We also saw the Triberg waterfall which was very nice. All in all, it was a very nice time. I was really glad that they could come and I could show them everything here.
Once I got back to Freiburg I had a lot of unpacking to do. I hung around for a few days and then last Thursday Eliza and I took a trip to Baden-Baden. We went to the thermal baths which was awesome. You went to a changing room to put on your bathing suit and then got a locker to keep all of your stuff. From there you go into a huge open room with pools of different sizes and temperature. It was really nice to just chill out in all the pools. They also had two outdoor pools that connected to the bigger indoor one, that was pretty cool. After our two hours were up, we explored the city. It was one of the prettiest German cities that I have been to so far.
Since then I've just been hanging out waiting for classes to start. They start tomorrow with "Pastoralism in American Literature" That's my only English class though. Then I have a German writing course, a German reading course and a German culture course.
Other than that, there isn't too much going on. I'll let you know how classes go.
Love you all.
In the beginning of the month my parents and grandparents came to visit. That was a lot of fun. They rented a house in Fischbachtal where we all stayed. They got there on a Thursday but I had some stuff to do with UMass so they picked me up on that Sunday. We went back to the house and explored the area around it. Lissi, my exchange partner from High school, came to visit and we all went to Wertheim. Wertheim was very nice. We went to the glass museum where I got to blow glass and make an ornament. On Wednesday we picked up my friend Jess from Freiburg and headed to the black forest. We took a train to Titisee, an adorable touristy village. Once we got back to Freiburg we headed to Munich. Munich was awesome. There was so much to see but it was Good Friday so a lot of it was closed. Luckily, the bus tours were still running. We took a bus tour that you could get on and off and saw a lot of the city. We got off at the center of the city and explored around there for awhile. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to buy t-shirts and to the Hofbrauhaus for some huge pretzels. After that Jess and I went to the art museum which was nice. I definitely want to go back to Munich and see some more. On our way back to Fischbachtal we stopped at Dachau. That was really interesting and we saw a leonberger which is funny because our next stop was in Leonberg to take dorky pictures with the leonberger statue. I also got a printer in Leonberg which has been very useful. We spent Easter (also my mom's birthday) chilling out at the house. The day after we went to one of my favorite German towns, Rüdesheim. We took a boat down the Rhein and did some more touristy shopping. On tuesday we went to Bad Camberg where I stayed in High School. I was very excited to show my parents the house where I stayed. Lissi took us to Limburg and then we all went out to eat with Lissi's family at a really great restaurant in Bad Camberg. On Thursday, we went back to Freiburg. On the way we stopped in Triberg which is also in the Black Forest and went to The House of 1000 Clocks! We also saw the Triberg waterfall which was very nice. All in all, it was a very nice time. I was really glad that they could come and I could show them everything here.
Once I got back to Freiburg I had a lot of unpacking to do. I hung around for a few days and then last Thursday Eliza and I took a trip to Baden-Baden. We went to the thermal baths which was awesome. You went to a changing room to put on your bathing suit and then got a locker to keep all of your stuff. From there you go into a huge open room with pools of different sizes and temperature. It was really nice to just chill out in all the pools. They also had two outdoor pools that connected to the bigger indoor one, that was pretty cool. After our two hours were up, we explored the city. It was one of the prettiest German cities that I have been to so far.
Since then I've just been hanging out waiting for classes to start. They start tomorrow with "Pastoralism in American Literature" That's my only English class though. Then I have a German writing course, a German reading course and a German culture course.
Other than that, there isn't too much going on. I'll let you know how classes go.
Love you all.
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