I have been meaning to write about my trip to Germany so I will do that now. I recently (now it is not so recent actually..) had autumn break from school (October 18-26), during which I went with my host family to the south of Germany. It was a fun week, and we did a LOT of things!
Here I am with a typical Bavarian man:
First, we woke up aound 5:00 am Saturday morning and drove 8 or 9 hours to Deisenhausen which is below Stuttgart. The more we drove, the more mountainous the land became. We stayed in a big farmhouse for the week (with heated bathroom floors!). There was also a small barn in which we could play ping pong! The housekeeper gave us fresh eggs from her chickens, and I made scrambled eggs for everyone the next morning!
Here is the link for where we stayed: http://www.ferienhaus-kiesberg.de/ click belegungsplan and then von Angebot Ferienhaus Kiesberg (Nähe Legoland). There were two possible accommodations in the house, and we stayed in the left side. For those of you who cannot read german, the pictures of the interior, labelled Wohnung 1, Altbau, correspond to the side of the house we stayed in. I cannot read German either, though I just kind of clicked around trial-and-error style until I got to the photo page.
Here is the entrance:
The living room:
The bathroom:
This was my bedroom. I have noticed that it is very common to just sleep with one puffy comforter on your bed. It certainly makes bed-making easier!
Here is a pitcure I took from the back of the property of the sunset:
My first impression of Germany was: WOW. They drive really fast, and the roads are very narrow! Also, there were farms everywhere. All of the houses are made of white horse-hair plaster and have dark red roofs. Many also have window-boxes with flowers.
Road into the village:
A narrow street:
Typical German building:
At first I thought that German sounded so strange! In the area where we were, everyone greets eachother by saying "Grüß Gott!" (pronounced something like "Kusgot") which literally means "say hi to God" or something along those lines. It was a very catholic region. I also learned how to say "thank you": "Danke schön!" which actually sounds like "dankeshun." And that concludes what I have learned to say in German!
On Sunday we went to Dachauw, which was the very first concentration camp in Germany. It was interesting to see a concentration camp in real life, though I honestly thought that it would leave a bigger impression on me. I didn't feel many emotions there when I went. It is very hard for me to imagine things that have happened so long ago. Nonetheless, is was a good experience.
I took some pictures: This is the entrance, which translates to "work brings freedom." That gives me the shivers.
Here is a picture of the prisoner's barracks in 1945:
Today, only two replicas remain:
Though the foundations of the other prisoner's barracks still stand:
This is the out-building on the opposite side of the barracks:
And this is the Jewish monument to remember all the jews who died:
Here is an aerial view of the camp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Concentration_camp_dachau_aerial_view.jpg
On a lighter note, on Monday we went to Legoland, an attraction park that is Lego-themed.
Here is Holland made out of legos:
Every morning we went to the bakery to get fresh kaiser rolls for breakfast. I tried a new flavor every day (of course!). In my eyes I am now an experienced kaiser-eater.
Another fun activity was going to the supermarket, which is always fun in another country. My favorite thing about the German supermarkets is that they have lots of cool cereals with chocolate fillings inside!
On Tuesday we drove over the border into Austria, just so that I could say I have been there. I saw the very pointy Austrian Alps, and we drove into a small town called Tirol to walk around a bit. The buildings in Austria are very pretty- most of them have decorative paintings around the windows outside. The streets were very narrow there, too.
Here I am at the Austrian border:
The water was bright blue!!
Pointy mountains!
Decorative windows:
We stopped unexpectedly at a really cool restaurant/fish farm in the middle of the woods (or so it seemed). I think it was the oldest restaurant I had ever been in (it was established in 1661). Inside, I honestly felt like I was in medieval times. There were small windows with little lacy curtains, low doors and ceilings, everything was made of dark wood, it was warm inside, and lit dimly by candle light. I ordered the specialty: fish, and received a whole fish on a plate, eyes and all, which I was not expecting! Tedious, yet delicious eating.
The next day we went to Augsburg for some shopping. It was cool because I had remembered reading about Augsburg in my History book last year (thank GOD that class is over), and there I was at the exact place! Who would have thought that the places in our world history books would be so great for shopping?! :)
One thing I found funny was that in the Deli's, there are tables, but no chairs (except for a bar against the wall). People just stand ant eat!
On our last day in Germany, Herman and Harriët took me to two real castles: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau, located by the border or Germany and Austria. They were so incredibly beautiful to see, and we got to have tours of both! It was my first time being in a real castle! I sent some post cards from there, including a puzzle post card! Though it took me a while to figure out that the pieces were meant to be broken up before going into the envelope.
This was the view from the outside of the castle that is in the distance in the above photo. It was so high up! We had to hike all the way:
We had some good discussions during the vacation, and I realized that I have to let go of some of my American habits, which is very hard for me to do. Though I am working on it, and new habits are slowly replacing old ones.
On the ride home to Assen, we stopped at a restaurant that Herman and Harriët had been absolutely RAVING about, called Ivan's. It was very good, but the food was so rich that I felt really sick afterwards, so that was no fun :(
I completed knitting a pair of mittens over the vacation, which didn't appear to be felting at first, but then shrunk to baby-size when we put them in the dryer. (Whoops!)
Hopefully I can blog soon about more recent stuff.
By for now!
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