Copenhagen, Denmark

Hello everyone!
I have not kept my promise in updating...I apologize! I finally have a chance to sit down and write down my overdue thoughts. Settling back in America has brought many challenges, finding a job is one of them. As much as i'd like someone to hire me immediately, I have learned it takes time and patience to hear back from a potential employer.
Anyway, as promised:
A little over a month ago (weekend of August 3-5th), I was in Copenhagen, Denmark with my friend Tricia. We took the train up, which took about 4 hours. It was a little frustrating at first, because it was an actual Danish train, the signs said "Kan være reserviert" which translates to "could be reserved." This never would happen on German trains, since you either reserve it or you don't. Honestly, I didn't expect to be wowed by Copenhagen, but I was. It had so much history with it, and it was a pedestrian city. We stayed in a hostel that wasn't too far of a walk from the train station. On a side note, Copenhagen had some of the best and nicest underground trains i've seen. They were wide and told you the estimated time to get somewhere. They were also very colorful. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of one. Sorry!
Some of the highlights of Copenhagen was the weather...it was so nice while there (unlike this 95˚ weather in Houston). There was a really cool moat that we went through when we followed a marked path on the maps we got.

There was also a castle we went by, that housed the royal family of Denmark. They, like Buckingham palace had guards that stood completely still. We arrived during the changing of the guards, and it was very peculiar.

And of course, the little mermaid statue:

It was put there in the 1940s I believe, and has become a must-see when visiting Copenhagen. Copenhagen was the home of Hans Christian Andersen. The story of the little mermaid is actually a sad one; in short, she saved a prince from drowning at sea, left him at a temple, and another princess took the credit for saving him. Long version, short summary, scroll down.

My friend and I also took a canal/harbor tour of Copenhagen, and we got to see a lot from the water. I learned that Andersen had an apartment in Nyhavn (New port):

They also had a peculiarly interesting dessert: churro with ice cream:

We also spent a lot of time at the National museum of Denmark. They had all sorts of neat things dealing with excavations around Denmark. (Fun fact, Copenhagen is actually on an island). One of the exhibits that I liked was dealing with more modern events, they had things from the last 100 years in one exhibit. It was a blast from the past, they had walkmans, nintendos, old tvs, old chairs, things like that. Another thing that I liked was that there were the remains of a viking ship.
We also visited an area of town called Christiana. It's a hippy town where they have a "green light district." Marijuana is illegal in Denmark, but the police have sort of turned from the Christiana, because it's safer to know where you can get it rather than dealing with violence of drug turf wars.

One of the highlights of my trip is that I finally met a good friend of mine in person. I'm glad I could finally put a face to someone I had been talking to for years!

Copenhagen was a fun city, especially during the summer because the days are longer. Denmark uses the Kroner, so I had to exchange my euros there. I recommend doing it beforehand, because the rates at exchange houses are a little ridiculous, they also take a business approach to exchanging money.

Well, those were my adventures in Copenhagen. Coming up soon: details about my mini Eurotrip!

Back in America

Hello everyone!
I have returned back to America and seem to have gotten over jet-lag. It's been incredibly hot in Houston and I had to go back to school on Monday. It's my last semester, and I hope it's a smooth one.
If you're in the Houston area and a student at UH, I will be giving a presentation about my study abroad in Germany. It's also an information session on available scholarships and programs for study abroad.

I arrived in Houston at around 6:30pm local time last thursday. My body thought it was 1:30am, so I was very tired coming out of the airport. The process getting through customs went smoothly coming in. In Germany, I did have to explain to passport control why I stayed in Germany for so long. Coming in, they weren't as worried, but going out is when they sort of grill you. When I went to my departure date, I had to go into a sort of holding cell. Once you went in, you couldn't go out...which is something I discovered when I wanted to get some bread at a bakery. The planes were all a little early, and I even got upgraded a class going from Heathrow to Houston. It was nice, a little extra room, nicer food, and more concern about how the passengers were doing. Nicer headphones too, albeit they were used.

So I have been reintroduced into American culture again, something that feels a lot more different than I originally expected. I think it'll take some time to get used to it. It is a difficult transition, since being introduced into something new and being introduced to the old routine can be quite boring.

That's my update for now. I will write about my trips perhaps later today or tomorrow.

Goodbye, Germany

Hi everyone,
I am currently at a friend's place pretty much waiting for my flight back to Houston tomorrow morning. I leave at 11:15 am local time and arrive in Houston around 6:45 pm CST. So I essentially travel for 7 hours. Kidding, I will be traveling for a total of 12 hrs. Europe, especially Germany has been great. I am very sad to leave, and it's been a great experience living in another country. It's time to get back to my regular life in Houston, finish up, and graduate in December. It's very late here now in Germany (12:55), but I will update on my trip once I return home. I hope the jet lag won't last very long.

Until then,
Melissa

Quick update!

Hello everyone!
This is a very quick update- I am officially moving away from beautiful Lüneburg tomorrow afternoon. I then head to Pisa, Rome, Paris, and Barcelona. I will be back in Germany next Saturday, staying with a friend, then returning to the US on August 23rd.

Starting tomorrow until next saturday, I will have very limited internet access, maybe it's a good thing to be separated for a while from the internet. I have tons to do today and tomorrow- including saying good bye to friends, cleaning my room, and reflecting on my stay here.

I promise to write about Copenhagen in more detail later on. It was a great city and it deserves its own post with more details.

Until next time!

Die Zeit and this weekend

Hello everyone!!!
At the present moment, I feel very tired; today I finished my second and last paper that i'll ever have to write in Germany for class. I have two final exams coming up next week, but I'm going to take it easy this weekend.

This weekend, i'm headed to beautiful Copenhagen, Denmark! Every person i've talked to has said that Copenhagen is so beautiful...and I hope to be caught in its charm as well. It's my last full week in Lüneburg, a little over a week traveling through europe, a few days in Hamburg, then back home on the 23rd. This summer has flown by extremely quickly. I think it may have to do with having a set schedule for the most of the summer and of course, having a lot of fun.

This afternoon I went on an excursion to Die Zeit- a newspaper based in Hamburg. We spoke to the editor there, not quite sure of what department. He was very well educated and gave an opinion about newspapers- that newspapers should report, not change the opinions of its readers. Die Zeit comes out once a week and is apparently a very tough paper to read through since they use big words, and they aim to educate their readers. They were kind enough to give us all a free copy of this week's edition, along with cookies, water, tea, and coffee. I felt like we were very welcomed into the environment. Fun fact for today- the editor did his dissertation on the judicial system used by the Irish Republican Army. I was very curious to know what he had discovered. He told me, in short, that he tried to answer the question, was the IRA's approach to justice the right way to approach problems? The answer is no. The IRA had to influence the police because the police were afraid of entering certain neighborhoods. The methods the IRA used for "justice" were the same tactics used by a mafia.

Other things that were asked were if humanity is really all alike- yes. We may all come from different backgrounds, but the same types of people exist in each society. Germany selling tanks to Saudi Arabia and potentially Qatar are not a very good move on Germany's part. An online edition and a print edition of a newspaper are very different. Germany has one major political think tank, the editor wished it was more like the US where there exist so many, with a variety of opinions. Journalists at Die Zeit use a wide variety of resources to write their articles. Sometimes lawyers want to become journalist (ie the editor we talked with).

Until next time!

Kloster Lüne

I just realized I didn't write about my trip to the Lüne convent (Kloster). Last Wednesday I went to a convent that was built in the 1300s. It was originally built in the 1100s, but it burnt down and was rebuilt again. It was a hot afternoon (it's back to being chilly now, though. I joke around and say it's a nice day...for autumn).

The building was very cool though, I think there is still a convent there. It has a very long history; it was originally a Catholic convent, but had to be forcibly converted to a protestant one, although they nuns didn't convert without a fight. When they first had services in the newly converted church, the nuns would sing songs in Latin so loud, that the assembly could not hear the preacher. Nuns mostly came from affluential families, since families a long time ago would have a number of children, usually the youngest daughter would be promised to the convent, in order to guarantee some sort of salvation for the family. Therefore, whatever the daughter would inherit would be given to the convent. This made convents very wealthy. Nuns were not allowed to keep very many things. They had to live a very simple and religious life. Very early on, nuns were not allowed to speak during meal times, so they made up a sign language in order to communicate with each other, which I thought was clever.

During WWII, a bomb had gone off near the convent where they had a bridge. The Germans bombed it, in hoped of stopping the allies. However, the bomb also destroyed a lot of the original stained glass windows. Some of them have been restored, but they have been moved to a safer location of the convent. The whole convent used to be covered with stained glass. The convent was also well known for its stitchwork, and some projects would take up to a year and a half to complete. They were beautiful pieces, threaded using a fishbone. The nuns also may have had a hard time completing their work, since their main source of light came from stained windows.

A house was built in the convent especially for King George I, since when he visited the abbey, there was no place for him to stay. He died before the house was completed.

Their sleeping quarters were also very small. If you think college dorms are small, I think the nuns who lived in convent accommodations would gladly trade with any college student. They were really small, maybe 3 meters by 4 meters, with a window. Later on, they were allowed to decorate their rooms and even have servants, this all was allowed after the reformation.

I remember that two German idioms came from the convent life. One of them goes along the lines of "You can finally see the dog" which means you're left with nothing. Nuns were allowed to keep their belongings in a chest, which had a dog at the bottom of the chest. When they finally "saw the dog"- that means that they were left with nothing in the chest.

The one I do remember ist "halt die klappe" - which means to "shut up." It originates from when the nuns had to be in a waiting room before they had to sing hymns. While they were waiting, they had these sections on the wall, where they could lean against and rest while they waited to go to the choir balcony. Later on, drop down seats were added. When they would be too loud, they would drop down their seats and be quiet.

The convent also had a very valuable painting- apparently sough after by many art museums. It was painted by a friend of Martin Luther, and it was when Jesus was brought down from the cross. The artists had drawn himself into the scene, which included Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Mary's Mother, Joseph, and Mary's sister.

We were not allowed to take many pictures of the convent, but these are the ones I was able to take:

Until next time!

Capital City, Berlin!

Hello all!
I spent last weekend with my friend Tricia in beautiful Berlin, Germany. Being a poli sci major, I had a huge interest in the city. We spent about a day in the city, and I got to see a lot of sites.

I would say all of the places I saw were beautiful sites- we went to the Bundestag (German parliament building), Chalottenburg Schloss (Charlottenburg Castle), Branderburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, and Alexander Platz (both big squares).

We headed to the big capital city on Saturday morning, after a small setback, we made it to Berlin in the early afternoon. Berlin welcomed us with its typical weather: light rain and a bit of humidity. We got a day pass which let us ride the trams, U-bahn and S-bahn (subways), and the buses. I had an appointment to go to the Bundestag at 6pm on Saturday. Little did I know that I needed to print out my confirmation letter (although it didn't say I had to on the letter itself). After some minutes of frustration, I used Tricia's phone to access the confirmation, and saved us from standing in line to make an appointment for the next day. The view from the rooftop of the Bundestag was wonderful. You can see all of Berlin from the rooftop. There's also a free audio guide with lots of valuable information about the Bundestag building and the major landmarks around Berlin. The dome of the Bundestag contains a huge spiral with mirrors on it. You can also see into the inside of the building (it wasn't in session while I was there). The point of why it's like that is because they people should be able to see what the government is doing, a transparent government almost.  The government should work for its people, and the people have a right to be represented.

Next was the Brandenburg gate. It was really close to the Bundestag (I could see it from there!). It started raining shortly after we got there. We took some pictures and eventually made our way to the Holocaust memorial next to the gate, and across from the American Embassy (which was HUGE, it was bigger than the other embassies nearby eg, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland. They should keep American snacks at stored and hand them out to homesick citizens). The memorial was also pretty big, and I remember talking about it in a Holocaust remembrance class a few semesters ago. It sparked some controversy because it is on an extremely valuable piece of real estate. However, I think it was a proper way of remembering victims. The memorial consists of big cement blocks, which get bigger towards the middle, and decrease at the extremes. I didn't get it when I first got there, but I told Tricia that it was sort of a maze; you could see the end, but it took a long time to get there. The cement blocks covered my view, so sometimes I ran across someone, but once I moved on, I never saw them again. To me, this meant that although people knew what their destiny might be, they crossed paths with other people, but once the others kept going on with their destiny, they would never be seen again. The huge blocks in the middle represented a blocked view, you didn't know who you would meet, you didn't know how you would get to the end, you couldn't see anyone else walking through the maze. It was the feeling of being lost, although you could clearly see the end. 

Berlin is a huge city, walking around it tired us out. We went to eat a place that had food i'd been craving for some time: tex-mex! I was glad to finally eat something that reminded me of home. It was funny that the waiters had to warn people that some of the food was spicy. I think they spiciest thing i've found here is curry ketchup...

The next day I checked out Potsdamerplatz and Alexanderplatz. This is what Potsdamerplatz used to look like during the cold war:

today:

I also went to Alexanderplatz and thought it was pretty neat. It was dedicated to a Russian Czar I think, when he visited Berlin. 

And of course, I went to check out Checkpoint Charlie. It was the main entrance between East and West Berlin. Many people tried to escape from East Berlin, and some even hired diplomats to smuggle them out (for a price, of course).

It was a great time in Berlin, but I wish I'd had more time to see everything. Perhaps the weather will be better whenever I return. Probably not.

I'm headed to Copenhagen this weekend. I just received an email telling me to set up a check-out appointment with the landlord. Time's coming to a close soon! I can't believe my summer will be over in a few weeks.

Until next time!

It's finally sunny in Lüneburg

Finally, a week where there will be multiple sunny days!! I took the days when it didn't rain for granted. Today, I spent most of the day outside, and so did everyone else. I got a few things knocked off my Lüneburg "to see" list. I went to Adana Dostlar, which is an outstanding Turkish restaurant right by the city center. I had a good-bye lunch with my German tandem partner (I speak English to her, she speaks German to me), since she is leaving for the US to study abroad. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that not only has my German gotten significantly better, but I have also gained confidence in speaking it. In some ways, forming German sentences is like doing an equation. The sentence structure is subject + verb+ object. The verb must ALWAYS be in second position. So if a time and place take the first position, then the subject position must be rearranged.

Anyway, I also went to the brewery museum, next to a Bier Garten. It was really interesting, it had all of the tools used to make a big vat of beer, including some vats. I later went to Kalkberg, a huge hill that's a "mountain" and where they used to mine for salt until the 1980s when salt was no longer profitable. Later on I went to an organ concert at the nearby St. Nicholas church. They played one of Bach's fugues, which sounded really cool. I accidentally coughed during the performance, but no one looked at me because of the interruption; it was if everyone was in some sort of trance.

It's supposed to be sunny for the rest of the week, and I plan to take full advantage. Tomorrow I am going on a guided tour of Kloster Lüne, an abbey that was built around 1,000 years ago.

Until next time!

Change of plans

Hey everyone!

Unfortunately my plans for Munich fell through for this weekend. But I do hope to make it to the 2013 Oktoberfest!
I do have plans to go to Berlin and Copenhagen in the upcoming weekends. My goal is to travel a bit more around Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony) before I head out. I've taken advantage of my student ticket this summer, and it's saved me a lot on travel. It's been really rainy here in Lüneburg this week, something that's discouraged me from traveling more and a bit of an annoyance. It's been cold here of course, with one day of sunshine.

I'm headed into Hamburg to visit my friend. I really hope the weather gets better.

It's almost the home stretch, one month before I return to America.

Until next time,
Melissa

First week of class (again)

Hello everyone!

To be honest, this was sort of a rough first week of class. However, I'm looking forward to going to Bremen tomorrow (again)! There's a guided tour there, and I want to spend more time looking at things since I was only there for a few hours the last time. I have also been planning a trip to Munich for next weekend, which i'm really excited about.
I'm also working on the details for my eurotrip before I head back to the US. The planned legs of the trip are: Italy, France, Spain, and...Sweden. Sweden seems like the oddball of the group, but it's relatively cheap to fly to Sweden from Germany, so I figure it's a good opportunity to go while i'm nearby.

I figure that today is chore day, so I'll finally clean my room up. At least my dishes have been washed.

Until later!

cool rainbow all the way!

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Alright, i've gathered my thoughts about the experience to Auschwitz, so it's time to write about it.

The main purpose of visiting Poland was to visit the infamous concentration/death camp: Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people died at this location, and I still felt the aura of fear in the air, especially when I went into the gas chamber and incinerators. As I was going in to the gas chamber, I felt a strong feeling of hesitation and nervousness. I had to gather some courage for a few moments before going in. I can only imagine what thousands of others felt, not knowing what their fate would be as they entered through that same door. The feeling of fear and death was imminent at the camps, I still cannot wrap my head around what happened, since so many crimes to humanity were committed.

What struck me was that there were a lot of tourists at Auschwitz. There were tour groups around the camp, mostly around mid day. In the morning, there weren't as many.

Auschwitz I was the smaller of the camps, it had the incinerators pictured above, as well as the "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes you free) gate. It also had the medical experimentation block, another tough (figuratively) building to go into.

blocks 11 and 10, medical experimentation blocks. 

There were so many reminders of death everywhere, it was such a sobering experience to walk where victims of the holocaust had walked; but I appreciated that I walked freely, and not in fear of my life.

Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was a much larger camp. I entered through the infamous gate:

It was an unbearably hot day, I had what seemed to me the luxury of carrying water and snacks while walking around in Birkenau. The heat was overwhelming, but more overwhelming were the barracks, guard towers, and barbed wire fences left behind from a reign of terror.

Block 16a- the children's barrack. 

One of the most saddening moments was walking into a barrack where children were held. There paintings up on the wall, of playful school children and of a child walking to school, a mockery, really, since children were the most helpless.

The barracks were small, the roofs reached no more than maybe 25 ft at its tallest point. They were designed to hold horses, but instead held hundreds of prisoners.

What remains now are the decays of the horrors that occurred in Auschwitz.

Dzien dobry! (hello!)

Dzien dobry everyone!

I'm on the bus from Warszawa (Warsaw) to Lodz to catch my flight back to Bremen, Germany. Fortunately there's wifi on the bus, so I'm not terribly bored.

This is my first time in Poland, and it's also the first time where I didn't know a single word of the national language. Not very many people speak English, so it was a little tough getting around. I arrive in Poland on Wednesday afternoon (4th of July, happy birthday America!) I spent a lot of the day walking around Lodz and sightseeing. My accommodations throughout my stay in Poland were through couchsurfing.org. At first I was a little nervous about staying with people I didn't know, but it was an overall great experience. The people I stayed with were very generous and kind. In Lodz, my host was not available until the afternoon. While I was exploring killing time, I explored a big avenue that goes through Lodz, Piotrkowska street.

I managed to wander out all the way to the old train station where holocaust prisoners were brought into the Lodz ghetto. It was a long walk, I don't recommend walking all they way out to it. Take a bus or tram. Along my long walk there were marks on the sidewalk of where the former ghetto wall stood. I arrived at the old train station, now a museum. It had records of all of those deported. There is also part of the ghetto wall that remains; along it are memorial plaques. There were some from cities that had prisoners deported to the ghetto, and they often read "with remorse and deep regret," an apology to all the victims that died because of simply who they were. I went to Auschwitz the next day, but that experience will have its own blog post.

The train.

Former wall border. 

I then headed over to another site called Manufaktura, Lodz is one of the youngest cities in Poland, and it got its booming start from the manufacturing industry. Most of the factories have been closed down now, and Manufaktura is set in one of the old successful manufacturing plants. I finally met up with my host and we went to a meeting of other couchsurfers in the city. We got out late from the meeting, so my host decided to take me to a crêpe restaurant. They had all types of crêpes there, one with chicken and curry, chicken, onion, and beans (that's the one I had), and of course the regular sweet crêpes. The idea of having chicken in a crêpe was so foreign to me, I was hesitant at first to try it. The first crêpe I tried to order was sweet (almond,  rise, and vanilla), but for some reason they didn't have the ingredients. So I gave in an ordered the one with chicken, onions, and beans. The verdict? It was absolutely delicious. I wish I had known about this before. The cool think about couchsurfing is that you meet locals who know their town fairly well; had I stayed in a hostel, I would've never thought about eating a crêpe with chicken in it.

The next morning I went to explore the old town, which was filled with old abandoned factories. I couldn't wander around much because I had a train to catch- I was headed to Krakow. I made it on time, but it was a very long train ride (5hrs). The train also didn't have air conditioning- I was almost at melting point. I finally arrived in Krakow after a very long ride. Thankfully, I stayed hydrated with lots of water.

In Krakow I was also met by another host. She was absolutely wonderful and helpful. After I showered and ate, she took me on a walking tour of Krakow. She lived near the town square, so it was a very nice after-dinner walk. She told me we walked around 14km that night (!). I'd believe her- we saw a castle, went to the old market square, the old jewish part of town, and went all the way to Oskar Schindler's factory (the story made famous by the movie "Schindler's List).

Market Square.

The entrance to Oskar Schindler's factory. 

I regretfully didn't spend enough time in Krakow, so I'll have to go back and check out everything I missed this time.

I headed to Auschwitz the next morning, and my host helped me plan the trip. As mentioned, I will write about my experience of Auschwitz-Birkenau in a separate post.

Yesterday (Friday) I took a bus to Warsaw. I took PolskiBus.com, the nicest line of buses i've been in. I'm currently writing this post on the Wifi that is available on the bus. The power outlets actually work as well! The tickets are also very cheap.

I met with another host, but since I arrived fairly late (around 9), we didn't have much time to sight see. After the host picked me up from the station, we went to get dinner at a place near the Warsaw Technical University. I forget the name of the restaurant, but the mascot was an old policeman from the old soviet times. I had a salad with baked salmon, and he ordered something strange. The waitress brought his dish and noticed that it had raw meat (raw ground beef), along with some other spices. I asked him if he was going to eat it like that, and he said yes! It seemed so strange to eat raw meat, I was really taken aback by it. After he mixed the spices into the raw meat, I had a taste of it. It actually wasn't bad, but I think i'd rather stick to cooked hamburgers.

The next morning (today) my hosts (Gregorz and his wife) took me on a very quick walking tour of the old section of Warsaw. Warsaw was about 85% destroyed after WWII, Hitler had plans for it to be completely wiped off the maps. However, what little survived it rose from the ashes (some describe the city as a phoenix) and a lot of the buildings were restored, based on old pictures. I had a huge ice cream cone (I forgot to mention that things in Poland are very cheap, in comparison to the rest of the EU).
Again, I spent too little time in Warsaw, but walking around a city with a lot of history, but with a very modern twist was an exciting experience.

Now I am on the bus, about an hour away from Lodz. Traveling through Poland is definitely possible in 4 days, but I wish I had spent more time here. Hopefully I'll be back here soon.

That's it for me now, my next post will need a little more time for reflection.

Do widzenia! (Good bye!)

First of July...Halfway point!

Hi all,
So the first session is officially over, and it's very sad to see most people leave. I have a week of break in between, so I will be headed to Poland on Wednesday. I'm planning on couchsurfing, so hopefully some of the locals can help me get by during my stay. Almost every person i've talked that's been to Poland has told me that Krakow is a beautiful city.

This weekend was Hansetag in Lüneburg. Many cities that used to be in the Hanseatic league were present. I saw a lot of cool things, especially in the old part of the city. There were blacksmiths, weavers, candle-makers, and carpenters. There was also a lot of music and food; I tried my first crêpe (with applesauce and sugar).

weaver

Blacksmith

My friend Tricia came into town briefly with her boyfriend to give me my birthday presents. I'm turning 23 tomorrow! it's sad being away from friends, family, and home, but i'm sure i'll have a great time here.

One thing I need to mention: I had to change my flight reservation to leave a week early; the thing is I didn't do very much research on the Schengen Area before booking my flight in April. Germany is one of the countries that takes overstaying very seriously, so I didn't want to risk paying a very high fine or any restrictions if I would want to return to Europe. I don't recommend staying past the 90 days given under the Schengen Visa. If you have to stay after, look into getting a residence permit or a work permit.

I look forward to my trip to Poland, and of course I will take lots of pictures!

Until next time.

Not always sunny in Lüneburg

Hello all!
Like you all, I find myself in the middle of the hump week. This week is the last week of class, which is sad because time has gone by so fast. It's the happy times that I remember that make it so much fun!
This week has been rainy and cold- something i've never experience before during the summer. The only day of sunshine I've gotten so far was when I went to Amsterdam this past weekend.

I went with two other people from the USAC group to Amsterdam. We left early in the morning, maybe around 5am. The good thing about getting up so early was that the bread from the bakery for breakfast was incredibly warm and fresh. It's so tempting to get up that early...but I don't think it's possible for me to do that, haha.

Anyway, after traveling for 6 hours on trains, we arrived in Amsterdam. To my surprise, it was much like Lüneburg in terms of weather. While the three of us were figuring out where our hostel was, there was heavy downpour for about 20 min, followed by sunshine for most of the day. We walked throughout most of the weekend, I was incredibly tired by the end of the trip.

We checked in at our hostel in Leidesplein. It was conveniently located in the center of activity. We could just come out of our hostel and enjoy a beer out in the huge plaza.

Most of the buildings in Amsterdam looked like the buildings in Lüneburg. I got the impression that the city was relatively new compared to others. There were a lot of canals, everywhere. If we ever got lost, we just followed a canal to a familiar street. We visited the Van Gogh Museum which had a lot of...you guessed it, Van Gogh paintings. They were all really marvelous to look at. It's one thing to look at a poster, but it's different looking at the brush strokes that Van Gogh made onto the canvas, often thick and carefully.

The next site we went to was to the Anne Frank House- the building where she hid for two years (and also wrote her diary). It was a humbling experience, to be where she had been. The windows of the house had to be closed during the day, so no one would find out they were there. It drove me crazy just being in a dark room, unable to see the sunlight. I can only imagine what the people in hiding must have felt. The rooms themselves were so small, I couldn't imagine living in such small living quarters with 7 other people. I would recommend seeing it, the museum also has some authentic documents belonging to the Franks (they house the diary as well, although there was a facsimile instead of the real diary on display).

from the canal

We also went on a canal tour, which was really cool to see Amsterdam at canal level. The tour was incredibly informative, with information about the Gentleman's canal, which used to be like the main avenue, where all the rich folk lived.

Amsterdam is very touristy, regardless it had a lot of culture (and everyone spoke english!) One thing I refused to try (again) was herring. Not my cup of tea!

typical shoe

Well, that's it for me. I'm currently planning my next adventure: Poland! I will hopefully be there next week.

One thing to reflect on: I have been reading a lot of articles about the Holocaust, because one of the main reasons i'm going is to visit Poland is to see Auschwitz-Birkenau. The more I read about the thousands of people that were murdered ie, the mentally ill/disabled in order to save costs (this was the first group to be exterminated, in order to save thousands of dollars. They were also used for experimentations...no, I won't go on about this. Anyway, the only time Hitler received a negative public demonstration was because those who had loved ones in mental institutions were outraged- they knew what would happen to them. He "stopped"the exterminations and went on to his plan of the "final solution.") to people that didn't fit a genealogical type. I can't comprehend why someone would do this, or even think of doing this. It take someone with absolutely no moral or ethical remorse to do this.

Sorry to end on a sad note, but it's a truth I'll have to face when I go to Auschwitz-Birkenau next week. This weekend is the Hansetag day! Lüneburg used to be a prominent Hanseatic League city, so now they're throwing a bash to remember the old times.

Until next time!

Former GDR border trip

On June 16th, we took a trip to the former GDR border for our Expanded European Union class. A quick history lesson: after WWII, the four allied powers France, US, UK, and USSR (now Russia) divided Germany into 4 sections (and also divided Berlin, which was deep within the Soviet division). Germany was no longer allowed to have a military, not to mention it was a complete utter economic and political mess. The Third Reich- which was allegedly supposed to last 1,000 years didn't. Anyway, as the years went by, France and the UK had their own problems to worry about so the US became the major political influence over Germany. The former USSR didn't agree with the politics of the US, and thus began the Cold War era. Each country became a major superpower, and they also became really hostile towards each other (in the US, McCarthyism, red scare, etc). The USSR separated their side from the other zones in the allied areas until 1989 when the collapse of the USSR occurred. During this period of time of post WWII until 1989, Eastern German residents went through political oppression for the sake of an ideological government that just wasn't working out. East and West Germany was divided- the East wanted to keep its people in (although i've heard that originally the wall was built to keep westerners out, however the wall did the opposite).

Until now, I honestly thought the wall was just a wall. It wasn't, it was a two walls, and within these walls was a complex system of security that included barbed wire, land mines, trip wire that went off, in some areas there were dogs, and watch towers along the 2,000 km border every 500 meters (with 4 guards in them at all times, 24/7/365). It was absolutely terrible. Deutsche Welle has an excellent video about the wall:



We started out at a the Dömitz fortress about an hour and a half away from Lüneburg.
We went there because well, why not? It was used as a prison and also as a mental institution. Now it is a historical landmark.

My first fortress!

There was a museum on the fortress itself with historical artifacts from Germany. It had things from centuries ago, to even a room that was modeled after a coffee and spice shop. The fortress was cool- I even went into some underground tunnels. It was sort of creeped out while in them, so I didn't stay there very long (I went with a group of people- even then, I bet some crazy stuff possibly happened in those tunnels). 

Canon balls- left as commemoratives. 

After the fortress, we went to go have some delicious lunch at a place where they brewed their own flavored lemonade (it's bubbly lemonade) and beer.

Then, we headed off to the Grenzland museum (GDR museum) where it housed a lot of GDR relics and served as a memorial of a time where people had limited freedoms. The black-red-yellow column seen in the picture served as a border marker between the East and the West. Imagine living somewhere where you were probably spied on most of the time, and had to live in a hostile environment. 

Finally, we went to visit the "town" of Stresow. In the 1950s, the GDR drove the people out of the town and proceeded to destroy it and then flood it. The reason why this was done was because the town was too close to the border, and it posed as a potential threat (perhaps a gateway to the West). The families were placed all across the GDR, as to not communicate or learn of each other. Today, it is part of a national forest and wildlife area. But it serves as a memorial to others. 

The town of Stresow today. 

After some time of reflection, we were taken to a watch tower, left over from the wall. 

We had to be careful, because there was a potential of landmines still left out. No one has gotten hurt so far, but the remains resound strongly that it wasn't too far in the past that a wall existed between East and West Berlin. 

The silver lining is perhaps that the area was converted into green space, a newfound freedom that everyone can experience. 

Well, that's it for me. I'm off to Amsterdam this weekend, so that should be a lot of fun. 

Until then!

I'm back!

Hello everyone!
I finally have some down time to catch everyone up with what i've been up with. I also managed to buy  an SD card reader! Hurray!
First- I'll recount my adventures in Hamburg before I forget.
On June 2nd the USAC group took a field trip to Hamburg. Our student ID lets us travel around the state of Niedersachsen for free! I'm so glad we have this pass.
State of Niedersachsen, in dark green:

You'll notice three small areas in Germany- those are city-states of Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin. So far i've been to Bremen and Hamburg (often), and Berlin is planned for next month!

We went to the Hamburg Historical museum where we learned a lot about the history of Hamburg. One interesting fact: there was a huge fire in Hamburg in 1842; before then, the city refused to modernize their water supply. After the fire...it was a different story. About a quarter of the city was destroyed by the fire. As mentioned before, one of the buildings destroyed was St. Nikolai church, which was rebuilt and then destroyed again by Allied bombings in WWII. The bombings destroyed a majority of the city. Our group leader Sören told us that in all of Hamburg, there are only 2 streets that remain that are actually "old"- meaning they look like the streets of Lüneburg. The rest were destroyed or modernized. The museum was awesome- Hamburg has a long maritime history: the Reeperbahn, pirates, trade, and it was also part of the Hanseatic league (more info on this tomorrow, since our class is taking a trip to the Salzmuseen (Salt museum) to learn more about it.

Firetruck used in 1842. Fire went from May 4-8.

Melted relics from the fire in 1842

Our second activity consisted of taking a river boat tour of the Elbe River. My, it was so windy! We walked there from the museum, and it was a 20 min walk there. We saw the Reeperbahn during the day, which isn't as hectic as it is at night. There are ferrys run by the public transport system of Hamburg (HVV) and they have ferries that can take you across the river to other stations. At first, I was really nervous about getting on a boat, since I hadn't been on one in such a long time. After a while, I got used to the life at sea- er, river. 

Me on a boat!

We walked to our third and final stop- St. Nikolai church. My experience about the church is posted in the entry previous to this, if you want to check it out. But here are some pictures:

My first view of the church, and thinking: "That's a very odd structure for a church..."

Statue to the victims who lost everything. 

Now for a pick-me-up: after Hamburg, we all went to dinner at a nice place called "The Capitol" in Lüneburg. It was nice to relax with friends and reflect on the day in Hamburg. I had my first currywurst!

with pommes frites (french fries) of course!

For next post: our adventures at the former GDR border.