OKTOBERFEST!

I survived Oktoberfest! It was definitely an experience I am glad I had. My justification at the beginning was, "When will I ever be back in Germany during October?!" After the trip, I needed no such justification because it was such a blast! A group of ten of us decided to rent two cars and drive to Munich. The trains were ridiculously expensive to get to Munich so renting was our only cheap option. We picked up our car from the rental shop at around 2 on Friday afternoon and began our journey. It started off pretty smoothly, after we got the GPS working. We had a VW with 5 seats and a very spacious trunk; it was like a mixture between a van and a SUV and was quite big for a European car. Little did we know that once we got on the road, we would spend the next eight hours stuck in horrible traffic and weather. Yes, it took us 8 hours to get to our hostel, located in Ingolstadt, which was still 80 Km outside of Munich. To give you a little bit of help with distances, it should have taken us about three and a half to four hours to get to Ingolstadt! We were bombarded with stop-and-go traffic, rain the whole way, and a lot of accidents. We tried taking detours, but would just get stuck in worse traffic. The other car took about eight hours as well, but they left two hours earlier. After we finally arrived at our hostel, we all got to bed pretty quickly, since it was already about 23:00. I was woken up at 5:45 am for our departure at 6:30! It took me a while to fall asleep, so I probably only got about 4 hours of sleep; I thought that I probably got the least amount of sleep of everyone. I found out the next day, that at least 3 others didn't fall asleep at all! And unfortunately, 2 of the 3 were our drivers! They were troopers though! Our drive into Munich was surprisingly traffic-free and went by really quick. We found a warm parking garage and dropped our cars off (we needed to find somewhere warm, since our cars were doubling up as our hostel for Saturday night!). Then, off to Oktoberfest! By the time we arrived at the fairgrounds around 9 am, most of the Beer tents were already closed because they were so full! We found one that was still letting people in, and somehow we got extremely lucky and got in, and found a table for 10.

We quickly ordered our beer, despite the fact that it was 9:30 am..but hey, its Oktoberfest right?! We spent the next 7 hours at our table, listening to music, talking to the people sitting around us, singing, and having a great time. I only had about 1.5 Liters of beer, so needless to say, I was one of the more sober ones in my group. Regardless, I still had so much fun! Its difficult to explain what its like inside the beer tents. Its pretty cramped, I got beer spilled on me a few times, its pretty loud, the music is obviously very German and quite polka-y, the waitresses somehow manage to carry 12 1-Liter mugs of beer, and the food is really good.

At around 16:30, we got kicked out because our table was reserved for the remainder of the night. We decided to roam around the fair for a bit. Fairs in Germany are not as over-priced as America. I got a "Weiss-wurst", which is essentially a white brat in a hard roll. This is one of the dishes that Bavaria is famous for, and I would highly recommend having one if you go there, it was delicious! We then attempted to get into other tents, but none of the tents were letting anyone in. We got split up from the rest of our group so we decided to meet up for some food. Of course, as college students, we went to McDonalds! After we finished eating, we stayed in McDonalds for a while. The reason was, it was warm in McDonalds and they had a bathroom...I felt somewhat like a hobo ;) A few of us decided to hit up the tents again. We couldn't get in anywhere again so we parked ourselves outside a tent (despite the fact that it was raining) and ordered a beer. All of the tents close down around 23:00 so it was pretty crazy getting back to our cars since the subway stations were so packed. We crashed in our cars for about 3 hours and got on the road. Yes I know, this wasn't the safest idea when our drivers had gotten about 2 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, but they would have been even more sleep deprived had we waited any longer. My car anxiety surfaced and I realized that even though I was extremely tired, I would feel a whole lot less anxious if I stayed awake the whole time. I kept the driver company the whole way home, and it actually went by pretty quickly!

 It was a very successful weekend! Another note or two about Bavaria...they have extremely strong accents and are very difficult to understand. I don't understand much when I am in Cologne but it is definitely enough to function. In Bavaria, I couldn't understand anyone unless they spoke English! Even the more experienced German speakers in our group were having trouble understanding them! Thankfully, in the beer tents, the only word you needed to know was beer! A lot of the men and women were wearing traditional German outfits..the men in Lederhosen and the women in dresses. I'm actually thinking about purchasing my own dress, to use for Halloween(here and at home of course!), and for our Karneval kick-off day. I was able to keep the trip pretty cheap as well, which is always a plus. I came home with a gingerbread-like decorated cookie that is pretty popular in Germany (my roommate said I needed to buy one!) and I also was able to smuggle out a beer mug. Don't worry, I didn't steal it. A guy was walking down the street with it, he set it down and walked away, so I ran up and grabbed it. However, the mug is pure glass and weighs about 4-5 pounds, so I will be really disappointed if my bag is overweight when I come home! I guess this is all for now...I may be traveling to Amsterdam this weekend, or spending my first weekend in Cologne! Bis dahin :)

Nice, France and Monaco

Hey everyone! So not too much is new for me here. I'm unfortunately dealing with a pretty bad cold that I've had for..get this..3 and a half weeks! I can't believe it! I know that it is related to stress, lack of sleep, and more stress..but I just can't seem to shake it! I emailed my relative, Johanna, and told her hello and checked in with her, and only once mentioned I had a little cold. She immediately called her husband, Volker, who is a Cardiologist, and is having him come to my apartment in about 15 minutes to check me out and write a perscription. I am astounded at how hospitable and giving these people are! I have no idea how I will ever repay them. Anyways, over the weekend I traveled to Nice, France with my friends from Minnesota, Katie and Karl, and with a girl we met from Ireland, Cliona. We did blind booking through German Wings and this was the destination that they selected for us! Our plan ride was a breeze. Once we got to our hotel (after loafing over 4 euros for a bus ride!) it turns out the front desk clerk spoke not a word of English and kept yelling at us in French. And on top of this, apparently our reservation was canceled for Friday night! After finally finding a translator and bargaining with the clerk, we paid 5 extra euros and were able to stay at the hotel. One "delightful" feature of this hotel was their WCs...they were actually water closets! You could not sit on the toilet and have the door closed at the same time, so that made for an interesting situation. After we dropped our stuff, we headed out into the city. We didn't have any plan and just decided to walk. Little did I know that we would end up walking about 8 or 9 miles that day! We mozied our way through the Old Town, climbed to an overlook of the town and coastline, visited a Russian-influenced church, and got some great pictures.

One problem we ran into when trying to find food was the lack of authentic French food. Since Nice is so close to Italy, every restaurant was Italian! We settled for an Italian restaurant and called it a night once we were done. The next morning we decided to head to Monaco. The bus fare was only one euro, which still confuses me because the Airport fare was only 30 minutes, while the ride to Monaco was at least an hour, and for one fourth of the price! Anyways, our first destination was the Prince's Palace. We watched the changing of the guards; Katie was convinced that the guards were actually paid actors and didn't really need to guard anything :) We decided to do a Museum/Palace/Aquarium pass for 18 Euro. I was slightly hesitant at first about the cost, but it ended up being totally worth it. The Museum housed many artifacts from the royal family of Monaco. The Palace was very cool; all of the decorations were spectacular, but unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures. Once done, we headed to the world's largest Aquarium, or at least thats what they called it ;) We ended up spending the next 2-3 hours solely at the Aquarium. It was amazing! So many types of fish and animals that it was very entertaining. Once done, we hopped on a bus and headed to Monte Carlo. Once there, we decided that it was time to gamble! Katie and Cliona both went right at it, Karl didn't gamble at all, and I was lucky and found a ticket on the floor and played a few games with that. We couldn't play any table games like blackjack (those were for the high rollers, and we clearly weren't!) so we just stuck to slots.

Once we finished at the casino (nobody won except Katie came out 6.50 ahead) we decided it was time for dinner. I remember Karl saying "if we don't get food soon I am going to pass out." We knew that was probably when we should eat! We again found an Italian restaurant and had, you guessed it, pizza. The service was so horrible that we ended up giving a 3 Euro tip on a 51 euro check. Needless to say, the French are definitely not known for being friendly, especially to Americans. Our last night in Nice, I got laughed at by our waitress when I attempted to say the French version of the entree, rather than just pointing. Oddly enough, my friends on the exchange program who are French are the nicest people I've ever met! Anyways, we decided to hit up the nice party scene, which we soon found out was very lacking. We went to an over-priced bar, danced a little, and decided to leave. The nice this about Germany is that a lot of American music is played; in France, of course no American music is played ;) We decided no alarms were to be set for the next morning because we all were pretty exhausted. We finally woke up and got ready to go around noon. It was a great, sunny day for the beach! We ordered crepes from a cafe for breakfast. The beach in Nice is all rocks. Its not too uncomfortable to lay on the rocks, but when you want to go swimming its kind of challenging.

The undertow is quite strong and it gets deep really fast so that made it pretty interesting! The water had to be about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which is super warm for a large body of water! We all got a little burnt, which wasn't exactly a bad thing! It was worth being able to have an afternoon in the sun! We headed to a pub to watch the Irish Championship of Gaelic Football. Its a mixture of rugby and soccer, it was pretty cool to watch :) We found a nice place for dinner (with horrible service, of course!) and ate up! We got gelato on the way back to our hotel, which was sure a kick to my tastebuds! We were all exhausted so we watched some John Cusack movie that was dubbed in French (I'm really excited to watch it in English). This pretty much ends my Nice entry. On Monday we just headed to the airport and caught our flight back. I'm awaiting my ever-so-gracious relatives to come give me a check up now. I hope all is well back home! Tschuss!

My daily life

I have a little bit of time to kill so I figured I should give a little more detail about my weekday life rather than just my travels on the weekend. I am attending the University of Cologne through an international program called ZIB WiSo (don't ask me to tell you what they mean, I still have no idea!). Its a fairly independent program, which is good for me. They gave me one offer for housing, which I immediately took! I am renting a room from a girl named Svenja who is currently studying in Budapest, Hungary. I have five roommates, Scarlett, Carla, Daniel, Martin, and Natalia. All are native Germans except Natalia, who is from Bolivia and attends Uni Koln full time. It will be very good for my German to live with 5 fluent speakers.

My room is on the first floor of the building. I got very lucky because my neighbors upstairs aren't loud at all. I unfortunately am on the street level, so it gets somewhat warm at night due to lack of air condition and needing to keep my window closed for safety. On the subject of safety, Koln is a very safe city, at least compared to Minneapolis! I live in a very nice neighborhood; my building is surrounded by apartments and houses where elderly people and families live. I am so used to needing to walk home with a buddy or call someone to let them know I am coming home while I am in Minnesota, that it was kind of a shock when I first needed to walk home alone! I've gotten used to it though :) The Uni Koln is a fairly large university, with about 40,000 students. As far as the exchange students and I go, we all live pretty far from each other. This makes it a little more challenging for me, but I usually will ride my bike to the bus stop or train station so I can bike rather than walk home at night. I wish that all of the foreigners lived together, but we make do :) Transportation around Cologne is very reliable and pretty easy to get used to. I use it at least every other day and its very easy to get to the center of the city. I was very lucky about my whole living situation. My room came with a queen sized bed, desk, large dresser, a set of small drawers, and a tv. She has let me use all of her linens and most things lying around her room which has made it really nice for me (not having to buy as much, feeling more at home, having more luxuries) and nicer for her as well (not needing to move everything out). She also is letting me borrow her bike, which is great! I could make do without a bike, but having one makes life so easy. Well..maybe not that easy ;) Within my first week or so of riding my bike, I have managed to be yelled at in German by two old men (separate occasions) and be honked at by a car. Since my German is still pretty rough, I have no choice but to smile and say "Danke" and walk away! I live very close to an "Aldi" grocery store; I'm pretty sure I have been there about 5 times already! I do have a cell phone here but it costs me .15 Euro Cents to place a call or text so I don't use it much at all. The weather here is cloudy about 90% of the time. It hasn't been too rainy, but also not sunny either. I learned the hard way that Europeans dress very nice. When I came to the country, wearing sweatpants and white tennis shoes, I got some pretty awkward stares. I just bought a pair of cheap black Puma-like shoes so that I won't be stared at so often! I was fully under the impression that I could wear T-shirts and tennis shoes about 80% of the time like I do in the US. Now that I can't without broadcasting that I'm an American, all of my t-shirts are going to sit in my closet until I go home :)
My German course is getting better every day. It is taught in German and if we want to address the teacher it must be in German as well. I got very lucky because the girl I am renting from has a pocket-sized German-English dictionary that I use about once every 2 minutes in class! I don't think that I will learn nearly as much as I had hoped, but again, living with German people and forcing myself to think in German will help! All of my friends that I hang out with speak English as our main language, which has its positives (I can understand what is being said) and has its negatives (it won't help my German at all).
I've found a great bunch of people to hang out with. I have found a few travel buddies (mostly from the U of M) that want to see as much as I do, so I am hoping to be gone almost every weekend to see Europe! We have started a tradition in this small group. The group consists of on average, maybe 10-12 people. We came up with the idea to have a "food from your home country" night. Last night, two of the people from France made delicious crepes. There were two types; one filled with cheese, mushrooms, and ham, and the other filled with sugar and lemon juice. Last week, one of my friends from Belgium had us over and made a pasta dish. The sauce was marinara, but there was a lot of vegetables in it which made it absolutely outstanding! I'm hoping very much that this tradition keeps going! As I was sitting with everyone last night, I realized how many different nationalities were represented. I was in a room with at least one person from Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Hungary, Ireland, France, and the US..how wonderful is that?! We always poke fun at each others country stereotypes; I often find myself making fun of America as well! I think that for the American night I am going to team up with the other girl from the U of M and make a large pot of chili. Its been very difficult to think of a nice American dish because so many are from different places (pasta from Italy, Burgers from Hambourg, Waffles from Belgium, etc.) I was very surprised when I came here about the amount of diversity within my program. I ignorantly assumed that there would be more Americans in our group of around 60. Within my program, there are only 4 including myself, and all from the U of M! Most of the students are from Asia (China, Japan) and from the European Union. However, in my language class, we are integrated with people from other programs so I have about 8 Americans in my class from Pennsylvania. This is all the time I have for now, I hope everything is well back home :)

Another Weekend with my Relatives

Sorry its been a while since my last blog. My weekdays mostly consist of my Intensive German Language Class from 8:45 am-noon, lunch with friends, hang out at my apartment while my friends have class (they are all in the higher levels!), and meet up with them later for parties or hanging out. In other words, not too much to blog about ;) This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting another set of relatives that I have in Germany. All of the relatives that I have here are cousins, mostly 3rd or 4th or something distant like that, but nevertheless, they are family! I took a train (my first one by myself, eek!) down to Karlsruhe on Friday, which is about two hours south of Cologne, very close to the French border. I met my aunt, Pat, at the train station. She had been with the relatives since she took the train down there on Monday. Unfortunately, the family we were staying with had a funeral to attend on Friday afternoon. Pat and I were able to tour around Karlsruhe. After we stored my bags in a locker, we headed off to the main palace and Marktplatz. The palace was absolutely beautiful; I don't think anyone currently lives in it because the part we were in was turned into a museum.

The museum had so many pieces of art and history it was absolutely mind blowing! We were also able to climb to the top of the main tower, which made for quite a pretty view of all of Karlsruhe. After we finished there, we got some Kucken (cake) at a small cafe. By the time we were done, it was almost 6:00 and we needed to catch a train at 7:20 or so. We window shopped for a little while and headed back to the train station. We took a regional train that brought us to the small town, Mugensturm, where our host family, the Langendorfers, live. It was such a treat to stay at their house. On the first level, the whole back wall facing the backyard is 3 giant window doors. Over the weekend, we discussed a lot about Germany sustainability and energy solutions for houses and Germany in general. After they arrived home from the funeral, I finally meet Matthias and Simone, and their two girls Lisa (13) and Leah (10). Matthias and Simone speak very good English; Leah has had no schooling for English yet so she understands very little, but Lisa has had a few years and is doing well! It was very nice to have their parents as translators every now and then. The next morning we woke up and drove to Die Schwarzwald, otherwise known as The Black Forest. We had to drive about an hour to get there. Our first stop was at a Cuckoo Clock Museum and at the World's Largest Cuckoo Clock! To get there, we drove on the Autobahn. Our top speed was 180 km/hour which is about 106 mph. They are quite used to it but I was a little nervous, especially since the lanes were quite narrow (we sometimes were within a few inches of another car!). 

The World's Largest Cuckoo Clock

I really enjoyed being able to drive in cars while I am with my relatives. It gives me the opportunity to see parts of Germany that I wouldn't be able to see by train or bus :)
We then spent the rest of the afternoon driving through the mountains and forest. The views were pretty cool, very similar to Colorado or the forests of Yellowstone.

 We then stopped at a restaurant on a lake for some kuchen. I had Cheesecake with blackberries on it and it was so tasty! We then made our way back to their house. Simone made a wonderful dinner and we were joined by Matthias' parents and his aunt. Their English was extremely minimal so Matthias and Simone translated everything for us, or we just sat and listened ;) Being around German speakers and listening to German I am hoping will really help my listening skills. I can mostly only pick out words here and there, but I'm hoping soon it will be phrases and sentences. The dinner consisted of Zucchini Soup, Beef with a Horseradish gravy, potatoes, beets, and cranberry sauce. For dessert, we had a chocolate pudding with whipped cream, and a frozen popsicle type of thing that was fruity. There are many foods here that don't have good translations to English! The next morning, we got an early start (which for Germans was about 10:30 or 11) and headed through Karlsruhe and west. We toured a castle from the 1100's. It wasn't much to see from the outside, but inside was very cool and pretty well kept.

After the tour, we went to a small village on the way back to Karlsruhe for lunch. I had a salad with french fries. I absolutely love French Fries from home; they are about 10 times better here so its very difficult for me to resist! However, the ketchup is sweeter over here and in much small proportions. For any of you who know my family know that we are very big into condiments, especially ketchup, so its a huge change having little to no ketchup with my fries! My salad had an almost caesar-like dressing and was topped with mozzarella sticks. I was just expecting cheese and got the deep-fried kind like in America! We then took me to the train station and waited with me until my train came. Matthias and Simone were the most wonderful hosts and I can't wait to go back when my parents and Emilie come to visit. When it comes to hospitality and making their guests feel welcome, Germans by far take first place! I tried to help out as much as I could, but was usually told to go sit down and relax. Here ends this post and now starts another new school week. A few friends and I booked a "blind booking" excursion through GermanWings airlines and will be traveling to Nice, France next weekend. I'm very excited to get out of the normally cloudy, never sunny, and somewhat dismal weather in Cologne. Tschuss for now!
                                                                                                                                                 

Weekend with the Realtives

I was able to spend a weekend with my relatives. They are on my Grandpa Herm's side of the family...something like his father was brothers with their grandpa? Its very distant but still nice knowing that I am not alone in this foreign country! I was picked up by Volker on Saturday morning.

The view from Volker and Johanna's house

We went to Volker and Johanna's house in a suburb of Cologne called "Hurth". Their house has an absolutely spectacular view of Cologne. So spectacular that many film companies come and film in their house! We went to a birthday party for one of their neighbors who happens to be the leader of the Green Party in their region! The house where the party was held was absolutely out of this world.

The birthday party house.

It was quite old yet so beautiful; again, film companies often come and film horror movies in this house as well! They had a wonderful garden and great food. I just love eating all of the new German food! I wouldn't consider myself a picky eater at home, but here I am letting go and expanding my limits! After spending a few hours there, Pat and I headed back into the city of Cologne to meet up with our other relative, Loretta. Loretta brought her two year old daughter, Mathilda, with as well.

Mathilda and I in front of the Kolner Dom

We walked along the Rhein and through the shops in the heart of Cologne. We ate at an outside bistro for dinner. I had "Flammkucken" which is a dish that originated in Germany. It is a pizza crust, topped with cheese, onions, and an egg-type sauce. It was delicious and so full of flavor. We called it a night and headed back to Johanna and Volker's house. We awoke the next morning and had a wonderful brunch of brot (bread), kaese (cheese), tomaten, and eggs with tomatoes and herbs. Then, Volker, Johanna, Pat, and I drove to a small town and did an eight mile hike through multiple vineyards. The views were stunning and the wine was great. When we got back to their house, Loretta took us out to dinner again. I ordered Wiener Schnitzel for the first time and it was to die for!

A view during our hike through wine country.

A short recap of this previous week is this. A lot of registration, unpacking, getting set up in various systems and filing for permits. Most nights we went out to a bar and had a drink or two. We watched the Germany-Belgium Futbol game which was a treat. The German way of life is so different and as difficult as it has been to adjust, I am beginning to like it a lot here! I live in a very nice area and very close to a main street. It takes me about 8 minutes by bike to get to the University buildings I need to go to. There is an ALDI about 5 blocks away, my favorite!! Today I needed a box of Kleenex, detergent, and hand soap, and my bill came to a whopping 2.07 Euros! Needless to say, to ALDI I will stay loyal. I was able to go to the Kolner Zoo with my friends from the University of MN. It was amazing how many animals I saw and how close I was able to get to them; it was better than any zoo I have ever been to! Here are some pictures of my relative's house, wine country, the birthday party house, and others. :)

Brussels, Belgium

Pat and I arrived in Brussels from Brugge on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 31st. Getting from the train station to our hotel, again, seemed quite simple to get to. However, we ended up getting lost again and took a taxi! I was feeling quite under the weather so I took the afternoon for myself and took a nap. Pat was able to explore Brussels for the short time that we were there. She took a bus tour to see all of the main sights. She came back after to pick me up and we went to the central market for dinner. The center market was surrounded on every side by large buildings with outstanding architecture. Every building had gold statues and designs on the outside. In early August, the city of Brussels creates a large display of flowers. this display covers the center of the main square and looks almost like a carpet from the distance. Unfortunately we were not there during this time, but never the less it was still amazing. We went back to our hotel after we ate and were able to watch some of the U.S. Open Tennis Match. We woke up early and took a very early train to Koln. We were very easily able to get to my apartment, which was not as overwhelming as the first time we arrived. I did not take any pictures in Brussels, however I have below attached pictures of what the main square looks like when the flowers bloom, as well as what it looked like when Pat and I were there :)

Brugge, Belgium

Pat and I arrived in Brugge, Belgium around dinner time on Sunday, August 29th. We were still in the middle of our day where we had to stay up all day to help us get rid of our time zone lag. In English, Brugge is pronounced with the "gg" being very soft, almost like a "sh" sound. However, in German it is pronounced "broo-gah". I learned this out later when my flatmates had no idea where "Brugshe" was, but knew exactly what "broo-gah" was! Their main language is Flemish. I quickly learned that most people know two or even three languages. My first impression of Brugge was not too pleasant. It was raining, and the tourist information center was closed when we got there. We got a taxi who took us to our hotel, which was about ten minutes from the station. He recommended a few restaurants that were not tourist traps, and we took him up on his suggestions. After settling into our hotel, we walked to a restaurant about ten minutes from our hotel. I was looking for something healthy since, as well all know, airplane food isn't the greatest ;) I ordered a salad with tomatoes, large chunks of cheese, onions, and a vinaigrette dressing. It was absolutely delicious, probably one of the best salads I have ever had! This was also my first tasting of Belgian Beer. Pat treated me to a Lindeman's Raspberry Bier, which was absolutely delicious as well. We talked to a nice British couple with a young boy; they told us some sights to see, and it was very nice to hear some English spoken, rather than German or Flemish.

The next day we began our full day of sightseeing. We began with the Main Town Square, where the large bell tower, called the "Belfry", sits and towers over the square. Brugge is a very nice town because it is small enough that you can manage perfectly without a taxi or public transportation. We climbed the bell tower, all 366 steps of it! All of the stairways were spiral and small, so it made it quite interesting getting up and down. The picture is one of the views from the bell tower. When we finished, we walked to Burg Square. There was a nice art museum where we took a tour. The paintings that they had were absolutely stunning; unfortunately taking pictures was "verboten". We next decided that we wanted to rent bikes. We took a very nice bike trail to a small town just ten kilometers outside of Brugge called Damme. We biked along a canal. There was an extremely strong wind that day so it was quite a challenge to get there. Once we arrived in Damme, we found a nice cafe. We ordered a late lunch that consisted of a Waffle with strawberries and whipped cream, and Pat had a Crepe with Chocolate. This had to be the best Waffle I have ever tasted in my life. Belgium is famous for its Waffles; mine was extremely crisp, warm, and perfect! We biked back to Brugge and toured a part of town that was new to us. Brugge reminds me a lot of Amsterdam because there are canals everywhere. I thought that with canals it would be easier to not get lost. However, Brugge rarely had street signs and the roads were extremely twisty, so we ended up getting lost a few times. We found an outside cafe to eat dinner. I had a small steak, but most importantly, it had french fries as a side. Belgians are famous for their french fries and they were absolutely delicious! Very crispy and cooked just right. While talking to our waiter, we found out that he spoke five languages! We went back to our hotel and called it a night. The next morning, we woke up early and headed out as early as we could. Pat and I took a boat ride on the canals, which was an excellent idea. We saw the city from a completely different view and were able to get some amazing pictures. After this boat trip finished, we headed to "Our Lady's Church" to view the only Michelangelo sculpture that has ever left Italy. It was absolutely stunning, words cannot be used to describe it! This ended our time in Brugge, and we hopped on a train headed to Brussells.  

Arriving in Cologne

Hallo! I am very proud to say that my current city of residence is now Koln, Deutschland! My trip began on the 28th of August. I flew to Frankfurt with my aunt, Pat Herm. She decided it was a perfect opportunity for her to visit Europe again; she is quite the world traveler! When we arrived in Frankfurt, jet-lagged and tired, we needed to take a two hour train ride to the Cologne "Hopbahnhof", or train station. Once we arrived in Cologne, my German buddy with whom I was paired, Cosima, picked us up from the Hopbahnhof. We were so thankful when we heard that she had brought her car, carrying everything that I needed for a semester was a lot for me to handle! As overwhelmed as I was, it was absolutely amazing to arrive. The moment that you step outside of the Cologne Hopbahnhof, you are within about 200 feet of the famous Cathedral in Cologne, known as the Kolner Dom. Just as a mental picture for you, I was not able to take a picture of the whole height of the Dom because it is so tall! We arrived at my apartment, quickly unpacked and re-packed, and headed back to the train station. We were very pressed for time because we needed to catch a train to Brussells, Belgium. We were able to catch our train in time and were on our way!