We made it home! Our trip was a success and a lot was learned. We flew out of Munich and landed 9 hours later in Chicago. In airport security in both Munich and Chicago my bags were searched and I was patted down because the buttons on my pants made the metal detector go off. To our relief the plane had all new movies for us to watch and pass the time. I watched Admission, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Jack the Giant Slayer. Most of us didn't sleep on the first flight, but we did get lunch and dinner, consisting of roast beef or spaghetti, and sausage or pizza. On the second flight, from Chicago to Oregon most of us slept, for me I fell asleep before the plane even took off and woke up when the captain announced that we would be landing soon.
By Emma:
Today we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp, which was the first in Germany. It was a touching experience reading the stories of people and what happened, while standing in the place it happened. It was also very sad seeing what these people had to go through and how terrible their lives were. We went through the museum then to the area were they slept. The last thing we did was go to the crematorium, which was sad. There were gas chambers, which were disguised as showers, that were used to kill people, then they could cremate them in the next room. It was a weird feeling standing were all those innocent bodies were. The whole experience was a good thing to have, and it was all very deep and touching. After the concentration camp we went to the Olympic Stadium where the X-Games were held the previous week. The stadium was amazing and the architecture was incredible. I only wish we could have been there during the X-Games! On the way home we stopped at the BMW Headquarters, where you could sit in all the cars. It was so much fun getting to sit in all the fancy cars, and the building kind of felt like Star Wars inside. Then we went home and packed up a little before dinner, which was at a delicious vegetarian restaurant. We got Mozzarella Pizza, Spinach&Ricotta Gnocchi, Spinach Pizza, and different types of noodles! The food was some of the best I've had so far! At the end of dinner Hunter sang German songs and was very entertaining. Then we all walked home and got ready for our last night sleeping in Germany. This morning everyone got together to eat breakfast around 8:00. It was delicious croissants with Nutella and jam. At this time everyone made their sandwiches for lunch. When everyone was ready around 9:00 we left for our bike tour. On the way we stopped at the bank and postoffice but unfortunately it was an unsuccessful excursion, so we went on to our bike tour. Our tour guide was an Irish man named PJ. He was very funny and made the tour of Munich very enjoyable. The tour lasted about 4 hours and around 12:00 we stopped for lunch. We went to the second largest beer garden in the world and got to try some delicious pretzels with a four cheese sauce which was a bavarian specialty.
After the bike tour we got free time for about an hour in the Marien Platz where everyone shopped. After that hour was up we went to the Neue Pinnakothek where we saw some amazing paintings created by painters such as Piccaso, Manet, Monet, Vincent Von Gogh, Degas, Rodin, and Cezanne. The gallery was beautiful and very large. After looking through the gallery we went back to the Plaza and had some more free time. Around 7:00 we went to Hof Brau for dinner. It was quite the Bavarian experience. The food was very German and everyone was drinking a liter of beer, except our group. There were people playing music and everyone was cheering and clapping for them. The food was delicious and after the dinner we went and got some ice-cream, then headed back to the hostel where everyone is relaxing from the long day of exercise. By Gary Spanos 30.06.2013 Sunday. Hello, I have been having a splendid time here in Germany. From the great memories of partying in Tossens to living in a hostel, I have learned important life long lessons. It was very exciting living with Regine and her host family. I have experienced the life styles and cultural ways of a modern German family. The technologically advanced mechanisms within a German house shock me into a state of intimidating instability. As you can see, there are many things I could mention. With the absence of time in Frau Grünwald's presence I need to make this short. (Frau Grunwald says: I was bugging him to get me the blog and putting a little pressure!:) Today I am in Munich. The wonderful buildings and innovated structures with this city are amazing. I would say that Hamburg and Munich are similar in those ways. All the cars are fancy and gorgeous. Thats pretty much it. Well today, we had an 8 hour bus ride from Dresden to Munich. The best part of the ride was the repetition of "I'm So Getta". We played that song about 30 times, beating our fists to the drop of the bass. It was awesome. Afterwards, we took a long walk to the hostel. Legs aching and back strained, I have made it to the destination. We then ate some bratwurst and drank some fake beer. Yeah Germany is freaking awesome and I can't wait to tell all my American friends about the trip. Blog by Aurora: Today we got up early and left the youth around 9. We took a couple of trains to get to the bus station. In our extra time before our bus arrived we got some food for the bus. The bus ride was from 9:45 to 12:15 and went by super fast. We walked to our hostel which only took about 15 minutes. We walked by a very nice shopping center. Instead of tj maxx they have tk maxx! After we dropped off our stuff we went for a walk to the VW luxury "glass" factory and then into the Altstadt (old town) which was beautiful! The whole city was bombed in the end of world war 2 and rebuilt the same. Some of the buildings have salvaged parts of the originals on them. The youth hostel is amazing. The rooms are awesome, there's free breakfast and it's huge and in a very convenient location. We are in rooms of 3 or 2 people. After we settled into our rooms we headed back into town to see some more old buildings and then eat dinner. We walked along the river and saw how high the flood had been. Our dinner was in a very authentic German restaurant. The waitresses and waiters were dressed up and it was decorated really cool. We sat around a huge wooden table lighten by candles and sat on chairs made out of barrels. All the food was German style and we got everything from salmon casserole to pork tongue. It was very cool and delicious. We were all very tired afterwards and started to walk home. On the way home we came across a type of public bathroom we don't have in America. It's like a telephone booth that you pay 50 cents to get into. Naturally we had to see the inside. Then we figured out that it would spray itself down when you were done. We tried everything possible to trick it into spraying when someone was inside and eventually we did. It was a hilarious end to a great day. Dresden is such an amazing city and I can't wait to see more of it!
Today was packed full of activity and learning. We woke up bright and early to shower, make sandwiches, and prepare for the day. At about 9:20 we headed out and went to the Berliner Dom. This is a very old and historical church. While it has been rebuilt in recent years it was rebuilt to match it's original design and to preserve it as a historical landmark. The church is beautiful! It is ornately decorated and has a giant organ playing the whole time you walk through. That is about as classy as it gets. :) Anyways, there are so many things to look at in the church that you could sit in awe forever. Everywhere you look there is extreme detail. In the paintings, statues and just overall decor. There is a crypt beneath the church that you can walk through. It holds a lot of the Prussian monarchy and the bodies are all in ornate caskets. As someone who loves history this was one of my favorite things we have seen on this entire trip. The other attraction the church has to offer is a climb to the balcony that goes around the dome. It is a very tiring climb (especially when you have limited time and are running to get there). However, it is completely worth it. You get an amazing view of the city!
After the visiting the Berliner Dome we went to go on a bike tour. Our tour was all about the Berlin Wall and we learned a lot of the conflict that caused it, what life was like on the East side and how Germany unified again. It is one thing to learn about this stuff but to actually see where it all happened was amazing. Especially considering that 25 years ago the wall was up and functioning. Our guide, Alex, was really awesome! He took us to East Berlin and showed us many places where things have changed. He explained why the East Germans built some of the things they did and described a lot about what life was like for them. He then took us to the East side gallery where we learned the history of why Germany was divided, how it was divided and how the wall came to be. Later we went to the Soviet Union Red Army memorial that had been built when they occupied the area. While we learned that they did good things we were also told the negative things the army did. I thought it was cool that our guide always explained the positive and negative things that applied to what we were seeing. It gave perspective and something to think about. We learned about some of the escape stories and saw where the Berlin Wall was (there is a brick line that goes through the city to show where it was). This tour was very informational and just really fun! Later that day we went and had Spaghetti ice. For those of you that don't know, this is a favorite among the German people. It is basically really cold ice cream put through a machine that makes it look like noodles. Then they put some sort of topping to look like sauce (strawberries, cherries, etc) and some sort of sprinkled topping that resembles Parmesan. Today our group got wide varieties of ice cream flavors and had a fun time trying them and stuffing ourselves full of it. We later wrote postcards (in German) to our host families thanking them for our time in Hamburg. This took longer than expected... To end our day we went to a pizzeria and it was amazing. :) Berlin is an amazing city and it's sad that today was our final day visiting it. I love it so much and hope to come here again someday! :) On to Dresden tomorrow morning for new adventures... Jessica's blog:
This morning, I started off at bright and early to get ready and go with Frau Grundwald, Heide and Hunter to the grocery store to buy an bring back food for the others. While taking a shower in our hostel the lights turned off and I couldn't get them back on. Our hostel is a bit sketchy. Once we all had breakfast and were ready, we were out the doors! After taking the train about 30 minutes out if Berlin to a town called Potsdam, our today began. We rented bikes for pretty much the whole day, we saw many amazing, beautiful castles, palaces, and gardens! It was really special that for a few of the castles, we got to go into them and learn about the interior design, history, and much more! One of the castles we visited was the Cecilienhof Palace where Stalin, Churchill, and President Truman met up and discussed things. Another palace we went into was the Sanssoucis Palace, which was my favorite. When we went in to tour some of the places they would give us an audio thing to listen to. It was an audio tour. The audio tour at the Sanssoucis Palace was more interesting to me than the one at Cecilienhof Palace. Sanssoucis Palace was simply beautiful! While riding bikes, there were a few small "crashes". First, Carter fell because his bike slipped in mud, then Bailey tried to go over a curb too fast, and last was Aurora who jut lost balance and fell off her bike I think. Luckily no one got hurt:) Anyways, after a long day of biking we went straight to 'The best Currywurst in Berlin' which I must agree! It was super yummy!!! We didn't even have to wait in line long! This morning everyone woke up around 7:30 and got ready, made their lunch and ate breakfast. For lunch people made sandwiches and had apples, and Knoppers or Nussi for dessert. When everyone was ready, around 9:00 we left for the train station. We took the train to the main train station called the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. From there we walked around and looked at the government area. There we saw the Reichstag, and then we walked on to the Brandenbürgertor. While there some actors trying to pay for acting school, dressed up in German military costumes asked if we would like to take pictures with them. The price originally started at 5 Euros per person but was eventually cut down to 5 Euros for everyone to take a picture with the two actors. When we had taken all our pictures one of the men joked around saying Jessica was his wife and walked a few steps away with her. They were very friendly and interesting.
After Brandenbürgertor we went and saw a memorial for the fallen Jewish people. The memorial was like a giant maze that was supposed to show the feelings of isolation the Jews felt and had the dreary color of grey to represent it. From there we walked to Check Point Charlie which had some amazing stories of people who crossed the wall. We learned a lot about the history and what it was like to live with the wall and the separations between the two sides. After that we went to KaDeWe which was like a giant store for rich people. Everything was very expensive and fancy. At KaDeWe we ate lunch and a lot of people got delicious pieces of very fancy cake. We explored KaDeWe for about 40 minutes after eating and then left around 4:00. We headed towards the Kaises Wilhelm Kirche Gedächtniss but unfortunately it was closed due to renovations, but luckily for us there was a Forever 21, H&M and Desigual near by so we did some shopping instead. After shopping we headed back to the Hostel and had some down time before going to get dinner. During this time Daniel got his hair cut in the German style. Emily and Erin did a very good job of cutting it with nail clippers and little kid scissors. For dinner we went to Döner at the best place in Berlin. We ended up having to wait for two and a half hours for it because they ran out of meat and there was a very long line. Almost everyone said the wait was well worth it because the Döner was delicious. After the two and a half hour wait we finally headed home and everyone just relaxed and got ready for bed. Today was very enjoyable and busy. |