I am back from Germany and have secluded myself in order to finish the growing number of assignments I have due in the next two weeks. However, I need a break so here I am. I have to give a presentation tomorrow on London's sewer system which is...you know... thrilling.
Here's what went down in Germany:
I left for the Cologne airport on Friday afternoon. This was my first trip alone and I was a bit nervous, but the flight was very easy and it only took an hour in the air to get there. I was pleased. When we touched down, I took a bus to Bonn where my friend Ben is currently studying. We had a fun night of seeing the town.
On Saturday, I took a train with Ben and our friend Zach to Ikea. What a perfect thing to do in Germany right? We got off at a stop in Godorf (a.k.a. the middle of nowhere). We made our purchases and made the trek back to the train stop. As we sat waiting for the bus, a homeless man aimlessly walked onto the platform shouting something to the effect of "TRANSWELT...TRANSWELT" (translation: Trans-world). We saw a girl sitting on the bench next to us get up and walk away from the station. All three of us looked at each other, our German being only somewhat competant and Ben said "does she know something we don't?" Either way, we ended up stitting at the train station listening to this man yell to himself for a half hour, not really knowing what was happening until the train finally arrived. Zach later told me that it was comforting for him to know that if anything horrible was going to happen, I would most likely be the primary target/victim. How nice of him. And what a wonderful introduction to Godorf. I will never go back. It was literally a ghost town.
Saturday night was also an interesting (but better) experience. At my request for authentic German food, Ben, Zach and I walked to a restauraunt in Bonn. The waiter seated us at a table next to a man eating by himself. (It is customary in Germany to share a table with people you don't know.) All three of us ordered the same thing, Schweinschnitzel, which the waiter thought was hilarious. As we sat waiting for our food, we asked the man next to us how his food tasted. He proceeded to speak with us for about 30 minutes in German. Having been in the city for a couple weeks, Zach and Ben seemed to know what the man was saying while I only gathered about 50% of it. (Later, they told me they had a difficult time understanding everything the man said.). After this first half of German, the man finally said "I do speak English you know." (Thank GOD we didn't say anything bad about him in English). So we proceeded to talk to him in half German half English about German customs/the geographic area/ etc. It was very interesting! He said he has never been to America. I have found that a lot. Many Europeans have not traveled to America and when you ask them where they would like to go they respond with either "New York City" or "California". I always try to convince them to see Minnesota but they never know where that is. Darn.
Ben and I took a train to Cologne on Sunday to see the Dom. The Dom is a huge church of gothic architecture. Most of you have probably seen pictures of it without even knowing it. I wish we could have stayed in Cologne for a longer period of time but after an hour, we were freezing cold and tired so we shot a few pictures, walked around the tourist shops and quickly got back on the train to Bonn. We had dinner at a small cafe and walked around Bonn (which is ridiculously cute by the way). They sell a ton of food on the street (crepes, sausage, bread...) and there are flower shops everywher.e
3 or 4 crepes later (I lost count), I got on my plane and arrived back in London on Monday night. I will be here for only two and a half days and will set out for Dublin tomorrow afternoon. I am tired, that's for sure. However, Dublin will be beautiful and I'm actually most excited to do some photography.
PICTURES from this past weekend (and all of my other trips) are posted at www.flickr.com/photos/mcgroves -- please visit the site and see them!! I feel like nobody knows about this website so I will start posting it every time I have an entry.
Hope everything is going well back in the states. I'm beginning to miss Minnesota, Madison, my full-sized bed, etc. Have a good weekend!
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