Wien!

Yikes. Its kind of sad how long its been, and whats even more sad is how many times I've told myself "Benjamin, you should really get online and blog about Wien." However, clearly I have no persuasive power over myself, as the answer was invariable "Ehhhhh I'll do it some other time." So, apparently that other time has come as I sit here in my room still in my pajamas at 2.30 on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Though it feels like morning since I didn't get out of bed until 11.30. Its good to have a light load of classes. (That is what my next blog will be about...look forward to that one probably later this same afternoon, as I've got nothing else to do).

So, Wien. For those of you 'out of the loop', Wien is the proper name for the city known as "Vienna" in our sadly uncultured English tongue. Wien is a really awesome city, and probably my favorite of the three cities I visited over April break. We arrived in Wien after a hectic 12 hours spent back home in Regensburg, taking a morning train direct from Regensburg to Wien and arriving at about 1.00. We went immediately to our hostel, which might be the nicest of the three hostels we stayed in. It was called the Meninger Hotel/Hostel, and was clean, quiet, and secure. We also had bathrooms/showers in the room itself, as opposed to walking down a hall in Frankfurt or down a hall, down two flights of stairs, through the bar, through an outdoor courtyard, and back upstairs in a different building in Brugge.

So first thing we did was drop our stuff off and get some lunch at a nearby sausage stand. It felt wonderful to be back in a German speaking nation, as we both had felt rather awkward ordering food and talking to people in English in Bruges. I got this delicious cheese filled sausage that is apparently some kind of Wiener specialty. Our plan for that day (after eating sausage, of course) was to walk around the city and get our bearings. Unfortunately, Wien is significantly larger than both the other cities we visited - this means that we had to make use of the U-Bahn (subway). Still, the Altstadt is fairly walkable and there is a very convenient 'Ringstrasse' (Ring street) that circles the Altstadt and dead ends on the Donau on either side. We basically went and walked in a circle around the Altstadt.

The weather for this third of our trip was somewhat less cooperative than it was in Frankfurt and Bruges. It was mostly cold and rainy the first few days, and really only cleared up on our last full day in Wien. So long story short, we were cold and wet while walking around the city that first afternoon, so what did we do in a city full of coffee houses? Why, visit ein Kaffeehaus, naturlich! I tried a delicious Wiener Kaffee called 'Melange' which is basically a cappuccino, but I was drawn to it by the name. Anyone read Dune, by Frank Herbert? If not, you should. Its excellent, and you'll get my reference and why I find it humorous immediately.

In the evening we had some rather delicious Asian food and browsed around a bookstore that we came across in our wanderings. We then decided to make an early night of it, and headed back to the hostel.

Our second day in Wien dawned overcast and cold - a perfect day for touring museums, which was our plan. It was a rather ambitious plan, in retrospect, but we accomplished it. First we were in line at the Kunsthistorisches Museum when it opened at 10. The Kunsthistorisches Museum is a world class art museum with classical galleries similar to the Louvre, but on a smaller scale. The building itself was a work of art, as it was built specifically to house the art collection of the Imperial Austrian Court in the late 19th century. It also had a really cool exhibit on coins and mythological creatures in art. Overall an excellent museum, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Wien.

Next on our list was the Neue Burg, a giant museum housing really 3 separate museums in the Hofburg complex, which used to be the winter palace of the Hapsburg empire. We visited the Musical instrument museum followed by the Arms and Armor museum - both were fascinating. The musical instrument museum shed light on some of the most famous Viennese composers/musicians as well as some interesting medieval/baroque/otherwise forgotten about instruments that nobody ever plays anymore. The Arms and Armor museum is exactly what it sounds like: COOL. It consisted of hundreds of suits of armor, for men and horses, as well as the accompanying weapons. It also had collections of antique guns belonging to the Hapsburgs, and arms and armor from other cultures that the Hapsburgs had somehow acquired over the centuries.

Rounding out our list of museums for the day was the Schatzkammer, or Imperial Treasury. It housed the collection of royal treasures from the Holy Roman Empire, Hapsburg Dynasty, and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was all very impressive, and worthy of many pictures that I took. Highlights included the crown of Charlemagne and the Holy Lance, which supposedly is the spear that stabbed Jesus on the cross. Why it is holy, I don't know - personally, if someone had stabbed the guy I worshiped I would not transfer my worship to the instrument of his injuring. Oh well - who can say if it really stabbed Jesus, but it was a pretty cool looking weapon all the same.

By this time, I was starting to feel rather less than 100% - in retrospect, I think it was some kind of minor stomach bug or food poisoning or something non-contagious. But regardless of what it was, I was starting to feel sick so we headed back to the hostel to take it easy before dinner. Dinner that night was actually really good. We wandered around the area around the hostel until we found some kind of Austro-German Biergarten/restaurant, and had some very tasty food. Then, it was back to the hostel for an early night (if you haven't noticed reading my blog posts, I'm not much for nightlife).

The third day dawned badly. I woke up running a medium fever and entirely unable to leave the hostel as planned for a morning at the Military History Museum. Instead, Kenna continued on to the museum by herself and I remained at the hostel in bed. By early afternoon I was starting to feel better (Ibuprofen is a miracle drug), and when Kenna returned from the museum we both headed out for the afternoon and evening. The plan for this day was to walk around the Hofburg, Austrian Parliament building, and Rathaus and take pictures that we did not take on the first day due to bad weather. We also spent some time in the Schmetterling (butterfly) house on the grounds of the palace and in the parks attached to the Hofburg grounds.

It was a really pretty afternoon, very suitable for wandering and taking pictures and hanging out in parks next to fountains. There really isn't much special to tell about this day, as we didn't do all that much in the way of touristy things other than take pictures. For dinner, we wandered along the Ringstrasse in the direction of where we had to go that evening and found a nice little Italian place that was most tasty.

After dinner, we actually had plans! Shock! Gasp! Not going back to sleep?? I know, astonishing. Instead of making our way back to the hostel, we meandered on down to Karlskirche, a pretty, old church with a giant dome. There we attended a performance of Mozart's Requiem by some small chamber orchestra/choir. It was really rather incredible, and the acoustics inside the church were wonderful. I also took some pretty cool pictures of the church while waiting outside. After THAT we made our way back for sleep :P

Our final day in Vienna dawned clear, and I was feeling better though not completely recovered from the day before. Regardless, we had plans that morning: we were going to a performance by the Spanish Riding School, famous horses/riders that have been performing in Wien for centuries. They did dressage, which is basically making the horses do various things while riding them around the hall. Naturally, the horses were all gorgeous. The finale of the performance was a choreographed 'ballet of the white stallion' which was an impressive display of riding prowess by the 8 riders and horses in the hall.

After that, we lunched and made our way to Schloss Schönbrunn, which was the summer residence of the Hapsburgs. It was a really impressive palace, probably my favorite one I've visited since I've been over here. It also had incredible gardens and grounds behind the palace, of course, and after our tour we spent the afternoon hanging out in the gardens (including wandering the hedge maze). We also climbed some sort of structure on the top of a hill behind the palace and were treated to a wonderful panorama view of the city and surrounding mountains.

That evening, our last evening in Wien and indeed our last evening travelling, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at some sort of Viennese restaurant that was very tasty. It being spargal (asparagus) season, the Germans and apparently Austrians too go absolutely CRAZY and make special spargal menus - I enjoyed one of those Hauptspeisen featuring Spargal. After dinner we walked through a nearby park before heading back to the hostel to pack up our things and go to bed.

The final morning in Wien we spent at the Stephansdom, St. Stephans Cathedral in the center of town. Although the church was impressive, it was very touristy. We took required pictures and climbed up the tower to get a nice panorama of the city, but overall both of us were fairly ready to go back to Regensburg. We got a quick bite to eat before heading over to the train station to begin our journey home.

Overall, 'twas a good experience travelling and I thoroughly enjoyed everything I saw. I still have two places in Europe I REALLY want to visit: Tuscany and Prague. I would also really like to visit Normandy, but I don't know if I'm going to get the chance to do so. I will of course keep you faithful (or not so faithful, seeing as my blog posts aren't exactly regular) readers updated on future travelling.

Farewell for now, and look forward to my next post about classes!

Living a Movie

[Opening Scene]

Fade in to: Two friends walking through an old, medieval city

Ben: Bruges is a shithole.

Kenna: Bruges is NOT a shithole.

Ben: Bruges IS a shithole.

Kenna: Ben, we've only just got off the f*&king train, can we reserve judgement on Bruges until you've even SEEN the f&*king place?

Bruges, Belgium: April 9th - 13th

For those of you that haven't seen the movie In Bruges, you're missing out. Its excellent, and that exchange above is how the first scene of the movie begins. So, we stepped off the train and naturally started quoting the movie. Of course. That was part of the reason we were going there in the first place, because Kenna had loved the movie so much (I loved it too, but I didn't see it until she showed it to me shortly before our trip). As our tourist map stated in its "Five minute history of Bruges" area, someone calls Bruges a shithole and the tourists come flocking.

Bruges is really NOT a shithole at all. It is a beautiful, old, perfectly preserved medieval city. It is also one of the most touristy places I've ever been in my life. A city is like an ecosystem: there are certain niches that need to be filled for the city to survive, and if they are overfilled then natural selection will take over and weed out the weak. Unfortunately, tourism changes the equation: in Bruges, there was a drastic hypersaturation of restaurants. In any other city, none of them would survive because there are simply too many for any one to do well. In a tourist city, people need places to eat. Thus Bruges provides.

We stepped off the train and made our way over to the north side of town and our hostel, a lovely little place called "Snuffel Backpacker Hostel". It was more of a complex, really, consisting of a couple of different adjacent buildings all connected together. It had a pretty decent bar on the ground floor, through which one had to walk in order to cross the courtyard to the shower building. Other than that journey, which was usually made as the bar was filling up around 10 pm, it was a pretty solid place to stay.

The first evening we were there we got in pretty late. Thus, the first thing we did was go off in search of food. We found food at a wonderful little bar/grill/restaurant entitled "De Hobbit". Win. :) I first encountered the complexity and length of a Belgian beer list here, and didn't really know what to do about it. A word to the wise: Bavaria, and Germany in general, may be known for beer, but it has NOTHING on Belgium. Bayern is more quantity (as in, go in, order a Maß, which means liter, drink it, order another, repeat), whereas Belgium is about variety. Some of the bars we went to, which should really be classified more as 'beer cafes' or 'beer pubs', served upwards of 400-500 different styles and varieties of beers. All of the beers I tried were delicious, but more on this later. Food at De Hobbit was tasty, but nothing exceptional. We then went to the center platz and took artsy pictures of the tower at night, followed by returning to the hostel and passing out with exhaustion from traveling.

The second day we got our start early: up and out and down to the canals in time for the first boat tour at 10 AM. The boat tour, while extremely touristy like the rest of the city, was actually really cool. There are some places in this little medieval city that are far better when seen from the water of the myriad canals that criss-cross the Altstadt. Included in our sightseeing were many places used in the movie, so pictures were naturally captured. These you can see on facebook as soon as I get them up there.

After the boat tour, we climbed the highest tower of the city, the old city bell tower. They still use the bells in there to ring out the time, and it was to the misfortune of our ears that bells rang while we were in the tower. They had some sort of musical instrument set up to play the bells, much as one would play an organ or piano, only instead of pipes/strings the keys control the hammers in bells. The view from up top was wonderful - we could see the entire city, as well as much of the surrounding country. Upon our descent from the tower we decided to search out some lunch.

After lunch, we decided to do some more of the stereotypical touristy things in Bruges: the Groeninge Museum, containing artworks of the 'Flemish Primitives', which is a school of art in the late middle ages/early renaissance, then the old palace (Gruuthuse), then the Church of Our Lady, which has a Michelangelo sculpture within. The Flemish primitives were actually really impressive. I'm not particularly an art aficionado (alright, lets face it, I get bored quickly in art museums), but I found it really cool how the painters were able to capture very realistic hair/clothing textures. The Gruuthuse was underwhelming. What we thought was a Schloss was actually a museum - it WAS the old palace, but had since been turned into a historical museum about human occupation of that area of Belgium. Boring, rather. The church was also slightly underwhelming. It was BEAUTIFUL, of course, and the statue was impressive, but it had totally sold its soul to tourism. I'm not religious, but I think its terrible how all these giant, gorgeous old cathedrals have become completely enthralled by tourism. I don't think that they should stop letting in visitors, but I do think they should enforce quiet and above all allow FREE entry. I think it is terrible how churches force visitors to pay to see most of the inside of a church. Absolutely awful. Ok. Rant over.

Following our tourist afternoon, we went and walked along the outer canal of Bruges, in a park that took the walker around the outskirts of the old city. We saw a couple medieval city gates, the only parts of the city walls to remain standing, as well as a skull mounted on one of the gates to warn of the consequences to traitors. We took our time heading through the park, and during one of our many stops I attempted to teach Kenna how to juggle, using chestnuts. It was difficult to teach with chestnuts. :( There was also a cute little Belgian girl who came running up and wanted to learn - I tried to teach, but she spoke neither English nor German, and its hard to teach without language. Oh well. I juggled in Bruges :)

Dinner that evening was at a local little hole in the wall recommended by a guy at our hostel - it was fantastically delicious. After dining, we returned home for the evening.

Day two began early again with a visit to the Basilica of the Holy Blood. This Basilica claims to have a vial of Jesus' blood that magically becomes liquid every time a certain ceremony is invoked. Naturally, we weren't allowed to see it other than during the ceremony, but the Basilica was really pretty. For those of you who have seen In Bruges, what they call the Basilica of the Holy Blood in the movie is actually NOT the right place - we believe that what is shown is actually the Jerusalem Church, but that has not been confirmed.

After the Basilica was the Lace museum. Bruges, and Flanders in general, has historically been a center of production of Lace. The museum was cool, and showed how lace is made as well as a bunch of impressive examples. After lunch, we meandered through the city, taking our time (and finding incredible Belgian waffle street food) on our way to a local brewery of Bruges, that is called "De Halve Maan." We had a tour of this brewery, as well as samples of their delicious beer :) If any of you have a chance to try it, I recommend the Straffe Hendrik - a tripel beer, darkish, strong and flavorful.

Our well irrigated bodies then found their ways to the diamond museum of Bruges. Belgium was, and to some degree still is, a center of the worlds diamond industry. I believe that it is Antwerp which is one of the largest diamond processing centers in the world. Bruges was a huge economic powerhouse in the medieval period, so before Antwerp it was Bruges that was the center of the diamond industry - hence the so dedicated museum. Lots of shiny things. Lots of history. :)

Finally, we walked through a park - but not just any park. Those of you familiar with the movie will of course remember zee alcoves, zee little nooks und crannies: Konigen Astrid Park. It was very similar to the movie, a beautiful little park, and the blue gazebo was there just as it was in the movie. Unfortunately, the playground was different so we could not re-enact that scene. It was a beautiful day, though, and the park was nice just to hang out for the remainder of the afternoon.

The last two days are, unfortunately, blending together in my mind. Overall, we went to the hospital museum (one of the first hospitals), Benguinage (some sort of nunnery with a cool church and grounds), chocolate museum, frite museum, Konigen Astrid Park (again), and a park with stereotypical windmills. The chocolate museum was cool - it traced the history of chocolate through the perspective of Belgium, being as it is famous for chocolates. Unfortunately, in this museum we ran into some little french children.

Those of you that know me know that I'm not a fan of kids in general, but these kids were little monsters (and it was made worse by the fact that they were speaking french, an unattractive jabbery slurry language). They were loud, running around the whole museum, uncourteous, piggish, and rude. There was a chocolate demonstration (showing how to make pralines, the delicious little filled chocolates that Belgium is famous for), and they crowed the railing and literally pushed people out of the way so they could be up front. They also migrated to the free chocolate like homing beacons even though it was being passed around evenly. The teachers need lessons in keeping control of their brats.

Ok. Back to the awesomeness of Bruges :) Our last evening there we (relatively) splurged on dinner, going to a delicious restaurant where Kenna tried rabbit for the first time, and I had a pretty good steak (along with two delicious glasses of the house-brewed beer). After dinner, we went to a famous beer-bar/cafe/pub type place called 'de Garre,' and hung out there while having their delicious house beer, a 'Tripel de Garre'. Yum.

Our last morning in Bruges, we visited a wonderful farmers market on the main square in order to procure sustinence for our long journey back to Regensburg that afternoon/evening. We found the most delectable cheese: it was a Brie-type cheese, but flavored with wild herbs, garlic, and onion. It was SO good, and spread it on a baguette with a little ham....it was a tasty lunch. :) Our train left Bruges early afternoon, about 1.30, and we began the cross-europe train journey to get back; 8 hours later, we arrived in Regensburg for the night. We decided to do it this way so that we didn't have to spend the entirety of one of our days travelling; not only is it difficult to get an overnight train to Vienna, but we wanted a short time at home to do laundry, repack, and (for me) pick up my computer.

12 hours after we got in, we were right back out: 9.30 in the morning our train left for Wien. Four hours later we alighted in a city that was for a time the political power center of Europe, and is still a major cultural center for the entire world.

Reisen - to travel.

So. I've been away from teh interwebs for the past two weeks for one simple reason - I have had no computer. Why have I had no computer? Because I've been travelling through Germany, Belgium, and Austria. It was ok. Well, more than ok. It was AWESOME. So prepare for a mind-numbingly long series of blog posts as I attempt to regurgitate all of what I did before I forget.

April 5th - 9th: Frankfurt

The first city we visited. I traveled there with two of my friends, Rebecca and Kenna, and we there we met up with two of Rebecca's friends who are also studying abroad. There are some of you that may say "Why Frankfurt? What is there to do in Frankfurt?" Those some of you that may say that are correct - there really isn't much to do in Frankfurt. Still, it served its purpose - a vacation before the trip. We basically spent the 4 and a half days of Frankfurt relaxing. The three of us on my program had just finished writing research papers, and we wanted time to do nothing, thus Frankfurt.

Frankfurt is a city unlike any other I've visited thus far in Germany. It is far more international, far less homogeneous, and felt very much like a large American city. It had lots of street food, lots of markets, lots of parks, and lots people that didn't speak German. Basically our plan was to have to plan; we decided what to do the day before or the day we did it, and most of the times we just spent wandering around the city or hanging out in a park.

As for where we stayed, well....lets just say we weren't in the most savory part of town. About one street away from the train station, and exactly on the street of our hostel, was Frankfurt's small but bustling red light district (yes, prostitution is legal in Germany). This made for both loud nights in the hostel due to street noise one floor below us as well as rather sketchy walks back to the hostel anytime after dark. The hostel we stayed in was actually really nice, though. It had a cool hang-out/bar area on the ground floor, all the rooms were nice, and the bathrooms were well kept. About the only issue with the bathrooms is that the showers didn't have doors or curtains, but that wasn't a huge deal....it just meant one had to be careful with one's gaze upon entering the bathroom lest one be scarred forever.

So, what did we actually do in Frankfurt? Well, thats a difficult question to answer. Not only does it feel like months ago, but we didn't really do all that much. The first day we were there (we got in late afternoon on the 5th) we simply checked in and hung around waiting for Rebecca's friend to arrive. We then met her at the train station and proceeded to explore the city of Frankfurt on foot.

ASIDE: Why I love Europe

Because even in the worst parts of town, such as the area in which we lived in Frankfurt, there are things such as local food markets where one can get fresh, healthy foods at a reasonably low cost. Right outside the hostel, on one of the main pedestrian streets that turned into sketch-heaven at night, we found a really cool food market with stands selling all sorts of artisanal food products, most of them locally made. This includes sausages, wines, breads, cheeses, and and even produce markets. In the bad parts of town in America all one finds are fast food chains and gas station quick-marts.

RETURN TO NARRATION.

After walking through said food market (where I tended to be far more distracted than my travelling companions, even to the point that I had to stop and buy myself a wild boar bratwurst), we walked into and around the center city. We took lots of pictures, obviously, these you can see on facebook. We also walked down around the river, ate dinner at a reasonably quick/cheap pizza joint, and made our way back towards the hostel. We stopped at a bar on the way back to just hang out for a bit, and at this bar one of the primary non-beer drinkers of our small group (I'm talking to you, Kenna) made an interesting find: Schöfferhoffer Wheat beer mixed with grapefruit juice. It may sound disgusting, but it actually doesn't taste bad. It just doesn't taste like beer. We then made an early night of it as we were all exhausted.

The following day started off badly for the two of us not in the VWW program; in their hostel room, apparently one of the roommates snored the entire night, and they got no sleep. Thus, they decided to sleep in while the three of us German students forged out to explore the city on our own that morning. Initially, the plan was to go to the Museum of German film. Unfortunately, that museum was closed for renovations. Subsequently, we decided to check out the museum of applied arts - an interesting choice, as they had a really really cool temporary exhibit on the history of Apple (the computer company) and the history/art of technology such as music players, computers, and cell phones. Its weird to think that the first iPods only came out in something like 2002.

We then explored the Römer (the old town square), the cathedral, and the parts of the city along the river before walking up to the north side of town for lunch. There is a whole drag in Frankfurt full of little cafes and little shops, and we found lunch at a little asian restaurant here. After lunch, we met up with Lena and Jenny (the two other friends of Rebecca) and satisfied a great necessity of life (ice cream) before wandering back down into and around the center city. We then found a park and hung out before dinner, and after dinner wandered back to the hostel where we spent the evening hanging out, playing cards, and generally chilling.

The third day was, if possible, even more chill than the second. We spent the morning at the Frankfurt zoo (childish, I know, but none of us had visited a zoo in years). The afternoon, after lunch at a farmers market wurst stand, was spent enjoying ice cream, the sun, and the myriad of parks in and around Frankfurt. I have come back from this trip with a tan, and at the time was sunburned. Did I go to the beach? No. I went to Frankfurt. It really tells you how pale I am, doesn't it. The late afternoon we spent wandering over towards the opera house, a beautiful structure designed to look old like the original, but was actually flattened during the second world war along with the majority of Frankfurt. Dinner was Thai, actually a pretty tasty meal, and after dinner we went to see the movie "The Fighter" auf Englisch. This entire day, by the way, was the first that I had spent outside entirely in a t-shirt and shorts with no need for long sleeves or long pants. A first for my stay here :D

The fourth day was spent (if possible) even lazier than the third. In the morning we walked to the Stuwwelpeter museum. This is translated as "slovenly peter," and is basically a collection of stories for children to impart morality and obedience. For example, the plot of one of them runs thus: "A little boy constantly refused to eat when his mother told him to eat. Even when she made his favorite foods, he refused to eat. Even when she gave him sweets, she refused to eat. Eventually, he wasted away and died. Nobody mourned his death, because he was a disobedient little boy." I'm glad I wasn't raised on these tales. There is another one where a child who sucks his thumb gets it cut off. Chilling. Our afternoon was spent in the Palmengarten, essentailly a botanical garden, in which we took lots of pictures, saw lots of flowers, had a picnic lunch, and rowed a rowboat around the pond while avoiding nasty, vicious swans. It was enjoyable. Dinner was a nice dinner at a traditional Hessan (Frankfurt is in Hesse, a bundesstaat and its own country until 1871) restaurant.

The final day we woke up late, got lunch, and went our separate ways: Lena to another hotel awaiting her return flight to the UK early the next morning, Rebecca and Jenny to the airport to catch their flight to the UK that day, and Kenna and I proceeded to the train station in order to progress onwards to our next destination: we were soon going to be In Bruges.

Hallochen

Thats a disgustingly cute way of saying "hi" that we've made up. I don't think any Germans actually say it....its like "hey", but with a diminutive.

So I am done with academic pursuits until May 2nd. O_o I'm not gonna lie, it feels pretty awesome to have a month-long brain break (which in German would certainly be one word, Gehirnsferien....I hope it is a real word), especially after just completing a week of incredibly intense academic work. Normal when working on papers its not that bad, because it is mitigated by the fact that you have other work to do - a cross-training effort for your brain, if you like, instead of intense workouts of certain muscle groups. For the past week, I've done nothing productive except for read, write, and think about the Franco-Prussian war. Which, mind you isn't that bad - it is a fascinating subject. However, it is EXHAUSTING to have to be so intensely focused on one thing only, day in, day out, and have it be entirely in a foreign language. Oh well, I sent in my paper this afternoon and I feel pretty good about it.

Now - Break plans! Because I know you are all fascinated.

First: Frankfurt. I'm going with 2 friends, one of whom is meeting 2 of her friends there. We are staying there for four days, during which we will do....something fun, I'm sure. We haven't exactly ironed out the details yet. But its a cool city! One thing I'm going to make sure and do is check out an "eppelwoi" (Apfelwein, or apple wine) tavern that Frankfurt is apparently known for.

Next: Bruges, Belgium. For those of you who have seen the movie In Bruges, thats the place. It will be just two of us going there, and exploring small town Belgium. Apparently, the place is known for Beer, Chocolate, and Lace. Two of the three interest me in a direct, gastronomically beneficial manner, and the third might make a cool gift. There is a neat looking chocolate museum, as well as a whole mess of artisan chocolate shops. Also, there are all sorts of local breweries, and most local pubs serve literally hundreds of local or regional microbrews. :) (PS - If you don't already know me well enough to figure this out, I plan my vacations largely around what and where I eat).

Lastly: Four days in Wien, or Vienna for those of you not lucky enough to speak German. In Wien we have a little bit more of a plan than in Frankfurt, but not much. We will certainly go see the Spanish Riding School dressage horses perform (the really famous white dancing horses). Unfortunately, the opera was sold out. Fortunately, my parents want to go to Wien when they come visit, and the opera is NOT sold out that far in advance. We bought tickets for Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, by Mozart) today. ANYWAY, back to April. We will also, I'm sure, take part in a Wiener tradition of delicious coffee at one of the many coffee houses scattered throughout the city, as well as many of the local pastry delicacies. A non-food related thing that I'm excited about is possibly seeing Schloss Schönbrunn, the seat of the Hapsburg family for many centuries and still contains many treasures of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which was in existence from 962 - 1806. YES I just got that beginning date right! I only just now double-checked it on Wikipedia...yes I'm a nerd. ANYWAY Wien looks awesome. There is a LOT to do there, and we'll only have four days before heading back to Regensburg.

Upon arriving back in Regensburg on the 18th, I have no definite plans for the rest of the month. I know that one of my friends from home who is also studying in Germany is going to come while on a trip with his younger brother and visit for a day (shout out at Thomas and Thane Jones, if either of you happen to read this). There are also discussions afoot (that is such a great word, 'afoot') about going to visit Dachau (the concentration camp outside of Munich) and Neuschwanstein (Ludwig II of Bayern's fairy-tale-esque castle) through day trips, but nothing official. I also wouldn't mind going to Salzburg, as it is so easy to get to from Regensburg.

So. Now I think it is time I bid you Adieu, as I won't be posting for the next two weeks or so. I won't have my computer with me, so I get to be cut off from the world for a lengthy period of time! Yay!

Anyway. I hope all of you back in America are writhing with jealousy. I promise I'll take lots of pictures for you.

Tschau!

Silence....

I'm sorry for it. There really hasn't been all that much going on lately, though.

About the only interesting thing is the beginning of our Hausarbeit and Seminarwoche. The Hausarbeit is the German term for a research project, and our Seminarwoche is supposedly to teach us about the requirements of an actual German Uni class. However, thus far it has proven to not be overly useful, and instead attempts to teach us basic writing tactics and skills that I have learned many times over beginning with high school. Hopefully this coming week will be better, and provide more constructive information about how the German Hausarbeit is different from a normal research paper - so far, all the teachers say that it is, but won't give any sort of concrete evidence or explanation to explain.

Ok. Rant over. The main thing that is different about the Hausarbeit is that its in German. Which is difficult - writing a 10 page research paper is a solid test of one's competence in a subject in English; what I'm doing here is having a lengthy examination of my proficiency in both German and History (the chosen subject of my paper is Bismarck's role in creating and winning the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71, and how that war contributed to German unification). It would be hard enough if I only had to write it in German; unfortunately, many of the sources are in German as well, so research is also in German (one of the downsides of having a German library at your disposal rather than an English). Oh well. It'll be good for me, I suppose.

I should stop procrastinating now. And get back to researching. Hooray for German Unification (the current subject of my inquiry)!

Oh, and PS - I'll bet that by the time I get back to the States, I'll be in an incredibly bad habit of run-on sentences. Those don't exist in German, and I'll probably start using that as an excuse to write run-on sentences in English.

I forgot something.

Oh, and did I mention that German nouns, as do the nouns of most other languages, have genders? That means that instead of a one-size-fits all adjective declension as we have in English (fat man, fat girl, fat woman, fat people), Germans get to throw on extra endings! This makes the following series of fat individuals: ein dicker Herr, ein dickes Mädchen, eine dicke Frau, einige dicke Leute. Of course, thats only with the indefinite article 'ein.' With a definite article "the" it becomes totally different: der dicke Herr, das dicke Mädchen, die dicke Frau, die dicken Leute.

You think: oh thats not so bad.

I think: Now I have to know the exact gender of every noun I use in every sentence and how to decline the adjectives correctly all while speaking blaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

:) I LOVE GERMAN. CAN'T YOU TELL.

(actually I do, it can just be a pain sometimes.)

Who wants to learn German grammar??!!??

I know I do! Actually, I really do, since I've got an Abschlussprüfung (final exam) tomorrow morning for the Intensive german course part of the program.

Here is a fun fact: Germans have this nifty little grammatical tense called Konjunktiv I. That translates as Subjunctive I, and we DON'T have it in English. Konjunktiv I is used to describe events; in other words, reported speech. If you are a reporter, reporting what someone said you have two options: direct quote (Hans said: "blah blah blah") or indirect reporting (Hans said that blah blah blah). Now in English, we don't differentiate grammatically between what Hans said that is now being said by you and something that you yourself said. For example, in English one might say: Hitler said that the Germans were the master race. There is no grammatical difference between "the Germans are the master race" and "Hitler said the Germans are the master race." Thus, were someone to walk in after you said the "Hitler said" portion of the sentence, he/she would hear only "the germans are the master race" and think you a Neo-nazi. Obviously nobody wants this to occur. Thus the Konjunktiv I.

In German, your options are direct quote (Hitler sagte "Die Deutschen sind das Herrenvolk") and Konjunktiv I (Hitler hat gesagt, dass die Deutschen das Herrenvolk seien). See how the verb is conjugated differently? The verb "to be" (sein, conjugated normally into third person plural as "sind") is changed to the Konjunktiv state "seien" in order to show someone who walks in after you mentioned the whole "Hitler said" portion of the sentence that you are not the one being racist.

Cool, huh. Whoopee.

Here's another interesting one. In German, there are indefinite pronouns much as there are in English: in English, these consist primarily of "one" and its various incarnations "someone," "anyone" and so on. A sentence might be "When one is invited to dinner, the host usually gives one something delicious, that is not always offered to one." Cumbersome, I know. Thats why people don't talk like that.

But did you notice how its all the same word? English has no declination of the indefinite pronoun: 'one' is at the same time the subject, indefinite object, and definite object of the sentence (even though it isn't a definite object in that example). In German, its not quite so simple. The equivalent of "one" is "man" auf deutsch.

That same sentence, translated back into German (because I stole it off of a sheet I'm studying) is: "Wenn man zum Essen eingeladen wird, setzen die Gastgeber einem meistens etwas besonders Gutes vor, Saghen die einem nicht jeden Tag geboten werden." Uh oh. Why are all my highlighted words not "man?" "Man" is the indefinite pronoun! Because Germans provide more information via grammar than we do - man = one as nominative, einen = one as accusative, and einem = one as dative.

Whew. Annoying, a little bit.

But wait: THERE'S MORE!

You don't just have indefinite pronouns for people, you also have them for things. For example, in English we have "some," "a," "something," "none," and so on. Germans have the equivalent, but slightly more confusing. "A" and "none" are simple translations: "ein" und "kein." "Some" gets a little more interesting: singular its "etwas," which is more like "something" or "one." Plural, it becomes "welch," which can also be translated as "which" when used in a question. Figuring out when and how to use these little words is far more important and far more difficult than memorizing the thousands of vocabulary words necessary for a daily language proficiency.

Enjoy the confusion! Study German, because then this post might make sense to someone other than me!