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!

I'm terribly sorry, chaps...

....he said in a funny accent to make you all feel better. It has now been officially a month since my last post, and honestly I don't really have an excuse. I kind of dropped off the wagon mid-statement with my Berlin posts. I'm afraid I'm honestly not even going to try and recreate the tellings of what we did in Berlin a month ago. If you are interested, shoot me an email and I'll give you a personal storytelling!

Now. What has happened in the last month? A lot. Part of that is probably why I've been rather reticent with my bloggings. Those of you connected on Facebook can keep track of what's been going on through pictures, but I'll give you an overview here:

The week after Berlin was filled with misguided attempts at academic productivity; I felt as though I hadn't done any actual work what with skiing and Berlin (8 travelling days out of the 10 days prior to Monday, Feb 21), so I tried to buckle down and get work done. It didn't happen, at least not much. Its very difficult to get motivated when the classes are so easy and expectations are basically like high school. I graduated from that already, I'm ready for the Uni.

The following Wednesday (March 2), we took a guided tour of a local Brauerei (Brewery). The Kneitinger Brauerei has been operating in Regensburg for a very long time, and makes some very delicious beer. We got to sample some young, unfiltered beer (which was actually quite tasty) and after the tour some of us met in the Biergarten and our Resident Director bought those that remembered to stay two rounds of delicious liquid bread. Germany has an interesting concoction that they have created with beer: ein Radler, or a beer mixed with lemonade. You can get either a Helles Radler (with light beer) or a dunkles Radler (dark beer). The dunkles is delicious.

That weekend was occupied with the celebration of Fasching. Also known as Karnival. Also known as Mardi Gras - the biggest celebrations were Rosenmontag and Faschingsdienstag, so we got those two days off and had a four day weekend. I know what you are thinking: "Ben, partying non-stop for four days, drinking and dancing and making a fool of himself in the streets? I totally expected that because its such his nature!" Unfortunately, I was not one of those people. I and my friend Sarah went backpacking for the long weekend. Instead of drinking beer for 4 days, we trekked about 43 miles over 3 days in the Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald.

This trip was very enjoyable, though if you have looked at any of the pictures I've posted on facebook you will anticipate my advice to NOT walk in the Nationalpark until summer. Unless you have snowshoes. We encountered people with snowshoes on our journey....they looked at us strangely with a vague sense of pity as we waded through the mid-shin deep snow. We actually ended up breaking off our initial plan (walking this trail called the Goldsteig for some 50 miles over 4 days) because the snow was too deep; we turned aside and found a different path lower and through a couple of small, stereotypically adorable bayerischer Dorfs (villages). It was a good time, though cold. Here is an example of how cold: one morning, we woke up inside our rather ghetto/sketchy/held-closed-with-duct-tape tent and my water bottle was just fine. Not frozen, nice and liquidy from it being close to me all night. I go outside and start cooking oatmeal; 20 minutes later its frozen. O_o.

So. Surviving the Bayerischer Wald, we returned to Regensburg late afternoon on Rosenmontag. I enjoyed hearing stories of other peoples adventures, excursions, and even medical mishaps (one of my compatriots broke a hand in Köln, the capital of Karnival, and can't remember exactly what happened...). That Wednesday, we visited the local Schloss (palace). Schloss Thurn und Taxis is the home of the Thurn und Taxis Familie, and parts of the estate are still inhabited by them to this day. The prince Thurn und Taxis was responsible for post within the Holy Roman Empire, and that is how the family became wealthy and rose through the princely ranks extremely quickly. The entire complex is rather extensive and EXTREMELY impressive; if any of you ever visit Regensburg I'd highly recommend a tour. Pictures, unfortunately, were forbidden inside, but I suggest googling 'schloss thurn und taxis regensburg' to get an idea.

Saturday the 12th we went to Augsburg. A nice little excursion, beautiful, warm weather in a nice old city. Augsburg is about twice the size of Regensburg, and has some interesting history. One of those interesting cultural delights (I use the term loosely) is a european renowned puppet theater. Marionette puppets, and it has an entire museum dedicated to its puppets. It was really impressive, if a tad creepy. Still, Germans can get kind of crazy about their puppets and it is a big part of the folklore culture in this part of the world.

Augsburg also had delicious cafes and ice cream. Yummmm hooray for warm (ish) weather. Its now not below freezing constantly!!!

This past week has been slightly slow, and everyone is feeling the general annoyance at the need to prepare (however minimally) for our Abschlussexamen (final exams). They are this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, and I cannot WAIT to be done with this Sprachkurs. About the most interesting thing to happen this past week was my finally getting around to finishing Firefly. A wonderful show, cut tragically short.

Saturday I smoked my first cigar. Probably my last for the foreseeable future too, unless I suddenly morph into an old British man.

All of which brings me to the present: 11:23 at night, writing my blog post because I don't really want to go to bed, because I don't want to have to wake up and go to class tomorrow. Oh well.

I can ramble on some more about April plans!

As many of you know, I've got essentially the month of April off, and I plan to use a large portion of my time travelling both around Europe and exploring Bavaria in more detail. I'm visiting Frankfurt first, for 4 days, followed by Brugges, in Belgium, for 4 days, followed by Vienna for 4 days. About the only plans for each of these cities is (possibly) a winery in the area of Frankfurt, probably a chocolate museum in Brugges, and probably multiple cultural performances in Vienna (Spanish Riding school, maybe opera. Who knows?). Anyone with any suggestions, email me!

After I get back from travelling, I'm going to play host to one of my friends (studying in Mannheim) and his visiting younger brother who wants to experience 'real' Germany as opposed to touristy Germany. I'm also going to visit Dachau (outside of Munich) and Neuschwanstein (the really famous castle after which Disney modeled his Cinderella castle). Probably a trip to Passau to see a glass museum as well, and maybe Salzburg. All of these places are so easily accessible its almost sickening :)

Now, I believe I've rambled enough. Again, I'm terribly sorry about the month of silence; hopefully it merely served as an excruciating reminder of how much you all love reading my blog....

In all seriousness, I'll try and blog more regularly again. Signing off for the night now....enjoy America, folks!

Museums, Palaces, and Comedy

Upon completion of our tour on Thursday, we toured the Jewish Museum of Berlin. An interesting museum, I suppose, but nothing terribly special other than the obligatory holocaust exhibit (which was very powerful, but not nearly as powerful as the memorial we had seen earlier that day). The Jewish museum basically told the story of Jewish culture in Germany until, including, and after the Second World War. After this museum, though, things got interesting: Checkpoint Charlie.

For those who don't know, Checkpoint Charlie was one of a few border crossings between East and West Berlin, and is significant as the primary focal point between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1961, tanks squared off across a 100 yard distance at the checkpoint over a minor dispute, and nearly opened fire to start World War III. Fortunately, this didn't happen, and Checkpoint Charlie went on to be the one crossing between East and West that was most used by the film and media industries to symbolize the Cold War (Kalte Krieg).

At Checkpoint Charlie, we went to the private museum "Haus am Checkpoint Charlie," wherein is chronicled a vast treasure trove of information about the wall, the cold war, escape attempts/successes, and what happened during "Die Wende" (literally "the change," refers to when the wall fell and east/west Germany began to open borders and reunite). It was pretty incredible to discover both the ingenious ways people escaped and the horrifying repercussions for those who did not succeed.

The following day we visited Potsdam, a small city on the outskirts of Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Potsdam is famous as the site of the 1945 conference between Truman, Churchill (later Clement Atlee), and Stalin where the victors divided the world after the Second World War. Our object of interest in Potsdam was not conference, but rather a Stasi prison and the palace of Friedrich der Grosse (Frederick the Great of Prussia), Schloss Sansoucci.

The prison was nondescript - basically what you'd expect, a bunch of cells. This was not the official Stasi museum, that is in Berlin. The palace was really cool. Friedrich was absolutely obsessed with french culture, and his palace is made in the style of Versailles but about 1/8 the size. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the Schloss - undoubtedly a ploy to force us to buy postcards. I do not approve. Here is what it looks like from the outside.


The Schloss is in the middle of a giant park, through which many of us had to run in order to catch the tour on time - we thought it was a much quicker walk from the center of Potsdam to the Schloss than it actually was. Oh well. Another note is that the Schloss is unheated - Fredrich meant for this to be his summer Schloss, so us seeing it on a bitterly cold, gray February afternoon is not us seeing it as it was meant to be used. If you are curious, google "schloss sansoucci" and check out the inside - it is absolutely gorgeous.

Upon returning to Berlin we enjoyed an early dinner and set off to go to a stand up comedy show at a comedy club somewhere in the ehemaliger Ost (former east). His name is Murat Topal, and the show was called "Multitool". What I could understand was, for the most part, HILARIOUS. I was able to understand probably 65% of what he said, which I consider a monumental success.

Now, I believe I shall end my postings for tonight and continue telling you the story of Berlin tomorrow - I'm tired of typing and need to do dishes from dinner. Fun times, I know. Highlights to come: the Reichstag (german parliament building), Pergamon Museum (antiquities and Islamic art), and Berlinale films. Bis Spaeter!

Berlin!!!

Also. Berlin war total ausgezeichnet, und ihr alle gehen solltet, wenn ihr eine Reise nehmen wolltet (So - Berlin was incredible, and you should all go whenever you want to take a vacation).

Berlin is one of the most vibrant cities I've ever visited. Although it is smaller than many of the major centers of the world (3.43 million), it has more character and more liveliness than pretty much everywhere I've ever been. It has by FAR the best young/hip/party scene in Germany, and many of the city's top-notch bars and clubs don't even get going until 1 or 2 in the morning, especially on weekends. On the other end of the spectrum, Berlin is the home to world class museums and cultural events such as one of the best symphonies in the world and the Berlinale international film festival; unfortunately, we only spent 3 full days there, with a half day on Wednesday.

So what exactly did we do? Here is an overview of what I did in Berlin:

We arrived mid-afternoon on Wednesday, via bus from Regensburg. We stayed at a youth hostel which, while not the most glamorous of accommodations, served our needs more than well enough for a cheap price and free breakfast/dinner. Shortly thereafter, we walked a short distance to Potsdam Platz, a major city square where the Berlinale Film Festival was being held. The Berlinale is an international festival home to debuts of many different films and is a fairly prestigious venue for those films which are chosen and especially those films that win. We walked past the Berlinale-Palast, the center "palace" of the festival, and the red carpet.

After that, we walked around a lot and just explored the area, going past the Holocaust memorial (formally known as the "Denkmal fuer die ermordeten Juden Europas," or the "Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe") and the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). We also passed an intriguing memorial to the homosexual community murdered in the Second World War, which consisted of a simple concrete booth with a window that showed a continuous film of two men making out.

After dinner back at the hostel, a group of us headed out for a guided Pub Crawl (Kneipe-Tour) that involved a very large amount of beer and Irish people. Needless to say, it was rowdy and I didn't take my camera out.

The following day we woke early for a guided tour of the city via bus. Our tour guide, who naturally spoke only in German, was a classic example of the "Berliner-Schnausse," (literally Berlin Nose, basically saying that they hold themselves to be better than anyone else) and he continually talked down to us and was all in all not very fun. He did know a lot about Berlin, though. During this tour we stopped at the Holocaust memorial and actually took the time to examine it in daylight and walk through it - it is an extremely powerful monument, and should not be missed by any traveler to Berlin.

The idea behind this monument is to attempt to capture the feeling of helplessness and powerlessness of the Jews during Hitler's Reich. The monument, physically, consists of 4.7 acres of land over which are evenly spaced 2,711 concrete slabs of varying sizes. People should feel the utter inhumanity of this seemingly ordered area, and be scared by it.

Black Swan, and Berlin

I just saw "Black Swan" in German. Not only was it excellent, but I actually understood it. I now have more faith in my ability to learn and converse in German by the end of my time here. :)

Also, I'm SUPER PSYCHED because I'm leaving on a group sponsored trip to Berlin tomorrow, coming back on Sunday!! I'm sure I'll be doing lots of wunderbare dinge (wonderful things) while you, my dear readers, are in class (or at work) the next few days.

Tscau!

Ski Fahren

You know what I like most about living in Regensburg? The fact that it is right in the middle of Europe: How many people can say they just popped down to the Alps for a weekend of skiing during the middle of classes? Well, 9 of us did just that this past weekend, and what a weekend it was. It was absolutely incredible - for someone that has done the vast majority of his outdoorsy things in the southeast, the scenery of the Alps was truly unforgettable. Everyone, take a look at my pictures on facebook. If I can figure out how to post pictures on here, I'll put a few of may favorites up.

Even though I'm a novice skier (this was my 4th time ever skiing, spread out over a period of 7 or 8 years) I had a blast. The place we stayed was the guesthouse of a working farm, called Bauernhof Aufing. When we first arrived, having completed the easy commute by train and bus, we just went up and knocked on the front door of this farmhouse and they showed us where to go (after asking die Mutti, of course). Die Mutti (the mother) was this little old lady of probably ninety years that ran the place...we never heard her name, the other people there just referred to her as 'die Mutti.' Interesting. We basically had an entire house to ourselves - kitchen, living room, a few bedrooms and a few bathrooms. Nobody else was there for the majority of the weekend, which was wonderful.

As for the actual skiing, it was utterly incredible. The slopes were fantastic, a little crowed on Sunday but no matter. The scenery, as I've already stated, was majestically breathtaking. Nobody got seriously injured, though two people (including myself) took reasonably nasty falls. Considering that the alternative to skiing would have been studying for my vocabulary quiz today, it was certainly more fun. And probably more productive in the long run - I'm having a multi-cultural experience and travelling around Europe! (at least, thats what I'll tell myself when I see the quiz score....)

The little town we were in, Söll, was also incredibly idyllic. The only thing that one might not expect of an Austrian ski town is that it was basically like walking into the United Kingdom. All the ski hire places, all the bars we went to, and pretty much everything was run by Brits. Of course, this just made it easy for us non-native Deutsch speakers to communicate (since Austrian german has a very strange accent).

I'm probably going to go skiing again, but in Bavaria next time.

Auf Weidersehen!

German Word of the Day: das Gebüsch - the shrubbery

What am I actually supposed to be doing over here?

Procrastinating, of course - what does any college student do when faced with work? Hence this post occurring now. However, the point of this post is valid for many of you reading this - how on earth am I going to be here until August? Here is where all your questions get answered.

Although the Vanderbilt semesters start in August and end in December, then go January to May, the semesters over here are totally different. The 'winter semester' begins in October and ends in February, with a substantial break for Christmas. The 'summer semester' begins in May and ends at the tail end of July. So why come over here so early, when classes at the university (die Uni, for short) don't start until May? Our group is doing an intensive german language course from the end of January until the end of March. For those month-counters among you, you are saying "but what about April?" Nothing about April. We are off for an entire month. Win.

This intensive language course is really, as its name suggests, rather intense. Class starts every morning at 8.30, and goes until either 2.30 PM or 11.45 AM (meaning 2-3 classes each day). We also have a Kaffeestunde (coffee hour) where we all meet together with the Resident Director and student assistants to the program and discuss things, get paperwork done, etc. Needless to say, it wears on one to have to get up at 7.15 every morning and catch an 8 AM bus.

The classes are, for the most part, rather interesting. We have four different types of courses: Textarbeit (text work, a reading intensive class where we discuss a lot of cultural issues and vocabulary), Grammatik (grammar, self evident what we learn), Schreiben (writing, again, self evident), and Phonetik (phonetics, learning pronunciation rules and how to sound less american - a very worthwhile class). The teachers are also rather interesting - here is an overview of the three main teachers that we have more than once a week:

Andy - Andy Legner. One of our two Textarbeit teachers. He is fun-loving, younger, and a little bit of an asshole (arschloch). He makes the class interesting, and an hour and a half with him goes by reasonably quickly. He is very vocab intensive, and it is through him we have weekly/bi-weekly vocab tests consisting of a choice of 20 words from a list of about 600 - 1000 words. Kind of intense.

Leonie - Leonie Ruhland. The other of our two Textarbeit teachers. She is also on the younger side for a professor, and incredibly nice. She is very helpful and understanding. With Leonie, we primarily discuss culture and do readings about said culture.

Sepp - Sepp Frank, our Grammatik teacher. Sepp is, I think, short for Guiseppe, and is possibly the coolest teacher on this planet. He is older, 60s perhaps. He has probably had an incredibly interesting life: he plays multiple instruments, including guitar, stand-up bass, ukulele, and (of course) accordion. His English is excellent, and he lived and worked for a time in the States when he was younger. With him, our journey through Grammatik takes a more wandering route incorporating elements from all things remotely related to German/germany - and this includes a daily Schokoladepause (chocolate break). Every class he brings chocolate, and every class we have a Schokoladepause to enjoy said delicious German confection.

Thats it. The two Schreiben teachers we have each once a week (including the one for whom I should be working on homework now...) and there is only one Phonetik teacher, whose name escapes me at the moment, that we have only once a week. All in all, I think my German will improve rapidly.

Bis Spaeter!

Ramblings

Firstly, I’m sorry for the delay in between blog posts. In the future I’m going to attempt to keep a reasonable schedule of two or so a week, unless a) I’m traveling, or b) nothing interesting is going on. Thus next week, when I’ll be in Berlin for most of the week, you shouldn’t expect posts. That being said, I’ll probably write an extra long one upon returning from these trips (die Reisen, auf deutsch).

Now, onto my meanderings for the evening. For a country as advanced and developed as Germany, they seem rather averse to using cards for payment. Cash is still absolutely king in Deutschland, and that is surprising coming from the States where every little store (die Geschäft) takes your VISA. I’ve only found a couple of places here that will take it, and those I’m probably getting charged a hell of an exchange fee. Still, I haven’t yet gotten used to carrying around the larger amounts of cash – especially when the bills here go up in size as they go up in denomination. My wallet is, literally, too small to hold the €50 bills, and I haven’t even tried a €100 yet. Euros do look a whole lot cooler than dollars, though….all fancy-like and colorful.

An interesting fact about German grammar that we learned in class today is that there is officially no such thing as a run-on sentence in German. Apparently die Deutschen can simply tack on additional independent clauses using only a comma and have it be totally ok. For example, in German one can say: „Ich studiere Deutsch, sie studiert Geschichte, er ist nicht an der Uni.“ This translates to „I study german, she studies history, he is not going to college. “ Intriguing. I don’t know if they have such thing as a fragment, but I would assume they do – Germans are efficient, and not getting your point across by leaving out words is most decidedly inefficient.

I’m going skiing (Ski fahren) this weekend! A group of us are going to this place called the Wilder Kaiser the Austrian Alps…..enjoy the link so all you stuck state-side can be suitably jealous:

http://www.wilderkaiser.info/en/

Now, I’m going to bed. Guten Nacht, und auf Wiederhören! (good night, and I’ll talk to you later!)

Learn to Roll your R's

One aspect of a Bavarian life is learning to deal with the Bavarian accent; indeed, many times Bavarians are speaking an entirely different language (simply called Bayerisch). While I can understand most people speaking Hochdeutsch, the language we were all taught in school and the language used for official and public speaking, each region of Germany has its own dialect. People in Hamburg (in the north) can't understand people in Dresden (the east), people in Berlin can't understand the people from Koeln (in the west), and nobody at all can understand the Bavarians except themselves. This is all without even mentioning the strange varieties of German found in Austria (Oesterreich) and Switzerland (der Schweiz). This all comes into play for me when it comes to understanding locals in Regensburg (Rrrregschbouurrg). It truly feels like a different language, much much more so than any dialect difference in the United States.

Regensburg is this way because its a smaller city. When we visited Munich as a group last Saturday, nearly everything was in Hochdeutsch and nearly everyone spoke English well. Munich is (I believe) the third or fourth largest city in Germany and as such is very international. It is also very touristy. We visited the Pinokotek der Moderne, a modern art museum, to start our day. It is one of the largest museums I've ever been to, and we spent barely 2 hours there. We then went into what remained and was reconstructed of the Altstadt - most of it was totally destroyed in the Second World War (ausgebombt - bombed out. An awesome german word). Half the people there were tourists, and prices were double what they were in Regensburg. Lesson: you want to visit Bavaria, don't go to Munich. Its an awesome city, but its not Bavaria. Bavaria is in the small towns (kleiner Dorfs) that you pass on the Autobahn, and is in the people living a slow, full life in these small towns. Regensburg is a wonderful mix, because its not touristy or large enough to lose its culture, but is big enough to have everything you could need.

Cultural note: Germans, or Regensburgers at least, love dogs. Dogs are welcome many restaurants, and it is hard to walk through the Altstadt without seeing at least one person out walking their dogs. Even in the little cafe I was in for nearly 2 hours this afternoon (studying vocabulary....fun times) there was a little dog running around and laying on the windowsill.

Vocab word of the day: das Streichholzschachtelchen - a small box of matches

Inaugural Post: Welcome to Regensburg

I know I'm succumbing to the stereotype, keeping a travel blog as I'm abroad for a semester in Germany. However, I don't really care - I hope you enjoy reading about life in Germany and can live vicariously through my posts. That is, after all, why I'm doing this: to make as many of you as jealous as possible by talking about how awesome it is to live in the land of the Deutschen. My hope is that you laugh a little and learn a little from my experiences, and of course that I remember to post reasonably regularly. No guarantee there, though.

So I've been in Regensburg for going on two weeks now - having arrived on the 20th, I'm only just now starting to get settled into any kind of routine, and it will probably still be a while yet before any of us in my group of 23 students from Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, and Wheaton feels fully comfortable and at home in the new environment. Regensburg is a cute little town of about a hundred thousand situated on the Danube (der Donau) river in northern Bavaria (Oberbayern). It has a thriving and vibrant old city that was never destroyed during the war, making it one of the few truly old places in Germany - it wasn't bombed simply because there was nothing here worth bombing, and honestly still isn't unless you hate BMWs and want to destroy a factory. The entire town center (die Altstadt) has been declared an UNESCO world heritage site, because it looks basically the same as it did throughout the Middle Ages.

The beating heart of the city, die Altstadt is located straddling the Danube. In the middle ages, this made it a center of trade and Regensburg became a very rich city. It was even the seat of the princes council of the Holy Roman Empire for some number of years during the middle ages and Renaissance. Now, the Altstadt is filled with shops, bars (Kneipen), restaurants, and even student apartments. Unfortunately, none of the students in our group live in the Altstadt - we all live about 10 minutes away by bus in an area called Koenigswiesen.

One of the first things you'll notice about Germany upon visiting is the overabundance of bakeries (die Baeckerei). Germans love their bread, more than just about any culture in Europe. Specifically Bavarian (bayerisch) are the ubiquitous soft pretzels (die Brezel, oder die Brezen in bayerisch). Every bakery you go to has these, the student cafeteria at the University has them, they are served in bars, pubs, restaurants, and pretty much everywhere else. Bavarians eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, but most common I've found is breakfast: eine Kaesebrezen (a soft pretzel cheese melted on it) is delicious when freshly baked in time for breakfast.

The second thing you'll notice about Germany is how impressive the public transportation system is. In a city this size in the US, there would be no public transportation to speak of - even in cities 7 or so times larger, like Nashville and Charlotte, the public transit is miserable. Here, though, the buses run on time with a precision that is slightly scary. Every bus stop has a list of times, and the stops in the Altstadt have some kind of GPS tracking system to show you how far away a given bus is. The buses are not late: if a bus is a minute behind schedule, people start getting agitated and complaining. Germans take their efficiency seriously. They also don't talk on buses, which is weird in the extreme. When there isn't a loud group of Americans (Amis) in the front of the bus, its silent as the grave.

The third thing you'll notice, and the first thing you'll notice upon entering a restaurant/kneipe/bar, is that beer is not only inexpensive, but also significantly better than most everything found in the states. Beer is, quite literally, the same price as water and less expensive than flat water (Stilwasser) in most places. Disregarding touristy places, like the Hofbraeuhaus and Augustiner in Munich (Muenchen), food is reasonably inexpensive and very good.

Now I believe I shall end my first post, as some 300 vocabulary words are crying at me to study them. Look for more posts soon!