Day Sixty-Six

I had some wonderful pancakes for breakfast this morning. They had bananas on them and they were nice and crispy. After breakfast we walked to an area filled with souvenir shops to find some gifts for our families. From there we walked to this large stone gate that I can't recall the name of, but I guess it has become a sort of symbol of the Berlin wall.

We walked through a large park today where we visited quite a few buildings. One had a roof that looked like a Pringle. We ended up walking to a church that looked pretty plain on the outside, but as soon as we walked inside the whole thing changed. From the outside you aren't able to tell, but all of the walls are covered in beautiful blue stained glass. It was really awesome to see such a difference from outside to inside.

I didn't really do a whole lot today other than just walk all over Berlin and see the outsides of a lot of buildings. My leg still hurt today, but at least for the first half of the day I wasn't limping. We had a late dinner and then we went back to our hotel to just relax. It has been pretty nice after being on my feet all day.

The Pringle-roof building

Exterior of the awesome church

The beautiful stained glass interior of the church

Day Sixty-Five

This morning we walked to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Along the way we stopped at a couple shops and saw some really sweet cars. Way out of my price range though.

The Jewish Museum was really interesting. Well, the building was more interesting to me than the stuff that was in it. I'm not big on history and all that. The museum had a couple spaces that are meant to provoke emotions of sadness and isolation. The Holocaust Tower was a tall concrete room with only a sliver of light at the top. There was also the Memory Void that was a three or four story space that had metal faces covering the floor and when you walk on them they make loud clanking noises. The overall design of the museum was pretty awesome.

After the museum we walked to see a couple more buildings and then we walked to the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial is a plaza filled with large concrete slabs that you can walk through. It was kind of eerie when you get into the really tall parts. We had a little fun with all of the different pathways that go throughout the plaza and made some videos for the overall trip compilation.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Vapiano. We had already gone to one once when we went to Rotterdam and I fell in love with their pesto pasta so I was ecstatic when I found out that Berlin had one. Of course I had the pesto pasta again. I really want to start growing basil when I get back to Fargo so that i can make some of my own pesto.

Walking has been terrible today. I am still in pain from the Insanity workout I did on Thursday. My leg was in so much pain today that I had to limp around everywhere. I'm hoping its not as bad tomorrow because it really sucked to walk like that all day.

Yes please!!!

The Holocaust Tower

The Memory Void

The Holocaust Memorial

Day Sixty-Four

I had to get up at six again this morning to catch another train. It sucks that I'm not really able to sleep in any sort of vehicle. We are spending this weekend in Berlin and it took us around eight hours to get here. It was a struggle to keep myself entertained that long, but luckily at one point I had access to an outlet so I watched The Avengers on my laptop.

When we got to Berlin it was snowing and a bit chilly. I am hoping that the snow quits overnight because I don't want to have to walk around in it tomorrow. For dinner we went to a small Italian restaurant near our hotel and I had a creamy potato soup that was pretty amazing although I was hoping to have actual chunks of potato in the soup rather than a straight up puree-type soup.

After dinner we went back to the hotel for a bit and then the boys left for a rap concert that is going on tonight. I'm not big into rap so I stayed back at the hotel and I have been making good use of the awesome internet they have here. I have been watching YouTube videos and streaming music as well as just surfing random pages on the internet. I have also been playing a bit of Minecraft (of course). I'm not sure how late their concert is supposed to go, but I really enjoying just hanging out by myself right now.

Day Sixty-Three

We traveled to a city called Kortrijk in Belgium today with our professor. When we walked out of the train station we were surprised to find a carnival roller coaster set up right in front of us. Apparently there was a city-wide carnival going on while we were there and there are rides, games, and food vendors set up all over the city. It was really weird seeing carnival things all over because I am more used to the American way of just having everything in one place.

We met up with a Kortrijk city architect who started off our visit with coffee and a presentation. All of these meetings with architects are going to get me to actually like coffee if they keep offering it at the beginning of every visit. He showed us some pictures of various projects around the city that we weren't going to be able to visit during the day because they were too far out of the way.

After the presentation we walked around for a while looking at all sorts of buildings and pedestrian areas. We walked into a shopping mall in the middle of the city that from the outside you may not have even known it was there. It was really awesome how well it blended in. We also walked through a small section of the city that used to be a small monastery-like community and is still used in a similar way today. It was strange how when you walked through the archway into the central area all of the noise from the city just seemed to disappear.

We walked to the town hall and picked up some bikes for the second half of our tour. We stopped at a small cafe for lunch where they served your food in these weird glass bowl/jar type things. I had some sort of chicken and spinach pasta that was pretty good other than the hidden mushrooms in it.

Biking around Kortrijk was really fun. I'm tempted to get a bike rental pass for Antwerp just so that I can ride bike more often. We went to a few different places by bike. One of my favorite places was a new youth center that was being built. Inside the main building they were re-purposing and old bus and an old train into rooms for offices as well as music production. I wish we could see it when it gets finished because it seems like it would be a really nice space to hang out in.

Back in Antwerp I had dinner at a fast food place because none of us felt like cooking anything. After letting my dinner settle for a while I tried the "Insanity" workout with two of the girls that I am here with. I couldn't keep up with it very well and I felt like I was going to die the entire time. I feel fine now, but tomorrow will be a different story.

The monastery-ish comunity

I climbed those wooden stairs. They were the worst stairs I have ever been on. There are no risers, only treads, so you can see the whole way down

Day Sixty-Two

I forgot to post a blog last night so that's why I am posting this late.

When I went to the architecture school this morning we met up with our professor and discussed our latest ideas for our studio project. For me, that meeting was more about getting caught back up with what my group members had been doing for the past couple days. We don't have a lot of time left to finish this project so we split up the work a bit so that everything can get done in time. I will be focusing more on the public plazas the run the entire length of our site.

After studio I went back to my apartment and watched YouTube videos for a while as well as played some more Minecraft. I also signed up for my fall semester classes. I'm taking more than the minimum number of credits this time so that I won't have too big of a load for my final semester of college when I am completing my thesis. I am also completely on track to graduate with my undergraduate degree after this semester so that makes me pretty happy. I did not want to have to take summer classes again.

We had a group dinner again. This time we invited our professor to come to our apartments and eat with us. We had chicken alfredo with salad and garlic bread. It was really delicious. Our professor also brought a strawberry shortcake dessert with him which was also really good. It was a little difficult to get all ten of us around one table in one of our apartments, but we managed to make it work.

Day Sixty-One

I was too exhausted last night to post this, so I am posting it now.

This morning I woke up at six to catch a train to Salmunster. When I got there I was supposed to catch a bus to get to Mernes, but after waiting for half an hour it never showed up. I ended up taking a taxi to get to Mernes. When I got there the taxi pulled up in front of a restaurant and some of my German family was standing there waiting for me. There was Jennifer Eich my second cousin, her brother Florian, Kerstin Bachmann their aunt, and their Oma who I apparently can't remember the name of.

The first thing we did was walk to the site where Oma's house used to be. It is now a garden with a trampoline in it and from what I understand it has only been that way for around five years. After that we walked around Mernes for a little bit and then went to the house of Margot Schmidt, Oma's niece. We sat around her dining table and tried to communicate, but only Jennifer could speak a bit of English. Luckily Florian, had a translator on his phone. We also looked at some pictures of my American family that Margot had in an envelope from Dave.

After chatting and looking at pictures, we walked to the cemetery. I find it really nice that the people of Mernes keep little gardens on the graves of their loved ones. We also went into St. Peter's church and I took a couple pictures.

We walked to Kerstin house where I met my great-uncle Heinz who is also my Oma's brother. Jennifer told him I was American and couldn't really speak German, but he continued to try and talk to me in German anyway. Apparently Kerstin has a dog named Sammy as well, although hers it way bigger than the cute, little, white fluffy Sammy I am used to.

For lunch we went to Burgoss and I had some chicken schnitzel. It was delicious, but it was a lot of food and I wasn't able to finish it all. Since I wasn't able to finish all of my schnitzel Jennifer and Florian's Oma wrapped it up in a napkin to give to her "hund".

After lunch we drove to Salmunster to walk around. We went into a couple little stores and Kerstin bought a gift for me that was from her, Jennifer, and Florian. It was a little teddy bear with a "good luck" sweater on because I had told them I was going to Berlin this weekend. We then walked around the town some more before driving over to Bad Soden. In Bad Soden we climbed a hill where there was a castle-type tower. The stairs to get to the top of the tower were horrible. They were just grates and you could see all the way up and all the way down when you were walking on them. I really hate walking over grates and I avoid walking on them whenever I can, but I really wanted to climb to the top of this tower to see the view. From the top I could see both Salmunster and Bad Soden and it was a really amazing view.

When we got down from the tower it was nearly time for me to catch my train back to Frankfurt, so they took me the train station and they waited with me until the train showed up.

I had a really great day in Mernes and I am really glad I got to meet some of my German family. They were all so nice and the area around Mernes was beautiful. I hope that I get to back some day.

The site where Oma's house used to be

The small river in Mernes

A street in Mernes

The garden on what I believe is Oma's sister's grave

Inside St. Peter's church

A street in Burgoss

Jennifer's Oma, Jennifer, Me, Heinz, and Kerstin

A church in Salmunster

Inside the church in Salmunster

There were so many trees everywhere!

The river in Bad Soden

The tower on Bad Soden

The view from the tower

Day Sixty

This morning I got on a train to Frankfurt at eight thirty. Through transfers and waiting for trains it took me just under five hours to get there. I worked on my alligator needlepoint for most of the ride.

When I got to Frankfurt I acquired a map from the tourist office and then headed to the hotel I made a reservation at. It seems like a pretty new place. Everything is really nice. There's even power blinds where you just press a button and they go up or down! The place I am staying is part of a hotel chain and we stayed in one when we were in Munich.

I ended up getting into contact with a couple of my German relatives today. One of them is my age and the other is her aunt. Their names are Jennifer Eich and Kerstin Bachmann. Jennifer speaks pretty good English, but Kerstin sent me messages in German and according to the translator on my phone she doesn't speak English very well. I am meeting up with both of them tomorrow as well as Jennifer's brother so that will be really nice. Apparently Jennifer's father is my dad'd cousin. I had no idea I was that closely related to people in Germany.

I walked to a pizza place for dinner. Im really happy that a lot of European pizza places have salami pizza rather than pepperoni because that's actually the kind I prefer to get in the states, after tater tot hot dish pizza of course.

Other than going to get dinner I haven't done anything else here in Frankfurt since I am here by myself. I've been trying to watch tv, but there isn't a single channel that isn't in German. It would be nice to be able to speak German. Maybe I will get a book about it when I get back to Fargo.