I have had a very busy last few days! On Wednesday, my aunt and I took the train into Munich for the day. We took a 2 hour bus tour through the outlying area and old town. Then we stopped for lunch at a buffet in a department store and toured the old town on foot. We stopped in the Liebfrauenkirche, went through the Marienplatz past the Rathaus, and then to the Viktualienmarkt and Hofbrauhaus and Ludwigstrasse! It was a really great tour around the city!!! Then we met up with my cousin Heidi, who I hadn’t seen in over a decade, and her dog Zoe and had drinks at a cafe. Then we got some very delicious pizza and left for the train station. The following day, we took my aunt’s convertible on the autobahn down to the Bavarian Alps! We visited Tegernsee in the towns of Rottach and Egern and met up with Heidi and Zoe once again. It was so beautiful there! The weather was perfect and the view was amazing in all directions! We hiked up a little bit after taking the lift up part way. There were a bunch of cows with bells grazing all over the mountains and Zoe angered a few by curiously jumping towards them, which was entertaining. Then we had lunch at the panorama restaurant before taking the lift back down and heading home. For the last night in Pfaffenhofen, my aunt and I went out to a Greek restaurant which was delicious and was a very nice time :] The whole week was a very nice time and I’m very appreciative of my aunt for hosting me and showing me around!!! She was wonderful!
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| Schloss Nymphenburg |
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| Liebfrauenkirche |
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| Rathaus im Marienplatz |
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| Biergarten im Viktualienmarkt |
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| Hofbraeuhaus |
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| Nationaltheater |
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| Taking the Autobahn to the Alps! |
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| Cattle grazing in the Bavarian Alps! |
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| Tegernsee! |
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| Me and my Aunt Linda |
On Friday, my aunt drove me from central Bavaria to northern Baden-Wuerrtemberg. Along the way at a gas station, a hitchhiker from Schleswig-Holstein in a corduroy suit with bell-bottom pants approached us for a ride and my aunt agreed and I was somewhat shocked by the sketchiness of it all. But it turns out she knew from his dress that he was a part of a German carpenter’s guild, which is a centuries-old, dying tradition, and she wanted to show me what it was all about! As a part of the guild, he is supposed to hitchhike for about 4 years around the world and work odd carpentry jobs with only a bag and the clothes on his back! VERY interesting! Anyhow, we finally got to Heidelberg after 4 hours of driving and I met up with the program director at the train station and said goodbye to my aunt. The program director put me and my luggage on a bus with some other students. It turns out this bus was going to the completely opposite end of town from where I needed to be. So I was instructed to schlep my belongings up a hilly cobblestone sidewalk and wait alone in a sketchy parking lot until the program director came and got me. What a strange way to start my stay in Heidelberg! Anyhow, she found me eventually and put me in a taxi to head back to the train station! So, I wound up at my apartment after probably over an hour of being in the city! I live in Neuenheimer Feld, which is where the new campus of Universitaet Heidelberg is located and is like a 20 minute bus ride from anywhere I need to be :/ So my apartment is slightly sketchy. It’s kind of run-down and the lights don’t work so well. I have a flatmate named Nikolas. He is a 26 year old medical student from Karlsruhe, Germany. He’s pretty nice but I don’t see him much. We share a kitchen and bathroom, but we have separate rooms, which is nice. My room for myself is about the size of my bedroom back home which is great! After I unpacked, I headed on the bus to the study center in the old town with Krista and Abby, 2 girls in the same program as me who live in my apartment complex. We had a pizza party of sorts and got to meet the other students in the program. I’m hoping this will be a good semester!
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| My bus stop - Studentenwohnheim (Student Apartment) |
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| My apartment building |
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| My new kitchen for 4 months :/ |
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| I have since stocked the other half of the shelf with my own groceries! |
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| Nikolas's room, my room, and the bathroom |
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| My sketchy bathroom - yay! |
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| The other half of the sketchy bathroom! |
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| My new bed - it's not that great :/ |
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| Nice, big closet! |
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| Desk and windows! |
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| View of the Studentwohnheim from my window |
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| View of the Studentwohnheim from my window |
