Berlin and Boppard

The following weekend Matt Laura and I took a day trip to Berlin. The train took about 4 hours to get us there and on our way there we ran into Elon and Spencer so we rode the train with them.

The first place we wanted to see was the Reichstag. This is where the German Parliament is housed. When it caught on fire during the WWII era the Nazis claimed that it had been burnt down by communists.The top of the building had statues of average everyday workers. You could tell what they were by what type of tools they had, so if the person had a plow you would know they were a  farmer.

As we walked down the street past the Reichstag, we found a city block completely covered in these huge concrete blocks. Some of the blocks were really tall and some were flush with the ground, but there were just thousands of them everywhere. We found out that this was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. What this really means is that it was a monument to the memories of all those murdered during the holocaust, not just jews.  At the opposite side of the memorial were a set of stairs leading down into a museum about the holocaust. It followed 15 people who were sent to concentration camps along with their families. The first room was a general history of the holocaust, which lead into a room with TVs on the ground displaying different correspondences the people had had with their loved ones. Many of them were letters or postcards that explained what they knew about the concentration camps even before they were sent there. 

   As we continued walking around Berlin, we found Checkpoint Charlie. This was the checkpoint you had to go through if you were going to either enter or leave the American sector of Berlin after WWII when the city was divided into different sections. All around the city there were pieces of the Berlin wall either displayed, or in some places, still actually standing.  But after spending probably an hour looking for the East Side Gallery, which no German person we asked had ever heard of, we decided to go see the Sony Center.  The Sony Center is supposed to be one of the most interesting buildings in the city because of the architecture, and it really is. The building is so different to look at. The courtyard area is open , yet the top is enclosed, so it's like being inside and outside at the same time. 

Since our trip to Berlin had only taken us a day, we decided to take the next day to visit the Rhine river. Matt, Laura, Michelle, and I spent the day in a tiny little town called Boppard. Being in a small town was really relaxing. We were able to find our way around without any trouble.  One of the biggest things they had for us to see in Boppard was the church. There wasn't really anything too special about the church, but i thought the outside of it was really interesting because it seems like most of the churches in Europe are made of stone and took hundreds of years to build, but this one looked almost like a cottage.

 And many of the other stores and homes around the city were built in the same style. The original reason we had chosen to go to Boppard was because we had heard there was a castle there. When we got there we found out that the castle was closed for construction, so we didn't get to see that but we found out that there was a chair lift that would take us to the top of a mountain so we could see the town from up high. The lift took 20 minutes to get all the way to the top and it was so scary being up that high, but when we got there it was completely worth it. Seeing the Rhine River stretch around the countryside was incredible.

Dublin

The next stop for me was Dublin, Ireland. It was a quick flight over from the Dusseldorf airport to get to there and we stayed in Avalon House, a pretty famous hostel. Avalon house was actually pretty nice. It was kind of what  you would expect from a hostel, but a lot nicer. The biggest problem was that our room was right next to a church and when the church bells rang they would wake us up.

The first day we got there wasn't super productive, but it was nice to just walk around the city and kind of figure out where everything was. The next morning we went on a walking tour of the city and saw a lot of really interesting things. One thing that I thought was really cool was that in Dublin a viking settlement had been found but was destroyed to make room for a building. The only thing that was left was the outline of a viking house that the city had made. We learned that a lot of people (between 10 and 20) would all sleep in one bedroom, so we laid down to see if we would fit inside.

We also went to see the city hall, the Dublin Castle, Trinity College, and Christ Church Cathedral. 

The  next day we went 

on a tour of the Irish countryside. This tour, by far, was my favorite part of the weekend.This funny little Irish man picked up about 15 of us in his van early the next morning to take us on the tour. The first stop was a mound of earth in the middle of a field. It was called Fourknocks Passage Tomb. The tomb was circular on the inside and had designs carved intot he walls to represent different things, like the seasons, or the months. The tomb was a place where a king would bury his family immediate and extended family members when they would die, so in this tomb, the remains of about 60 people had been found. Next we went to the cemetery of the St. Buite Monastery.  The cemetery was really interesting because even though it looked ancient it was still in use and people can be buried there even today. The most interesting part of it was the celtic crosses. The crosses were huge, probably 8 or 10 feet tall, and had images from bible stories carved on them.The tour guide showed us one that was kind of funny because when the priests were telling the stone workers how to design it the pictures came out funny. The priests said that jesus looked like "a very holy man" and so the workers carved him to look like a monk, and the that the roman soldiers looked like "very bad men" so the workers designed them to look like vikings. 

Our third stop was Slane Abbey. Slane Abbey was really cool. Here was where St. Patrick lit a huge Paschal fire in defiance of the King who didn't allow the

 other fires

 to be lit until he had lit his own. Because of this fire, St Patrick was taken to the king and the king allowed him to continue trying to convert the Irish to Catholicism and even gave him his own body guard as an escort around the country.

The final stop on our day trip was the Hill of Tara. It was the old capital of the country and it was the location at which a new king would be decided if they needed one.

On Tara there is another mound called the Mound of Hostages. When a petty king was not obeying the orders of the more powerful king, the king would kidnap a female family member of the petty king and take her to the mound of hostages and leave her there to starve unless the petty king started to obey the king's wishes.  There is also a spanish princess buried there and so is the Irish king.

Dublin was a really cool city to visit and it was so easy being there because everyone spoke English. I would love to go visit again.

Venice

The weekend after we started studying in Munster, I went to Venice, Italy. Getting there was one of the worst experiences ever. First we had to take a bus to the train station at midnight, get on a train to Duisberg at 1 in the morning, get off and wait until 3 for our bus to pick us up to take us to the airport, and catch a plane at 6. We finally got to Treviso around 8 in the morning and checked in to our hostel, which was really beautiful. The chandeliers were made of murano glass and the villa was really cute and home-y. And the hostel was only about a ten minute bus ride from Venice itself.

After a well-deserved nap, a few of us took the bus over to Venice. We mostly spent the day just wandering around and seeing the city. We got to see all of the canals, walk the tiny streets, and see all the different shops. We stopped for lunch at a little back-alley pizza/ pasta place. We thought the food was going to be awesome because the restaurant looked like it had been owned by the same family for generations, but it was so sub-par. The pizza was really good, and home made with fresh ingredients, but the pasta was probably the worst pasta I've ever had. It was legitimately from a microwave meal. And they charged us 9 euros for it. Not worth it. So for dinner we stopped at a much more reputable looking restaurant and had really really great food.  Then we tried to find a place to watch the world cup soccer game.

The last day we were there the weather was terrible. It was like the worst monsoon I have ever ever seen. So trying to see the city was really difficult. I was meeting up with my cousins too, who I haven't seen since I was 12. So Danae, Laura, Matt and I were soaking wet in St. Mark's Plaza looking for my cousins. We finally found them and they took us to lunch which was really nice. I had this great penne pasta in a bacon/tomato sauce. So good!! After lunch, Laura, my cousins, and I went into St. Marks Basilica to see the inside. The inside is much more beautiful than the outside. The walls are covered entirely by huge mosaics that depict different religious scenes and meaningful things. And then you can walk along the outside of the rooof of the building. It was kind of scary because the floor slants out towards the street and it was slippery from the rain. There was also a mini-museum that had manuscripts of the old church song books, paintings, and tapestries. And then we had to finally leave Venice and make the trip back home.

Munster

Munster was the next stop on on travels. This was where we would all be spending the next month taking classes and experiencing Germany. We got really lucky because we were able to being in Europe during the World Cup and the German team made it through to the semi-finals. We went to a lot of the public viewings and got to see the city supporting the German players.

Our classes took place in 4 different buildings, but this building was the most interesting of the four.It was called the Schloss which mean castle. So we went to school in the castle!! I took an excel class and managerial accounting, they were both pretty fun but still a lot of work.  We also took a German class and we had a commerce/ German culture class once a week.

This building is where the Peace of Westphalia was signed. It's right in the middle of town, next to a huge scorched church. During WWII, most of the city of Munster was destroyed and had to be rebuilt so everything looks pretty new, even if it was built in a style that looks old-fashioned.