Hello
All!
It's hard to believe that I am already over half way done with my semester in Germany. So far it has been a blast and I am incredibly thankful for all the new experiences I am having. Traveling around Europe is something I'm especially thankful for. Obviously, visiting a new place is always fun, but I have also been able to compare them and how they are similar and different to Mannheim. Below, I'm going to sum up my different visits briefly:
It's hard to believe that I am already over half way done with my semester in Germany. So far it has been a blast and I am incredibly thankful for all the new experiences I am having. Traveling around Europe is something I'm especially thankful for. Obviously, visiting a new place is always fun, but I have also been able to compare them and how they are similar and different to Mannheim. Below, I'm going to sum up my different visits briefly:
Paris
France:
Paris
is an incredible city. It's also an enormous city. The
first day I was there I decided to walk into the city center from my
friends dorm (where I was staying). Other friends from Mannheim
were arriving later in the day so I really just wanted to walk around
and see the different sites, and get a sense of the city. It
was a doable walk, but it definitely added to what I can best
describe as a day spent walking. The city is centered around
the Seine river for the most part, so many of the major sights can be
visited by following the river once you are in the city center.
There
is no doubt in my mind, however, that Paris is a beautiful city.
Especially the old part of the city, whose streets are so
narrow I can't imagine driving a car around them (props to the
chauffeur who was driving the brand new Rolls Royce I saw). The
view from the Sacré-Cœur was spectacular, though and you get a much
better sense of how vast the city truly it. It seems to just
stretch for miles, but there aren't sky scrappers the same way there
are in the United States. In fact, the financial quarter (the
only area with sky scrappers) was quite small.
Paris
was also expensive. No doubt because it is a famous city famous
for its tourism industry, but it was still a financially
painful difference from Mannheim.
Amsterdam,
Netherlands:
Set
right on the water, Amsterdam is like no where else. Many
things that are much more private or illegal in other places take
center stage in Amsterdam. The city is famous for its red light
district and “coffee shops”, and for good reason. Those aspects
are nearly unavoidable when visiting, so I wouldn't recommend people
with traditional values to visit the city. If you go in with an open
mind, however, the city proved to be very interesting. Perhaps you
could call it a sort of social science experiment, but it was very
amusing to watch.
Less
amusing was the hostel my friends and I stayed at. There were 18
people in the room we bunked in, which was fine, but it definitely
keeps you on your guard the entire time.
Like
I said, the city was on the water, which was a pleasant change from
where I am in Germany. Amsterdam, however, was built on marshland so
the building have settled a bit over the year. The tended to tip
inwards toward the street a little bit. Couple that with the fact
that the streets were narrow, and the city had a sort of
claustrophobic feel to it. I found it kind of charming, but I could
see how others might not.
Freiburg
and the Black Forest
This
trip was a mandatory trip for all Umass students studying in the
Baden-Württemberg
system, so part of the trip dealt with paper work and what not to
ensure we were all off to a successful start in Germany. For the six
of us who are studying in Mannheim, we were already in pretty good
shape. We have been in Germany longer than anyone else (partly
because of the Summer Academy and partly because our school starts
earlier than the other), so we were already pretty adjusted to living
in Germany, and we had a pretty good grip over our academic plans.
The trip was still a great experience, and we had a chance to visit a
old farm house where we got a tour and learned about the way of life
for the original farmers in the Black Forest. The landscape was also
very breathtaking. This area is the setting for many fairy tales and
it was very apparent after walking around for a while.
We
also had a chance to stop at Freiberg on our trip home, which was a
fun place to visit. The city is a little more touristy than
Mannheim, but that certainly didn't take away from it in any way.
What I found most interesting was the Freiburg Bächle. This is the
water system that runs through the streets of the city. They are
small water filled runnels that border the sides of the streets.
They were once used to provide people in the city with fresh water,
but now they are just there for aesthetics. The reason they are not
more present in more cities is because they were often boarded up
after they were made obsolete by indoor plumbing.
Munich
and Oktoberfest
I
consider myself particularly lucky because I won a ticket in a
lottery with my schools “Visum” club (international student
organization). Since I won one of the coveted spots, I had the
chance to join a group of about 50 people on a two day excursion to
Munich during Oktoberfest.
I
have never been to a festival quite like Oktoberfest. Thousands of
people, livestock, rides, tents, and exhibits set in the city along
with what felt like enough beer to drown the city. It seemed that
people of all ages and backgrounds took part in an event that felt
very German. Nearly Everyone had on Lederhosen (for men) and dirndls
(for women), and it was definitely a day filled with drinking,
chanting, and general merriment. This, no doubt, was fueled by the
fact that the serving of beer came in a Maß
which is a 1 liter mug. To put that into perspective, that's about 3
American Beers per serving.
The
second day we spent there, we had the opportunity to tour the city
and the Olympic stadium where the games took place in 1972. No doubt
it's a city filled with history, much of which centers around the
breweries in the town. On the final day, we visited the BMW museum,
which I found incredibly thrilling.
Barcelona,
Spain
Barcelona
is an incredible city, and it also shares little in common with
Mannheim. I had the opportunity to visit this city because it was
where I met my parents during their visit to Europe. From Barcelona
we embarked on a 7 day cruise through the Mediterranean.
I'm
so glad we arrived in Barcelona 2 nights ahead of leaving on the
cruise, however because the city is an exciting place to be. For one
thing the weather was amazing. I left on a bus at 2:45 am in Germany
and I was shivering through my coat I was so cold, but once I was in
Barcelona, it was back to t-shirts and shorts weather! The city is
also architecturally beautiful with buildings designed by Gaudi and
others that line the blue green waters of the Mediterranean. The
crowds are fairly spectacular too. Our hotel was on the main street,
La Rambla, and this definitely helped us to get a better sense of
just how crowded the city is. I guess the same could be said about
any large city in Europe, however, my father kept commenting on it so
I remember the crowds here most vividly.
...ok
I'm all out of time now, but more to come soon, I promise.