Brugge, Belgium

October 15-17, 2010

This weekend was spent in Brugge, Belgium, located about an hour from Brussels, and an hour from the North Sea. It was quite the weekend.

We were unable to get reservations for the train because we didn't know what part of Belgium we were going to until two days before we left. I really wanted to go to Brussels because I had heard really great things about it, but the other girl had a sister that was going to be in Brugge, so we went there instead. I don't know if people from Brugge are against Brussels, but they had nothing good to say about it. I'll find out for myself someday. We left our train station about 9pm Friday night, and did not get into Brugge until noon the next day. It wasn't suppose to be this long of a train ride, but because we didn't have reservations we had a few long layovers. During the 3 hour layover we had, I lost my camera, so I didn't take any pictures except for the three of the absolutely gorgeous cathedral in Koln, Germany. This is considered a Gothic Masterpiece which took over 600 years to complete. Here is a link to a website about it, which can explain things better than I.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/germany/cologne-cathedral

It was after this picture that I lost my camera, not realizing it until 2 minutes before the train left. We didn't have time to go look for it, so I left in there in hopes of finding it on the return journey home. So all of these pictures are those that I got from one of the girls that went with me.

As far as actual things to do in Brugge, there aren't a lot. The town is very picturesque. Cobblestone streets and sidewalks, buildings all attached and close together. Old architecture, very narrow. I'm in love with these types of towns, which is what many of European cities have. It just makes it feel more homey. I feel like on our walk to the hostel, we saw most of what the town was about. The churches, markets, art shows, shopping and food.

 The canals are some of the prettiest things in Brugge. They do boat rides, which I wanted to do but we didn't get the opportunity. The water runs right up to the building, which many have doors leading out. I am assuming that these were maybe once roads that were flooded and became a river of some sort. It's something I should look up . . .

 I don't recall if this is a church or some sort of government building, but they all kind of looked the same. But it was pretty. There are markets in the squares, and one had an art festival. There was also one with fresh fish, like you see in the movies. They were just packing up as we were walking by. But it sure smelled fishy!!

Belgium has some of the best food. It's a good thing I don't live here! We had the Belgium waffles and fries, and I bought some chocolate too. I bought an assorted box of chocolates, getting some I knew I probably wouldn't like much. But I was way wrong. They were all delectable! The chocolate literally melts in your mouth. I tried it! I had my waffle with nutella and banana. I probably should have had a plain one to get the taste of just the waffle, but I could still taste it. Perfect mix between soft and crunchy, and perfectly warm as well. I'll go back and get another someday!

We went out to an Irish Pub that night, what we usually do in each city we stay the night in. There was a live band playing some pretty sweet American music from the last few decades. I had fun dancing with the older folks! It's crazy that in many places in Europe, especially Germany, you see many older people in the bars drinking at all hours of the day. These people know how to live up to their name and tradition much more so then the younger people. It's astonishing!

On the way home, I took a detour since our route did not go through the station I left my camera at. I would never forgive myself if I didn't look and it was there. So I took a chance, preparing for it to be gone forever, and found it. I had left it on the counter where I bought postcards. German people are very kind. Thank you!

Weekend 7: PARIS!!!

October 8-11 2010

Thank you Columbus Day for making this a three day weekend in Paris!! I had my first overnight train experience. Altogether, it was a 12 hour train journey, with a 2 hour layover in a train station from 11pm-1am. It was actually really cool because my roommate Erin that went with me, who has been to Paris 4 times before this trip, and I randomly ran into about 12 other Camp Adventure folks. 2 hours flew by when we talked about our experience with the CDC's we've been working in and our traveling journeys! I am so grateful that we bought beds for our train ride, since we were on it for 8 hours. I don't know how we could have survived on Saturday without it!!
I was very grateful to have gone with Erin! She knows the ropes, how to get around, and the main attractions to see.  We were very productive during our three days. When we arrived Saturday, we maneuvered through the train stations/metros. I can't believe how many homeless and gross people there are there in these things. It is rather scary, I have to admit. We found our hotel, freshened up, and then headed out to Disney Land Paris!!

Disney was AWESOME! I was rather hesitant spending that much money on it for a day, but I feel it was worth it. They have most of the same rides-Space Mountain, It's a small world, Peter Pan, Snow White. There was no splash mountain, bummer, but there was Big Thunder Mountain, probably the best one, Indiana Jones and Pirates. Another one of my favorites here, that was not at Disney World in Florida, or when I was there at least, was the Buzz Lightyear.

You just sat in a little car, spun around, and shot at the "Z" all over the place. It was the most interactive and really cool. I love little kid rides :) I was really disappointed with the Haunted House. I loved that one so much at DW, and this one did not live up. The Snow White ride didn't really follow the store I felt either, most of it was through the forest, and rather dark and scary. That's not how I remember the movie being.

 

The Sleeping Beauty castle was the big hit at DLP, and it was pretty in pink! I have actually never seen the entire Sleeping Beauty move, so I need to watch it now. I am actually looking forward to watching a bunch of my old Disney movies when  I return home! Since we were there in the month of October, it was decorated at Halloween, which added some extra coolness to it! It was a long but great day at Disney, spent about 10 hours there. Made the most of our money that's for sure.

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early and headed into the city. We began our exploration with Sainte Chapelle, a Gothic Masterpiece built by Louis IX. It was finished in the year 1248. The church is absolutely astounding, and I have never seen anything like it in my life. It is no longer being used for masses though. It has 15 stained glass windows that raise 50 feet high. Each piece of stained glass depicts a story from the Bible; more then 1000 are shown. This picture is only 3 1/2 of the windows. You can't get the entire thing in a picture, which is why I bought a postcard :) They were remodeling the front alter part, so we couldn't see the 4 windows behind it, including the crowning of thorns. It's a 6 year remodeling/cleaning process, if that tells you anything about how elaborate this stained glass is.

The organ in the Notre-Dame

Backside of the Notre-Dame

After that, we walked over some bridges and headed to Notre-Dame. This is also a fascinating church, but Sainte Chapelle I thought was more worth it (which is probably why it costs money to go in there and not Notre-Dame.  Building began in 1163, but took over a hundred years to finish.  We went to the international mass at Notre-Dame, which was all in French except for about three lines, one in the beginning, during communion, and end of mass that were in English. This made it very difficult to pay attention, not going to lie.... It was really annoying and disrespectful how people would walk around the church and take pictures while mass was going on. France's largest organ is located in the Notre-Dame. Apparently, the original crown of thorns is here too, but only on display one day out of the year-Good Friday.

After Notre-Dame, we went on a little walk, went to a nice little cafe across the water from the Notre-Dame, and got to look at it all throughout lunch. It was really funny too, some people walked in looking for a table right by us. They spoke English and I made a comment about how their English sounded like a first language not a second. Our tables were next to each other, and when I say next to, I mean about 3 inches apart, literally. We chatted it up, and I found out they are from Missouri!! How awesome is that?! It is always great to meet people on trips from the US, and even more so when they're from your state as well!

The Musee d'Orsay

Later, we headed to the Musee d'Orsay. Erin likes this museum the most out of the ones she had been to previously, however this time was rather a disappointment. October is off-season, so lots of places are doing remodeling, and this is no different at the Musee d'Orsay. This is the museum that has most of the Impressionists and Post Impressionists paintings, such as those from Manet, Monet, and Van Gogh. Unfortunetly, Starry Night is temporarily at a museum in Nashville, Tennessee until December. What a bummer!! In addition to that, 53 of Claude Monet's paintings are at a different museum in Paris. Because of time, we couldn't go to all the museums in Paris, it would take days!!

The pyramid from the outside

This is only part of the Louve. I couldn't take a picture of the whole thing.

The bottom of the pyramid  on 

the inside

We did head over the the Louvre, but did not go through it. The Louvre was actually build in 1190 as a fortress. Charles the V was the first to live in it in the 1300's. It didn't become a museum until the 1700's. We went to the shop and took a picture of the pyramids. I do not read the Da Vinci code/Angels and Demons books, but this is the big thing from it apparently. The Camp A girls we met at the train station  we actually randomly saw at the shop in the Louvre. They had been there 8 hours and were getting ready to leave. The place is absolutely huge, much bigger than I ever thought it was.

After the Louvre, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe. I have an absolutely amazing postcard of this place that you can't take from the ground. All the streets of Paris lead to it. It was built by Napoleon to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805. The Arc was not finished until 1836. It's really cool, and there is a lot of history to it. I decided to walk up it, 288 stairs! And I am so glad I did! The view was amazing!

Love the Eifel Tower!

Looking into the city!

Eifel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe

That was pretty much all we did on Sunday. Monday was another early morning. Our train left at 1pm and we got up to see the Eifel Tower. It took a lot longer to get there then we anticipated and we waited in line for an hour. By this time it was 11am and we were not even through security yet. It would take at least another hour to get up, which wouldn't leave enough time to catch the train. I decided that I got to see the city from the Arc, and it doesn't change much. What I really wanted was a picture in front of it. So we took a bunch of those. Then we did a few last minute travels around the city on the way to the train station. Here are some more pictures!

Standing below the Tower!

Self explanatory . . .

View of the Arc from afar. Pretty awesome!

I honestly don't really know what this is. It has a name and meaning of course,

 but I need to look it up.

Overall, Paris was a success. I'll be back here someday!

Oktoberfest 2010 and other insights

Look closely, and you'll see mountains :)

This weekend was spent at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. Many people believe Oktoberfest takes place the month of October, however that is a misconception. It began the middle of September, and ended the first weekend in October. We decided to go as a day trip on Saturday. The picture to the left is the view of the main drag of the fest from the top of the Ferris Wheel. It took us about an hour to walk from the far end you see in the picture to the line at the Ferris Wheel, plus an hour wait in line for the Ferris Wheel. The group of us that went were all really tired from experiencing some of the night life in Ansbach the night before. We actually did not arrive until about 3pm. Our train left at 7pm, so our time at the fest was very little. To get inside a beer tent, you had to make reservations or get their at the crack of dawn and wait in line. By 3pm, the wait to get in any beer tent was a few hours, so we skipped it. As you  can tell by the huge crowd of people, walking through this mess was chaotic. Germans are not polite people all of the time, and even less so when you had many liters of beer to their system. Many will simply push you out of the way, never saying any form of apology. This behavior isn't only common at Oktoberfest, but a familiar behavior around Germany. They don't apologize after bumping into you either. This is rather annoying when you've been raised to use manners. My ultimate conclusion of Oktoberfest: I've been there once and that was enough.

Pretty church we walked by to get to Oktoberfest. Nice placement if you ask me.

In other news, work is going well. There is always some frustrating parts about it. Army children are much different then Air Force children. I've had some discussions about this with a few people who have the same viewpoint. Many times we feel unappreciated in the work we do which is really hard for me at times.
I have built some relationships with some co-workers and had interesting conversations.There is one lady at work who is a civilian but works on the base. She has given me some insight on her viewpoint of the Holocaust. Her standpoints really astounded me and I didn't have much to debate about because of my shock. She believes the Hitler was not at fault for anything that happened in the Holocaust, that his intentions were good. He just believed that people who were unhealthy should be killed (and all of those people just happen to be Jews . . . ??) She also said that Hitler never wanted any sort of concentration camp, and that the people below him were the ones who were "power hungry" and turned it into something much bigger than initial intent, which we now know as WW2 and Holocaust. Maybe I need to brush up on my WW2 history, but this is not what I was grown up to believe. I asked her, and none of her ancestors were involved in the war; they were all from Bavaria which did not partake. She said that Germans still hold a grudge against each other, depending if you were on the east or west. Traveling up to northern Germany is much different then southern Germany apparently (I have yet to visit). After the Wall came down, the Easterns were invited to the Western side by government, but not by people. They were offered cheaper food and other items because they were from the East. This caused resentment between the two, and apparently it is still in effect today. I wouldn't be able to tell, but she said she usually can when she visits northern Germany. Germans today still hold a grudge against the government because 3% of their income must go to rebuild Berlin and other cities in effect from the War, even though it ended over 50 years ago. Another interesting fact I learned, Germans must also pay a church tax, amount depending on if you claim the Catholic Church or Protestant Church. Not claiming a church is rare, and there is usually a mess of business to go through. Claiming a church and then disclaiming a church also requires a lot of paperwork and a meeting with your priest. Very interesting!

My weekend trip was pretty uneventful, but there have been lots of things I have learned. Another being German schools. The same woman who told me about the Holocaust also worked in German schools for several years as a kindergarten teacher. Parents stay home with their children until about age three until kindergarten starts. Daycares are pretty uncommon here. Kindergarten is considered to be from age 3 to 6, and the primary focus is social development. I was told that the children do most of the teaching; the six year olds teach the three year olds. The way she portrayed it was there were 2 teachers for 30 kids and it was perfect because the children knew how to behave. .  . I may have my own viewpoints on that, but I have noticed German children to be very well behaved when I see them on trains and other places in public.

This is week 7, and homesickness has definitely kicked in. I miss things like driving, being able to read cooking instructions in English, being able to understand what people are saying. I miss the simple things. Within the past week I have begun to miss people a bit more. I was to the point that I wanted to return home early, but then reality set in. I know I will stay and finish the second half of the semester and it will be great, but I'm still in a slump and want to go home. I'll get over it. 2 more months :)

This weekends plans: PARIS!!! Look for an update next week!

Weekend 5: Stuttgart, Germany!

NOTE: Picture uploader was not working when I made this blog. You can see all the pictures on Facebook. Sorry!!

Way back when, as some of you may know, I went to a camp in Michigan called Miniwanca. I met a lot of lifetime friends which I still talk to. My class had a group of counselors throughout our four years there. One of them, Rachel, I have kept up with a little on Facebook. She is currently living in Stuttgart with her family. We hadn't talked in awhile, but through Facebook, she found out that I was going to Germany. Rachel, her husband Mike, and their daughter Eliza, were generous enough to offer a stay at their house and take me around Stuttgart for the weekend.

When I arrived on Saturday, we had a delicious breakfast and then went to the Schloss Ludwigsburg Castle. It was built in 1704, and took 29 years to build. It was home to King Fredrick, who was made king from Napoleon. Here is a link to the website so you can actually see what the castle looks like from a birds eye view. http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.schloss-ludwigsburg.de%2F
I took a ton of pictures, but the views aren't that great since we weren't allowed to use flash and it was a rainy dark day. The castle is a lot of baroque architecture, there was seperate wings for the king and queen. They each had their own rooms and even stairwells so they never had to see each other.We have been to a bunch of different castles here but this is the first one that we have really gotten to go in. It is one of the best in Germany because so much of it is the original paintings and furniture. It was a 90 minute tour, and worth every minute. I got my history, my castle, and art in all on one trip! It was great!

After the castle, we went to a cute little cafe and I had some hot cocoa and cake. Delicious! We went to the shopping area  of Stuttgart where I got some new jeans, a size smaller I might add, and adorable rain boots!! We walked by the Schlossplatz, where on a nice day is covered with people.Stuttgart also has the Mercedes headquarters, which we passed by on the train, but did not go in. There is also a Porsche museum. I just got postcards!

On Sunday we went to the Stuttgart festival, called Cannstatter Voksfest. Mike informed me that Stuttgart's festival is called the Vassan, and Oktoberfest is the Wiessen, pronoucned Vissen. The names are from the location of the grounds each festival takes place on. Stuttgart's fest is the 2nd larges in Germany, next to Oktoberfest of course. We went up the big Ferris Wheel and saw views of the city. Luckily we were up in between the clouds.

I am so grateful to have friends over here to take me in and show me sights of Germany. Stuttgart was pretty awesome, and I'm glad I got to see it :)