The Beginnings of My Adventures in Far Away Lands, Pt. II

And so, another adventure in Europe begins!  Well, sort of...it’s actually about to end.  :(  I am just now getting around to blogging about my second time abroad within these past few weeks.  However, I am going to be posting a little differently this time.  I’ve actually just posted three other blog entries beneath this one; usually I would blog about my most recent experiences last so that it would be the first thing you will see.  But this time, I’m posting them in the opposite order: you will be reading about my most recent happenings last, and my earliest adventures first.  So, in this blog post, I will describe the wonderful time that I had at the beginning of my trip in........GERMANY!

January 4th: This was quite an uneventful day for us.  I arrived at the airport at our scheduled time of 9:30.  I met up with the class and our professors, Dr. Joel Frederickson and Dr. Kathy Nevins, and said goodbye to my parents.  After going through the check-in process, we all went to our gate and started reading for assignment that was due that day.  The reading continued through our flight, and right up until our very first discussion groups in the Detroit airport where we had a 5-hour layover. Discussion groups are our equivalent to class time; we are split up into groups of 5 or so (they stay the same throughout the trip), and then alloted a specific time where we discuss assigned course readings/field trips with one of the professors.  After our discussion groups, some of us meandered around the airport for a while (I found dried kiwi to eat!  yay!) and grabbed dinner.  After, we boarded the plane and had an long, uneventful flight to Frankfurt, Germany.  

January 5th: After landing, we went through customs and then hopped on a train to Würzburg, Germany.  We checked into our hotel after we got in to Würzburg, and then had some free time.  I walked around and explored the city a bit with my roommates Anna and Katie.  While walking around, we found a beautiful cathedral which we entered and explored a bit.  After that, we headed back to the hotel for a while and then the class went out for a group dinner at a nice, traditional German restaurant (keyword being “traditional”).  The entire menu was in German, and it served primarily German foods.  I ordered a “meatball” with potato salad (not USA potato salad, but real German potato salad).  It was fine..  I didn’t have the guts to actually order wienerschnitzel, but I mustered up enough courage to try a bite.  It wasn’t too bad--it kind of reminded me of fish actually, because the breading was similar to what I feel is used to fry up fish.  After dinner, we just went back to the hotel and slept [trust me, it was much needed]!

January 6th: After waking up, we headed down for what was one of my favorite hotel breakfasts!  I mixed a few cereals together, and I had an amazing orange!  (*I’ve started to notice that the fruit is really great here in Europe!)  After breakfast, we all headed out for the train station to go to Heidelburg; it was insanely icy outside!  I didn’t fall though!  :)  After about a 3-hour train ride, we arrived in Heidelburg where we were going to spend the afternoon.  We met up with a recently retired professor who agreed to be with us and show us around.  He took us around the city and showed us a lot of interesting places, a lot of them pertaining to the famous experimental psychologist Wilhelm Wundt.  It was quite interesting, and the city was so quaint!  There was also the remnants of a Christmas market still set up, so that brought a smile to my face!  After our tour, we ate at another German restaurant.  I ordered vegetable schnitzel (like falafel, but BETTER!), and my new favorite drink that’s quite popular over here: a mixture of apple juice and carbonated water.  Yum.  :)  After lunch, while still at the restaurant, the professor gave us a brief lecture on Wundt’s life and work.  Once that was done, we parted ways with the professor and the majority of us walked up a gazillion stairs to explore the fortress that lies on a hill overlooking the town.  It was so beautiful.  After making our way back down (that was quite an adventure), we passed our remaining time in the local Starbucks trying to warm up and dry off.  Finally, we hopped on the train and headed back to the hotel for the night.

January 7th: After waking up, we had another great breakfast, followed by discussion groups.  After those were over with, we made our way to the Würzburg Residence, a gorgeous palace of sorts.  My favorite room was primarily made out of stucco.  I also fell in love with a room that was essentially made out of mirrors.  Our tour guide was awesome--very entertaining.  haha.  After the tour of the residence, some of my friends and I took a little shopping break before our next activity: meeting with a professor at the University of Würzburg.  Here, he showed us a variety of instruments and things that were quite fundamental in the development of psychology, one of which was an instrument that Wundt taught with!  After the university visit, we did a little more shopping, and then I went out to dinner with two of my friends, Laura and Joy.  We found a quaint little German restaurant where we all ordered some delicious crepes.  After, we headed back to the hotel where we met up with a large group and played Phase 10 for a bit.  I started pretty late in the game, so I didn’t get too far, but it was fun!  Afterwards, our group went out for a quick bite of gelato, and then came back to the hotel where we spend the rest of the night hanging out and playing more games.  After going to sleep that night, jet lag set in...my roommates and I were up and unable to sleep around 3am, so they went to watch a movie, and I started my reading assignment that was due in a couple of days.  We went back to bed around six for a few more hours, but that was not fun!  :-/

January 8th:

This was our last morning in Würzburg.  We all ate one last breakfast in the hotel, some of us made one last shopping trip, and then we packed and were off!  We spent the majority of the day traveling to Munich.  After getting to the hotel, we left for dinner at the Hofbrauhaus, the premiere beer hall in Munich.  No one drank of course--the reason we were there is another thing that the Hofbrauhaus is known for: their traditional German food...some people even ordered suckling pig!  A live German music band was playing polka-eque music in the background; it was a good time!  After dinner, a group of us left to go back to the hotel and got a little lost...but it was a good adventure!  Munich is beautiful; walking to the restaurant and back to the hotel was great--the architecture and the atmosphere of the city is just so unique and exciting!  I really enjoyed walking around.  :)  When we got back, everyone needed to do their readings for discussion groups, so everyone just read!  After I finished my reading, it was off to bed for me!  

January 9th:

After waking up and having breakfast, our class made our day-trip to the site of the Dachau concentration camp.  We spent the afternoon there, exploring the grounds, watching an informational movie on the site, and then having a devotional in the chapel that is located in the camp.  It was a very solemn experience.  We left for Munich after spending quite a bit of time at Dachau.  When we got back, Anna and I decided to go off and explore Munich a bit (seeing it the night before really made us want to go stroll around and see everything!).  We went into a beautiful cathedral, walked around in the main square, and stopped to listen to an amazing accordion player!  I would have bought his CD if it wasn’t so expensive.  After some exploring, we made our way back to the hotel for our discussion groups.  After our discussion groups were over, a group of us went out to dinner.  We ate at a Chinese restaurant, and it was pretty delicious!  After dinner, we just walked around some more, and did some more exploring.  We ended up watching a RUDE street performer...amongst other things, he decided to return the money that I had thrown in his case because it was basically an inconvenience to him!  It was the last of my coins, otherwise I only had big bills!  He returned my coins, along with a couple of extra, so I basically ended up making money in the process.  haha.    After our time around town, we all just came back to the hotel and called it a night.

January 10th:

Like our typical mornings, we woke up and had breakfast around 9:00.  Afterwards, a group of us went out to the Marienplatz to see the Glockenspiel.  For those of you who don’t know what the Glockenspiel is, it’s almost like a giant coo-coo clock (minus the fact that nothing pops out).  A cute little jingle plays at 11:00am every day for almost five minutes, while life-sized figures move about.  After it’s over, a golden bird displays itself and “chirps” three times.  It was quite interesting to see!  After that, the group split up, and some of us went to visit the Olympic Stadium in Munich.  We mainly saw the soccer field, but it was still really cool.  After that, we swung by the BMW museum.  Let’s just say I found my future car there...  ;)  Then, we split up even more and some of us headed back to the hotel for a while.  After relaxing a bit and eating a small lunch, a few of us went shopping.  I made a few good buys!  After a long couple of hours shopping around, my friend Alecia and I grabbed dinner together.  We ate at a little Italian cafe: I got gelato and some pasta.  Following dinner, I went back to my hotel room and worked on homework for a bit, but that didn’t last long...I got suckered into playing a game of Mafia, a really fun card game, especially with large groups of people.  Finally, after a few rounds, I decided to call it a night and went to bed.

In the Land Where There Are NO Kangaroos Hopping Around..

Next up on our trip was a visit to....AUSTRIA!  [Not be confused with AUSTRALIA..haha]

January 11th:

This was mainly a day of travel.  After waking up and eating breakfast, we packed up and then headed out to the train station where we hopped on a train to Vienna.  *Insert uneventful, long train-ride here.**  After checking in at our hotel, our class had a group dinner together.  We ate at a place called “Lucky Chinese.”  I split some teryaki chicken, fried rice, and some veggie rolls with my friend Kristen, and I gave Jasmine tea a try as well.  A word of advice: don’t try it unless you like the taste of floral soap in your mouth...because that’s what it tasted like...  :-/ I drank all of mine, but I don’t think I’m very likely to get it again...after dinner, I walked around for a little while with a few of the others, and then turned in for the night--it was a long day of traveling!  

January 12th:

After waking up and having breakfast at the hotel, we had discussion groups again.  Following discussion groups, we had a little free time to kill, so I took a nap and then did a little shopping with some of my friends.  After, my class made our way over to the Freud museum.  This was where he lived as an adult, and where he practiced for the majority of career.  Sadly, the infamous couch was not there.  However, we found out that we were going to be seeing it later on, so we weren’t too bummed.  Besides, there was original furniture from the waiting room that he had in his house, and that was pretty neat to see!  After the museum visit (drumroll please), I went shopping...I just want to make a quick note and let you know that, whenever I say I went shopping in any of my posts, I didn’t always buy something...I did a lot of window shopping!  I promise that I didn’t go crazy with my shopping!  :D  Anyway, back to business.  After shopping, my friends and I grabbed some dinner and hung out with some of the others.  Not too long after, my friends Anna and Ryann and I went out to explore the city for a while.  The main buildings we saw were the Town Hall, the Parliament building, and the Opera House (although we saw a cool church and a theater as well).  After our adventures, we decided to call it a night.

January 13th:

After starting up our day, our class went to tour a Jewish Synagogue and Museum.  I’ve toured a synagogue before for one of my classes at Bethel, so I didn’t really learn a lot of new information.  However, the neat thing about this synagogue was that it was the ONLY synagogue in the city to survive World War II.  This is because it was tucked away within a complex of apartment buildings.  The Nazis found it and destroyed the interior, but they weren’t able to actually burn the place down (because of the surrounding apartments), so that is why it survived!  After seeing the synagogue we made our way to the site of a few Jewish memorial sites and a Jewish museum, and then we went just relaxed for a little while.  Our next activity for the day was a visit to the Viktor Frankl Institute.  Frankl was a Jewish Austrian psychiatrist born and raised in Vienna, and was taken to a variety of concentration camps, spending the majority of his time at Dachau (which we visited while we were in Germany).  Surviving the war and his experience in the concentration camps, he went on to write a book in about nine-days time.  Called Man’s Search for Meaning, it went on to sell millions of copies.  We had to read the book for our class, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  He was a very wise man, and I really like his ideology.  He came up with a school of psychology called “logotherapy,” which is now considered one of the three Viennese schools of psychology.  Although it’s not really practiced today, it’s definitely one of my favorite schools of psychology that I’ve learned about so far!  I really enjoyed going to the institute, and learning more about Frankl.  An interesting thing to note is that his widow still lives next door to the institute--I wish we could have met her!  Following our visit to the institute, we made a brief stop at the University of Vienna.  It was quite a place, and very different from Bethel, that’s for sure!  After that, we went back and got some dinner, and then headed in for the night.

January 14th:

Today was a day of adventure!  After waking up, having breakfast, and having a group discussion, one of my roommates, Joy, and I decided to head out to a small Austrian town with some of the guys on our trip.  One of them, Dietric, had stayed in the town for a while with a missionary family I believe.  He wanted to go back to the town to eat at a restaurant he had loved, so we decided to go with.  The restaurant we ended up going to was called Schnitzel-land.  (No, that’s not a joke--it really was called Schnitzel-land...lol.)  Honestly, it was really really good!  I had chicken schnitzel sandwich, which was basically a thin piece of breaded and fried chicken on a bun with lettuce and mayo.  It was quite delicious!  Dietric got a HUGE chicken schnitzel and ate it ALL.  It was unbelievable, and we were all highly impressed.  :D  After our visit to the town, we decided to visit Schonbrunn and visit the famous palace.  We just walked around the grounds, but it was still beautiful.  After getting back to Vienna from our adventures, Joy and I decided to go shopping on our own for a while.  I ended the night with dinner, packing, and then relaxing.  

*The City of Lights~

Next on our trip was a visit to....FRANCE! 

January 15th:

Today was our longest travel day.  After a very early start to the day (in which I accidentally changed the combo to the lock on my suitcase as I was locking it, consequently locking myself out...), we headed to the train station where we hopped on a train from Vienna to Frankfurt.  I did a little homework and watched a movie on the way there.  When we got to Frankfurt, we had a layover during which some of us got food to tide us over and then walked around for a bit.  After that, we hopped on the train again, this time from Vienna to Paris.  On the way to Paris, I mainly focused on doing more homework.  We also got delayed about an hour and 40 minutes because of an accident that had occurred with the train ahead of us.  I decided to make use of that time and figure out the combo on my lock; it only took me about 20 minutes (although, it should have only taken me less than a minute because my new combo was only off by two digits on one of the three numbers from my original combo)!  Grrrr...  Either way, I was happy I figured it out!  After our delay, we got moving again and finally made it to Paris.  We arrived pretty late (which I don’t think our hotel was too happy about), and checked in.  Although it was kind of late, a few of my friends and I decided to walk around a bit; we ended up getting crepes from a street stand (they were SO good!), and then walking to Notre Dame.  It is quite beautiful at night!  Finally, we decided to head back to our hotel and call it a night because it was such a long day of traveling!

January 16th:

The morning started off with a really great french breakfast; baguettes!  We also got a little cup of fruit and a drink of course, but boy oh boy, were those baguettes good!  After enjoying our breakfast, we departed for church at Notre Dame.  It was quite a confusing service; everything was either in French or Latin, and we couldn’t really figure out where we were in the service most of the time, but it was still a really neat experience!  After the service, a group of us went back to the hotel and changed before we decided to make our way out to the Eiffel Tower for the afternoon.  We stopped at a cute little cafe on the way and got some really good paninis, and then continued on.  Finally, after a longgg walk, we made it to the Eiffel Tower!  It really is a great work of architecture--I loved it!  :)  We decided to walk up the tower as well; the top was closed to the public while I was there (which I was really bummed about), but we still were able to make it to the second floor!  After spending a good hour or so at the tower (and taking lots of pics of course), we made our way back to the hotel where we met up with our entire class for a dinner together.  We ate at a restaurant that specialized in crepes; I didn’t think that they were as good as the crepes that you can buy at the little stands on the street, but it was still good.  It was there that I also saw Laura for the first time while in Europe!  For those of you who don’t know, Laura was my roommate freshman year of college, and we’re still really good friends.  :)  She’s on a J-term trip too, and we found out that we were going to be in Paris and London at the same time, so I was hoping I’d see her!  She actually ended up staying in the same hotel as me, so that was awesome!  Anyway, it was fun seeing her at dinner!  After dinner, our class headed to the water where we took a night cruise on the Sienne River.  It was really gorgeous to see everything lit up at night!  There is definitely a reason that Paris is called “The City of Lights.”  After our cruise, I met back up with Laura.  She, a couple of friends, and I went out exploring some of the souvenir shops and got more crepes together...hehe.  What can I say?  The crepes in France are really good!  After hanging out for a while, we went back to the hotel and called it a night.  

January 17th:

After waking up and having breakfast, I finished my reading assignment which was shortly followed by discussion group.  Following that, I took a nap for a while because I was pooped that morning!  After my nap, a bunch of us headed out to go see the Louvre Museum!  We spent a couple of hours there, and of course, I took the time and saw the Mona Lisa!  That was pretty neat!  Apparently some researcher just found some numbers in her eyes of something, and some people think it’s part of a code...either way, it’s a pretty interesting painting in itself.  After wandering around and exploring the art in the museum for a while, a group of us went back the hotel for a bit.  I took the time to call home and wish my dad “Happy Birthday,” and to talk to my family for a while.  It was really good hearing from them!  :)  After that, some of us headed out to go shopping for a bit, followed by dinner at a panini place where I got a panini and a crepe.  After that, I spent a little time at the hotel before Laura, Anna, Ryann and I tried to visit the Arc de Triomphe.  However, we ended up going in the completely wrong direction and consequently ended up having to take a long walk back to hotel.  However, we got to see the other side of the Notre Dame that night, so that was cool!  After our adventure, we turned in for the night.

January 18th:

This was the day that our class took a day-trip to Nancy, France.  After waking up and eating breakfast, we hopped on the train to Nancy.  When we got there, we were taken to an acquarium/museum/amphitheater where we were given a presentation on the Nancy School (not to be confused with an actual school, but rather, a school of psychology) and the French psychologist Alfred Binet.  After our lectures (and a lunch in between), our class made our way to a cute cafe with two of the lecturers and had cocoa.  It was quite delicious!  Following that, we hopped on a train to go back to Paris.  That night, I did laundry in the hotel’s laundry machines, and then a group of us left to have dinner together.  After dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower again.  It was cool to see the tower (and the view from the tower) during the day, but it was REALLY cool to see the tower lit up at night, as well as the view from it!  It was quite gorgeous!  We took the elevators this time, and that was fun!  But the BEST part was that we got to go ice skating!  :)  Even though I hadn’t been skating in a while, I took it up pretty fast (and I never fell!).  After our visit to the tower, a few of us split up for the night and continued on to go see the Arc since we failed at our attempt the night before.  We just stopped for a few minutes to admire it, snapped some pics, and then we headed back to the hotel.  It was a great last night in the city!

Palaces, Double-Deckers, and Musicals, Oh My!

Finally, our trip concluded with a trip to....ENGLAND!!!!

January 19th:

Today was another travel day.  After waking up, I threw my laundry in the drier because it hadn’t completely dried the night before.  :-/  After, I headed back to the Notre Dame with my friends Anna and Heidi because we wanted to get some pictures inside the Cathedral.  I bought a couple of last-minute souvenirs while I was out and about as well, and then we headed for the train station where we hopped on a train to good ol’ London.  When we got to London, we checked into our hotel, and then Anna and I went to the Big Ben/Parliament/Westminster area with one of our professors, Kathy.  She just showed us around a bit, and then we headed back to the hotel.  Later on, the class had one final group dinner together.  This time we ate Indian food; I got garlic chicken and vegetable curry...it was SOOO hot!  My face was really red apparently.  Haha.  So after dinner, my friend Joy and I bought some ice cream to help combat the spice!  The rest of the night was spent reading for our group discussion the following day.

January 20th:

This was a day of running all around the city.  After breakfast and discussion groups, a bunch of us went to go buy tickets for a soccer game.  After trekking to the stadium and securing some tickets for a game, we went ran around the city for a little while more (this included getting some Krispy Kreme donuts which I found out are now obsolete in Minnesota!).  They were really good.  :)  After, we went back to the hotel, ate a quick dinner, and then changed before we headed out again and went to buy tickets to...WICKED!  After we bought our tickets, we ate a quick dinner at a little Italian cafe, and then made our way back to the theater.  Our seats were AWESOME.  We were in the first section in front of the stage, in row L, and in the center.  We had a fantastic view.  AND, we got them for a great price!  The performance itself was SO SO GOOD.  I can’t believe it took me so long to go see it!  I could seriously see it again and again--I loved the story, and the music and performance were amazing.  A little sidenote: during intermission, Anna heard an American woman talking about how she had seen over 30 Broadway shows, and more than one showing of Wicked (at least a few I think), and she said that this was the best performance of Wicked that she had seen!  So, it was definitely a great show.  After the show, Anna, Joy, and I headed over to McDonalds to make use of their free wifi, and then we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.  

January 21st:

After waking up and having breakfast, our day started with a trip to University College London where we met with a woman who spoke to us about Charles Darwin and Francis Galton.  We also got to see some of the University’s Galton artifacts, and then we headed over to a museum with a bunch of displays.  It was quite interesting; we saw a lock of King George the 8th(?)’s hair and Darwin’s walking stick among other things.  After that, we made our way to Freud’s house.  This is the house that he relocated to during World War II; he ended up dying in London, so this was his last place of residence.  It was here that we saw the infamous couch!  So cool.  After visiting his house, a bunch of us tried to get tickets to the Lion King, but they were kind of expensive and almost sold-out, so we decided to forgo seeing the show.  After our failed attempt at scoring tickets, we decided to grab lunch at the Italian cafe we ate at the night before (just in a different location), and then we went shopping for a few hours on Oxford Street (the best place to go shopping in London!).  :)  However, I was starting to feel a little under the weather, so I didn’t really buy anything.  After our trip to Oxford Street, I went to McDonalds with Anna to make use of the wifi a bit, and then we headed back to the hotel for the night.

January 22nd:

This was the day that we took a day-trip to Cambridge.  I woke up not feeling too well this day...just a cold, but since we had a 2+hour walking tour of Cambridge, it was still not fun...it was very, very cold!  However, our tour guide (David, a hilarious older British man) was great, and it was cool seeing the things that we saw.  We got to see Christ College (where Darwin attended), among other places of importance.  We also stopped outside some famous buildings; one was where the first calculation (by a machine) was made, another was where Watson and Crick did their infamous work with and research on DNA, and another was where the proton, neutron, and electron were discovered.  Cambridge is definitely a place of historical importance, that’s for sure!  After our time in Cambridge, we headed back for the night.  We made yet another trip to McDonalds for wifi, and then Anna and I went with our professor, Kathy, to go get some Chinese food.  I spent the rest of the night in my room since I was feeling even worse, and after I took a nice hot shower, I went to sleep!

January 23rd:

This morning, after breakfast, a group of us headed out to Westminster for church.  The service was kind of different than the one at Notre Dame (and easier to follow, that’s for sure!).  Westminster was pretty, but we weren’t really given much time to look around.  After the service, some of us to make a quick stop at my future home...Buckingham Palace.  ;)  hehe.  Just kidding...  It wasn’t as big and impressive as I was expecting it to be, but it was still really cool to see!  After that, we made our way back to the hotel where a bunch of us met up to head over to the soccer game that we had bought tickets for a few days ago.  We made our way over to the game, and the kickoff was at 1:15.  Not too long into the game, a ball was kicked in our direction, and my friend sitting next to me, Joe, caught the ball!  It was actually sort of near me, so he basically saved me from being hit (because instead of trying to catch it, I decided to duck in my seat..haha).  That was super fun, and he was really happy that he got to catch a ball.  “Our” team won the match 2-1, so it was a great game to go to!  After the game, we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours where we attempted to do homework, but then decided to go out to dinner.  Anna and I went to a cute little Italian cafe and had a great dinner!  The rest of the night was spent typing out basically the entirety of this blog (no joke).  As soon as I was done, I went to McDonalds to post everything, but I wasn’t able to.  So, I returned to my hotel room, basically concluded this, finished homework, and then went to sleep.

So....yeah!  That’s basically what I’ve been up to for the past few weeks!  Today, I have a day of sightseeing and shopping planned out, and then tomorrow, I’m flying back home.  I’m sorry it has taken me so long to post everything; it’s been very hard to find time to write things out in detail, and even harder to find time/good internet to actually post on my blog itself!  I will probably write one more post on here, and maybe post some pictures as well when I get home, so feel free to check back!  I can’t wait to see you all when I get back!  Until then, I hope that all goes well until I see you!  <3