Dresden

If you're sharp you've already guessed from the title that this entry is about a trip to Dresden.  It started off quite early.  I was surprised to walk out the door at 5:30 Saturday morning to see everything was covered in snow.  Fortunately when we got Dresden it was gone and slightly warmer.

Waiting at the bus stop to kick off the morning.

The "Artsy" side of Dresden.

They turned gates into bikes.  Not practical but creative.

I don't know what it is but it was impressive.

The Japanese garden in the foreground looking across the Elbe to a number of the larger landmarks.

Karen is terrified of these spiky stars that keep following us everywhere.  

They just seem dangerous!

Crossing one of the bridges in town.  We did a lot of walking on Saturday looking at all the sights.  I think this was the last bridge crossing before closing the night with Chocoloccino and cake.

The coffee filter was invented in Dresden.  Everyone knows that it's not the bean that makes the coffee good, it's the filter!

Volkswagon has a manufacturing plant here that is all glass so you can watch the process.  Unfortunately we weren't there while they were giving tours.

This was in the middle of a 15km run early on Sunday to see things farther from the center.

We followed the river to all sorts of cool stuff

The bridge is the "Blue Wonder"  and I don't know what the spike is in the back.  Dresden is just spiky.  We had to jump a fence later, and another spike got the better of Karen's running pants.. Schade Schokolade..

The bird feeding lady.  The swans could have pecked her nose if they weren't on such good terms.

There is where J.S. Bach is buried in Leipzig.  We passed through on our way back.

That's all.  

A Story - we got on a train that we weren't technically allowed to take with the ticket we had (honest mistake).  But the super nice train lady (wearing Nike earrings) made an "especially special exception" and didn't make us pay a fine as long as we got out at the next stop (Leipzig).  Probably more stories to tell, but the mall is kicking me out now.

The End

Wrapping Up (Part II)

I'm calling this part II because I already have a part I. I'll be wrapping up till I get home I suppose. Let's go back in time now to Monday morning on the 14th of February, the day I left Osnabrück, bound for England. I packed up my things and abandonned my room. The caretaker came and inspected and the only problem he found was some dust... oh well.

I left my bags with my roommate and set out with my backpack to run some errands and set off. At 11:30am I caught the 2 hour train to Bremen (free with student ID). My flight was not until 6:30 so I had time to kill. Instead of taking the tram to the airport, I decided to follow it by foot and see what there was to see. Here is one of the random monuments I found. Someone said it references an old law that is still in the books that allows farmers to bring their pigs through the streets of Bremen. Who knows.

So after walking for over an hour, with some video documenting to be posted soon, I arrived at the airport. After walking through a city full of beautiful buildings it seemed as if RyanAir was kind of a disgrace to the city with it's cheapness. There were terminals 1,2,3 and E. E was for RyanAir and you had to walk through a passageway from the main airport to get there. Most of the building is just aluminum like a warehouse or something. RyanAir only had 3 flights that evening so they didn't even send the employees into the terminal for security check etc. until 3:30pm. When I first arrived there were just a few old folks with bags waiting...
While I waited I explored and decided to document this German phenomenon. I've noticed it most commonly in Restaurants. WC (Restroom) is almost always down. Usually down two flights of steps and down a long passageway, very away from everything. You know, like not close to anything at all. Maybe that would be gross? Everyone knows those rooms are gross but we all deal with it differently. In America we just call it a restroom and pretend it's a nice place. In Germany they call it "the toilets" and just keep it far away. Both work I suppose.
All the money I owned, I had on my person. Heading to England I had to change some over to pounds. Here is some of my money. I have all the commonly used bills including £, €, and $. Notice that the European money goes down to 5 (~$7-$8). Once smaller than that you have to use coins... I accumulated £10 of change in one day in London... very obnoxious.
Traveling went well. I landed in Stansted airport and then took a 2 hour trainride to Haywards Heath where a friend, John Dixon, picked me up and brought be to my room. More on that later.

to be continued.

Vorhersage (forecast)

So not talking about weather but more the up coming plans as my time here winds to a close. Today is Wednesday so I've finished 1.5 of my finals. Tomorrow is the oral part of my German final, and Friday is German culture. That's the one I'm worried about. I have a billion documents in German to read and 98% of the class speaks better German than I do. 10% fail every year... Without that credit, I'm not a full time student and I owe everyone lots of money, but no pressure. Anyways,

So I closed my bank account, de-registered from the University, closed my insurance, and told the state I'm going home. I had set all those things up in English a few months ago, but I ended them in German. That felt good. Saturday is cleaning and packing and scrubbing my room. Saturday night is my birthday party. I plan to introduce everyone to apple crisp and coke floats. I think the floats will freak people out, but nobody can say no to a good apple crisp so everyone should be fine =)

Sunday is church, and then lunch with my pastor. We'll probably cry together or something. When I get home I have to make sure everything is in top shape for handing the keys back over to the caretaker. 10:30 monday morning he'll be there to lock me out of my house. Then I need to run and get back my deposit on the department and run to the train station.

Train goes an hour to Bremen. From Bremen I fly with Ryanair to London. Hopefully they don't scam me out of all my money (click). From the airport I take a train into London and then another one south to Haywards Heath where I'll be staying at the YWAM base "Holmsted Manor" (click). It's beautiful, take a look. I'll be staying there with some friends that used to be involved with YWAM Pittsburgh. Hopefully, I make a trip up to London, but also get to catch up with folks and meet new people. It'll be weird being in a country where everyone speaks English, and should be a lot of fun.

Thursday I take the Eurostar to Paris. That's the train that goes under the English Channel. I'll stay with my cousin who is studying fashion design there in Paris. That's where I'll spend my actual birthday. Hopefully I remember some French because from all I've heard (even from my French friends here) they would rather not speak English with me =P

The next Monday (the 21st) I'll take a train through the Alps to Milan, Italy. Here is where I insert the forecast in Milan for the next week (I promise I was planning on talking about weather when I started writing this) . This isn't the week that I'll be there but I can expect something similar! I'll be staying with my friend Francesca who I met here. I'll probably stop in and visit one of her English classes at the University and enjoy all of the strong Italian accents. My Italian is non-existent except for a few words I learned last year, but hopefully with my "Learn Italian in 7 Days" book, I should learn something. Fortunately there is lot's of English, and Francesca's whole family speaks German because her Mom is German.

In the end I come back to Osnabrück for the weekend and say goodbye to all my church friends. My Swiss flatmate said she's taking at trip home and may have some good Swiss cheeses to do a cheese fondue when I get back. Kind of scares me, and kind of sounds fun.

I fly home Monday the 28th of February, and back at RIT the end of the week. I have way to much to do but it should all be delightful so I'll try not to complain.

See you all soon!

[- R N W -]

Mother's Arrival

A week ago today my Mom arrived in Osnabrück. She stayed till Monday and now I finally have time to post. It was great. I was noticing though what a depressing look the Osnabrück train station had though... not a beautiful place to arrive necessarily. Fortunately the rest of the city makes up for that.