Life in pictures and words (more traveling)

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile, and for that I apologize- I've been pretty busy lately. I've been working on writing my final papers, traveling, and embracing opportunities that come to me. Some of those things are more fun than others (one of these things is not like the other...). May and June are Feiertag-central, we're always having days off for some holiday or another, which is fantastic! On Monday, since it was a holiday (Pfingstmontag or Whit Monday), and we still have our German Rail Passes which allow us free travel on the Deutsche Bahn, a few friends and I decided to go to Trier, the oldest city in Germany.

Trier was really pretty- the day was less than ideal, as it swung erratically from near-raining to the sunshiniest day, meaning we were always hot from putting our jackets on when it became suddenly sunny or freezing when the arctic winds blew- but Trier was pretty. The first thing we saw was the Porta Nigra, a Roman gate dating back to 186-200 A.D., when it was built. It's the largest Roman gate north of the Alps and it is gorgeous, in my opinion:

We also saw some ruins of Roman baths which were pretty neat as well; they're also the largest Roman baths ruins north of the Alps. The whole time I was in Trier, I just kept thinking how much my dad would love all the Roman history. We didn't actually go in, because you could see pretty well from outside what was inside, but I'm sure there was more history to be learned, had we paid an entrance fee.

The oldest church, built by Constantine, in Germany is also in Trier, and of course we visited it. Herr Dörr taught us well-we always visit the church! It was, I think, the most unique church I've been to so far in Europe. I think it's the most unique because although it's pretty standard in respect to the architecture and the details inside,usually the two styles we

saw of the simple sturdy stone building and the gilded, over-the-top intricate styles of the organ and pulpit aren't something I usually see together in the same building. I'm not an art history major or anything, so maybe this is really normal, but it didn't seem to go together to me. It was still pretty, though.

Unfortunately, since we went to Trier without a clear idea of what we were going to do there, we just visited things we saw signs for and walked to. We followed these signs to a Roman bridge for such a long time until eventually there were no more signs but there was also no bridge in sight. I found out later that it's the oldest bridge over which cars are allowed to drive. Also I think it's the biggest/oldest Roman bridge north of the Alps (that's a common theme for things in Trier).

Trier was a success, but it definitely deserves some planning, just in case you're ever thinking of visiting it.

Salzburg, das Abenteuer

I know this post is for a very small audience, but if you happen to know German, and haven't see this before, I'm posting an essay I wrote for a class a few weeks ago.

It's great because it tells the story of when I took that adventurous trip to Salzburg, and because I'm just really proud of how it turned out in German. It was hard to get in as much about the beginning of the trip as possible within just a page, but I tried my best. I guess it's sort of shameless to post this so you all know how well I did on this paper, but apparently I'm not too bothered by that, as proven by the fact that I'm posting it. So without further ado, I bring you Salzburg, das Abenteuer:

Letzten Oktober entschieden Anne, Haleigh, Annika und ich uns für eine Reise nach Salzburg mit unseren German-Rail-Pässen. Wir machten eine Reservierung mit einer Jugendherberge und wählten die Züge. Obwohl wir gut vorausgeplant hatten, hatten wir eine Zugverspätung in Stuttgart. Wegen dieser Verspätung verpassten wir einen Zug von München nach Salzburg. Als wir ankamen, mussten wir schnell einen neuen Zug nach Salzburg finden. Der einzige Zug, den wir wollten, benötigte eine Reservierung. Es war ein bisschen problematisch, den Fahrkartenautomat zu benutzen, da wir nur Kleingeld hatten. Wir brauchten zwei Versuche, bevor wir die Fahrkarten bekamen.

Wir hatten eine angenehme Reise und erreichten um Mitternacht Salzburg. Wir blickten an unsere Stück Papier von GoogleMaps und plötzlich erkannten wir, dass unsere Jugendherberge über eine Stunde vom Hauptbahnhof entfernt war. Wir begannen zu Fuß zu gehen aber wir hatten keine richtige Landkarte nur eine Kleine von GoogleMaps. Es war nicht überraschend, dass wir uns verliefen!

Nach drei Stunden im strömenden Regen fanden wir unsere Jugendherberge. Glücklicherweise war die Tür schon geöffnet, weil jemand gerade vor uns eingetreten war und wir konnten schnell hineingehen. Es gab aber ein kleines Problem: da es 3 Uhr früh war, war die Rezeption geschlossen und wir konnten niemanden finden, der uns einchecken konnte. Wir probierten alle Telefonnummern, die wir finden konnten, aber keine funktionierte. Eine Stunde später entschieden uns, dass wir schlafen mussten, also mussten wir in unseren nassen Kleidern auf dem kalten Marmorboden eines Ganges schlafen. Weil es nicht besonders bequem war, schliefen wir kaum eine Stunde. Wir saßen da bis morgen und schließlich kam die Rezeptionistin an. Wir erzählten ihr unsere Geschichte und sie fragte uns etwas, was wir uns nie vorstellten könnten: „Warum haben Sie die Glocken nicht geklingelt?“