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WOW KATE IS UPDATING HER LIVEJOURNAL!!!
i've devoted the next 35 minutes to kate time, until I go to a birthday party at 9. and i thought I could use some reflection time and i thought all ya'll could use a little kate update. since a lot has happened since I updated around the first of january. mmm, namely, i went to germany. and i guess i just decided this moment that i'm not going to do a huge update about germany... but rather a short run down of things. you can check out the photos of me on facebook under the extra photos of me...a nd if you want more, link to the albums of those who tagged me. there's a lotta good stuff on there. right now the photo on my desktop is of the alps and it literally looks like one of those taht comes on your computer... crrrrazy! but i was there. even when i was standing in front of millions of alps when i was at the top of the highest mountain in germany (where, coincidentally, my pen burst open an leaked onto my bag because of the air pressure change-woo!), i had to pinch myself to realize i wasn't dreaming and the landscape in front of me was indeed not a painting. INSANE.
so, here's how germany went down. we flew in to the frankfurt airport from detroit on January 3rd. The flight was all right, minus the fact that I didn't sleep at all and was then expected to have a full day ahead of me since it was 7:30 am when we landed. WOO 6 hour time difference! that plane was really nice and had little movie screens on the back of every seat with about 25 movie choices. crrrazy! anyway we got in and took a train to Weimar, where we spent the first 7 days. I love German trains with a hearty passion. they are the most amazing form of transportation. only once or twice was our train ever delayed, out of the... probably over 30 train rides we took during the month. no, way more than that, actually. well, that might be the number of rides, but there were countless numbers of different trains involved in that. anyway, i love trains and they are comfy and roomy and amazing and safe and clean and you can get up and walk around and go pee in the somewhat dirty bathrooms. anyway enough about how much i love trains.
so we got to weimar, walked a considerable distance (got my first taste of what my leg muscles would become this month) to our hotel, Hotel Liszt. (liszt lived in weimar for several years... we visted his house, but it's closed to visitors during the winter). The big shucks about Weimar is it's the hometown of Goethe, the famed German poet and philosopher. Schiller and Herder are also connected with the town, as is Bach. I went to church on Sunday that week where Bach played the organ when we was in town. Agh, crazy celebrity/historical shock. The painting behind the altar in that church was by Lukas Cranach, who is the painter of the famous Martin Luther painting that everyone recognizes. I actually saw that painting, i think, or one very similar to it in Wartburg castle. We took a trip there one day from Weimar to see the castle. It's where luther went into hiding and translated the New testament into German. We saw the room we worked in and other quality things there. That was our first of many experiences with awesome and super old castles. yay! anyway, other highlights of Weimar... Blume 2000! And it is the home of the National Theater. We had class there a few days in the morning at the Anna Amalia library, which was sweet and modern and was fun to look at. Lukas Cranach's hosue was also there. Just lots of fun things that were German. Best moment with a German there: a girl about our age with a bright red microphone was wandering the Fussgangerzone and came up to us and asked a quesiton, speaking very fast German. We didn't understand and she said it to us in English: "there is a new rule in America that you can show your ass to anyway to say 'you suck'. who would you say you suck to?" we said george bush. we kept seeing her around the next few days and it was funny. then kirsten asked her to pose for a photo. oh, kirsten the photo stalker. weimar had amazing thuringer wurst. so tasty. we also went to Buchenwald concentration camp which is about a 20 minute bus ride outside of Weimar. too intense to explain in detail in this medium. also on the day we went to wartburg castle, we saw Bach's house and Luther's house. and at some more wurst. :)
we went to Cologne that weekend, saw the amazing cathedral and went to the chocolate museum where a highlight was a very hot tour guide that was walking around. hurry hot german men.
we travelled on next to Nuernberg, home of the nazi rally grounds, fun shopping, the german national museum, and old castle that was renovated int our youth hostel, beautiful old churches, albrecht durer's house, nurnberg lebkuchen (gingerbread), and other good times. one day we took a trip to an old medieval walled city. taht was awesome.
that weekend 7 of us went down to salzburg, which was amazing. saw 2 of mozart's hosues, a couple sound of music sights, and the salzburg fortress.
went to heidelberg from nurnberg, home of the famous and large Heidelberg University, an old castle taht's in ruins and was the haunt of philosphical people such as Goethe, the longest pedestrian area in germany, and scary busses that take you in the opposite direction of town if you get on the wrong one. luckily, we made it back ok. but we definitely were in some sketchy suburb of heidelberg, where we had gone across a highway and through farmland, before we made it onto the right bas to get back home. this is also where i saw the hottest man of the trip... i'd guess he's about 24 to 28 and has long shaggy hair and worked in the fun antique bookshop. oooh, gorgeousness!
we had an amazing time in heidelberg, including Julia's Birfday, the most amazing night of rambunctioness during the trip. went out to the coyote cafe and got well, pretty drunk. way too many good times from that night. oh speaking of which, we went to a hooka bar in nurnberg, where... some other people smoked the hooka. that guy gave us free shots, which i just remembered. we also got free tequila shots other places... maybe people just try to get rid of tequila, i dunno. anyway. drinks were good. haha forrest and i are discussing my favorite drinks right now.
hmmm that's a good place to leave it for now, i think. haha i have to go to liana's party. i said i wasn't going to go so in depth, but i just can't help it. i'll pick up wher ei left off later.
i've devoted the next 35 minutes to kate time, until I go to a birthday party at 9. and i thought I could use some reflection time and i thought all ya'll could use a little kate update. since a lot has happened since I updated around the first of january. mmm, namely, i went to germany. and i guess i just decided this moment that i'm not going to do a huge update about germany... but rather a short run down of things. you can check out the photos of me on facebook under the extra photos of me...a nd if you want more, link to the albums of those who tagged me. there's a lotta good stuff on there. right now the photo on my desktop is of the alps and it literally looks like one of those taht comes on your computer... crrrrazy! but i was there. even when i was standing in front of millions of alps when i was at the top of the highest mountain in germany (where, coincidentally, my pen burst open an leaked onto my bag because of the air pressure change-woo!), i had to pinch myself to realize i wasn't dreaming and the landscape in front of me was indeed not a painting. INSANE.
so, here's how germany went down. we flew in to the frankfurt airport from detroit on January 3rd. The flight was all right, minus the fact that I didn't sleep at all and was then expected to have a full day ahead of me since it was 7:30 am when we landed. WOO 6 hour time difference! that plane was really nice and had little movie screens on the back of every seat with about 25 movie choices. crrrazy! anyway we got in and took a train to Weimar, where we spent the first 7 days. I love German trains with a hearty passion. they are the most amazing form of transportation. only once or twice was our train ever delayed, out of the... probably over 30 train rides we took during the month. no, way more than that, actually. well, that might be the number of rides, but there were countless numbers of different trains involved in that. anyway, i love trains and they are comfy and roomy and amazing and safe and clean and you can get up and walk around and go pee in the somewhat dirty bathrooms. anyway enough about how much i love trains.
so we got to weimar, walked a considerable distance (got my first taste of what my leg muscles would become this month) to our hotel, Hotel Liszt. (liszt lived in weimar for several years... we visted his house, but it's closed to visitors during the winter). The big shucks about Weimar is it's the hometown of Goethe, the famed German poet and philosopher. Schiller and Herder are also connected with the town, as is Bach. I went to church on Sunday that week where Bach played the organ when we was in town. Agh, crazy celebrity/historical shock. The painting behind the altar in that church was by Lukas Cranach, who is the painter of the famous Martin Luther painting that everyone recognizes. I actually saw that painting, i think, or one very similar to it in Wartburg castle. We took a trip there one day from Weimar to see the castle. It's where luther went into hiding and translated the New testament into German. We saw the room we worked in and other quality things there. That was our first of many experiences with awesome and super old castles. yay! anyway, other highlights of Weimar... Blume 2000! And it is the home of the National Theater. We had class there a few days in the morning at the Anna Amalia library, which was sweet and modern and was fun to look at. Lukas Cranach's hosue was also there. Just lots of fun things that were German. Best moment with a German there: a girl about our age with a bright red microphone was wandering the Fussgangerzone and came up to us and asked a quesiton, speaking very fast German. We didn't understand and she said it to us in English: "there is a new rule in America that you can show your ass to anyway to say 'you suck'. who would you say you suck to?" we said george bush. we kept seeing her around the next few days and it was funny. then kirsten asked her to pose for a photo. oh, kirsten the photo stalker. weimar had amazing thuringer wurst. so tasty. we also went to Buchenwald concentration camp which is about a 20 minute bus ride outside of Weimar. too intense to explain in detail in this medium. also on the day we went to wartburg castle, we saw Bach's house and Luther's house. and at some more wurst. :)
we went to Cologne that weekend, saw the amazing cathedral and went to the chocolate museum where a highlight was a very hot tour guide that was walking around. hurry hot german men.
we travelled on next to Nuernberg, home of the nazi rally grounds, fun shopping, the german national museum, and old castle that was renovated int our youth hostel, beautiful old churches, albrecht durer's house, nurnberg lebkuchen (gingerbread), and other good times. one day we took a trip to an old medieval walled city. taht was awesome.
that weekend 7 of us went down to salzburg, which was amazing. saw 2 of mozart's hosues, a couple sound of music sights, and the salzburg fortress.
went to heidelberg from nurnberg, home of the famous and large Heidelberg University, an old castle taht's in ruins and was the haunt of philosphical people such as Goethe, the longest pedestrian area in germany, and scary busses that take you in the opposite direction of town if you get on the wrong one. luckily, we made it back ok. but we definitely were in some sketchy suburb of heidelberg, where we had gone across a highway and through farmland, before we made it onto the right bas to get back home. this is also where i saw the hottest man of the trip... i'd guess he's about 24 to 28 and has long shaggy hair and worked in the fun antique bookshop. oooh, gorgeousness!
we had an amazing time in heidelberg, including Julia's Birfday, the most amazing night of rambunctioness during the trip. went out to the coyote cafe and got well, pretty drunk. way too many good times from that night. oh speaking of which, we went to a hooka bar in nurnberg, where... some other people smoked the hooka. that guy gave us free shots, which i just remembered. we also got free tequila shots other places... maybe people just try to get rid of tequila, i dunno. anyway. drinks were good. haha forrest and i are discussing my favorite drinks right now.
hmmm that's a good place to leave it for now, i think. haha i have to go to liana's party. i said i wasn't going to go so in depth, but i just can't help it. i'll pick up wher ei left off later.