München!
Halloooo!
SO, day... 10? of my trip..
The days just sort of blend together, and I can't be bothered to figure that out, but, so far I've hit up Berlin, Potsdam, Cologne, Bonn, and now I'm in Munich.
How I spent my time in Berlin is really what I want to be doing for the rest of my trip, but that really won't happen. Anne met me at the airport, which was great. I haven't seen her in two and a half years, and she's definitely someone that I'd expect to be really close friends with, if we weren't separated by an ocean. So I stayed with her for 3 nights, until her Scottish boyfriend came to town, and then a night in a hostel, then two nights at my friend Anthony's, who's doing research in Berlin for his PhD.
I found so many secluded, non-touristy places to spend my time, at first unintentionally, and then as a general rule (until I eventually convinced myself to go up the Reichstag building, and to take a stroll down the tourist infested street leading to the Brandenburg gate).
When I took a day trip to Potsdam, I wandered up to "Ruinenberg," a place with some old Roman-esque "ruins" (not sure how authentic they are). I found an intricate network of footpaths through forests, and, expecting the regular tourist infestation, I was more than pleasantly surprised when, after my secluded walk off the beaten path, I looked to the left and there the ruins were, with not a person in sight. It really changed the context of the experience... it was the difference between looking and exploring.
So aside from great moments like that, my travels have brought a steady stream of ups and downs. I love being here and speaking and hearing German all the time, but I don't really like travelling along, and I really don't like hostels. First, people at hostels aren't German speakers. Second, most of them just want to get drunk constantly, and then all they want to talk about is how frequently they get drunk. So Berlin was nice, because at the end of the day, I could come "home" and go out for dinner or drinks with good people and have a fantastic conversation, in both English and German.
I then picked up and went to Cologne, and checked out the university in Bonn, where I'll likely be going next March. I found the international student office, and went and talked to someone there. It was cool to have her look at the applicants from U of T and have my name righ there on the screen. So I got lots of information from her - stuff that I'd gotten from U of T, but that had been very wishy washy. Bonn's nice, but... I feel like it's like Kitchener-Waterloo, and Berlin's like Toronto. I'd much rather be in the latter, but I have to stick to where the program's the best.
I feel like my German is improving exponentially. It probably isn't, but the fact that I'm actually speaking, and with relative ease, is such a major departure from where I was at 10 days ago, when stringing together a spoken sentence was practically unheard of. My comprehension still isn't great, but I just love being surrounded by the language.
There is, of course, much more to ramble on about, but I'll leave things here for now. Next time, I'll be reporting on my visit to here - http://www.neuschwanstein.com
It's a castle build by King Ludwig II in the 1800s. So Cinderellaesque.
SO, day... 10? of my trip..
The days just sort of blend together, and I can't be bothered to figure that out, but, so far I've hit up Berlin, Potsdam, Cologne, Bonn, and now I'm in Munich.
How I spent my time in Berlin is really what I want to be doing for the rest of my trip, but that really won't happen. Anne met me at the airport, which was great. I haven't seen her in two and a half years, and she's definitely someone that I'd expect to be really close friends with, if we weren't separated by an ocean. So I stayed with her for 3 nights, until her Scottish boyfriend came to town, and then a night in a hostel, then two nights at my friend Anthony's, who's doing research in Berlin for his PhD.
I found so many secluded, non-touristy places to spend my time, at first unintentionally, and then as a general rule (until I eventually convinced myself to go up the Reichstag building, and to take a stroll down the tourist infested street leading to the Brandenburg gate).
When I took a day trip to Potsdam, I wandered up to "Ruinenberg," a place with some old Roman-esque "ruins" (not sure how authentic they are). I found an intricate network of footpaths through forests, and, expecting the regular tourist infestation, I was more than pleasantly surprised when, after my secluded walk off the beaten path, I looked to the left and there the ruins were, with not a person in sight. It really changed the context of the experience... it was the difference between looking and exploring.
So aside from great moments like that, my travels have brought a steady stream of ups and downs. I love being here and speaking and hearing German all the time, but I don't really like travelling along, and I really don't like hostels. First, people at hostels aren't German speakers. Second, most of them just want to get drunk constantly, and then all they want to talk about is how frequently they get drunk. So Berlin was nice, because at the end of the day, I could come "home" and go out for dinner or drinks with good people and have a fantastic conversation, in both English and German.
I then picked up and went to Cologne, and checked out the university in Bonn, where I'll likely be going next March. I found the international student office, and went and talked to someone there. It was cool to have her look at the applicants from U of T and have my name righ there on the screen. So I got lots of information from her - stuff that I'd gotten from U of T, but that had been very wishy washy. Bonn's nice, but... I feel like it's like Kitchener-Waterloo, and Berlin's like Toronto. I'd much rather be in the latter, but I have to stick to where the program's the best.
I feel like my German is improving exponentially. It probably isn't, but the fact that I'm actually speaking, and with relative ease, is such a major departure from where I was at 10 days ago, when stringing together a spoken sentence was practically unheard of. My comprehension still isn't great, but I just love being surrounded by the language.
There is, of course, much more to ramble on about, but I'll leave things here for now. Next time, I'll be reporting on my visit to here - http://www.neuschwanstein.com
It's a castle build by King Ludwig II in the 1800s. So Cinderellaesque.