Dankeschön

On November 11th, Emily didn't have class because Armistice Day, celebrating the end of WWI, is a national holiday in France. So to celebrate and to take advantage of a long weekend, Emily and her friends Lexy, Abby, Emma, and I headed to Germany. 


We stayed in Munich at a rather nice hostel. The first full day there, we actually made a day trip to Salzburg. It was raining, but still lovely. A friend of Lexy's who was spending the semester there showed us around. We ate sausage and big pretzel's and drank hot chocolate and visited a few of the Sound of Music sights and where Mozart once lived.


(Me with Emily & her friends)            (river in Salzburg)

The next day we took a walking tour of Munich. Thankfully the weather was quite nice. The tour was very insightful. We didn't see everything, Munich is a good-sized city, but we saw and learned a lot. Interestingly, our tour guide was from Houston, TX. Among the things we saw were the location of the Beer Hall Putsch, the old town hall with its glockenspiel, and St. Peter's (oldest church in Munich, I think, and where Pope Benedict XVI held mass as a bishop before becoming Pope), and the Marienplatz. After the tour we visited part of the Englisher Garten and watched people surfing on the river (apparently Jack Johnson surfed there once). We learned a little history of the kings of Bavaria, of the rise of and resistance against the Nazis, Kristallnacht, old Bavarian maypole traditions, and about the Bavarian's love for beer. That evening, Emily and her friends decided to take in some real Bavarian culture by visiting the oldest beer hall in Munich- Augustiner Keller. Munich is a very interesting city, culturally and historically. Though most of its buildings were destroyed during WWII, they rebuilt them in the old Bavarian-style architecture. Munich is often swarming with visitors from around the world (most especially during Oktoberfest), but is still distinctly German. And like the rest of Germany, it wears its history on its sleeve, still working to come to terms with events of the past century.


Emily wishes she could have stayed longer. She said this has been her favorite trip so far. She also says she wants to learn German. If we had had a few more days there, we would have visited Dauchau and Neuschwanstein Castle (the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle). Guess we have a few good reasons to go back!

Left to right: 1. entrance to long road leading to the Marienplatz. Big shopping area; 2. old town hall; 3. line down doger's lane commemorating the resistance to the Nazis

Yo Quiero España

Our next adventure took us to Barcelona, Spain. It was warm (at least compared to France, not necessarily compared to Texas), sunny, and lively.

Unfortunately, Emily got sick when we got there, so she didn't enjoy it as much as she could have, but she still wants to go back. I hope she brings me!

We visited Las Ramblas, Parc Guel, la Sagrada Familia, the port, and the beach. Emily ate tapas and paella and drank pineapple juice. The beach was beautiful, and swarming with people offering massages, drinks, hairdos, and souvenirs. Las Ramblas has a lot of interesting human statues. Here are some pictures:

 

Erin Go Bragh

Sorry I haven't posted in ages, but that's because I've been busy seeing the world (well, Europe at least) with Emily.

Our first big, out of the country trip was to southern Ireland. It's beautiful.

  

We left Friday after Emily's class and unfortunately spent so much time traveling, we didn't get to Cobh to meet Emily's friend Bri until midnight. We did however, use about 6 different forms of public transportation in one day (tram, coach, plane, city bus, train, and taxi). I feel like that has to be some kind of record. Anyway, Emily met Bri in Ireland because she was spending the week following around a band named Ceann. They're Americans but they do a lot of Irishy kind of music. Emily and I met Bri and them in Cobh and then the next day accompanied them to Killarney and went on the Ring of Kerry, which is a tour through the Irish countryside near Killarney and it is in one word: gorgeous. Sadly, we didn't get to see much of the city though.

                                              

(me with Emily & Bri)

The next day, Bri and the group went to Shannon to fly back to the states while Em and I went to Cork. There, we stayed with Sharon, Bri's roommate from the time she studied abroad in Cork. We visited Blarney castle, Emily kissed the Blarney Stone, and the Cork County Jail. That night was Halloween and she and Sharon and some of Sharon's friends went out to the pubs, but not for too late though because they had class the next day. Emily slept about 2 hours then had to get up to catch a 5am train back to Dublin so she could fly back to France.

All in all, we felt like we did not experience enough of Ireland, but liked what we did. I hope I get to back sometime.