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Published: January 4th 2009
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Memorial for Hans and Sophie Scholl
They had an anonymous paper they were circuiting throughout campus but the janitor saw them putting them up one day and they, along with a professor, were then killed. After my program in Granada ended, I decided to go to Munich for a couple of weeks to stay with my friend Jill and expose myself to the ways of the germans. Excellent plan. I arrived in Munich on the 18th.
I explored a beautiful church called Theatinerkirche, several awesome christmas markets, the big exciting clock tower in Marienplatz, the powerful memorial for Hans and Sophie Scholl, young students who were killed for standing against Hitler and so many other amazing places.
We spent a day in a beautiful little town called Rothenburg. There I was introduced to an amazing german drink called gluwein, a cookie like a snowball, called a schneeball, that will make you sick if you attempt to eat it all (which some of my friends have done...) and the hilarious lack of german tolerance to all things spicy (ordered a SPICY pasta, absolutely no kick to it... shame). The town was so beautiful and can only be described as a fairytale.
We went to a sweet festival at Tollwood. Much like the Puyallup Fair but without the rides. It is most popular at night and there are tons of shops with crafts and things
like that and tons of food stands and tents. It was really fun to explore. And on christmas eve we celebrated as it were christmas, christmas eve being more important in Germany. We made a huge christmas dinner and then went to Christmas Mass, which was long but pretty. An archbishop was present to speak and therefore we also had lots of insence and beautiful songs.
The next day, Christmas day, I turned 21! We made another big amazing dinner and to top the night off we went and saw the movie "Australia"- which is epic by the way. The next couple of days we went to this gorgeous palace called Nymphenburg and to another palace called Residenz. Nymphenburg was my favorite because it is a huge property with a garden that was beautiful during the winter and covered in snow, but must be absolutely breathtaking in the summer. I also went to the zoo, Munchener Tierpark Hellabrunn, with my friends Maddie and Ellen. It is a gigantic zoo with animals from all over the world. It was definately amazing and I am now pumped to return to my beloved Pt. Defiance zoo and park because I hear we
have a lot of new additions 😊
And, most amazing, we took a hike through the Bavarian Alps. Yes!!! We went to a small town called Mittenwald, which is another fairytale town and hiked over to the lake and a beautiful waterfall. Oh, it was gorgeous, I'll never tire of hiking and admiring all that nature has to offer.
To celebrate the New Year, we had a big dinner and went out to watch the fireworks. Now that was interesting... As many of you know, fireworks are illegal in Tacoma... Not here they aren't. I was honestly a bit worried because drunk people were lighting off fireworks in the plaza whenever they wanted and I don't really like the idea of drunk, incompetent people handling products capable of manning us... Maybe thats just me though. However, we all survived and were able to enjoy the big show. The view was spectacular and there was music and loads of merrymaking. Not a bad night.
And the next couple of days were spent in Salzburg, Austria. I must prelude this by saying that my friend Emily and I had been planning on leaving Salzburg the first night so as
to save money but inadvertantly found ourselves stranded in said foreign country. And without our passports. Now that was fun. It wasn't too bad, could have been worse.
When we arrived in Salzburg we walked across town to the hostel three of my friends were staying in and then we headed up to the fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg. There we walked around in the Abbey used to recreate the set of the abbey in the Sound of Music, the museums with weaponry and artifacts from WWI, a small church for St. Georg and up through the tower with a great (but admitedly foggy) view. And to top the night off, we stopped for dinner in a small restaurant where I'm quite sure my grillwurskl was nothing but a plate of fancy-cut-hotdogs and back to the hostal to enjoy a showing of the Sound of Music. Not bad at all. At the end of the movie, after walking to the train station to find that our schedule was wrong and there were no more trains, after walking into the same bloody ankle deep puddle to and from the train station and marveling at the beauty of the city, we were back
at the hostal and shelling out money for a couple of beds. Fun surprise for our friends 😊 Next day we explored a couple beautiful churches and the cathedral, the house in which Mozart lived most of his life and mirabellgarten, where the statue of Pegasus can be found. It was pretty cold out, but worth it. Its a beautiful city and it was fun walking through the snow and hearing that *crunch crunch* with every step!
Bear in mind now: through out my adventure, I have now been to the Swiss Alps, the Bavarian Alps and now the Austrian Alps (where the fortress is located). How cool is that?!
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