Germany!!!

Hey everyone!
I'm finally back from my first adventures outside of Copenhagen in the lovely Germany. I first went to Munich with two of my GLOBE friends and then to Berlin for the first GLOBE study trip.

So here it goes:

Destination 1: Munich aka Oktoberfest 2008
Our oktoberfest adventure first started when we boarded the night train thursday night (Sept. 25). Simone, Weck, two random Danes, and I shared a 6 person compartment, and our compartment was conveniently located next to a compartment full of American boys who began partying long before we arrived in Munich the next day at around 9 am. We didn't start drinking immediately when we first got onto the train, because we knew that we had the rest of the night to do that as well as the next day. However, about an hour or two into the train ride and after chatting and getting to know the two Danes, we started drinking along with the rest of the people in our train car. Simone and I spent some time wandering around the train meeting alot of cool people, many of from the US, one who was a student at cbs, and a few creepers who kept wandering into our compartment. At around 1 ish things started to die down and we all tried to get some sleep. Trying to sleep in that compartment has just topped my list of one of the worst sleeping nights of my life. Throughout the whole night, weck, one of the danes, and I kept switching sleeping positions, and every position i tried to sleep in would hurt after a few minutes. I went to use the bathroom at around 4 or 5 am, and as I was walking by the other compartments, I could see the other passengers who also couldn't fall asleep open their eyes showing their agreement that this was one of the worst sleeping nights...ever. But even tho sleeping wasn't so fun, the whole night train experience was really cool, and I'd recommend it to anyone!

So after we arrived in Munich, we parted ways with the Danes we met and Simone, Weck, and I headed to the park where Oktoberfest was located. I don't know if any of you have an idea of what Oktoberfest is like, but i had no idea or even an image of what it was going to be like except for maybe the tents, which i had seen an imitation of at busch gardens. Anyways, Oktoberfest is a lot like the North Carolina State Fair, in that there are a lot of carnival rides, lots of AMAZING fast food, and lots of people (later in the day). However, at oktoberfest, the carnival rides are a little better, there are huge"tents" with tables and tables where ppl drink liter size cups of beer, and the food was all very Bavarian or at least German consisting of white sausages, crepes, strudels, nuts, and even more kinds of sausages. Also, everyone that's not a tourist walks around in Bavarian outfits (lederhosen for guys and dirndls for girls). So with that image in mind, we wandered around eating food and riding only one or two rides for a good few hours. At around 2 pm, we decided to find a tent that we could get into, which we kinda knew would be an impossible task, because you either had to wait a reallllly long time or reserve seats almost a year in advance. Since we were only going to be there for the day, we opted for sitting at the tables outside one of tents and commenced our oktoberfest drinking. I only had about 1 and a half liter "Mass" or one liter beer mug. So we spent a good few hours drinking and mingling with the Norwegian people we met at our table. I don't even know exactly what we did for those hours, but it was really fun, and we got some good pictures and contact info out of the very interesting and sorta strange norwegians we met. After that we ate some more, bought some souvenirs, and wandered around the city of Munich. We had one successful attempt at finding a church and an unsuccessful attempt at trying to get to a famous Munich church that had the devil's food print in it. We ended our time at Oktoberfest by riding the ferris wheel overlooking Munich and the park, and I also had another sausage sandwich with mustard :) By the time we got onto our night train back to Copenhagen at around 11 pm, we were EXHAUSTED. Our ICE night train back (with an hour layover) was much more conducive to our physical and mental state; the seats were big and spacious, with a layout like an airplane's. Also our ICE train drove onto a ferry, for which we had to get off the train (inside the ferry) and go up on deck. We finally got back to copenhagen around 2 pm on Saturday. So even though it was only a two day adventure, I came back with a bavarian hat, cookie (that i hope doesn't mold), a Mass glass, a t-shirt, and a souvenir or two for my family and some great memories!

Here are some pictures:




Destination 2: Berlin!
After arriving back from Munich saturday afternoon, that gave me just enough to relax for a few hours, catch up on email and news, and pack for my 6 day GLOBE trip to Berlin. We left copenhagen around 10 am Sunday morning. I definitely was still exhausted from Oktoberfest at that point, but i was also really excited about all the things that we were going to do in Berlin. Just a few general thoughts about Berlin: I really like the city a lot. It's definitely a place I'd rather visit than copenhagen (i'd much rather live in copenhagen than visit it). It's a city where you can actually feel and get a sense of how much history it has and how important it was in European history. You can also really see the difference between the East and West sides of Berlin. That being said, I got to see a lot of Berlin and in many perspectives. As part of the planned GLOBE activities, we went to numerous company lectures and presentations. Some were good and some were not....some had food and drinks!...and some did not... Companies we visited included Vattenfall and Deutsche Bahn. We also got to go to the Bundestag, which is the German parliament building, the one that went up in flames when Hitler took over. On our free time, we went to the Jewish Museum, holocaust memorial, the berliner dome and its crypt, and the Pergamum museum. The Pergamum museum has the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, which is honestly one of the most breathtaking sites I've ever seen. I wasn't allowed to get a picture of it, but if you ever have the chance to go see it, it's magnificent. I was also pretty impressed with our hostel because it was in a great location, right next to the main shopping street. it also had its own bar that we frequently went to when no big plans were made to go out. Also very close by to our hostel, there was an awesome nightclub called Maxima. It was HUGE, within the nightclub there were about 5 different bars/areas, and two main dancefloors, not to mention the music was great too. We went there on two different nights, trying to get as many of hte globers to go as possible.

In the end, all 45 of the globers were never together for more than one or two times outside of the mandatory activities. However, that was kinda expected. the study trip was amazing and it really brought the globers even closer together. I shared a room with 8 other female globers, and so the people in my room specifically got a lot closer. Traveling around Berlin was also great and traveling/experiencing something new with globers was another step in the globe experience. I'm just really happy to be doing this program. I know i've said that so many times, but it's true.

Here are some pictures of my trip to Berlin:




I got back to room around 1:30 am (between friday and saturday). I just had my final exam for my economics class this morning and now i have one more exam on thursday. I have to admit that when I first left copenhagen to go Munich two thursdays ago, I was ready for my traveling adventures to begin, but returning to copenhagen last saturday and walking around copenhagen after being away for about a week and a half, felt like i was returning home for a long time. And now it seems so soon that I'll be leaving for Italy this thursday for another week and a half for our midterm break. So that's really what i've been up to for the past week and a half!

until next time....