Regensburg

So I wrote a new post about London (below this one) but I wanted to get this one down while it's still fresh.

On Saturday, we FINALLY went to Regensburg. This trip has tried to happen at least two times before but has always been thwarted for various reasons. It is a city in Bavaria about three hours away from Bamberg.

So we planned on catching the 7:30 train, which meant taking the 7:09 bus from our dorm. My friend Miguel and I get to the bus station at that time but unfortunately the bus schedule is different on the weekend, so there is no bus. We talk to our friends Sonca and Sinesa who we were supposed to meet at the train station, they had missed the bus too. Missed bus number 1. Missed train number 1. Keep count, because this number is RIDICULOUS.

Reschedule: the next bus is in one hour. No problem. We are a bit late to the bus stop and have to run after the bus, who thankfully waited for us (it's a 50/50 chance, you never know when they will stop.) We make it to the station on time, take the train to Nuremberg. Luckily our friend, Nurzhan, who had overslept the first bus, was able to make it with us on the second train. We wait in Nuremberg for about 30 minutes and take the train to Regensburg. Sinesa had promised us that there would be 8.5 hours of sun that day, but we didn't see any. However, amazingly, his sources are always correct because when we got to Regensburg, the sun was shining and it did all day.

Traveling with Sonca and Sinesa is the best because they always do research before our day trips, and we just have to follow along with them. It's quite like a family vacation, only we all like each other and don't fight (usually.) They knew about this random building that looked like the Parthenon or something on this hill. So we took a bus out to this place (maybe 20 minutes outside of Regensburg) and the bus dropped us off on this random street. We had to hike (we half-heartedly and unsuccessfully tried to hitch-hike.) The hike wasn't too long, but we were pretty wimpy. Here's the place we went to from above and below:


Random, right? And it was called Walhalla, which we all thought was hilarious because it sounds like a Hawaiian name, not German at all. A sign said it comes from Nordic mythology. Inside was so dumb, it's just lined with busts of famous Germans or something that costs 3 euros to see. We did not pay that. Once we were down below, like the second picture, we saw a bride and groom taking pictures and waved at them and they waved back and were dancing and stuff.

We got a little bit lost on our way back to the bus stop, but once we got there we had about 45 minutes to kill. Some people wanted to explore a bit, but given our luck so far with transportation, I wanted to stick close to the bus stop. A bus from the line we needed pulled around the corner after we had been waiting about 15 minutes, but it was too far away for us to catch it. Sinesa was shouting "NOOO! OH NO!!! THE BUS!!!" and afterwards we all remarked how we got really scared when he yelled that, like there was a big animal or someone was dying or something. Missed bus number 2.

Once we got back into town, we ate some delicious pizzas. We had seen the restaurant when we first got into town and noticed how big the pizzas looked. Then we all wanted pizza all day. It was delicious and quite classy for us poor Erasmus students. We went over to see a bridge and took some photos. We also saw the same bride and groom from earlier, and we all apparently forgot how to talk and just shouted "Wallhalla! Whhallalhah! Wallhahhaallu!" at them at the same time. I guess we thought they'd know what we were talking about but then just smiled quizzically at us and kept walking. Hilarious.

It was a beautiful day and we debated staying there later, but we wanted to make it back to Erlangen for a beer festival. Someone at the tourist office had told us about the best ice cream in town, so we planned on going there and then to the bus. Well the ice cream place was really busy and so we went to another place. At this point we are REALLY short on time to get the bus so mom and dad (Sonca and Sinesa) were like you have one minute to get ice cream. We all got ice cream cones (Nurzhan and Miguel got Red Bull flavored ice cream, yuck! I got peppermint and Nutella...awesome combination) and then as we're going back to the train station, we're walking really fast and Sinesa says, we have to run! So we are all running down this main street in Regensburg, alternating between laughing so hard, licking ice cream cones, and trying not to puke from all the pizza, beer and wine we had eaten. BUT WE MADE IT. And with like 3 minutes to spare. We just sat on the train and laughed for like 10 minutes straight about how ridiculous that was.

When we were nearly back in Nuremberg, Sinesa looked at the timetable and saw that we had ONE minute to make the train to Erlangen (which is halfway between Nuremberg and Bamberg.) So we were all, alright it's game time and run off the train. However, we didn't have the right platform number, so this is how we ran (in one minute): Down the steps from platform 17, up the steps to platform 13, down the steps of platform 13, up the steps to platform 4 and get there JUST as the train is pulling away. Missed train number 2. Insane.

We have about one hour to kill in Nuremberg, but by this point we are not taking any chances. We went a little bit into town but come back at least 30 minutes before our train. It's good too, because the train was really packed because of the beer festival. Everyone was wearing traditional German clothes, including actual leather lederhosen, which was really cool to see. The bierfest was cool but really crowded and we were really tired, so we only stayed about an hour or so. We got to our train about an hour early. No WAY we were missing anything again or running again. Right when we got back to the train station, it started pouring rain and everyone was coming in soaked. Luckily we missed that.

Such a long but great day. This group travels really well together, so we're planning many more trips.

Can't believe this post was so long! I think it's longer than the entire London post. (see below)

London

Okay folks, here goes. I have told most people these things but for those unfortunate few who haven't heard my tales I will write them here again.

So I met the group on Sunday, May 16 in Munich to fly to London. There were 19 students overall, (11 girls and 8 boys) and five chaperones. Two are teachers at the Montessori school (Thomas and Sabrina), one is a German student studying English in Münster (Lisa) and one was a German student living at the friary in London where we stayed (Jonathan.) If you've never traveled with a group of 19 13-15 year olds, it is quite interesting, to say the least. They are always running away! I found myself just grabbing any person nearby who appeared to be of comparable height and making them stay with the group. But we managed to make it to the friar (which, if you're familiar at all with London, is in the East End Docklands area, near Stratford) by 1 am London time (one hour behind Munich time.)

As I'm writing this, I don't really think I need to give a day-by-day recap, I don't really think anyone wants to read it and I don't particularly want to write it. Especially since my predilection to wordiness is somewhat charming whilst telling stories but a bit tedious in written discourses. Let me just go by subjects I suppose.

The kids:

They hated group photos! Every group photo they all have really grumpy expressions...haha.

They were really great! We had lessons each morning from 9:15-12:15 and the time seemed to fly by. We had a grammar book, which we taught for about one hour, and then an activities book that we did for the rest of the time. I have had absolutely no experience teaching English, but the kids were bright and we were able to muddle through, and I think they learned at least a little something.
There was a fair amount of drama, particularly involving the girls and gossip and hurt feelings, but overall it worked out much better than it sounds on paper, taking a huge group of teenagers to a foreign country. The kids spoke a mile a minute in German, so much of the time I spent just twiddling my thumbs and laughing when other people laughed. I think I probably learned more German on this trip than the whole rest of my time in Bamberg!

The sights:

View from London Eye


Night walk


Cambridge


Natural History Museum

We saw EVERYTHING in London, I'm pretty sure. We went to: Tower of London, London Bridge, Queens Walk, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Carnaby Street, London Eye, Madame Tussaud's, Oxford Circus, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern, Natural History Museum, Camden Town, East End Market, Hindu Temple, Canary Wharf, Greenwich, day trip to Cambridge...I don't even know. We went everywhere, we were always running around. It was really cool. Since the trip was paid for, I went on things that I probably wouldn't have gone on my own (London Eye, Madame Tussaud's) and that was fun. The weather was amazing! It was sunny the entire time and really warm, even hot. For a sunshine-loving, sunshine-deprived girl like myself, it was paradise. And the markets! We went to so many different markets. I loved them all! One, we went to on the last Sunday, was awesome. There was all sorts of vintage clothes, handmade clothes and gourmet foods.

Lisa:

All the chaperones, Jonathan, Sabrina, Thomas, Lisa and me


Wine Party in the garden

So the girl from Münster, Lisa, was the coolest. We got along really well and just clicked immediately. It was so wonderful having her there. The other two leaders, while we also all got along really well, were much busier than us, so Lisa and I were built-in hanging out partners. We had one free afternoon, and we had so much fun. We went shopping on Oxford Street (Top Shop, which was amazing but nearly broke my heart from the prices. Imagine you are somewhere with everything you'd ever want or dream of, but instead of being on sale it's the opposite of a sale with a 50% markup. That's what shopping in London with the pound is. Such an awesome store.) Then we had a great dinner in Soho and met the rest of the group at Tate Modern. After that we took a nighttime walk along the Thames and saw everything at night, which was beautiful! Lisa and I spent about 50% of our time anywhere we went getting coffee. I think we tried coffee everywhere in London. Nice to have a fellow obsessor around. We also hung out all day in Cambridge, which was really beautiful. I am planning on visiting her in Münster sometime before I go home.

Whew. So much happened but I can't even begin to organize the rest. Be sure to look at my picture on Facebook. It was, in short, the most perfect trip. Nice to get out of Bamberg, nice to be somewhere warm, nice to speak English, nice to have a great new friend, nice to not have to worry about money...really just perfect. I am planning on going to Munich in July for a little reunion.

London!

I promise I will be coming at you soon with a LONG post about the wonders of London. But until then here's a link to the blog that was made for the parents of the children on the trip. It even contains some preliminary photos.

http://monteathelping.blogspot.com/

In case anyone is wondering, Project Eat My Perishables is going along swimmingly! Since I am leaving for London (for 10 days!) on Saturday, I put myself on a strict plan to finish all my perishable food items without anything going bad and without running out of food. Well I have just Friday left and exactly enough fresh food to last me. High five! Look who's a grownup now.

So you may or may not be aware that the euro is having quite the difficulty right now (thanks, Greece.) This article in the Economist explains a bit about the dollar against other currencies, which is, in fact, not doing so bad. I took the liberty of doctoring their accompanying graphic to illustrate my own situation.


Not a bad time to be American in Europe.

Hi Dad. :-)

Ok, update for y'all. Ugh, I hate the word y'all. Sorry, southerners. It's just unappealing to me.
Not too much going on, just no classes ever. This week I had class two times. What? It's so weird. Next week I think I have one class, then NO CLASS because I'm going to LONDON (and getting super excited about it...especially since I have a ticket and everything now.) Today I went to a flea market. It was really cool. There was all sorts of cool antique things. I wanted to buy everything for my future home (that I plan on buying and furnishing in like, 10 years) but alas, I didn't buy anything. There were cool lamps and tapestries and tons and tons of steins. If anyone wants a stein, let me know because there is a major overload here. Actually I don't know if anyone is expecting souvenirs but I kind of hope not because I'm not really planning on buying any because 1) I hate trinkets and 2) My bag was already almost overweight on the way here so I don't really have a lot of room to lug home shotglasses and spoons and whatnot.

So tomorrow we are going to Regensburg (you can Google it if you want to know about it.) It's about 2 hours from Bamberg. It's in Bavaria so we can go with the Bavaria ticket which, by the way, is the absolute jam. 28 euros for 5 people, all day! It's awesome, we have definitely been taking advantage of it. Apparently we can also go to Salzburg with it (just over the Austrian border) so we are planning on doing that someday.

Hope this satiates your curiosity! Haha. I know that so far I haven't really had many adventures to share, but I am definitely trying to coordinate some travels in the future so I'll have much more to tell you then.