Well, the first week in a foreign country taking classes and getting around on your own is pretty tiring. I think I’ve gotten lost a total of 12 times and have been late to half the classes we’ve had (literally 2 out of 4). But my host family is great and being very patient as I ask how to get places they’ve explained to me 100 times. Also, my host mom can COOK people. She made this apple crumble tart for dessert the other night and it was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. I’m enjoying getting to visit with them at breakfast and dinner. What great people.. opening their home to stranger that does not speak their language and being so patient with me as I learn. Wow.
In other news, we went to a museum of history about Germany after WW2 and it was very interesting! Accepting their history and cleaning up the ruins is a large part of German culture, and also how the Russians were able to sneak in and split the country apart for s long. (This is all my personal take away from seeing and hearing stories in the museum at Bonn, the previous capital of what was West Germany, so don’t yell at me if I’m not 100% historically accurate). Apparently, the fall of the Berlin Wall was a bigger deal than I thought. My generation overlooks much of the history of Germany because we did not get to experience first hand the turmoil and stress it put not only on the country, but on the world.
For the first weekend, we went to Amsterdam. It was so beautiful and I did have a great time, but I found out that Amsterdam is like the Las Vegas of Europe. Let me tell you, it was a bit crazy. We accidentally walked through the Red Light District... it was an experience. BUT then we found this very pretty park surrounding a canal with weeping willow trees and it was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. I may have fallen asleep in the grass for a few minutes.. That night we went to this really awesome beer/snack place for dinner and it was SO good. They had sweet potato fries with Parmesan and truffle mayonnaise. It tasted angelic. I actually felt guilty for eating them because it was so good.
The next day, we really wanted to go to the Anne Frank Museum but you have to book tickets like months in advance and we tried to get tickets the day of but they were the same time as our train back to Bonn so that didn’t work. We walked passed it though and found out they built the museum AROUND the house so you can’t even see it from the outside. So sad, but it’s okay. We ended up going to this cute cafeteria area that was quite a ways away from the city center and had some delicious food. There was also a choir practice happening in one of the open rooms so that was very neat to have them “serenading” us while we ate.
After, I had some wine and walked the streets and shopped in some of the stores until we made our way back to another park and just enjoyed the beautiful day. For an early dinner we went to this restaurant on the water (SO BEAUTIFUL) and I had the most delicious apple juice I have ever consumed. The sand which was also good, but the apple juice was just another level. Anyway, then it was time to make our way to the train for our departure. Well we made it to our first train but our second one was canceled and so instead of it taking 3 hours to get back... it took 6.5... but that’s just part of the journey as Dr. Wasser says.
Look how lucious the grass was! Can you blame me for falling asleep?
The first restaurant with the truffle fries. Mmm
My wine and assortment of cheese/meat/bread from the cute market
The sushi looked too good to pass up. Amsterdam is also known for having some of the most delicious fish!
This is a random street I thought was cool.
We also went to this place called the Lookout Sunday morning and got to see the city from a birds eye view! SO. PRETTY.
This is my sandwich from the last day. Notice there’s no apple juice in sight? Yeah, I drank it all the second I got it...
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