Back from Dublin and Munich

I would say that one of my main goals when I came to Germany was to see or try something new as much as I could, in other words: I wanted to travel. And that's exactly what I've accomplished for my Easter break. So far (the break is over on Monday) I've made it to 5 different countries...and I'll be explaining which ones in good time. So I don't write my fingers off, so I'm going to try and sum things up the best I can...or be as succinct as possible.

From March 23rd to 26th (Monday to Friday), I was in Dublin, Ireland. In retrospect, the week seemed to fly by, but in the moment, the week seemed to feel much longer. I had some mixed emotions during the week. Number 1: I hadn't seen my old English class since I switched families. Number 2: I was flying to Munich to see my family the upcoming Saturday. But as the week went on, I realized my anxiety wasn't necessary, rather just human nature. But to move onto my experience in Dublin...nothing stuck out as peculiar to me except for the traffic lights (the sound that it makes when you're allowed to cross the street) and that they drive on the opposite of the street. But during the week, I did more tours than I could count including: a city tour, a tour of the Wicklow Mountains, the Guinness Factory (where I got a complimentary Guinness), the Jameson Distillery (where I received a certificate saying that I'm an official Jameson Whiskey tester), the Book of Kells, Trinity College, and Dublin Castle. I also somehow managed to get my group and I a complimentary (a.k.a free) tour of Kilmainham Gaol, the prison in Dublin. You could describe Dublin as a compact city to where you can basically work to anything in town. It was a very pretty city, especially with the River Liffey running through the middle of the city. It felt good to be able to understand just about everything that my old classmates were conversing about in German, considering that was still pretty difficult after 3 months of being in Germany. In fact, I was responsible for translating for the Germans into English...and I had the opposite task in Munich with my American family. Dublin was really a wonderful time, and the city was gorgeous. We even lucked out weather-wise!


So the very next day, where I wasn't even home for twelve hours, I packed my suitcase for Munich and was back at Düsseldorf Airport going to fly to Munich. It was mind-boggling to think that I would see, hug, and talk face-to-face with my family for the first time since September. My family and I e-mail and skype, but it's different when it's person-to-person. My family and I saw Munich forwards and backwards. We travelled by foot, by bike, by car, by tram, by train, and by subway! We visited Dachau (the concentration camp), Salzburg, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Zugspitze, Oberammergau, and the Starnberger See (Lake). In Munich we saw the BMW Museum, the English Garden , Nymphenburg Palace,
the Olympic Park (from the 1972 Olympics) and ate at many breweries, including the well-known Hofbräuhaus, and Augustiner Keller. In Salzburg we did a "Sound of Music" tour that brought us around and outside the city of Salzburg to the places where scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed.
Salzburg, with the river through the middle of the city, had reminded me a lot of Dublin. In Nuremberg, we toured the Imperial Castle, and saw the center city, where we found Weißbergergasse (the only street in Nuremberg not destroyed after World War II and the prettiest street I've seen in all of Germany thus far) and even a piece of the Berlin Wall! A nice change of plans I had made to the plans for Tuesday were that we went to Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. We needed to go on a clear day to get great views, and my goodness were they spectacular! I feel like my pictures don't do them justice. There we ate at the highest beer garden in Germany, and due to the altitude, we all had a bit of a headache or lack of oxygen. Oberammergau was a stop along the way home from the Zugspitze, and this town is well-known for the Passion Play that they put on every ten years (because they prayed to God if they would be spared from the plague, they would promise to perform this reenactment every decade).
On Easter we went to the Starnberger See, and it was a gorgeous lake with the small towns surronding it, including a castle and a few cathedrals we got to see. And to conclude the trip, my host parents drove down to Munich to get to meet my family. And I wasn't sure how it would all work out, but it everyone seemed to get along even better than I hoped. And Claude introduced Brian and I to Weizer Beer, which is, I believe, considered to be a sweet beer.

The time in Munich that I spent with my family reminded me a bit more of how your family is and will always be your family. My brother is still nocturnal; my Dad will watch a movie (doesn't matter what language: German, French, Spanish, English, etc.) before going to bed; and my Mom will always keep everything together and think of the words I can't think of in English. It had been the first time a bee had flown around me since sometime in November, so Pop Joe and the rest of my family became predominant in my thoughts. But it was a special moment because my CBYX buddy, Emily, came to Munich and met my family as well and she understood the bee's significance to me. On another note, I had so many laughs and frustrations with my family, it was great to have the time to catch up with them...chat about stuff you forget to mention in Skype and such. It was also to see how they adjusted without me being there for the past six months and now I'm noticing how I had to adapt as well. But I would consider this "adjustments" something good.

The reality of my family coming was also a wake up call to tell me that my time in Germany seems to be winding down faster and faster. I have less than 100 days before I'm on American soil again. I had to have the discussion of which college I would decide on which college I want to choose, and what I hope to do and potentially accomplish there. I've come to the decision of The College of New Jersey, if you're wondering. And even though reality is approaching, I'm going to stay afloat and enjoy the time I have in Germany.

But that only sums up the first two weeks of my spring break. On Tuesday, I went to Burg Linn (the "hunting" castle that is in Krefeld) with Lucka and a couple AFS folk. And on Wednesday, Domi, her boyfriend, Marie, and I went to the Netherlands to the coast and saw Middleburg, Domburg, and Veere. (We drove through Belgium...making it my fifth country in two weeks!) I tried fried fish (in German "Backfisch", not exactly sure about that in English), french fries, and ice cream. And even though it doesn't sound really healthy, they are specialties of the Netherlands, so naturally I had to try them! I even tried on a pair of clogs. But the Netherlands felt like a completely different planet when you compare it to their German neighbors. I found the Dutch language funny to listen to. The food was great. The architecture was quaint and creative with the different doors, shutters, and façades of the buildings. The canals and bikes everywhere gave the area a "small-town" feel, and the complete opposite of Munich.

I'm off to Braunschweig tomorrow for the weekend to visit another CBYXer. That will conclude my spring break...and I would consider this break to be quite a blessing all that I have done. And a quick note on Easter celebrations in Germany. Even though I didn't "properly celebrate a 'traditional' Easter. I'm aware Germans going to church on Saturday evening, and the family gathers on Easter Sunday...usually to eat dinner.


Schönes Wochenende,
Matt