Herzliche Grüße von Berlin!

I’m sorry to have kept everyone waiting. The time is flying here, but I finally got around to writing this. One of the things that I like the most about our experience at FU-Best, is that they give us so many different travel opportunities. Henry already mentioned how we have long weekends for traveling, and we just got back from a weekend in Munich. One of the other opportunities we had was a week-long trip to Dresden and Prague.

Dresden was one of my favorite places that I’ve been, although to be honest, so many of the places we’ve seen have left an amazing impression. Dresden, we stayed at a hostel on the southern edge of the old city. This made it very easy for us to walk almost anywhere in the city. The old city was where many of the iconic sights are located such as the Historic Green Vault, and the Frauenkirche. The old city was completely destroyed during a firebomb raid at the end of WWII, but after the reunification of Germany, an impressive amount of time and resources went into restoring it, which has led to a beautiful downtown area. During the day we toured the city, and at night we would venture north of the river into the new city (which is really older due it not being bombed) to experience the nightlife there. The new city was a vibrant neighborhood that was ethnically diverse and full of people. My favorite event in Dresden was the concert that I got to see at the Frauenkirche with Henry and our new friend Andy Lopez from Santa Barbara CA.

Prague was a beautiful city and only 5 hours from Berlin with Dresden making a perfect halfway point.  The school arranged for us to stay in an international hotel that provided breakfast and dinner which was nice for a bunch of college students trying to hold some semblance of a budget while abroad.

Our first full day in Prague was Tuesday when we got a tour of the Jewish quarter.  It rained the entire time, and so I was thankful to sit in a warm restaurant and treat myself to some traditional Czech food.  That afternoon we went to a museum for the communist past of the Czech people where our tour guide gave us firsthand personal stories of what it was like.  On Wednesday we toured Hradcany castle on the hill above town.  We got to see the imperial residences as well as the cathedral and even the window where the defenestration of Prague took place.  On Thursday we got to see Karlstejn castle.  This along with the Wartburg gave us a great taste of what medieval castles were like.  We weren’t allowed to go into the main tower, however.  Because of the artwork inside, they would only admit 15 people per hour.  That night Henry, Andy and I went to a concert in St. George’s Basilica in Hradcany castle.  On Friday we toured the old town hall, enjoyed a free afternoon, and went on a jazz boat for the evening.

We have been in Germany for 52 days now.  Our conversation skills are starting to catch up with our grammar skills.  We are language mavens after all (professor Balge’s words, not mine).  As always thinking of vocabulary on the fly is probably the hardest part of a conversation.  We’re learning though.  It’s been a tremendous experience so far, and we’re only halfway through.