Salzburg and Munich- Wednesday 13th/Thursday 14th April

Hi Guys!

I noticed that nobody has done the blog for these days and I have some spare time on my hands, so I might as well do it. Everyone ready for a wall of text? Ill try my best to put paragraphs in!

So the Wednesday of last week was the day that we went to Salzburg, which is in Austria, about a 45 minute drive away from our hostel. Unfortunately by this stage in the week many of us were feeling a little under the weather, and even more unfortunate was the negative temperatures we felt all through the morning, however the snow was fantastic to see, none of us expected to see such a huge amount of snow blanketing the ground in the middle of Salzburg! So we met with our tour guide after walking around the Do Re Mi garden from The Sound of Music, and started walking through city, after we spotetd Mozarts old residence we walked over the Salzach river and then to the Getriedegasse, an old street in the centre of the old town of Salzburg, where we all found refuge from the cold in Macdonalds. After a quick break we continued, reaching yet another fountain from the Sound of Music, and then we went into the Salzburg Cathedral, which was one of many great, elegant buildings dotted aroudn the old town. We also spotted Mozarts birthplace, and then approached the large hill upon which the fortress, Hohensalzburg, is situated.

Usually you can take a tram up the hill in around 53 seconds, but the guide ecstatically told us that it was under rennovation so it could do the job in 48 seconds when it is reopened in a few days. Unfortunately for us, this meant it would take us about 15 minutes to get up by walking, and this hill would soon become our least favourite hill in Salzburg! But once we were up the views were breathtaking, and we were somewhat sheltered from the snow within the fortress walls. After a short tour around the fortress, which included a torture room that the guide claimed was never used, we reached the highest tower of the fortress from which we could get a full 360° view of Salzburg and the Alps, but we had to leave quickly because the wind picked up and started chucking snow in our faces yet again.

The journey down the hill was somewhat easier than the climb up to the fortress, and the guide kindly took us back to Getriedegasse, where we had a few hours to shop, most of which was felt finding a place to shelter from the cold, Macdonalds was the perfect refuge yet again. We also went in pursuit of the real Mozart chocolates, as a patent was never made on them, so there are numerous shops that claim to have the real deal, but have fakes! But with the advice from the guide, to look for the Fürst Chocolates with blue and silver wrapping, we eventually found them. After our shopping we went back on the bus and back to our hostel- der Schapbachhof- and went to bed on time, we promise...

The Thursday was our day in Munich, and this trip was a little longer, about 2 hours. The landscape was still filled with snow, but luckily the centre of Munich was snow-less, and we could shed some of the jackets and jumpers we had brought, expecting another sub-zero temperature day. In the centre of Marienplatz we met our guide, who was a Texan living in Munich, who was very funny, although some of his facts about Munich seemed quite strange. He took us to the Frauenkirche, which was commisioned by Satan, according to the guide. However this story was just a legend, and had to do with the footprint of the architect in the vestibule of the church, and how no windows were visible from this position, the perfect dark, scary place for the devil to do his bidding, when infact there were many windows, but were all hidden by columns. Oh, and the devil speaks like Christopher Walken according to our guide, another fun fact.

So after this we walked back to Marienplatz, where we saw the famous Glockenspiel, which contains a wedding scene, two jousters who move unbelievably slow, and some barrelmakers who spin around a thrusting jester, it was certainly a cultural experience! The guide claimed that the finale of the Glockenspiel was when a golden eagle bursts out of the new town hall, flys around the square, turns the golden statue of Mary into David Hasselhoff, who then sings to us, but unfortunately none of us saw that bit! After that we walked to the Viktualienmarkt, the market where the most fantastic smelling foods are sold, surrounding a beer garden and a Maypole, which also has another funny story behind it. According to the guide, if your maypole is stolen, the only way to get it back was to throw a party for the thief with lots of food and beer for free, but the Viktualienmarkt maypole was a bit big for us to cart of unnoticed.

We kept walking past a Jewish Temple and other memorials, and then made it to the Hofbräuhaus, the highlight of the day! The biggest beer hall in Munich, it is filled with jovial old Bavarians with awesome moustaches and the sound of the Bavarian band playing in the centre of the room. Frau Zimmer ordered us all Weißwurst, a Bavarian food, which are white boiled sausages, which were certainly interesting to eat. We all had a lot of fun, and most of us enjoyed the food, but for some Weißwurst were not the most appealing meal. After the Hofbräuhaus we all had some time for shopping, and some of us went up St. Peters Church, which was about 300 steps up, but had amazing views. After our freetime, we went back on the bus and had another 2 hour drive back to our hostel, where we enjoyed our last night, some by going to bed early and having a great sleep, and others by staying up past midnight and having a few hours rest!

Of course the Friday was less spectacular, but we all had another great 10 hour bus trip back to Werder, where we all set off on another eventful weekend. We dont have long until we have to come back to New Zealand, so we are trying to enjoy ourselves as much as we can and experience life in Germany to the fullest. Bis bald!

Konigsee and Obersalzberg - Tuesday 12th April

Tuesday was our first day in Bavaria. When we woke up it was snowing, which was a nice surprise for everyone, but maybe a few got a little too excited.. Unfortunatly by the time we got on the bus to head off to the Königsee it was just raining and it rained for the rest of the day. We arrived in Schönau and went out on the boat trip to the old church of St. Bartolemä on the other side of the lake. On the way over the captain of the boat played the trumpet between two huge cliff faces we passed between, to show how it echoed. The sound kept going back and forth for about 30 seconds which was pretty cool. On the other side there was just the church, a souvenir shop and a few other buildings. After the boat trip we went from the town of Schönau to the luge track. Sadly the luge track was closed because it was too wet, but nearby there was a Restaurant where we had lunch. From there we could look out over the town of Berchtesgaden (I think), and the Bavarian alps. After eating a huge amount of food we went over to the Obersalzberg, a few minutes away. This is where Hitler and a few other high ranking Nazis had houses, and a building where they could act as Government. We did a tour of the Museum and then around the bunker underneath, which was really cool. It was never finished, and there is still graffiti from allied soldiers that came through in 1945. After that we went down to Berchtesgaden, where we had free-time to go to the supermarket and get supplies for the week. Then we went back to the hostel. Thats pretty much it. The bad weather and freezing temperatures didnt stop us having a great time. -Finlay.

Bayern

We have arrived in the mountains of Bavaria (Schoenau am Koenigssee). They are very impressive after the flat land in and around Berlin. The hostel we are staying in is very nice, and very secluded. Because of this we will not have an internet connection until Friday. Everyone is fine and we will post more detailed information about our activities in Bayern once we return to Werder. Many of the students were extremely excited to see snow fall for the first time, which means it is very cold here. Tomorrow we will go to Salzburg in Austria and then Muenchen on Thursday.

On Friday after getting back from Berlin I changed hosts from Marcel to Marie because Marie and her father were taking me to a concert. I was absolutely blown away by how awesome Marie's house is and her whole family is also really nice and easy to get along with. After settling into the huge room they gave me Marie and I rode bikes to her grandparent's house and they showed me through their huge property which seemed to contain about 10 separate houses. (This may have actually happened on Saturday, my memory is a bit broken.) Later that night I went to the Jamiroquai concert with Marie and her Dad. I really enjoyed it although we had to stand up for about 3 hours and by the end my back hurt. After the concert Marie and I went to the house of one of her friends and I met some people then we went home and I slept.

On Saturday morning we prepared a bonfire for Saturday night. The rest of the day we mainly just relaxed and didn't do too much which was a relief after a very busy week. That night all the New Zealand students and their hosts plus a couple of Marie's other friends came around for a party and bonfire. The party went well and I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time.

Today(Sunday) I woke up pretty late then after breakfast I went with Marie's family to the "Spagelmarkt"? I think that's what it's called. It's to do with asparagus. It was mainly just a big market/fair thing with lots of people trying to sell off their unwanted junk. However there was also some good food and I had a Bratwurst which I discovered is pretty much just a barbecued sausage like we have in New Zealand. There was also a big forest thing right beside the fair with semi-wild deer and pigs in it. They were fenced off. The forest has a high ropes course in it like the one in that place in New Zealand that I forgot the name of. Hopefully some of the people reading this know what I mean. My host family said they're going to take me there next week which will be cool. I think Abby and Hayley said they did it yesterday. Finally at about 3 some of Marie's friends came round and we had a barbecue then they went home and then I wrote this/am writing this.

So far Germany has been an amazing experience and I'm not looking forward to it ending.

The End.

By Charlie

Oh and I didn't take any photos this weekend so I'm not going to post any photos.

Am Wochenende...

The First Weekend In Germany

On Saturday I woke up feeling quite tired from the movie night at Svens that half our group went to, and i think everyone else that came probably felt the same. I told myself i was in Germany (!!!) and was immediately wide awake and ready for whatever.

At about 11 o'clock my host mother Gabi, my host sister Jessi and i drove to Potsdam for a girls day out ie. shopping. Gabi knew i'd be tired so she set out an easy-going day for me. We went to a mall called Sterncenter and i bought lots of clothes from H&M (hopefully not too much). Jessi and i bought each other matching bracelets that we must always wear to remember each other. :) Afterwards we bought some Jellybellies (which have slightly different flavours here) and a chocolate sundae from McDonalds. I still haven't tried the Magnum McFlurry which i think everyone else is dying to too.

It was five when we got home (oh, how time flies when shopping) and Jessi and i played Wii for a hour. I lost most of the time. :( We got changed for Marie's party but first the whole family and i went to see the Handball game between HV G.-W Werder and Grünheider SV at Ernst-Haeckel Gymnasium. I had never seen handball before and i had lots of fun cheering for Werder. I only saw 20 minutes of it but it seemed like Grünheider was always a little ahead.

Jessi and i left at halftime to go to Marie's party and we arrived fashionably late. It was outside and i was soo glad i brought two jackets and wore both. A big bonfire was set up with tonnes of wood around and awful music playing. There was lots of laughter and everyone got to know each other better. The food was mostly popcorn and salads, and the marshmallows couldn't be toasted as we were getting toasted ourselves in the heat of the massive fire. Overall, good party. :)

We got home at 11 something and i was very "K.O", as they say here. I passed out soon after and was woken up at 9-ish. We had another wonderful breakfast of cereal, a boiled egg, toast, bread and spreads, strawberries and red Christmas tea. Marcel (Jessi's boyfriend) accompanied us for the day.

We had a train to Berlin to catch at 10.20 and we were late. We broke a few speed limits and caught it just in time. We arrived somewhere and got lost for 45 mins in train stations (lol) but thankfully we didn't have any reservations for the day. Gabi and Torsten told us they had a surprise for me and Jessi didn't know either and spent the whole day guessing what it could be.

The first place we went to was Madame Tussauds. I had lots of fun taking silly pictures and learning how the wax firgures were made. Most of them looked really real but some people i couldn't recognise at all. I bought a photo of us all for keepsakes and i even got a wax hand of my own hand made. Marcel and Jessie got one of them holding hands. It only cost €7.50, unlike the bobbleheads of yourself which were €65 a pop. Its pretty cool, although hollow, and i will use it as a jewellery holder. Afterwards we got lost with the trains again for a while but finally reached Mariendorf at some point for the best currywurst in Berlin. We walked past a doner kebab shop that had 50 people waiting in line, and the queue for the currywurst at Curry 36° wasn't short either. Apparently lots of actors and congressmen come to eat lunch there too. All of us ate two currywursts with french fries, sauce and mayo. It was delicious. :D

We caught another train, to Alexander Platz this time, and it was now time for us to know the surprise. I had told the family earlier that a little goal of mine was to go hot air ballooning in as many countries as i could. They remembered this and decided to take me to the Die Welt Ballon (the world balloon) to view Berlin from above. Unfortunately it was a little bit too windy to go up. I was so happy that they thought of taking me that i wasn't even a bit sad that we couldn't.

We decided to go around the corner to visit Berlin's Fernsehturm (TV tower). After buying tickets we had some time to kill before we could go up so we bought some ice cream. I bought one with a flavour i had never heard before, and had no explaination, and also is the same colour as our nz to germany t-shirts. It was called Puffo, and tasted quite like bubblegum. My host family showed me the Weltzeituhr (world time clock) for a bit and then we went up the Fernsehturm.

The Fernsehturm is 40m taller than the Sky Tower and was packed. We could see everything clearly as there hadn't been a cloud in the sky all day and because everything is flat. It was breathtaking to see all of Berlin and more at near sunset.

- Niki.

p.s. Werder won by 31-30

Brandenburg....

Wow, its been a fun-fill five (Lol =o=) days in Germany and I really can't believe time has flown so fast D:

So today we all headed off to Brandenburg with some of our German homestays and had a tour of the old, old, old....... old city. The history of Brandenburg starts all the way back to medieval times. The city was first inhabited by Barbarians after they had defeated the Roman empire then the city was Brandenburg was taken over by the Slavs. After a period of time, the barbarians (now called the Germans) pushed back and took over the city once again. This kind of fighting kept repeating for a few centuries until Frederik the Great got his great army to conquer everything.

Brandenburg itself was extremely interesting, even though the weather seemed to have disagreed with us. Even though it wasn't really that cold, the wind came along and everyone wrapped themselves in their jackets trying to hide from the wind's terror...

So our day started off as usual at EHG and we as usual walked to the Werder train station and took a train to Brandenburg. At the train station, we were greeted by Frau Wlosnewski (don't worry, I had trouble saying too) and given tourist-y things like maps and information booklets. After drinking my first can of Red Bull we all set off in the direction of St. Peter's cathedral. At the cathedral, we were greeted by the pastor and he told us the history and the story of Brandenburg and of course the cathedral. After that he demonstrated the echo power of the cathedral by singing to us from the crypt. The echo power was so great that we all heard his singing from far away xD. We then had a tour of the cathedral and were shown a lot of the cathedral's awesome features.

We then had a group photo in front of the Cathedral and split up into two different groups. One of the groups went to St. Katherine's Church and the other group went to the Monastery.

At noon the groups got together again and we all went down to the river Havel. Some of us (like me :D) got into canoes and canoed along the Havel. For me it was great fun (even though I was stuck in a boat with four girls that couldn't canoe and we spent half the time zig-zagging everywhere) and by the looks on people's faces, they did too. While some of us were exploring the river, the television crew that had been following us conducted some interviews about our experience in Brandenburg. Hopefully we can get a copy of their story.

We then all went ashore and started egg rolling. The point of egg rolling, was to roll your eggs down these paths and make it to the end of the track without breaking your egg... There were three tracks to roll your egg down and they all had a a different level of difficulty. The great thing about egg rolling was that if you were able to roll your egg successfully down all the tracks, you had to eat them.

Sadly now, it was time to leave Brandenburg. We all packed up and headed towards the bus stop. Everyone was tired and ready to go home but that didn't stop us from getting excited and running for the playground. Everyone rushed for everything and I must admit, this was one cool playground. It had rope swings for four people, a rocking pirate ship and a wierd snake thing that did something. Everyone played on something. Frau Zimmer then told everyone that it was time to go and so we all stopped playing and sadly walked away from the playground. We then turned around to see Herr Howell, Frau Ankersmit and Frau Zimmer playing on the rope swing. Herr Howell slowing down the swing by hanging on to it and dragging his legs on the ground. After that, we all got on a bus, then a train, then... everyone went home.

So... Today, like all other days was fun, there was so much to do and see in such a small place and it was a nice way to end our first week in Germany. On Monday we all head out to Bavaria and spend a week there.

I guess thats all I have to say (Yay)...

Tschüss!

Johnson.