Adventures

So I have come to several realizations over the course of my study abroad. One is that I am just as bad at keeping my blog updated as I am at writing in my journal. So I figured I would make up for it and post several pictures at once. I decided to pick a picture from each of the cities I have visited outside of Berlin.

First up is Stettin, Poland. It is right over the border and is a beautiful city. My aunt Marzena grew up there. Sadly, the weather did not cooperate. It was VERY rainy and VERY cold. We survived and enjoyed looking at the old buildings.Next up is Lübeck in Northern Germany by the sea. It was the capital of the Hanseatic League. Don't bother asking me what that is, just go look it up on wikipedia. They do a better job of explaining it. Anways, we looked at a bunch of old buildings. Walked through this old gate that was leaning to one side. Later, my friends and I found a playground, so we played on it. It was definitely way fun, and of course, it rained for the first part of the day.
So Lübeck was on a Saturday, and the next Monday we visited Potsdam, which is right below Berlin. We had Monday off because there was a random German holiday that no one could tell me why we had off. Anyways, we saw a bunch of palaces, but we didn't go in them because we are poor college students (who have enough money to go to Europe, oh the irony). Of course, it rained then too (sensing a pattern yet?). We still had fun walking through the giant park and finding all the random little palaces.
Then came Prague. i was so excited to revisit one of my favorite cities. The food is amazing! The money is very cool-looking but very confusing. I felt rich because everything I was buying was in the hundreds. I definitely grew closer to the girls on the trip. My favorite part was when we found this little playground on top of a hill overlooking Prague, while we were on our way up to what looks like a miniature Eiffel Tower (only 299 steps!).
Dr. Kelling, my professor, is the most wonderful man. He took us all to Schwerin, his hometown, one Saturday. We all loved the trip because he was so excited to show us everything. We all got to go on a boat ride and go through the palace. It was Schwerin's 800th birthday (I think all I know is that it is really old) so there was a festival going on.
Last but not least is Milan, Italy! So we found some really cheap flights and a really cheap hostel, and the result was that 6 of us flew to Milan for the weekend. I love Italians. They are way nice. So our first night we basically got completely lost finding our way back to the hostel. So we asked the bus driver if we were going the right direction. He didn't speak very much English. Luckily, a guy on the bus translated for us. We were on the wrong bus, so they told us where to go. We get off and are totally confused, but we just cross the street and then try to figure out where the other bus stop is. We hear a noise and turn around to find most of the people on the bus with their windows opening pointing us in the right direction. We felt like we belonged in a movie scene. Anyways, that was a long story. Basically, Milan was wonderful and full of delicious food, shopping, and gelato!