Frankfurt Mid-Year Seminar

So the CBYX program has an orientation, mid-year seminar, and end of year seminar for all the participants. I can't believe the mid-year seminar is already over. It was from the 16th to the 20th of January. That means I am over half done with my year in Germany. Sad face. The mid-year seminar was really fun though. It was in Frankfurt and the program paid for participants' travel expenses so we all basically got to go to Frankfurt for free. I had only ever been to Frankfurt when we landed in Germany but we were all quickly swooped away to our dorm building in the woods for our orientation seminar. So it was nice to be able to really see Frankfurt. It is the only city in Germany with actual high rises even though it only has a couple. Even Berlin does not have high rises. We had to arrange and plan our own arrival but we all had to be at the hostel at 3pm at the latest. We stayed at the Haus der Jugend in Frankfurt. It was a pretty nice hostel and it was probably the only one that could accommodate all 75 of us at once. The building looked like it could hold a lot of people. It was four to a room so not what you would call private but it was clean and we all had our own bed. The hostel was also very close to the nightlife. Haha not sure if the program planned that or not. My guess is not.

Frankfurt is so cool. The Main river runs through it and there is an island in this river that is home to all these geese, ducks, and swans. It was so cool to be in the middle of the city and to be able to fall asleep to the distant honking of the geese on the island.

The seminar takes place so that the employees in charge of our program can touch base with us. The first night consisted of a welcome and an Italian dinner. The Italian dinners in Europe are better...just want to put that out there. The next morning we were split into 3 groups and we basically had a sharing circle where we all shared where we were living, where we were going to school, and if we lived with a guest family. We then got stickers and we got to rank different aspects of the program and then we discussed why certain things were maybe better than others. Overall, we were all having a positive experience with the program. Once were were done with that, we had the rest of the day to do what we wanted. I opted to just walk around a bit. That's what is so nice about going somewhere you have never been before. A simple walk is so interesting and fun...and it's free. This particular hostel was also capable of providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner so we didn't even have to worry about meals.

Wednesday we were split up into 3 predetermined groups. Art and Media, Transportation and Finance, and Politics. I chose Art and Media because I really did not have interest for the other two groups. My group got to go to a museum dedicated to film and photography that was walking distance from the hostel. The museum was really interesting. We got to see all the different developments that the world of film and photography went through. We even got too see one of the original costumes from the Alien movies and a mock up of Darth Vader's helmut that was used in the original Star Wars movies. The museum also had this really cool installation. It consisted of 3 projection screens that all played a different movie clip at a time. All 3 clips had a unifying theme. For instance, if it was a dancing theme, all three different movies had characters that were dancing to the same tempo so if you played appropriate music it would look like they were all dancing to the same music. Super cool. Later that day, the Art and Media group went to the ZDF studios. ZDF is one of the biggest German television stations. They also go by 2DF because ZDF stands for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen which means "2nd German Television" so they have the liberty of swapping the Z and 2 since they stand for the same thing and look so similar. Technically this television station was in Mainz but it was very close to Frankfurt. ZDF has stations all over Germany but they are based out of Mainz so it was a real treat to go the the main station. We got to see some stages and control rooms. ZDF's motto is "Mit dem zweiten sieht man besser" which means "with the 2nd, one sees better". So they are saying you see more with their station. Also, while you are saying this you have to hold your middle and pointer finger over one of your eyes. I know it sounds corny but it was pretty cool. Check out the video below if you want to know what I am talking about.

ZDF is also known for these little people called Mainzelmännchen. Between the commercials and the shows on all ZDF stations, they play a little 5 second clip of these little guys doing silly things. The Mainzelmännchen are named so because they come from Main and "männchen" means "little people". They have been on the television station since 1963 so many Germans remember growing up with them as a child. They have grown and evolved through the years but one thing has still remained the same...they are silly little buggers. It is also worth mentioning that I have NEVER seen a Mainzelmännchen clip twice. Never. Take a look below.

A studio at ZDF.

This is where they draw the lottery numbers. So cool!

Me and Det at ZDF. Yes, the name of this Mainzelmännchen is Det. Mit dem zweiten sieht man besser!

On Thursday, all 75 of us got to see the GIZ tower in Frankfurt. You see, CBYX is the name of the program in America but GIZ handles everything on the German side. GIZ stands for Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and it means Society for International Cooperation. They handle hundreds of foreign relation programs and the CBYX program is just one small part of what they do although they treat it with great importance. While at the GIZ tower we got to see some presentations on what kind of work GIZ does and we also got to hear a member of the American Foreign Service speak. She talked about what her job was like and what she had to do to get a job with the Foreign Service...it does not seem easy at all to get a job with the foreign service. If you don't know at least two languages fluently, you basically have no chance of getting a job. You also need to know an obscure language like Hungarian or something. It sounds so hard to get hired by the Foreign Service.

When we left the GIZ tower we went back to the hostel for a short while. That night GIZ organized for us to see a musical at the Englisch Theater in Frankfurt where all the musicals were in English. It was "The Who's Tommy". If you have never seen it, it is super weird. All the songs are from The Who. It is basically the story of a boy who witnesses a murder and internalizes it but becomes deaf, blind, and mute as a result. It was so strange but I love musicals so I enjoyed it. Here is a clip from the musical where they use the song Pinball Wizard.

As soon as the seminar started it was over. Friday morning we were done and we all headed out. Some people like me headed home and others went on little weekend trips.

Day of Democracy

"Tag der Demokratie" This means "Day of Democracy". It is a day in January that Magdeburg has every year where local organizations and business who support democracy can set up a stand on the street and you can visit them. The day takes on a different role, though. Me and the other Magdeburgers started to call it Nazi day because it is the day that neo-nazis choose to demonstrate. If I learned one thing from this day it is that Germans haaaaaaaaaate nazis. They HATE them. I would to if I was part of a country that was trying to amend its dark past and certain people were ruining that for everyone. Most of the neo-nazis that take part in the demonstration aren't even from Germany. They are foreigners from neighboring countries that are demonstrating in Germany. The town was full of police officers that were there just to make sure nothing happened. I was told that there were over 2,000 police officers and that they were policemen from all over Germany. The neo-nazi demonstrators don't have a very big following so the same neo-nazis have to travel from city to city in Germany if they want to demonstrate there. The policemen follow suit and simply follow them from city to city making sure there is peaceful demonstrating and no violence. I actually had quite a bit of fun this day. It was really cool to see all the interesting ways people advertised against nazis. Some were cool and some were really weird. What I liked most about the day was that the streets of Magdeburg were filled with people. Normally there is not much going on in the city and it was nice to see the city wake up. I personally did not see any neo-nazis that day. I was told that they were all gathered at the university which is the one place I didn't go that day. I was a little disappointed to tell the truth. As someone from a small town in Wisconsin, I have never really seen a neo-nazi and I was curious to see what one looked like. Would they all be skin heads with piercings and tattoos? Maybe not. For all I knew they were all college graduates wearing argyle sweater vests. I have noooooo idea what one looks like. Some people might cringe at the thought of someone wanting to see a neo-nazi but curiosity is a natural human attribute and closing your eyes to a problem like this does not help the situation. My host family is also very open to talking about stuff like that and they had no problem that I was so curious about the events of this day. Some people who live in former east Germany think that all Americans think they are all nazis. I personally did not think this before I arrived in former east Germany and I really hope no one else from the US thinks this. It is not true. There are neo-nazis in the US and there are some in the former east but that does not make everyone there a nazi. I also like how fitting it was that the neo-nazis demonstrated on the day of democracy. Even though I completely disagree with what they stand for, I think it is good that people can openly express their beliefs in Germany no matter how crazy and wrong they are. If the police had prevented the neo-nazis from demonstrating it would have been a step back for progress. Freedom is being allowed to freely express your beliefs no matter what they are and allowing people to make up their own minds as to whether or not they agree...the pictures below show that the German people overwhelmingly disagree with neo-nazis...and how wonderful is it that they were given the opportunity to make that choice.

Someone throwing the swastika away...very nice, very nice.

It reads something like "The risks of the nazi marches; read a history book or ask your grandparents."

It says "Colorful against Brown." Brown is the color that the nazi party identifies with so these people are saying we need a future full of color (many different ideas and beliefs) and not just brown (one set of beliefs like in WWII). This was actually a game where you could win prizes by popping the balloons with a dart. This person was clever and filled the balloons with paint to also make the game an advertisement against nazis.

It is hard to see because of the glare, but the swastika on Hitler's arm has been replaced with a heart and it can clearly be seen that he is wearing pink. His fingernails are also painted on the hand beneath the gloved hand and he is wearing lipstick. This particular sign meant to say that Hitler may have been homosexual. I personally do not know if Hitler was or not and some people might take offense to that. I don't think anyone should take offense to the sign because the greater meaning of the sign meant to say that Hitler was a hypocrite. Hitler also wanted to do away with homosexuals along with many other types of people (handicapped, Jewish, etc.) so this sign was calling him out as a hypocrite. Whether or not he was gay is irrelevant. Hitler was a hypocrite but, more importantly, he was a horrible, evil person.

The streets of Magdeburg full of people!

"Bunt Statt Braun"
"Colorful Instead of Brown"

Even more interesting than the message itself is how they painted it throughout the streets in Magdeburg. They made a special bicycle wheel with the message on it and rigged the bicycle with a bucket of paint to paint this message on the sidewalk as it was wheeled throughout the city. Ingenuity at its best!

Not really sure what this was or what it was trying to say but I simply HAD to take a picture of it. It looks like a hybrid between a turtle, octopus, and praying mantis. So weird.

Konstanz

I never really did a nice post about Konstanz...this will somewhat rectify that but not really since I visited Konstanz when it was already dark. Me and Adam visited while we were in Radolfzell since it is only like 15 minutes away from Radolfzell by train. While we lived in Radolfzell, we got train tickets that allowed us to ride as far as Konstanz for free whenever we wanted...those were the days. Now, I can't even get 5 minutes outside of Magdeburg without shelling cash out. Me and Adam decided to visit Konstanz because we had never really visited the church there. I am glad we did because it really is just an amazing church. I highly recommend it if you are ever in southern Baden-Württemberg. You could explore the crypt of the church a little and the church is very ornate. The church even had little sitting areas on the side for multiple saints. It was like a little prayer room for each individual saint. Even the doors were over the top. They were solid wood with really intricate detailing.

Creepiest photo in a church ever!

We also paid a visit to the Statue of Imperia. The statue is a huge statue of a voluptuous, scantily-clad woman holding two men in her hands. The two men represent Pope Martin V and Emperor Sigismund and the story behind the statue is a harsh satire of the Catholic clergy's morals. In the story, Imperia (who is a prostitute) seduces cardinals and princes and holds power over them. The statue actually spins at a speed of one turn every four minutes and it is located at the end of a dock in the Bodensee.

While we were walking back to the train station, we stumbled upon a procession. It actually came upon us quite quickly. We had to take shelter in a doorway so that we did not disrupt the procession. We later realized it was a Fasnacht procession. Not really sure if the fact that is was Epiphany had any significance or not but Fasnacht is usually a pre-Lent celebration to prepare for Lent. The parade consisted of some very cool costumes...some interesting...some scary. It was cool that we just stumbled upon it by accident.

Return to Radolfzell

A return to Radolfzell was always in the works and I will probably still make one more trip there before I head back to the states. It is just so wonderful and it will always be my first German home. Me and Adam arrived late in Radolfzell Thursday night after our ill-fated Rothaus excursion. We woke up Friday morning and decided we would just wander around Radolfzell for the day. We didn't really have any plans besides making a visit to my old host family to say hello. So we walked around town and passed by all the old familiar places and saw how things were different or the same. I also took pictures of the inside of the Radolfzell church for the first time. I can't believe I didn't take pictures sooner. The church is beautiful. We also got to see that the local Volksbank had been turned into a giant Adventskalender for Advent. We were visiting after Christmas was over but the giant Adventskalender had not yet been taken down. All the windows at the front of this bank were decorated and each was a "door" on the Adventskalender. We, of course also visited the Bodensee to say hello to the water and the swans. After we were done wandering around the town we made our way to my old host family's house. Me, Adam, and the Bottlangs just talked over coffee and cake. My room there had been empty the entire time I was gone and was only going to be occupied with a student that Sunday. It was crazy to think that the best room in all of Radolfzell was unoccupied for so long. It is 2 minutes away from school (walking) and it had its own kitchenette and shower. I guess only very special people like me get to stay there. We, of course, went to the Kaufland where all the CBYXers went during almost every break and lunch we had at Carl-Duisberg Centren. I also visited the restaurant where I had my first Döner. We also went to the market on Saturday like we did almost every Wednesday and Saturday while we were in Radolfzell. We both bought flowers for our host families and dropped them off as a thank you for everything they did for us while we lived with them. Saturday afternoon we headed home. It was sad leaving Radolfzell but it was also a little sad being there without the other original 16 Radolfzellers. It just felt wrong being on the Bodensee without them so, although I am glad I visited, I don't think I could ever live there again because I would just think about all the people that I would be missing.

This is one of the things that I miss most about Radolfzell and southern Germany in general. The natural beauty. The fact that you could just be walking along and stumble across a little creek with a duck in it.

You may recognize this photo as the profile picture for my entire blog. I just couldn't resist taking a similar photo almost 3.5 months later.

Radolfzell church. 

The Radolfzell Volksbank Adventskalender. 

That used to be my front door!!!!   :( 

Friday was Epiphany so that meant the three kings were walking around greeting people. Lots of German cities do this.

My Bodensee with more ducks and swans than I ever saw in summer. 

The Saturday market.

Saturday afternoon me and Adam departed from Radolfzell and headed towards our respected homes. The trip was so loooooong because we were using a special discounted ticket that only allowed us to use regional trains that are slower. The trip was long but we did save a ton of money and I am all about saving those nickels and dimes.

Rothaus Death Excursion

Having one beer does not make you an alcoholic but if you risked your life for that one beer, then does that make you an alcoholic? You will soon learn the reasoning behind this question. Read on. So me and my friend continued our Christmas break trip through Germany. After we left Freiburg we decided to go to Radolfzell am Bodensee. You should remember this place since that is where I lived for my first 2 months in Germany. It is my first German home and a place surrounded by breath-taking natural beauty. Adam's old host mom their offered to put us up for free for a couple of nights so there was no way we could say no. Since Freiburg was so close, we had to visit. On the way to Radolfzell me and my friend wanted to visit the Rothaus brewery. Rothaus is a very Baden-Württemburg beer. It is brewed in the Black Forest and it is served everywhere in Baden-Württemburg. I really wanted to visit the brewery and take a tour. We called ahead to make sure they were giving tours. They guy said there would be no tours that day since no one had called earlier to have one. This should have been our first sign that this was an ill-fated trip. We decided we would go to the brewery anyway since we could still look around the shop and watch a 30 minute video on the brewery. Since this brewery is somewhat secluded in the Black Forest, we had to use a train and two different buses to get there. That already made me nervous since it was already around 2pm by the time we started our trip to Rothaus. I was nervous because I did not like relying on so many links in a chain. What I mean by that is we had to count on not one but two buses and a train in order to get us to the Rothaus brewery and then repeat the entire thing again to get out of the brewery and to Radolfzell. I told my nerves to shut up because I have a history of worrying too much and being nervous about things that I shouldn't be nervous about. So we hop on our first train that is heading in the direction of Radolfzell but goes through the Black Forest. 20 minutes into this train ride we sit on the tracks and don't move for almost 30 minutes because a tree or something fell onto the tracks. It was starting to get windy. By the time we started moving again it was full on raining. This was January rain...very cold rain that really should have been snow. We were unable to get all the way to Seebrugg (our last stop on the train) because the wind had gotten so bad that it blew trees onto the tracks further up the tracks. So we have to get off the train in a different city. We then had to wait another 30 minutes for a bus that would take us in the right direction and to Seebrugg which also happened to be the major stop for all the buses in the area and is situated right on the beautiful Schluchsee (although it wasn't too beautiful when snow and wind are blowing in your face) . By now, my nerves were telling me to just get on another train and go straight to Radolfzell. "Forget about the Rothaus brewery Clayton. It is getting late and the trains are already messed up because of the weather." Once again I told my nerves to shut up and that I was nervous for no reason. So we hop on this first bus and it takes us to this little tiny train station called Seebrugg. Halfway there the rain turns to snow  because our elevation increased so much. We hop on another bus and it takes us all the way to the Rothaus brewery. I did not have boots with me. When I packed for Germany I figured I would use them so seldom that they were not worth it. I was right since it really didn't snow very much at all in Germany this year. On this particular trip, however, it would have been nice to have them because I took one step out of that bus and my feet were soaked. The rain/snow mixture made it so that all the sidewalks basically had a thick layer of slush that was too thick to run off the pavement but fluid enough to soak your feet. me and my friend ran to the Rothaus brewery as fast as we could because now the snow had turned back into really cold rain. We run through the doors and we are basically the only people there. We were greeted by looks from the employees that seemed to say "Why on earth would you go through all that trouble to get here in this horrible weather?" We put our stuff down and took our jackets off. We walked around the shop a little and watched the informational video in the viewing room. Every brewery in Germany has an educational video and they are all pretty similar (but equally cool). By the time were were finished we walked back out to the lobby and asked them if the trains were going through Seebrugg anymore. They said they were not going through Seebrugg but that we could take two buses that would take us to Waldshut. Waldshut is on the Swish border. They said, from there, we could catch a train to Radolfzell. The guy printed out a sheet of times and stops for us and even pointed out the window to what bus stop we needed to be at. The bus was not coming for another hour though so we could kill some time. At this point I had a false sense of security. I had a Fahrplan (trip plan) in my hand and I knew what bus stop to wait at. We were gonna be okay after all. So we decided to relax and have a Rothaus beer straight from the Rothaus brewery. We got to sit in this really cozy restaurant area and enjoy a beer. Outside the weather had turned to snow again and the building was very quiet because we were the only non-employee people there.

Just having a beer with Jesus.

This is also a really good time to mention that I didn't actually drink a beer. Not a real beer anyway. I had something called a Radler. It is basically half beer and half lemonade. Haha so it only has 2.5% alcohol and it tastes like lemony beer. Please don't judge me. I know I know. I should be able to drink beer since I am from Wisconsin and we are all beer drinkers. I never really liked the taste of beer but decided to work on it in Germany. What better place to train yourself to like beer? I started with Radlers and will hopefully work my way to real beer. I think Radlers are delicious so maybe there is hope for me yet.

The view from the bus stop.

So after having that false sense of calmness and enjoying a beer with my friend, me and him go outside to catch our bus. We go out there 7 min minutes early just to make sure we didn't miss it in case the bus was running early. On the way out my feet got soaked all over again. We wait and wait and wait. The bus finally came but it came super late. I was really confused at this point but we get on the bus and take it a couple of stops until the Seebrugg stop. When we start to get off the bus, the bus driver asks us what bus we are getting off to wait for. We tell him. He pauses and then shakes his head. He tells us that that bus is done running for the night but that if we wait at the Seebrugg stop we can use a different bus to get to Waldshut but that we would need to change buses once on the way. It was already like 7pm at this time and German public transportation can switch to the late night transportation as early as 8 pm in some places. The false sense of calmness had long left my body at this point and fear was kicking in. To make things clear, we were basically in a very sparsely populated area of the mountainous Black Forest, it was dark, freezing, and windy as hell. So many things were running through my head. It was so late already and we are supposed to use 2 buses just to get to a train station...and even if we get to the Waldshut train station will trains be running from it because of the bad weather? And even if we can catch the first bus in this crazy bus/train combination who is to say the 2nd bus won't be late or maybe it is just not running anymore at this hour. This was not an area that I was familiar with because I didn't live there so I was not 100% sure how the local transportation worked. I was basically taking people's word for it and the guy at the Rothaus brewery had already led us down the wrong path. We didn't really have a choice but to wait. The Seebrugg stop is a tiny train station located in the middle of nowhere in the Black Forest. It was the train stop that our train was originally supposed to let us off at on our way to the Rothaus brewery but couldn't because of fallen trees. So even though we were at a train stop no trains were coming through. Luckily there was a ticket machine there so that I could at least verify that the train station we wanted to get to (Waldshut) had trains entering and leaving it. Waldshut was fully functional that night but we just needed to get to it. It was dark, very windy, the snow was staying snow, and my feet were soaked. I was getting super worried. The bus we were waiting for was really late. A different bus driver even came up to the bus plan and verified that it should have been there already and that he didn't know what was going on. We were waiting there for at least an hour with about 6 other people (all German). Four of them were all together and the other two girls were friends. Eventually the group of 4 called a friend and had them pick them up. My friend and I did not have the luxury of calling a friend with a car. It was just me, my friend, and the two girls waiting at this train stop in the middle of nowhere for a bus that was really late and was probably never gonna come. I had lost feeling in my toes at this point. And because the first bus was so late, I didn't even think we would be able to catch the second bus we were supposed to use to get to Waldshut train station. At this point I started to get super worried. Where were we gonna sleep if this bus never came? Would we die? Who would die first? I thought that Adam would die first because he has much less body fat than me and I started to ask myself if I would eat him in order to survive? At this point, I knew how crazy I was becoming and my fear filled me with courage so I walked up to the two girls that were also still waiting there for the bus that was never coming and asked them (auf Deutsch) how they were planning on getting home. The one said that she had called her dad and that he was coming to pick them both up. Just then a white car pulls up. My eyes meet the girls eyes and there was a silent understanding of what I was thinking. She ran up to the car and asked her dad if he could give us a ride. A big burly man appears out of the car and tells us to throw our stuff in the trunk and hop in. Yay! I didn't need to eat Adam anymore!

So this really nice guy, who we have never met before, drove two strangers almost 30 km all the way to Waldshut where the weather was completely calm and trains were coming and going unaware of the nasty storm me and Adam had just emerged from. On the way we made a little conversation with our savior but mostly just soaked up the warmth of the car and prayed to God that this man did not come to his senses and drop us off on the side of the road. We offered the man money (gas is not cheap in Europe) when we arrived but he turned us down and said "Grüße nach Amerika" which means "greetings to America". It was my first experience with over the top unnecessary kindness in Germany and the fact that that man did that for us made me almost thankful that me and Adam had almost died...almost. So I have to ask the question. Since I risked my life for this one beer (Radler), does that mean I have a problem?

Two hours later we were sleeping in Adam's old host room from our days in Radolfzell. We had gotten something to eat already and we were warm and safe. I drifted off into sleep and awoke the next day greeted by the Bodensee that had previously welcomed me during my first week in Germany.

Freiburg

When people think of Germany they probably think of beer, pretzels, lederhosen, the Black Forest, and half-timbered houses. Well, a large portion of those things are mainly Bavarian traditions. The city of Freiburg, however, is a very quintessential German town located in Baden-Württemberg NOT Bavaria. It has the above mentioned half-timbered houses and it is nestled in the Black Forest. The city is filled with old world charm with evergreen covered mountains surrounding the city. It is really something to behold. After me and my friend left Heidelberg, we headed to Freiburg. It was unbelievably close to Radolfzell where we were there our first two months in Germany but a certain visit by the pope ruined a trip we attempted to make while we were in Radolfzell and much closer. You see, when the current pope recently visited Freiburg, no trains were going in to the city for saftey. Ughhhhh! Why does a whole city need to shut down just because the pope is visiting? Anyway, this time we made it to the city with no pope shenanigans. We arrived at night and made our way to our hostel. It was called the Black Forest Hostel which was very fitting because, we were, in fact, in the Black Forest. The whole hostel had a very bohemian feel to it with little mini Buddhist temples carved into the walls. You would be walking through the hallway and smell incense or see fresh flower petals laying on the ground. It also had a yoga/meditation space. There were a lot of people staying at the hostel. Freiburg is pretty touristy and I really couldn't find other quality hostels in the city besides this one. With that said, I feel like every tourist in the city was staying at this hostel. It was okay though because it was big with plenty of space. Me and my friend stayed there for two nights. We had originally only booked the room for one night. When we first checked in we said we might be interested in an additional night and the man at the desk said if we wanted to stay an additional night we would need to move to a group room instead of our private room for the additional night because someone had already booked that room for the following night. The following morning, we went to the desk to tell them we definitely wanted to stay another night but there was a woman there instead of the man. We told her we wanted to stay an additional night...she looked at the room chart and just moved the people who had requested the private room we were in to a group room even though they booked it first and probably wanted the private room. Ahhhhhh I couldn't believe she did that but I am glad she did because I didn't want to sleep with strangers. The next night I expected someone to knock on our door and scream "Give us our room back you thieves!" That, luckily, did not happen. The room was pretty cool. It had a little table for snacking and the door was really interesting.

This building was obviously not designed to be a hostel...stairs going to nowhere?

In addition to exploring our hostel we did eventually explore the city. One of the first things we did was check out the Freiburg Dom (church) while the sun was peeking out for a whole 10 minutes. I have developed somewhat of an obsession for climbing church towers in Germany now. You may recall that this obsession started when I climbed the church in Ulm which is the tallest church in the world. After that, everything seems so easy. This was not the tallest anything in the world but a very beautiful church nonetheless.

After our calves were thoroughly sore from climbing stairs, we decided to walk it off. We ventured into town. A new surprise lurked around very corner in Freiburg. The town had some really neat looking old buildings. I was also able to find something very interesting to eat. It was called a Baden-Württemburger. It was a burger but since were were in Baden-Württemberg it was not just any burger; it was a Baden-WürttemBURGER...get it? It was a pretzel bun with two Klops patties inside. Klopse are like little German meatloaf patties and pretzels are super German so this was a very German experience for me. I was in Himmel (heaven).

Me and my Baden-Württemburger.

One of the city gate towers. Do you see the McDonald's sign plastered on it? Even in old-world quintessential Germany, capitalism and fast food are creeping in.

The Herz-Jesu-Kirche Freiburg. I love how they designed the bridge to line up perfectly with the church.

One of the other city gate towers. They were both just beautiful.

And now we come to the last and my favorite part of this story. If you recall, I have been on a mad search for beer gummies ever since I had them my first day in Germany when we stayed in the dorms at a seminar building. Germany is full of gummy shops. They are just like they sound. Shops that really sell nothing but gummies. They are mostly bear shaped (Haribo) and the flavors are normally not too out of the ordinary. I had been to multiple gummy shops in Germany in search of the elusive beer gummies. They all had the same answer. They either did not have them or they used to have them but did not currently have them and didn't know when they were gonna get them again. Very frustrating. I started to question if I was still in Germany with how hard it was to find beer gummies. We stumbled upon a gummy store right by the Freiburg Dom. I thought they wouldn't have the beer gummies but I figured I would at least try. Good thing I did because THEY TOTALLY HAD THEM!!!!!!!! Endlich I had found them! I bought two bags. One for me to slowly eat through in Germany and one to send home. They are just the most amazing thing ever. I don't even like chewy, sugary candy (just every other kind of food) but these beer gummies are so amazing. The perfect combination of sweet gummy flavor with beer flavor. I even took a picture of them because I can't even find pictures of them on the internet. That is how elusive they are. Try it for yourself. Type "Beer Gummy" into Google. You will not find pictures like these. Sure you will find beer flavored gummies in beer glasses but you will not find beer glass shaped gummies that taste like beer. Amazing, just amazing. I let my host family try some and they said they had never even heard of them before. So some germans have never even seen them before.

My mouth is watering just posting this...