Randoms #2

If you have been following this blog (and why wouldn't you?), you know by now that, every so often, I need to make a random post. These posts are full a pictures that tell a small story in themselves but do not warrant a blog post of their own. Therefore, I group them together in one big blog post. This was not the first blog post of this kind and it will not be the last. Enjoy!

Just some of the gang hanging out by a fountain. This was right before we toured the Fürstenberg Brauerei.

Anyone who knows me knows how amazing I think Kate Winslet is. I just couldn't escape her in Germany. There I was, minding my own business, and she found me!

This was a photo I took on the Helio Ship. It was just so quintessential Germany here. A beautiful lake with church steeple visible in the distance with a German flag blowing in the wind.

This was taken in front of a store in Ulm when we went to see the church. 

This was also taken in Ulm. When we had descended the church steps we wandered through the city and stumbled upon an international festival. I believe this was a Thai food booth. I saw this lady carving beautiful artwork out of fruit and just had to take a picture. 

I am almost as obsessed with argyle as I am with Kate Winslet. Just kidding. But seriously? I found an argyle house in Ulm! I wanted to wear it!

Ulm is a very interesting city which is why I have so many photos from there.  Someone in my group in Ulm spotted this on a house and I had to take a picture. It was situated on the house's roof. I can only speculate that it was there to ward off evil?

I know this photo has been done a million times but, when I saw the sunset, I just couldn't resist. This was taken after me and the other CBYXers had a fake Thanksgiving. You see, we will all be too far away from each other to see the entire group when the real Thanksgiving rolls around so we decided to have a make-shift Thanksgiving together at one of the participants' houses. When we were satt (full) we made our way to the nearby beach (which was, in fact, always near when you live on the Bodensee) and played on the playground. Natürlich!

This photo may seem familiar since it is the one you see when you first log onto this blog. This was also taken after our make-shift Thanksgiving. I decided to make it my blog photo because it represents what this journey is like. I am in Germany (as seen by the flag) and, although I am an important part of the big picture, I am, in the scheme of things, relatively small. 

What more is there to say. Swans at sunset. And yes, this is a real picture.

Yet more evidence that people are not that different from each other even if they come from other countries. Our defining characteristic? We all love a good deal! Or, in this case, cheap crap we don't actually need. This is a 1€ store in nearby Singen. Not everything was exactly 1€ but everything was pretty cheap. I bought some tupperware there. Three for 1€ baby! It made me feel like I was home.

I didn't really take too many pictures of Konstanz and I regret that. It is a very pretty city situated right on the Bodensee and it is very near to Radolfzell. I saw this and just had to have a picture of me on it. Who wouldn't want a picture of themselves on a metal 8-legged horse with corn-rows?

Axes for sale at Aldis. I mean, what more is there to say really? 

Me and a fellow CBYXer kissing a giant gnome at Konstanze Oktoberfest. That's an oxymoron isn't it? A giant gnome.

A Love Letter to Radolfzell am Bodensee

Okay. This post was way overdue but, theoretically, I couldn't post it until early October since this post is all about the beauty of Radolfzell and, trust me, it takes two full months to capture the beauty of Radolfzell. Not much to say about Radolfzell other than the fact that it is awesome! It is nestled right on the Bodensee (the largest lake in Germany) and is close enough to make day trips to a number of really great places (Ulm, Münich, Heidelberg, Stuttgart) and it is dangerously near the Swiss border. As much as I terribly miss this place, I realize that going back would not be the same. The 17 other CBYX participants that made it such a special place for me are not there anymore. Nevertheless, I would like to return someday to take a stroll through the Stadtgarten and Altstadt. I learned a lot there (some of it pertaining to Germany...some of it not). Anyway, no amount of words could do this place justice so I will just comment on the plethora of pictures I have put in this post. Enjoy!

Our beloved Bodensee swans. momma and baby. Also that statue was kind of
cool as well. When we got to Radolfzell, the guy's face was all you could see
and when we left you could see his entire body as the water level decreased.

I swear the bells form our church went off every 5 minutes, but it was welcomed. This was also where the farmer's market and most other events that Radolfzell had were held.

A fountain of Bishop Radolf of Verona, founder of Radolfzell. I owe him big time!

This is what I got to walk through every time I went to the train station...which was very often.

This photo and the photo directly above and the 5 photos below are of the Radolfzell city garden. It used to be the mote to the city but, when it was expanded, the mote was turned into a garden. Natürlich! The wall on the left side of the picture is the old city Mauer. 

This city is so beautiful, it makes me look good!

This is my beloved Carl-Duisberg Centren as seen from my equally beloved Stadtgarten.

The street I lived on. I lived about 200 feet from where this was taken.

This is the Stadtmuseum (city museum) where my host mom worked. Because of this, my host family's house was filled with old pictures of Radolfzell that I got to look at every day. Me and some other CBYXers also took the official tour through this place which also used to be the city's Apotheke (apothecary).

Ahhhhhh. What is there to say about Radolfzell's train station. Almost every memorable adventure we went on began on those very steps. "Nächste Halt Radolfzell".

This tower is also a part of the original city wall. As soon as you walked through that little doorway, you were officially in Altstadt Radolfzell.

To the untrained eye, this looks like a seemingly ordinary scene...but to the Radolfzell CBYX eye this was where we went almost every day between and after classes. we would buy something at Kaufland (which is just outside the picture) or Koch (spelled with a pretzel as an "o" apparently) and sit by this little fountain. We always wondered where the water came from but we can only assume it came from the Bodensee.

Another photo of my Stadtgarten. The the left is the old city wall.

This was not a rare occurrence in Radolfzell. This was what most of the nights on the Bodensee looked like.

Yes. Yes of course the Stadtgarten had fish in the pond. Why wouldn't it?

In closing, I would like to say, please remember me Radolfzell. You will always have a place in my heart.

Oktoberfest!!!!!!

Okay, so I actually went to Oktoberfest the weekend of the 17th of September but I was really getting behind on my posts so I am playing catch-up now. Many people don't know this but many German cities have their own little "Oktoberfest" during Oktoberfest season (September) but the real one is in München. Me and the other CBYXers went to München Oktoberfest (the "real" one). Our journey bagan in Radolfzell around 8 am and we didn't get to München until after 2. The journey is noramlly pretty long but it was made even longer because the Bodensee has a jail/rehab facility near the train tracks and people often throw themselves onto the train tracks. I was really shocked when I first heard this but it happened multiple times during my stay in Radolfzell. So, as a result, our journey started much later than anticipated and we arrived much later in München than we thought. When we got to Oktoberfest, we wasted no time. We found a "tent" that interested us and waited to get in. Okay, so they have "tents" at Oktoberfest in Germany but they really are what I would call "barns." They are huge wooden buildings. I don't know how many there are in Oktobrfest since we occupied the first tent we could find. The name of our "tent" was probably "Augustiner Bräu München" since that was what was plastered everywhere. The tents are really warm and humid inside from all the bodies so I was really happy to find out we got a table outside. It was so much more fun. Once we had a table, we just sat and drank beer for a couple of hours. It was so much fun. We met people from England, the Netherlands, America, and of course Germany. At around 9 pm it started to downpour. I mean really downpour. I consider myself a pretty prepared person and I had my umbrella with...but my umbrella was no match for this rain. I was completely nass (wet) by the end of the storm. So me and my friends missed our last train home to Radolfzell so we knew we weren't going to be sleeping in our nice warm beds that night. We did, however, opt to take a train to somewhere a bit closer to Radolfzell called Lindau. That way we were away from all the crazy, drunk people. So we spent hours on a train just to get to another city that we didn't live in. We flarfed around Lindau for something like 5 hours feeling tired as heck, waiting for our first train home. Some of my friends took naps in the train station but I have never been able to sleep in strange places so I got no sleep that night. By 6 am the next day we were on a train to Radolfzell and we all slept the whole day when we got home. My time at Oktoberfest was a bit short but I definitely had fun and hope to return for a weekend in the future. Honestly, there could have been no beer there at all and Oktoberfest would still have been tons of fun. I must say though, I never drink beer in the USA but there is just something about this German beer. It is so lecker (delicious)! Oh yeah, I also went to the Oktoberfest in Konstanz near Radolfzell this past Wednesday September 28th. I got no real photos though so please enjoy the ones from the "real" Oktoberfest."

An Oktoberfest "tent"

Ulm Münster

Yes. Another picture from my
 own camera. My camera is nice
but this really is how Germany looks.

The last weekend I was in Radolfzell me and 6 other people went to Ulm on Saturday to go see the Münster. Sounds pretty tame BUT this Münster is the tallest Münster in the world!!! It was my friend Adam's idea and I couldn't be more grateful. It was amazing. We first walked around the church for awhile. It was very beautiful and there was a farmer's market outside which made it even more idyllic. Inside the church we were greeted by vaulted ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. We attended the organ concert. It was amazing. I don't know how people can learn to play one of those things but they are very talented.
The inside of the Münster also contained this really cool guardian angel statue. I would feel so safe if this thing were protecting me. Just look at it! It's huge and it is wielding a sword and crushing a snake under it's feet!

768 steps and 161.53 meters total and we walked every single one them. This was the same week that I did the Radolfzell 5K and the same week I climbed Hohenkrähen hill in Singen. My legs were unbearably sore by the end of Saturday but it was so worth it. There are three "sections" of steps each getting more central to the church. The last segment of steps was soooooo small and it was very difficult for people to go up and down at the same time. It was actually very aggravating at times and patience was needed in large amounts.

I'm on top of the world!

By the time we reached the top we realized there was only enough room for one person at a time width-wise and the group at the top had to move in a circular fashion until you were able to exit the same door you entered the top with...some people are not very good at physics, however, and didn't realize that in order for them to occupy the space I was currently occupying I HAD to exit! Ugh!

The iron sparrow from the church.

Also, this town had sparrow (Spatz) statues everywhere including the church. I inquired why the city worshipped sparrows so? The lady at the visitors center gave me a pamphlet and I soon discovered why. You see, when the Münster was being built, the people were bringing the wood width-wise into the city. When they realized they could not fit the wood through the city gate, they thought they might need to demolish a portion of the city wall in order to finish the Münster. At that moment the people saw a sparrow place a piece of straw lengthwise into a nook in the stone wall. The people realized, at that moment, that they could fit the wood through the gate length-wise and so they did. They were able to finish the Münster without demolishing the city wall. Because of this, Ulm has always held the sparrow in high regard...as they should.

An example of one the sparrows you can see in the city
of Ulm.

There was a nearby building that was nothing short of a work of art!