Leipzig

Seeing as I live only 1.5 hours from Leipzig, I am asking myself why I didn't go sooner. It is a pretty happening place in Sachsen which is also in former East Germany. Because, I live so close I was able to make a day trip with a friend. My current boss works in Magdeburg but lives in Leipzig so he gave me a list of things to see when I was in Leipzig. One of the first things we saw was St. Nicholas Church. This church is kind of famous because it was where some of the first protests were held where people voiced their dissatisfaction with the DDR (East Germany). The protests began in September 1989 and, as we all know, the Berlin wall fell in November 1989. Yay!

St. Nicholas Church. It is kind of hard to get a great picture because it is in the city center and has other buildings very close to it.

The other place we needed to see was St. Thomas Church. This is home of the most famous boy's choir in all of Germany, the St. Thomas Church boy's choir. The choir director of this famous boy's choir has been held by many notable people but, most notably, by Johann Sebastian Bach from 1723 until his death in 1750. This church is also where his remains are kept.

St. Thomas Church with a beggar in front of it. 

My boss suggested we see one other thing while we were in Leipzig. It was a monument called Völkerschlachtdenkmal also known as the Monument to the Battle of the Nations. It is a monument that commemorates the bloody battle that led to Napoleon's defeat in Leipzig. The monument has over 500 steps and leads to a platform where you can see spectacular views in all directions.

Inside

Over 500 steps to the top and I still pull it together for a photo op.

We visited the monument on May 5th. Me and Joe realized after seeing this that the 100th anniversary for the monument was only 8 days away!

Leipzig was pretty cool but me and Joe were getting tuckered out. So after getting dinner at the local Vapianos we headed back to Magdeburg.

Ferropolis

On the way back from Wittenberg, my host parents took me to this other place in Sachsen-Anhalt called Ferropolis. It basically means Iron-opolis because "ferrum" is Latin for "iron". It is called this because this place is the final resting place for huge mining machines. I mean huge. These things are ginormous! Ironically, it was a very hot day so I kind of felt like I was deep in the hot steamy mines with these machines. We started off with one of the gadgets that gave us an audio tour but we soon realized we would be there for hours and "fast forwarded" our experience a bit.

This one was my favorite. It's name was Gemini and, being born on May 22nd, I am also a Gemini! 

Wittenberg

Do you remember that guy named Martin Luther? If not, let me refresh your memory. Martin Luther was the guy who nailed his 95 theses to the door of Schlosskirche on October 31st, 1517 in defiance of the Catholic Church to shed light on some of the practices he thought were wrong like selling indulgences. He also translated the Bible from Latin to German which gave way to a standardized German language. He was a pretty important guy and for a large part of his life he lived and taught theology in Wittenberg which just so happens to be in the state that I live in in Germany. It is about 1.5 hours with a car from where I live. My host parents took me and a friend on a day trip to Wittenberg to see the sights. We saw the actual church where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses. It was pretty cool to be standing in such rich history. In fact the city has come to be known as Lutherstadt Wittenberg which means Luthercity Wittenberg.

The church where the 95 Theses were nailed!

A replica of the 95 Theses.

The door where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses.

The church in itself is amazing to see but Wittenberg is also very beautiful little city and we explored it further.

The city square and the Stadtkirche (city church) in the background.

At the base of the Stadtkirche.

Bier Käse Suppe

Bier Käse Suppe means beer cheese soup! I have been wanting to make this soup since I arrived in Germany because, as a Wisconsinite, it embodies all that I can be proud of. Beer and cheese! I wanted to make it so that my host family could taste a little bit of my home. I am also no cook so it is a miracle that it worked out. Recipes from America are hit or miss in Germany. It can be difficult to find the ingredients you need sometimes and sometimes, when you find the ingredients, they can be a little off. For instance, we would have ideally used sharp cheddar but the best we could find was mild cheddar. It was delicious though. My good friend Nicole sent me a recipe and it turned out great! The ingredients are:

1 onion (diced)
3 carrots (finely chopped) 
1 clove of minced garlic
4 TBSP butter
4 TBSP flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp onion powder
4 cups of milk
3 cups of shredded cheese
1 cup of beer


I was really glad that I took the plunge to make this soup because now I know what a roue is and I now know just how important it is for a soup. I decided to make the soup when I had another participant from my program visiting. And, of course, Joe had to be included as well. I have never really seen a measuring cup or measuring spoons in Germany. I am sure they exist somewhere in the country but I have never seen anyone use them. To measure we had to use coffee cups and we had to "eye" the butter up. My host mom uses this technique all the time and her cooking always turns out amazing so we went with the flow and estimated. The soup turned out very tasty and es hat so viel Spaß gemacht!

Teamwork.

You just add the beer to the cheese right?

We be adding milk to that roue! 

Kate can open a beer bottle with ANYTHING.

Final step...ENJOY!

Oster!

Oster is German for Easter. I know, I am wayyyy behind on my blogs since easter was awhile ago. The good news is this post will be kinda because it is really just pictures of how the city of Magdeburg decorated the city. That is good because I will have more time to write the next blog. As you may know, I spent Easter in Copenhagen but these decorations were up for almost the entire month of march in the malls in Magdeburg.

You could pet REAL bunnies while shopping at the local mall. 

Medieval bunnies in front of the old Magdeburg skyline.

Tokio Hotel is a band that originated in Magdeburg so, of course, they needed to have a Tokio Hotel comprised of bunnies.

GIANT and I do mean GIANT chicks in eggs floating from the ceiling.

Copenhagen

I am seriously soooo behind on my blogs. You can't blame me though. There is so much to do when you are living in another country. At least I always come back to my blog and post something again. Some of the people in my program posted 3 or 4 times and haven't written anything since October 2011. Okay, now that that admission is out of the way, we can move on to the blog. I went to Copenhagen over Easter weekend. It was awesome. As you can see from the map, Copenhagen is in Denmark which touches Germany at its Northern most tip. Copenhagen, however, is located on an island to the far East. In order to get there you basically can use a bus or a train BUT that bus or train will have to board a ferry and travel across the Baltic in order to arrive at Copenhagen. I used a bus to get there but can you, just for a second, imagine being on a train as that train boards a ferry and then proceeds to travel out to sea? Engineering marvel. My friends and I decided to use a hostel called Danhostel. I highly recommend it. It is close to the train station and the main square which is the meeting spot for many tours and pub crawls. It is also a very tall tower so, if you get lucky, you can get an amazing view of the city like I did. All for around 25€ per person per night. Oh yeah, and the hostel is clean and offers a breakfast buffet in the morning. SIDE NOTE/TIP: If you ever stay at a hostel or hotel with a breakfast buffet eat what you want and then stash something in your backpack for later so that you have a snack while you are exploring in the city. It is a great way to stave off hunger and save some money. The weather in Copenhagen is crazy. It was raining when we arrived, it snowed the next morning, that turned into clear skies but was still very windy, and then, when we left Copenhagen, it was not windy and sunny. Crazy weather but it is an amazing city and Denmark consistently has the happiest people in the world.

View from the hostel room. This is what 25€ will get you.

Our first full day in Copenhagen we took the SANDEMAN's New Europe free tour. New Europe is this company that operates in touristy cities in Europe. They conduct things like pub crawls, free tours (but you should tip the tour guide at the end), and paid tours. Our tour guide was awesome. His name was Filip. That's right. Filip with an "F" and one "L". He was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He told us many interesting things about Copenhagen. Only about 5 million people in the world speak Danish which is why almost everyone in Copenhagen can speak English. Denmark had the lowest Jewish mortality rate during WWII. 96% of its Jewish population was saved because brave sailors gathered the Jews and sailed them across the sea to Sweden where they were safe. I was in awe when I heard that. You go Danes! Filip said that that was one of the reasons the Danes are so happy. He said they take care of each other and have a sense of family in their country. They stick together.

We got to see the most photographed place in Copenhagen. The famous New Harbor which is lined with colorful buildings and has a canal filled with ships. Little known fact. The ships in that canal do not leave the canal. There is no way for them to do so. The bridges are too low and the ships are too tall.

The creator of The Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Anderson, also lived and worked in Copenhagen so there is a Little Mermaid monument in his honor. It is very simple. It is just a mermaid sitting on a rock on the shore. Simple but cool.

The currency in Denmark is the Krone. A single Krone is worth much less than the Euro or the dollar so everything seems very expensive in Denmark. You are like "Oh my gosh! I just spent 100 Kroner!" But that is really only about 17 dollars so don't freak out if you go to Denmark. Even after conversion though, things are still pretty expensive in Copenhagen so watch your spending.

Copenhagen is also home to the amusement park Tivoli. A certain Walt Disney went there way back when and was then inspired to create his own now famous amusement parks.

Denmark is also the home of LEGO! LEGO got it's name from the two words "le" and "got" in Danish. It means "play well". In Latin, "le got" means "I put together" so LEGO is basically the perfect word for these little plastic bricks. The LEGO factory is not located in Copenhagen so we didn't get to see it but our tour guide Filip told us something very interesting about LEGO. Per unit, LEGO produces the most tires of any company in the world. I know I know, if we were talking per weight, it would lose horribly but it produces the most single tires in the world. That is pretty interesting!

All in all, Copenhagen was pretty darn cool. Just think. Without Denmark, we would not have LEGO, Disneyland, or The Little Mermaid. I shudder to think. The weather was crazy but even that could not dull the beauty and richness of the city. If you can, I highly recommend visiting.

The ferry ride was beautiful.

The main square. 

An awesome fountain of a sea creature thing. Nifty!

New Harbor 

Me and a giant anchor...why not? 

We went to an English church service on Easter and I do mean English. The priest had an English accent. 

Me and a windmill!!!!!!