Union

In three weeks Brandon and Heather will be married and having their reception. Don't know about this? Never heard of Pillager, MN? Contact either of us with any questions or concerns.

What's next?

Tomorrow we both graduate from college and from there we can look forward to holding jobs all summer. In the fall, after we receive our diplomas in the mail, we are going to travel to South Korea to teach English conversation for a year. We will keep updates on our blog (unlike our friend Tara) but they will be fewer and farther between over the summer. As things settle down and we catch up we'll try and put some more pictures on too.

We've made it back to the U.S. this Friday evening with no hitches in our flight plan. We transferred at Chicago O'Hare and arrived at Minneapolis on time. Our friends Kurt and Brooke picked us up at the airport and we ate a great Cinco de Mayo meal in River Falls at our favorite Mexican restaraunt. There may or may not have been a few drinks involved too. Lots to get done before graduation and late June (if you know what I mean). We look forward to talking with everyone so feel free to call, email or post. Thanks for reading our blog and we'll put some more pictures on soon.

Trier and Koln

Yesterday, 2 May, we visited Trier. This is the oldest city in Germany and was quite impressive! There are many artifacts from Roman times, including the largest city gate left standing! We also visited a cathedral that was georgous and connected to it was the oldest Gothic church in Germany. We have never seen 2 massive churches connected before! Karl Marx was born here, and we toured his house that has been turned into a very interesting museum. The sun was out and it was about 70 degrees, the hottest it's been that we remember!
Today we checked out the town that we have been in for the past 3 nights: Cologne. The dom, or cathedral, is so huge and so great to walk around in. There were also city walls for us to see, although many seemed to be under construction so we couldn't get very close. We were also able to tour a chocolate factory/museum (Lindt Chocolate) and tasted the freshest chocolate available! The sun was out again today and was quite hot. We soaked it up while we could and ended the afternoon grabbing a few last-minute souvenirs to remember the town with. Tomorrow morning we leave in the AM for Frankfurt, which is less than 2 hours by train away. We fly out on Friday, and will be in the US about 18.30!

We went to Russ's game on Friday night and it was an excellent game even though Hamburg lost to a field goal with less than a minute left. Saturday we came to Cologne but the weather has been cold and rainy so sightseeing has been somewhat limited. Today we went to Aachen to see Charlemagne's capitol. All that remains of his palace is the church and its treasures which were very impressive. While we're here we want to also day-trip to Trier (Germany's oldest city) and maybe Bonn or Mainz, but there is a lot to do here in Cologne. Thursday we are for sure going to Frankfurt because we have to fly out Friday morning.

Hamburg, Germany

We arrived in this city this afternoon, and met up with Russ, Brandon's friend. He has been nice enough to let us stay with him at his hotel, the Holiday Inn, and we have been relaxing this evening. We were able to visit the U-boat, a huge submarine built in the 1970's, but got there a little too late to get to go inside! From the looks of the outside, however, that is quite alright with us! Brandon and I will see the town tomorrow in the day, and then head to the football game in the evening. There is a "friends and family" bus that will take us from the hotel to the stadium, so we seem to be set to go! The sun was out today and was a nice day, as we hope this will be true of tomorrow as well!! It's hard to imagine that we arrive in the States one week from tonight!! In two weeks' time we will also be college graduates! Quite exciting!!

Dresden, Germany

We are now in Dresden, and we arrived yesteday around 15.00. The train ride from Szczecin was fine, except that for 2 hours we had to sit in the smoking car, as the others were completely filled. The town is quite nice, with lots to see. We also are liking the hostel, as we booked a 4 bed room but last night did not have to share with anyone. It is always nice to have your own space! The city is preparing for a large festival this weekend, and we are a bit sad that we cannot stick around to see how it goes! The weather today started off cloudy and muggy, but the sun popped out about 2pm and never hid again! We leave tomorrow, Friday, for Hamburg, to meet up with B´s friend, Russ. On Saturday we are going to his American-football game, so that will be cool!! We watched our 1st full game of soccer the other night with Marta and Luke, and they were nice enough to explain the rules to us! It is such a huge sport over here! Otherwise, nothing much new. Hope all is well for everyone back home, and cannot wait to see you!!!! Tchuss (Bye in German, the cute way, pronounced chuuuse)

Sans Soucci

Brandenburg Gate

Berliner Dom

Caught in the Act!

Just Kidding

Schloss Charlottenburg (Berlin)

Ruins of Kaiser Wilhelm Church

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall

Szczecin, Poland

We have been in Poland since Sunday, staying with my (H) friend Marta. We are having an excellent time as her and her boyfriend have been very helpful in showing us around the town many times. Yesterday we visited ruins from a factory that was used by the Nazi's in WWII as a work camp. It was quite amazing to see, and of course sad to think of the things that took place there. We have not been able to post on our site from here, so that is why we are delayed! Tomorrow, Wed, we leave for Dresden, Germany. Our free time is going quite quickly and we will soon be home!

testet

testing

testing

Poland

We spent Saturday walking around Berlin seeing what was yet to be seen (i.e. a flea market, Brandenburg Gate, Egyptian Museum, Tiergarten Park, and the Pergamon Museum [again]). Sunday morning we left, bright and early, for Szczecin, Poland to stay with Heather's high school friend, Marta and her boyfriend Luke. They showed us the town and we saw Match Point in English. Today we are bumming while Marta is in class adn when she gets back we'll probably go back into town after lunch. Tomorrow we may either stay here another night or move on to Dresden, Germany for a few days before meeting Brandon's friend Russ in Hamburg on Friday. We'll get pictures on today.

Potsdam

Today was our last day of class. We then went as a class to Potsdam, about 30 minutes by train outside of Berlin. There we visited San Soussi, a palace built for Frederich in the 18th century. The name means "without worries" and we got a tour guide who showed and told us many interesting things! After this we walked to a local German restaurant, to eat as a group one last time. On the way, we saw a very large protest, and found out that they are protesting a racially-motivated beating that occurred in the town on Easter night. The people in the community are quite distraught about this (rightfully so) and want something to be done. It was a peaceful demonstration, but cops were everywhere nonetheless. We also saw many videocameras from news stations. So, we did get to dinner and ate a nice schnitzel with potatoes and veggies. We were able to finish off with a lovely apple strudel!! It was so tasty, and it was a nice dinner all in all. I (H) am really excited to drink milk again when I return to the States. The milk that I have run into over here is kind of warm and quite thick, so I tend to stay away.
Anyway, we also purchased our train tickets to Szczecin, Poland, for Sunday. We are going to visit H's friend, Marta, and are quite excited!! Tomorrow we will see the Brandenburg Gate, the Egyptian Museum, and a few other sites before leaving in the AM on Sunday. It's hard to believe that we have only 2 weeks left...

Thursday

Wednesday we saw a restored Roman altar and a gate to Babylon (6000 years old). Thursday we went to Checkpoint Charlie after class and spent nearly three hours at the museum... and then we spent the rest of the night memorizing the countries of the world, the 12 most populated cities in the world, and 27ish paintings, artists and styles for our three tests today. This morning we had class, took our tests and then got the H out of there. We went to Schloss Charlottenburg, the local palace, and then to the Kaiser Wilhelm Church that has been left as it was after WWII. Tomorrow we have our last class and then we go as a group to Potsdam to see the palaces there and have a group dinner. Well get pictures online as soon as we can.

Berlin

We have arrived safely in Berlin, Germany. Our train ride was interesting yesterday, as we did not have reservations and the cars were PACKED!! I (H) spent 3 of the 5 hours sitting on the pull-out seats by the doors as there were NO open seats. B had to get his paper done, and luckily found a chair with a table. But, there were no big problems, and we found our hostel with no trouble. Today after class we headed to town, and made it to museum island. We visited the Pergamonmuseum. This museum houses very old and reconstructed artifacts from many hundreds of years ago. There are large exhibits and it was quite interesting there. We are staying very busy, as we have 2 large tests on Thursday, and will be studying all day tomorrow when we get out of class. We are enjoying this hostel as our 3 meals are provided every day!

Photos

The majority of these were taken in Nurnberg, Germany, but the ones of us at the Opera were taken in Praha, a few nights before we left!!! Hope you like them!! PS, dinner was very tasty at our usual spot this evening!!!

B took a photo of this tower, and this kid ran right in front of him at the the last second!! It was quite hilarious!! haha
Nice view in Nurnberg.

Photo of a photo taken in a church in Nurnberg, what it looked like when the Nazis ruled. Quite eery.
H by the river and the German houses.
A photo of a photo, when we were visiting the Nurnberg Trials courtroom, 15 April. Those were the 21 defendents present. (3 were absent).
B and H in front of the castle, Nurnberg, 15 April.

One of the tower walls, in Nurnberg, Germany. (15 April)
Heather, Brandon, and Kelli waiting to see our 1st real opera, Carmen.
B, H, Kelli, and Mindy outside the Opera House.
Does that say One Fart?? ha-ha

Oustide the Opera House, waiting to see Carmen!

Well the weather was fairly gloomy today so it turned out to be a laundry and homework day. Tonight we will go back to the same restaraunt we've eaten at for the last two nights because it is, as H would say, "quite tasty". Zur Wilden Sau it's called but neither of us have been brave enough to try the wild boar, yet. Tonight we'll walk along the city walls while they're lit up and then get some sleep for our train ride to Berlin. Hope everyone had a good Easter and while we'll be envious of any ham dinners we're dreading the day when we won't be able to find a real brat stand in an old city market. Have a Merry Easter and we'll see you soon!B + H

Well if you ask us if we like Nuremberg we'll gladly show you the 250 pictures we took today, but not now. We don't have internet on our computer so no pictures till, hopefully, Berlin. We may squeeze in a trip to Wurzburg tomorrow but, as everyone know by now, we have a lot to get done. Happy Easter to everyone, we'll be having sandwiches for our dinner because absolutely nothing will be open.

flooded on the tracks

We have arrived safely in Nurnberg, Germany. We left Praha at 9,15AM today, and had been on the train for 2 hours when the ticket guy told us that we had to get off and hop on an 'autobus' as he called it. we were confused, but complied. It turns out that the tracks were flooded, so we took a bus around the effected area and got back on a new train 30 minutes later! It was a bit unorganized but we finally got on the correct part of the train (it split at a certain town) and we arrived here without further incident! We are staying at the same hostel for 3 nights, as we have lots of homework to finish. Our last week of classes start on Tuesday, and on Friday we are done with classes! It is hard to believe that the semester, our final, is coming to a close! We are greatly anticipating our free travel, and are making arrangements to visit friends who live in Europe!! (H has been in contact with Marta, an exchange student from Poland from back in the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
It's great to back in Germany, as although the language is still forgein, it is recognizable for us and very comforting!! Time for dinner, Guten Nacht!!

View from old fortification
Church of Our Lady
This guy didn't want to talk to Heather either

Church of Our Lady
Gun Powder Tower
Old Town Hall with Easter Tree

I tried putting on some pictures but there seems to be a bug in the server. We went to Carmen last night and were quite impressed. It was interesting to find that we recognized some of the songs in an opera we knew nothing about. We bought a guide that gave us the gist of what was happening so we weren't completely lost. Today is kind of dreary and thus fitting for our trip to the Communist museum. We saw a video of the Communist occupation of Czechylslovakia that showed a lot of the protests here in Prague in some of the same places we've been. Heather was taken aback by the violence of the police and military on the crowds but minus a few tanks and add a college university and it didn't look any worse than the Vietnam era in the US to me. Maybe I'm a tad cynical though. We were able to catch up on a lot of homework over the weekend but still plenty left. We leave for Nuremburg of Friday where we'll for sure stay for two nights and play Sunday by ear.

We got lucky for the first few days here, and had a nice internet connection...but that wasn't meant to be! We lost that connection and have since been scrounging around, so thus the reason for the sporatic posts. It's hard to believe that we will be leaving Praha in 5 days, and heading onward to Berlin for our last city! The time is flying more than ever now!
Today is a day of more homework for us, but we do get a treat tonight in that we are going to the opera, "Carmen", with two of our girlfriends. It should be an excellent time and I even bought a cute outfit at a 2nd hand store for a few bucks!! On Monday we will visit the Communism Museum as a class, and then Tues. we will be in class all day. Wed. we will be visiting a palace with a large selection of paintings, and then Thursday we have our 2nd test for class. Friday we leave Praha already!!

So it has been a few days but like we said in our other postings we are staying a little more grounded here at the hotel and aren't doing as much sightseeing as we are trying to do homework, with a few sidetrips to the market. Saturday the group went on a walking tour of Prague and that was really only the second time we'd been away from the hotel so we brought the camera but pictures were a little rushed so we could stay with the group. We spent the rest of the weekend studying for our test on Tuesday and writing a small paper... and going to the market. Tuesday we took our test and after 6 hours of class we had a group dinner at a downtown brew pub (the beer was excellent and we rather liked the food too). Today, Wednesday, the group took a guided excursion to a concentration camp/Jewish ghetto in the town of Terezin, 40 minutes from Prague. Terezin wasn't a death camp itself but thousands did die there and most of the rest transported to Auschwitz for "the Final Solution". After the Soviets "liberated" the area, the town was repopulated by the original townsfolk even though it was the sight of disease and death. We had a very informative tour guide but like most tours we were rushed around and that takes away from the atmosphere and being able to soak in what you hear and see. It was a good experience and much different than Dachau. We have opera tickets for Sunday night (Carmen) and might also go to a matinee on Saturday (The Magic Flute). Class all day tomorrow, some museums to visit Friday and plenty of homework to fill the gaps. I've also confirmed that we are going to go to Hamburg for a few days during break to see my friend Russ Rabe who is playing football for the Hamburg Sea Devils in NFL Europe. We are going to see the Hamburg v Amsterdam game.

So it has been a few days but like we said in our other postings we are staying a little more grounded here at the hotel and aren't doing as much sightseeing as we are trying to do homework, with a few sidetrips to the market. Saturday the group went on a walking tour of Prague and that was really only the second time we'd been away from the hotel so we brought the camera but pictures were a little rushed so we could stay with the group. We spent the rest of the weekend studying for our test on Tuesday and writing a small paper... and going to the market. Tuesday we took our test and after 6 hours of class we had a group dinner at a downtown brew pub (the beer was excellent and we rather liked the food too). Today, Wednesday, the group took a guided excursion to a concentration camp/Jewish ghetto in the town of Terezin, 40 minutes from Prague. Terezin wasn't a death camp itself but thousands did die there and most of the rest transported to Auschwitz for "the Final Solution". After the Soviets "liberated" the area, the town was repopulated by the original townsfolk even though it was the sight of disease and death. We had a very informative tour guide but like most tours we were rushed around and that takes away from the atmosphere and being able to soak in what you hear and see. It was a good experience and much different than Dachau. We have opera tickets for Sunday night (Carmen) and might also go to a matinee on Saturday (The Magic Flute). Class all day tomorrow, some museums to visit Friday and plenty of homework to fill the gaps. I've also confirmed that we are going to go to Hamburg for a few days during break to see my friend Russ Rabe who is playing football for the Hamburg Sea Devils in NFL Europe. We are going to see the Hamburg v Amsterdam game.

Cheap Praha

We are enjoying Praha (Prague) but have not had a chance to see many things as we had 7 hours of class today! It's an interesting class, so that's a plus! We already have our 1st exam on Tuesday! We were able to find an outdoor marketplace, where they have clothes, shoes, souvenirs, food. It's cool cuz you haggle with them for the best price, and we have gotten some cheap items! B got a new pair of shoes, as his were leaky. Actually, the city of Prague is preparing for a large flood to hit the city. It is not certain yet that the waters will rise so as to create the flood, but it seems that everyone is preparing. We will keep you posted! Tomorrow the class will do a walking tour with a native of Praha, so that should be fun! The rest of the weekend will be spent doing homework and then more homework.

Countdown

Well here we are in the Czech Republic and that means the end is in sight. We have a lot of class to do here and a lot of preperation for those classes so we'll be spending many a day here in the hotel (hotel, not hostel!). This class involves a lot of field trips and museums and then reaction papers and reading so there won't be much for day trips or sight seeing because on top of that we are both way behind on our independant research. So since we have to be rooted for class anyway it's a chance for us to catch up before we break from the group and go out on our own. Budapest was awesome and what were able to see of Vienna Monday night was very impressive. We're doing a city walk on Saturday morning with a tour guide so we should be able to snap a few photos then but not much before that. Nashledanou!

Heroes Monument, Budapest
Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
Gellert Hill, Budapest
Fisheman's Bastion and Matthias' Church, Budapest

Hapsburg Palace in Vienna
Chapel at Valhuyand(?) Castle, Budapest

Jesuiterkirche, Vienna
Valhuyand Castle, Budapest

Budapest

This is our 2nd night in Budapest, Hungary. It is a nice city, quite large and has much to see. Today we saw a castle on the hill, the parliament building, churches, and the river. We even met a fellow student from UWRF who is staying in France for the semester. What a small world. We had a bit of trouble on the underground subway today...We bought the tickets and did not see a place to validate them, so we hopped on the train and thought we could stamp them on the rail. Well, this was not the case at all, and once we hopped off, the rail guards were inspecting all tickets. Since ours were not properly stamped, we had to pay a fine of about 20US dollars. Whatever. If that is the worst that happens, then oh well I guess. Tomorrow we will get on the train in the AM for Vienna, Austria for the night. We must be in Prague (Praha) by 6pm Tues.

Bologna
Bologna alley
Castlevecchio (Verona)
Castle Este (Ferrara, IT)

Veronese arena
Roman theater in Verona
Verona
Twins

Hail to thee Slovakia

Since the last post my (B) luggage arrived in Verona, thankfully, we spent a few hours in class, travelled to Milan and flew to Bratislava. We're glad to be here in Eastern Europe and happy to have free wireless internet. How many people do you know who have been to Slovakia? At least two! We arrived a little late in the evening so tomorrow we will check out the town before heading to Budapest. I'm going to be sure to get a Hungary shirt. Here are a few pictures like we know you've been waiting for.

Italia

Castle in Ferrara, Statue in Verona, Cathedral in Ferrara, Roman Arena in Verona

Safe and Sound

Brandon arrived back in Europe safely...His luggage was lost in transit and the airline has not yet found it, so that is not really very cool. He had brought back many supplies that we are running low on, but now those things are MIA... We are in Bologna, Italy right now, for the day. We took the 7am train from Verona and got here at 9, and we thought we should check the status of his bag. We have not seen much of this city yet, but it seems to be nice. It is hazy and seems like it will rain at any moment, but so far we have not gotten drenched. Tomorrow is our last night in Verona, and we have class in the afternoon. On Friday, we take a short flight from Milan, Italy to Bratislava, Slovakia. This weekend we plan to see Budapest and Vienna also. We must be in Prague, Czech Republic on Tues afternoon. On Wednesday we begin a 4 credit class that will most definitely keep us busy!! All for now.

Sunshine

I am having a wonderful time in Verona. It is a lovely city, and it's just the right size for me! Our group received day passes for the sites, and i was able to see many cool things. I saw the home and tomb of Juliet, the Juliet of Romeo and.... I also climbed a bell tower and had a great view of the city! I also walked through a nice castle, but unfortunately many things here are under construction and therefore tourists can only see bits and pieces of the site. There were many nice churches as well. I have really been enjoying the gellatto, Italian icecream, as well!!! As B is still gone I have been hanging out with some other friends, and have learned a new card game! It is called Euchre, and is quite addicting! The weather has been quite lovely as well, and the sunshine is so great! I will day trip to a little village with Mindy and her new fiance Jeremy today, so I must be on my way! Ciao :)

Verona

We arrived safely in Verona, Italy on Tuesday evening. Our weekend was great with many nice sites visited. Yesterday we had no class so we day tripped to Venice, which was really great. The sun was shining and the town was very lovely as well. I was surprised at how busy it was, but this is how it is all the time supposedly. Brandon has left on his journey back to the States. He left at 1pm today, and will return sometime Monday evening, probably a tired guy! All else is going well!

German Castles

Today we visited two amazing castles about 2 hours from Munich. One of them is quite famous as it was the site for the Movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" back in the day! They are filled with interesting history and lots of Amazing artifacts inside, and we had a blast touring them! The most famous is up on a large mountain that takes 35 minutes by foot to reach! The climb was worth it, though, and going down was a piece of cake! It snowed on and off for much of the day, but by the early afternoon the sun came out and we had great views of both castles!

We ran into a man with a WI sweatshirt on, and spoke to him and learned that he is a UW professor, here on business. We also met a young man who recently graduated from a university in Texas, and he hung out with us for a good portion of the day.

The plan for tomorrow is to hit up Salzburg, Austria in the day and perhaps take the night train into Italy after that. H does not enjoy night trains that well, but we will see what happens. The main thing is that we must be in Verona on the afternoon of Tuesday.

We will get photos on here as soon as B gets his new computer, which will be in less than a week! He leaves Europe on Fri and will return Monday evening.

Munchen

We have made it to Munich, Germany. We awoke at 6am today and got to the train by 8am, and by 12.30 we had arrived in Munich with no problems. This is our first travel weekend where we have run into no major problems!! YAY for that. We checked into our hostel and quickly boarded a train bound for Dauchau. We toured the old concentration camp from WWII, and it was quite moving, to say the least. They have a very nice tribute to all those who suffered, and it puts all the petty things you are thinking about into perspective. After a 20 minute train ride, we were back in Munich and grabbed some dinner to eat at the hostel. We are laying low tonight as we have a big day planned for tomorrow, which includes visiting some castles.
Yesterday was another awesome day for us, as we made our way into the Swiss Alps just outside of Lucerne. We took a 45 minute boat ride on the lake, and then boarded a mountain train. Our friend Mindy was with and claimed to be afraid of heights, but she didn't act any more worried that I (H) did!!! ;) The ride up to Mount Rigi (6000Ft) was just georgous, as the sun came out and shone on the lake and the snow-covered peaks!! By the time we were on top, though, the fog had moved in and the wind was horrendous! Ice chunks were flying and we got back on the train promptly!! We then took a cable car the rest of the way back down, which was so great! It was a little crowded so we didn't get many photos, but the experience was great! After returning to the city of Lucerne on the boat, we showed Mindy around as we had been there 2 days prior and she had not yet been. After a quick pit-stop in Zurich, we returned to Freiburg at about 9pm! It's funny, Freiburg has been our nicest hostel thus far, and we were there the least amount of time!! Oh well!
We will be staying in Munich for 2 nights, and then perhaps 2 in Venice, Italy, before meeting with our school group on Tues. in Verona. We have lots of stuff that B will be taking back to the states in a week when he returns for his best friends wedding, and it is a pain to carry around for extended periods of time! Hope everyone is doing well and we really appreciate your nice emails!!!

Quicky

Today was a day of rest and homework. Tomorrow we try and get to the top of the Alps near Lucerne. Mount Pilatus, I believe, is the tallest mountain in eastern Switzerland and accessible by cable cars. This weekend we'll make base in Munich and explore Dachau, Innsbruck and hopefully Neuchwanstein and other Bavarian schlosses (castles). If we can we'll get some pictures on but we're kind of working with a dilapitated computer for now.

Monday we caught up on work and walked through Freiburg a little. I (B) was able to use an external keyboard to get all of my work from my laptop but many programs do not work anymore. The culprit has agreed to reimburse me so I ordered a new computer to pick up when I return in two weeks for Kurt's wedding. Today we travelled to Luzern and Zurich, Switzerland. Both were nice but we agreed that Lucerne was nicer. Now we have to plan the weekend for free travel and arrival in Verona on Tuesday.

Snowy Sunday

It has been snowing constantly in Freiburg since about Friday, and we were starting to think it would never end! It did cease sometime last night, although I do believe that at least a foot has accumulated over the weekend. We did not let the snow hinder our travel plans, and today we visited Switzerland. Our friend Mindy came with and the 3 of us had a delightful time! We left the hostel at 8.30AM, and as of now, 21.15, we have not yet made it back to the hostel!! It has been one busy day!
We took the first train to Bern, Switzerland, which gets its name from the fact the founder of the town wanted to name the city after the first animal which he killed on the land, which happened to be a BEAR! They have bear pits in the center of the city where we saw 3 bears playing around and eating any food the tourists would feed them. They even did a few tricks, they do know how to work the crowd! We also climbed to the top of the Munster in Bern, which was between 400 and 500 steps one way. The view was amazing, of course, and the sun even came out!
We were on our way back to the hostel at about 3.30, when our train had a layover in Basel, Switzerland. All of us decided that since we were there, we might as well tour the town a bit! Luckily, there was a winter festival going on around the town and the streets were filled with locals drinking and laughing and eating brats!! It was great, and it was great to see this festival. The only downfall: the streets were not really plowed at all, and the snow got packed down and turned to ice, so everyone was slipping and sliding everywhere! Luckily none of us fell, but we saw too many spills to count.
We ended our evening with Swiss chocolate on the train back to Frieburg, and thought we should swing into the internet cafe since we were here. Luckily Brandon and I have no class tomorrow, so we plan on getting lots of homework completed!

Cuckoo For Clocks

Today we had no class, so a group of 6 of us got on the train and went about 50 minutes southeast, where we visited a town called Titisee. This place has many nice clocks and there are 4 major shops to visit. Three of the four carry the same brand of clock, and charge the same price, but we looked in all of them just to be sure! Everyone in the party ended up buying at least one, and ours is quite nice! It has already been shipped for us, and will arrive in 6 to 8 weeks. B did snap a photo b4 we left the shop, and maybe we can get it on the computer sometime soon!
It has been snowing heavily all day long, and the trains were delayed as well. The snow is so beautiful, especially since we do not have to drive in it! The roads are quite sloppy, but luckily we have water-resistant boots and have avoided major sock-drenching!
Tomorrow we may visit Bern, Switzerland. Otherwise for the rest of our evening we will hang out and B wants to visit the beer garden next to the hostel, as it has quite tasty Authentic German food that he cannot get enough of!! The beer is also home-brewed, and he enjoys that as well.

Technical Difficulties

Well, we've hit a big snag... Last night B was being nice and let one of his roomies charge something from his computer, usually he puts it away as soon as he is done with it, but since it needed a few hours to charge, he left it out while a few of us went to out for a bit. When he got back, it was not working, and he found out this morn that someone spilled some liquid on it!!!! We took it to a computer repair shop here, but since it is a Dell, no one has the correct parts and they said you must send it to Dell. Well, this isn't really an option for us, so we are basically in deep water now... We have been doing many of our assignments on the computer, and have many important things on there! The guy said all the data is safe, but will cost at least 100 dollars to extract it. We are quite sad about this and am very bummed as well.... (This may mean the end of pics on our website as well).
Other than that, things are well. We had a class fieldtrip today, and learned many interesting tidbits about Freiburg. The man who spoke with the group is a native and shared many interesting things with us. We then hiked up a hill, but it has been snowy and rainy here and a few people biffed it while coming down! One girl who had khakis on slid down on her bum and was covered in mud! She only injured her pride a bit though.
Tomorrow we have no class obligations and are planning on visiting a city where we can pick out a ku-ku clock, as B's mom and brother have agreed that that would make a nice wedding gift! A few of our classmates have also expressed interest in coming, so we may make it a group thing!

Freiburg

We have made it safely to Freiburg, Germany. Our hostel is .5 mile away from the nearest tram stop, and the town is about 3 miles away. No worries, because we have tickets to use the tram to get us into town. This is a much smaller and quieter place, much unlike London and Paris! It is a great place, and we have been exploring once already. We cannot get internet at the hostel, so not sure when we will next post pictures, but we did find a relatively cheap place to surf in town. We are actually waiting for our laundry to finish washing, as there are no machines at this hostel. It is fairly funny because about half of the group waited to do their laundry in this city, and now there are no machines on site so we will all have to haul our things into the city! This week we have had class from 9 to noon, and luckily the hostel provides lunch as well as the other two meals, so that is quite convenient. Tomorrow, Friday, we will be going on a field trip with a friend of our professors who grew up in this town, so we will get all of the inside details!
Nothing too terribly exciting to report for now, I am getting over a cold that B had over the weekend, the one that everyone in the group has had at some point over our time here. This weekend we have no school plans so we are hoping to visit Bern, Switzerland, and perhaps Basel as well. Gutentag!