After taking German for four years and one semester, I finally traveled to Germany, Frankfurt to be specific, to see my cousins this past weekend! I had a great time seeing the city, which is located right on the Main River (full name: Frankfurt am Main, or Frankfurt on the Main). It was a weekend full of:
1. Family
I stayed with my cousins (well, if you want to be technical about it, my cousins-once-removed and second cousins, I believe) in Frankfurt. Prior to this weekend, the summer of 2001 was the last time I saw
them all, and my strongest memories of that visit out by Pittsburgh is soccer by the wave pool and mayonnaise on french fries (Germans eat some strange things). I did see my 24 year old cousin, Simon, and his girlfriend, Erica, this past November out in Pittsburgh, so luckily I had a familiar face to meet me at the airport :) It was really great getting to see Ralph, Conny, Simon, Erica, and Dominic (Patrick, my 25 year old cousin, was in the US- ironic.) and to spend time with them and see where they live, since the only times I've seen them have been in the US. A HUGE thanks to them for hosting me!!!
2. German!
Okay, so I did not speak in German the whole weekend; it was actually almost the opposite, I am
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native American holding a parrot? |
not proud to say. I did, however, speak more German than I have in the past 3.5 years, outside of my one semester of German at Bucknell.
At least I'm honest! It just so happens that my cousins are virtually fluent in English (Ralph still has his American passport), so it was just easier to communicate in English. I did go on a tour of Kloster Eberbach (a monastery nearish Frankfurt, where part of "Der Name Der Rose" was filmed) that was all in German, and understood a decent amount of what the tour guide was saying- she luckily spoke very clearly and pretty slowly. We later watched the movie, also in German...not sure if it got lost in translation (it was late and understanding German takes a LOT of focus still) or what, but it was pretty strange. Also, Erica made sure to try to intentionally speak German to me, so I did get to practice conversing a little bit!
3. Local History
I guess this one goes without saying, since Europe as a whole is much older than America, but I
saw a lot of history over the long weekend! On Saturday we drove up to the Rhein River and saw the Lorely (see legend:
Lorely), which was cool because way back when in German class I had
to memorize a famous poem about her! It was really foggy so you couldn't see too much from the top of the little mountain/cliff overlooking the river, so that was the only downside- but, better than rain! We also went to Kloster Eberbach, as I already mentioned. On Sunday we drove to Saalburg, which is an old Roman fort near the wall that used to divide Rome from Germany, which was ironic, since in one of my classes on Friday we had talked about this same divide. Then we went to the Freilichtmuseum, or a real reconstruction of a Hessen village...we didn't actually go in to the main part, because it was closing, but there was a small village square with cute shops, so we walked around of a little bit. I loved all the buildings, very picturesque!
4. Frankfurt's Past and Present
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| Frankfurt Dom |
Frankfurt has a lot of historic buildings still, although a lot were
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Main Tower, we were up there! |
destroyed in WWII. It's a really cool city, with an interesting combination of really historic buildings, such as the Dom (Frankfurt's cathedral), the Römer (the city hall), the old Oper Haus (opera house), Goethe's house (famous German writer), and more. But then there is also the modern Frankfurt skyline, with a lot of skyscrapers- maybe not as many as New York City, but they are all unique, with really interesting architecture. I went to the top of the Main Tower with Simon, where we got a great view of the city (and the weatherman filming a segment!). There is also a new shopping center/mall that is SO interesting- it has a hole going through the building!
5. Clouds and Cold
I think I brought the cold, grey Copenhagen weather with me to Frankfurt, because it was cold and cloudy over the weekend (nothing I'm not used to though!). I'm glad it didn't rain though, and it was at least a few degrees warmer than Denmark!
6. German Food
I saved (one of the) best parts for last- the food! I had so much delicious German (and Frankfurt) food while I was there. Before the trip, I had only ever had "real" German food on middle school field
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Apple wine! taken by Erica on her phone :) |
trips to the local German restaurant, but that did not compare to this! Friday night when I landed, Conny had made German potato balls and rouladen (I think that's what it's called), which was a delicious welcome to Germany. We had dinner on Saturday at a very traditional, old Frankfurt restaurant. Frankfurt is famous for it's Apfelwein, served in a Bembel (the city even has a tower that looks like an apple wine glass!), which I loved! We all ordered different dishes, and I tried a little bit of everything (see pictures on Facebook for more details)- I'm not sure of all of the names, but it was all
SO GOOD! Sunday night we went to the restaurant where Simon works, which has Frankfurt and Austrian food, and I got to try a few different appetizers, which were all really good, and had traditional apfelstrudel for dessert- yum!! At night we walked around Frankfurt and got a drink at one of the bars, so I had a glass of German Riesling, which was great. Then on Monday Simon and I went to the restaurant where Erica works, and I had more hot chocolate (I forgot to mention how often I drank that!), and really good chicken tortelloni- not that German, but still great! And, of course, I ended the trip by having a traditional German bratwurst :)
So, that was my trip in a nutshell. Germany was beautiful, I definitely hope to go back sooner than later,
and preferably when it's a little warmer...a boat trip on the Rhein would be nice! There are many cities I would like to see, especially since I actually learned about a lot of places in my German class (more than I can say for other places I've gone- Budapest, for example), which makes traveling to those places more meaningful. Thanks so much to the Millers and Erica for hosting me!!
Tschüs!
I'm caught up! Looks like you are having a great time. Don't forget to learn something while you're there - HAHA!
ReplyDeleteWe miss you!
Enjoy your travels!!!!
-Barr