Aachen & Weihnachtsmarkt

Originally, my classmate, Andrea and I were going on the Study Abroad ESN Trip to Luxembourg and the Ardennes...unfortunately (but then again not so unfortunate) our Hydrogeological Transport Phenomena changed our class time from Friday morning to Friday afternoon.  This conflicted with the scheduled departure of the trip, so we ended up selling our tickets to 2 very lucky Italians, who were more than thrilled.

Sebastian and his red Volvo!

Andrea's roommate, Sebastian, and his girlfriend, Janine are both geology students who went to Aachen University for their Bachelors.  Sebastian is now at Utrecht to get his masters and staying with us for two years (yay!) and Janine is on an exchange in Amsterdam and will be going back to Aachen to finish up her Masters (sad face).  Anyways, they had told a group of us about Aachen and its Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) and invited Andrea, 2 more of their roommates (Matthew - also Hydrology and Kathryn - a European law student), and I to go to Aachen for the weekend with them.  Since Andrea and I had changed our plans, we were now able to go with them since Sebastian was planning on leaving Friday evening.

Aachen Weihnachtsmarkt

Though Sebastian wanted to leave by 4 pm...our professor decided to keep us until 5 pm exactly despite the fact that the entire class was restless (we have since decided our professor needs to take a "chill pill" and not get so worked up...also his teaching style sometimes intimidates me).  By 5 pm, we were finally on the road, hit some traffic of course, but we were in Aachen at Janine's apartment around 7:30.  As soon as we got there...we left again, but this time to the Weihnachtsmarkt!!

Rathaus

Aachener Printen

Weihnachtsmarkt...they are famous in Germany and well-known to the rest of the world.  I went to my first one back in 2008 when I was studying in Freiburg.  It was perfect - we drank Glühwein while snow was falling.  The second time was during Winter Break 2009/2010 when I went to Berlin for New Year's.  This one was smaller, but just as good (it was at Gendarmenmarkt to be exact). Well...Aachen I have to say was better than both combined (sans the weather...way to warm for it to be "Christmas-time").

Glühwein Stand

Flammkuchen

First stop: Glühwein!  Served hot, Glühwein is made with either red or white wine and spices like cinnamon, cloves, sugar and orange zest.  The best translation would be mulled wine, but probably not exactly the same.  After several glasses, we all walked around the market eating Flammkuchen, french fries, Bratwurst and Crepes.  The surprise food of the night was potato latkas with apple sauce, as I thought that it was only eaten during Hanukkah.  I am glad to know that it is a much more common!

Matthew with his Eis

Besides the six of us (Sebastian, Janine, Kathryn, Matthew, Andrea and I), we were joined that evening by two of Sebastian and Janine's friends, Arne and Gunnar. After the Weihnachtsmarkt closed for the night we ended up going to Guinness House and continued to hang out drinking beers (along with whiskey and Jagermeister shots).  That was definitely a fun evening...trying to say difficult words in German and Welsh or...well it was a bunch of topics let's just say.

Lindt Fabrik - so much chocolate

Noah's Ark at children's store

Kathryn, Matthew, Andrea and I split up between sleeping in Janine's kitchen and sleeping on the futon at Arne's apartment.  Saturday morning, we all met up at Janine's for breakfast after sleeping in until 11 since we didn't go to bed until around 4 am.  Afterwards, we went back to the market so that we could walk around and do some Christmas shopping! Also made pit stops at a cafe to warm up (hot chocolate!), the Lindt factory for chocolate (or so Sebastian could get 500 g of his favorite and eat it in 2 days!), and a children's store (ended up buying a board game).  Kathryn went back to Utrecht as she had a lot of work to do, but the rest of us went back to the Weihnachtsmarkt for another glass of Glühwein and to the Aachener Brauerei for some echte Deutsche Spiesen.

Janine and Sebastian

That night, we were invited to Arne's for a housewarming party.  Sadly Matthew was not feeling well and could not join us, but Andrea and I had a good time meeting other geology students from Aachen Universität. Basically we have decided that Geology (geology-related) students are awesome people to hang out with no matter what country you are in.  Honestly, they are some of the most down-to-earth, truest people I have met.  Any person I have gotten to really get to know I would without a doubt keep in touch with for years to come.

Matthew eying Andrea's mussels

Matthew, Andrea and I

 We ended the night with a game some of them made up using glass beer bottles and bottle caps. The object was to knock off a bottle cap placed on the top of a full beer bottle using another bottle cap. You did this sitting on the ground with bottles placed directly in front of you. Your opponent could knock your bottle cap off your beer bottle up to three times, but within those three times you had to have finished your beer.  Now this is no can...and I miserably failed at drinking the entire bottle, but I got to half of it.  Honestly, I do not chug beer to begin with and cannot drink beer fast (unless it is flip cup).

Sunday morning we met up again for breakfast after sleeping in until 11 am and then back to Utrecht we went, getting in around 4:30 pm.  All in all, it was a wonderful weekend with friends.  I enjoyed being yet again in Germany...and trying to practice more my German.  Of course, I am looking forward to my next visit to Aachen ^_^

Me, Janine, Kathryn, Matthew and Andrea at the Weihnachtsmarkt in Aachen

Heidelberg & Essen

 In the second week of November, I had my first two Dutch finals - one on Tuesday morning and another Friday afternoon.  Friday's exam lasted 3.5 hours and as soon as it was done, I went directly back to my apartment and then caught a train to Heidelberg from Utrecht.  I was meeting my cousins, Aleandra and Erika, in Heidelberg for the weekend.  I arrived late that night and walked to the hostel from the train station (they thought me crazy...but it is only 3 km walk, nothing crazy). 


Side note as to why we went to Heidelberg: First, it was a wonderful city that I suggested that my cousins should include on places to visit, but we also have some family history there.  My grandfather (and his father) went to university there and his parents along with his sister's parent-in-laws (Carl Bosch) lived in a nice villa along the hill with a view of the castle.  I went to the house once when I first came to Germany back in summer 2004.

Common Area of Lotte

The Fridge in Lotte's Kitchen

Store front along Hauptstrasse in Heidelberg

We stayed at a hostel called Lotte, located on Burgweg near the Heidelberg Schloss. It was one of the cleanest and nicest hostels I stayed at.  Cereal is provided 24/7! So had a nice bowl of cornflakes upon arrival late that Friday night.  The common room contained lots of books as well as board games.  Prime location and really nice people, I believe it just opened this past year too.

Our car for the day

Anyways...back to the weekend.  Aleandra and Erika arrived earlier on Friday and so had the chance to walk around the city and go to dinner.  On Saturday, we walked down Hauptstrasse and caught an S-bahn to Mannheim.  We had decided weeks earlier to rent a car from Europcar and drive to the northern Black Forest.   As I could only really drive an automatic, the car rental office upgraded me from Mercedes Benz A-class to C-class as they did not have any other cars.  When the pulled out the car, we were all thinking...I am driving that?! Well we quickly got into the car and on the autobahn, where I tried out the rental car...nicest car I have driven so far that is for sure.

View from the Black Forest Highway overlooking the hills towards France

Kasespätzle

Gemischter Salat

About an hour later we were driving along the Black Forest Highway (Hochscharzwald) and stopped at Mummelsee to eat some lunch.  Later we drove to Schiltach, walked around the downtown and stopped at a cafe for some hot chocolate, ice cream and cake.  I had only ever been as north as Triberg in the Black Forest and the northern sections were definitely just as beautiful.  If I have the chance I would like to go back and do some hiking there.

Erika at Mummelsee

On the way back we stopped at Aldi and DM for some socks and Magenbrot.  It seems that everytime I  go to Germany, I end up bringing back socks from DM, they just keep my feet really toasty warm and super comfortable.

After returning the car rental to Mannheim, we went back to Heidelberg and add some dinner at the Kulturbrauerei.  We considered going to another bar afterwards, but Erika wasn't feeling well so we decided to head back to hostel and just relax and get plenty of sleep.  The Heidelberg castle was beautiful in the moonlight as well as in the morning fog.   Aleandra left earlier than Erika and I as her train ride to Prague was much longer.  Erika and I both had trains out of Mannheim, she to Berlin and me to Essen, about 2-3 hour train ride.

Aleandra at Mummelsee

Downtown Schiltach

Erika and I getting ready to leave

Heidelberg Schloss at night and in the morning

Heisse Schokolade of course!

I had some time between my first and second quarters, which was wonderful as I really needed the little break that we got.  My first class was not until Wednesday afternoon so I decided to see if I could stop in Essen to see my friend Sarah.  I met her while studying abroad in Freiburg 3 years ago.  She is currently on her second year of a Fulbright scholarship teaching English in a local school outside of Essen.  Sarah and her boyfriend, Maik, met me at Berliner Platz in Essen and walked around the downtown area where they were setting up the Christmas market.  Unfortunately it was not open yet, but it definitely made me excited that the markets were opening up and Christmas was coming.

the outside of Sarah's apartment in Essen

That evening we had some dinner (hamburgers!) and then I sent to Sarah's WG to stay for the night.  We ended up watching Twilight in German that night.  It was Sarah's and one of her roommates' first time watching it and they said it wasn't half-bad.  Well...it was a nice girlie movie to watch since Breaking Dawn came out in Holland that following Wednesday.

Baking aisle at Edeka <3

 Monday morning I got up with Sarah and went with her to the train station, where I shopped at Edeka for some German food products, like Zuckerhuts (sugar cones) and bread.  The Zuckerhuts are for a Feuerzangenbowle some friends and I want to hold in December (so excited!) and the bread was for my roommate, Valentina (and for me) - we both miss the darker German bread.  The train ride back from Essen was a short one, took a train from Duisberg to Utrecht and was home by 2 pm that afternoon.

Aleandra and I at the Marktplatz in Schiltach

Randomness #3

Biking to and from class is always interesting. On the one hand, you do get to bike with a beautiful landscape in the background and I can't help not smiling to myself.  But on the other, as the weather gets cooler, I am freezing the first 10 minutes and sweating bullets the second 10 minutes.  When I get to class all I want to do is strip my clothes...which would just be awkward.

A beautiful morning from Zeist and De Uithof

One Friday night 4 of my roommates and I went out to an Argentinian restaurant in town for some steak and wine.  We had a good time and hopefully can do it again in the future and perhaps get all 10 of us together?? That would be quite the feat.

Eduardo (Columbia), Lisa (California), Camillo (Columbia) and Valentina (Germany)

Last quarter my Principles of Groundwater Flow class went on two field trips.  The first one was to a groundwater treatment plant not that far from Utrecht.  Our tour guide could only speak Dutch and thankfully my Belgian classmate was able to successfully translate the parts I did not understand.  The powerpoint they had was really helpful with the diagrams.  When I taught Environmental Geology labs back at GWU, I would do a mini water treatment experiment and it was cool to see the large scale version of that same lab.  The only change was that instead of adding a touch of bleach at the end, they used UV rays.

My classmate, Matthew (Ireland), having a good laugh at the plant

The groundwater treatment plant we visited

View from the plant, lots of fog!

A Dutch classmate of mine, Iris, decided to make a Dutch dinner for 2 other international classmates and I.  The Dutch love their potatoes, we had 2 different potato dishes!  We definitely had a very entertaining night and lots of laughs!  I was stuffed...but still managed to eat the majority of a ice cream cake for dessert (in addition to a pudding-quark mixture also for dessert). Let's just say, if you know me at all, me and sweets get along very well.

Roulade, Bloemkool, & Potatoes

I made pumpkin cookies twice in the past month and they are so good! They are quite the hit with me friends, so I really hope to make them again thanks to the pumpkin I can buy at a local food store.  The plan is to also make pumpkin gingerbread and of course lots of pumpkin pies!!

While studying for finals, I took a break with a friend and went to Kingsalmarkt in Amsterdam.  They carry various food products from all over the world.  I had wanted to go there for awhile and see if I could find some of my favorite cereal and food products for Thanksgiving.  I bought things like Cheerios, Eggnog, Cake Mix and Frosting, Breadcrumbs and Stuffing.  Everything was expensive, so I will definitely have to limit the times that I go there to every few months, but it is nice to know that such a place is nearby.

So this is what Occupy Utrecht looks like...a handful of tents and that is about it. I am interested to go to New York City and Washington DC over the winter break and see what they have there...though perhaps there will be no longer Occupy Wall Street by the time I get there? 

De Efteling: a pre-Disney theme park

The international student organization, ESN, set up a day trip to the Dutch theme park De Efteling, which opened before Disneyland in California.  In a nature park, they built scenes from a variety of fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Rapunzel and the Little Red Riding Hood. As time went on they added more fairytales like the Little Matchgirl and the Little Nightingale.  I thought it very well done and definitely would have loved it as a child.  The park also created other "realms" to accommodate the older crowd and built a number of roller coasters and other rides: Reizenrijk (Travel Realm), Marerijk (Fairy Realm), Ruigrijk (Rough Realm and Anderrijk (Differ Realm).

 

On the bus I had sat next to a girl from Australia and we both decided to walk around the Fairytale Forest instead of going straight for the rides. We were both interested in the park's take on the famous stories from the Grimm Brothers, Mother Goose and Hans Christian Anderson.  They even had a fairytale from Queen Fabiola of Belgium about a witch with a beautiful voice and waterlilies that open on the full moon to reveal fairies dancing.

At a number of places around the park were the famous Paper Gobblers that "eat" the trash.  Basically they call for passersby to feed it paper as a way to encourage children to throw the trash away and not on the ground.  It was quite clever and you could see plenty of children finding trash to pick up and "feed" them.


One of the rides I went on was really pretty called Droomvlucht (Dream Flight) as you sat in these booths set on tracks that brought you through various rooms with fantasy scenes of gnomes and fairies and the like.  The ride is set up similar to Disney's Peter Pan ride but of course we an entirely different theme and not so much a storyline.  The last thing we did was go to the Revelijn show, which was about 5 children that become 5 knights for a fantasy realm that is under the power of evil duke that has a mechanical dragon with 5 heads.  It was kind of cheesy, but still good for kids. 

All in all, it was a nice relaxing day and I can definitely see why this park would a big destination for families with children! I only really saw about 1/2 to 2/3 of the park so probably should go back and experience some of the roller coasters they have there.  Basically, whatever age you are you should be able to find something you like.  And the nice thing about De Efteling is that it is not too commercialized, definitely different from Disney (though I am still in love with Disney World). On the other hand, De Efteling and Disney have a good relationship with each other, which is nice to hear.