My alarm goes off. Funny I don't really remember ever setting an alarm.. oh right. Me. Germany. Now collocated. (along with their 9 hour time difference) Yea, I'm not tired at all. On with the day, right?
First up is Operation Get Out of Bed. This is actually more difficult than it sounds. You see, these beds are kind of couch-like in comfiness. Meaning, you don't think you'll ever be comfortable enough to sleep, but then you do, and you never want to wake up again.
After making it up and about, I begin the next mission: Operation Find a Lutheran Church. It didn't really have to be Lutheran, but I decided I was going to try not to overwhelm my poor mind too much at once. You know, take it slowly - one tiny step towards immersion at a time. Due to internet connection selectivity, (currently only supporting google websites-- thank goodness for the youtube merger) this was a good bit more challenging. However with a combination of maps, and the first few sentences of a few choice results of very carefully worded google searches, I discovered a (somewhat) local lutheran church I felt I had a 'good chance' of finding: Stiftskirche.
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| A grand old church... at least that's how it looks from the outside |
The inside (no pics, sorry) was this crazy mix of ancient and modern. Despite it's large size, the church was fairly full for a 10 am service. While the Prediggottesdienst didn't have communion as I was expecting, it did have a lot of songs, one of which I even recognized the tune to.
After the service I started wandering. What else was I honestly going to do? Luckily, I wandered in the correct direction. I stumbled upon a giant park. Like a humungous giant park that ate another two or three parks for breakfast. I was stunned. It had duck lakes (notice the plural). It had bike paths. It had grassy areas for playing. It had grassy areas for sleeping (seperate). It had grassy areas for looking at and growing wild flowers. It had libraries (yay books), and cafés and Biergartens and polar bears...?
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| I'm excited to see this much grass. |
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| I'm ecstatic to see all of this green space |
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| Walking is tiring; parks are good for reading too |
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| You totally can't see them, but trust me. They're there |
Correct. This park is so cool it has polar bears. Well, if I'm being honest, they're not technically part of the park. However, you can see them from the park. Imagine my surprise. Flower, flower, grass, tree, flower, polar bear... I mean, of all bears.. POLAR bears?
Anyways, the bears belong to the zoo that borders along the park and includes many, many animals and plants beyond the ones you can see from the edge. (besides the bears, you can see donkeys, deer, monkeys, camels and shetland ponies -- quite the assortment).
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| You could walk right up to this fence |
Because being a huge park (with some of the most fun (and dangerous) playgrounds I've ever seen -- such a bummer they were so full of little kids) is not enough, the park also boasts (at least) two museums. One of which used to be some castle (or at least a manor).
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| I think you can guess what I felt about all this grass.. :D |
Expecting a fairly empty building (surprisingly open on a Sunday), I instead found the Naturmuseum. With my nifty student discount, I was allowed to look around at their rather impressive displays of stuffed (taxidermic) animals. Ranging from woolly mammoths to nearly invisible flies, they had practically every single animal and biome covered. (even included an automatic display of the northern lights! -- announced by the sudden closing of all the window slats in the room, not at all worrisome)
After looking my fill at all the wonderful animals, bumping into a few art students and trying to count the number of rings on a slice of a sequoia tree (and then immediately missing home), I figured it was about time to head home. My grumbling stommach agreed with me. Pro Tip: If you don't know where you're going/ how long you'll be out, pack snacks. Or eat breakfast before you go. Especially on Sundays. (I was really glad I remembered* to bring a water bottle)
*Read remembered as random-crazy-happenstance
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| It was a really long walk balk |
Finally back at the good ol' dorm room, I sink gratefully into my couch-bed and dig into a sandwich.. or two. Walking around all day can really get your appetite going. Maybe Germany will be the country to break my no-breakfast habit. You never know.. anything could happen.
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