Since next week will mark my first month over here and because I'm moving to Paris to start the next chapter of my European adventure on Monday, I thought it was about time to start keeping some kind of record of my travels.
From August 12-25 I was staying with my aunt's family on the Insel Usedom on the German coast of the Baltic Sea. We had this adorable little hobbit house with a traditional thatched roof.
The island was very pretty and actually warmer than I expected it to be. However, the water temperature was still, as my uncle put it, "like a bathtub that's been left overnight." Everybody rents "Strandkörbe" tent chairs which are a hilariously German way to do the beach and ensure that you get no more sun than necessary.
On my first full day in Germany I took the train with one of my aunts and her daughter for a day trip to Poland. It was nice to be able to say I'd been to Poland, but it wasn't the nicest place. There was a distinct difference in appearance between the German and Polish sides of the island. For example, we walked through a street market in Poland that reminded me of the ones I'd seen in Jordan, almost like we weren't even in Western Europe anymore. It was a little sad, but I have a feeling that as they continue rebuilding from the USSR and growing the tourism industry it will do a lot to restore the buildings and the feel of the place.
By coincidence, this year both my aunts (they're twins) turned 40, I turned 20, and my cousin turned 10, so we had a very fun week of birthday celebrations at the beach, in the old 1920's resort towns, on a boat, at a castle, and on a safari around the island. We also went to a super neat museum: the tip of Usedom is the site of the main Nazi rocket research center, where the world's first large rocket was built. After WWII, the guy who ran it, Wernher von Braun, was quietly invited to the USA, where he ended up helping build the Saturn V rocket, i.e., the one that got us to the moon. The museum also boasted a Soviet submarine from 1961 that we could climb around in and fiddle with the Russian control panels, which I thought was great.
My family lives in Schweinfurt, a small town in Bavaria, so the 3 of us that needed to leave early took a train back down south on the 25th, with a small stop to spend the day in Berlin. I used to spend my summers in high school in Germany, but I never made it up to Berlin. This year I finally got to go and I loved it. It had so much personality and history and I will definitely try to go again for a longer period of time. We only had a train layover, so we decided to take a double decker tour bus to hit all the big spots, which turned out to be a great decision. As I travel around this fall on the weekends I might try doing another guided tour, since we saw such cool stuff and wasted no time being lost.
From August 12-25 I was staying with my aunt's family on the Insel Usedom on the German coast of the Baltic Sea. We had this adorable little hobbit house with a traditional thatched roof.
The island was very pretty and actually warmer than I expected it to be. However, the water temperature was still, as my uncle put it, "like a bathtub that's been left overnight." Everybody rents "Strandkörbe" tent chairs which are a hilariously German way to do the beach and ensure that you get no more sun than necessary.
On my first full day in Germany I took the train with one of my aunts and her daughter for a day trip to Poland. It was nice to be able to say I'd been to Poland, but it wasn't the nicest place. There was a distinct difference in appearance between the German and Polish sides of the island. For example, we walked through a street market in Poland that reminded me of the ones I'd seen in Jordan, almost like we weren't even in Western Europe anymore. It was a little sad, but I have a feeling that as they continue rebuilding from the USSR and growing the tourism industry it will do a lot to restore the buildings and the feel of the place.
By coincidence, this year both my aunts (they're twins) turned 40, I turned 20, and my cousin turned 10, so we had a very fun week of birthday celebrations at the beach, in the old 1920's resort towns, on a boat, at a castle, and on a safari around the island. We also went to a super neat museum: the tip of Usedom is the site of the main Nazi rocket research center, where the world's first large rocket was built. After WWII, the guy who ran it, Wernher von Braun, was quietly invited to the USA, where he ended up helping build the Saturn V rocket, i.e., the one that got us to the moon. The museum also boasted a Soviet submarine from 1961 that we could climb around in and fiddle with the Russian control panels, which I thought was great.
My family lives in Schweinfurt, a small town in Bavaria, so the 3 of us that needed to leave early took a train back down south on the 25th, with a small stop to spend the day in Berlin. I used to spend my summers in high school in Germany, but I never made it up to Berlin. This year I finally got to go and I loved it. It had so much personality and history and I will definitely try to go again for a longer period of time. We only had a train layover, so we decided to take a double decker tour bus to hit all the big spots, which turned out to be a great decision. As I travel around this fall on the weekends I might try doing another guided tour, since we saw such cool stuff and wasted no time being lost.
Close enough to touch the remains of the Berlin Wall from the top of the bus
I was planning on spending a quiet two days in Schweinfurt before heading off on my solo adventure, but I ended up forgetting my passport on the other side of Germany. So instead I spent that time freaking out and praying the German FedEx could deliver it to Schweinfurt in time (it got here at 9 am the morning of my flight. Sehr efficient). Turns out I had left it in my bedside table, along with my credit card and a list of things not to forget.....
This is great! Keep em coming!
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