Tchuss!

Goodbye Germany! I’m just beginning to get to know Würzburg and now it’s time to leave. It took me about two months to start to feel at home in Ireland as well, but I still had 3 months there to enjoy it. During my last two weeks I was finally starting to get the feel of things and be comfortable with German life, but now I’m headed back home (and am rather excited about it). So here’s a recap of my last week, mostly by myself.

Hayley left Tuesday morning and then Rex and Jacob followed Wednesday so I’ve mostly been on my own. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in my lab finally actually doing the experiment. It consisted of aligning mirrors, chilling down our sample, and hitting a button to turn on the source so we could measure the transmission.

There was also my last two frisbee practices which were fun. It’s starting to get dark early again. I guess summer is over. Sigh. At least it isn’t as bad as when I got to Ireland, no sunsets at half four in Texas!

Friday I finally went and visited the Festung Marienburg, our castle. I spent the morning climbing up to it and wandering around taking pictures. Probably good that I went by myself as I did quite a bit of the latter. I had my last döner for lunch - probably terrible for you but so good! I met Steffi in the evening for coffee and we wandered around and talked a bit before saying goodbye, which was sad.

Saturday I went to Nürnberg with Dan, a guy from England who works in Jacob’s lab group. Funnily enough we had both planned on going that weekend and so it worked out great. I really liked the city, 2nd biggest in Bavaria. We started out by going to the site of the Nuremburg Nazi trials and the parade grounds. There was a really interesting museum there and so we got to read a bit of history which is always cool. After the museum we were starving and so went to find famous Nürnberger brautwurst and lebkuchen for lunch. Successful on both accounts - I can say that they are quite delicious, though the difference between Nürnberger and normal brautwurst isn’t very obvious, but I like both so don’t really care. Lebkuchen is a ginger cake of sorts usually eaten around Christmas, and very tasty.

While food-hunting we wandered through the old town and saw many of the churches there. They are really cool, and there are quite a few of them. After finding food (well, actually as we found food, as the lebkuchen was there) we saw the site of the apparently famous Christmas market.

We stopped for a beer and then headed up to the castle. It was a very un-ostentatious castle, it seemed like a place people could actually live rather than being incredulously big and stately. I really liked it. After the castle we headed back down the hill and stopped at a Toy Museum, showcasing the history of toys and the development throughout the ages. It was cool to see, though I really wanted to play with them all.


A bit more exploring lead us back through the old town and past some cool bridges. One more beer and some more brautwurst and we headed back to the train station and Würzburg. It was a good trip, Nürnberg is a cute town and it was fun traveling with Dan, who also likes taking pictures and so didn’t mind stopping frequently to be photographers/obvious tourists. Back in Würzburg, as I was already in photographer mode, and actually had my camera with me, I decided to to take night pictures of the castle there. They turned out alright, I’d like to try again though I doubt I’ll have the time to before I leave. Here’s my favorite, the rest are on flickr :) (I have internet again! My landlord got home and turned it back on :) )

Sunday morning I spent packing, which took me less time than expected as it all fit the first time (well, time and a half) so I didn’t have to repack 4 times like I usually do. I cleaned the apartment a bit and then decided that since it was a nice day I would go back to the castle to try and redo one of the panoramas I had made of Würzburg when I visited before but didn’t look great because it had been slightly foggy that morning. This time it was much more successful, so here’s the city I’ve been living in the past few months


I tried to find my way to a vineyard trail, but couldn’t find the start of it so just went home and cooked dinner and played with pictures the rest of the night.

Today is my last day in Würzburg/Germany/Europe. Kinda weird. I’d love to stay but I also can’t wait to get home. I’ve had my fill of traveling, at least for a month or so ;) After spending the morning and afternoon finishing things around the apartment/being lazy, possibly taking more pictures, I’m meeting friends for a final beer in Germany and will head out tomorrow morning for the airport and then Texas! Total travel time: .5 hour tram to train station, 1.5 hour train to Frankfurt, 10.5 hour flight to Houston, 3-ish hour drive and then I’m back in Austin! Woot, be back in Texas 2 pm tomorrow!