SCHROEDER EUROTRIP!

The Schroeders are in Germany! Well... I'm sure there are already a lot of Schroeders in Germany... but as of Saturday morning there are three more!  That's right, my mom, dad, and brother Trev have invaded my apartment and are vacaying in Germany for a couple weeks!  I am so happy to have them here AHHHHH!

While I'm at work every day (bummer!) they will be exploring around North Rhine Westphalia.  Over this past weekend we battled jetlag (I considered myself also to be jetlagged because I had to wake up at 4:45am Saturday morning to pick them up!) and visited Köln and Bonn.  We just roamed around and were our usual silly selves.  I haven't laughed this much in months!  On Thursday we'll all be venturing down to southern Germany and staying in Munich (I can't seem to get enough of that city!) and over the weekend we will see Neuschwanstein Castle and the Zugspitze and of course the original Hofbräuhaus München!

If that wasn't enough to make you jealous, next weekend we're heading to PARIS!  Where we will adventure around the beautiful city of love and eat delicious food and drink delicious drinks.  Oh, and Ian and I will be attending the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS concert there! ONLY JUST MY MOST FAVORITE BAND IN THE WORLD!!!  Needless to say I've got a lot of look forward to these next two weeks, so I'm sorry if my blog is a little neglected!  MIA might be MIA for a lil bit!

Berlin!

Every time I tell people I am living in Germany, they always ask “have you been to Berlin yet?” Finally I can proudly answer yes!  My friend Barynia and I travelled to Berlin to visit a couple of her friends, Amanda and Isabel, who happen to be studying abroad there.  I took advantage of another glorious German long weekend and headed to Berlin by train (expensive ticket, but I couldn’t find a Mitfahrgelegenheit) on Thursday afternoon.  B and I met up with her friends at the Berlin hbf and we headed out for dinner and some drinks.  We had a big day ahead of us on Friday, so we called it an early night.

Friday morning, B's sister Nathalia flew in from the states to visit for a week or so.  After gathering Nathalia, and taking a little nap, we all headed out to the city to find somewhere to eat a nice German lunch.  We didn't find anything super authentic, but we found a reasonabily priced place where we could eat outside!  I had delicious Currywurst and potato salad and a Bohemia Dunkel bier to wash it all down.  Quite delicious!  After lunch, we were right around the corner from the Berliner Dom so we headed over there to check it out!  This cathedral is super gorgeous, and has undergone many renovations since it's time of establishment in the 1450s.  (It's still hard to wrap my mind around simply the age of things over here).  We toured around the inside, saw and heard a massive organ, and eventually climbed our way up some rickety stairs to the observation deck where we were rewarded with an awesome 360° view of Berlin!  Then we headed back down and had to go through the crypts on our way out.  I'm not a huge fan of crypts, they're creepy and smelly.  After some lounging on the grass in front of the Berliner Dom, we began making our way to the Schloss Charlottenburg.  This baroque palace and the huge palace grounds were really breathtaking.  So much European beauty in one day!  We topped off the evening with delicious burgers at Kreutzburger!

 The "TV Tower" and me and my Bohemia Dunkel

Museum Island really is an "island"!

Me out front of the Berliner Dom! 

The insane organ inside the Berliner Dom!

View from the top! 

Schloss Charlottenburg

Bearcats in Germany!

Breathtaking!

On Saturday we got up and headed to the Brandenburg Gate, where we were meeting up for a free city walking tour.  These free tours are great and they are available in every city I've gone too!  On our 3.5 hour tour we covered: Brandenburger Tor, Pariser Platz, Reichstag, Holocaust-Denkmal, Potsdamer Platz, Die Berliner Mauer, Checkpoint Charlie, Friedrichstraße, Gendarmenmarkt, Bebelplatz, Staatsoper, Unter den Linden, Neue Wache, Museumsinsel.  We did A LOT of walking. I did A LOT of picture taking. Behold.

Holocaust Memorial 

Me in front of a rather unexciting section of the Berlin wall 

Where Einstein and the Grimm brothers studied! 

War memorial

Our tour ended around 3 and we headed back to where the tour started, the Brandenburg Gate, because we had seen a HUGE public viewing being set up for the Germany vs. Portugal Eurocup game.  What better place to watch some Fußball than on a jumbotron in front of a historic monument with thousands of screaming Germans?! Our thoughts exactly.  I had a bit of a brain-fart though because when I looked online to see when the game started, I somehow saw the time in EST aka we were 6 hours early to the public viewing.  Not a huuuge problem, but we could have checked out a few more cool Berlin sites.  Instead we drank beer and befriended Dutch people during the Netherlands vs. Denmark game that was showing before the Germany game.  Fair trade, since the Dutchies bought us beer.  The Germany game was like a giant party.  Screaming, whistling, chanting, beer, brats, blow horns, fireworks, you name it!  After the victory, we celebrated the night away!

And this was only the beginning... see the Brandenburg Gate in the background?

Sunday morning we woke up (slowly) and headed to the Flohmarkt am Mauerpark.  We didn't have nearly enough time to give this flea market justice.  It was HUGE and so overwhelming that I didn't buy anything except for some freshly squeezed OJ. Which was delicious by the way.  B and Nathalia had to catch a flight to Barcelona (how glam) so they headed to the airport around 1:30.  Amanda, Isabel and I grabbed some lunch and then I waited for my Mitfahr back to Wuppertal.  And I waited.  Annnnd I waited.  And after about 1.5 hours and numerous phone calls I finally gave up on my Mitfahr and ponied up 78€ for a train ticket back.  I can't really complain though because I saved a lot of cash by having kind hosts and not having to stay in a hostel, but being stood up was kinda like a rotten cherry on an otherwise scrumptious sundae of a weekend.  I wanted to use a Berliner metaphor instead, but I'm not that wordsmithy.  In any case, I had a great weekend and I highly encourage visiting Berlin if you get the chance!  It's got so much interesting history and it's still growing, changing, and expanding!

London

London was practically number one on my list of places to visit while in Europe.  It was very highly recommended by all of my friends who have lived/visited there, and since (up until 2 weeks ago) it is the only location of my beloved Chipotle in all of Europe, I needed to go there.  Two weeks prior, I semi-spontaneously bought my round-trip flight through Ryanair for about 80 euros.  Not to shabby.  It was hard for me to coordinate this trip with others, so I set off for foggy London town all on my own.  Sure I was nervous about travelling alone, but since they do speak English in London, I wasn’t too terribly scared.  One thing that I did not plan for however, was that it happened to be the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Weekend; a huge celebration of 60 years on the throne!

My flight to London was good enough, it was a fairly cheap flight through Ryanair so I wasn’t really expecting too much.  What I definitely wasn’t expecting was how far away the “Düsseldorf-Weeze airport actually is from Düsseldorf! It took me about 2 hours by train and bus just to get to the airport!  When I did arrive to the airport, I met some very interesting people on my flight; an Iranian mathematics professor at Oxford, and a Zimbabwean/English woman in the military stationed in Germany.  An interesting bunch, and it made for really good conversation!  I got to London Stanstead airport pretty late, converted some money (that exchange rate hurt!), and bussed it into the city.  Then, I bought an [Oyster Card] and rode the tube to Russell Square, where my hostel was located.  The hostel I stayed in was less than stellar.  I stayed in a 9 bed mixed dorm and was the last person to check in, so I got the worst pick of bunks; the highest bed in a triple bunk bed, and it was also farthest from the window.  It was a very uncomfortable and sweaty night.

I woke up very early on Saturday, ate “breakfast” at the hostel (toast, jam, and milk, pretty lame), and headed to the Portobello Road market.  I wandered around the market for a few hours, taking in the sights and sounds of London.  I absolutely love hearing people speak with British accents, I was so happy just wandering around the market and listening to people!  

 Market signage and a pile of teacups. 

 After ample meandering, I hopped on a train and headed to the Warner Bros. Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour!  This was what I was most excited about in London, so it was worth paying up a little bit. This is my childhood we’re talking about!  The tour was INCREDIBLE.  I got to see the actual sets and props used in all the Harry Potter films as well as learn fun facts about “the making of”.  One of my favorite things I learned was that a lot of the paintings on the walls in Hogwarts were commissioned portraits of the production team wearing funny costumes.  The tour was not only a cool look at all the sets, but also a beautiful tribute to all of the 4000+ behind the scenes people who worked on all the films.   The whole time I was walking around the sets, I kept thinking, “Rupert Grint was here! Daniel Radcliffe was here! So-and-so was here!” I shed many a tear.

READY TO GO!

Inside the studio!

Just sippin' some Butterbeer ridin' Sirius's motorcycle. NBD.

DIAGON ALLEY! I died.

 After the amazing Harry Potter tour, I headed to CHIPOTLE for dinner.  I also shed a tear at Chipotle because I was so damn happy to eat my most favorite food ever.  It felt fantastic to be inside a Chipotle.  My obsession runs deeper than just the food, I am addicted to the atmosphere and the entire company!  I got myself a bowl with a tortilla inside, with carnitas, fajitas, pinto beans, tomato salsa, corn salsa, and tomatillo green salsa, a little sour cream, and lettuce.  While I was enjoying this delicious bowl of happiness, a group of 3 American ladies sat down next to me.  I struck up a conversation and learned that they were all working for, or have husbands working for, the US military stationed in England.  As it turned out, they had an extra ticket to the West end production of Matilda, the hottest new musical in London!  I accepted their invitation and went with them to see, THE COOLEST musical I’ve ever seen.  The set and all the actors were absolutely magnificent.  Adorable mega-talented British children made my heart melt!  After that super serendipitous evening, I headed back to the hostel where I met 2 girls from Minnesota who had just started their post college eurotrip.  We all got some late night food together and they were really awesome company.

 Patriotic walk to my Chipotle haven. I was so happy!

Matilda set! So adorable!

The three of us Americans woke up really early on Sunday and tried to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace.  However, Sunday was the HUGE Jubilee Boat Parade celebration and so many places were closed to the public.  We were still able to walk around Westminster and see Parliament and Big Ben.  We also walked through Piccadilly and saw them setting up for the big Jubilee lunch.  After a bit, we parted ways and I continued on along the banks of the Thames and people watched all the British Queen-fanatics.  I eventually made my way to the Tower of London, London Bridge, and the Millennium Bridge. There were so many people that I couldn’t get very close to any of the major sights, but the atmosphere of the city was contagiously exciting!  Unfortunately, my flight back to Germany was early so I couldn’t see any of the actual Boat Parade.  I was able to eat some Bangers and Mash at a nice British pub before setting off for the airport.

 Me and the obligatory phone booth pic. Some ladies in stylish British rain gear.

The Tower!

Londy Londy Londy!

 Of course I had to find Platform 9 3/4 and eat some Bangers and Mash before I left!

My weekend in London exposed me to only the tip of the British iceberg.  I would absolutely love to go back and spend some serious time in that city.  The people were all so rowdy and friendly and there is so much to do there.  I can’t wait to go back and experience even more, and hopefully next time I’ll be with some friends or loved ones!  Travelling alone was an interesting experience.  It really forced me to be even more outgoing and talk to people, and I’m truly glad that is what I did!  I’m so happy that I met some great people and I still can’t believe I saw a musical production of London’s West end with no expense to me!  I can’t wait until I have the opportunity to visit again.

Morgen Morgen!

I'm trying something new.  I'm going to try and write short, frequent posts about culture and other German randomness.  We'll see how long this lasts...

For as long as I can remember, my name has been kinda weird.  Typically, people spell MorgAn with an A, but my mother decided to be different and spell my name MorgEn.  I've become quite accustomed to people misspelling my name, it happens all the time!  In my younger years I thought my parents were just trying to be different when they named me Morgen, but then I learned the story behind my name.

My mother is named Dawn and German was her minor in college.  For those of you that know even the teeniest bit of German, you most likely know that Guten Morgen means good morning.  See the connection?  My momma named me after herself in German!  She's so clever and tricksy.  After I learned the meaning behind my weird spelling, I was always happy to tell people the reason my name is spelled the way it is.  I think it's pretty cool!

Now that I'm in Germany, I still think my name is cool, but now it's also kinda hilarious and very confusing!  You see, Germans greet each other in the morning by simply saying "morgen!" to one another.  I've got people I don't even know saying my own name to me every morning!  And not only does morgen mean morning, but it is also the word for tomorrow.  My name happens to be an extremely common word in the German language.  Half the time I'm listening to Germans talking, I don't know whether they're talking about me, the morning, or tomorrow (or tomorrow morning!).  It can get reaaallly confusing sometimes!  But despite the daily confusion, I'm really glad that I have a bit of a quirky name.  It gives me something to talk about right when I meet people.  I've got my little prepared spiel: "Hi, I'm Morgen. Yes, like 'guten morgen'. I know it's a little confusing.  My mom is named Dawn, so she named me after herself in German!".  Boom.  Right off the bat I have something I feel confident saying in German, and sometimes I get a little laugh out of whoever I'm talking to. 

So thanks for the goofy name Mim :)

p.s. I LEAVE FOR LONDON TODAY AHHHHH!