When in Berlin Week 4: Guten Tag, Munich!

June 24

Today was our day trip to Potsdam. Most of the day was dedicated to exploring the old town. Some of us had lunch at My Keng. I had this delicious salmon with rice. (Yes, the salmon is there. It's just being concealed by the pile of herbs.)

However, the main attraction was the Schloss Sans Souci, built by King Frederick the Great of Prussia as his summer palace.

June 25

Today's special event was going out for a late lunch with Miss Merle Baartz! We went to Asiana Village, a small Asian restaurant in the north of Berlin and talked about classes, K-pop, and getting your driver's license, among other things.

June 26

This Sunday was a stay-at-home day, but I did make an outing to get dinner from Pizza Peppino, a tiny pizza place near the IES center. Here's what the inside looked like:

Gabriella went out to Brammibal's Donuts and got me this Boston Cream Donut. It did not last long.

June 27:

We got another newsletter with our meal stipend. This one had the itinerary for our Munich trip and some pictures from Potsdam!

There were no afternoon activities scheduled for today. Instead, the time was given to us to work on our midterms.

June 28

Today was the date set for midterms. My history midterm isn't until next week, but my German lit midterm is due on Wednesday. Professor Reynolds cancelled class today so we could work on our papers, so I decided to finish mine in Monbijoupark.

This afternoon's activity was visiting the Berlin Wall Memorial. We walked along part of the Berlin Wall while learning about some of its history.

We had dinner at Weihenstephaner again, this time without a German language night. I got the weisswurtz, which is supposed to come in a bowl like this one.

June 29

This is the day we left for Munich. The train ride was about five hours long. Here is one of the stops we made.

After arriving at the hotel and dropping our bags off, we went on a tour of BMW World. Here's the i4, one of their electric cars, that they had on display.

We also went on a walking tour of Munich that evening. Among the places we visited was the Theatine Church in Odeonsplatz.

June 30

This was another action-packed day. We took a two-hour bus ride out to Schloss Neuschwanstein, built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and unfinished at the time of his death. Pictures weren't allowed inside, but I was able to get a picture of the view from the rest area on the way up.

We spent the afternoon exploring the mountain town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. A bunch of us went out for ice cream at Eis Olivier.

That was taken while the sun was still out. Close to our pick-up time, a hailstorm came. We were running for the bus while it drove to a place it could park. I got pelted in the foot and the back, but I'm otherwise alive. One of the bus windows also got broken, so we had to drive with a broken window for two thirds of the ride and then change buses.

Bonus stuff:

I got a message in my fan mail involving classes, and allow me to shed a little light on the subject. I'm taking classes on modern Europe and German literature circa 1900 at the IES center in Berlin. It's two stops away by tram or a ten-minute walk if you miss the tram. It's hard to say the facilities are the best. It gets stuffy in the classroom unless you turn on the AC which is always on full blast for some reason, and the door doesn't close completely unless you put some elbow grease into it. Classes are mostly lecture with some discussion. There's a 15-minute break between classes. I spend mine using the bathroom and then using my phone. Notes are only taken by hand in history because the professor doesn't allow laptops. It's more of a mix in German lit. I personally take notes by hand.

And that's been my week! We have a few more days before we leave for Dresden next week. I can't wait!