Vive la France! (and Belgium too!)

Hello again!

I know it has been a long time since I've posted, and I'm sorry. My phone charger died on me and I've been waiting for a replacement one, so until that one gets here, I can't post any of my pictures. :(
But I decided to just go ahead and tell y'all about the last two weeks anyway, and I'll add the pictures later!

So I left off halfway through my Germany and France trip. So on Monday morning, we took the tram into Stuttgart and said goodbye to Chelsea's brother. It started snowing!

From the station in Stuttgart, we boarded a train to Strasbourg, France. I had never traveled on a train like this one, and all the announcements were spoken in German, French, and English! It only took about an hour. From the train station in Strasbourg, we took a taxi to our hotel.

The hotel was a very odd experience. It was very small, first of all. Also, because we were four people we ended up staying in the apartments that the hotel owns. I don't know if they're like apartments in the US where people live in them all the time or what, so that was kind of confusing. It was really cool to have our own apartment! It had a little kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom that all four of us shared. It was really nice to come back to after long days of walking!

We spent most of the rest of the day just wandering around the city, which was very beautiful. My friend Mattie's family is from the region of Alsace-Lorraine, which was our whole motivation for coming to Strasbourg. The area has been much disputed between France and Germany. In fact, when Mattie's family lived there it was still a part of Germany. Although everyone speaks French, almost everyone here speaks at least conversational German as well. A lot of times when we would try to communicate that we didn't speak French, people would assume we were German! That night we went to the cutest little Alsacian restaurant for a typical meal. I had sausage and spaetzle and I think it might have been my favorite meal of the whole trip. The one down side was the "Alsacian delicacy" they brought out before we began. It's really hard to describe, but it's basically pig's head in jello. It was very, very odd.

The next day, we went to the Cathedral of Strasbourg, one of the city's most famous landmarks. The Cathedral is home to the famous Astronomical Clock, which puts on a little show every day at 12:30, which we got to see. The Cathedral was also very beautiful.

After that, we went on a covered boat tour. The main historic center of Strasbourg is kind of an island, surrounded by the river Ill. These heated boats drive around the river so you can see all of the beautiful, historic buildings along the river. Strasbourg is the legislative and democratic capital of the European Union, and we got to see some of the buildings on the boat ride. That night, we made pasta in our apartment to save some money, and watched some French TV before bed.

The next day, we got up, made some sandwiches to take with us, and headed off for the Botanical Gardens. We stopped and ate our sandwiches by the river along the way.

Once we got to the Botanical Gardens, we remembered it was March, and nothing was blooming yet. Luckily, the gardens are on the grounds of the University of Strasbourg, so we wandered around there for awhile.

After that, we headed back to the old town to visit the Museum of Decorative Arts, housed in the Rohan Palace. Both Napoleon and Marie Antoinette stayed here at one point in time.

Following that, we headed to La Petite France, an area of  Strasbourg known for its half-timbered houses. The whole area was so distinctly European.

The next morning, we took a taxi to the airport to catch a flight to Brussels, Belgium. We had an eight hour layover there before our flight back to Madrid, so we took a train into the city. Brussels was very, very touristy. Probably one of the most touristy European cities I've been in besides Pisa. We still had a good time walking around the Grand Place (a square noted for its architecture), and sampling Belgian waffles. We finally got to Madrid, and then had to take a 1AM bus back to Sevilla, which took 6 hours. Needless to say, we were exhausted.

The next day, Mattie and I tried to go see some of the Semana Santa processions, but unfortunately they were rained out. Many of the floats date back to the 16- or 1700s, so even a small amount of water would cause irreparable damage. The next day though, we had better luck. We pretty much just camped out on the side of the Cathedral for four hours watching processions and enjoying the atmosphere.

Basically, Semana Santa is a celebration of the death of Jesus. I know that sounds kind of morbid, but I think people view it as celebrating the fact that Jesus sacrificed so much for people. Each of the floats are carried by costaleros, which are men who practice all year and must pay the church in order to have the privilege. They stand under the float so you can't even see them moving really. Apparently costaleros used to keep this a secret, but now it's kind of a bragging point! Along with the floats march the Nazarenos. These are people (both men and women, sometimes even children) who accompany the float wearing religious outfits that include long robes, and a pointed hood covering their faces. (It looks startlingly similar to the KKK, but the hoods are different colors depending on the brotherhood). They are also accompanied by a band. All in all, Semana Santa is a really cool experience, and one that is distinctly Spanish.

After Semana Santa, Laurel's host parents invited us to a fútbol (soccer) game! I had never been to a professional level game like this, so it was very exciting. People come to the stadium about 2 hours before the game and hang out in the bars around the stadium drinking and making predictions. Sevilla has two main teams, Betis (the team that I saw play) and Sevilla. The two teams are bitter rivals. This game though, Betis was playing against Getafe (a team from outside of Madrid). The game ended in a tie, but the atmosphere was the real experience. I have never seen so many people so excited about a sport. It was crazy!

Again, sorry for the delay in the posting! I'll try to crank out another one here about the week of the 2nd to the 9th.

Hasta Luego!
Carly <3

Deutschland!

Blogpost time!

I've been catching up on sleep all day, sorry this post is so late! So this week is Holy Week, or Semana Santa in Spanish, and we got the week off from school! Three of my friends Mattie, Laurel, and Chelsea, and I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and go to Germany, France, and Belgium! We started off the trip late Thursday night/early Friday morning. We caught a 1 AM bus to Madrid (it's cheaper to fly out of Madrid than Sevilla). After a 6 hour, all-night ride to the city, we caught a taxi to the airport, where we first flew to Geneva, Switzerland. After a layover there, we flew to Zurich, Switzerland, and then finally to Stuttgart, Germany where our adventure really began!

Chelsea's brother (Brian) is in the US Army, and is stationed in Illesheim, Germany. He got the weekend off, so he came to meet us at the airport and took us to our hotel that night. Before we went to bed, we wandered over to a German restaurant to have dinner. I had spaetzle! I've eaten this at about a million Anthony family holiday dinners, but now I can say that I've had the authentic thing in Germany! The next morning, we woke up and drove to Illesheim, where Brian is stationed. It's a pretty non-descript town, with a rundown train station, but from there we caught a train into Nuremberg. I was super impressed with Germany's train system. Everything was very clean, and efficient. I felt completely safe the whole time. Mattie's wearing blue, Laurel's in black, and Chelsea's in green.

I absolutely LOVED Nuremberg. Brian told us that a lot of soldiers from his base go there on their day's off. I think it's what I've always pictured when I thought of Germany. It was very strange to not understand the language here, because I'm used to being surrounded by either Spanish or English. I've always wondered if I'd be any good at German since so much of my family is from there. It's so different from Spanish or English though!

We mostly just wandered the city, which was very nice. None of us spoke German, but most of the people we interacted with knew enough German that we could get by. Around lunchtime, we stopped into a bar and sampled some colaweizen. This is essentially beer mixed with Coca-Cola. I don't like beer or Coke, but I thought I might as well try it, and it was actually pretty good!

Nuremberg is also famous for its Bratwurst, so we sampled some of that as well! It's served on little rolls with spicy mustard.

We also stopped by St. Lorenz-Kirche (or St. Lawrence's Church), a beautiful, old, Gothic Lutheran church built between 1270-1350. There was a small exhibit inside about the destruction of some of the church during World War II.

We also stopped by the Nuremberg Castle as well, which was built around 1050. We didn't get to go inside, but we got some great views of the city!

After that, we caught the train back to Illesheim and drove back to our hotel in Stuttgart. The next morning, we set out for Leonberg, Germany. My father's mother's parents (my great-grandparents) grew up in this town before immigrating to America in the 1920s. I'm partially named in honor of my great-grandfather, Carl Stadelmann. The people that lived here that are related to me were called the Stadelmanns and the Wendels. Leonberg was pretty much the cutest little German town ever. My grandpa gave me the address of people who took care of my great-grandmother Wendel. It was kind of amazing to see that the house is still there! The day I visited also happened to be the anniversary of the death of my father. Even though he had never been to Germany, and didn't know anything about the town of Leonberg, I still felt closer to him there in the town of his ancestors.

For the rest of the day, we caught a train into downtown Stuttgart. I have to say, Stuttgart was not as exciting as Nuremberg or Leonberg. Apparently, most of the historic buildings were destroyed in World War II, so it just kind of looked like any modern city except that everything was in German. We still had lots of fun though!

Check back in on Tuesday for a report on the rest of my trip to France and Belgium! Until then,

Carly <3