Morgan Dyrek in Strasbourg

Oktoberfest

2008-10-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

This is a sad note to start on, but one of the boys in my group tragically passed away on Friday, Oct 2nd. It has been especially tough on us as a group because we are such a small group who spend every day together, inevitably growing close. Please just keep Matt's family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. I hate to write this on here, but it is something significant that happened while on this trip and I just feel so much for his family.

With that, it was a tough decision whether or not to go to Oktoberfest; however, I am so glad I went. I took a train out at 8am and go into Munich at 12:30. It was FREEZING. The festival is on a huge piece of land, half of it being carnival rides and the other half being the tents. There were people of all ages and nationalities there. And I definitely saw my fair share of drindels (dresses) and leiderhousen. I easily saw 50 people from Santa Clara, and there were more running around the city. Usually to get into a tent, you have to be there at 8:30 or earlier to be let in. Arriving to the festival at 1 pm, we naturally figured it to be a lost cause. HOWEVER, by some struck of luck, we all made it in! The tent was huge, hot and smelly (smoking is allowed in the tents) but it was such a great time. I didn't take the best of photos, but here are some!

We ended up running into one of Haley's housemates from SCU who had a hotel in a prime location. So, I slept on the floor of her hotel room! We were back and ready for bed by about 9pm. Oktoberfest was great, but one day is all I could handle!!

Burgundy Tour

2008-10-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a while... but here we go! We went on a tour of Burgundy, a region in France, with almost our entire group... and much to our surprise, we had a FABULOUS time! Our first stop was a city called Dijon.
Dijon is a cute city if you know where to look. Our professors led our tours through all the old buildings and so many of them have these beautiful, hidden courtyards. It's also interesting, there are owls everywhere... not real ones obviously, but they were in the streets, on buildings, in the stores... good luck apparently!

The next day we drove to Beaune. On the way, every direction was vineyards... just absolutely gorgeous. Beaune was an even cuter city than Dijon. We started by touring this old Hospital, which was really neat. Also, most of the roofs look exactly like this one! The city was having a massive street fair, which was a lot of fun... I bought a coin purse because coins are used so frequently here (for instance they have regular Euro cents as well as a 1 euro coin and 2 euro coin (instead of our ones...)) Then we went wine tasting at Marche aux Vins... the wine was okay but the strangest thing was drinking out of finger bowls (much like what one blesses him or her self with when walking into a church) instead of glasses... really weird!
After that, we left Beaune and drove to the absolute middle of no where... We stayed at what seemed to be like a retreat house and there were probably 20 residents in the entire town. I made friends with these two, darling little French girls (photos on the way! someone else's camera) We ate beuf borgogne (beef burgundy) which was basically beef stew on top of pasta noodles. Not my favorite. OH fun fact... apparently I eat meat now! I have had meat every single day since I've been in France. Back to Burgundy... then we had a talent show, which was hilarious. My girlfriends and I sang a nice little Disney medley for everyone. Then we went stargazing... which was AMAZING (since there were no lights within miles of this town.)
The next morning, we drove to this cute little town with a massive church with a relic of Mary Magdalene (yes, from the sorry times of the Catholic Church with relics... apparently its her elbow bone, but I couldn't see it.)
Then we drove some horrible 8 hours back to Strasbourg, but a fabulous weekend in Burgundy bonding with the group.

j'aime strasbourg

2008-09-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

These were uploaded backwards I guess you could say... so bottom to top for this post makes a little more sense though it's mostly just photos

A local bar we found brought us a beer tube! Also, my closer gal friends on the trip... blone is Lauren from Boston College, little brunette is Kate from Johns Hopkins, brunette with glasses Susanne from Colgate U and of course Haley from SCU! It is worth noticing we are dressed for a blizzard... since it was absolutely freezing (yet summer!!!)

La Cathedral de Notre Dame a Strasbourg... The view from the top (some 300something steps... oh boy!) and me being Quazimoto!!! Yeah, not much has changed just because I'm in france!

My apartment building (we are on the 5th floor (well 4th here) with the balcony and flowers). My Uppie (pronounced oopie). And our kitchen!

Strasbourg!

2008-09-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

I don't have that many photos... I already look like a tourist with all my maps and flipflops!

Strasbourg is the greatest, cutest city I have ever seen! It is in Alsace, a region that was German before Germany lost WWI. So the architecture and food is pretty German. The Syracuse center is really close to the European Council (where they focus on human rights.) It was a house that they converted into a school and that is where I will be taking 2 political sciences classes, 2 french classes and 1 religion class (all of which I get credit for at SCU!!)

My host family is great and I knew it was them as soon as they walked up. Nathalie is a lawyer and Frederic is a bank manager (no kids.) Uppie is a SWEET SWEET black lab mix and I love her. They drove me to their apartment (which is about a 25 min walk or 7 min bus ride to school) and it is right downtown. My bedroom balcony looks out onto "Petite France" the cool area in town!!!

Once I unpacked my bags, we had our first family meal... which was delicious chicken, cucumbers with yogurt and caprese salad! Then we walked around the city to see Strasbourg on Saturday night. Let me tell you, it's quite happening! Then I slept a good sleep for the first time in 11 days... Woke up, had brioche (thick, sweet toast) with nutella and banana/apricot jam. Nathalie took me around the city; she showed me my bus stop (bus 6) and also how to walk to school... Fred was playing in a soccer match all morning!!!

Apparently in France, Sunday lunches are big deals... We had an absolute feast. Pork, potatoes-au-gratin, green beans, cucumbers, Alsacienne wine, baguette, fruit... SO GOOD! Then, we drove to Germany for ice cream! It's only about 10 minutes driving. After, we walked around le Parc Orangerie... huge family park with a minizoo in the middle! Then, as if I could eat anymore, we had this delicious ham and spinach pastry dish. So good! (and so much pig!!) Tiramisu (sp?) was for desert and there are no words to describe it! I will try and learn how to make it!

I bought a phone today 06.19.65.25.27!! Call, it doesn't charge for incoming calls! I start real class on Wed so my posts will come less frequently (though I do have WiFi in my house so skype me!)... but I love Strasbourg... everyone should visit! Miss you all!!! :)

Nuremberg

2008-09-01T10:13:00.001-07:00

The photo of Prague that got cut off in the last post.

We left Prague and went back to the cold in Germany. We went to Nuremberg because it was the home of the Nazi Rally Parties and was Hitler's favorite city. He liked it because of it's medieval past (and look) and felt that it merged the strong past with the strong future... "the most German of all German cities." The main downtown area reminded me a lot of Rothenberg.

Here is where Hitler stood and what he saw when he would give his infamous rally speeches. Also, this was a swastika carved into the ground of the main building. There used to be a swastika on top of the building but once the Germans lost the war, the Americans blew it up.

Poland II & Prague

2008-09-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Poland... (after our first quiz... apparently we're in school?!) we visited one of the many Nazi concentration camps that were in Poland (but the land at the time was not Poland.) The camp, Gross-Rosen, has mostly been torn down, but there was enough there for people to get the picture. 30,000 men died there (it was a quarry and the average life for a man working in the quarry was only 5 weeks,) women went to "satellite camps" or other concentration camps. The shocking part is that concentration camps are different from extermination camps (like Auschwitz)... yet so many men died there. "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Hard work will set you free) was above the gates of each camp...

We then went to Prague... finally some nice weather! Prague is a CRAZY city... there are tourists EVERYWHERE. There is a lot of history and a lot of tourists spots, but frankly I was overwhelmed. Something is strange to me when on every street corner (and I mean EVERY street corner) there was a McDonald's... which was always packed! I did feel rich though... the currency is 16 crowns for 1 USD. Everything was pretty inexpensive too. There is a lot of partying too... there are tons of bars and clubs (which of course I had to check out for myself!!!) People stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning and it is a very popular vacation spot for the European countries on "holiday." I heard so many great things about Prague, but I feel as if the people behind the cash register spoke better English than I did and when the waiters told me that service was not included (people don't tip in Europe!!) it was clear that Prague was a bit too touristy for me...

Here is I am with my new friend Susanne (whom I absolutely adore... from Colgate University) and Peter (CU Boulder) and we are in the "Hobbit Bar" which is down three stories in an old wine cellar... pretty neat.. and we've got Pilsnars, the most popular beer at the bar.

Berlin II and Wroclaw

2008-08-25T14:17:00.001-07:00

(Switch the caption of the first photo to the last... the first is the Berlin Wall.)

Our next day in Berlin, we visited a Stasi (Eastern German communist CORRUPT police force) political prison. It first was used by the Soviet secret service where they captured and tortured prisoners to confess to outrageous crimes they were innocent of. The Stasi took over in '61 where they didnt physically abuse prisoners, just mentally break them down. From the Soviets, they had two popular cells of torture: 1. chinese water torture 2. filling a cell up knee-high in cold water and leaving a prisoner in there for a week.
(Chinese water torture room)
We then went to the Jewish Museum of Berlin.

Our last day in Berlin, we started our long drive to Poland. On the way, we stopped at a Soviet memorial site, which was MASSIVE. I didn't get any photos because it was raining but there was a giant statue of a Soviet soldier crushing a swastika. We then made it to Poland.

Wroclaw is actually pronounced "Vrot-zoif" and in 1997 Pope JP II visited so they revamped the city completely to look cute like this.

Berlin Photos

2008-08-25T14:07:00.001-07:00

This is a monument at the site where the infamous Nazi book burning took place, where students burned 20,000 books. There is a quote on the left by a Jewish poet written centuries before stating that "this is a prelude. one who burns books will then burn people."

Berlin part one

2008-08-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Hello all! It is currently 1:45 am in Berlin and I can't sleep yet... so here's my first blog!

After nearly two days of straight traveling, we arrived in Berlin, Germany safe and sound. Our coach bus is purple and covered in butterflies... so we really stand out. We are staying in a "hotel" without phones, sheets, normal beds, and our showers are timed like faucets in public bathrooms (so our showers are in total about three minutes and we have to push the water button like 6 times to get a burst of water to rinse off!!!) It's great though.

After taking our first shower, we had a group dinner at a local beerhouse (of course beer was not provided through Syracuse.) It was a nice, traditional meal but everyone was exhausted so we were all back in at our rooms by 10. I was dead asleep within minutes of getting back to the room and did not move until 8 hours later.

Woke up for breakfast and headed out to discover the city of Berlin. It was absolutely FABULOUS! We learned about how the country is relatively young (initially founded in 1871) and 90% of what is seen today is new due to damage during the World Wars. We learned how social times changed from the royal family (or time during the riech) changed to Nazi Germany and then how things drastically changed in Eastern and Western Germany from the Communist Soviets and the Western Allies... right up my alley! We got to see the place where the main Nazi book-burning took place (Bebel Platz), a part of the Berlin Wall and a replica of Checkpoint Charlie (a place where non-Eastern and western Berlin-ers could get from place to place.) We also saw Humboldt University, where Karl Marx studied and Einstein taught until the late '30s were not looking too good for Jews. We visited a Holocaust memorial dedicated strictly to the Jews lost in the Concentration Camps, which was very neat and moving. We got a private tour of the Reich Stag which is where the German Parliament meets. We got to see architecture from all three areas, almost fused together. We also got to see buildings that survived the World Wars and Eastern Occupation, but are currently patched excessively due to bullet holes.

Most importantly... we saw the hotel where MICHAEL JACKSON dangled his baby from the balcony (Hotel Adlon in downtown Berlin.)

Tonight, we ate at an Italian restaurant, since it was the closest... Then we tried out the Berlin night-life. We learned that Berlin-ers do not go out of Thursday nights and Americans stick out like sore thumbs. Great times though!

Testing testing

2008-08-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

This is my test blog... Hopefully everyone can read the text. Let's try some photos... Me and Gab with beautiful John Hale of UCLA