Day 10: An Emotional But Informative Day

This morning we went to Buchenwald Concentration Camp.  It was informative, but emotional.  I mean I learned about WW2 and the Holocaust in school, but to be at an actual camp is well, it's emotional.  It hit me harder than I thought it would.  I was shocked, mad, and sad at all once I think. Our guide was very good, you could tell she really cares about the work she's doing.  Just hearing the stories and later seeing some of the exhibits in the museum is just so heart-breaking.  I feel like I can't even put it into words.   It was a quiet bus ride back to the hotel since I think many of us were still processing what we saw/learned.  (We aren't allowed to post pictures from there hence why you don't see any.)

We had the afternoon free so a few of us went downtown again and wandered around a bit.  Three of us went to the Bauhaus Museum.  It was small, but interesting.  Then it was back to the hotel to hang out until dinner time.  We had a mini tour of Weimar on the way to dinner.  After dinner a few of us went next door to a bar called Texas because one of the guys in our group was from Texas.  We had one drink and a lot of laughs.  Then it was back to the hotel for the night.

   

Day 9: Welcome to Weimar

Sadly, we had to leave Geisa.  We boarded the bus for Weimar.  We dropped our two wonderful guides off on the way.  We were having two guides from Berlin on the second half of our trip.  We also made a rest stop and a short time later, we were in Weimar.  Our new guides met us at our hotel.  We stored our luggage and then the guides decided to give us some free time because they said when we were supposed to have free time tomorrow most of the shops would be closed.  A few of us went in town and three of us broke off and had lunch.  Another lady met up with us at the restaurant.  After that, we shopped a bit.  Then two of us shopped some more and then had some gelato.  We got a bit lost going home, but eventually made it back to our hotel.  I just hung out in my room for a little while, then our group met up again to go see a music show in a local park.  It was a cool show--an orchestra performing on a stage above water so it was called Music on a Floating Stage, but it was raining so most of us left early.  I did have a delicious freshly made pretzel while at the park.  Four of us stopped for Chinese food on the way back to our hotel.

I didn't do so well with pictures today, just a sea of umbrellas from the concert and one random picture of my hotel room.  By the way, the hotels we've been staying at have been nice.

Day 8: An Amazing Day (And A LOT of Food)

Today began with a trip to a local bakery that is over 500 years old. The owner was wonderful.  She told us about the bakery, its history, herself, showed us around, gave us time for Q and A, and provided us with some delicious food.  She was adorable.  The food included sandwiches, chocolate cake, and delicious cheesecake.  We'd just had breakfast one hour ago!

After the bakery, we boarded the bus for Fulda.  The plan there was to visit a center that helps refugrees and then have some free time. We learned a little bit about the Welcome In--the place that helps refugees.  We also heard one Afghanistan refugee's story.  It was heart-breaking.  Again, I don't really feel like I have the right to publish his personal story on my blog, but what he went through was awful.  And he's still going through hardshp in some ways because although he is safely in Germany now, his wife and young kids have not been able to come over yet.  I hope and pray that one day soon they may join him.  And if you really are interested in more info on the topic, I took a ton of notes there too that I'm happy to share.  :)

Oh, and we ate again because the people at the center provided us with more delicious food.

We had about an hour of free time after that so a few of us wandered around and visited two churches and some gardens.  Then it was time to get back on the bus to return to Geisa.  A couple of us went to the local grocey store to 1. check it out and 2. get snacks for later in the week.

We had dinner at the hotel that night.  The food was good, but I ordered fish and it came with the head still on.  I had a really hard time eating something that was looking at me.  I had to cover the head with a tomato and then I was quite turned off to fish for a few days after that.

After dinner, many of us went basically around the hotel and down some stairs to an event called Funkenfest.  Despite my best googling efforts, I'm not sure I fully understand the point of Funkenfest.  I very much enjoyed it, but I don't know what the goal was.  Perhaps it's just to have fun and be merry.  There were bars, a dance area, and games.  We all had a great time and the locals seemed to get a kick out of us.  I enjoyed a couple of drinks and even danced to some American music.  I also blushed terribly when a local tried to sell me a drink with a very inappropriate name--I didn't have one, but one of my friends did.  :)  I think I stayed 'til about 12:30--hey, I'm getting old.  I heard a few people in our group made it well past 2:00.  Ahh, to be young again lol.

  We had to wear special attire in the bakery. 

Delicious food at the bakery

Some food for sale at the bakery

The feast at the Welcome In

Fulda

Visting the grocery store

I did NOT take a picture of the fish, but I did enjoy the dessert!  

Game time at Funkenfest

Cheers from Funkenfest

Stamp to attend Funkenfest

Day 7: A Steep Hill and a Fascinating Speaker

Today we went to Point Alpha Stiftung.  Point Alpha was an observation point along the former East and West Germany border.  The tour/discussion was really interesting, despite the rain--part of the tour was outside.  After a delicious lunch, we had the option to go on a walk.  The walk was not what we expected.  We thought we were going to be walking elsewhere, but instead we walked--really slid back to town.  It was wet and slippery and the guide had to pull me down the hill at one point so I didn't fall. Several people did fall going down the steep wet hill.  :-(  We got back to our hotel with just enough time to clean up and change before our next presentation.  Let's just say washing mud out of jeans in a hotel sink is not fun.

Our next presentation was fascinating.  The topic was growing up in East Germany so we thought the speaker would talk about what life was like--which he did, but I had no idea he was going to talk about how he risked his life and successfully crossed the border. I took eight pages of notes.  His story really stuck with me.  It was sad, but also so interesting.  It's just amazing to me what some people have to go through in life.  I won't share my eight pages of notes with you here because it's not my story to tell, but if you are interested, I'm happy to chat with you (and show you my notes :)).  

After his presentation, we had another presentation on some of the programs at Point Alpha.  A little later it was off to dinner at one of the few restaurants in Geisa.