Ok, I want to start off by stating that I am well aware of the fact that it has been an obscenely long time since I’ve posted. Honestly, there hasn’t been that much to post—I guess you could say that I’ve finally fallen into a routine and sometimes things feel so normal that I can’t think of anything to tell you. This last Friday, however, I went on an exciting adventure, and I’ve decided to write about it.
As I think I told all of you earlier, every student at Dortmund University gets a “Semester Ticket” that allows them the travel second class anywhere in our state for free. Lately, I’ve been trying to take advantage of this ticket and really see the NRW (Nordrhein Westfalen) before I leave, and this past Friday, we went to Aachen, a really cool town in the Southwest. When we first arrived, we checked out the Dom (cathedral), and it was really cool. Definitely one of my favorites (and I’ve seen a lot of them since arriving in Europe!) The inside was absolutely gorgeous—the entire ceiling was covered in beautiful mosaic art. I tried to get a few pictures, but my camera was not very cooperative in the dim lighting. Oh well, if you want to know what it really looks like, you should just go to Aachen. After checking out the Dom and eating some lunch (very reasonably priced and yummy Chinese food), we headed out to the Dreiländerpunkt (“three country point”). I actually only recently learned about this, and it is the point where Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all meet—pretty exciting. It was a bit of a walk from the Innenstadt (inner-city), and I loved every minute of it! We walked down a road with fields on either side of us, and I almost felt like I was back home, walking down the road past our farm in Virginia. I’ve been having some serious homesickness lately, and this was exactly what I needed. After walking past fields for awhile, we went through a forest, which also felt like home—I could’ve been walking down camp road :-) I had forgotten just how much I love the smell of the woods. Finally, we reached our destination—the Dreiländerpunkt! It was so much fun—we all took turns standing/sitting/laying in any combination of the three countries, and some people took the opportunity to buy and eat some form of food in each country. I had such a wonderful time, and I think it is so amazing that I live only 2½ hours from such a neat place. It was also nice to just spend some time with other international students. Our traveling group had six different countries represented: US, Hungary, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Turkey. Here are some photos from the adventure:
The outside of the Dom. I thought it was so cool, and there is a little dome in the middle that is shaped like a lemon juicer :-)
A lot of the Doms have a miniature version outside of the door. I decided to bust out the Danzilla on this one :-D
One of my only decent pictures of the inside--that design on the ceiling is a mosaic.
The road through the fields. The road was named Dreiländerweg ("three country way").
Yay cows!
This was next to the road in the forest. We were the only four brave enough to play on it, and it was epically fun. There is a different country in each corner: Anil (far left) is from Turkey, Balazs (on my left) is from Hungary, and Thiébaud (on my right) is from France.
Sitting in 3 countries--the green lines by my butt and my foot are the borders. Germany is on the left, the Netherlands are in the middle, and Belgium is on the right.
Group Pic :-D
Tomorrow I will be leaving for Munich, one of the biggest cities in Germany that is considered the second capital. It's supposed to be really cool, and I am super psyched, so expect a post when I get back! (No really, I promise to write about it within a few days of returning)
Link to my Facebook album
Tschüss!
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