I'm in Germany!

Yesterday, I arrived in Germany and already I've had lots of random adventures...

The first occurred on the plane when I just happened to be sitting in the same row as a girl who had gone to not only my high school, but also my elementary school for my entire life. In fact, she lived just down the road from me back in my subdivision. It's crazy how small of a world it can be that sitting in an Air India flight to Europe I run into (and even sit next to) someone who lives right down the street from me. It turned out that my friend and the girl sitting next to her were both heading to Europe to study abroad, one in Paris and one in Spain. We had a good time reflecting on days of past the whole plane ride and agreed that we'd visit each other during our stays in Europe. Surprisingly, Air India had remarkably good food and service for the amazingly affordable prices that they provided (only $504 round trip to Frankfurt so if you want to visit me, you know what to fly).

The Row 70 ABC Crew --->

I landed in Frankfurt am Main along with four other students from Purdue in my same study abroad program. We took a train to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and got our first glimpse of the incredible German train system (Die Bahn). The Frankfurt station was a HUGE building with trains that led to almost anywhere in Europe all at incredibly fast speeds (more than 200 mph). The station was a bundle of activity with travelers everywhere moving from train to train or settling down in a coffee shop while waiting for one to arrive. At the train station we were able to purchase a BahnCard 50 so that we could get half price train tickets anywhere in Germany. This was a very good deal for students such as us who would be doing a lot of traveling within Germany and I would recommend it for anyone staying in Germany for an extended period of time.

Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station)

Very quickly we found a hostel to stay in and got settled down. All of us were badly jet lagged after the flight and desperately wanted to sleep, but we knew that it was only 11 in the morning German time and we needed to stay up. So we decided to walk around Frankfurt and take in the sights and sounds of Germany. Frankfurt is a beautiful city with lots 0f tall skyscrapers and a river (Main) running directly down its center transporting barges with goods to ship around the world. It also had a beautiful skyline that reminded me of a smaller version of Chicago. Although the weather was not so nice, we still had an amazing time walking around the city reading all of the German signs and noticing the subtle (but constantly apparent) differences between life in Europe and life in the States. One of the major differences was the mix between new and old buildings throughout the city.

This large cathedral is called Saint Bartholomeus' Cathedral and it stands looking over the river Main and on towards the highly modernized downtown area. If you look closely at the picture on the right, you see that the buildings in front of the skyscrapers are very old houses from the 15th and 16th centuries. This is the altstadt (old city) district nestled right up against skyscrapers built within the last ten years. All of these buildings are still functional as homes, businesses, and museums. This is the type of layout that you would never see in American cities.

Later that night we met some kids who had been foreign exchange students in Germany for the last few months and were now going back to the U.S. They walked us around the city and gave us some info on the culture and the language that they had experienced. We walked around the streets drinking a few beers (which is apparently legal in Germany) and let them reflect on their good times while we could dream of good times to come....