The Last of My European Adventures: Germany!

It's a bittersweet feeling knowing that I just spent my last weekend in Europe.  Last Friday at the chipper hour of 3:30 am I left with seven of my friends for a flight to Nuremberg, Germany.  Before I even left for London I knew that I wanted to go to Germany and even more wanted to go to Nuremberg for this weekend.  The world famous Christkindlmarkt, a German style Christmas market, was opening that weekend and of course the Nuremberg Nazi Trials were there as well.  I was so excited when the weekend finally rolled around.  After a quick flight to Germany we arrived and it was snowing! Usually I'm not much of a winter or a snow person, but seeing the snowflakes fall as we walked off the plane made a great start to the trip!  We traveled from the airport to our hostel and got to rest for a while before heading back out into the cold.

That night we took a short walk from our hostel to the market and got some authentic Bratwurst for dinner.  Surprisingly, I enjoyed it and even had maybe too many to count that entire weekend.  After we walked around a bit and found a place to get ready and watch the opening ceremony.  We were standing in front of this gorgeous church, where an angel was propped up on the balcony.  She came out and gave a speech at the top of the church, in German of course so I have absolutely no idea what she had said, but it was still cool nonetheless.  After the opening ceremony we all decided it was way too cold and we were way too tired to do anything else so we headed back to the hostel for the night to get some sleep.

The Opening Ceremony

The next morning after having resting up we went back to the market to actually do some adventuring around.  The market was huge and there were little markets all around the main one.  The different souvenirs at each station were unique and beautiful.  It was a great place for all of us to get souvenirs and Christmas gifts for people back home. After a couple hours of walking around and shopping we went back to the hostel for a bit to warm up.  The weather in Germany was freezing!! We all had at least two pairs of pants and two shirts as well as a jacket on and we were still ice cold.  After some resting time we headed back out to the market.  Everything was beautiful at night.  There were Christmas lights everywhere and the decorations really just put us in the "Christmas mood."  That night we went to the children's side of the market where we got to meet Santa.  One of our good friends is Jewish, so this was her first Christmas and she was ecstatic to meet Santa.  It was really fun getting to act like a child for a little with everyone.

The next morning when we woke up it was snowing again, but this time, much harder than the first and it was actually sticking to the ground!! It's been a while since I've seen this, it was so pretty and cool to see, especially since we were in Germany!  After everyone got ready, we started making our way to where the Nazi Trials were held.  After getting lost a few times we finally made it there.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I've always been interested in the Holocaust, so I was pretty excited to go there.  We were able to go into the actual court room and got to walk around and hear about how the trials went.  Although it was pretty boring, I'm glad I can say that I've been.  Later, we traveled back tot hostel, got our bags and made our way back to the airport.

The Court Room

Germany was a really relaxing weekend, and I'm glad that it was my last weekend trip away from London.  Coming back to London was again, very bittersweet.  It really marked the end of our entire stay in London and I'm so sad to say goodbye to all of this.  I'm just about finished with classes for the semester and then have exams to get through next week.  I can't believe how fast this semester has gone by.  It seems like just yesterday it was summertime and I was being asked when I was leaving for London.  Now my friends and family (and sometimes me) are counting the days until I arrive back in America.  I'm going to miss London and everything that it has brought me so much when I come home, but I think I'm ready to be back in the place I call home.