Ein Jahr in Deutschland: 100 (and two) Days

Dezember

Not sure how it's possible, but I've already been here for over 100 days... Time is really going by way too fast. I've been pretty busy this month, with school, language classes, and of course, visiting Weihnachtsmärkte. Christmas markets are absolutely stunning, and I've been able to visit quite a few. I went to a "German Christmas Market" by Columbus Circle last December, but it was nothing like the markets here. There's nothing like walking through the old part of a German town surrounded by beautifully decorated stands, bright lights, and the smell of roasted almonds. If anyone is planning on visiting Germany, December is the month to do it. I thought I was really going to miss Christmas in NYC, and I do, but this definitely makes up for it.

Christmas break starts Saturday, and I'll be taking a day trip to Munich with one of my friends from AFS, Ivana, from Croatia. Then on the 26th I'll be going skiing with my host family. I can't believe it's already almost 2015!

Here's the Weihnachtsmärkte I've visited so far and places I've been in the past couple of months.

Ulm

Yesterday I went to Ulm with my host mom and brother. It's about 45 minutes away, and is home to the tallest church in the world. The town is beautiful, as is the church. The market right below the huge Münster was breathtaking and made for great views.

The climb to the top was definitely not the easiest, but totally worth it.

Last staircase up to the top! The stairs were really small, and made me a bit dizzy towards the end... The views from the 530 feet minster were spectacular from every level. At the bottom, 1,536 steps later, my knees were definitely a little shakey, but it was 100% worth it. I can check climbing the highest church in the world off my list!

The inside of the church wasn't anything special, but definitely pretty.

Weihnachtsmarkt=Glüwein

The Danube river runs through Ulm, and seperates Ulm from Neu-Ulm (or New Ulm), which is in Bavaria (Ulm is in Baden-Württemburg)

Heidelberg

Last Sunday I went to Heidelberg with Lauren, where we met up with a friend who lives there. It took about 45 minutes to get there from Stuttgart. The weather was pretty bad, but thankfully it wasn't raining too hard. The first thing we did was visit the Schloss Heidelberg (Heidelberg Castle).

Views of the old part of the city.

The famous bridge

It was really foggy so we didn't really get to see so much of the Heidelberger Thingstätte, but it was still really interesting.

Heidelberger Weihnachtsmarkt!

The famous Alte Brücke (Old bridge)

Tübingen

Last Saturday I went to Tübingen with Martina, Liv, and Janis. It's a beautiful university town, and probably one of the nicest towns I've seen so far. It's not so far from Wernau, only about 40 minutes.

In love with German architecture

Fachwerkhäuser <3

You can't really see it that well, but behind those houses is the Neckar River.

Dortmund

My host family's family lives in Lüdenscheid which is in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Sauerland region. We went to a Borussia Dortmund soccer game a couple of weekends ago, and stayed with their family. It was a great weekend, and we also got to go into Dortmund to see the Weihnachtsmarkt.

Apparently the biggest Christmas tree in the world.

The game was amazing and definitely a highlight of this year. So grateful that I got to experience this!

Esslingen

Okay, this one I've gone to many, many times, since Esslingen is so close, and I go there every week day for German class. It's really nice to just walk around, especially since there's a Mittelalter (Middle ages) markt. It's really unique, and I think it's pretty well known because of that.