I got back from Germany on Saturday night and was exhausted by all the fun I was able to have! It was amazing to be able to see my family and connect because its not like I have gotten to see them a lot in the past 8 years. Besides getting closer with my aunt and uncle I was able to do so much traveling within Germany and into the Czech Republic. I think the best way to write about my week in Germany is to separate my paragraphs by country...
Germany
AMAZING! We arrived on the 12th pretty late so we went to bed to get ready for site seeing Sunday morning. Our first day with the Butterfield's consisted of going to see castles! I thought England had a lot of castles...well I was wrong driving through we saw so many on top of hills. The view from each castle was phenomenal. One we were able to go inside and we had to wear these crazy slippers to protect the wood floors. Emma and I decided that we would live there once we were older. The next day Andrew and I took trains to Trier to see different monuments and sites in the city. We saw the Roman Black Gate all the way to the Amphitheater. We were able to go underneath the arena and see how it worked and where the Romans waiting before entering. We also saw where the lions would have been kept. While in Trier we of course has to get Bratwurst for lunch because it was our second day in Germany. On our last days in Germany we stopped for a few hours in Dresden. Here we were able to see churches and the Porcelain wall. We climbed to the top of the Church that was heavily bombed and pretty much destroyed during World War Two. From the top of this building you have the best view of Dresden. It was breath taking. We then had a very long train ride heading back to Martinshöhe. We were able to talk with a nice German man (which made the train better). On the last morning I was nicely awoken at 6am by Emma who was happy I was home. Since it was Aunt Jen's birthday and our last day in Germany we went to a Christmas Market and got to see little Christmas stuff and have some good quality family time before I headed back to England.
Prague
Tuesday night-Friday morning was my adventure to the Czech Republic. Tuesday night I went on my first over night train ride. I was geekying out since we had a little room with bunk-beds! I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was a very long train ride, but allowed us to arrive bright and early Wednesday morning. The first day in Prague we did a lot of exploring (finding apartment). We also had the best time hanging out and looking at markets and taking our time walking through the city. That night we had some amazing dinner and dessert! I was in Heaven. We explored the Charle's Bridge and saw how gorgeous it was in the day as well as the night. The next day we went on a free tour of the city and we were fortunate to be there on the 22nd anniversary of the end of Communism! It was amazing to see the city celebrate this even in their history. During this tour we saw the famous and oldest working clock (astronomers clock). On the hour there is a big ordeal and every stops to watch death ring his bell and different church figure heads rotate in the windows of the clock. There is also a trumpet player who play on all four sides every hour.
My favorite part about being in Prague was seeing the Jewish Quarter. There were different parts to the museum. The first part was going into different connected rooms with names of the Prague Jewish community persecuted by the Nazi Regime. There were what seemed like endless walls filled top to bottom with names on them. They found Nazi records and were able to put the names in order of when they were taken from Prague and what areas they lived in and when they were killed! This just confirmed my knowledge of how systematic the killing of the Jews were. What hit hard was that there were 77,297 names in this one building. Seeing the number on paper doesn't have the impact until you see the names written on walls! It shows how significant of a number 6 million is.
There was also an exhibit on Jewish children and the art work they created while in Terezin. They were fortunate taught art lessons and had a way to express how they were feeling during World War Two. What pulled my heart strings were that out of the number of children's artwork on display not even half had "survived" written under their drawing. You saw pictures of gas chambers and poor conditions. For me hearing about children's stories breaks my heart. This is a place I will never forget going to. It was amazing to see the Jewish Quarter and see how life was for Jews in Prague. Outside of this museum was the cemetery. Here we say hundred of tombstone and were told that hundred of people were buried under the same tombstone. We were walking in the only place Jews were allowed to bury their dead. The cemetery was tiny. It just showed the oppression Jews had suffered through for years before Hitler and the Holocaust.
My trip to Germany and the Czech Republic was a great eye opener and experience as an HGS student. I had a great time getting to learn more and have an experience of a life time! I wouldn't change it for the world.
