Euro Trip Review

I sit here in my bed, in Augsburg Germany, finally ready to start the first day of my 2nd Exchange. after a month long European trip, not only am i tired, but much more anxious to learn this language and culture. this post will be explaining the euro trip that our group of four travelers endured. Day 1: departure I had contracted a sickness weeks before we were to leave for Europe, and the day of leaving, i had a temperature of 103.2 (40 celcius). naturally with no time to see a doctor, we still went knowing i would need medicine to take with me. i had to fly separately from the group because my ticket doesn't take me back like the others. after saying goodbye to my friends, i went through 2 hellish plane rides to get to Frankfurt, Germany. upon arrival, the group met up outside the gate, we were sadly greeted by a neo-Nazi who wanted to take Israel down, and we left rather quickly. on the first train, our mom informs us that we have lost her passport and 500 euros along with 250 British pounds.. about 1000 USD.. great way to start the trip on day 1. we still make it to cologne, the site of the big gothic cathedral, and we tour its archives and climb it to the top, at least 400 steps, no escalator, and with me being sick and having not eaten in 12 hours, jumping sounded pretty good. we went to our next city of Marburg, where we ate our first meal together, McDonalds (tradition), saw st. elizabeth's church, and slept. Day 2: marburg, utrecht we toured marburg for the day, and in the afternoon, we went to utrecht, Netherlands where we met my host uncle, Michael, we ate some dutch colony food, and toured the city on his boat in the canals. day 3: Amsterdam we toured Amsterdam for the day, saw museums, street performers who were break-dancing, and had dinner with michael and his girlfriend, ellen, at his house boat. our mom needed to go to the consulate in Frankfurt to get her passport, while she did this, we prepared to meet my friend, Alexia, in Brussels. day 4: Brussels, London we had to get ourselves up and catch our own train to brussels since our mom had to go early to the consulate. we arrived in Belgium at midday and were treated to an excursion of the city's important parts in only 5 hours. we met our mom back in the eurostar trains to go to London. when we arrived in london, as you would expect, it was raining, it took us 40 minutes to find our hostel 10 minutes from the station.. thanks to kind englishmen, we eventually did find it. day 5-6: london we say the original rosetta stone, british museum, london eye, big ben, westminstr abbey, trafalgar square. took a cruise on the river of the london bridge (not the bridge you think) and even saw Tower Bridge open up, (tower bridge is what people think is London Bridge) we also had the best tour guide ever on the boat. and had the best fish and chips in all of London, along with seeing the tower of london and the queen's crowned jewels. on the eve of the 6th day, we went to Paris day 7-8: Paris, Augsburg? the only thing in Paris i ever got to see was Versailles, my sickness had gotten so bad that my throat had swelled up and became so sore that i couldn't even eat yogurt without it hurting like heck. no medicine in any nation we've been in was helping. so my mom called the only man possible who could help me get better again... DIETER MUENKER! my German Grandpa and my mom's host father 27 years ago. also my host family for my time in Germany. with some train changes, I was on my way on the 8th day to Augsburg, Germany to see a doctor. even though my train was late, Dieter was waiting for me at the station, and told me that the doctor would be soon. doctors are normally closed on Fridays after 12, but dieter got one anyway. the doc prescribed me antibiotics, and said that i did the right thing to come, if i didn't then i could of died near the trip's end due to lack of eating due to emense pain in the throat that was blocking food plus the explosion of new germs in my system from so many nations the only regret i have is that i was suppose to meet my best friend on Sakhalin, the girl i stayed a year with in Russia, Roxane, in Lyon. the price to get healthy cost me the eiffel tower, louvre, my close friend/sister roxane, Lyon, all of switzerland, and florence and verona, Italy. day 9-13: Augsburg i stayed with the muenkers for about a week. i was treated greatly and had awesome hospitality. we decided that i would rejoin the group in Verona, Italy but go straight then to Venice, the capitol. day 14: Venice I rejoined the group with a good welcome, recap on the time with the muenkers, and fully healthy and ready to see europe. in venice, we used the boats like buses, and got to our hotel in san marcos Plaza. day 15-16: venice, vienna, Hungary we spend the days exploring venice, the bummer was that the italian boats went on strike for no reason, just to get an early holiday and take friday off. so we had to walk mostly which was a pain because venice is not made for that. we were able to take a boat to see the famous glass blowing and a demonstration however. when we were trying to leave venice, hell broke lose when the italian rudeness and lack of a good train system combined, and we missed out bus to Vienna, Austria. we the only notification of a change was a tiny paper on one window at a help desk, way to go Italy. we quickly boarded a train to the bus's next stop. only to have to end up chasing it down. luckily the driver stopped and let us on. on the way to Vienna, we met a kid named Bruce, who was traveling by himself around europe. i left venice, calling it my least desirable place all trip. we transfered our bus to a train to Budapest, the capitol of Hungary. and we quickly after the heptic day, fell asleep. day 17: Budapest, vienna we saw a hungarian castle, which included a view of all of budapest. and the shoes of executed hungarians by the nazis or soviets. we boarded a trin to Vienna that evening, arrived, and had the biggest pizza have ever seen in my life for dinner. day 18-20: Vienna we were in Vienna to see my mom's other host family, the kirazas (spelled wrong i know)the father spoke russian which made me really happy. we ate a ton at their house and played soccer/basketbal/hockey (i dont know what it was) with their granddaughters. we toured the catacombs of a cathedral that was full of plague victims' bones. we also went to my mom's host sister's apartment which was huge. there was an entire room with vidoegames like XBOX kinect, smoke machines, and strobe lights. we spend the night eating spaghetti and playing starwars kinect. we also got to see the Kaiser's summer palace, famous for its fountains. we left the next day for Prague, Czech Republic where we saw the famous black light theater only in Prague. Day 21: Prague, Berlin in Prague, we saw the jewish cemetery, astronomical clock and ended up going to Berlin sooner than we wanted because we did enough in Prague. we arrived and were greeted by my host uncle, Jochen, and we went to watch the UEFA game Germany V Italy in a restaurant. the game got intense, we all were hoping for a Germany Victory, and blood pressure spiked when germany scored with 1:23 left on a penalty shot. during the last minute, the german goalie even went and tried to score. but it was of no use as germany lost 2-1.. the capitol was silent that night. but it was nice to spend time with Jochen and his wife. day 22-24: Berlin, Augsburg we saw too much in Berlin to even remember, the TV Tower, the east Germany Museum, checkpoint Charlie, the musuem of checkpoint charlie, reichtstag, the 2 russian memorials of the city, one was HUGE. the place where 500,000 people gathered to watch the game. we even got to see the original Berlin Wall still standing in certain parts. we took many pictures with it, including us trying to destroy it and climbing it. Berlin was a high point of the trip. but it was even better to leave to go to my host city, Augsburg, and meet my opa and oma (grandpa and grandma) again. we arrived in augsburg, and got my mom's passport back. and spend the night killing the evasive species of snails and slugs in the garden. it was here where we learned of a horrible storm and power outage in Ohio. day 25-30: Augsburg we spend the 5 days doing things with Opa and Oma like seeing the city, forcing me to try a surfing video game. seeing the amersee near munich, going to Munich and meeting friends of our group people. (sorry Feli) in munich we saw the olympic garden and ryan and i got to walk on balls in the water, it was awesome. we also saw a rock(?) festival. we toured castes such as neuschwanstein and linderhof, played dice games like lershal (which i won once) and going out for a pizza dinner for our last night together. on the 30th and final day, the group (except me) boarded a train to see another city and return to Frankfurt for their departure back to the states tomorrow. while I stay back and officially start my exchange year in Germany. frankly, im just glad the euro trip ended. my opa has taken every advantage there is to get me into language courses and treat me right, so the same wont happen again. once again i have said goodbye to me friends and family to live abroad. i can only wait for the adventures that await me in Germany and Europe. but no matter how much these foreign lands impress me or intrigue me, I know still that only one is right for me, The United States of America.

Up to bat again

For those of you who are unaware of my current situation, allow me to explain. I am Aaron Lefler, a potential international Businessman who is studying abroad before entering college. last year, I spent an entire year abroad in Russia, and learned Russian. despite some bad experiences and tough times with the natives, I have decided to try studying abroad once again, only this time in Germany. I will be staying with my mom's host family, the Muenkers, in Augsburg in Bavaria. with my fly-out date approaching sooner and sooner everyday, currently being on june the 7th, where i will start my true exchange 1 month after a European trip. I have been studying German as I did with Russian so I can get some basis before the real deal. Unlike when I was in Russia, fewer rules will apply to me. I will have use of a laptop to better blog, store photos, do work, and talk. With High School coming to a close in a little over 1 month, stress is building and i am experiencing mixed feelings, I am assured that what happened in Russia wont happen in Germany. it seemed like only yesterday I left my land, the memories of Russia still live on in my mind, now after less than a year even, I leave my homeland and favorite nation, to experience the world of Youth exchange once more. This blog will be the primary way people back in the US, and maybe even Russia, read about my adventures in Germany for my year.
Wish me the best of luck!
und guten tag Deutschland!