2 very cool weekends, with some crappy class in between

2 weeks ago we started our intensive language course, and suddenly we were no longer on vacation anymore. We had to study? What? To be honest, it sucked. German is a really hard language to get the feel for, especially when the teacher uses very very little english, and the textbook is all in German. Stressful pop quizzes basically defined the last 2 weeks of class for me, but THANKFULLY it is finally over and done with. So enough about that. Lets talk about the weekends!

Last weekend (Fri, Sat., Sun) I did 3 separate day trips. On Friday we were given a tour of the Radeberger Pilsner brewery in nearby Radeberger. The tour was pretty good (or about as good a tour of a brewery actually is) and then we got to taste the beer. They have 2 kinds, filtered and unfiltered, and because it all falls under the German purity laws it has nothing but Water, Barley, Hops, and Yeast in it. So the shelf life isnt really long.

German beer is actually much different than I imagined. When we think of Germans and beer, we imagine something like what we have in the US but times like 5 (in terms of selection), but that is really not true. Every region or town basically has its own brewery, and only that beer (with a few others) is sold at every resteraunt and bar in the region. So to get some unique brew, you actually have to GO there to buy it.

Anyway, brewery was good. The next day a group of us got up early a hopped on a train to Gorlitz, a small town towards Poland. We wandered the city and happened upon a medivial street festival. It was very festive and very fun. The city was very pretty and had a bunch of different architectural styles. It felt very non-touristy, and had a very very interesting experiance waiting for us.

As we walked down the city lanes towards the river we began to get excited. Because one of the whole reasons for going to Gorlitz was because it is very unique in that when the worlds powers redrew Europe after WWII they drew the border between Poland and Germany using the river the runs through Gorlitz. The problem was that the city was divided between the two banks and suddenly became two separate countries. The Poles kicked out all the Germans and suddenly we have two cities, but only a river seperating them. We were able to walk down to the river, cross a bridge and the people, language, and general feel changed.

Poland was interesting. It felt very different, though we didnt spend a lot of time there it was a thrill to be able to cross a bridge and enter a differenent country with a different alphabet and different currency.







Sunday we went hiking in the Saxon-Switzerland National park. The hike was nothing difficult, but the town that we started out in was so cute and the sandstone pillars and bridge at the top where breathtaking. All about 20 minutes from the Czech Republic.



I have to go to the store and buy some food and then go to class, but i will try to update on this weekend in Berlin very soon!