Nürnberg

Oh Nürnberg, a city with such history....of devastation.  I'm not going to lie, it felt very awkward to walk into a church and see pictures of the city in 1945, and then realize most of it was done by the US military.  Whoops?  Anyway, luckily the Germans rebuilt the city and it's as fantastic as ever!  Around every corner there was great shopping amidst historic relics.  

Okay, I try to exercise as much as the next person, but this city was out of control.  It was easier to walk to every site then to take the train, but by the time we walked across the city to the Burg (castle) I was crazy tired.  The best part was the huge hill leading up to the castle.  As you can tell from the picture above, I was super excited to finally be at the top, and the view wasn't half bad.  

To me, this picture is quintessential Germany: An old castle from the 13th-century with the German flag flying high above it.  It's absolutely amazing how well the historic structures have been preserved. 

I call this the Nürnberg Blooper Reel.  Top left: the Lorenzkirche Ubahn stop.  So basically Laurence Church stop (this will make more sense with the picture below). Top right: Max Brücke...Max Bruch anyone?...ZING!  Bottom left: Truthfully I didn't look to see if this was a sex shop or strip club, but sadly I would probably rather attend this joint then sit through the painful TV show.  Bottom right: California is such a popular topic for Germans.  They're always wearing t-shirts from LA or for example in München there's a coffee shop called "The San Francisco Coffee Company," which is actually not from SF.  Nice to know I can one up the Germans.

Okay, so somehow on this trip my nickname became "Laurence" because some people misheard my name.  It all came full circle when we visited a church in Nürnberg called "St. Lorenz."  I felt like I had completed my life pilgrimage... then I saw the picture of the church in 1945 and all the guilt washed away any sense of sarcasm.  

Stained glass is to Europe as stucco is to Herriman.  No joke.  This window at the St. Lorenz Church was one of the more beautiful windows we saw, especially with the light reflecting off the wall.

When I went through customs in Atlanta yesterday the officer was having trouble with his computer, so I said, "sorry, I guess bad luck seems to follow me wherever I go."  He said, "well that explains it."  Then I remarked, "no joke, a black cloud literally followed me everywhere in Europe."  As there is proof with the picture above!  Of course, the entire day we were sight-seeing it was so hot and humid, then when we needed to get our stuff on the way to the train station...it starts pouring.  Was I surprised?  Not in the least.  If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.

One more Europe post to go...München!

Practice, Practice, Practice...

So, initially I came to Europe for a cello program in Neuburg.  I knew I would have to do work, but it was never on the forefront of my mind and I was just worrying about sight-seeing.  Then it hit me, hours and hours of practice cello each day.  What joy.

In the practice building (the local Volkschule), I found my favorite practice room that was a little smaller than the other ginormous rooms in the building.  Inevitably, after a few hours of practice I would get fed up with myself and sit on the floor to read a book.  After a few minutes of reading I looked up and noticed this awesome view out the window.  It's nothing to write home about, but it has a quaint awesomeness about it.  The tree with red flowers, the church clock tower, and a quintessential German house.  Love it.

Note to Lauren: if you don't play the cello for more than a week your calluses go bye-bye.  This was the result of my thumb after hours of practice on the Dvorak Concerto.  It doesn't look too bad here because the swelling went down, but the day before I'm fairly sure it was infected.  Hey, there ain't no art without suffering, right?

Oh Lauren, if I only could have forewarned you that this would not be a week of leisurely enjoyment, but tons of practicing and spending hours each day in the same building.  Hey, at least it was in Germany.

Also, I may look like a suffered, I was playing on a rented $30,000 cello and by the end of the week I didn't sound half bad.

Thanks Deutschland.

A Smörgåsbord of Deutschland

INGOLSTADT

Little did Lauren Posey know that basically every town in Germany rules.  No lie people!  Again this town is in Bavaria and offers much to the touristic eye!  This is the main street of the town where you can almost always find people casually spending their time at an outdoor cafe.  Say a "guten tag" or "tschüss" here and there, and you'll fit right in.

Not sure why, but so far the church in Ingolstadt has been my favorite.  Maybe because there's an awesome crypt below the main part of the church.  Granted we didn't get to see the actual crypt, there were headstones for the rich families in the main area of the church.  Visiting Germany helped me learn that I have a crazy fascination with crypts/graveyards.  Who'da thunk?

AUTOBAHN

My first experience on the Autobahn people!  Granted, I probably would have driven a lot faster, it was still awesome.  Cars would literally shoot right by you like jets. The German Autobahn was made for me.  Granted Hitler concocted the design for the highway, I don't think he had me in mind.  (At least let's hope not...)

REGENSBURG

My favorite city in Germany by far.  You're walking down the street and then suddenly a Gothic church built in the 13th-century pops up!  Not to mention that all the shops are in the original buildings from way back when.  You can tell their age because of the chapel ceilings and also to save land, they would construct the buildings so as they got taller, they also got wider.  Genius I tell ya. 

Another cool point was they would sometimes use old grave stones in structures.  I guess the rule is that grave stones cannot be repaired if they become broken (or something like that), and for example in the picture above is an old broken Hebrew head stone.  Heck, I give my permission now to immortalize my tombstone on a city wall.  

Another crazy part of the city is that they pioneered one of the first waste management systems.  They would let pigs loose in the city to clean up all the "refuse." Gross, yet effective.

This is the crypt chapel from a church in a town near Neuburg, which is also on the St. Jakob's Way!  Every space of each church is so detailed and elaborate, it's hard to think that in America buildings can only be a 100 years old, where here they're about 800 years old.

AUDI MUSEUM

Oh my, well one of the highlights was visiting the Audi museum in Ingolstad (or not!).  I mean, I love cars as much as the next girl, but all I care about is the color. No, I would not like to know how an engine works or what cylinder engine the car has. Spare me.  They did have historical tidbits on how Audi was used by Hitler during WWII, but that only kept my attention for so long.  You can tell my excitement from my enthused face in this picture!

More Deutschland to come!

Neuburg an der Donau

DEUTSCHLAND

The little town I'm staying in is called Neuberg an der Donau, literally meaning Newcastle on the Danube.  I'm blocks away from a castle built in the 1200s right next to the Danube river.  It's completely unbelievable!  Touring the castle was absolutely amazing too because on the third floor is an art gallery with originals from Van Dyck, Rubens, and many more.  It's crazy that towns like this are scattered all over Germany.  

This is me standing on the veranda of the castle.  I wanted to have my Lion King moment and say "everything the light touches is our kingdom," but unfortunately Mufasa wasn't there to guide me.

Yet again, it's crazy that I walk these streets everyday to get to class.  I've finally become used to the cobble stone streets because at first when I walked on them I about broke my ankle.  

So the count who remodeled the castle in 1505 built this "grotto" type room just for the heck of it.  The detailing around the walls and on the ceiling are tiny little shells picked up from the Danube.  There were also mini mermaid sculptures made out of shells too.  For some reason it reminds me of the cave-like room Hugh Hefner built in his backyard.  Hopefully it wasn't used for the same purposes.

This is the chapel in the palace.  I obviously felt the need to be quiet.  Every town has an elaborate church, and then each house has small, yet elaborate chapels.  Europe is crazy!

Sorry to be quick, but gotsta go explore this gangsta town!  Bis bald!

Paris Part Deux

Wow, this took me a while to put up, but hey, I've been busy!  This was my last day in Paris which was quite eventful to say the least...

DaVinci Code anyone?  That's all I could think of the entire time I was there.  Little do people know that the line to get into the museum closely resembles that of Disneyland in that I had to wait for over an hour to buy a ticket!  A little outrageous, I know.  At least this ride lasted longer than 2 1/2 minutes.  When I was waiting in line I heard two people behind me speaking English, so I turned around and started talking to them.  Ends up they are Tom and Sue from New York state here on vacation.  At one point we speculated the entrance fee to the Louvre would be something like 40 euro, and I was not into that considering I only had around 35 euro on me.  They were way too kind and said stick with them in line because if I'm short they'll pay for me.  Nice people do exist!  When we got to the ticket booth it said that those 18 and younger were free.  We joked that I would act like they're high school daughter (maybe I couldn't pass in looks...but definitely attitude!).  Ended up only being 10 euro so I lucked out!

This was probably my favorite exhibit of the entire museum, yes even more than the illustrious Mona Lisa.  This was a project put together by the artist Mimmo Jodice where he photographed painted portraits and paired them next to head shots taken of museum employees.  It was very interesting to see classic art juxtaposed against today's culture, especially because in some cases I couldn't tell a difference!  Well done Mimmo, well done!

You see how long that corridor is?  Yeah, let's say I got lost more than once and this area became quite familiar.  It's not like a regular museum where everything is in English and they have a set path for people.  You can basically go in any direction and there were some signs, but they didn't help me much. And I'm not disposed to keeping a map glued to my nose as there were masterpieces on my right and left. After seven hours of exploring, I finally got out.  My feet were kaputt to say the least.

                            

You guessed it: it's the Mona Lisa!  (The last statement is dripping with sarcasm)  I took a photo with tons of people purposely because this is basically how it is.  The museum staged the painting so it could resemble some hot LA photo shoot and Mona Lisa is the model.  Come on, I won't fall for that.  It was also disheartening because other artwork was just as good, if not better than this work!  Sorry Leo, but I have to tell the truth.

I really wanted to hit up the Musée d'Orsay across the street, but alas I was 10 minutes too late to buy tickets.  Instead I got to observe some street art instead.  I would say this guy is wearing roller skates, but it's more like wheels strapped to the bottom of his tennis shoes.  He set up these cups and skated between each of them extremely fast!  I wish I would've recorded a video, but that would make me look even more like a tourist.  At one time skated through the cups while holding a child, but needless to say when he returned the girl to her parents, her mother comes up and immediately gives the girl a hug as if she cheated death or something.  Amazing.

I didn't want to take the metro back to my hotel (more like I couldn't find a metro stop), so I explored the city for a bit.  That was probably the best part of the trip, when I meandered around the city.  I just hoped that no one would speak to me because they'd peg me as the ignorant American.  I saw the steeple of this church from afar and had to stop.  Literally a park in front of a run of the mill church in Paris.  It's amazing!

This is how Paris said goodbye to me: rain pouring so hard even real Parisians wouldn't go outside.  I'm from Utah, I can hack it.  So I sort of got extremely wet and when I arrived back at the hotel the concierge totally laughed at me (it also didn't help that she was a hoity toity Parisian).  All in all, I'm not sure I'd live in Paris permanently, but I'd definitely go back and visit!

My adventures in Germany to come next!

Paris Part Un

Paris: a backdrop for "A Tale of Two Cities," a city for lovers, a place with an immense history, and most recently...a playground for Lauren Posey.  That's right people, Paris doesn't know what hit it.  It's definitely been a ride.  It all started with the 9 and a 1/2 hour plane ride from SLC to CDG that began with a TSA officer searching my backpack and commenting on the amount of snacks I brought.  I ain't no boy scout, but I know to always be prepared.  

Then the plane ride,  at first I was seated next to this extremely handsome gentleman, however flashes of the movie "Taken" came into my head and I saw myself six months down the road in a prostitution ring.  Not this girl.  Luckily there was a seat with an empty seat next to it, so I lucked out on this flight...or so I thought.  About and hour into the flight I noticed there was a family seated in front of me that had to be the family from "Home Alone 2."  Seriously, people kept coming back from all parts of the plane, and they were part of the family!  To boot, directly in front of me was a blonde haired boy about 7 years old (Macauley Culkin anyone?) The best part was about 4 hours into the flight I had just dozed off during "Water for Elephants" (as had the rest of the plane) when Macauley turned around and started poking me repeatedly in the leg.  I guess I must've glared at him pretty good because he immediately turned around and sat down quietly.

Well I arrived at CDG in one piece and all I needed was to take the metro to my hotel.  Well good thing every sign is in French and I don't speak a lick of it.  Luckily my Spanish skills came into handy as "billetes" means the same thing in both languages. I don't think I stuck out like a sore thumb, other than the fact that I got off and on the same train three times because I wasn't sure if it was the right one. Okay France, you got that point.  On the train I sat in a corner with my suitcase blocking the seats so no one else could sit by me.  Well in France that must mean "come and wait for me to move my suitcase so you can sit directly across from me," as one gentleman did. The scary part: he pulled out the Quran and started singing prayers quietly to himself.  

Okay France, the score is 2-0 and you're up.

Finally, after I took a much needed nap in my hotel, I went sight-seeing!  I followed a street that looked like it went in a good direction and hoped for the best.  Luckily the best found me.  I turned a corner and there was the St. Sulpice Church.  This isn't like your average Mormon church meetinghouse on the corner (although it seemed that churches like these are on every corner in Paris).  It's like something I'd only heard about in my World Civilizations class, but now I actually forgot what every arch or dome was called (sorry Val!)

MoTab ain't got nothing on the organs of Europe.  Granted this is a much smaller one, heck, look at the detail!  Can you imagine being a citizen of Paris in the 18th-century and coming to this church?  HOLY HANNAH!!!

A few more streets up and I was already at the Cathédral du Notre Dame! Hunchback anyone?  It's so much better than the pictures, and the best part was walking along the river right next to it.  I didn't get to break out with the song "Out There," but I still enjoyed myself.

Ah, my favorite part thus far: Cimetiére du Pére Lachaise.  It's basically a place where a bunch of famous people are buried, i.e. Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Rossini, Jim Morrison, and Maria Callas was buried there, but then transferred to Italy (at least that's what I think the French on the sign said).  At one point I think I was heading toward Bizet's grave when this guy looked at me and asked me where Jim Morrison's grave site was.  First of all, do I look like I know where I am, and second, do I look like an 80s rock fanatic?  The answer to both: no.  I did feel that my trip was like a jihad that paid homage to all the great composers of the past.  I've paid my dues.

I stumbled across this beaute!  Um, you can basically guess that this will be on my grave (however I found the Sorcerer's Stone last week, so I'm going to live forever). A little morbid, but why can't all graves be like this?!  Not sure why it says "Enfin Seul," which means "alone at last," at the bottom, but hey, that will probably be on my grave stone too!

Next, I took a short train ride to le Arc de Triomphe!  Oh, and on the way to the metro a guy stopped me to asked me directions in French.  I felt like my snarky attitudes and sideways glares had finally paid off. Even though I haven't learned the language yet, at least I fit in.  Anyway, although the Arc is a little touristy for my taste, it was still much bigger than I thought it would be.  I snapped a few pictures, went through the underground tunnel to go see the arc, then headed back.  No need to dawdle.  

Other than the cemetery, this has to be 2nd coolest part of my trip.  I saved my baguette from dinner last night and brought it so I could have a snack.  Eating a baguette with cheese in front of the Eiffel Tower has always been my dream.  I can now check that off my bucket list.  Next I want to eat a hot dog in Central Park...but that's beside the point.  Again, the Eiffel Tower was much bigger than I thought, but I guess I had a weird perception of Paris.  

I snapped this while riding to the Eiffel Tower.  If you can't tell...it's the Eiffel Tower. A little artsy, but you have to be when you go to Paris.  Gotta be cliché.  (Yeah, the people thought I was nuts for taking a picture on the metro.)

So far my favorite picture of the trip.  Paris is really like something that I've read in a book.  When I see these sites that I've learned about in every history book, it's just unreal that they are real places.  Although I wish there were more English signs and English speaking people here, I've made it.  I do a lot of head nodding and I've mastered the phrase "je ne parle pas Francé."  It does the trick.

Tomorrow: Musée du Louvre.

Texas Forever

It's the end of an era people.  The TV series "Friday Night Lights" is over, and along with it has gone my entire reason for existence.  This past week I've simply gone to work a few times, just waiting to come home and watch the show.  I started from the very first episode of season one, and a few hours ago I finished the last episode of season five.  Yeah, I'm one of those weirdos who get attached to a TV show  as if it were my life.  The last TV show I enjoyed as much as this one was ALIAS, but in some ways Friday Night Lights is much better.

The character development is outrageous because you get to know every aspect of a character's personality, almost as if you know them in real life.  Okay, sometimes the underage drinking was a little out of control, but add a thick Texan accent with long, semi-dirty locks, and I'm there!  Although the show has ended, I will definitely continue to search google images for Taylor Kitsch and I'll definitely watch the seasons over and over again.  

Clear Eyes.  Full Hearts.  Can't Lose.