Dortmund

Spontaneously on Saturday we decided to pay visit to Dortmund in NRW. After getting on the wrong train (we almost had to pay a 40 Euro fine....whoops.... luckily the "I am an exchange student" card worked), changing trains a few times, and traveling for 4 hours, we finally made our way north to Dortmund. Not really knowing what we were going to find, we exited the train and found the city to be PACKED with people. At first glance we thought it was the Weinachtsmarkt, because the streets were filled with stalls and street performers, but upon further review, it was actually a Medieval Festival!

There were animals everywhere, and they were all so fat that I got the feeling that they werent just for petting. People were selling hand-made items and homemade food. We sampled some cheeses and spices and they were so delicious! I also witnessed an older lady making little woven designs that were so intricate, she must have used yards and yards of thread for the smallest little design. In some ways it was a lot like a farmers market, I guess you could say, but everyone was dressed up in medieval costumes. 

^Biggest wurst ever! 

 

Here is a firebreather, Vorsicht! I didnt actually film him blowing fire because it was taking too long, but if you want to hear him talking in German, here it is. There was also a soccer game going on in Dortmund that day versus Hessen. When we were leaving, all of the soccer fans were pouring into the train station, there were police everywhere, and people were drunk out of there minds. Dortmund had won so everyone was celebrating, and since there is no open container restrictions in Germany, they are allowed to have beers on the train. Everyone was headed in all different directions, but I guess there was one train on the track next to ours that was headed back to Hessen, so all of those fans were on it. Everyone took out a handkerchief when that particular train left the station and started waving and yelling "Auf Wiedersehen" to taunt them.  

An interesting thing today happened in my German in Europe history class today. We were talking the whole time about the re-militarization of Germany (the topic of my Honors Thesis) and it was so interesting to hear the German perspective of war and conflict. Their constitution wont allow them to be involved in war unless they are directly attacked themselves. I asked about Afghanistan, because the Bundeswehr is currently there, and my Professor told me that it is kind of a special case because they considered 9/11 to be an "attack" on them as well. I also didnt realize how much the Korean War had to do with the European discussion of the re-militarization of Germany. Very interesting topic that I hope to learn much, much more about.

Finally, this week, Ich bin Berlinerin! Bis nexte Woche!