Next stop, Munich!

Alright! I'm trying to cram these all in before I leave, so here's Munich. We didn't stay for very long, just a day and a half, but we took a cool (aka free) walking tour around the snowy city. We thought we had thrown off the snow by coming back to Germany, but guess not... Anyway, take a look! Munich was famous for meticulously photographing every part of the city, so when/if it was destroyed in the WWII bombings, it could be restored to its original glory.Here's one of the cathedrals that has a rather interesting story behind it. Sorry, you'll have to google it if you're curious, but it involves its architect making a deal with the devil about not being able to see any windows...hm... honestly I didn't take all that many pictures in MunichHmph, oh well, then it was on to Rome via night train! (a rather... interesting experience I must say)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Hope you have a fun birthday and I'll see you Wednesday!!

Love,
Patty

Okay, it's about time I moved on to Salzburg

Ah... I think Salzburg was my favorite city...

We started out by taking a Sound of Music tour (yes I know it was about the cheesiest thing we could have done, but hey, it took us to a ton of really cool places!) where we hit a bunch of locations where Hollywood filmed the movie. See how much you can recognize...

This first one may be a little trickyBut how about this one?or this one? (no not the person in it. It you can't get that one I'm not sure you should be reading this blog...)try this oneThink you got them? Well here's the answers: first, the back of the Von Trapp family's home, or more specifically the lake behind the home (a different location was used for the front); second, the family's rather romantic gazebo; third, where Maria and the children did that last bit of the Do-Re-Me sequence; and lastly, the church where Maria and the Captain were married, which is actually not in Salzburg at all, but a little village outside the city.

Oooh, but that same day, we took a tour of the salt mines of which Salzburg get's it's name (Salzburg translating to 'city of salt'). Check out these, um, cool (?) suits we got to wear!And we got to slide down these cool shafts in order to get to the deeper levels! They snapped a photo of us as we went down. Mia has the original, but I conveniently snapped a picture of it before parting ways... somehow I got stuck being in front...But the next day we finally got a break from the snow and I took some time exploring the city on my own in order to hit a couple museums. I spent most of my time though, getting sidetracked by the beautiful scenery (although I did in fact eventually make it to the museum of modern art). Take a look at how gorgeus the city was!and some moreand more
And I found the graveyard where Mozart was buried. I know that sounds creepy, but trust me, the cemetery was beautiful! (a lot better than the one on Edinburgh that's for sure!)Oh, and here's Nonnburg Abbey!Okay, one last shot of the city and I'm done...Awe shoot, but I need to show you the fortress too!We all had a great time! (I think I was laughing at someone in the background in this one...)And next up, it's back to Germany for Munich!

Six days to go plus my first taste of the NHS!

The countdown continues and only six days remain :(

Not to much to report only that the last few days I've been packing my things to be shipped out Tuesday. Mostly though, I've been spending as much time as I can with my awesome AWESOME friends, Kerry and Naomi. They're rather adamant about getting out of pictures for me to post, but gosh darn it, I'm determined! At least Naomi got a few pictures in when I was invited down to her home a few months back, but I still need to get Kerry! Kerry, if you're reading this, be warned!!!!

But anyway, a few days ago (okay, more than a few... like last Monday) I got my first taste of the UK's National Health Service, or NHS (no, not the National Honors Society, that's for US High Schools...). It wasn't anything serious, just that my knee had been bothering me for a few weeks and I finally gave in and decided it was time to get it checked out. So anyway, back to the story, the NHS is amazing! For those of you who are unfamiliar, the NHS offers free health service to anyone in the country, including foreign students. You just walk right in, register with the doctor (which, rather alarming, though, doesn't even require a valid ID) and away you go, no co-payment or anything! It's really amazing that anyone and everyone has access to free health care.

Although the NHS gets a lot of hike about having bad doctors, the ones on campus were great. After a very educational discussion with my doctor, I came out with a bad case of runners knee (google it if you're curious) which was causing me a fair bit of pain and worry. Unfortunately, while I normally would have been referred directly to a physiotherapist for some helpful exercises to strengthen my knee, since I was leaving, I just kind of have to grin and bear it (and google those helpful exercies). The good news is that it's slowing but surely on the mend and it should be fine for my last big trip to Greece with my folks next week!

Exam 3: Ancient Technology and Engineering

O... M... G... !... !... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yep! Went swell and now I'm all done...

... and the countdown to goodbye begins... :(

Exam 2: Computer Graphics I

Woot! Went great!

now it's two down, one to go!

(and no, it's not a type-o, yes, I did in fact already take cg II last semester. That's just how it worked out... it did make the test somewhat easier. No wait, let me rephrase that; I shouldn't say it made the test easier, but instead that it helped me perform better)

What's this? ANOTHER POST?!

Yep, it's true! Now on to Berlin!

Here's us at the starting point of our free walking tour, the Brandenburg Gate... we were very coldAnd then it started snowingAnd then it got sunny again once we hit the Holocaust memorial...Look carefully and you'll see a certain someone exhibiting her latent spiderman powers...the Berlin wall... actually not all that interestingDoh, I can't remember exactly which church/cathedral this one was. I'm pretty sure the one one the left was an art museum...?And our final stop, museum island!
Load of fun! Now on to Salzburg, Austria!!