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Our Weekend in Leipzig
Our weekend in Leipzig started early Friday morning. Yerin and I (Lena) got up for breakfast and were picked up at 8 AM by the father of one of our shadows, Marvin. We spent about two hours in the car, driving through the scenic German countryside before we arrived in Leipzig and met up with Pio and Palina, our other two shadows. We deposited our packed bags in Pio’s beautiful apartment and set off for brunch. We ate an amazing meal at an adorable little cafe before setting off to explore the city. We spent the rest of the day walking down gorgeous streets, shopping at a market in the square, stopping at a bookstore and the Nikolai Kirche, and visiting an art museum. That night, Pio made pasta for all of us for dinner and we settled in and watched a movie.
The next morning, we slept in and then had one of the best breakfasts of my life. Pio and Palina got us fresh bread from a bakery and we covered it in all kinds of different spreads and jams. Once we left the apartment, we decided to take a canoeing trip down a canal in Leipzig to see more of the city. It was an absolutely wonderful experience! The weather was just beginning to warm up and the views were incredible. After canoeing, we walked through a park on our way to get warm drinks and waffles.
When we finished eating, we spent some time shopping and walking around some more before making our way to the tallest building in Leipzig, the City-Hochhaus. We headed to the top and enjoyed the stunning views of the city at night. Back at the apartment, we had a yummy dinner of fish sticks and mashed potatoes before watching another movie and falling asleep.
On Sunday morning, we again slept in (much later than intended. 🙂 When we got up, we had the same incredible breakfast of bread and spreads as we’d had the day before. We walked to the giant, beautiful train station and did some shopping inside before boarding the train back to St Afra.
Zwickau -Hunter Dunnuck
Friday afternoon, Garrett and I met our host, Elin, and left Sankt Afra to begin our journey to Zwickau, a small town near Leipzig. We went on our 1.5-hour drive to Zwickau and discussed minor details about Germany and America. Seeing the differences, tiny everyday things you usually would not consider, was fascinating. My favorite difference was how small the villages in Germany tend to be, even with a decent population. We were introduced to Elin’s father and younger sister when we arrived at their cozy home, and then we took some time to unpack our bags for the weekend and familiarize ourselves with our surroundings. After getting settled, we all decided to go bowling to bond and get to know each other better during our stay. The bowling alley was a tiny and homey-feeling place, which was nice and different from what we are typically used to in the US. After playing a couple of rounds, we decided to head back home and enjoy some sushi for dinner, the best sushi I had ever had, before heading to bed.
On Saturday, our host mom showed us around downtown Zwickau and told us about the history of the small East German town. Zwickau was the birth town of the composer Robert Schumann, so there is a statue of him in the city center and a monument of the house where he was born. Walking around the plaza, we stopped to grab ice cream from a small Italian gelateria. We later toured an old house that belonged to a priest and saw how apprentices lived with priests to learn the ways of priesthood. After exploring Zwickau, we went to the August Horch Museum to learn about the invention of Audi and the manufacturing of the famous East German Trabant. Seeing cars from the GDR and early Audi models was super exciting and gave me a new perspective on how impactful this industry was for Zwickau. Our last adventure in Zwickau’s city center was a traditional German meal at a traditional German restaurant, which was delicious. As we returned home and settled in for the night, we decided to play rummy together to end the night.
On Sunday, we took a trip to a small town called Mödlareuth, which was split in half by the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Germany. Being able to see how impactful and devasting the wall was across all of Germany was extraordinarily surreal and extraordinary to see. Seeing a town split in half and unable to interact with people from the other side was such an insane and influential thing to see. Personally, I don’t even entirely know that I have my head completely wrapped around the idea of it. Our host mom grew up in East Germany and remembers the wall falling. She is highly passionate about learning the history surrounding the Berlin Wall and its influences across Germany because she never wants something that devastating to ever happen again to anybody.  After this sentimental and historic morning in Mödlareuth, we went hiking through the woods to clear our minds and process everything we had seen.
This experience was super influential and taught me how vital exchanges are in learning about culture and traditions. The deep-rooted history across Germany and the rest of Europe is so significant to understand; the only way to embrace this history is to go and experience it yourself. My host family were the kindest people and taught me so much about German culture that I would have never understood without this exchange.
A WEDNESDAY IN BERLIN – MAR 13 – Marshall Meyer
Today we woke up and started our day off with an early breakfast at the dining hall. Shortly after, we all made our way to the Meissen train station so that we could spend the day in Berlin!!!! We rode two different trains for a total of about 3 hours. We got a lovely view of the German countryside along with views of passing towns.
Once we (Me, Bella, Sarah, Helen, and Nikolai) were in Berlin, we decided some of us wanted to get some food at the local subway for lunch, and after we got some delicious treats at a local cafe. I love to eat and I love German bread and pastries, so I really enjoyed that.
We spent some time wandering the city and taking in the local sites. To be honest I’m not sure what the names of all the landmarks were because they were distinctly German, but they were very cool nonetheless and I will include the photos in this post.
We looked around in lots of different stores that sold clothes, souvenirs, secondhand goods, and more. It seems like Berlin has everything you could want to find and more. It was really educational and interesting to witness the multiple different demographics that make up the culture of Berlin, which is a city that is home to many immigrants.
One of the coolest places we visited was an art gallery. It started off as an alleyway completely decorated and covered in street art, and then led to a staircase, also covered in art, that led to a store of local art, that finally led to the art gallery. It was so cool looking at the different creations that were there.
Overall, our day in Berlin was interesting, fun, and a great bonding experience for all of us. I hope someday I can return to that amazing city!!!
WHIMSICAL WEEKEND WITH WONDERFUL WOMEN (AND NIKOLAI AND SARAH’S DAD AND GRANDPA AND ME) – Mar 8-10 – Marshall Meyer
This weekend Bella and I went to the home of one of our hosts, Sarah (we have three equally lovely hosts) in a beautiful city called Plauen. Plauen is almost equal to the size of Muncie in population and is famous for the lace that they produce.
On Friday, when we arrived to Sarah’s house after her grandpa kindly drove us there, her grandma welcomed us with a delicious Russian style cake, and showed us their cute doggy! We spent the afternoon exploring Plauen, looking through multiple stores, and getting frozen yogurt. We also just spent some time walking around and enjoying each other’s company. In the evening we cooked a great dinner together, and then finished the night watching Oppenheimer on Sarah’s projector.
Saturday morning, we toured a local cave. The cave was so beautiful and had pretty lakes inside of it that made me think of mermaids. The cave had a gimmick of being a dragon’s lair, and we took a lot of silly pictures together with him. It was super fun. Next on Saturday we visited the Plauen mall, which genuinely was the biggest mall I have ever been in. It had to have been much bigger that the Castleton Mall in Indianapolis. We bought snacks and really terrifying otter themed face masks. That evening we ate another delicious home cooked dinner and resumed our movie watching.
On Sunday we slept in and spent a lot of time talking over brunch. Afterwards, we ventured into a slightly suspicious but overall interesting local art gallery showcasing a local artist. We spent some more time exploring Plauen before heading back to Afra.
Sarah, Sarah’s family, Helen, and Nikolai are such kind hosts that always made sure we were enjoying ourselves. Bella and I are so grateful we got to spend time with these lovely people.
March 11th: The Project Presentation
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Monday the 11th was one of my favorite days in Germany so far. We all started the day with the last meeting before our project presentation. We gathered in a classroom before splitting into groups based on our characters’ opinions. In these groups, we were given sample questions and had the opportunity to work out potential alliances and compromises.
After class, most of us headed over to second breakfast where we met with Mrs. Nagelkirk and shared our weekend stories!Â
When I (Lena) was done eating, I headed back to my room to unpack from the weekend and get some work done. I had some extra time and the weather was beautiful so I went on a short walk before heading to ethics class. The ethics class that I- and a lot of other Academites- attended was discussing religion, and specifically Freud’s views on it. Thankfully, Mr. Arnold taught the class in English for our benefit. I absolutely loved this class and found it so interesting. I felt as though a lot of the students and the teacher felt far more comfortable sharing their opinions on such polarizing topics than they usually do at home. I learned a lot and was able to gain a different perspective on the topics as they were taught through such a different lens and with such openness.Â
After ethics, we headed to second lunch with the younger students. We had bratwurst and potatoes, all of which were very good! A group of Academites along with a couple of our shadows decided to head into Meissen after lunch. We did some shopping before stopping to get ice cream with Dr. Scott. I got an amazing mango ice cream! We then went to the convenience store, Rossman’s, and a delicious bakery where we all loaded up on snacks and necessities. We walked around town for a while before it was time to head back to Afra for a slightly early dinner.Â
Dinner was served for us at 5:30 so we could make it to our presentation with plenty of time to spare. After a delicious meal, we all headed over to the assembly hall and took our places in a semicircle.
Our presentation began at 6:30 and was, in my opinion, a great success. We discussed many of the issues that post-Civil War America faced from a wide variety of perspectives. I thought that the discussion went very well. We made a lot of great compromises and decisions for our small town. I also thought that it was amazing how well the German students were able to take part in the discussion and contribute their ideas from a non-American lens. I learned so much about different points of views that I have rarely heard from, and even though I was playing a character that I disagree with- or maybe because of this- I was able to get a lot out of this project. We concluded the presentation with an a cappella rendition of Country Roads, Take Me Home. 🙂
After the project was finished, I headed back into Meissen with Yerin, Hunter, and one of my shadows, Marvin. We walked to the grocery store and grabbed some drinks and Marvin and I went on a walk around some parts of Meissen I hadn’t seen before. We rode back up to the castle in a panoramic elevator to make it back to school on time! I returned to my room happy and tired after a wonderful day.
Our Home Away from Home
March 8th
This weekend, Hunter and I, Garrett, traveled to our Hosts’ home in Zwickau. We left about mid-day Friday and were greeted very warmly by our Shadow’s, Elin’s, mom Diana. On our way to Zwickau, we stopped by McDonald’s in a true American fashion. The menu choices here were slightly different than the ones at home; they even had an entire vegetarian section of the menu to choose from. After our very important pitstop, we continued on the road. It was really cool being able to see some more of the scenery of Germany while driving. In Indiana, everything is just so flat where I live, but the land is very hilly here. We arrived in our temporary new home after about an hour or so on the road, and we met the rest of our host family, Elin’s father Ervin and her sister Merle. Elin took us on the walk around the neighborhood. It was a very nice neighborhood that we were staying in, and there even was an observatory amidst the houses. Our walk only lasted for about half an hour before we joined the others back at our house so we could leave because we were going bowling! We bowled for about two hours with Hunter being the winner in the end. For dinner, we ordered an array of sushi and took it back to the house. It wasn’t long after our meal that we decided that we should head to bed, especially because we had a big day prepared for tomorrow.
March 9th
We woke up bright and early Saturday morning for breakfast before we left. Breakfast consisted off omelets, bread, freshly made orange juice, and an array of fruits/vegetables. After breakfast, Diana, Hunter, Merle, and I made our way to inner Zwickau. We started off the day with a walk around the city, and then found ourselves in the city center. We stopped at a Gelato place for a quick snack, and then continued our way through the city. It was originally not on our plan to stop at the Priesterhäuser Museum, but when we saw it, we couldn’t resist. The Museum allowed us to go into the Priest Houses which were a part of the Altstadt, old city. The Museum showcased many interesting artifacts. These buildings have been around since the late Middle Ages, so it gave a very interesting perspective of what life was like back then.
After the Museum visit, we made our way to the shopping center in Zwickau. We visited some very interesting stores including a woodcrafting store and a coffee store. Woodcrafting is very important to Zwickau, so it was cool seeing some of the things that were made. Elin and Ervin joined with the rest of us at lunch. We ended up just going to a chain place in Germany, Nordsee, a fish place. It was basically just a nicer Long John Silver’s. After lunch, Diana, Elin, Hunter, and I went to the August Horch Museum. August Horch was the founder of Audi, and he founded the business in Zwickau! The museum was filled with plenty of old cars and history. There was even an entire section of the museum dedicated to the Trabi car, a cheap car that used to be all over Germany, but it was not a very good car.
After the museum, we took a trip back to the house to rest before dinner. We were planning on going to the Brauhaus, a restaurant connected to the museum we visited at the beginning of the day. We started off our dinner with a small cheese platter. I ended up getting the Schweinehaxe from them, and it was so good. The meat was very tender and fell right off the bone. After dinner, we just made our ways back to the house. We still had a few hours before we really needed to go to bed, so we decided to pass the time by playing Rummy. When I first heard that we were playing Rummy, I was expecting 500 Rummy with a stack of cards, but the Rummy here is a little different. I can’t really thoroughly explain the rules here, but instead of cards we played with these domino-like pieces. The goal of this game wasn’t to get to 500 points, but rather to simply run out of pieces. Elin ended up being the winner of this game. It was getting late, so we finally decided we should go to sleep because we had another early day.
March 10th
Once again, we woke up bright and early. Today, breakfast consisted of boiled eggs, bread, oatmeal cake, porridge, and the usual array of fruits and veggies. We also got a special treat of Turkish coffee this morning because Ervin is from Turkey. Our first stop of the day was Mödlareuth. Mödlareuth is also known as “Little Berlin” because the town was split in half by the wall between East and West Germany. A part of the town is located in Bavaria and partly in Thuringia. The town has since been turned into basically one big museum, a relic of the past. The town gave a really interesting perspective of the separation that the wall caused. Did you know that it was illegal for those on the East side of the wall to even gesture to people on the West? One moment, these people were neighbors, but the next they weren’t even allowed to wave to each other.Â
After our visit in Mödlareuth, we decided that we wanted to take a small hike out in the wilderness. I honestly don’t know where it was we were hiking, but it was very beautiful. It’s very interesting hiking here compared to hiking back home because of the changes in plant life. Our hike only lasted an hour or so before we were back to the car. Unfortunately, this would be our last activity with our Host Family before we made our way back to Sankt Afra. Hunter and I were presented with a couple gifts that they had secretly picked up for us while we were going through the many shops on Saturday. Overall, we had an excellent weekend. We were very sad to have to say goodbye to our Host Family, but we hope that we will be able to visit each other sometime in the future. This weekend gave us a great opportunity to truly learn German Culture, and it gave Hunter and me plenty of times to practice our German.
Weekend In Dresden – Sam Greathouse
I started my weekend on Thursday, March 7th. We took the bus to Dresden becuse the train workers were striking. After arriving in Dresden, we took a lift up the mountain and tried to get a good view of the city. Unfortunately, it was a little too dark, and there were too many trees to really get a good picture.
The next morning we woke up and ate a very fancy breakfast at Konstantin’s house. The amount of options was incredible, and everything was delicious. Today was the day that we were going to hike. First we visited Königstein, which is a castle located on a hill in the region known as “Saxon Switzerland”. The walk up was brutal, with an extremely long and steep ramp, but the view from the castle walls was all worth it.
Inside the castle was an old wine cellar that we could walk down in to that displayed the medieval wine-making process. After a few pictures, we made our way back down the mountain and headed to the central attraction in Saxon Switzerland: The hike up to Bastei. This hike is about two and a half miles basically straight up a mountain, mostly stairs the entire way. The bridge was beautiful, and the view of the surrounding valleys was incredible.
After hiking back down, we then headed back into Dresden for our final activity of the evening: Bowling. While I did not do the best (I got last), it was still really fun. I tried a drink that they have in here that is a mix of banana juice and cherry juice. It was actually very good.
On Sunday, we toured Dresden castle. Unfortunately, I was not able to take pictures inside, but the tour was amazing. we walked through all of the rooms in the castle treasury, and got to see all of the sculptures that the king of Saxony at that time (Augustus II the Strong) had collected. We then visited a small Lindt shop that was near the castle, where there was every flavor of Lindt ball imaginable.
During the second half of the day we visited Pillnitz, which is another castle near Dresden. This castle is famous for its garden, which was the royal garden, and we walked around it quite a bit. In the garden there is a small greenhouse that has a large camellia inside that has been alive for 230 years.
On my last day in Dresden, and the last one of the weekend, I visisted a town called Bautzen that is famous for its many towers. The city itself was breathtaking, and the historic areas were incredible. I actually got to go up one of the towers and look out on the city from the top. 
We also visited and old abandoned church that has been converted into a graveyard. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
Wonderful Weekend In Amtsberg! (Sydney C.)
Saturday, March 10th and Sunday March 11th were spent with our hosts. My (Sydney) host was from a village called Amtsberg, near Chemnitz and the border of Germany and the Czech Republic. We started Saturday off with breakfast, and then we headed over to Chemnitz. In Chemnitz, we went to the archaeological museum, where there were exhibits about archeology within Saxony. This was my pick, and I had lots of fun waking through the exhibits, which were divided by time periods. After this, we went and got lunch and witnessed a demonstration. Here, demonstrations are planned beforehand and guarded by police so that no one gets hurt. We got lunch at “Peter Pane,” and they had cheeseburgers! I was very excited to have a little taste of home. The weekend made me very homesick, and it was nice to have something that was a little more like what I am used to in the states. The cheeseburger was delicious! We then headed back to Amtsberg, and were home for the night. On Sunday, we headed to church in the morning. It was a Lutheran Church, and had a whole section for people who spoke english! I was able to have the sermon translated for me through headphones, and it was a great service, and the translation was very kind. After the church service, we headed home for lunch, where I had mashed potatoes and chicken, which was delicious. We visited Annaberg, and saw the most beautiful church I have ever seen. We payed a little extra to be allowed closer to the altar, and it was worth it. The craftsmanship and detail in the church was immaculate, and was so beautiful to be in the presence of.
In the afternoon, we went to a mineshaft, in which we were able to travel through the mine and hear about all the productions that went on there, and ride on a train through the mine! After heading home and having dinner, it was time to return to Sankt Afra. I said goodbye to my host parents and returned to my dorm. This weekend, and trip as a whole, was and is very special in that I have learned so much about the differences in culture between Germany and America. I have been able to practice my German, which has been so beneficial for me to hear native speakers and talk to them. My host family was incredibly kind and showed me so many new and exciting things. This trip has truly been a blessing, and an experience I’ll never forget! Tschüss!!
Exploring East Germany (Natalie S.)
March 7th & 8th
Shortly after Afra’s afternoon snack on Thursday, my exciting weekend began and I met up with my host, Namwan, and we started the journey to her home in Pirna. We were traveling by car, given that the Trains were still on strike, and her mom was driving us there. The drive to Pirna was very scenic and took about 2 hours, and unfortunately, I underestimated this travel time and started feeling extremely carsick after an hour. I did not make this mistake again and have taken Dramamine before every trip for the rest of the weekend. Before reaching Namwan’s house, we stopped at Kaufland, a supermarket, to pick up some fresh fruits, veggies, and snacks. Her mother cooked smashed potatoes and beefsteak, a traditional German dish, for dinner. I had not had an opportunity to talk much with Namwan before this weekend due to her many exams, so we spent the rest of the night sharing our differing school experiences. Afterward, we both headed off to bed for a restful night.
On Friday, we were to meet up with other hosts, Max and Konstantin, and their Americans, Sam, and Leo, as well as Konstantin’s sister Charlotte and her French exchange student Louise, for bowling in the evening so the rest of our day was completely free. Being teenage girls, we slept in until 11, had yogurt and fruit for breakfast, and then headed out shortly after 1. The trains were supposed to run, but sadly, they were not, so we had to take the bus into Dresden. Since our group was already planning to go to Dresden and see the main tourist sights, Namwan wanted to show me the more “underground” sights. We went down this big boulevard and stopped for some boba before heading into the many shops and malls.
We spent a little time looking around Dresden before heading to Vapino, an Italian restaurant, for a late lunch. The food was prepared in front of us, and it was delicious. Additionally, there was a library in Dresden, which had five floors, and we walked around in that for a little bit before catching the bus to the bowling place. Me and Namwan were in lane 11 with Konstantin and Leo, and we bowled for two hours. At 8, the whole place went into Disco mode with black lights and lasers. Konstantin absolutely destroyed us in bowling, scoring over 100 every round. Max came close to beating him, but I did not. Overall, I still had a lot of fun, and we also saw lots of drunk people dressed in yellow for the Dresden soccer game. We got back to Namwan’s place late, and after a long walk back from the train station, I went to bed pretty much right when we got home.
March 9th
Our Saturday began very early as we had to get up at 7 in order to catch a train to Weimar. Namwan’s history class was taking a field trip to the Haus der Weimarer Republik – Forum fĂĽr Demokratie, a museum about the Weimar republic, the first German democratic government. The train ride took up most of the morning, and the rest of the class joined our train about half way through, and we arrived shortly after noon. The schedule for the day was considerably light as the only thing we did with the class was a tour of the museum, about an hour, and then we had until 5pm before returning to the Hauptbahnhof. The museum was quite educational and contained a timeline of all the chronological events between 1923 and 1933. The tour was all in German, so I did not retain much, but thankfully, most of the text had English translation below. I had obviously heard of the Weimar republic before in my history classes but did not know many details, so this was an still enlightening experience for me. The town itself was not particularly large, but everything was very cute and not like the cities in the US at all.
After leaving the museum, we stopped at an Italian place for lunch. Me and Annika got pizza while Namwan and Ludger got pasta. I ordered a prosciutto pizza, but to my great disappointment, it was plain ham and was not very tasty. Thankfully, we stopped at an ice cream place afterwards, which made up for it. The ice cream place had a line out the door and down the street despite only being around 45 degrees out. We walked around town a little more, and Ludger stopped to get some chocolate because he was attending a birthday party later and had not gotten a gift. Also around Weimar there were large billboards in dedication to people who had survived concentration camp, Buchenwald, which was close by Weimar. The journey back took two different trains , and boarding the second train was very crowded, so Mr. McKay told me to push, shove, or kick some babies to make it on the train. We made it home home around 9, so Namwan and I spent the rest of the evening snacking and watching the movie The Glass Onion.
March 10th
The last day of the weekend was perhaps the most eventful. Again, our day started a little late, and we left Namwan’s house for Festung Königstein around noon. Königstein Fortress, is a hilltop fortress in Saxon Switzerland, one of the largest in Europe, and sits above the town of Königstein on the bank of the River Elbe. We rode a funky-looking bus up the hill and then started our exploration. The wall surrounded a small village on top of the hill, with houses people can actually live in. There were many museums/buildings, including an armory, the treasury house, the wine cellar, the well house, and this other yellow and blue building which apparently one can hold weddings in. I found the wine cellar particularly interesting because it had information about three giant wine caskets built in the 18th and 19th century holding around 200,000 liters of wine. The views from around the wall were stunning, but it was extremely windy up there. After looking around for a while, we took the bus back down and headed to the Panorama restaurant Bastei, which we could see from the fortress.
The Bastei was an elegant restaurant with windows all around the eating area. One of Namwan’s mother’s clients worked there and got us some complimentary drinks. They looked and tasted like wine, but the server assured us they were non-alcoholic. We all got some form of steak or pork, and I got bacon wrapped pork medallions with fries and a side salad. Namwan and I shared an apple strudel for dessert. The food at Afra was good, but this was the best food, so far, I have had in Germany.
The restaurant was in Saxon Switzerland National Park, so after we finished the food, we went outside to walk around and see some of the views. We mainly stayed on the high paths, and according to Namwan, Konstantin took his kids to hike up to the rocks from down below. I honestly do not know how they did it because the sheer amount of stairs on the upper part was enough to take me out. Namwan took me to a couple of the viewing spots on top of the rocks, and we watched some of the rock climbers make their ascents before heading back to the car. Namwan’s mother dropped us off at the trains station, and we made it in just in time and got tickets about a minute before the train came. None of this mattered, because about thirty minutes in to our journey, our train got delayed due to some kids being on the tracks. Additionally, since the train was delayed, we had to get off two stops before Meissen Altstadt and catch another train before taking a bus back to the school. We missed getting dinner, so I finished the day off by snacking on some Slim Jims in my room. TschĂĽss!
Breakfast at the Ibis Budget by Dr. Arnold
Have you ever had potato salad with peas and carrots for breakfast? How about a nice sour pickle?
It’s our free weekend on the Academy and St. Afra exchange trip, and students are traveling to the home towns of their German student hosts. Some are going to Berlin or other big cities and towns – others to small villages. Dr. Scott and I (Dr. Arnold) are taking a road trip to Krakow, Poland with two German colleagues. Neither of us Americans have been to Poland before, so it’s all new to us.
In Krakow we are staying for two nights at the Ibis Budget hotel. Ibis is a big European and international hotel chain. Not fancy, but standard and reliable. The Budget version is the most economical. The rooms are small but very clean, just right for a quick road trip – we won’t be spending much time in the hotel, because we have lots to see and do.
Breakfast almost always comes with an overnight stay at a European hotel. At this Ibis Budget there is a tiny cafeteria line and about a dozen tables. At seven in the morning today there are about twenty people eating breakfast together, mostly family or work groups of three, four, or five people. There is a TV showing a Polish news and weather channel. We are clearly the only Americans here today, though plenty of people are speaking English (one small family group sounds like they are from Scotland, and the non-Polish speakers communicate with the front desk and other hotel staff in English).
The little cafeteria line offers a variety of food, all of it freshly prepared. Nothing is pre-packaged or wrapped in plastic, and we have real metal cutlery and ceramic bowls, cups, and dishes. There are fresh rolls and little cubes of fresh butter (nothing is individually wrapped). As is common in northern Europe, there is a selection of sliced cheeses, ham, and salami. There are cold hard-boiled eggs. There are fresh vegetables – including sliced red peppers – but no fresh fruit, which is a little surprising. There is a big bowl of plain yogurt, with a choice of tart strawberry jam or honey to sweeten it. Plus, of course, the potato salad and sour pickles.
Sometimes international travel exposes you to big new experiences – whole new languages, as well as historic sites and monuments. But sometimes the differences are little ones, like what’s for breakfast.
Would you try potato salad for breakfast? How about a big sour pickle?
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