Report November - Bohdan Chepkunov
Hello everyone!
This time I would like to tell you about my life in Germany during the last month of Autumn. November turned out to be literally filled up with different events and adventures. I had an occasion to visit Munich, Berlin and Fuessen. And that is even apart from several trips to the nearest Wurzburg. And every trip was for fair price thanks to one amusing feature of German railways: the more people are travelling with you, the cheaper tickets you get. For example, you can get from Schweinfurt to Munich (that is even more than 300 km) for only 10 Euro if you take four more friends with you! Of course, I did not want to miss a chance to travel a little bit, so that I devoted the first weekends of November to visit Munich, which now I know like the back of my hand. Beyond all my expectations to see a huge urbanized city with skyscrapers all around, I came across cozy little streets, fascinating parks and that world-famous German architecture of “gingerbread houses”. For sure there are also several giant buildings made of glass and concrete in High Tech style, but they always harmonize with old architecture. One of such buildings is a fantastic Museum of BMW.
The next weekends I spent visiting a small town called Fuessen almost on the border with Austria in the heart of the Alps. This town is known for a castle Neuschwanstein located nearby. Even if you have not ever been there, you have already seen it for sure on the logo of Walt Disney Pictures company. There is nothing to be done in the city itself, but you will get an unforgettable experience of walking around the castle halls and sightseeing of Alps from the loopholes of the castle.
The third week passed by in an indiscriminate way for me, because I was still under the impression of castle sights, but it turned up that University is going to make a trip to Berlin! Well, no one will decline to visit a capital of Germany, right? So do I. This time we were travelling by bus and lived in a hostel booked by University. Honestly, all impressions of Berlin Wall, Bundestag and a dozen of museums were a little bit poisoned by a settled rain and a necessity to run in almost every café on the way to warm up and get dry. Berlin left a doubled feeling of satisfaction. On the one hand, it was interesting and educational to see all that memorials of World War II, but on the other hand, if you step aside from the main tourist trails for a while you will fall across dirty gray streets of a simple urban area with unfriendly people. Though, it is also important to explore the “bottom side” of the capital. But as for me, cities do not have to hide any parts of their beings from travelers. By the way, our University decided to compensate all costs for museum tickets. That is how FHWS takes care not only of mental growth of students but also encourage their cultural adaptation!
