Marburg

Hello all! I have a challenge for you. Try to remember what you did every day last week. Not every little thing, just a few highlights from each day. Take your time, I can wait.

How'd you do? Did you remember something from every day? I'm asking because every Monday night I turn to Brenda and say "What did we do last week?". Surprisingly, it takes a while for us to remember something from each day. I'm happy to say, however, that we were able to come up with at least one or two things from every day last week. Therefore, I feel that I am now adequately prepared to tell you about our exciting Germanic experiences from the past 7 days. (Or at least the ones we remember.)

On Wednesday, I ate at my first döner kebab restaurant. My friend Michael and I had been discussing going to the "döner around the cörner" for months and finally decided to do it on Wednesday. A döner kebab is a traditional Turkish dish that often includes lamb and is served with various garnishes on pita. Due to the high Turkish population, döner kebab restaurants can be found in most towns in Germany. The meal was delicious and I look forward to taking my parents there once they arrive next month.

Yesterday, Brenda and I went to Marburg to visit my former German teacher, Dorota, and her boyfriend, Yoan. They came to Brenda's most recent performance of Orlando Furioso and afterwards invited us up to Marburg for a day trip. Since Brenda and I are always looking for an opportunity to see another city in Germany, we happily made the trip.

Marburg is a college town. It is home to the oldest protestant university in the world. Its population (students included) numbers somewhere around 80,000. It is also an extremely old and beautiful city. To me, Marburg looked exactly like what I thought Germany would look like before we moved here. It has cobblestone streets, old buildings, a castle, a river running through the middle of town and some very impressive churches. We toured two gorgeous churches, one of which was St. Elizabeth's Church (visible in the picture below) which was built in the 1200s.

The building on the left half of the picture above is Marburg's Rathaus (aka City Hall).

There are a lot of narrow walking paths (above) in Marburg designed for quick pedestrian travel throughout the city.

The tiny tower you see in the distance is Rapunzel's tower from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Marburg made a very good impression on me. I can easily imagine having gone to college there, especially considering the cost. (Tuition is 250 euro per semester and you can take as many classes as you like.) Brenda and I are very grateful to Dorota and Yoan for taking the time to show us around their town. It is a beautiful city and I would recommend it to any high school senior considering going to college.

Well, friends, I must call it a night. Just a heads up, next week's entry may come a day late. I have my final performance of Parsifal next Monday and so the blog may have to wait a day. Brenda has her final Orlando Furioso performance this Wednesday and we found out one of her colleagues is sick. That should make things a little more interesting. I'll be sure to tell you all about that next week. Until then, have a great week!