Things just got crazy in Switzerland.The work just piled up and amidst all of the visits and class time my only free time was spent exploring Lucerne and Geneva. I liked Geneva much better than Lucerne. It was a much larger city, but more expensive... I can see why this is considered one of the best cities in Europe to live in. The entire city is on the end of Lake Geneva, again an amazing site. The drive into the city allowed us to see the French alps across the lake, and Mailbu can't touch the scenic drive that the highway had to offer around the lake towards Geneva.
Back to the city, the place we stayed wasn't the greatest. I can say I am now eternally grateful for Messiah's dorms, I will never complain again. We were only in Geneva for three nights; we visited the WTO and the headquaters for Nestle (in Vevey Switzerland). The WTO visit was not quite what I was expecting, perhaps it has to do with the fact that I see no point to the WTO anymore. Okay, personal opinions aside, Nestle was also quite underwhelming. It was fascinating to see the scope of the company - it is absolute HUGE; it has double the sales of companies like Procter and Gamble, Kellogs, General Mills, etc. I had no idea just how large the company was. More than 15 of its brands sell in the billions each year. They said that a million Nestle products are sold each day in the world.. crazy. But it was just a corporate visit with a presentation... not the same as the visit to the Mars factory in Moscow. I still enjoyed the visit, and the company really impressed me with their social responsibility. A lot of their work is done in Africa, and not only do they ensure Nestle employees get fair wages, but they will only work with suppliers that pay apropriate wages. That was awesome to hear.
So we left Switzerland on Friday. That night we stopped in Koblenz, Germany just for one night. It was an amazing night. About 6 of us headed into town and came across a party going on following a marathon they had had that day. A bunch of Germans were dancing (all of them drunk) and so we joined in. At one point, one of the guys in our group suggested we make a train. We started weaving in and around everyone thinking it was just us. Chelsea, one of the girls on the trip, turned around to me as we chugged along and asked how many people were on the train, thinking it was just the six Americans. She glanced over her shoulder and shrieked - there were a good 30 people in our train! It wrapped in and around the entire dance area. For me, I thought I had Clinton behind me. He kept stepping on my flip flops, and I thought, how does he not know how to do the train? I turned around and it wasn't him anymore but a German girl. Once the song was over we all just got together(the six of us) and we did the stereotypcial goofy American dances: shopping cart, lawn mower, the fish, haha soo many. A lot of the Germans would look over at us and then start to imitate us. It was an amazing night!
The next day we got up early and headed down to the Rhine (which our Hotel overlooked) and took a three hour cruise up passing a lot of old towns and castles up in the hillside. Ronny, our coach driver, picked us up at our stop and took us the rest of the way to Oisterwijk, where I am now. We stay here for three weeks doing intensive studies (two classes: International Trade and Finance and Global Marketing). It is really nice to just relax in one spot. The hotel we are at is rented out totally to us, which is also nice. We all got bikes for the time we are here, and there are bike trails everywhere! I have already spent a good 6 hours on my bike in the past two days. The town of Oisterwijk is quaint and tiny, but really nice. 10 minutes in any direction and you are out into the countryside which makes for a great bike ride. I even got lost last night and had to eventually ask for directions.
Tonight we are supposed to see Transformers, it is supposedly in English with Dutch subtitles.. lets hope so. I will try to be better at keeping up on this blog, sorry I missed so many days!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
June 20, 2009
So I haven't blogged in a while. Things have been busy and I never go the chance. We are now in Lucerne, Switzerland. It isn't the most impressive city. The mountains aren't the greatest right now, I heard they get better when we hit the real alps on our way to Geneva. The city is pretty, with lots of cobblestone streets and river that runs right through the center. But it is mad expensive here. My meal at McDonalds cost 14 bucks... crazy.
Anyways, out last few days in Innsbruck were nice. We visited Swarovski HQs on Wednesday. It was stunning to see so many crystals everywhere. Even the bathroom symbols were made of crystals! We then went to a mountain lake on Thursday. It was absolutely amazing with huge mountains overlooking this deep blue lake. The water was freezing cold, and everyone had their first jump in off of a diving board. When you hit the water it felt like hundreds of tiny knives poking you it was so cold. Me, Amy, Val, Dave, and Kyle got an electric boat for 17 euros that went 2 miles per hour and cruised around the lake for a bit. It was neat to see the mountains and lake from a different perspective than just the "beach." There really was no beach, it was just grass and about two feet of rocks. The day was perfect, really relaxing and refreshing. The next day we got up early and headed off to Switzerland. I slept for most of the ride and apparently missed some mountains, though it wasn't the greatest (so I heard). It was neat to just keep driving through mountains, hitting tunnels every so often and then some sweet mountain lakes.
Lucerne is nice, but again not the most impressive town. For one, we got here on Friday and our first day here Saturday, everything closes around four. So we didn't too much tonight and it has rained quite a bit since we got here. Lets hope the weather gets better. On monday we visit Credit Suisse and Suisse Bank, it will be cool to see some swiss banks!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
June 16, 2009
Yet another half day. This week is pretty relaxed. Class was okay this morning. I get hungry really fast since everything they serve for breakfast has some type of dairy product in it: cereal, sandwiches and cheese, or yogurt. But it isn't too bad. Beyond that we had some good discussion in class. During our break some of the west coast guys asked me and few other messiah people why we attack everyone's views. We kind of laughed and told them that wasn't us attacking them, it was just asking them to defend their views. Still, it is fascinating to see differences just in American culture.
Cloudy in the morning
At any rate, we finished class (which was really just a reiteration of what I had learned in economic development this spring. After lunch we went and played volleyball outside on the courts. They were free because it was cloudy and drizzly all day. We played for a good two hours and then I came inside to work on my part of the project. We had dinner and then about 6 of us went on a hike around some of the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous. I really enjoyed hiking around the Inns river, going up the mountains to some lookouts. On the way back the sun set past some of the mountains for some amazing views. Now just to finish my project and enjoy our visit to Swarovski tomorrow!
Some cool waterfalls along the way, it as an amazing hike!
And look at that sky on our way back!
June 15, 2009
So we started the day off with our test. I had studied quite hard and didn't think it was too difficult. It also helps when you just had a class in the spring with tests like that. We then finished off class in the morning, again just a half day! After lunch at the hotel, we had the rest of the day free. I spent the time doing my laundry yet again, though this time it only cost me around 7 euros which isn't too bad. It was a hike there though. For the rest of the afternoon I ran around town with Caroline. It was cool to take a jog through the old towne and see all of the old buildings.
Old Town
After dinner we went back into old towne to celebrate Amber's 21st birthday with gelato (which I couldn't have haha). It was a nice relaxing day. We came back to play volleyball, but no one would get off the courts for us.. so much for nice and polite people (we waited a good 45 minutes) So we just went across the street to this really sweet playground with this elaborate water maze, a huge teeter-totter, some slides, and a rope swing. A British guy was there with his two year old son, Julian. We all played with him for a bit. I went down the slide with him and Dave High a good 20 times...
The view out on the city
Monday, June 15, 2009
June 14, 2009
We left Prague this morning bright and early. It was about a seven hour drive. We had bagged lunches again at a rest stop. You had to pay to use the bathroom, yet the 50 cents it cost gave you a voucher for 50 cents in the store. Talk about a smart marketing technique. At first I didn’t understand why they make you pay, but then I noticed how clean the bathrooms were than compared to the states. Now I see how 50 cents could be worth it.
We stopped in Dachau Germany to visit the concentration camp. It was sobering to walk through the very same gate thousands of men, women, and children walked through before me. The camp was absolutely huge. I got to see one of the buildings where they lived – it was so crammed and dirty, I couldn’t imagine living such a life. There was a large open area where they had role call every morning. The prisoners had to stand still for an hour straight until role call was finished. They had a crematorium and gas chamber (which wasn’t used). Again, absolutely sobering to be in the same room and see the very furnaces used to burn thousands of bodies. No museum in the US can create such the emotion that being at the very camp where it all happened can. Words really cannot describe the experience.
We continued the drive on, driving around Munich. We got to pass Allianz Arena where Bayern Munich plays. Then the drive became amazing. I was looking out towards Munich when I saw some dark wall on the horizon. It then hit me that I was looking at the Alps. There they were, outlined on the horizon, and towering over Munich and Germany. We slowly crept towards them until we hit Austria. The drive to Innsbruck was through a valley all the way – about 70 km. It was just mesmerizing to just stare out at the mountains. And while they aren’t the biggest I have seen (we have yet to see true Alps until we hit Lucerne so I have heard..) they were gorgeous. Innsbruck seems nice, it has been hard to focus; we have a test tomorrow and I need to finish my briefing report on Black and Decker. We are literally in a valley in the mountains. The hotel we are at is really awesome – it is the sports center where they held the Olympics thirty years ago. We are surrounded by a soccer stadium, and indoor arena for hockey, and you can see a huge ski jump off in the distance. It can be hard to understand that the Olympics we held here since all of the venues are so small, but then you just remember that the Olympics in the 70s were much smaller than they are today. I have to go finish studying and hopefully tomorrow we can go into town.
The Alps!
June 13, 2009
Today was just a half day! We had three hours of classes, which wasn’t too bad. It is just like J-Term back at Messiah. It is kind of hard to pay attention but I have gotten through two J-Terms so I think I can handle this. It is weird to think that for my summer I am taking 4 classes… every time I take a test I keep thinking about my friends back home, working and hanging out for the summer and here I am doing something totally different. After classes a bunch of us walked down to the city. We ate lunch at McDonalds because Subway was really expensive (6 bucks for a six inch sub!). They gave you a fountain drink AND a water at McDonalds; really really fancy. Even a four star restaurant doesn’t give you free water!
After that we walked by the river and rented two paddle boats for eight bucks. We then spent the next hour paddling around Prague looking at all the sights from the water. Unfortunately a bird decided to leave his mark on my shoulder right when we got in the boat. People already stare at us all the time here, so it didn’t make any difference for me. We then walked all the way back (it is about a half hour walk uphill) stopping to see someone’s Ferrari parked on the road. Back at the hotel I got to Skype my family and then studied a bit. That night after dinner a few of us went to the largest club in central Europe. It is an old bath house turned into this nightclub. It has five floors with different types of music. The one floor is all disco themed where they play techno-ish remixes of old classic disco songs. It had a sweet dance floor that lit up in different colors. We had to get there around ten, and no one was really there. People in Prague don’t start to party until around midnight. But we had to make curfew at one so we left early. For the time we were there it was a lot of fun. We got back late, but I had already packed, so I just hopped right into bed. Up early tomorrow to leave for Austria!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
June 11, 2009
Today was our longest day while in Prague. We went on a corporate visit to a Black and Decker plant in Utsi in the morning and then had class in the afternoon, so we didn't finish until 4:30. The visit to Black and Decker was quite interesting. The man who gave the presentation was from Scotland and had a serious Scottish accent that made me think of Reid and Todd. I won't bore you with too much information about the plant - I found it very interesting, but that is why I am a business major. They are a 6 sigma corporation, which means they are very efficient and have a serious lean manufacturing system. As you walk around, each assembly line has the parts all located within 5 feet of the machines. I was quite surprised at how much labor was actually used to make these drills and hammers. I thought more of it would have been automated.
At any rate, we then came back, had class (Global Business Strategy again) and then had the rest of the day free. I went running for about an hour and found this great park right across from our hotel; perfect to just go and relax and read. Classes aren't too bad we have a big project due sometime in the next two weeks, but it will be an interesting project to work on. I didn't go downtown tonight, I was pretty tired from the day and didn't feel like walking or taking the tram. Most of us ate at a pizza place right across from the hotel - it was cheap and good. Afterwards we stopped at a grocery store for some snacks totaling only around 2 US dollars. This update was short, but I am tired now and should get some sleep. Here are some pictures of Prague, I will get the full album up on Facebook soon.
Prague overlook
One of the largest squares in the city
The Charles Bridge
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
June 10, 2009
Today was our first full day in Prague. We had class in the morning, Global Business Strategy. The first sessions wasn't to interesting, but today things really picked up - I am definitely going to like this class. We then had a presentation on Prague and the Czech Republic. It was fascinating to hear a Czech's experiences during Soviet rule. She said one day on the radio they played the national anthem and then the DJ came on and said their country was being invaded by the Soviets. In a few hours their broadcast would stop completely, and anything they heard after that was a bunch of lies. She said that was the last she heard of that DJ and his station. How crazy. She then took us around the city on a walking tour (for 3 hours...). This is one beautiful city. Every building is ornately designed and half the streets are cobblestone. We went inside the Prague castle.. though it was nothing like Heidelberg's.
One interesting thing to note. The moment we got to Germany, I felt so much more relaxed. Moscow was just a stressful place. I am not stressed here. But when we did get to Germany I also noticed that people would say hello and were very welcoming. In Lithuania, Russia, and Latvia, the majority of the people were very cold. They wouldn't acknowledge you, say hello, and just weren't too polite. This seems to be true in Prague as well and the reason is due to Soviet oppression just 20 years ago.
Back to my day. We had the rest of the day to ourselves. Some of us walked to a mall and got some food - Prague is not as cheap as people have told us! All in all, dinner cost me around 130 kronas, or 7 dollars. Afterwards John Murdock and I walked around trying to find a shop that sold soccer jerseys for less than 100 bucks. We then headed back, tired from so much walking today, and took the metro/tram back to the hotel. That is one great thing about this city, you can grab the metro or tram from just about anywhere in the city. It is so nice to know that for less than 2 bucks you get 75 minutes of public transportation.
So here I am tired, writing this blog. We visit Black and Decker tomorrow. Oh, and Dr. LaFrance said that we got into the World Trade Organization, so we will be visiting them soon! I am really excited for that!
June 9, 2009
We left Heidelberg today. Coming to Prague, and I haven’t seen much here so I can’t make my final conclusion just yet, but I liked Heidelberg better. It was really picturesque and quaint whereas what I have seen of Prague so far has been mediocre. We left quite early this morning and drove all day getting in to Prague around 4. The countryside in Germany is astounding. At one point we drove on a bridge a good height up that went way over a beautiful valley with a tiny village and river. It was raining all day and it didn’t let up until we got close to Prague. We are staying at the Hotel Pyramida. It is nice, a little dirty, but at least the showers have some sort of covering so water doesn’t spray all over the bathroom. Plus, they have free internet here! We ate dinner at the hotel, it was this great buffet with rice and either chicken cordon bleu, beef, or fish and then some salads, vegetables and desserts. We got our iterneary for the week here, only one day of corporate casual dress up! We only visit one company here – Black and Decker. The rest of the time is classes (Global Business Strategy) and free time to see the city. I am looking forward to my time here. It is hard to believe that three weeks has already passed – but we have 7 more!
Monday, June 8, 2009
June 8, 2009
Our last day in Germany. It is sad to leave tomorrow, I really like it here. Even worse, the Greers are leaving tomorrow and we all are going to miss them. He was a great prof who was really down to earth... emotions aside, haha on to today.
The European Central Bank
We took our exam this morning and I am pretty confident that I did well. It was nice today to not have to worry about any work, we can relax tonight and we have the whole day tomorrow to do nothing but sit on a bus. Immediately after the exam we headed into Frankfurt, or Bankfurt as they call it. Unfortunately, on the bus I had realized I had forgotten my passport, which I needed to get into the European Central Bank with. Fortunately I had my drivers license with me, so we just hoped that it worked. We got to grab lunch first, only I didn't get anything. I am out of Euros and I don't want to exchange any more of my money as no place in Europe seems to accept credit cards. And yes, even McDonalds doesn't accept credit. So, no lunch and no passport. It was a great day in Frankfurt so far. We went into the European Central Bank (ECB) and I got through security. The lady wasn't too happy that I gave her my license and she said that next time I would need my passport. Well lady, there won't be a next time. Both presentations today were good, I won't go into detail, most of you won't be interested in what was said. I can give you the fyi that they are going to roll out new Euro notes (bills) in the next few years. Ooohh exciting.
What is more interesting is the European's opinion on the validity of the dollar. Currently, the dollar is the standard of world currencies. Everything is compared to it and most international trade is done with it. However, due to our current presidents economic policies many think that the value of the dollar is going to decline drastically. The presenter today said it may be wise in the coming years to begin using the Euro as the standard. This may even teach the Americans a little fiscal responsibility (rather than spend spend spend!) I think it is not just a good idea, but it may become a necessity. So now I am sitting at a cafe outside with some other IBIers, this cafe offers free internet so it is a hot spot for us all. Dinner is coming soon. I must pack tonight and tomorrow early in the morning we leave for Prague.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Sometime in Lithuania looong loong time ago
I am going to back track for one post to talk about a crazy day in Lithuania. This was in the last week of May. Chelsey Granger, one of the girls from Messiah had her camera broke one day. She needed to buy a new one and wanted to go by herself. Since that was a dumb idea, haha, I went with her. We had to sprint to the bus stop so we didn't miss it. Panting we got on the bus and took the front seats. Chelsey thought it would be cool to talk to a local, turned around and started chatting with this young man. When she told him we were staying at LCC, a local Christian university, he responded, "I know." Chelsey and I just looked at each other almost scared wondering how he knew. It ended up he knew of the University and that students grabbed the bus from that stop all the time. Finally understanding that he wasn't a creeper, we pulled up in front of the mall. We got into the store just in time and spent a good 20 minutes trying to understand this chick tell us about the cameras. After finally deciding on one, we went to the front to pay - but Chelsea's card didn't work. Frustrated, she used her fathers card.. which hadn't worked at the grocery store an hour before. Finally free of that hassle we stepped oustide of the store only to realize it was 10:10 - the buses stop running at 10 pm. Could this day get any worse? We figured we might as well just stop and grab a snack at a restaurant to just relax. While there we asked our waitress about a taxi. She tried her best to explain in broken English, so we decided it would be best if she just called the taxi for us. We finished our meal and then headed up to pay. We talked to her a bit and then asked her to call. She put out her hand and asked for a cellphone. Really lady? American tourists at a mall way to late a night obviously with no idea how to get back home and you expect us to have a cellphone? So, they just wrote down a message in lithuanian to give to a taxi cab drive for us. We stepped outside and found some rinky dink green cab just sitting there. We headed up to the window tapped on it, the guy inside smiled and let us in...
He didn't speak English. I now began to realize we were on our own. We gave him the message and he told us it would cost 25 Latas... and then he pulled out of the parking lot going the wrong way.
If any of you know me, I am good with directions. I had taken the bus twice before so I knew the general direction back the the university. This guy definitely went left instead of right. It was eleven at night and there was no one really on the road but us. We just watched the meter keep ticking up and up. A u-turn that was pointless cost us 1.70 litas. This would happen to us. I had no idea where we were. The next thing I knew we pulled onto the main road through the old city and I saw that he had just taken us around a large circle and added a good 10 litas onto our bill. When we got close to the University we just yelled at him to stop and got out of there really ticked off at him. We walked the rest of the day home finally realizing what had just happened that evening.
Crazy times the first week.. who knows what is to come?
June 7, 2009
At the castle overlooking Heidelberg
Today we got to sleep in since church wasn’t until 10:30! It was nice to get some extra hours of sleep. We attended Calvary Church of Heidelberg which is about a 15 minute walk away. It is also where we take our classes while we are here. The church service was good, it was contemporary and much like a typical evangelical church in the U.S. I was reminded of Livingstone when we sang Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Rachel, one of the workers at the monastery used to always use that in her devotional set. The sermon was really good - on the 10 commanments and total dependency on the Holy Spirit and what that means. It was in English, the men who run this church are guys from California.
Messiah!
After the service we grabbed a quick lunch then headed over to the Heidelberg Castle! It was amazing, and I had to keep telling myself I wasn't at Busch Gardens Europe ;). It was amazing to finally walk around a castle partially in ruins knowing hundreds of years ago men and women actually lived and worked in this monsterous building. It also makes me want to watch Timeline or Lord of the Rings. After the tour we headed back to the hotel. We were free for the rest of the day. Since it was overcast and drizzly all day most of us (including me) just stayed indoors and studied for our exam tomorrow or wrote a paper also due tomorrow. For lunch we ate at a Turkish place right next door. their food was delicious - I had a sort of wrap with lamb and spicy sauce; all for 4 euro! After studying some more the sun did clear up but we are waiting until tomorrow night when we don't have to worry about any work to spend some more time in the town - it will be our last night. Tomorrow we are up early for an exam and then we see Deutschebank and the European Central Bank!
The inside of the castle in the courtyard
June 6, 2009
I am finally caught up on my entries, so they will start to get longer now ;).
Today was only a half day for us! We had class in the morning (Global Business Strategy) and a presentation by a former IBIer who now lives in Germany. He was actually born in Thailand (?) under German parents who were missionaries there. He then went to Messiah for college, graduated and eventually wound up working for Bosch in Germany. Talk about a man with no true nationality! It was fascinating to hear some incite into the German culture, especially dealing with work. The Germans are heavily unionized and work 35 hours a week. What is really interesting was that the Germans care more for the whole than the individual. So, when a company is doing well, rather than just fire the poor performing employees to save money, everyone in the firm will take a hit in hours to keep the corporation a float. I think it is kind of impressive. After the presentation that ended at noon we had the rest of the day free. I got some of my laundry done, it cost me 6.90 euro! I also got some homework done, it was overcast all day which helped me to stay focused. That night we ate at Pizza Hut, it was really good but not the same kind of pizza they offer in the States. Later in the night the city had some fireworks, which they only display the first Saturday of June and September (lucky us!). It was cool; they seemed to be recreating the attack on the castle, so they shot off a few at first from the bridge, and then used some flares all around the castle to imitate the entire castle being on fire. Beyond that, there was nothing special about the fireworks – Damascus does just as good. We saw a bachelorette party walking around, drunk off their minds and dressed up in ladybug outfits, so Billy, Dave, and I got our picture with them. It was nice to have a break. Tomorrow we have church then we visit the castle!
June 5, 2009
Today we had a long day. We got up and headed straight for the Daimler plant where Mercedes buses are built. Outside of the US, Mercedes also markets commercial vehicles, from ambulances to trucks and buses. This plant built public transport buses for cities and towns. It was neat to see the entire operation up and running, especially since two of our past visits (John Deere and Yazaki Wiring were both shut down). I was surprised at how little of the factory was automatic. There were many men there wielding and putting together the buses rather than a bunch of robots. It was fascinating to see these huge commercial buses being put together. We saw the plant finishing up an order for Dubai and they had been custom built so that men, women, and children all sit in separate sections of the bus. Crazy. After our meal and a quick presentation, we headed back to Heidelberg where we had class for 2 ½ hours. We were wrapping up the last section of Comparative Economics with Dr. Greer. We then had the night free, so a bunch of us went out and ate dinner.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
June 4 2009
Our first full day in Germany! We first had class in the morning; we have today and tomorrow and than another exam on Monday! After class, we took a visit to the John Deere factory in Mannheim, about 20 minutes away. It was cool to see the facilities and the machinery used for the production of the tractors (of which about 9% stays in Germany, the rest head to other parts of the world). Unfortunately, John Deere has seen a decline in sales, and so the factory was shut down. So we didn't get to see anything in action, but it was still neat to see how a tractor was made and all of the huge machines used to create one tractor. We had lunch in their cafeteria, and they even gave us free refills! That is a rarity in Europe haha. The food was good, I got some German sauerkraut too which was really good. After our visit, we had some free time late in the afternoon. We ate at a small cafe down from the hotel. It was okay, the food was kind of pricey. I am actually here now again just for the free internet. I went to an internet cafe, where they only charged one euro for an hour of internet. Unfortunately, I couldn't set up my skype account, and I still haven't been able to talk to anyone yet from home! Hopefully soon.
Tomorrow we visit a Daimler plant!
June 3rd Heidelberg Germany
And here I am in Germany! We took about a six hour coach ride (in a Mercedes coach I might add!) to Heidelberg, a town about an hour away from Frankfurt. It is a beautiful town, located right on a river with the Heidelberg castle just overlooking the entire town. It was fun driving on the autobahn seeing so many Porsches, Audis, BMWs just zooming past us at 90 mph or more. We stopped in Cologne for a quick visit and lunch. For only 1 euro we climbed all 5oo some steps to the top of the tower of the cathedral there. It was 500 steps all in a tiny tower with a spiral staircase!
I had Greek food for lunch at a cheap little store right off of the square by the cathedral. We then hopped on the bus and took a long tour of Germany's countryside on our way to Heidelberg. We passed a good 3 or 4 castles on our way to Heidelberg, but none of them compare to the one here, especially at night when it is all lit up. We had dinner together as a group at a Cuban restaurant (go figure) then we had free time to explore the city. There is a nice walking street with shops that leads all the way up to the Castle. I cannot wait for a tour of the castle!
June 2nd - Holland
So here I am in the Copenhagen airport waiting for our flight. We got delayed by an hour so I had some free time and thought I would write now. We are en route to Amsterdam! I cannot believe we have already been to Lithuania (Vilnius and Klaipeda), Latvia (Riga), and Russia (Moscow!) Time has really flown by. We visited the Ikea distribution center today. It is actually an Ikea store with a distribution center attached to it. What I was not expecting was an Ikea with a huge mall attached – second largest mall in Europe to be exact. Ikea, and this is only in Russia right now, is in the business of building and leasing malls. It was a fascinating visit – the presentation was good and we even got a tour of the mall to see how it was run. It was monsterous; there was a movie theater, and ice rink, and tons and tons of stores. Afterwards we ate at the Ikea store and then rushed over to the airport. The flight was good, only around 2 ½ hours. We ate here at the airport; food is not cheap! And now we are waiting for our flight. I cannot wait to be in Amsterdam!
It ends up our hotel isn't in Amsterdam, but about a half hour south of it. Which is fine, we will be back in a few weeks. The moment we got to this hotel, I felt so much stress just go away. It wasn't like I was terrified in Moscow, but all of the rushing around and non-stop activites just wiped me out. This hotel is nice and quite surrounded by farms, really peaceful. Tomorrow Germany!!
June 1st 2009 - Moscow
So I decided to blog, it is a good way to keep a journal and plus people can see what I am up to. Today was our last full day in Moscow, we leave tomorrow afternoon for Amsterdam for a night. We started the day out by visiting the Kremlin. It wasn’t quite what I expected. It was huge and beautiful, but I was expecting more Government buildings and less cathedrals. It seemed to be more of a tourist attraction than actual government property. That isn’t to say it was overloaded with touristy things; I suppose I am just used to the distant and aloof government buildings of DC. After the tour we stopped in Red Square for some pictures and then headed over to GUM, a huge mall right in Red Square for lunch. After grabbing a bite to eat, we met a tour guide at an entrance to the Moscow Metro. We did a quick tour of two stations on the metro. They were as nicely decorated as some of the cathedrals we had seen! Ornate walls, marble floors, chandeliers draped in gold; it was almost surreal yet really harked back to the Soviet era. We got separated as a group on the metro, the doors just slammed shut, almost crushing Josh Kuehl’s hand. When we finally regrouped we headed up to street level for a driving tour of Moscow. We passed by many government buildings including the Russian White House. We ate dinner at a cow themed restaurant where a drunk man kept talking to two of the guys in our group. Afterwards we hopped on a boat for a river cruise of Moscow as a sort of goodbye. Tomorrow we will visit an Ikea factory before heading out for Amsterdam. It is hard to believe where I am going next; and that I still have 8 weeks to go!
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