A Surreal Experience
Written by Elizabeth June 8, 2015
View from St. Peter's Church in Munich
Olympic Stadium in Munich
Rathaus in Munich
Looking through the castle walls of Marostica
Pizza making in Asolo
Guten tag!
Green grass billows slightly in the wind. Evergreen trees stand tall covering hills and mountains. Peaks of mountains gleam white from above. Blue skies in every direction with a few stretched out cotton balls as clouds. Colorful houses sprinkle the ground. Mother Earth appears so natural, raw, and beautiful. It’s relatively untouched with the people living there appreciating the beauty and living with nature as one being. This was the image I viewed on my train ride to and from Germany for my third weekend adventure. It was so beautiful, it seemed unreal which is similar to the rest of this trip.
Every new sight and experience at CIMBA has been amazing and surreal. This past week, I was able to attend the pizza-making and Marostica trips that CIMBA organized and then I had a wonderful weekend in Germany. For pizza-making, a group of students went to a pizzeria in Asolo to learn about the process from the owner and then we had the chance to make our own. Learning that it only takes four minutes to cook in the oven and that the owner looks at the flame height to know when the oven is ready were a few of the many interesting facts of the process. The owner captivated everyone’s attention with his knowledge and then helped us make use of the knowledge by making our own. After creating our pizzas and demolishing the delicious goodness, we then had the chance to explore Asolo some more. We ended up seeing the beautiful sunset and came across the sport of Palio. Palio is a race between six towns where people run up the hill while pulling a chariot. This is a big event and we witnessed different teams practicing. It was an incredible cultural experience that had us all wanting to see the competition coming up.
In Marostica, we had the opportunity to explore the town. Marostica contains a human chess board in the middle of the square. People are free to play chess with large pieces offered for use and every other year, a huge human chess game takes place. Marostica is contained by castle walls and has a castle on the hillside as well as by the main square. We hiked to the top of Marostica and ventured up the castle and were amazed by the view. Again, it felt surreal to witness all of these things. One minute, I was in the United States and now somehow I am in another country. Time has flown by and it’s hard to realize that it’s already the end of the third week.
This third weekend was a whirlwind as we traveled to Munich. It was such a gorgeous train ride as we saw the German countryside and part of Austria. It was a great opener and closer to the trip, showing us to appreciate the beauty around us. It was hard to take it all in and realize that we were in Germany, but it was definitely a breath of fresh air. It was a new language, food, culture, and country to experience. It was a change of pace with all the differences between the two countries. Italy was new to us not too long ago, but now it almost feels like home when we come back to Paderno del Grappa. It actually surprised us when we craved the gelato and pizza in Italy at the end of the weekend.
In Germany, we visited the Olympic Stadium in Munich which hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the English Gardens, New Town Hall, Dachau Concentration Camp, and St. Peter’s Church, to name a few. We had a tour of some of these places and learned so much about the history of Munich and of Germany as a whole. Some things were enjoyable to hear and see, while others were hard to look at. It was an eye-opening experience to learn so much more than we knew before of the history of Germany and of Munich. One of the reasons I decided to study abroad was that I wanted to grow and gain a better worldview. Even though some things might be hard to hear about, I thought about what I wanted to gain and the value of such information. Life isn’t just full of rose petals, sometimes there are thorns. Learning more about history is important in order to understand more. Learn from past mistakes and grow as an individual, a generation, a population, a city, a state, a country, and a world. We are all here together. We need to stand united and work together. Push each other and better yourself to work towards safety, happiness, and more.
Ciao!
Elizabeth
Blogger: Elizabeth, University of Iowa
