Abschluss Post

Gutenabend, dear followers, please allow me to begin today's post as it should: with an apology.

I'm sorry.  I am truly very, very sorry for the way this blog turned out.  I created this blog as a way of sharing my year abroad with everybody who connected themselves in some way with it, and I have almost completely failed in the task of managing it to any state of satisfaction.

This will be, unfortunately, my last blog post.  I am closing this blog mostly because, as this coincides with the ending of my exchange year, and I have so many more pictures and experiences which I could not possibly post without simply breaking the internet, it makes the most sense to share those directly with the great, great majority of the people following this blog.

Maybe, had I been more diligent in this pursuit, this blog would not simply die as a result of impracticality.  For that, as I have said, I am sorry, although my lack dedication has many reasons.  I suppose the biggest of which is just that I am not a blogger sort of person.  I discovered this during my year.  At any point in my year, regardless perhaps of the very beginning, I don't think I ever really enjoyed doing this blog.  As much as it seemed like a chore, I always felt like I was betraying the purpose of this year when I was sitting down to do my blog, wanting instead to be actually doing something, wanting to have some other experience during my time in a different country.  Now, I would be lying if I didn't say that sometimes laziness and procrastination wasn't a factor, and for that, again, I am sorry.

If it is for some reason impossible for me to share with you all of these pictures and experiences directly when I am again in the states, post in the comments below, and I will make an effort to post here more pictures of my time in Germany.  I can guarantee that it would be a much more full, regularly posted blog than this one has been, simply because of the difference in the way that I will live in the states, compared to the way I have lived here in Germany.  If there are people that wish for me to keep this blog going, rather than me sharing directly with them when I am again in the states, then say it here, and I promise it will be better in the future.


Having said that, I will now post a general mix that should give a fairly broad, vague description of the last 4-5 months of silence.

This is my brother and I in Barcelona, having just bought half a dragon fruit from the main market on La Rambla.

Another shot from Barcelona, over the main harbor.

Me and my sister in Paris, with Notre Dame in the background.

Me and La Tour Eiffel. 

The Chain Bridge, the main and the oldest bridge across the Danube in Budapest.

Peace!  From Berlin.  It was cold.

Me and the Cathedral outside our window in Marseille.

View of the Marseille harbor and the Notre Dame de la Garde above.

Sunset over the harbor in Marseille.

Sunset over a random canal in Venice.

Me! In Murano, a small island off of Venice famous for glass blowing and sculpture.

Gondolas in Venice!  Although most everyone uses the main water buses, or water taxis.  Gondolas are extremely expensive.  Just getting around in Venice is expensive.

So, thank you all for being interested enough to follow this blog!  And thank you all SO MUCH for helping this year become a reality to me; however you helped, I know you did.  I'll be coming home SOON!

~Nils

Skiing In Austria, Germany, and Italy!

Time, finally, for another post!

So I decided to learn how to ski during my stay in Germany.  Well, my host family is really big into skiing.  In the beginning of January, we spent a week in Italy, where I learned to ski!

The place was called "Obereggen", a very popular ski resort in northern Italy, although almost everyone spoke German there.

My host parents!

Expert Bernhard!  Italy's gorgeous.

Bernhard, Manuel, and Tina.  

Me and Manuel, and the beautiful Italian alps in the distance.  Manuel's tired, or...something.

View of the mountain from the parking lot.  

Most of the time we were there we had amazing weather.

My ski course! 

Since I'm from the desert, so much snow, gorgeous trees, and cold weather took some getting used to.

This was a different time for skiing!  Austria!  But no less gorgeous.

See?  Beautiful.

Some people like to take a break and watch everybody else.  Like sitting on a beach.

Need I say anything?

This is with the family of Manuel's father.  Next to me is Ingrid, and below me is Julian, her 4 year old son.

Me on the top of the mountain, and the lake below.

Me, Ingrid and the beautiful alps.

A glimpse of Munich

So here's a really big post!  Lots of pictures over similar subjects.  A while ago I got a chance to take a bus tour through Munich, and here are the resulting pictures.  It was a bit before Christmas, and I also visited some museums.  Enjoy!

Picture taken from the bus of one of the many majestic museums!

Here shown is the eternal flame in Munich, in memorial of all of the victims of Nazism. 

As always, more Churches!  This one was right across from the Royal residencies shown in the next picture.

The royals residencies!  The entire complex is huge, with over 90 rooms open for visiting.

Hooray for statues and monuments!  This was right in front of a place selling Weinachtsbaume!  Christmas trees!

Another angle of the monuments shown in the previous picture.

Beginning the tour of the royal residencies!  This was a very majestic, very old theater.

That entire thing is made out of Coral. :O

This long hall held the sculptures of many important historical figures.

Quite impressive, oder?

Needless to say, there were a lot of them.

There were thousands of them.

This is a small painting below the stairs at the end of the hall.  I found it quite interesting, for reasons I find difficult to explain.

Well that's some interesting architecture!  Wait a minute....

Some artist thought he was real clever with this ceiling.  It seems obvious in the pictures, but I swear, it's really convincing when you're standing there.

See?  It's best when you stand right under that chandelier though.

That's a tapestry.  There were hundreds of incredibly complicated and amazing tapestries on the walls.

Small recreation of the entire complex.

So many plates!

Some king's special chapel.  

Royal sets of arms!

The hallway showing all of the different important peoples that have resided there over a time.

Next, and more interesting: The royal treasury.  Every single thing in that treasury had a deep and complicated history to it, which people can listen to through the audio tour, by entering the numbers provided with every item.

Crowns and scepters, and swords of course.

More crowns and pieces of historical jewelry.  Most everything there were many times older than the United States as a country.

The Church in Marienplatz!  Yes, that Christmas tree is very crooked.  This was another, smaller, Weihnachtsmarkt.

.....What are those!!?

Gah!  It's Perchten!  For those of you yet unacquainted:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Christian_Alpine_traditions#Perchten

Best picture I have to represent the awesomeness that is German Christmas.