After 20+ hours of travel we finally made it! Our journey started with an hour and a half flight from Pittsburgh to Charlotte, North Carolina. We then had a 3 hour layover before making the almost 9 hour flight to Munich, Germany. I tried to sleep on the flight, and to my surprise I was able to get a few hours of sleep. We landed at 7am and got through customs super quickly, and then hopped on a bus for the hour long drive to Augsburg. During this bus ride, my eyes were locked on all the amazing scenery outside the window. I noticed that this area in Germany is significantly more colorful and rural than anything I have at home. We drove past field after field of rapeseed which gets turned into rapeseed oil and then used in a variety of different ways while cooking.
After arriving at our hotel we headed into a conference room for our orientation. We were given bus passes, our itineraries and more. I think it was at this moment when the reality hit me that I was really here and about to have an amazing two weeks. After this orientation, we jumped right into the action. Although exhausted from getting little sleep the night before, that didn’t stop the adrenaline from pumping through my veins because I am about to explore Augsburg for the first time.
First we walked around the city, getting our bearings. We were able to take a tour and get a delicious sandwich as a snack. The bread was possibly the best I have ever had. The most interesting thing I noticed while walking around was the unique mix of modern and older buildings. I have never seen anything like this back home and I learned that this was the result of many buildings getting bombed in WW2 and then being rebuilt.
At the end of our city tour we were able to head to the top of Augsburg’s town hall and take in the amazing views of the gold covered interior.
After the city tour we were able to relax and take a quick power nap and shower in the hotel room. The shower was great and definitely woke me up for the rest of the day. After this we headed to Fuggerei and took a tour of it. This is a social housing complex where residents pay less than one euro per year for rent and in return they must pray for Jakob Fugger three times per day. it was very interesting to see and hear about this history.
Next, we headed to dinner to meet our fellow German exchange students. This was a very cool experience and I was able to ask them many questions about their culture and understand how different it is from mine. I got a great salad with turkey but some of my friends got pork schnitzel and it made me pretty jealous so I’ll have to try it later in this trip. Right after I finish writing this I am heading to Pool City with my friends to test out my pool skills. This wraps up day one. This day has been amazing so I can’t imagine how great the days to come will be.