Semesterferien = Semester break

 In Germany the Universities operate on a very different schedule than in the US. Here winter semester starts around October 15 and ends on February 15. Then exams begin. If you are lucky your exams end in the beginning of March. The next semester, summer semester, begins on April 15^th and exams are done at the end of July. Luckily, my tests for winter semester ended on February 12^th so I was able to have a very long semester break. During this time I traveled around Europe with friend from my exchange program and I even had the pleasure of staying with them in their hometowns and meeting their lovely families.

My first trip was to London, but more specifically to St. Albans. It is a town that lays 20 minutes away from London. I along with my fellow exchange peer from EWU stayed with there for 4 days. We spent two long days in the heart of London seeing many of the touristy sites. For example we saw; the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, changing of the guard, the Borough Market, Parliament, Westminster, Big Ben, the Shard, the Science Museum, Hyde park, the British Museum and more.

 In the charming town of St Albans we saw a piece of the ancient Roman wall that still exists near one of the town parks, the Cathedral, and we went to the beloved Waffle House.

We wanted to go to Harry Potter land, but unfortunately it was all booked up. I will have to do that next time. J

After out time in St. Albans and London we travelled by bus to Bristol to stay with another friend from our exchange group in Passau. This time we were staying in a house out in the country near the River Seven and Wales in a town called Odlbury. While there we saw the Oldbury Castle the Clifton Suspension Bridge and we traveled to Oxford, Bath and Wales.

Naturally, while in England, we had a lot of TEA, delicious English tea and we were able to try many of their traditional meals such as Shepard’s Pie, Spotted Dick, Four Bird Roast (goose, turkey, chicken and duck), Sweet Mash (mashed sweet potatoes), Veg (roasted carrots, onions, potatoes and parsnips), Steak and Mushroom Pie, and a full English breakfast which includes; hash browns, roasted tomatoes, eggs, toast, sausage, ham, sautéed mushrooms and  baked beans. Of course we also had fish and chips, because who can resist.

After our visit near Bristol we met up with some friends and flew to Edinburgh, Scotland….