On Saturday I went to Lutherstadt Wittenberg, home of Martin Luther. I traveled there alone and then met up with some other Fulbrighters.
My first train went from Erfurt to Halle, which is located on the Saale. I had around 30 minutes before my train to Wittenberg came, so I walked around a bit. It was a nice train station, and the area around the station had beautiful murals that lead me to believe that Haendel was from there...
On the next train, I was supposed to get off at the Altstadt stop in Wittenberg, but that stop was completely empty! The platform was just gravel, so I stayed on the train until it came to the main train station. It wasn't much of anything either, and I got nervous - are there two Lutherstadt Wittenbergs in Germany? It didn't help that the people I was supposed to meet weren't there. (I think they ended up getting into the city earlier than expected.)
However, I eventually found the others and we went to lunch at Kartoffelhaus (potato house). I had Bratkartoffeln with mushrooms, bacon, and onions. It was a good meal, and it was nice to be around other Fulbrighters.
Martin Luther watches over the Rathaus.
We found Deutscher Ring, our health insurance provider!
Near Martin Luther's house.
Martin Luther's house. It's also a pretty large museum now. The whole thing is in both German & English; I learned a bit about Martin Luther & got the song "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" stuck in my head. All the exhibits about Luther saying "Gott hilfe mir. Amen." and the Council of Worms reminded me of German Civ and Dr. Hoyer.
The Altstadt bahnhof. We thought we might die here.
It was a good day! Unfortunately, the famous church was under construction and was only open for tours (which we missed). I got to see the famous door, however, but it was behind a fence so I decided to remember it with my mind and not with a camera.
My train ride back to Erfurt was a bit exciting. I was on the same train as the other Americans until Bitterfeld, then I took a different train to Halle, where I had a few minutes to kill. I bought an apple and bag of goldfish crackers (I forgot that cheese isn't the original flavor...oops. That was disappointing.), and then I splurged and bought myself a small chai latte, which was delicious and perfect for keeping my hands warm as I paced the platform. (It also gave me enough caffeine to keep the migraine I could feel coming on at bay. Huzzah for chai!) The Regional Bahn I was taking to Erfurt started out delayed, and because it was a regional (or "slow") train, we had to pull off on the siding every time a faster train needed by because we were late. I think we ended up only being 10-15 minutes late back in Erfurt though, and it really didn't bother me because I was just going home.
Today I went to the train station and bought my tickets to Amsterdam, Duesseldorf, and back. (I bought this after first using deutsche Bahn's website at home extensively to figure out what the cheapest course of action would be for me.) My fall break trip's really going to happen! I also booked my hostel rooms and saved every piece of info I might need to my kindle. To quote Hazel Grace Lancaster: "what is this life?!"
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