Weblog

So, we visited the great Marionburg Fortress. Apparently, the single, greatest defence that the defenders had against their attackers was the fact that the attackers had to run uphill only to be greeted by a multitude of staircases once they were actually inside the castle. The Marionburg Fortress was built by the prince-bishop as a defence against his discontent subjects. The prince-bishop was a unique office that in American society would be completely foreign. According to our tour guide, the bishop naturally also made the best political leader in mediæval times; the bishop was well-educated (a necessary trait for a leader), celibate (allowing greater concentration to affairs of state rather than affairs of family), and connected with leaders of other states (necessary for diplomacy).

After the quick tour of the Marionburg Fortress, I made an effort to try to get lost in Würzburg again. However, I wasn't able to get lost when I didn't know the city; now that I knew how to get around, it wasn't easy to get lost. I had a lunch of a bratwurst and a Coke while I watched a band performing Tom Jones' songs in the market square. Eventually, I ended up in the Internet café to update my journal which hadn't been done in a few days. Since we had lots of free time, I took the time to read the weblogs of my dear friends and to research information about the euro. Later in the day, when I returned to our compound, I went over all of the information about the euro that I had downloaded immersing myself in the artistic symbolism, checksums, minting locations and national designs… like I would normally do. One of the luxuries that I miss is the ability to get on a computer and read the wonderful resources that the Internet has to offer.

Anyway, I left the Internet Café and proceeded downtown to visit a glass top coffee shop where (surprise, surprise) I found Jonathan. I ordered a cappuccino completely in German and sat with Jonathan as we talked for a bit. I then headed over to some church whose name that I can't remember. After looking inside, I met up with the rest of the group. We then headed over to the train station in order to purchase tickets for our free weekend trips. While all of the other people in the group decided to head to Prague at a price of seventy-three euros, I decided to head to Berlin with three others at a cost of only seventeen (with free room and board provided by some very generous JBU alumni). With the tickets in hand, we headed back to the compound. Saturday evening was uneventful until later in the evening. Eventually, the whole bunch of us ended up in one of the bedrooms having a truly meaningful, thought-provoking discussion. While that was happening, I played a guitar that someone had brought.

The next day, we headed into central Würzburg to attend mass at the cathedral that we had toured just earlier in the week. It was truly a majestic experience to attend such a formal ceremony in a titanic cathedral. It would have been a ton more interesting if I could have understood a word that was being said. As it was, I couldn't. Despite my love of foreign languages, being deaf in one ear can kill your ability to understand such.

After the mass, we went out to find lunch at a nearby café. We watched the runners in the marathon that was occurring in Würzburg that day that had earlier hindered our attempts to reach the cathedral. The highlight of the day was most definitely our lunch. Although there was nothing too unusual about our food, the best part was our freakishly incredible waitress. Although we neglected to get her name, all that I can say was that for those forty-five minutes, I was in love with a second-generation, Turkish waitress that spoke five different languages. Jonathan asked her if it would be rude if he could ask her to speak Turkish or Arabic for him. Not only did she think it not rude, she thought it pleasant that others took interest in her languages. Despite the great service that we got from our waitress, I regret that I neglected to obtain her name. Since we had none, we decided to christen her Goddess.

After lunch, we all headed back to the compound to relax for the rest of the day. I took some time to call my mother and wish her a happy Mother's Day. It must have been murder on my mobile phone bill, but she's worth it. Dr. Ostrander took several of the group out to watch a local soccer game, but I stayed behind to do some homework. In reality, I ended up taking a nap until dinner. After dinner, we watched a movie on the life of Martin Luther. Under normal circumstances, the movie would have inspired me to research about the history surrounding Martin Luther. However, not having the Internet at my fingertips once again has disappointed me. Besides study the history of Europe, being in Europe has made me want to play hours and hours of WoW. However, yet again, there's no network connection. Sure, I'll be able to when I get home, but playing a resource-intensive game on a computer in the middle of the summer is not the best use of my computer. Hopefully, next January, I'll have a new machine.