After the home stay in Bavaria, we traveled to former east Germany to the city of Hildburghausen in the Bundestag of Thueringen. The contrast between the former west and east could not have been more apparent to me. The architecture and general aura from the city seemed to fit the description I had been led to believe of former Soviet states. While there we had a lot of free time to discover the city for ourselves, as well as get to know the local youth and to attend events such as the Waldbad festival, which entailed scuba diving demonstrations, a dj, a fire hose, and other events all revolving around an olympic style swimming pool. Other activities we did were tours of a former celtic castle ruins site, as well as see a very well preserved castle on the Bavarian border, and visit the city Erfurt.
When the group was not having free time or taking tours of historic sites, a lot of our time was spent doing community service. This service entailed our cleaning of a memorial path to a mass grave created by the Nazi’s to dispose of over seventy corpses from a POW camp during the Second World War. We also cut down much of the overgrown vegetation in the grave site, and we were told much about the history of the site by the project leader, an older man who had spent much of his life preforming WWII research. The highlight of the piece of the trip spent in the East was the tour of the concentration camp Buchenwald. There we were able to see the bunks, cremation furnaces, torture pieces, work sites, graves, and execution cells of the prisoners of the camps. We were given a highly detailed description of what took place in the camp up to it’s liberation at the end of the war by our tour guide, whose mother and father had both been held captive there. The tour was a sobering and interesting experience.
When the group was not having free time or taking tours of historic sites, a lot of our time was spent doing community service. This service entailed our cleaning of a memorial path to a mass grave created by the Nazi’s to dispose of over seventy corpses from a POW camp during the Second World War. We also cut down much of the overgrown vegetation in the grave site, and we were told much about the history of the site by the project leader, an older man who had spent much of his life preforming WWII research. The highlight of the piece of the trip spent in the East was the tour of the concentration camp Buchenwald. There we were able to see the bunks, cremation furnaces, torture pieces, work sites, graves, and execution cells of the prisoners of the camps. We were given a highly detailed description of what took place in the camp up to it’s liberation at the end of the war by our tour guide, whose mother and father had both been held captive there. The tour was a sobering and interesting experience.
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The Vesta castle overlooking Coburg
Cremation furnaces at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp
We spent the last piece of our trip in the Czech Republic. There, we spent two days exploring Prague and seeing such sites as the famous clock tower. We also sampled some traditional Czech food (delicious) and got to know some of the local youth of the town. During our five day stint in the Czech Republic, we spent two days in the small town of Czechy Krumilov, where we took a tour of the large castle there as well as taking a kayaking trip around the river the encircled the castle and surrounding village.
The Prague Astronomical Clock in the old town square
Overall, I loved the trip. I got to know a lot of great people, to experience Germany and the Czech Republic on a very personal level from multiple view points, and to improve by my knowledge of the German language as well as that of European history. I’d like to thank everyone at MBA, my EIL group leaders, and especially the Wilson family for giving my this great opportunity to go abroad.
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