Kara's visit

This time is about Kara’s visit to Germany. I had been excited for that for months, I could not wait. And it made the summer a really great summer.

On July 12 2007 – exactly one year, one month and one day after I left my host family in Pittsburgh – the time had come: Kara arrived at Hannover airport. I was there with my mom and my brother to pick her up. We had already seen her for a while as she waited for her luggage, before she came to look for us. At first she did not recognize me, because I had a new hairstyle. But when she found us everyone was excited and we were very happy to see each other again.
We then went home and had something to eat. After that Kara and me looked at some pictures and talked about the past year. Because of the long flight Kara got tired soon and went to bad. And the first day was already over.

Since vacation had not begun in Lower-Saxony at that time, Kara came to school with me the next morning. It was the last day of school where we actually had to be in the classes, so nobody really did anything anymore, and we just had a lot of fun.
In the evening to of my closest friends had their 18^th birthday party, so Kara experienced a German party on her second night here.

After we came home at five o’clock in the morning, we had only six hours of sleep until we met with my dad, step mom and stepsister the next morning. We met at the “Markthalle” in Hannover, where you get a lot of international food and things like that and we had a good brunch there and tried different things. Afterwards we took a walk through the historic part of Hannover and saw a lot of neat and interesting spots.

The next day was very, very, very hot. It was a Sunday and we went to the “Herrenhäuser Gärten”, those are beautiful baroque gardens that belong to the castle we once had in Hannover.

On Monday we had what we call sport festival from school. You had to be there, and then you sign in for one kind of sport and play it for that day. My friends, Kara and me played ultimate Frisbee. We had a lot of fun first. But it was so hot that day that we stopped playing, because we were afraid we could faint because of the heat. So the rest of the day we just sat in the shade and talked.
In the evening we went to the little garden my aunt and uncle have, and enjoyed the nice weather there.

On Tuesday I had a field trip with my biology class. But my brother was already on break, because he graduated that year, so they went to the historic museum and to our city hall, where you can go on the dome and have a beautiful view over the city from up there.
They had a lot of fun, while I was bored in some lab.

On Wednesday I finally got my report card and was done with 12^th grade.
In the afternoon Kara, my mom and me took a walk around the “Maschsee”, a beautiful lake in the middle of Hannover.

On Thursday we went to a thing here that is called “SeaLife”. It was pretty new when Kara came here and we hadn’t been there. So my brother, Kara and me went. It was a lot of fun. It was like the Pittsburgh Aquarium in the zoo. We had a lot of fun and saw a lot of interesting animals. One of my favourite were those little crab things, for the ones of you who have seen “Finding Nemo” they were like the one in the tank called Jaques. And you could put your hand in the tanks and they would start clean your hand and under your nails. It was so funny, because it tickled.

On Friday we went shopping downtown.
And in the evening we went to a birthday party of one of my friends. A small one this time though. ;-)

On Saturday my brother had his go-away-party, because he lived in Louisiana for the past year, the same exchange I did to Pittsburgh.

On Monday we went to Berlin for three days with my dad, my step mom and my brother.
On the way to Berlin we stopped at one highway stop. We had a little lunch there, and then we looked around, because it was the border of where Germany was divided and they put up like a little museum outside. It was interesting.
After we arrived in our rented apartment then and unpacked a little, we took the train to the main station. We got some Chinese food in a box there and sat down at the bank of the Spree, the river in Berlin, to eat.
Then we went to the administrative district and walked by the “Reichstag”. Unfortunately we couldn’t go up on the dome, because there were so many people waiting, which was sad, because you have a beautiful view of Berlin from up there.
We went on to the “Hackesche Höfe”. They are apartment buildings, but they are really pretty with a couple little beautiful backyards with shops and restaurants in it.
In the evening we went on a boat trip along the Spree. It was very nice, because as we passed sights they told us something about them and we also got a dinner there. Kara and me had a lot of fun seeing everything and watching people on the banks.
The next morning we went to the Kurfürstendamm. That is a big street in Berlin were they have a lot of expensive stores and it is very well known. We had breakfast there in the “Kaffee Kranzler”, which is a really famous café there and it is round. From there we went to the “Gedächtniskirche”. It is a church on the same street which got bombed out but still looks very pretty on the inside. And almost across the street from that was the KaDeWe. It is a really big department store where you can get almost everything. We went all the way up to where they have the food, because it is so amazing to look around there because they have every food you can think of from all different parts of the world. And they also have a nice restaurant up there where you have a nice look of Berlin.
We then went to see the Brandenburger Tor and the Siegessäule. Kara and my brother and me went up the Siegessäule and it was pretty cool because you could see very far. Then we walked a little to Schloss Bellevue.
Afterwards we went down the Friedrichsstraße until we reached Checkpoint Charlie. It is still there, you can walk by, and there are always fake soldiers around you can take pictures with. But right next to it is also still a piece of the Berlin Wall, so it is an interesting spot there. A little bit further down was then a little outside museum about the holocaust and things that happened around it in that area. In the evening we went around at Potsdamer Platz and Sony Center a little bit and got something to eat before we went back to the apartment.
On our third day we packed everything in the morning and went a little outside of Berlin to the river Havel. We went to a restaurant there, located in the forest and with a beautiful view of the water and had breakfast there. After being done we took a little walk through the forest along the water. Through a coincidence we then walked by the set of “Stauffenberg”, the movie Tom Cruise was filming during that time. He wasn’t there, he was supposed to arrive in the evening, but we saw other people and the whole set.
From there we went to Potsdam, another little city outside of Berlin. We looked at the castle Sanssouci and walked around in the park in front of it. And then we walked around in the Dutch quarter there also, looked at some shops and sat down in a café.

On Thursday we went to pick blueberries on a field. Kara and me had a lot of fun, we didn’t want to stop and picked tons of blueberries. They also tasted very good. But we visited my grandfather afterwards and left a lot of blueberries there, too.

On Friday we travelled again. We went to Hameln to visit my grandma and stay there for a night. When we arrived there Friday afternoon we took a walk at the Weser, the river in Hameln. Then we went home and had dinner. Afterwards we played a game until we went to bed and had a lot of fun together.
On Saturday we saw the historic city of Hameln which is very beautiful because there are those little old houses everywhere. We also listened to a “Glockenspiel” where they make music with the little bells. Afterwards we went to the “Pfannekuchen” for lunch. We always go there when we visit my grandma. It is a restaurant that has hundreds of different German pancakes, and they are so good. On the way home from there we went through a little beautiful park. And then my mom came to pick us up, but my grandma also came home with us, because it was my brothers birthday on Monday and she wanted to be there for that.

On Sunday we went to Bergen-Belsen. That is a concentration camp near Hannover, it’s the one where Anne Frank died. We had a guided tour there which was really interesting, but unfortunately it rained really hard all day. We saw the part with the graves and monuments. There is another part with where you can see the remains of the barracks. Because after the war they burned down Bergen-Belsen because they were afraid that diseases could be spread. But because the weather was so bad no one of us was in the mood to go there.

On Monday July 30 it was my brothers 16^th birthday. But that day we only had a little get together with the family.

On Tuesday my brother, Kara and me went to the movie theater to see Harry Potter 5.We went to the German version because Kara really wanted to see it in German and understood most of it.
In the evening we went to the Maschseefest. The Maschsee is a big lake in the middle of Hannover and once a year there’s a festival there with music and drinks and food.

On Wednesday the weather was better finally, so Kara and me went to the zoo. It is really beautiful there because our zoo has what you could call different theme parks. They have one for all the African animals there for example and everything there looks like in Africa. There’s also a river there where you can ride a boat. We had lots of fun watching the animals and seeing some shows. But because the weather was so nice that day the zoo was really crowded and afterwards we were told that there were 11,000 people there that day.

We didn’t make any plans for Thursday and since Kara and me love books we just went to some bookstores for a couple of hours.

Friday was Kara’s last day. She packed her thingsin the morning and then we watched a movie.
In the evening we went to a nice restaurant where we had really good food and a lot of fun.

On Saturday we all had to get up really early after only a couple hours of sleep, because Kara’s flight left at 5.40am. When Kara had to leave we all cried, because we had such a great time together. When it was one o’clock on the next morning our time she called to tell us that she was home safely.

That was Kara’s great visit to Germany. I hope we can do that again sometimes…

Kara and me at my friend's birthday party

The Markthalle, where we had breakfast with my dad the next morning.

The Marktkirch, a big old church close to the Markthalle.

The old townhouse. There are still some offices and stuff in there, but also restaurants and caffés.

Some beautiful old houses in Hannover.

Kara and me on the bank of the river Leine, in the background some pices of art, called the "Nanas".

View of the front of the main train station.

Kara in the "Herrenhäuser Gärten".

Overwiew of the graden.

Kara and me with the garden in the background.

This is like a little cave in the garden. The inside is by the same artist who did the Nanas, and the little figures look like Nanas.

My mom with one of those which was like a fountain.

Beautiful girls in front of beautiful fountain, lol.

Kara and me with a statue in the garden.

Kara and me with my friends at the sports festival from school.

The new townhall that Kara went on with my brother when I was away on my biology field trip.

View from the top of the townhall. You can see the Maschteich right in front of it and the big one further away is the Maschsee.

The Aegidienkirche, an old, burned-out church.

That's in the SeaLife. We took this funny picture in front of the one door that was there.

Also in SeaLife, Kara and me in front of a fishtank.

I think it is amazing how they made this. Looks like in real nature.

My best friend Sophia and me being crazy at my brother's farewell party.

On the way to Berlin, the place where the border was during the Cold War.

In Berlin at the main train station.

And again, another view this time.

Part of the buildings where the politicians work. This is the one where Angela Merkel has her appartment in.

The Reichstag.

The Brandenburger Tor.

The Alex for the media with some dark clouds around it.

This is from the lights. And those ones are special because they look so cute and you can only find them in th East of Germany, the part that was seperated from the rest durig the Cold War. The ones in the West look different. And people love these ones because they look so cute with the little hat and everything.

The Hackesche Höfe.

This is in the Hackesch Höfe also and I think it is very cute, becasue this is a resturant and on each of the balcony is exactly one table where two people can sit. And it looks really cute and beautiful.

Still in the Hackesche Höfe, Kara on a beautiful staircase.

That's a famous fountain there, I forgot the name though.

This is the famous red townhall in Berlin.

Kara and me with the fountain.

On the boat we went on in the evening.

A museum we went by. It is on an island where there are only museums on it.

Kara and me again, still on the boat, after it got dark.

This is where the boat turned around. Tose three men is some kind of art. We made fun of it and called them the "Swiss-cheese men", because of all the wholes.


The round café where we had breakfast the next morning.

In the Gedächtniskirche, an old, bombed-out church. but on the inside you can still see those beautiful mosaics and statues.

A huge mosaic angel on the floor of that church.

This is the church from the outside.

The KaDeWe, the huge kinda mall, where you can basically get everything you want almost.

Kara met a Berlin bear.

The Siegessäule.

Kara and me on the Siegessäule.

This is at Checkpoint Charlie.

Also at Checkpoint Charlie.

The little house at Checkpoint Charlie with a faked soldier in front of it for tourists to take pictures with them.

The restaurant at the Havel where we had our breakfast the next morning.

We were taking pictures of us in the Havel.

It was just fun to be in the water for a while at this miniature beach.

And my brother was filming us.

And while walking along the Havel we suddenly came by the set of Tom Cruise's new film "Stauffenberg". But unfortunately he was not there yet.

This is a mill close to Sanccoussi.

And this is the castle Sanccoussi which is in Potsdamm, not far from Berlin.

And this from further away with the steps in front of it.

This is in the garden right by the castle. It is really beautiful and very big. Here we see Kara in front of a fountain.

The day after we came back from berlin: Fabi picking Blueberries.

Kara showing off her blueberries.

And all our blueberries. It really was a lot. We still have some of them in the freezer.

In Hameln: Kara and me with my grandmother at the bank of the river Weser.

This is on a bridge that leads to an island in the Weser with a restaurant in it. The rats are like an emblem for the city because of the story of the Pied Piper.

During the Glockenspiel they show those little figures that tell the story of the Pied Piper.

Some of the beautiful old houses in Hameln.

The Hochzeitshaus where they have the Glockenspiel.

My grandma, my brother and Kara watching the Glockenspiel.

My grandma and Kara in the Pfannekuchen restaurant.

In Bergen-Belsen, one of those graves where thousands of people are buried.

Also in Bergen-Belsen, a gravestone for Anne Frank and her sister.

This is a wall in Bergen-Belsen where there are little verse in different languages on it.

The entrance of the Maschseefest.

In the zoo. On this picture you can see that they did a really god job with those theme parcs, to make the animals feel like in wild nature. This one is Africa. And if you look closely you can even find the rhino.

Kara in the zoo with the flmingos in the background.

Me with waterfall in the background. :)

Giraff with baby.

Pigs with little cute babies. Thats what I love about the zoo, also: There are always lots of babies everywhere.

And this is Kara and me in a boat which you can ride on a river in the Africa theme park.