Sun, finally!

Yesterday was the first clear day since I arrived in Germany so I managed to get a few nice pictures to show off.

First, this is a picture of Haus 5 of Hiltnerheim, the dorm complex that I am living at (you have to be a bit careful with your pronunciation when you are talking about it). Hiltnerheim is located in the suburb-y part of the city and is about ~10 min by bus from the Altstadt or the University. 6 of the 13 people in our program live here. Though we are a bit isolated from the city, etc. Hiltnerheim seems to have a bit more of a communal feel than some of the other dorms
This is the beginning of Maximilian-Strasse, which leads into the Altstadt. Like the rest of the Altstadt, Maximilian Strasse is a pedestrian zone - cars are still able to drive through the streets, but pedestrians don't need to worry about being run over since they have right-of-way. Behind me is Albert-Strasse, the hub of the bus lines and beyond that, the Hauptbahnhof (Train station). Like the rest of the Altstadt, Maximilian-Strasse is packed with stores and resteraunts.


Here is another picture taken from further up Maximilian-Strasse.
Here is a picture I took from the bridge which connects the Hauptbahnhof and the Arcaden (mall). The main building of the Bahnhof is to the right and the Arcaden is to the left (not visible). The Bahnhof has a bakery and I think a Burger King and a couple of other resteraunts. However, it's way too crowded to just hang out at. The Arcaden is a pretty generic mall, though it does have a really nice supermarket/department store which has a lot more variety than the Netto (little grocery store) across the street from Hiltnerheim.

Finally, this is a picture of three of my fellow program-mates standing outside Ikea. Their disapointment is only slightly exagerated. We had been looking forward to going to Ikea since we had arrived on Thursday since most of our rooms were lacking in amenities - old smelly sheets, lumpy pillows, no trashcan etc. Yesterday was the first time we had enough free time to make a trip out to Ikea, which is located well outside the city, meaning the buses dont go out there as regularly. We got there and wandered around shopping for about an hour (we had to be sure to catch the bus or else we would be stuck there for another 2 hours until the next bus). When we finally went to check out, we ran into a problem - they don't take Visa or Mastercard. None of us are used to carrying large amounts of cash and, though we had run into this problem before at smaller stores, we figured that a huge, international store like Ikea where people buy so much stuff at once had to take credit cards. We were wrong. I managed to get most of what I wanted, but a few of us left emptyhanded after a lot of invested time and effort.

From left to right, disapointed Ikea shoppers Neil, Kaci and Leigh.