Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Chocolate, Waffles, Beer, French Fries

The four of us headed to the Wuppertal train station early in the he morning to get to Brussels around 9:30 am. I was pretty excited to be reminded on the train that French is one of the main languages in Belgium.

After taking the metro to near our hotel, we walked up and down Rue Royale a couple times trying to find Hotel Albert (mainly due to nice people giving us incorrect directions). We couldn't check into the hotel for about 4 more hours, so left our bags and headed out to explore the city.

Turns out I picked a cheap hotel in the north side of Brussels, which is kind of sketchy. Checking out the local Mediterranean market was fun...

So many olives!!!

Heidi can't stay away from those markets

After losing and finding each other, we'd had enough of the market and headed into the center of Brussels to find somewhere to eat. We stopped at the Jardin Botanique for snacks and photo ops.

At the Jardin Botanique

We took the long way to the center of Brussels, but finally made it to the Grand Place (town square/ market) where we started our free walking tour.

Letting the river be our guide

Brussels' Grand Place

The Brewery Museum- built into the basement of the Brewers’ House, the guild house or trade association of brewers in Belgium

Brussels Town Hall- Gothic building from the Middle Ages

Land of Tin Tin

Manneken Pis

Belgian waffles (liege, not the Brussels kind)

Brussels Stock Exchange

Three hours later, we headed back to the hotel, then again into the city a couple hours later for dinner and a stop at Neuhaus chocolaterie.

Enjoying some kriek at dinner

This famous chocolate shop was started by a pharmacist who handed out chocolates with his patients' medications. Soon his patients were coming for only the chocolate. Something to aspire to :)

At the Neuhaus chocolate shop- Heidi with the chocolate connoisseurs

Saturday morning, we headed back on the train for a day in cute old Bruges.

After creating a plan at the information center, we checked out the market, then had lunch at Panos. We couldn't resist H&M (although we've been to one in about every city) and discovered that this location was actually having a sale.

Back to our plan for the day, we checked out the city...

Church of Our Lady

Gruuthuse Museum

...then headed on our De Halve Mann brewery tour at 3:00 pm, beer included.

View of Bruges from atop the brewery

The Bruges boat tour then took us around the town- in 4 different languages.

Bruges boat tour

After grabbing some dinner, which included traditional foods such as kriek and fries, we headed back to the train to head back to Brussels.

Sunday morning we slept in, worked out, and packed up for the day. After figuring out the lockers at the train station, we left our stuff and explored Brussels for the few hours we had left.

We finally decided on breakfast at a restaurant near the train station, where the nice man working lured us in with the fact that he could make omelettes for breakfast (even though it was 12pm).

After stuffing ourselves for breakfast we headed to the European Parliament and Parliamentarium to discover a little bit more about the EU.

European Parliament

Parlamentarium

Next we had some errands to run and things to buy! Including Belgian waffles!

Chocolate!!!

Belgian waffle for lunch

Belgium was a fun weekend. Our consensus is that Brussels is definitely a melting pot or mosaic (whatever term they use in elementary social studies these days), as there were many people of varying ethnicities, languages, and cultures. Belgium could not really be compared to other European countries we've visited in the past.

On our way back to Velbert, we had a very entertaining cab driver.

http://youtu.be/-4BGZY0veQU

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Essen

This morning after breakfast we took bus and train to Essen to attend a class at the Universitat Duisburg-Essen. We were with masters students who study healthcare economics & management.

Our preceptor, Dr. Pfeifer (Josh), led a discussion about international pharmaceutical markets. We compared healthcare systems, best practices, cash flow and licensing of pharmaceuticals, and forces of change affecting pharmaceuticals.

Our group with a few Essen healthcare economics & management students

Universitat Duisburg-Essen

From Duisburg-Essen University, we walked to Noweda, which is a German pharmaceutical wholesaler.

Walking by some leftover storm damage in Essen

Noweda is a cooperative of ~8600 pharmacy owners that are members and shareholders of the company. The business is ranked 153rd in Germany.

Visit to Noweda

Besides supplying and delivering pharmaceuticals to the pharmacy, Noweda assists with marketing and displaying products in the pharmacy. They also provide economic counseling and pricing, quality management, and political advocacy for pharmacists.

We received a tour of the Noweda facility, which spurred a lot of questions from our group.

Noweda supplied us with plenty of chocolate

After our visit to Noweda, we tried to go shopping but got off on the wrong stop, so just decided to head back to Velbert...missed a bus that was packed with people anyway...witnessed a "fire" at the train station (smoke and fumes come from a grate)...boarded a packed train to get back to Velbert, then bussed the rest of the way back to Velbert just in time for dinner from Ms. Biester at 7:00 pm.

Tonight was full of unpacking and packing and prepping for a weekend in Belgium!

Universitat Bonn

Our train to Bonn was actually a successful one. When we saw the rest of the group, we were thrilled! The "Dortmund Four" crammed our stuff in a locker, and our group then hopped in a bus for the University of Bonn.

Corey and Michelle got stuck on the bus for an extra stop and Sebastian almost had a heart attack, but all was well when I could see the yellow bag and blue shirt in the distance, meaning they were off the bus.

I spy a blue shirt & yellow bag

At Bonn University, we joined a clinical pharmacy class. We listened to 3 clinical case presentations and participated in a discussion about the cases and comparisons between USA and Germany afterwards.

One of the patient cases

With Bonn University students

When class was done for the day, we walked to Harmonie Biergarten with Bonn pharmacy students, where we chatted and enjoyed essen und getranken!

Prost!

Currently on a train back home (to Velbert), I really hope this one reaches our destination...

Dortmund Four Detour

Or so we thought our train ride was close to being over...

As we were almost to our transfer destination in Hannover at 7:30pm, a voice came over the loudspeaker- in German- telling us our train from Hannover to Wuppertal was cancelled, and we should stay on the current train. Thanks to our friendly neighbors for translating. The train we were on would go to Wuppertal, but just take about a half hour longer.

At around 9:00 pm, we started to see flashes of light in the sky, and some rain. Once we stopped at the Dortmund train station, the rain and wind were incredible, nearly knocking over a girl with her suitcase. When all those outside our train waiting headed for the stairs simultaneously, I knew something was up. Another announcement on our train informed us that we had to wait on this train at the Dortmund train station until the storm passed.

Storm ensues while we are stuck at the train station

All was okay though...people were talking, even singing, and we met a new friend in the row next to us. When we heard all trains in the state of North Rhine Westphalia were ceased until the storm passed, our train offered us all free drinks. We were pleasantly surprised when we realized this included the adult beverages :) At nearly midnight, some of us went into the train station to grab some food, knowing the train wasn't moving for awhile. Right as we got back on the train, an announcement informed us that all trains in the state were cancelled for the rest of the he night, and we had to get off the train. "Uuuuugh" is what we were thinking and feeling, but at least we could just go grab a taxi...or so we thought.

Prost! Free wine for our train troubles

We waited in lines of a ridiculous amount of people trying to get taxis. It was impossible to hail a cab, and they kept ignoring everyone. After about an hour, we realized that some people actually getting cabs had pieces of paper they were handing over. Heidi and I ran back into the train station to get one of those pieces of paper- a free taxi ticket from the Deutschebahn!! We thought we hit the jackpot. Turns out, all the taxis still did not want to drive us the hour and a half to Velbert. We thought it was because they were jerks, but turns out they were jerks who didn't want to drive towards the storm and storm damage.

At around 2:00 am, we decided we would take that hotel room Josh booked for us, but we felt bad because we turned it down 2 hours ago thinking we could easily get a cab ride home. Two hotels nearby were completely full, so we got directions from Josh for the A&O hostel. They had vacancies, and said they would maybe take a free hotel ticket from the DB. So Heidi and I ran back to the train station to get a ticket for a hotel. The guy working said- "go to hotel espanada...50 free rooms, I called 20 minutes ago." And gave us a map. Heidi and I basically started running, thinking this guy was crazy. But it was already 3am, and this night couldn't get any more ridiculous. We made it to Hotel Esplanade, where a very hardworking man was writing up tickets for people coming from the train station to stay there for the night. We easily got 2 hotel rooms- FO FREE!!- and ran back to the A&O to get Sarah and Michelle. The only damage done was a $12 fee at the hostel because Michelle had already made the beds...

Our savior in Dortmund

So off to Hotel Esplanade, where the line was now 20 people long. Thank god we'd gotten in 10 minutes before :) Sarah and I headed up to our room and opened the door. Once inside, I had a strange feeling when I saw a bag in the entrance that was not there when Heidi and I checked it out before... And we sensed a strong malodor. Turning on the lights revealed some train workers' stinking shoes and suits hanging up in the closet. Turns out the hardworking man at the hotel lobby was accidentally double booking rooms!!! Aaah this happened to Michelle and Heidi too. Once we got a new clean room, we locked the door behind us and finally settled in for the night.

In the morning we received word from Josh that we should board a 9:06 am train to Essen and get a taxi from there to Velbert. After 4 hours of sleep, we weren't too pumped to be back at the train station. After the 9:06 train and 3 thereafter were cancelled, we decided to go back to that amazing Hotel Esplanade and stay another night, because all trains were cancelled towards Velbert for that day. Surprisingly, we got another free hotel ticket from the DB and another free night at the hotel!! #livinthegermandream

The next morning, people still waiting for taxis

2 free nights in a 4-star hotel

The rest of the day we spent napping, shopping, snacking, and dining in Dortmund. We soon became recognized as the "Dortmund Four" by the rest of our group safe back in Velbert.

Dortmund Four

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Prague!

Saturday morning, we left the A&O hostel for Europcar! Renting a car to Prague was about 1/3 the price of getting a train ticket, so our group of 4 decided to rent a car & trusted me to drive (I hope Dad is more proud than pissed). And I get a check off the bucket list :)

Ready for Prague

The drive was about 2 hours- from Dresden to the autobahn (where semi-trucks drive about 60 and Germans drive about 120 mph), through the longest tunnel ever, pretty countryside and cute Czech towns on the water- to Prague!

We parked the car in an area we were told was free and safe (near to the Czech police station), then checked into our hostel. The weather was hot and sunny all weekend while exploring Prague.

Vltava River, Prague

Statue of the Madonna attending to Saint Bernard, Charles Bridge

Statue of the Madonna attending to St. Bernard, Charles Bridge Prague

Stands on Charles Bridge

Our second day in Prague started with a run around the gorgeous city.

Around 11am, we met in the Old Town Square for a free walking tour around Prague.

Astronomical Clock Tower in Old Town Square

Old Town Square, Prague

Rudolfinum- the most famous concert building in Prague

Prague Metronome

Spanish Synagogue

After 90 minutes of touring, a few of us headed to lunch before our castle tour at 2:30pm.

Lunch with Heidi, Selam, Michelle

Saint Nicholas Church, Old Town Square Prague

We gathered by the Rudolfinum with a huge group of people, and baked in the hot sun before our Prague Castle tour started. A tram took us up the hill to the castle. Unfortunately, our tour did not lead us inside of the entirety of the castle, which we were expecting. But it was still interesting to learn about and takes some photos.