Weimar and America's Birthday

Katherine (UNC Chapel Hill) and I at the park

Audrey (U Penn), Parker (UNC Chapel Hill), and Bruce (Vanderbilt) showing their American pride in Weimar
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This past weekend I was in Weimar. It is a much much smaller town than either Berlin or Hamburg, so it was interesting to compare and contrast. Weimar isn't a small town either, though, I think it has around 65,000 inhabitants. It is known as being a cultural hotspot, historically, in Germany. It was the residence of such esteemed figures as Goethe and Schiller and the birthplace of the Bauhaus architectural style. It's also known for it's several large and beautiful parks and its many cafes and concert performances. Saturday we spent the day visiting all of these cultural sites and still had some time in the afternoon to relax in the park. We had a lot of fun goofing around. That night we went to the one true bar/club in Weimar and were practically the only people there. Supposedly the night before it was pretty full, but for whatever reason no one was there that night. Never the less, we had a really good time. On Sunday, we stopped by Buchenwald on our way back to Berlin. Buchenwald was a concentration during WWII and some, but not many, on the buildings remain today as a memorial. Like I said, it was a concentration camp, not an extermination camp like Auschwitz-Birkenau, so it didn't have gas chambers, but it did have ovens for the thousands that were worked or beaten to death. It was a very powerful place, even with only a few buildings standings, and I'm sure even much more so if more buildings had remained. I'm glad I went, but I don't think I need to go back or visit anyothers any time soon. All in all, I had a great weekend. The pictures above are of some of my friends in FUBiS. I've had several requests for these. Both of them were taken this weekend in Weimar. Enjoy!