Ich gehe nach Deutschland

Bridges Hall, University of Reading

Oh I hope I translated that properly. Should be close enough to indicate that I am, in fact, going to Germany. Not for very long, but from August 6 to 9 I will traveling to the Frankfurt area for some sightseeing. My primary objective was to get a chance to visit my friend Marie whom I met my first term in Reading and who lives in Germany. Despite needing to write term papers, she has generously agreed to give me a place to stay while I am visiting the area. Fortunately as well, RyanAir flies into Frankfurt which means I can save some money on my flights – in fact, it will cost me more to get to and from the airport here than it will for my flight to Germany. That concept doesn’t exist in Canada, where the cheapest flight you can hope to find is going to cost $100, and if you are going international (ie. to the US) you will pay at least twice that.

In any case, I am excited – I was in Germany in 2000 and it was really great. Now that World Cup fever has subsided, I’m hoping that things will be a bit more calm. I’m not a football fan (soccer for those at home) and while the World Cup energy around me was a bit contagious, it would have made things a lot more crazy in Germany. Of course, some of my friends visited Germany for just that reason in June, but to each their own. :)

I’m also glad that I am making use of this time that I have off this summer to get a chance to visit some of these places. I found out that Canadians need a visa to get into the Czech Republic, so I will have to look into that before my trip to Prague.

Turns out that as of May 2004, Canadians don’t need a visa to enter the Czech Republic – as that is when they joined the EU.
Written by Colin Bate