Day 2: July 13 (English)

This is the report by Shia, Nina, and Madeline.

In the morning, we met at 8:00 am to eat our breakfast at the youth hostel, and make our lunch packs for our picnic in the noon. After breakfast and making our packs, we held a quick meeting before heading to Marienplatz to see the glockenspiel. We walked a short distance from the youth hostel to the station called Rotkreuzplatz, and bought our tickets for the day. It was interesting to see how the ticket/train system is very different from Japan. Some differences were that there are no wickets, and when the tickets are bought, and that you can buy day tickets or group tickets, which is what we did. Also, the money is fed into the machine after the button is pushed, which is opposite in Japan. After this, we rode the train to Hauptbahnhof Central Station, and changed trains to get to Marienplatz City Center. It was surprising when the train doors closed on the teacher, and refused to open until we pulled to doors apart, where as in Japan the doors spring open automatically when they touch something.
We arrived at Marienplatz around 10:20, and had free time until a little before 11:00 when we watched the glockenspiel performance. The performance was at the Neue Town Hall, where it played 3 songs while the puppets at the top of the tower twirled around. The buildings in Marienplatz were all very beautiful and detailed and sculpted. We all found it interesting to see modern clothing stores located inside the old antique buildings which made it a very beautiful place to walk through.
Englischer Garten was 20 minutes away by foot, and we arrived around 1:00 and had a picnic besides the river. After that we enjoyed free time in the Garten, which most of spent by the riverside. The biggest culture shock of the day was definitely the nudist area by the river where we were, which left us unsure of how to react, but by the end of the day we were surprisingly used to the sight.
On the whole, the entire day had a very relaxing atmosphere, and we were able to fully enjoy the culture and the scenery of Germany.