Our appetizer with the first wine ! Duck breast !

Wine&Food

A lot of our course is based on wine and beers since we are here in Europe. We got the chance to compare and contrast wines with different foods and that was an experience for me because I’m usually a very picky eater and I don’t generally enjoy the taste of wine. However, this time was different, the food pairings with the wines were outstanding. We had 8 dishes and about 12 wines or so. Each wine either perfectly complemented the dish or was the perfect contrast to the dish. Also, most of the flavors whether it be the wine or the food were enhanced due to both of the flavors coming together. The winery made the dishes that they served us with the wines from scratch and it was all delicious. The wines were all different, they ranged from full bodied red wines to light and crisp white wines. It was very interesting to see how one winery, one brand can create so many different types of wines, all so different.

Not only did we do the food and wine pairings but we also got the opportunity to see the wine cellars. That was pretty cool as well to see the where and how the wines were made and stored and then we also saw how they bottle their wines and how they did the barcodes for each wine bottle. It was a very interesting day and it showed me that I don’t completely hate all wines and some foods I thought I didn’t like turned out to be great with the addition of the wine. Whether you are in the Americas or Europe, I definitely suggest everyone trying a food and wine pairing!

-xoxo

The cake and hot chocolate combo I had after the demonstration!

The finished product! 

The middle of stacking the cake ; Blackforest cake!

Frieburg!

One of the great things about study abroad is that we get the opportunity to go on many planned school trips through the program. One of my favorite trips had to be when we went to Frieburg, Germany. Freiburg is not a very big city but it has everything to offer. It’s buildings are rich with history and mesmerizing to look at! With the way the buildings look, you would assume that you would see stores that are unfamiliar but that was not the case. I saw brands that I knew and loved from back home in Canada but then there was also the experience of trying out some new german branded stores, which by the way is very reasonably priced!

While in Freiburg we got the chance to see a black forest cake being made by one of the few cafes that still do it the original way! Watching it being made was nothing special, it was like seeing a normal cake being made, and having worked in a bakery before it was normal for me. However, what was special was being able to learn about the history of the black forest cake and learn what each part of the cake meant, for example the cherries or the chocolate. After watching this demonstration, we got a chance to sit down in the cafe and actually try the black forest cake . They gave us really big slices and we all got the option of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate to side with it. The combination of the hot chocolate and the black forest cake was really good but the cake was a little too rich for my liking so I couldn’t finish the whole slice. Also, the service at the restaurant was amazing as well, a few students didn’t want the tea or coffee options, they wanted something else to drink so the waitress allowed them to pick a drink of their choice free of charge even though by right they were supposed to pay! She was also so kind and understanding to the fact that we didn’t speak german and she still tried to understand what we wanted! So overall, Freiburg was a great experience for me, good food, good service, and great city! I would definitely suggest visiting that city to anyone!!

-xoxo

Their Stainless steel storage facilities!

One of their old school storage barrels ; RotHaus brewery

RotHaus

Let’s take a little break from my weekend adventures and talk about something that was funded by our program! We visited the brewery of the german beer called Rothaus. Although I have visited breweries before and have a pretty fair knowledge when it comes to the production of beer this visit was still super interesting for me! First, our guide was someone who kept everyone interested, always cracking some form of a joke or referencing why beer is better than anything else to drink, especially RotHaus beer. He kept the spirits high and what would normally be a somewhat boring tour for me (because of my dislike for beer) it turned out to be super interesting! Also, I don’t usually enjoy beer but they gave us each on free beer and a pretzel each and I happened to choose their beer that is mixed with lemonade and man let me tell you, if I wasn’t on medication I would have finished the whole bottle myself. I’m glad I got the opportunity to see how german beer is produced and ever since then I have been seeing that type of beer everywhere!

The bat caves where bats were freely flying everywhere !

Just chilling looking for the polar bears !

My favorite animal !

Karlsruhe.

Another weekend, another trip only this time it was a day trip! We took a trip to Karlsruhe, Germany and I guess it was an interesting experience nonetheless. First of all, the bus stop is on the other side of the city, like you need to walk through the whole train station before even seeing anything of Karlsruhe and then once you see the city there is not much to it at all. We saw the zoo right away, and that was my favorite thing to do there. Before entering the zoo, we decided to make a trip to the tourism office to see if maybe we could find some other things to do with our day other than the zoo. Our visit was successful the lady gave us a map and showed where all the tourist destinations of this city was located, however I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the office. On too the zoo!! I loved it, there were so many animals and it was bigger than expected. My favorite exhibit is the exhibit that was an ecosystem inside of a building. All the animals were roaming free and doing whatever, wherever they wanted and that was so cool to see! Once the zoo was done, there wasn’t much else to see, we saw some of the sights that they had but other than that, we did a little shopping and some food and made our way back home. To me it was more of a successful zoo trip than anything else but I guess not all cities will be overly exciting!

-xoxo

The way they served their hot chocolate at the chocolate house:

Hot milk of your choice

marshmallows

whipped cream

and a chocolate spoon of your choice

One of the many desserts the chocolate house had to offer!