October 14-17: First stop Luxembourg - - Feelin Political

Bonjour again. Last Wednesday, my political science class, which is a policy seminar on contemporary Europe set out for out trip to Luxembourg and Brussels. We once again boarded our purple, butterfly bus and let Strasbourg around 4pm. Aboard was the class plus our professor, Professor Tioborn, a Swedish man who works for the Council of Europe and always seems so enthused to come in and teach our class twice a week. We arrived at Luxembourg, Luxembourg (yes, the name of the city is the same) around 7:30 at this humongous hostel down at the bottom of this large hill. We ate dinner there, not too great, and then went out to explore the little city. Yes, it was little.

Thursday morning, we woke up bright and early to visit the European Court of Justice, one of the institutions of the European Union. I'm pretty sure most people don't know much about this little country, but it does hold one of the most important European institutions. The court was this extremely futuristic modern building inside, but very nice. We were briefed a bit about the court's function and then had the chance to sit in on a hearing of an actual court case. We sat there with our headphones where you can listen to the hearing translated in 27 languages! (For all of the member states) I enjoyed flipping through, although 6 languages were present there that day. Being apart of the process sitting there was pretty exciting, however, the case itself, was not the most thrilling I'd say. Lets just say I now know all you would want to know about what constitutes a "denial of boarding" when your flight gets changed. And apparently since this situation involved two countries, something as small as someone suing for 500 euros for the inconvenience of her changed trip, became something the European court deals with. They had said earlier the cases can get a bit boring (note taken). So the funny thing is they have this women sitting there whose entire job is to watch and make sure no one falls asleep! They said she will literally come over and tap you awake. Haha, sadly I did not get to see her in action, but my professor was definitely getting some shut eye threw some parts. Close call Tioborn.
We left the courtroom and my professor turns to us, "Wow, so interesting, just riveting, wasn't it?" It just sounds so great in his Swedish accent I promise.

We then ventured into the town of Luxembourg for some free time and lunch. The town was very cute, with a lot of fancy shops. We stopped at this hot chocolate shop we heard about where they give you a mug of hot milk and then you choose the flavor of hot chocolate, which is a big hunk of the chocolate on a wooden spoon which you then put in and dip. My dream! I had the hazelnut chocolate, so good. The funny thing was right across the street was the Duke's palace where we saw the changing of the guard, so while we were sipping our hot cocoa, these security guards and police guards, who were black leather and orange pants come in for a drink. Hot chocolate break?
We explored the town a bit more seeing a church, but I'm pretty sure that was the extent of the city. Its a SMALL place. The city is built on this huge ravine though, which is pretty cool. That is why the city wasn't attacked during the war because it served as a huge fortress type setup. Apparently you can go down to the bottom of the ravine and check it out.

We left at 4pm to continue our political journey on to Brussels!