Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone, I wanna wish you all a Merry Christmas from across the pond! It was a pretty quite Christmas for me, just Christmas tunes and movies and a festive spaghetti dinner, haha! I can't wait until next year, when we'll be able to celebrate together again!

Cookies!

Short post today, guys. My parents sent me some packages of Christmas cookies, so one of my flatmates and I did some baking!

That's all for now!

Snow Day, Again...

Hey guys, we got some snow to stick! We went out to take some pictures of the snow around the Gartens, and here they are!

Snow Day

On Monday, Chris was heading home, so before he left he wanted to check out Andechs. We went on Sunday and this time I tried the Apfelweizen. As a man with something of an obsession with apple products (applesauce, apple juice, etc.) this was rather dangerous, because it was delicious. It was not as beer-tastic as the doppelbock, but it was like drinking apple pie. Delicious.

Andechs II

Bad Toelz

I've been meaning to go to this little town forever, and Chris and I finally made it out there this weekend. This was the town where my dad was stationed when he was in the Air Force. The base is no longer there, but it's still a nice town to visit.

We had pretty awesome luck the entire trip. First off, though the weather leading up to Saturday had been cloudy and wet, there was not a cloud in the sky as we left Muenchen. When we arrived, we got lucky again, because they were starting their Christkindlmarkt, a Christmas market held along the main street of the town. This was filled with food vendors serving hot wines and German foods, as well as several vendors selling nativities and other things.

Bad Tolz

It was a pretty relaxing trip. We wandered around the town for a while, snapped some photos, got something to eat at a sub shop, then climbed up to a church overlooking the town. After we'd seen about everything, we stopped at an outdoor cafe, got a beer, and just people watched for a little while. By the time we were finishing up our beers, the sun was setting and it was starting to get cold, so we headed back through town to the train station and headed home.

Der Kleine Prinz

Hmmm. So, uh, I went to a performance of Der Kleine Prinz last night (The Little Prince in English).

It was very...

Interesting.

Oh, did I mention it was interpretive dance?

It was held in the Staatstheater here in Muenchen, and by all means it was an entertaining show. I just... I just don't know what I saw.

Wait! I take it back; I do know one dancer was supposed to be a snake. That's about it.

I took some pictures of the theater, though they didn't allow photos of the performance.

Der Kleine Prinz

Thangsgiving!

Hey everyone! You'll be glad to know that I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. I almost thought it wasn't going to happen, but Kevin rallied us together at the last minute. I believe his words were, "I am currently undefeated at Thanksgiving and don't want to break my winning streak, so let's make Thanksgiving happen."

So how good could a Thanksgiving meal be, when cooked by five guys who, at previous Thanksgivings, had barely lifted a spoon to serve ourselves? Actually, not bad. We went with the divide and conquer approach: each of us choosing a separate dish and making it happen. And in the end, we had quite a spread: turkey (duh), two kinds of stuffing, two big pots of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and marshmallows, homemade cranberry sauce, gravy, some sausages, rolls and apple pie a la mode.

Thanksgiving!

And though it took me a little while to track it down, we were able to have the epic battle for wishbone supremacy.

I'd feel sorry for him, but I think they both wanted the same thing anyway.

That's all for now!

Andechs Brewery

It's like a fairy tale: nestled in the hills outside Muenchen, a group of monks brew beer, perfecting the art over hundreds of years and selling it only to the brave souls who make the trip to their mountaintop brewery. We dared make this perilous trek, and were rewarded with perhaps the greatest beer I have ever tasted. We started early, taking the S-Bahn out of town to a city at the base of the mountain. From there we humped it, going through the town (in circles for a while) before making our way up the hill to the Andechs monastery/brewery. The hike actually wasn't that bad, except for a pretty steep part near the end. Actually, the most dangerous part was when we almost got hit by an ambulance...

Once we made it to the top, and before sampling the beverages, we took a look through monastery. I may be mistaken, but I believe that it was a Rococo style building, similar to the Wieskirche near Neuschwannstein. Really, a beautiful architectural style.

Andechs

After touring the church, we got down to business: trying their highly recommended beer. We found the restaurant area and took a seat, with a half liter and a hunk of pork apiece. The food was decent, but nothing spectacular, but the beer... Oh man. They poured our masses from giant oaken casks, which is a testament to how delicious it would prove to be. I can only describe the flavor like this:

When I was a kid, I used to watch the Simpsons quite regularly, and Homer was always drinking Duff beer. My only knowledge of beer up to this point was the amber liquid that Homer was so entranced by. Because I had never actually tasted beer, I could only imagine what it must taste like; I could only guess at what flavor could drive Homer to such distraction. My friends, that wonderful flavor I concocted long ago, the most wonderful beverage flavor I could imagine, I tasted that when I tasted the Andechs Dopplebock that day.

That day I climbed a mountain. And it was sweet.

BMW Welt

Hey Guys! Sorry, it's been a while since I've given you guys an update, so in the next few days I have a bunch of stuff to send your way, starting with our trip to BMW Welt. Not much to tell, for this one, though: we took a tour of the building, and the architecture was pretty incredible, but the photos will show that better than I can say it.

BMW Welt

More to follow soon!

Salzburg!

We had a bit of free time last weekend , so we took a quick nip across the border into Austria for a day! We grabbed the first train we could, but it wasn't a direct train, so we had a short layover in Prien am Chiemsee first. It was a nice little town, and we wandered around for about an hour, taking photos and looking into a little bike shop we found. Then we got onto the connecting train to Salzburg.

Salzburg

Salzburg was even more awesome than I remember it, probably because I didn't have to deal with an uptight tourguide this time. From the train station we made our way to the river, then followed it upstream to the old part of town. On our way, we stopped and played in the playground for a bit.

I think Austrian children must have amazing balance.

After we were done embarrassing ourselves in the playground, we continued up the river. We were getting hungry, so we decided to stop at a little Italian place for dinner. I thought the lasagna was pretty good, but the waitress was kinda crafty in the way she charged us for the wine... The portions were pretty small too, so when we left we were still looking for food. We made our way to the Dom zu Salzburg. It's another impressive church, and we were lucky enough to go on a day they were having an organ concert! I took some video, but we couldn't actually see the guy playing, so I just pointed my mic up and recorded the chair in front of me. I'll try to add it in later, I can't seem to load it here right now.

We left the church and made our way across the river, trying to make our way to the monastary on the hill. On our way we found a Swedish candy store, and stocked up on various gummy products: bears, worms, vampire teeth (did I mention this was Halloween?). It was a steep hike, but it was totally worth it as we got an excellent view of the city at night! It was getting a bit late now, so we decided to head back to the train station, but we wanted to stop at a few sites along the way. First was a big garden where a scene from the Sound of Music was filmed (Somehow a large percentage of us knew some songs...) and the second was another awesome playground not far from the garden. This one had a short rock climbing wall that led to a slide, and this musical toy where you stepped on bronze stepping blocks and a bell of a certain note rang. Those spoiled Austrian kids!

We caught the right train home, direct, so we could nap without fear of ending up in Italy or something. Made it home safe and sound, then promptly fell asleep!

Die Englischer Gartens

Today was a beautiful day in Muenchen. It must have been in the 60's today, and it actually felt pretty warm for me. Sunny, partly cloudy... all in all a wonderful day to take some pictures! So, Jake and I grabbed our cameras and made our way to the English Gardens. The leaves are still in the process of turning, so we strolled through the park, taking pictures of the people surfing, the fall colors, and some of the local fauna (a ladybug landed on my neck).

English Gardens 25-10-2009

Neuschwanstein und Wieskirche

Jake, Kevin and Me in front of Neuschwanstein

What an awesome trip! We started out at about 9:00 in the morning, and we wound our way through the German countryside for about an hour and a half. Along the way, our tour guide supplied us with the history of the castle: commissioned by King Ludwig II (who was declared insane in a parliamentary power play, only to be found dead days later under mysterious circumstances...), built as a tribute to Richard Wagner, never finished, etc. I have also heard this castle was the one that inspired the Disney castle:

(http://artemisiatridentata.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/an-inspiring-castle/).

Once we arrived, we immediately climbed the hill to the castle and started snapping some photos of the exterior. Unfortunately, the exterior would be all we could photograph, because cameras were contraband once we entered. We went on a quick tour through the castle, then made our way to the Marien Bruecke a little ways away to get some pictures of the castle from a distance. There's actually another castle, Hohenschwangau, built near Neuschwanstein by Ludwig's father. I got the feeling that Ludwig wanted to outdo his old man by building another castle so close, and on a slightly higher hilltop than the castle his dad built...

Neuschwanstein und Wieskirche

After we got back into the village, we had a great lunch at a local hotel. They served us either a pork schnitzel or rumpsteak, along with fries and spaetzle, topped off with a custard like dessert with lemon and berry sauces and some fruit. Oh. Man. It was awesome.

When we had finished eating, we all hopped back onto the bus and took a short drive to the Wieskirche. This church is a pilgrimage church, the home of the miraculous Scourged Savior statue. It was designed in the rococo style, which is very exuberant and impressive to behold. It was such a beautifully constructed church, in the middle of nowhere, really. They built it at the site where the statue's miracle was first witnessed, in the middle of an open pasture. We couldn't stay long, though, so we took a walk around the church, snapping photos, then made our way back to the bus for the ride back to Muenchen.

Die Lange Nacht der Muenchner Museen

I have an interesting experience to tell you all about: Die Lange Nacht der Muenchner Museen. It was a huge event in Muenich where almost 90 museums were opened up from 7 pm until 2 in the morning, and you could get into your choice of as many you could get to for only a 15 euro ticket. It was a pretty awesome night!

We started at the Max-Planck Museum, which had colorized prints of highly magnified objects. They turned out to be quite interesting.

The light was a little dim, hence the blurry.

Next, we caught a bus to St. Paul-Kirche. They had an amazing light show with accompanying music. It was really quite incredible.

After the church, we stopped by a Siemens exhibition with old, present day, and possible future technologies, but I forgot to take pictures. But, after Siemens, we went to the Pinakothek der Moderne, and I got plenty of pictures there!

Die Lange Nacht Der Muenchner Museen

We spent about an hour and a half at the Pinakothek der Moderne, then we tried to make it to a tower... who's name escapes me at the moment. Needless to say, we couldn't make it in there, because by this time it was about 2:30 in the morning and the Lange Nacht der Muenchner Museen had ended. Unfortunately, the U-Bahn stopped running at about 1:30 (i think) and we were quite a ways away from Stusta, so we decided to make our way to the MilchBar to pass the time until the U-Bahn started running again... at 5 in the morning. So we got some beers, hung around, and danced a little (not me of course :P). I left before the others, at about 5:20, because I had been up for close to 24 hours and was incredibly tired, but man, what a night!

It's Snowing!!

Short one today, gang! It snowed today! I got some quick footage, and I'm going to take a bunch of pictures once the snow starts to stick!

Yeah, the window was closed... It was cold out there!

Faces

Good stuff today guys! I was making breakfast today, when I realized I had inadvertently created a smiley face! Even the cheese slices helped give it a goofy, toothy grin! I'm afraid he has very bloodshot eyes though.

I call him Alfred.

I thought Alfred was pretty neat, but I guess this sign was not amused.

Yoink!

Today was interesting. I finally received my scholarship money, so I decided to celebrate by making some Tacos!! They were delicious, if a bit interesting; You see, apparently die Deutsche don't really like things spicy, so the salsa I bought was like a sweet tomato sauce. Also, I couldn't find just ground beef, but instead a ground beef/pork mixture. That actually wasn't so bad, as it turned out.

Also, when I was washing up, I had to grab the dish soap that was sitting next to one of my flatmates. As I did this, I said "Yoink!", as I usually do in situations like this. Of course, this didn't really translate all that well, so what followed was a twenty minute conversation where I tried to explain to him (in my rather imperfect German) the grammatical complexities of "Yoink". That, my friends, was a very amusing conversation:

Tshue: But wait, I wasn't using it, you were free to take it!

Me: No, I wasn't really asking for it, I was just, well, "Yoinking" it...

It got to the point where I was questioning my own knowledge of Yoinking. It's like when you repeat a word so many times that you no longer think it's even a word...

Meine Damen und Herren... Oktoberfest!

Well, I would be remiss if I didn't wind you guys up a little bit first, so to start off, I took a couple pictures on my way to class one day. I was in the Odeonsplatz and they have a pretty epic group of statues. Honestly I don't know what they're commemorating, but I've included a couple photos in the slide show later on.

This next one's for the ladies. I think you'll all appreciate this.

So would she be a pirate, or a wench? Or perhaps a pirate wench? In either case, she wasn't pillaging and plundering (for example, after taking this picture, she didn't stab me and take my camera and wallet), so I don't think she was "legit".

Anyway, I've been taunting you long enough: on to the meat and potatoes! Oktoberfest started on the 19th of September. I went on the very first day, but there were so many people I couldn't find my way into Bierzelt. I got a really tasty Currywurst, but no Bier though. I know, I know, that's analogous to blasphemy in Bayern, but I didn't think you could get Bier anywhere outside the Bierzelts (I later found out you could buy Bier on carousels, of all places). After this rather uneventful first outing, I remembered that I had another two weeks to get a good seat, so I decided to leave.

It gets better, though. Round two came on Thursday the 24th. My German friend Alex was going with some of his friends to celebrate a birthday, and he invited a couple of us along with them. We couldn't get a table ourselves, but we were able to convince some people who did have a table to buy us a couple beers (in order to order anything in the tents, you have to have a table, or, as I found out later, you have to be near enough to a table that the servers think you're sitting there :-D). Unfortunately, I couldn't order anything to eat, which made the two liters of beer I drank rather effective. An interesting note here, though. It appears that as I finish my first liter, my ability to communicate in German improves, but as I finish of a second liter, that ability drops precipitously. It's an interesting phenomenon that I will have to research further...

Anyway, after two liters I was done for the night, so I left and managed to find my way home without much incident. I was pretty useless the on Friday, though. I managed to recover enough of my wits to make it out again on Saturday, which was awesome because I managed to try some real Bierzelt food! I went with my friend Jake Venzor, from Cal Poly, and some friends he knew traveling in Europe. We were waiting to get into the Bierzelt for over an hour before we decided to leave, and as we left we found a really easy way to s

neak in on one side. I kinda felt like an idiot for waiting so long, but we got a table this time, so it all worked out! So, I was either done with or close to being done with my first liter of the night when I tried to order some chicken. Being ineffective (apparently the word I learned for chicken doesn't work translate to Bayerish) we enlisted the help of a German guy next to us, and just a half an hour later I had some food. It was awesome! They basically took a chicken, removed the innards and cut it in half, and it tasted incredible (well, I mean, they cooked it first, too). Totally worth the wait.

Ok, I've kept you waiting long enough: here are the pictures!

Oktoberfest!

So, after that last trip, I had to take a bit of a break. I had my language class Mon-Thurs, and I already knew it took me a full day to recover from a night on the Wiesen. This, coupled with the fact that my bank account was running on fumes, led me to postpone another trip until Saturday the 3rd. I had plenty to do in the meantime, I got my Aufenthaltserlaubnis, which is a document that allows me to stay in Germany without fear of deportation, and that process along took something like four hours. I also discovered that government buildings close at noon on Fridays. Kinda makes it difficult to do some things.

October 3rd is German Unity Day, and it commemorates the day that east and west Germany re-united. As far as I could tell, they celebrate by closing down all the shops in the city. So... this left me, as well as everyone else in Muenchen, little to do besides going to Oktoberfest. I was still poor, so Jake and I decided to go late and just take some pictures, both to miss most of the crowd and to get some night shots. We got some pretty cool shots, but when we went to leave, the U-Bahn stop was blocked up by Polizisten and MVG workers. We had to walk about a mile to Marienplatz before we could catch the U-Bahn back to Studentenstadt.

This is a long post, but I'm almost finished! Sunday was the last day of the Oktoberfest. A nice guy from my building gave me a coupon for a free Mass (a liter of Bier), so I got up... somewhat early and left for the Theresienwiese. Chris and I managed to find a table at the Schottenhamel Festzelt, and we both got some beer. After we finished, we went to the Augustiner tent to meet some friends, and somehow I ran into an Aussie guy from my language course named Dave. The lucky punk worked at a youth hostel that had some agreement with the Augustiner people, so they got to sit on the upper balcony (I got him to take a couple pictures for me from up high). We left him to his drinking and found our friends near the bandstand. I was hungry as heck, so I got some Goulash! I swear, everything they sell at those tents is fantastic!

After the food, Chris and I left, to return later that night for the rides. I had heard they let you take your cameras with you, so I shot this video on the giant swing!

Ok! That's all for now, guys! Hope you enjoyed it!

Meine Geburtstag!

Hey everyone! So yesterday was my birthday, and we celebrated in classic German fashion: plenty of beer, plenty of food, song and dance! (Well, I didn't dance, but that's just in the interest of public safety, amirite?) So first off, here are the pictures!

Meine Geburtstag!

I really wanted to return to the Hofbraeuhaus, and Jana remembered going to an awesome show of German music and traditional dance, something I hadn't seen on our last visit. So after a bit of wandering around trying to find the correct place, we found ourselves at the Festsaal, a giant dining hall with a stage at one end (and a buffet of authentic German food to one side :D). We took our seats, ordered our first Biers, and then proceeded to attack the buffet. There was soooo much food there, and I tried to taste a little bit of everything! Three kinds of Wurst, Schnitzel, chicken, Sauerkraut, Krautsalat, Kartoffelnsalat (potato salad), regular salad, Spaetzle, some kind of Fisch (fish) in a cream sauce, Sauerbraten, potato dumplings, Apfelstrudel, some strange cold cuts that tasted like baloney, pretzels, and rolls. There were a couple other things, but I was fairly full after all that.

By the time I'd gotten to my second plate, I think, the show had started, and poor Scott promptly fell in love with the singer. (If at this point you're wondering who people are, there's a picture of everyone in the album up there). I was just floored when she started yodeling!

That poor drummer. Every day, every song, the exact same beat. My heart goes out to him.

Anyway, next, two couples came out and did some traditional dancing, twas pretty neat, but after that, one couple played a few songs with (unless I am very much mistaken) cowbells! Now, not only is this awesome for the unavoidable "More cowbell!" comments sure to follow this post, but also because it must be really hard to remember all the bells and actually play a song. Sound of Music fans (I'm looking at you, Mom) might recognize this number:

Was noch? Ach so! Following the bells, there was a brief break, whereupon I ordered my second Bier and went for my second helping of Nachspeise (dessert). Returning to my table they began what I dub the percussion section of the show: where the band played a song and two guys in Lederhosen played percussion elements in various ways, like whilst chopping wood or cracking whips. Very interesting. They even had different whips in order to, I infer, get different pitches in their performance.

After that the show was pretty much done. We hung around for a bit, cracking jokes about the interesting, erm, articles available for sale in the men's bathroom, then we finished our Biers and alighted into the street, making our way back to the Marienplatz to catch a train home!

All in all, not a bad birthday evening!

Tasty...

Ladies and gentlemen... Meine damen und Herren... I give to you, this first homecooked meal I've had so far here in Muenchen. Now, I know, it is an italian dish, but c'mon, it looks pretty good.

It's been an interesting day so far. I was wandering around near the Odeonsplatz, when I saw an older man putting up political stickers (there is a federal election coming up on September 27th). By itself an otherwise unremarkable fact. The amusing part was the placement of the stickers: right over the faces of his adversaries on their posters! Classy, eh? Good to know some things don't change, wherever you go!

I also found the US consulate today. It was pretty intimidating: 8 foot fences, guards with automatic weapons, etc. I was going to take a picture, but I just bought a new camera and I didn't want it confiscated ;-)

Alright, well that's about all for now, guys; I haven't been this full for a over a week, so I'm probably gonna fall into a food coma any minute now. Tschuess!

Street Performers in the Marienplatz

Ich habe in Muenchen angekommen!!

Hey guys!

I survived the flight and the first few days, subsisting mainly on granola bars and Schnitzel until I can find some dishes to buy. I didn't take any pictures on the flight or anything, but I did take some today!

Muenchen, First Week

If that up there didn't work, you can check out the photos at this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gordon.cline/MuenchenFirstWeek?authkey=Gv1sRgCPPP9v613qSw8QE&feat=directlink

Whew! it's been a busy couple of days! I got started on the paperwork for my Aufenthaltserlaubnis, or residence permit, and picked up my monthly U-Bahn pass, so I can go pretty much anywhere in Munich now. I took a walk in the Englischer Gartens today and stopped by the biergarten unter die Chinese Tower (remember that? I got a picture of it). Then I did some grocery chopping, and now here I am passing it all along to you good people.

That's about it for now. Tschuess!