Deutsches Museum

Hey guys! Back in April, I went to the famous Deutsches Museum. The pictures will describe it better than I ever could, so here they are:

Deutsches Museum

Berchtesgaden und Königssee

Hello all, yet another tale to tell you, and yet again I have to delve into the murky depths of my not-to-recent memory to tell you. Let me take a moment to paint you a picture...

It's late February in southern Germany. It's a bright but cloudy day, the light filters through the clouds and shines off the snow laying thick on the ground. The air is cold and crisp, a dry cold that doesn't cling to you, but instead bounces playfully off one's cheeks and they walk. We've just stepped off the bus from Berchtesgaden, and we slowly make our way down the cobbled street; those of us with cameras are removing caps, trading lenses, and generally preparing for the day's events. As the road straightens out, we see Königssee stretch out before us.


The water is as clear and blue as you would expect to see in the Caribbean, albeit much, much colder. Ducks swim near the shore, the frigid waters not bothering them a bit. We linger here at the edge of the lake only for a little while, and then we're off, tramping down a trail that leads into the hills that surround the lake.

As we walk, the trail crackles under our steps. We don't even have to worry about muddying our boots; the ground is frozen solid. We follow the trail as it takes us up over the small town behind us, before wrapping around the hill, revealing a glimpse of the rest of the lake.


We slip and slide down a steep slope, clutching at a rickety handrail as we go, trying to get to a set of benches just off the trail. We rest here for a bit, snapping more pictures of the lake before making our way back up the precarious path. Before too long, the sun starts to shine through the clouds and we stop for a quick lunch.

After lunch it's only a short distance back to the bus, which takes us back to Berchtesgaden. With an hour before our train departs, we find a local Getränkladen and purchase ourselves some beer, before wandering around the town for a bit.


It's a quiet town on a cold day, and there isn't much to see as we walk the streets, becoming more boisterous with each sip. The locals laugh as the group of obviously American tourists strolls through their town, joking loudly as they go. Presently, we find ourselves back at the train station, and wait only a short time before catching our train back to München.

Berchtesgaden

How was that, eh? Was it almost like YOU WERE RIGHT THERE WITH US?! Haha, till next time! Tschüss!

Hochschule München

Hey Guys! I'm rapid fire posting here to make up for some lost time. Here are just a couple pics of the building I went to school at last semester!

Hochschule Muenchen

Yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said, "just a couple".

Later!

Madrid - Part II

Yeah. This is really late, eh? My bad.

Anyhow, done with the first day and a half, on to the next!

Madrid

So the next day was New Years Eve, and we had planned to go the Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica (among other things), but somehow we both got the open hours mixed up with the Prado's, so when we got the Reina Sofia, it was closed. We mulled around for a few minutes, plotting to break in if they didn't open up, but in the end we couldn't find a good entry point, so we moved on. Luckily for us, almost right across the street was Madrid's central train station, so we headed over to check it out.

I must say, compared to Munich's central station, Madrid's was really cool. You walk in, and it's an indoor jungle. Plus, there's a turtle habitat! How awesome is that? Sarah and I walked around snapping pictures for a while, before hitting the street again.

We stopped by el Retiro again on the way home, to get some better pictures of the Crystal Palace. When we got back to Jorge and Lola's, we were just in time for lunch! I won't do justice to what Lola cooked up for us, but it was delicious. It was some kind of vegetable pie, I think, topped with homemade mayonnaise. I thought that was all, so I ate a fair amount of that, but then there was another dish! I think it was a kind of paella, but it's been so long now I can't remember. But after that there was even dessert! I was so full, I was surprised I wasn't bursting at the seams. Lola kept saying it was nice having me around, so I could eat up all her leftovers.

So what to do now? We thought about heading out again to see a couple more sights before nighttime rolled around, but in the end we decided it would be best to enjoy another Spanish tradition: the siesta! We were so beat from running around the city, and so full from lunch, that we were out for almost four hours. It was awesome! We even saw a couple episodes of Avatar (not the blue people, the cartoon). Then it was time for the New Years countdown!

In Spain, they have a New Years tradition of eating grapes at each of the strokes of the clock. They even sell little cans of 12 pre-skinned grapes so you can have just the right amount of grapes for the big day. You would be surprised how hard it is to grab a slippery grape and eat it, twelve times in a row between the bells. I managed to get all mine down, but poor Sarah couldn't finish hers, so she won't be lucky all year. Damn shame.

After the grapes, Sarah led me up to the roof of her building where we had an incredible panoramic view of the entire city. I took my tripod with me (special thanks to the parents :P) and I got some pretty spectacular photos of the skyline.

The next day was my last full day in Madrid, but again everything was closed, so Sarah and I took to the streets, walking around and taking pictures of anything that looked awesome enough to warrant it. We ended up in the Plaza de Toros, running from imaginary bulls.

My final day was also the day that I finally tried tapas! We got some mojitos at a cool little bar near my hostel, and the deal with tapas, is you buy a drink and you get the tapas free! Normally, you just get a little appetizer, but the place we went gave us a full bloody meal with out drinks! Paella and chicken and muscles (I think, it's been a while now...) it was a pretty good spread.

Alas, it was already my final night in Madrid. Tired from all the running around, Sarah and I relaxed in a park with some beer and potato chips. We waxed philosophical, joked that we were more than just friends of Facebook now, and I dunked my camera in the drink (it survived, thank God). It was an awesome trip in an awesome city, and I really look forward to repaying Sarah the favor of being my tour guide when she comes to Munich for some real beer!

Madrid!

Madrid Skyline at Midnight - New Years Day

Hola everyone! I just got back from an amazing New Year's trip to Madrid! I spent about 4 days there (Tuesday night through Saturday morning) and just had a blast seeing the city and hanging out with my friend, Sarah J, and her host parents, Jorge and Lola.

I arrived on Tuesday night, a little late, and met Sarah at the airport. I only had half an hour to check into my hostel so we immediately jumped on a bus and headed into town. Once we arrived and got my things in the room, I wanted to start seeing the city, so Sarah took me out to see the neighborhood. We walked around Chueca, then went towards Gran Via and Sol, before stopping for some Sangria at a little place near Puerta del Sol. Delicious, and the first of many tasty experiences with Spanish food. By now it was getting late, close to 1:30 when the metro stopped running, so we hopped on the metro and parted ways until Wednesday.

Unfortunately, being eager to see as much of Madrid as I could, I had suggested to meet up early the next day, around 9. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but at 8:30 when I woke up I was having second thoughts. Somehow I was able to get downstairs and meet Sarah on time, but we immediately agreed to never meet so early again. I hadn't had any breakfast yet, so we began our day by heading to a bakery in Sol. I got a Neopolitan, I think it was called, and a danish. Next we went to El Corte Ingles in order to get some necessities, then we went for a walk. We saw a lot the first day. We went to La Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral, and the Palacia Real de Madrid.

El Palacio Real de Madrid

I took a bunch of pictures and used a program to stitch them together, getting the wide, panorama shots above. They're a little rough around the edges, but still pretty neat!

After the Cathedral, we had two more Spanish treats ahead of us. First, Chocolate con Churros! We stopped by a small place and got a plate of churros with a big cup of thick, syrupy chocolate sauce. Tasty... and delicious. You simply take a churros and dip it in the chocolate, and once you're finished with the churros, it's like a very thick cup of hot chocolate! After churros, we stopped by Sarah's host parents place for a Spanish lunch of paella.

From Madrid

It was really tasty. I can't remember everything that was in it, but I'll have to get Sarah to get me a recipe. The best part was that Lola kept insisting that I eat more. I was so stuffed by the end, I wasn't sure if I would be able to walk... I had to though, because Sarah wasn't done showing me the city yet!

After our late lunch (in Spain, lunch is usually around 2:00 - 2:30) we set out again to check out some more sights. We wanted to see el Museo Nacional del Prado before it closed, and el Parque del Retiro was on the way, so we browsed through the park first. A pamphlet Sarah had given me with all sorts of sights to see in Madrid had el Palacio de Cristal on the cover, and that was in el Retiro, so we made our way through the park looking for it. We most certainly did NOT get lost looking for it. And we also certainly did NOT mistake another building for it, even when it was right in front of us. Neither of those things happened.

Anyway, it was already getting rather dark and cold, and I couldn't get very good pictures without my tripod, so we decided to leave the park for the museum and come back later; not a moment too soon, but rather a few moments too late. We were about halfway to the Prado when we were caught in a downpour. By the time we found the museum we were soaked. On the bright side, entry was free and the museum was WARM! So by the time they kicked us out we were nice and dry again.

We left the museum with the plan to meet one of Sarah's friends for dinner. We arrived a bit early and browsed some shops while we waited, then went to a really interesting place for dinner. It reminded me of a 50's style diner. On either side was a bar to sit at; behind one bar was the chef and a kitchen, and behind the other was a bartender and, well, the bar. We all shared some shrimp and a spanish tortilla, which is kind of like an omelet. I also tried Spanish beer Sarah kept mentioning. It was... ok. I think I might be spoiled here in Germany, but the Spanish beer tasted a little watery to me.

When dinner was over, Sarah's friend and her boyfriend wanted to try Sangria, so we made our way back to the little bar near Sol. Apparently, they were setting up the square for the big New Years party the following day, because there were police and pedestrians everywhere. The police were hilarious, though. We would walk down a street, only to find the way to Sol blocked off. So, we would walk to the next street and keep going, unobstructed. One time, we saw a policeman stop a guy as he was trying to go around a barrier, then we went through the exact same barrier, not a foot away from the cop who was chewing someone out, and none of the other cops stopped us. Then, a minute later, the barrier was gone! Anyway, we got our sangria and hung out a bit longer before calling it a night. Sarah helped me find my way back to my hostel, and we pledged to meet up again the next day... just several hour later than 9 am.

To Be Continued...

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!