Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tonight’s the night! I have never traveled by myself and was getting a bit worried. I left from Catalina’s around 7 p.m. with plenty of time to hop a city bus to get to the bus station. My actual bus wasn’t leaving until 9:30 p.m., but I thought better safe than sorry. I probably arrived an hour early and I passed the time by chatting up the vendors and the people at the Granada tourist office. I hopped on my bus from Granada to Malaga and arrived to the airport at nearly 12 midnight. My flight wasn’t departing until 6 a.m. To pass the time, I ate my dinner (delicious tuna sandwich!), did all of my homework, and "people watched". I finally gave in and slept for about 2 hours, but I made sure that my bag was secured.
Friday, April 8, 2011
I woke up feeling groggy and dirty… decision: go to the restroom to wash up. Win. Soon after, I boarded the plane and was off to Memmingen (Munich West) Germany! Around 9 a.m., I arrived into the teeny-tiny airport in Memmingen. This part of my travel was what worried me the most. I needed to hop a city bus and connect to the train station to take an hour and a half long train into the city center of Munich. The information desk introduced me to 3 girls around my age, who happened to be from Malaga, Spain! We teamed up and split the cost of a group ticket, which saved me tons of money!
I had a minor scare/breakdown in the train station before boarding when I "lost" my wallet. Horrible thoughts raced through my mind and it took all my strength not to cry. I had to calm down and slowly search through my belongings...guess where it was? The bottom of my purse. Weird, you wouldn't think that is where a wallet belongs? Phew! After collecting myself, we boarded the train. The ride to Munich was great and I was able to talk with my spanish friends in Spanish the whole way! So fun!
Spanish Friends!
Around 12 noon, I was dieing of hunger since I had only eaten an orange that day around 5 a.m. before my flight. As soon as I arrived into Munich train station, the girls were there to meet me! I couldn’t hug them enough! It was great to meet up with Mal, Laura, and Casey (some of my high school friends). Immediatley, we went to a knock off Chipotle restaurant for awesome burritos! Mmmm.
Later on, back at Mal’s dorm where we were all staying, we dropped off our belongings and headed right back out to starkbierfest, the spring version of Octoberfest!!! We each bought a huge stein of beer (8.50 euro!) and then decided to split another between the 4 of us. The best part of the starkbierfest was seeing all of the Germans in their “dress up” clothes. For nice occacions, the Germans wear dirndls and lederhosen. So cute!
At starkbierfest with our giant steins!
A rather entertaining video from starkbierfest.
After chilling a bit at the starkbierfest, we headed back to the dorm and made dinner at Mal’s place. After showering and getting ready, the 4 of us went to one of her campus bars. It was kind of a mini culture shock in itself going to Germany. The language is so harsh-sounding and all the men either sport a long beard or a long ponytail. I guess German men aren’t really for me ;).
Saturday, April 9, 2011
With a great night’s rest under our belts, we woke up, had a small breakfast, and headed out to the flohmarkt, or flea market. Even though this makes me seem kinda lame, the market was one of my favorite things to see! We searched through everyone’s things and it made me feel as though we were at a gigantic outdoor garage sale. I found some pretty cool stuff, including a German pair of Moon Boots (*Melissa!).
So many dolls! Just a snapshot of some of the treasures sold here.
Around noon, we headed out and took the metro (U-bahn) to Konigsplatz, which is one of the main plazas. We stopped for lunch to try some German food! I had currywurst, which was basically a sliced bratwurst with curry sauce and fries. I’d say pretty darn good! From there, we explored Munich and went to see a few museums. The strangest part was standing in front of one of Hitler’s old Administration buildings. It was weird to think we were walking right where he once did. The whole time in Germany, we kept saying how we felt like we were reliving a history book.
City hall in Munich, Germany
Trying out some German food. MMmmm.
Later that evening, after a quick nap and time to relax, the 4 of us as well as 2 more of Mal’s college friends and a few Munich friends went to a restaurant called Wirthaus. We all ordered a stein. I will definitely miss the large amounts of beer when I go back to Spain/America. For dinner, I ordered schnitzel, which was pork that had been marinated and covered in mustard and then breaded! I loved it! After dinner, we made our way back to Mal’s campus to grab a beer at one of the local bars. We went to a bar on top of one of the dorms called the Manhatten. Since we were all super tired, we called it an early night, but ended up sleeping in super late! J
Learning the ways of those German women!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Laura had quite the madrugada (wake early) around 5:30 a.m. She was off to Florence that afternoon too! Mal, Casey, and I slept in a bit and took our time getting ready for the day. We met up with a few of her friends around 11:30 and had an awesome “all-you-can-eat” brunch for 4.50 euro. You better believe we swiped food for some snacks later on ! Casey only had until 3 p.m. to hang out, so we decided to grab her belongings and take the metro to the city center at Marianplatz. Since it was Sunday, most everything was closed, but it was great to be able to talk for a while and simply catch up with some old high school buddies. We got some delicious ice cream and walked around a bit until it was time for Casey to head back to Rome. Mal and I went back to her dorm and decided to grab some books and a beach towel. We chilled on her quad, soaked in the sun, read, and even took a light nap. That evening, Mal took me to try Indian food for the first time. 2 of her friends in Germany came along for the adventure. That night, we hung out at one of the campus bars until nearly 1 a.m. My alarm was going off at 5 a.m. Yikes. I ended up catching all of my transportation and getting to sleep well on each one. It was a wonderful weekend trip to Munich and it was so great to be able to meet up with 3 awesome people!
Mal's "quad" in Munich.
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