HAPPY St. Patricks Day! March 17, 2008

It’s been a while since I have taken the time to update you all on what I have been doing.  It’s not that I have been super busy or anything seeing that school has been out since mid January, but it is more like I sort of fell into a routine of not being motivated to do much of anything. Well that is not entirely true either.  Between the breaks I have successfully found an internship in Munich working for a company called Ciao.  They are Europe’s largest online shopping comparison website and have just launched a US division.  So needless to say that I will be working on the US website helping to get it up and running in terms of content development.  It is sort of funny, because as I was reviewing my goals that I set out for myself with regards to finding an internship, I realized that I really have only really accomplished one of the two. 

The first being finding an internship and moving to Munich which I am proud to announce from my balcony as I wear my standard navy issued flight suit “Mission Accomplished”.  However the second goal I set out for myself never really materialized.  Now I am sure all of you must be thinking it has to do with something with some sort of Eastern European hottie or something like that (BTW Mission Accomplished) but that is not what I am talking about.  Goal number two was to find an internship in a consulting firm and that one didn’t happen.  Not for any particular reason but the closest I got was a company telling me that from my resume and experience I appeared to be more suited for strategic planning instead of operational planning.  I have to admit I scratched my head on this one, now I know I think differently than most people but doesn’t it seem to follow that to be good at Operational planning you should also be good at  strategic planning? I mean how can you put things into action if you do not or can not see the big picture?  Defiantly weird, I knew I should have worn pants to the interview!  Relax people, it was a phone interview, but somehow I think they knew I wasn’t wearing any pants.  So where does this leave me, actually right where I need to be.  Although working for a consulting firm would have been amazing, I think that the skills and the experiences I am going to learn about content development and web site optimization is going to better for me in the long run and help me to get to my overall goal of working for a consulting firm.  Now the problem I face is actually finding a reasonable place to live in Munich before my job starts in two weeks. 

I want to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s day and happy Easter.  I am off to dye my hair green and start a 10 hour shift (5 of actual work and about 6 of drinking) pulling Guinness for the throngs of Germans who wonder why we drink green beer and what exactly the words to all those Rebel Irish songs mean (Go on Home British Soldiers Go on Home, Fuck off home!) and to perpetuate the myth that every Irish Bar in Germany is supported by the IRA. Coming Soon, My Irish German experiences or in the words of the Godfather “My kraut mick friend”.

Is it Buda or pest January 29, 2008

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect upon landing in Budapest, especially since the last three days in Stockholm had defiantly been three of the best since I have been traveling this whole semester.  Since I had already been to Prague, I figured that Budapest would be very similar both historically, culturally, architecturally, and weather wise. It pretty much was except that when I got in to the cab from the Airport and gave the name of my Hotel to the driver sort of sent the tone for the next few days:

 Him: Where to?

Me: Greedbridge Hostel

Him: Is that Buda or Pest

Me: Umm its Budapest

Him: I know that but which side?

(This is all in broken English)

Me Thinking to myself: what the hell kind of cab driver is this.

Me:  So do you speak German?

Him: Yes, Why?

In my best German: You are the freaking Cab driver and should know which side it is on.

Him: Silence…..Excuse me but I just wanted to know if you knew which side.

Needless to say at this point I am so torqued off, not because I am thinking that I am going to be kidnapped and sold in to Slavery or worse yet, end up on a farm sleeping with a donkey ( Simpsons episode where Bart goes to France) No, I am pissed off because he has the nerve to ask me what side it is, like we are playing “Who wants to be a Millionaire” and the answer will determine if I get humiliated on national TV at such a seemingly easy question.. Grrrrr.

 

I finally make it to my Hostel which incidently is on the Pest side about two blocks from the Danube.  This hostel was amazing, the staff was amazing along with the people I met there.  Now here is the thing that I didn’t expect, from the 23^rd-26^th pretty much everything was closed, so needless to say I ate at the same place for three days straight and it was a son of a bitch trying to find a store open to buy some snacks in the middle of the day.  The way that it was explained to me was if the Hungarians are not busy, they pretty much close up the store and go home. Hey, it makes perfect sense to me right? Except that I am vacation and want to see all the sights!  The first day I grab my camera, scarf and gloves and head out to do my best impression of a Japanese tourist and take as many photos as I can.  The weather was so bad, all fogy and dark that I ended up taking a lot of my photos in Black and White to make them turn out better. I was a little put out by this because I had heard about the beauty of Budapest and wanted to see it in all of its glory, but oddly enough, the deserted streets and snow covered buildings made me think about the way life must have been behind the Iron Curtain: Dark, Dreary, Lonely, and Miserable, but yet somehow Beautiful, Vibrant, and Peaceful.

 

    Walking the bridge from Pest to Buda was a truly magnificent sight, all of the Castles lie above Buda overlooking the banks of the Danube, very breathtaking.  Buda and Pest were two separate town, Pest the Industrial and Buda the more affluent and artesian.  The two towns came together only after someone had the foresight to actually build a bridge connecting the two.  Budapest actually boasts a few firsts, it was the first city in continental Europe to have a Subway (1850 I think) and more recently, it was the first country to open its boarders with Germany in the 1990’s contributing to the fall of the Iron Curtain.  The main church which surrounds the imperial palace in Buda has an interesting story in its self.  It seems that when the Muslims conquered Buda, they had turned the catholic church into a mosque, which is what was typically done.  However, the Story goes that a mysterious explosion at a ammunition dump close to the church caused a statue of the Virgin Mary to be exposed within the mosque in the middle of afternoon pray. Needless tot say that the appearance of Mary inspired to Maygars to rise up against the Muslims and the Muslims naturally took it as a bad omen and didn’t want anything to do with that church again. 

     Anyways, on Christmas day, I ended up meeting 5 Brazilians who were on holiday, I know what you are thinking, but three study in England and one in Stockholm, so it makes total sense.  We managed to find a place that was open and ate and drank wine all night long until they kicked us out. It sort of reminded me of my Christmas Eves back in San Diego where I usually gather with friends and we all have a humongous dinner followed by wine and drinks. So it was a comfortable situation for me to say the least and the highlight was definitely on the trek back watching the girls experience their first snow fall. High Comedy for sure.  I was at a loss for what to do on Christmas day so I did what anybody would do in my situation, I went and got a 3 hour long Tai massage, it was so cheap, I think I actually made money on the damn thing!

     The next day, I faced a dilemma.  Budapest is know for it’s thermal baths but I also wanted to go Caving with my friends that I had met in my hostel and I knew something had to give, so me being me rationalized that since I already had a three hour Tai Massage, then what the heck did I need to go to a thermal bath for?  So 5 of us decide to go and make the journey to just outside of Buda and see what kind go trouble we can get into.  After getting suited up, we outside and follow the path down to the cave where we are greeted by a giant metal door.  To put this in perspective, its pitch black outside, the only lights we have are our caving lights, its cold and these doors look like the entrance way to a satanic cults sacrificial alter. It actually wouldn’t have surprised me if a Vampire appeared out of nowhere and started battling with a Werewolf. Into the cave we go, we wind up about 40 meters beneath Buda and all is going well until I GET STUCK. Yep, the fat man got stuck. I felt like Poohbear stuck in a honey pot.  I’m not going to lie, I panicked for about a second, then cooler heads prevailed, well sort of.  I get the instructions to “Breath in and Hold On” WTF?? Breath in an Hold on, whats this crazy Hungarian going to do to me? I knew I should have gone to the baths.  Three hard tugs on my jumper and I go popping out like the timer on a perfectly cooked turkey.  Good times, Good times.

     So Budapest, what can I say besides I would like to go back and see it in the summertime when everything is opened and the scenery is perfect. Because honestly, after being in eastern Europe in the winter time, it is easy to figure out why they never smile but then again it might be because the People that oppressed them for 50 years are now the lifeblood of the tourist industry. What a mad mad place we live……..

My Stockholm Syndrome December 30, 2007

I think that my first exposure to Sweden must have those classic 90’s Bud-lite beer commercials featuring the Swedish Bikini Team and then again when they made an appearance at the end of the movie “Dumb and Dumber”. As the time for my departure to Stockholm came nearer, I began to wonder just how accurate these portrayals were.  On my flight up there, I ended up sitting next to my friend Mitch who I know from the University here and who is also from Stockholm, his departing words to me were, “Yes, the women are really that beautiful.”  Needless to say I was really excited to experience this whole “northern culture” seeing how I have always wanted to travel to Scandinavia and in true Josh fashion, I didn’t do that much research before hand and decided to just roll with the punches and see what happened.  This is what I did know about Sweden before going.

1. It is the home of absolute Vodka

2. Tiger Woods’ wife is from Stockholm

3. it’s expensive to buy stuff there,

4. They don’t use the Euro,

5. They still have a constitutional monarchy. 

I thought I had all the bases covered you know? I mean what else was there to learn.  Upon checking into my room at the hostel, I met a fellow traveler passing through on his way to Croatia for New Years. Turns out he was from Encinitas and also attended SDSU as well as knowing some of the same people I do. What are the chances right?  Well the next day we ran into a girl at a coffee shop and it turns out that she was originally from Stockholm but had just returned home from living in Encinitas for 10 years. Finally it made sense to me, all the beautiful women in SoCal aren’t native Californians, they are all Swedish transplants! Mystery Solved.

Stockholm is an entire city made up of many islands; Stockholm actually has more water running through it than the entire city of Venice.  In addition to all the canals, there is an outer archipelagos’ ring where a lot of people have summer vacation homes, and according to Mitch, if it was summer time then we would defiantly be spending some time at his family’s vacation home. (Note to self: go back in the summer time)  The Swedes themselves are a very friendly people and they all speak really good English,( at least the ones I met)  the reason for this is because apparently, unlike Germany where all American shows are dubbed into German, the Swedes run the original programs in English but subtitle them into Swedish. That’s not to say that they don’t have any Swedish shows, because they do, but they also have a lot of English shows. 

Stockholm is a beautiful city in the dead of winter, still very alive and vibrant even though all the trees are dormant and the canals are frozen over.  They also have many beautiful museums.  Of the two Museums that we went to, the Vassa Museum must have been my favorite.  The Vassa was a Gunship that sunk in the Stockholm Harbor in the 1600’s and wasn’t rediscovered until the 1950’s.  It was salvaged and resorted and now sits in a museum on one of the many islands as a tribute to the Swedish Naval Prowess in the 1600’s.  The second museum that we went to was the Nobel Museum.  Truth be told, I had high hopes for this one because of the grandiose size of the building, but once I entered, I was severely disappointed, it had only 4 rooms downstairs and not many exhibits. There was a small exhibit featuring the current winners from 2007 and yes when I walked by the Al Gore part, I shook my head in disgust.  Then they had two rooms where they showed bio-docs on past winners and an additional small room that housed a brief history of Alfred Nobel. Very anti climatic and not very impressive considering all of the good that man kind has reaped as a result of the works of the winners.  Although, they did have all the winners on banners and what they won for on a rail system that would move across the ceiling but the only problem with that was that after 10 minutes of looking up my neck got a cramp in it.

Johnny and I had just about all of the tourist things taken care of except for the Absolute Ice Bar.  The bar is constructed entirely out of ice, even to go as far as have all the cups for the cocktails made out of ice, a totally cool concept. Seeing how the bar is kept at a constant 23 degrees, we were outfitted with shiny blue parkas with furry hoods and gloves (I sort of felt like Luke Skywalker wearing mine in Empire) and were only allotted 45 minutes in the deep freeze.  So my buddy and I being bartenders decided that we would ask the bartender (do I really need to say how beautiful she was) if we could have pictures made with her but we needed to do it in such a way that it wouldn’t come off as creepy. So I decided to tell her that we were bartenders/students back home just like she was (truth) and we traveled a lot together (lie) and every bar we went to in a new country, we would take pictures of us with the bar staff (truth) and put them up in the bar back home (an almost truth)  I am not sure if it was the thought of having her picture up in a bar back in SD appealed to her, or that I looked like Han Solo in my parka, but she obliged and well she will now have a place with the Waitress from Prague and the Go Go dancers from Budapest on my screen saver. 

So in a nutshell that was Stockholm, and I keep on coming back to two thoughts, 1. The most beautiful women in the world live there and it is a consolation prize for living in such a cold place in the winter and 2. The city has captivated me and I can’t wait to go back in the summer.

Himmel auf die Welt (Heaven on Earth) December 18, 2007

I didn’t know what to quite expect seeing how as usaul we were not given alot of information about our destination; just a meeting place and time with minimum gear requirements. All I knew was that I was going to Switzerland to go snowboarding and that’s all that mattered to me after a stressful week of classes. Seeing how Switzerland is not part of the E.U. were asked to bring our passports and well, they didn’t check them (that’s right, I am a boarder jumper, let the jokes begin) We made it to the resort just in the nick of time because like good German Students, we all bought beers at the rest area to help us enjoy the ride. But here is the funny thing about Germany in the Winter, the buses don’t have working bathrooms. Something about freezing or something. What ever….

 

 

As we wound our way through the little city, I began to wonder if our hostel would be close to the slopes or on the outskirts of town where we would have to take a bus for 20 minutes to get to the snow. Luckily we pulled up into the parking lot close to the high speed gondola and started loading the gondolas for the assent to mid mountain where out lodge was located. Somehow and I don’t known how, I ended up in a gondola full of gear and all by myself. It wouldn’t have been so bad but it was 10pm dark and windy. That was just about the longest 10 minutes of my life. We found our rooms and tried to settle in except that the beds were bunk style with 7 across the top and 7 across the bottom. In my infinite wisdom I thought that I would choose the top bed because it would have more head room. Umm that’s a negative Ghost Rider, I couldn’t even sit straight up in bed, and to top it off, the first night I slept with my head barely hanging over the edge and lost two pillows while my feet kept slamming into the wall, the second night, I though I would change my position but I kept hitting my head on the wall and my feet fell asleep and then there is the Canadian bear, or more bluntly, the guy that snored and kept everyone up, I though my buddy Marcello was bad but this dude was way worse. But then I looked out the window and was truely awestruck. After a breakfast of cereal, and what I assumed was Swiss cheese without the holes, I ventured outside and strapped my snowboard on to head towards the lift. The weather could not have been better, it was sunny,-5 and clear out side. It had just snowed three days prior and it was opening day of the lifts so we were treated to Virgin snow. I can’t begin to explain what it was like being up there, it felt as if I could touch the heavens. As all lifts rides tend to be, it was absolutely quiet and serene to the top of the mountain. The day that ensued was one of total comedy, between me not boarding for over 4 years and a lot of my friends just learning it seemed like there were “yard sales” at every corner and some poor soul running into someone else. The lowlight of my day had to be after 5 hours of non stop boarding, I was cruising down one of the easy slopes, caught an edge and fell backwards hitting my head on the ice which sent my hat and goggles fling about 20 feet from me. As I am laying there, trying to laugh but not very successfully because I had the wind knocked out of me, I hear this old guy next to me speaking in something other than German, at that moment it could have been the African Clicking Language because I couldn’t understand a word he was saying, partly because it was Swiss Deutsch and partly because my head was still ringing but all I can remember saying was “Alle ist Klar” over and over which pretty much means “It’s all good”

The next day after popping 2 advils, I attempted to do a few runs but I was so sore I could barely move, so I decided to do a few sledding runs. These sled were so fast and the only way to steer was to use your feet, needless to say, I ran off the edge a few times into chest high powder and even managed to run into a few safety nets. After my last run I decided to call it a day and bask in the sun on the sun deck trying to relax my aching body. It has always been a dream of mine to go boarding in the Swiss Alps and they took more than they gave, and if I could figure out a way to live there for ever, I just might do it. It was just that awesome!

Czech me out December 10, 2007

Prague, Praha, call it what you will, all I know is that I love it. People often describe some cities as “having something for everyone” believe me, Prague really does. You can just about do anything you want there, you just have to ask someone to figure out if it is feasible and then do it. In a city where anything goes and debauchery lies around every corner, there is also a very sophisticated and cultured side to Prague, it just happens to be on opposite corners of the aforementioned debauchery. Here you can watch classical music concerts in lavish baroque palaces and even trace the steps of Kafka, Prague’s favorite son.

Being my second time in Prague I thought that I had a good grasp of the city, but apparently the last time I was there we had just scratched the surface. I would like to say that the trip there was uneventful but that was not the case. My friends and I had gathered on Wednesday to talk about our upcoming trip, the conversation soon became an early apology for the prospect of farting on the plane on Thursday. To which I responded, “What are you talking about we are leaving Friday”? You could hear a pin drop; they all looked at me and in unison said “I thought we all had the same flight, what are you talking about”? The conversation loosely followed like this:

Me: What do you mean?
Them: Bro we are leaving Thursday!
Me: Quit screwing around, I had planned to study all day tomorrow before we left.
Them: (Laughing) Lets check and you can study on the flight.
Me: (5 minutes Later) My bad guys. If this is how the trip is going to start, one of us might  not be coming home, good thing we have repatriation insurance

We arrive at our hotel after a 45 minute flight (about the same amount of time it takes to fly to Las Vegas from San Diego) and are met by our driver who takes us to our hotel. The room we got was more like a two bedroom apartment with a huge proper shower and a bidet (more on this later) after dibs were called on the beds we went out for round one of sight seeing. Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk to city center in afternoons and late at night it sure felt like 1 hour, which I am pretty sure it was a couple of times. Anyways after the first day of getting acclimated to the city we decided to grab something to eat before we went out for the evening. We figured that we would eat close to our hotel since it would be a little cheaper than down in the city center. We picked this place to eat that was running a deal of soup (it was ridiculously good) goulash (rabbit, duck, or beef) a salad, and a beer for 110 Kroner. For reference, 17.48 Kroner equal one dollar and 25 Kroner equates to 1€. Super cheap and super good. We stop by the grocery store to pick up a case of beer to take to our room. The lady behind the counter tried to explain to us that there was a deposit of 100 Krowns on the crate, except when she did it, she tried to enlist the help of this lady behind us thinking that her English was better but it wasn’t so after 2 minutes of hand motions and broken English mixed with Czech. We responded in German that we understood and left. They looked super confused and didn’t know what to say and it was almost as awkward as the night receptionist gave us as we went walking past her desk with a crate of beer. We were supposed to have a refrigerator in our room but dammed if we could find it to being the bright college students we took matters into our own hands and in a stroke of genius that MacGyver would have been proud of we lined out entire case of beer between our double pained windows. I’ve pretty much decided that I want double pained windows in my next house. Later that evening we ventured out into the night and I surprised my self by being able to find my favorite bars with out much trouble (we referred to this as ‘Beer Fest’ syndrome) some 6 hours later, we returned home and wouldn’t you know it, I broke my bed while sitting on it eating a snack, but I didn’t drop my cookie, that would have totally ruined my night.

The next night we went to a caveman dinner show. That’s right, I said it, caveman. Basically it was like Medieval times except everyone was dressed like cavemen so was the décor, no silverware, and we drank our beers out of stone bowls. Our waitress? When speaking to us, would pretty much grunt while mixing some Czech. Into it. The dinner show included a drum circle, the sacrifice of a virgin (although we all doubt she really was) and the chief peeing on someone. Bizarre and highly amusing one of the highlights of the trip although my description here does not do it justice. After dinner we all decided to a lounge and Czech it out.( I am actually bummed I didn’t buy the T-shirt that said “Czech me out”) The lounge was beautiful, full of beautiful people and good music that is until someone decided to play half of the Greece soundtrack back to back. The Girls there didn’t speak English so it made it difficult to try to talk to them and ummm “network” after about an hour of hearing this, my buddy and I adopted the unofficial slogan “What would you do for an American Visa”? So the rest of the weekend was filled with more pictures, more inappropriate comments (mostly directed at each other) and 1€ beer. But the most lasting memory I will have has to me the moment I conquered my fear of the bidet. Believe me they are pretty scary and if you don’t get the water temperature just right, you are in for a rude awakening.

So what’s up next? School sponsored ski trip to Switzerland, Stockholm from the 20-23^rd, Budapest for Christmas, and new years in Munich!

Florence Again…. December 5, 2007

So two weeks ago I had the chance to go back to Florence and hang out with some friends of mine that I go to school with at State who are studying there.  Although I only spent a few days there, and I love Germany, I didn’t want to come back but that is only because of the great weather. It was like 13 degrees centigrade there while when I left Germany it was 4 a huge difference let me tell you.  My adventure started when I got to the airport at Stuttgart two hours early ( I had a safety margin built in because we had our SIB winter ball the night before)  just be on the safe side, I now know what German for “your plane has been canceled mean” However, Air Italia was nice enough to already have me rebooked on a Lufthansa except there is one problem, I have to fly to München first, about a 45 min flight, get delayed there for an hour and then fly straight to Florence, another 45 minute flight. So pretty much I traveled for 4 hours all hung over to flight direct for 45mins. I know it was 45 mins. Direct because I had a direct flight back on Sunday (not hung over). 

           The first night there, since it was so late at night by the time I arrived; we went and grabbed an awesome supper. Here is the thing about eating the whole weekend, my friends meal plan through the university he is at includes local restaurants so I pretty much at for free all for the cost of a few bottles of wine. (I think in Germany, Beer would have been included)  We walked around the city ended up in all places a bar owned by Argentineans’ that serves nothing but Pauliner German beer.  I never realized how expensive Florence was the last time I was there but the same glass of beer in Germany would have cost 2.50 3.00€ and not the 5.50€ in Florence.  The other thing I noticed this time around was how Americans were in Florence. It was pretty noticeable for me because I know just about all 20 Americans that are at my University here in Germany. Apparently, Florence is the number one study abroad destination for American students, something like 6000 a semester go there.  The second night I was there we were like Asian tourists, the only thing missing was our flowered shirts and camera cases around our necks. Then again it was colder and I don’t think that that would have been prudent. Although the thought did cross my mind to throw on my sandals.  One of the best things about this trip was how I managed to take pictures that I didn’t get two springs ago, well maybe they were of the same building but from different angles and by my account that makes them different photo’s (It just took me 2 minutes to figure out how to spell photo in English because I kept typing it as the German word) By the end of our grand sightseeing adventure, we were holed up in a bar coming up with our next great business plan. We laid out elaborate plans to go back and open up a Lounge. I mean why wouldn’t we? Some one needs to cater to those 6000 American Students.  I woke up the next morning and begrudgingly walked the quite Florentine streets to the bus for the airport. The one thought that kept going through my mind was “gee, I wonder how cold it is in Germany” when I got home it was 4 degrees and raining. I began to wonder if it was too late to go back, but I grabbed a 2.10€ beer out of the fridge and never thought about it again

Next up Prague part two (it already happened, I’m just alittle slow posting)

It’s Snowing November 15, 2007

That’s right I said it, it’s snowing, I have to admit that I was a little confused when it started seeing how its been about 10 years since I have seen snow. It started yesterday afternoon and has been steady since then. As my friend from South Africa told me this morning, ” I wish people would quit bitching about the snow, I love it!” and my response was, “we’ll see how much you love it after you slip on some ice” Which is what almost happened to me on what I have begun calling “the stairs of death”. Those would be the stairs leading from our dorm building up to our way to campus or was the case last night leading home from the bar under our dorm. All i know is that I am happy that the internet is finally working so I can get some work done(procrastinate)! I am convinced that when the weather is good, they slow it down so that people will get out and enjoy the weather and speed it up so we don’t get cabin fever and start going crazy. I have spent this last week working on sending out some applications to consulting firms in München to try to get an internship. No word yet on if they like me or not. but the way I figure it is that it is a numbers game so I need to send out about 20 more before I get a yes. The worst thing about the whole ordeal is that it is a pain in the ass trying to find English equivalents for the required documents but I have a few friends helping me with the translations and what not.

School is going great, except that everyone is working at a fast pace to get all the group final projects done before the winter break which is Dec. 20th. It does not help matters that the library is only open until 8pm. I mean seriously, where am I supposed to go to get away from my distractions in the evening to cram for exams and pull all nighters to get papers done without disturbing my roommate? My days seem to be filled with sorting out the 50 emails a day I get from faculty and staff and half of those are the same email from different people. These things are seriously pissing me off and when I get like this I begin to wonder how legitimate their claim of being the best Business School is! not to mention what it must be like to go to one of the bottom tiered business schools. This weekend we are taking a trip to Frieberg which is in the Black Forrest to see the sights and what not, it should make for some interesting photos since i think they are getting hammered with snow and not to mention an interesting ride down the autobahn on a tour bus! So I am going back to get some work done and by work I mean stare out the window at the falling snow while drinking tee (I gave up coffee well almost a cup every few days) or maybe i should trek into town and get some snowshoes because I think I might need them if this keeps up!

I Heart Munich November 6, 2007

 I know I have been slacking at keeping this thing updated but I find myself being increasingly busy as the weeks go on and I forget to do this.  This weekend we had a 4 day weekend because of All Saints Day on the 1^st of November so some friends and I decided to go to Munich for the weekend.  I don’t think that this will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me well but I LOVE Munich, I guess you sort of have to have been there 3 times in the last 2 years.  I don’t know what it is about the city but it has this amazing vibe, it can be a big bustling city with 1.3 million people where you can get lost in the crowds or sometimes it feels like you are actually part of the city and not a faceless number. Walking around on Thursday when we got there I started seeing things that I recognized and remembering where stuff was at witch is a feat if you have heard my stories about Munich and the world Cup last year. I will start off by saying that I grew my beard this weekend, for no particular reason besides my face has been getting cold and it is easier and less scary to grow a beard than wear a full blown ski mask. (I might imagine that some of you might disagree with this) anyways I think that the Bavarians appreciate a good beard because every where I went by myself everyone would not slip into their default English which they normally do when they suspect someone of being American but spoke German with me and I must admit I held my own pretty well until they busted out the hard core dialect. Need I say more?  In fact I spent Friday by myself exploring the things that I hadn’t seen yet while my friends when up to Dachau to visit the work camp.  During my adventure on Friday I spoke nothing but German until I ran into some American girls on the Subway who were looking pretty lost and I helped them out and gave them some good tips. Who would have thought that I could be a tour guide?  On Friday I went to Schloss Nymphenburg witch was the summer palace for the ruling family of Bavaria.  How can you have a summer palace in the city you ask? Well at the time it was built it was no where near the city center and was suitable for a nice summer retreat.  On the grounds of the palace, there is a hunting palace for the queen who boasts a kitchen entirely covered in Delft tiles and Botanical Gardens. In addition to these features, Mozart was said to have played piano for the King as a child in this palace and it also houses the entire royal carriage and sleigh collection.   For lunch I grabbed the traditional Bavarian Weiss Würst and an Augustiner Lager, the perfect thing to warm a chilly body.  Later that night we met up with a friend of mine who goes to SDSU who has been interning in Munich for the last 9 months. We ended up having cocktails at this lounge that overlooked Marienplatz and gave a great view of the glockenspiel which is housed in the clock tower of the Neue Rathaus.  This was a great time catching up but we had a 6 am train to catch to take us down to the Bavarian Alps near the town of Fussen so we could go tour Neuschwanstein. 

          Neuschwanstein is the fairytale castle build by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and it was also the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s castle.  Ludwig II is often thought of as the “Mad King” of Bavaria and it a misconception that he bankrupted Bavaria by building lavish castles like this one but he actually used personal money and not the State’s to finance these projects.  Ludwig II was a romantic and identified with the period of romanticism in art which in it’s self is why all of the art displayed in the castle is in the Romanticist style.  Another person that he drew inspiration from was the composer Richard Wagner, whom it is believed that he built this castle for so he could hear Wagner play in it.  The castle took 17 years to build and only 7 rooms or about 1/3 was complete before Ludwig II died.  No one knows how he died but what is known is that he was found floating in a lake.  The best part of the tour had to have been our tour guide, he sounded exactly like The Govenator, it was hilarious. The most annoying part was that we waited 2 hours, took a 2 hour train ride and only got a 35minute tour which wasn’t all that detailed oh and by the way, you can’t take pictures once inside the castle. I am assuming this is not to protect the art but because if everybody stopped to take pictures than it would take forever to get groups through.  So I guess it makes sense, you might be asking yourself if it is worth it? And the answer is unequivocally yes, the views of the castle and the surrounding areas are totally worth it, not to mention appfelstrudel  with vanilla custard for breakfast and the dude jamming out to Slip Knot while preparing my curry würst for lunch.

          Saturday evening was the highlight of the trip, it for ever will be known for ever as “Indiana Jones and the search for the perfect cocktail”  It started off at this fantastic burger place called M.C. Muller’s, it was a nice cozy place with the feel of a lounge, one of the best burgers I have had here so far. In the corner was a DJ spinning while we ate and drank but here is the problem, the cocktails were horrible, I ordered a martini, witch came to me with no olive and waaaayyyyy to much vermouth, but like a champ I finished it and had a beer with my dinner.  Craving a good cocktail we walked down MarienStrasse and ended up in this place called Roxy, again it was a crowded night and the atmosphere was bumping.  The girls I was with got a proseco and blue caracus cocktail and I went for a Long Island Ice-Tee, once again horrible, garnished with a lime which made it taste even worse.  I think I figured out the problem though, they don’t use Sour Mix to give it that nice sweet and sour taste, I am thinking this is because they make them to suit European tastes.  So the consequences was that the third time must be the charm so we set out to find this bar called Pusser’s which was recommended to me by some old bar regulars of mine who were German and happened to know the owners.  I figured that they advertised themselves as a New York style bar so they must make good cocktails.  Incidentally last summer my friends and I tried to find this place and we couldn’t, it turns out that we kept missing it by one street and kept walking around in a circle.  Anyways, we go walking in and we hear the live piano playing downstairs, grab a seat at a table in the corner and take it all in. It was a very cozy atmosphere decorated in a nautical theme as homage to their name.  The bartender wore a tie and actually used a seltzer bottle when making some drinks totally old school!  The specialty of the house was a drink called the PUSSERS PAIN KILLER and it came in three different strengths depending on how bad of a day you had.  I have to say that this was the best cocktail we had all night, just perfectly made.  After the second one I started thinking about trying to transfer to The University of Munich and working there!

          Everything in Germany is closed on Sundays except for museums and you can usually get discounted admissions.  We went up to the BMW museum before we left and in all honestly it was a disappointment because they had just a small section open because they were renovating the museum. Instead we went to BMW world which displays all the newest models and features of these cars.  The most interesting thing I saw was a BMW motorcycle that has an in-line 4 cyl. Engine, 160 hp and goes 0-60 in 2,9 seconds. Totally legal here in Germany!  The second interesting thing was the Hydrogen Concept Car which they are putting in the body of a 7 Series.  Currently the motor is both petroleum and Hydrogen but they have been working on a motor that will pump hydrogen directly into the motor during the combustion cycle, amazing right? 

 Munich’s tourist slogan is Munich Loves You and you know what? I love Munich also!

Impressions From the First Two Weeks Of Classes October 9, 2007

I have been since August 28^th and I think that I am almost settled in.  For the first 4 weeks I was here, there as nobody living on my floor except for my roommate Carl and I; the reason for this was because the regular German students had not yet arrived for the beginning of the semester.  This was alright with us because during this time it made it easier for us to get to know all the exchange students, thus giving us a ready made network for when classes started.  On my particular floor, I am the only American living here and the only other native English speaker is my roommate.  The other exchange students and Americans are grouped together, which is not such a bad thing except that it makes it harder for you to go out and meet new people and practice your German.  Our floor has 18 rooms and we all share a common kitchen and TV rooms as well as 4 Bathrooms.  On my floor there are only 4 guys and the rest are girls and it makes for some interesting television watching. For example last night my self and two of the other girls were all curled up on the couch wearing our pajamas, drinking tea and watching some Kate Hudson chic flick.  I am pretty sure that when my roommate walked into the kitchen he had a “what the hell are you watching” look on his face.  It was great! 

In America we have the milk man, and here they have the beer man, seriously, I actually saw the beer man driving his truck around filled with cases of beer and delivering them to residences.  (Note to self, figure out how to get beer delivery in the dorms)  Just a quick note about the getrünk markt, or as we have taken to calling it, the get drunk markt. It is like a super store for beer, wine, water, and liquor. The cases there are filled with 20 half liter bottles, now you must pay a pfand (deposit) on the bottles but when you bring them back you get the price of the pfand deducted from your next case. So if it is a 16 euro case of beer, then the price of the pfand is already in (3 euro) so if you get the same case of beer next time, it only cost you 13 euro, so theoretically depending on what you drink, you could only pay 4 euro per case.  Shopping for groceries is another experience all together.  We have a little place called the Penny Markt about 50 meters from the University and they sell the most random stuff. There you can buy waffles but not syrup.  Jelly and sometimes peanut butter, 2 euro bottles of Chianti, clothes baskets, and pop tarts (but I have only seen them there once).  It is interesting when reading the labels (or should I say attempting to read the labels) to see that food that is GMO or has GMO components is labeled as “Bio nach GMO”  or “Bio with GMO” and foods that are organic are labeled as only “Bio” so you have to be careful to what you are buying.  Incidently, the American students seem to be the only students that pay attention to different “Bio” labels.  We have a market in the towns center on Tuesdays and Saturdays where you can buy farm fresh produce and fruit as well as cheeses, and sometimes meat, although the town center is littered with butcher shops and bakeries.  It has also been difficult for me to buy only what I need on that day and not stock pile for the coming weeks. It just seems to me that it is a waste of time to go shopping for food every day or two days.  Finding food that we like is not too diffucult, although beef in the form of steaks is rather expensive so I have a steady diet of pork.  We even had taco night a few nights ago, where the Americans got together and made tacos and drank sangaria and an assortment of other thing.  The highlight of the evening was when I got to teach the Irish kids how to roll a burrito properly.  Speaking of Mexican food, we ate at the Mexican food place here in town a few weeks ago and although it was a bit expensive it was decent.  What I wouldn’t give for a fish taco or a California Burrito from Roberto’s right now.  

Classes started for us last week and I must say that it has been quite a week.  It took me almost two weeks to coordinate with SDSU and figure out what classes I am allowed to take and what is not authorized.  It was such a hassle, it just seemed like there was an enormous lack of communication between the coordinators here in Germany, the Registrars at State and the Coordinators. They send hundreds of students out each your you think they would have it figured out by now.  I don’t understand why because as far as I know, they all speak English.  Anyways, I have all my classes and they all are in German, the early morning classes usually take me about 30 minutes to get my brain in fine working order before I start to understand what the heck is going on.  I would say that I understand about 75% of what I am hearing, the only thing that sucks is that if they ask a question, I can answer it in English but it takes me a few minutes to figure out how to do it in German and by that time they are already asking another question.  The classes here are all lecture style and they don’t require a text book, although there are some text books in the library for reference, and generally they give out handouts.  You can also go to the bookstore and buy random text books that are suggested to have.  I think the next purchase is going to be an unabridged dictionary.  This Friday I am going to Schloss Lichtenstein which is built to resemble the castle in Wilhelm Hauff’s novel and while we are up there we will also be doing a ropes course.  This Sunday is going to be part two of the Bad-Cannstatt Volksfest, it is also known as the Stuttgart Oktoberfest.  The university has been sponsored by 1000 seats in one of the tents and along with the garuantee of a seat, we also get two free masse ( 2 free liters) .   

Oktoberfest September 25, 2007

This past weekend marked the begining of that mystical time of year called Oktoberfest. I say mystical becasue everyone who has never been but has heard stories conjures up all sorts of images of tables upon tables filled with people drinking, laughing, and eating pretzles the size of your head. Basically that is true but it is so much more.

Our trip started out on Friday night from Reutlingen packing myself and two other friends into my friend’s little red Ford Escort that he is borrowing from his grandmother who happens to live in Munich, while he is at the University. He said this thing was a 4 banger but when it is struggling to do 60 on the autobahn and a slew of Porches and Benzes go flying by at 150 it seems like the world is at a stand still. We make it to Munich without many problems except a 2.5 hour trip turned into 4 becasue of all the road construction, at time it reminded me of sitting on I-5 during rush hour. His grandmother fixed us breakfast the next morning, the traditional cold cuts, pretzel, and cheese with coffee. Halfway through my first cup of coffee I realize that I can only understand about every two words she is saying. No it’s not becasue my German is that bad but she is speaking Bayrish, or the dialiact of Bavaria if you will. I liken it to someone from New York trying to understand someone that speaks Creole. No worries right? Wrong! The people we are going to Oktoberfest with all speak Bayrish and little or no English, no worries after a few maß of Oktoberfest’s best I am sure to be speaking perfect German.

As I eluded to earlier, Oktoberfest is more than a two week long party of gigantic nature, it is rooted deeply in Bavarian history. The original Oktoberfest was pretty much one huge wedding reception to celebrate the Crown Prince of Bavaria’s wedding, and it was a way for the people to come together and celebrate being Bavarian. This display of regionalism is still very much evident today. As we rode the train towards the fairground more an people started to get on wearing the traditional LeiderHösen and Drindel’s. Entire families, the very young and the very old. Let me just pause to say that I can totally not wait to by my own pair of liederhose, oh yes, its going to happen. Anyway, we get off the train and walk towards the main gate, it’s before noon so the beer hasn’t begun to flow yet. On the first day, it is tradition for no beer to be served before the mayor taps the first keg at 12. So this place is in a frenzy just waiting for the first beer to be poured. Finally it comes and a huge cheer erupts and the music begins.

Everywhere you turn there are amusmement rides, vendors selling würst, pretzels, chicken, and bread. The giant beerhalls which can hold thousands of people at a time take up whole city blocks. We finally make it in to the Pauliner tent or I think convention center is more like it but were unable to find a seat but fortunately for us we were able to bribe some people sitting at a table to order is our first beers. The beers that most of us think of when we think of Oktoberfest is called a maß and it equates to 1 liter of godly goodness. Tired of standing and 2 maßes deep we decide to go explore, somewhere down the line we run into some friends who have a table, once again I am the only american there so we come up with the bright idea that those at the table will speak english to me and I will only answer in German, great idea except for two of the girls at the table kept telling me that I looked like George Clooneywhile feeding me pretzels. Good times, good times.

So the total number for this Year’s Oktoberfest opening weekend were 1 million people on Saturday and Sunday with over 500,000 maßes consumed. Not too bad for a wedding reception right?