Gotta love Bavaria!

Munich was wonderful! Six of us International students went together; 5 from the US and the 1 girl from Slovakia. We got there in the middle of the afternoon on Friday and left in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday. We had somewhat of an idea of places we wanted to see but mostly we were planning on shooting from the hip once we got there.

The first place we went was the legendary Hofbrauhaus Brewery. It's a pretty touristy place but it also has a lot of Germans in the traditional Lederhosen outfits. We had to get the ultimate experience so we each got a beer and sausage which were both great. After that we just walked around the downtown looking at various sites. We went inside this beautiful church called the Frauenkirche. (kirche=church). The church supposedly has an excellent view of the Alps since its two towers are the highest point in Munich and there is a law preventing anyone from building anything taller. We wanted to go up but it was really cloudy so we kept walking. We spent the next 4-5 hours just wandering by buildings and taking lots of pictures. The town is really beautiful.





The next day we started out by going to the Olympic Park that was built for the '72 Olympics. It was a really cool area and a lot bigger than I was expecting. The stadium was really cool looking and since we went in the morning it wasn't too crowded. After that we went back to downtown to watch one of the most overrated attractions in Munich. It is the little glockenspiel show in the Marienplatz (the main square in downtown) at the city hall building. The building has a really cool Gothic design and everyone crowds around three times a day to watch these figurines move around to glockenspiel music. It is cool for about 4 seconds and then it gets lame.

After that we went on this free bike tour. It involved riding through the English Garden and by many other cool buildings and such. It was an excellent deal because the tour guides were both American students studying history in Munich at a University there. They had both been in town about a year so they knew what we wanted to see as tourists and as Americans.

On Sunday we split up and a few of us went around town to spots we still wanted to see and then the other three went to Dachau. I decided not to go to Dachau because there were some things I still wanted to see in Munich. We went to the giant area where they hold Oktoberfest each year. It was pretty empty but it was absolutely huge. There was this small fair that looked oddly similar to the Benton County Fair and then this antique car show behind the fair.





After that we went to the Allianz Arena. It is the soccer stadium where they had the 2006 World Cup Final and where Bayern Munich plays. I wanted to go on a tour through the stadium but since Bayern Munich had a game later that night they had no tours. Also, since the game didn't start until about 30 minutes before the last train out of town there was no way of me scalping some tickets.


The last thing we did was go back to Olympic Park and walk up the hill and get a few of the whole park and all of Munich. I wanted to go to the Frauenkirchen towers like I mentioned before to get the good view but like 95% of Germany, it was closed on Sundays. Either way the view at Olympic Park was incredible and it was an excellent finish to the trip.



Now for my only complaint about the whole trip: We decided to get the whole experience and stay in a hostel that had 40 beds in the room. It was extremely cheap...only 13euros a night per person. When we got there on Friday it was real nice looking because they had obviously just cleaned it; but by Sunday morning it had the most disgusting scent to the room that I had ever smelled. I slept about four hours the first night and three the second. I would have gladly paid another 20-30euros each night for those extra few hours of sleep.

All-in-all though, it was an excellent trip and there's a good chance we may head back down there again in June because there is still some stuff to be seen.

This week my Macroeconomics class started. There aren't too many things more difficult than staying awake for 7 hours worth of economics lectures. At least the three days of classes are over for this week and now the five day weekend starts. We are headed to the Audi factory tomorrow morning and then to this Medieval town in the afternoon. Our whole class is going so it should be tons of fun. On Friday I'll be heading to Prague for the weekend. Three of us are going and it should be tons of fun.

I made a photobucket page the other day and I uploaded a lot of pictures to it. The first link is to pictures around Bad Mergentheim and then the second one is to pictures of Munich. If the links don't work then just go to photobucket.com and search for J10Brooks.

http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j286/J10Brooks/Bad%20Mergentheim/

http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j286/J10Brooks/Munich/

Munich tomorrow...

So, when I got out of the shower today I was walking back to my room and I looked at the modem and saw there was an extra light on and I quickly realized that it was the light for DSL. That means the Internet came back on 5 days early! So, I thought I would put a couple pictures up here of the town that I took the other day.





Tonight some of the German students are going to take us to a bowling alley outside of town and then we are going to meet up at a local diner in town that is very similar to a Retro 50's diner back in the US. It should be a lot of fun...but I'm looking forward to heading to Munich tomorrow morning a lot more.

I just finished my first class yesterday. It was a project management class that was really similar to a class I had taken at OSU a couple terms ago. Our final project was a 10-15 minute presentation and it was the sole basis for our grading. Anyways, I think my presentation went well but we don't get grades for a week or two so I guess I won't know until then.

I'll post some more after my trip to Munich.

Lost the Internet temporarily

So, a lot has been going on the last week. I met all of the other exchange students that I will be taking classes with for the whole term and we took a one week crash course in German. Mostly it was just refreshing in my mind what I had learned long ago but I learned some new stuff and I feel a little better about my German at this point. The other students in my classes are really cool though. There are six from Singapore, two from France, one from Slovakia, one from Spain, and six of us from OSU. I wasn´t sure how it would go getting along with everyone, but I can already tell it is going to go great. I had a chance basically to interact with every person individually and I truly enjoy hanging out with all of them.

There are also a few really nice German students who have been excellent at showing us around the town and the good spots to eat and everything. On Monday, a few of the German guys showed us the best restaurant to go to on the school meal plan (2.50euro for appetizer, main course, and dessert at three restaurants around town) and helped us learn how to order and everything. Later they took us to a gym and we played some small sided soccer on a gym floor with small goals that was a lot of fun. I showed the Germans that some Americans can play football also :)

I get internet back at my apartment on the 15th of April so I will be able to upload more pictures then. I have to use the computers in the lab at the school and it is a real pain to upload pictures on them (especially since everything is in German, and the German keyboard is different than the US keyboard).

I have some great pictures from the top of a hill that is about a 15 minute walk from my place and you can see the whole town and some other surrounding towns.

It also looks like I will have a couple busy weeks of traveling ahead of me also. A bunch of us are planning on going to Munich this weekend and possibly make a trip to the Neuschwanstein castle and then next weekend we are going to the Audi Museum as a class and then the next day a couple of us are going to go to Prague for the weekend.

Anyways, after the 15th I'll have a ton of pictures to put up and some excellent stories to tell I'm sure.

Josh