The best of times and the wurst of times

This blog title is misleading because Munich really was the best of times and not at all the worst of times! But there was a lot of wurst involved. Liz and I arrived Thursday afternoon and headed to our hostel to meet up with Stephanie (who had spent the last few days in Budapest). It felt great to be reunited!

Prost!

We spent all of Thursday exploring the city and eating currywursts in a beer garden. Currywursts are one of my new favorite foods, it is a sausage in a kaiser roll with curry powder and ketchup and mustard, DELISH! The beer garden consisted of a counter where you could buy beer and picnic tables everywhere. Everyone was sitting and enjoying an afternoon beer. We finally found some space on the end of a picnic table and of course we happened to sit down next to four Americans, two of whom were from Edina! Small world.

Later that night at our hostel we witnessed a very strange game played by a group of big British men in suits. They filed in and dispersed themselves around the common room. One of the men would say something and the rest would all do something in unison. And it was usually something weird like laying on the ground face down or jumping in a man pile or sticking your legs in the air and kicking. But it was pretty entertaining!

Liz in the British man pile

Fun fact: a Munich breakfast really is 2 sausages and a half liter of beer! Our hostel workers told us this and we didn't believe them. But sure enough the beer gardens and tables are filled with locals chugging beer bright and early in the morning.

On Friday everything was closed because it was Holy Friday. There is a law in Munich that you cannot dance on the streets from midnight the night before until midnight on Friday or you will be arrested and fined. Not much space for a girl to get her groove on!

English Gardens

My favorite part of the city was the English Gardens. They were so beautiful and teeming with people relaxing by the river. One of the rivers is also known for being the sight of many nudist colonies. We didn't see any "colonies" but we did see quite a few groups of old men sitting in a circle and reading the newspaper naked. This was some of the ugliest scenery I've seen all semester so we walked past pretty quickly. The rest of the park was beautiful! There was a part of the river with rapids that happened to collide in just the right way and create a place to surf! It reminded me of the surfing rides that are popular in waterparks except this one was au naturale.

Surfin' Munich style

Munich was one of my favorite cities so far. It was beautiful, full of history, and the people were so welcoming. I even looked sort of like I fit in! We met lots of new friends and had a great time in Deutschland. I think if I had the opportunity to study abroad in another European country I would pick Germany indefinitely.

Now I'm back to the hustle and bustle of Madrid and trying to remember what it feels like to speak Spanish! I will add more pictures from spring break to my Flickr at the beginning of next week. This weekend I will be trying to soak up Madrid life and study for finals at the same time. I can't believe I have so little time left!

¡Hasta la próxima!

Anoche fui al espectáculo de las clases de baile de SLU Madrid. Mi compañera de cuarto que se llama Liz toma la clase de ritmos latinos. Ella aprendió el merengue, la bachata y la salsa. Parece que todos los estudiantes de SLU están en una clase de baile y por eso estaba emocionada ver los bailes porque he oído sobre ellos todo el semestre. También en el espectáculo había estudiantes que tocaron instrumentos y cantaron. Mis compañeros de clase tienen muchos talentos. Fue entretenido y me divertí mucho. Mi parte favorito fue la salsa y el merengue. Los chicos son cómicos y a ellos les gusta actuar mucho. Para representar España, había muchos bailadores de flamenco. Fue divertido ver mis amigos de los EEUU bailando el flamenco en un espectáculo y Liz bailó hermosamente. ¡Después del espectáculo yo deseaba que hubiera tomado una clase de baile porque se veía tan divertido!