Munich, Germany

Munich, Germany

The train ride from Salzburg to Munich was easy and short, but it was snowing so it was pretty to see the German countryside with some snow.  

We got into Munich around 11:30, and got to our hostel about five minutes later, it was right next to the main station.  From there we headed out to the site of the 1972 Summer Olympics, which was so cool – my favorite part about Munich.  The whole campus has these glass looking coverings over the buildings that were fashioned to resemble the Bavarian Alps, with these gigantic support towers that have ten or so inch thick metal support lines to hold up the Alp-like dome structures. 

Awesome architecture!

The aquatics center, where Mark Spitz set his then record, was open to the public to use!  I didn’t realize that the first day, but on the second day I went back and dove in an Olympic pool, it was very cool!  There were these CRAZY German guys about my age with these inch thick neoprene smack suits on, double bouncing and doing all kinds of crazy flips and twists without any form, just improving off the 3 meter board, they were NUTS. 

Then we walked over to the soccer field/track stadium, and went inside there.  The architecture was just so cool, and to think they built this in the 1960s, is incredible, it would still be an architectural marvel now adays (I think).  We walked up to the press booth, and down on the track and field to take some goofy pictures and just be on an Olympic field.  The basketball indoor stadium was being used for a Motocross show, so we couldn’t go in, but it appeared quite massive, and has to be to house a motocross event. Here are some funny pictures from the stadium:

Runnin the 100 meter sprint

Won the gold

Next we went on a bit of a wild goose chase to find an old palace right on an inner-water way, which was cool but it took SO LONG to get there, that we pretty much got there, hung out for maybe ten minutes and then headed home.  

old palace

We rested, got some internet and talked to our families, and then ventured out to the Hofbrahaus, the most famous beer hall in the world!  We met a cool guy from Canada who was traveling also, so he joined us on our adventure to the beer hall.  We get to the huge hall and barely get in since we didn’t have a reservation, but we got a seat over in a corner next to the perfect people.  These two German guys pretty much started talking to us immediately, they were our age and very nice dudes.  We got some classic German food along with our Mass (liter) of beer.  

Tanner and Florian, our german friend

Three liters later, and many laughs and good stories, it was the end of a great night.  It was just so coo that we met some german guys and just sat there and talked back and forth all night, I have no idea what time we got home.  By the end, we were nice and pickled up so we found our way back to the hostel and hit the hay.  Great night, certainly my favorite of the entire trip.

Sunday, December 18: Sundays in Germany are more dead than any other Sunday in any other country I have ever seen.  EVERY SINGLE SHOP was closed, but there were still a lot of people out and about.  We set out around 11:30 and went to the tallest church tower in all of Munich, and walked up its 306 steps for some gorgeous views of the city.  

Great view!

306 steps later at the bottom, we walked out INTO A BLIZZARD.  It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was snowing sideways, about as hard as I have ever seen.  Once the snowing subsided, we went to the English Park, a ginormous park in Munich, bigger than Central Park.  It is famous for the surfers that surf in a makeshift wave they created by sinking some sort of barrier in front of an EXTREMELY fast flowing current to create a “wave” that is about 30 feet wide.  Keep in mind it was blizzarding 20 minutes earlier, and there were guys in full dry suits surfing!  

Video!

It was mind boggling how they were doing it, but there was a crowd and I’m sure they were lovin it, very very neat.  After that we went to an old Nazi Rallying ground, where there isn’t much left anymore, but that was neat to see.  From there, I went to do some diving, and Tanner went off in search of an open store to buy a Bier stein.  That night was a Sunday, and we were still a bit off from 3 liters of fresh German beer, so we just relaxed in the hostel and headed to Nuremberg the next morning!

Munich was a Blast, the Hofbrahaus was certainly a trip highlight

Salzburg, Austria!

Basel to Salzburg: because we are on a german rail pass, we had to use only german trains so it made the route quite indirect, we connect from Basel through Ulm, Germany (quite far north from basel)  then went back Southeast toward Salzburg – total time was just under 8 hours.

We got into Salzburg on the 14^th and were tired but excited – we headed out and just walked around the old city for a while, looked at the advent market and all the shops.  Everything in Austria closed very early which was odd.  All of the little Advent booths were closed by 7pm and the food booths shut down by 8.  We didn’t get there until almost 6:30, and after getting settled in our room and grabbing a much needed, shower, it was 8 and everything was closed.  We got a quick kebab for dinner – that is the way to eat cheap in this part of Europe; it’s basically the European version of a Gyro which is totally delicious and VERY cheap in this part of the continent, usually 4 or 5 Euro for a very filling meal.

December 15^th : We woke up about 10, and went downstairs and picked up the Salzburg pass, which gained us access to every main attraction in the city.  Weirdly enough, a decent amount was closed – a rail car up to one of the Bavarian Alp peaks, the city’s main palace and gardens, as well as a few others.  The world’s biggest ice caves are nearby, and we really wanted to see them, but they are closed for the winter months which makes no sense to me.  Any which way, there was still a ton of great stuff open.  First we went to Mozart’s house!

It was destroyed by WWII bombings by none other than Uncle Sam, but it’s an exact reproduction and still has the original foundations.  The museum itself was quite underwhelming, but the coolest two things they had were a few of his pianos, very neat; and recordings of a few of his works that were recorded on those very pianos that were on display.  You could listen to those recordings, and it was so different from any other Mozart I have heard, very cool.  Mozart was a very well traveled dude, he went literally ALL over Europe, so he had plenty of influences to work with.

Next we went up to the City fortress, the only medieval fortress in Austria to not have fallen – with very good reason.  This thing was up the steepest steps I have ever climbed, and way too many of them.  

You can see how huge and high up the fortress is in comparison to everything else

By the time we got to the top, I felt like the fat kid in gym class I was huffing and puffing so much.  The views from one side of the fortress of the Bavarian Alps were absolutely breathtaking, and it was pretty tranquil just looking out over the Alps, hangin out.  

Smile for the Alps!

My favorite artifact inside the fortress was this OLDD radio contraption.  

Unfortunately, everything was in German with no translations, so I had no idea what year it was from but it had to be at least WWI, if not earlier. 

From there we headed into the catacombs just above the graveyard where the whole Mozart family, including Leopold himself, is buried.  Being in the side of a mountain was interesting, very peaceful and quiet.  

Inside the Catacombs

Burial site where Mozart and Family lay to rest

After the catacombs, we were off to the museum of modern art; which was an experience.  They had some impressionist stuff by a painter named Emily Nolde, which I actually enjoyed and she had some intersting pieces.  Up a floor, and we came to this Asian photographer whose photographs reminded me of a Law and Order SVU crime scene.  I am not exaggerating, she was bound and naked in just about every picture, with paint smears everywhere and it was just very very unusual.  It’s amazing what is considered art now a days, because that did not look like art to me.  Up to the last floor, with the most interesting art I have ever seen.  There is an American sculptor named Evan Penny who does these huge, larger than life-size replicas of people.  

Self sculpture of Evan Penny

Some dude

When I say replicas, I mean replicas, he had every little hair, every mole, every eyelash down to a T.  We got to watch a video on the process and it was just unreal that someone could produce a work of art that looks so much like a person.

December 16^th :  boom.  Tanman and I hit a wall.  I think all of the waking up early, bus rides, plane rides, and train rides caught up to us when we woke up.  It has rained and or snowed every day during this trip, which has kinda stunk but we woke up and were just tired, laking motivation.  We bummed around until 12:30 then went and hiked up for a different view of Salzburg, went into some shops – I bought a Salzburg beanie and tanner got a shot glass. 

Then for my highlight of the day, we got some food around 3:00, and I wanted to try something I hadn’t had before, so I ordered a “Hausburger mit Sauerkraut.”  This was clearly the thing to get – a long line with all Austrian and/or German people standing in it, the meat was like a mix between a hamburger, bratwurst, knockwurst, and bologna burger (it was grilled), with a generous smear of spicy mustard, a huge heap of sauerkraut, and sprinkled curry on top; all in between a freshly toasted bun.  

Heaven on a bun

If heaven on a bun existed, this would be it.  The rest of the day was low key, with another Hausburger for dinner, but not much else to speak of.  We are just focusing on seeing all the sights and exploring, not too worried about going out at night, there was not much of a night life in Salzburg, I have a feeling Munich will be a little different!

On a side note, everyone we have encountered has been extremely nice, very helpful, and has loved to talk to Americans and asked us where we are from and what we are up to and all that.  The typical stupid American stereotype certainly exists, but from what I have seen to a limited extent.  Most American students or young adults traveling throughout Europe are quite the opposite of the stereotype; they are traveling because they want to explore the world, see new things, and get a better understanding for where we fall in the big scheme of things.  Europeans, as a whole, understand that and as a general majority, have been more than helpful and friendly towards Tanner and I in our travels.

Blog about Munich to come Shortly!

Basel, Switzerland!

We had a nice last dinner with Carmen, just talking and reminiscing about our time in Salamanca, what we were on to next, and wishing each other well.  Tim and Tanner and I went about a week ago to the plaza mayor at night with shirts and ties on and took a picture, which we framed and gave to her, 

along with it we gave her this really cool wine holder (the wine holder was originally supposed to go home with me for mom and dad, but there was no room in my backpack and the post office was closed on Saturday, sorry mom and dad).  She loved both gifts, and started to tear up a bit giving us hugs, but held it together.  Saying goodbye in the morning was sad, I’m gonna miss her.

Tanman and I had a longgg day of travel to Stuttgart, total transit was 6AM to like 10:30PM, from the door of our apt in Spain to the door of our hostel in Stuttgart.  Highlight of the travel was flying over the Swiss Alps, SO AWESOME.

beautiful swiss alps

When we got to Stuttgart, we went out for a beer and some cheap mexican food which hit the spot.  Next morning we woke up and headed to Basel via train.  The weather thus far has been terrible, and is not looking any better for the duration of our trip, but it hasn’t put a damper on the trip yet.  The first night in Basel we took a tram to the city center, and did a walking tour that they had signs for every few hundred yards, and they had like 4 different walking tours, which was very convenient and tourist friendly.  We walked a bit out of town for dinner because everything WAS SO EXPENSIVE in Switzerland, so we just got deliciously cheap but super filling Kebab stuff.  We grabbed a beer after that and sat along the river, just taking it all in.  After that, we went and drank some Gluhwein (Glu – vine) in the holiday market, which is like a hot wine, with cinnamon, oranges, apples, and a bunch of other spices, yummm.

Cheers to Gluhwein by the fire!

Day 2 in Basel, we headed to the Vitra Museum of Design and Architecture, just over the German border outside of Switzerland (basel is RIGHT on the border).  It was a different type of museum, which I liked, with an exhibition about the famous architect John Steiner and how his views came about.  The main museum building was the first one built by Frank O. Gery in Europe, and that’s where the Steiner exhibition was.  Here it is, it looked crazy from every angle.

The other building we went in was more along the lines of the interior design side of things, but I liked the look of it better.  It looked like it was several houses on top of each other, but it was all connected, intertwined – a cooler and more interesting design for my money.  

It was all one big Spiral of an inside!

The furniture was interesting to look at, it was neat to see what is on the cutting edge of interior design, and how far behind that cutting edge I am!

We got back into old town Basel around 2:30, and walked around some more just sort of wandering – we went through the “Venice” type area of Basel where the river jutts into the old town for a few hundred feet.  

cool little canal

From there we hit a different Christmas market for a few glasses of Gluhwein and some browsing at the Christmas Markets they had, which were so neat and right up my alley.  They were soo expensive, but there is one here in Salzburg, Austria, where I am right now, so I'm thinking prices will be better there.

Christmas market!

tonss of little booths like this with all kinds of nick-nacks

Both nights we were back at the hostel pretty early, because it was outrageously expensive at night – a draft beer was 8 Swiss Frank, or just over 9 US Dollars.  Needless to say we just relaxed at the hostel and spent our energy walking around and touring all day.

Off to see Salzburg for the next two days!  Happy Holidays everyone!

Mindy comes for Thanksgiving!

For those of you reading whom I haven’t talked to in the last six months about this awesome girl, this is my wonderful girlfriend Mindy

(My dad and my Spanish mother, Carmen, both agree that she is much prettier than me!)

Funny story about how we met – it was in one of those all day driver improvement schools that you have to go to when you get a speeding ticket.  I noticed her from across the room and decided my goal for the day was going to be to get her number.  I almost chickened out as we were walking out of the class, but I went ahead and asked for her number, and I’m so glad I did.  That was in March, the Saturday after VCU had made it to the final four.  Seven months later, here she is in Spain! 

She got her on Sunday the 20th, and we met up in the airport in Madrid, as I was flying back in from Paris with the group.  She got into the airport about an hour before me, and I think I may have broken out into a dead run when I got off my plane, I was so excited to see her.  We had a nice hostel, which was more like a hotel for really cheap.  

View from the hostel

We didn’t get back into Salamanca until like 11:30pm, and were both tired from a long day of traveling, so we just crashed the first night.

I had classes, all week, so I would get up and go to class while she slept in (not fair).  If I had afternoon classes, she would go shopping...that girl can shop!  I have a break in my schedule around noon every day, so we would go get tapas at that point in time.  I have raved about the Spanish food in my blog, and Mindy loved it too.  Our favorite set of tapas actually included one I had never had – it was like a tortilla de patatas, but it had an eggs Benedict type taste with bacon in the middle, plus lox and bagels and two glasses of fresh squeezed OJ.

So. Good.

That night we went out to some authentic Italian pizza, and the owner of the restaurant was actually from Reggio di Calabria (where I visited during my break).  We got a Hawaiian Pizza, which was on point.

Wine teeth, whoopsie

 Not Spanish food, but still delicious.  After dinner we went to see the Cathedral at night, because it is really something.  I can’t remember if I have blogged about the frog wall or not, but here is a very famous facade of a university building with all kinds of intricate designs that has a small frog hidden on the wall.  If you can find it, legend says you will have good luck in your studies, life, etc.  I took her there and let her look until she gave up, then showed her where it was (it is REALLY hard to find).  It was a cold and snowy/rainy night, here’s a picture of Mind outside the Cathedral: 

All bundled up, it was freezing!

Up until Wed, the weather had been very cold; the coldest to date in Salamanca, but Wed was perfect.  It was probably about 65 and sunny, not many clouds in the sky.  After class, we went down to the River with a bottle of wine and my computer for some music and just laid around there all afternoon.  

Great afternoon by the River!

I was glad she got a nice day of weather in Salamanca, the river is probably my favorite place to go and relax in town.  

Thanksgiving was just a great all around day.  I can’t say how nice all of my classmates were (thanks guys) to Mindy, she loved all of you.  During the day I took her to the cathedral and we toured all around and got some nice pictures. 

Back at the Cathedral!

View out over Sally

From the cathedral we went to my football bar, St. Patrick’s Museum, and watched the Packers vs. Lions game (which was on at 6:30pm our time) before dinner.  We had a good time at the bar, some classmates came and joined.  Turkey dinner in Spain was pretty darn good, Tkac gave a nice speech and a very interesting method of carving the Turkeys.  It certainly wasn’t like Mom’s dinner, but it was dam good – they had all the regular trimmings and it was really nice to have Mindy here for Thanksgiving, since my whole family couldn’t come too.  

Yummmm

Just the person I wanted to share Thanksgiving in Spain with!

After dinner we went out with pretty much the whole entire group, and it was one of my favorite nights, if not my favorite, of the whole trip.

Saturday we were off to Toledo, for a day trip.  A huge thanks goes out to John Tkac, who translated all day for Mindy what Jesús was saying, she really enjoyed it.  We saw a Cathedral, some El Greco paintings (the most famous one which we couldn’t take pictures of), but my favorite part of the day was just walking around the city getting lost with Mind.  We got a nice lunch with Tanner and Megan (my roommate and his wonderful girlfriend) and then parted ways.  I was so happy that Mindy could come along on an excursion and see what we do and be able to experience that with me.  We also got some great pictures with the view overlooking Toledo, check em out: 

Old bridge crossing Toledo

Favorite shot of the trip, overlooking Toledo.

We got back to Salamanca, grabbed a quick meal and showered up, and headed out for her last night here.  My good friend Corey Pegram was in town, so we met up with him and his friends and just had an absolutely awesome night.  We bar hopped around going from place to place and it was just a blast having a great childhood friend AND my girlfriend there in the same night.  Great end to a great week.  Mindy’s bus left at 8am...YIKES, but we got her there in time, said our goodbyes and she was back off to the US of A.  She will be down in Richmond on the 22nd when I get back home, so for my friends from Richmond who are reading, I want you all to meet her!

This will most likely be my last blog about Spain.  The program ends December 11th, and Tanner and I will be heading to Northern Europe – Germany, Switzerland, and Austria for a ten-day train trip throughout those three countries.  We will see five or six cities in the three countries, in ten days.  I will post my blog about all that when I am back in the US. 

Thank you all for reading and following my journey throughout Spain, it has been a life changing experience and I am glad I had the opportunity to experience it.  HUGE thanks to my parents, for helping me fund my crazy European adventures and being so supportive throughout.  I can’t wait to be home.  See you all very soon!

Paris!

Paris, France

Mile Count: 1,346

Thursday, November 17:  We got there late Thursday night, arrived at our hotel (which was more like a hostel and management immediately hated us because we were American/college students) and just walked around for a bit.  Tired from a long day of travel, we crashed pretty early and woke up at 8 the next morning to start our adventures through Paris.

Friday, November 18:  We woke up, had a lack-luster breakfast where the only good thing was croissants.  We walked about 5 minutes to the metro, and took that to a central point in the Touristy center of Paris.  From there we walked passed Notre Dam, and to the Sainte Chapel.

Group outside of ND

The buildings honestly are not that impressive from the outside, but when we got to the inside of the first chapel and up to the second floor, it was AMAZING.  The entire room was a panel of 14 stained glass windows, with each window telling a story of a different book of the bible.  This was one of the many times I have wished I had a better camera, the room was so huge I couldn't zoom out enough to get a good view.

Nuts

4 wide, 15 high.  Read bottom to top left to right.

As you can see, each window was divided into 4 columns, with each column having 15 mini scenes in it.  You read the columns from bottom to top, left to right, like the form of a snake.  It was a cloudy day (as is the norm in Paris apparently), but the glass was still incredible, and it was really cool to see.  Even cooler and pretty unbelievable, this chapel once held the Crown of Thorns that Jesus wore on the day he was crucified, but it is no longer there, I forget where it is thought to be currently. 

From there we went inside Notre Dam: neat but I am officially burnt out on cathedrals.  Almost every single one we have seen is of Gothic architecture with the same huge columns throught and “x” shaped ceiling supports so that the churches could be built bigger and with larger domes.

Notre Dame from the inside

After that, we had free time for lunch, where we went for cheap and fast...and got these huge Kabaabs with chicken and fries and tomatoes – delishh.  

ohh yeahh

After lunch we walked along the river which was sweet.  The street vendors all had their art work out – from paintings, to photos, to prints, to pottery – they had it all.  I love random stuff like that, so I sort of lagged behind and looked for cool things to buy, with definite success.  

Street vendors!

Seih!

It was just so great to be walking along the river in Paris on a cloudy day, I felt very French...(I like feeling American better if anyone was wondering, love you dad!)  We arrived at the Musuem d´ Orsay, where all of the famous impressionist and neoimpressionist artwork is.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, but impressionism was definitely something else – very interesting how those artists could take what they saw and distort it into a blurry yet beautiful work of art.  We were free to go after the Orsay....let the walking begin. 

We tried and failed to find the Effeil Tower (don’t ask me how, but were further away than we thought).  I did manage to get a freakin’ GORGEOUS picture of it at night with clouds and susnet when it was lit-up, I’m convinced this could be a post card or something.

Boo-yah

7pm rolled around, and it got COLD.  Tim and I decided it was time to find a bar to occupy our time.  I had already talked to Thibaut, my Dad’s super nice old business associate and family friend, about meeting up for dinner when he got back into Paris from Rome.  We found the best little place:  “The Highlander”

Heaven in Paris

We walked in and heard the bartender speaking perfect english, a perfect start.  We then realized it was happy hour, score.  We then realized there was free wifi, and a college basketball game on – Tim and Aj: 4, Paris: 0.  

We ended up staying there till about 9:30 when Thibaut got back into town, then met up with him and had probably the best meal I have had thus far in Europe.  I cannot say enough about how great of a guy he is: he made the reservation, paid for the meal, and took us around to see some sights after dinner.  I was so happy/excited/content that I totally forgot to take any pictures, but it was an authentically tiny French restaurant that didn’t seat more than 15 people.  We had fou Grouis with a poached egg and cheese to start.  Tim had this duck,potatoe, cheese, cream cassarole thing, I had a bread crumb crusted cut of veal that was awesome, and Thibaut got this huge leg of lamb – it was INCREDIBLY GOOD.  Big shout out to Thibaut, we owe you a good dinner next time you come to the states, thank you so much!!  Full and content after seeing some sights, we went home and crashed.

Saturday, November 20:  Saturday we woke up bright and early again to hit the Luvre.  The glass pyramid right outside is really cool, very very neat that the bottom part is self sustaining and not grounded into anything.

The sheer size of this museum is absolutely ridiculous.  Here is a view of it from the Eiffel Tower, a probably 4 or 5 miles away at least.  

Massive.

Jesús, who is our program coordinater and takes us around all of these museums and explains them to us was very sick, so we didn’t hear much explaining, but he took us around to all the major points: the mona lisa, the headless angel, and some others.  Everyone knows what the mona lisa looks like, so I'm not going to post a picture.   I personally preferred the art of the Orsay to any art I have seen, although the Sistine Chapel was pretty amazing, I just like the impressionist stuff the best.  We walked around the Luvre for about 2 more hours, and what people don't know is there is the CODE OF HAMMURABI.  An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth - it was SO cool to see this.

up close and personal

Hammurabi was the man

From their we got lunch, which was my first Falafel experience, and a great one at that.  Then we went to the Eiffel Tower, which doesn't look all that great from afar quite honestly, but up close it is very very neat.  The architecture is intricate, and it apparently was supposed to be temporary when it was built for the World Fair whenever that was, I can't remember the year.  Here are some awesome pictures:

awesome awesome

Pretty clear day in Paris.

Saturday night a few of us went out to some bars, but it's very expensive to go out at night in Paris, so we didn't do very much and it wasn't all that exciting.  That's it for Paris, hope ya'll liked it!

Blog about the week with Mindy to come sometime soon!