Where does the time go?

Well, time flies when you’re living in Germany and forget you have a blog. It has been an amazingly long time since I last posted about my initial problems arriving in Germany for the summer. However, since then things have been great and things have been bad, but I am thoroughly enjoying my time immersed in another culture. I guess what Ill try and do is my version of a weekend update.

June 7-8
On the Saturday I took a day trip to Salzburg with Joseph and Lisha. We had a really great time seeing the sights. Though I had already been there I enjoyed the trip. I learned that in Austria (because of their coffee culture) that coffee is called mélange. The best part was that Austria and Switzerland were co hosting the Euro Cup and they had a huge fan zone setup which was pretty wicked. Sunday Munich was having a street festival on Leopoldstrasse which was pretty fun to see. I went with John, Sarah, Joseph, and Lisha. In the evening we found a TV outside and watched Germany beat Poland in the Euro Cup.

June 14-15
Saturday I went to Berchesgarten with John, Sarah, and Joseph. Again it was a place I had already been before, but it was fun to go back. After we finally got up to Hitler’s Eagles Nest we did some hiking in the mountain and I cut open my finger on rock. Still fun though. When we got to Munich we got a pizza at Pizza Punjabi probably the best place in Munich for cheap food. We went out with Sarah’s co-workers to a bar called the Nage Sauge which was pretty cool. We later tried to get into some of the clubs near Ostbahnhof but were denied. Sunday Joseph and I went into the old town for Munichs 850 birthday celebration. Joseph fought off a bunch of crazy Germans for free birthday cake. I decided not to join in the fray.

June 21-22
I think of this weekend as the weekend of day trips. On Saturday I went to Regensburg a really cool city in Bavaria. They have this awesome medieval stone bridge over the Danube river and the city is really nice as well. After I got back I met up with Joseph and his cousin Joachim at the Hofbraukeller to have a drink and watch the Euro cup. Sunday Joseph and I went to visit Augsburg. It was a really nice city unfortunately since it was a Sunday it was rather dead. The churches were pretty cool and the Fugeri was awesome to visit.

June 28-30
This was probably my favorite weekend so far. A co-worker from the Georgia office took us to visit her family’s home in the Black Forest near Strasbourg. It was like living with a host family for the weekend. On Saturday the family took us into Strasbourg for a quick visit highlighted by the main sightseeing attractions and then returned to the house. Afterwards we went into a friend’s farm also really cool. Sunday went into the Village of Gengenbach and went to the Fasend (Carnival) museum. I think this was my favorite mostly because of the food. Home cooked meals are awesome.

July 5-6
This weekend I went to Berlin mostly for work but I still did a little sightseeing. The new US Embassy opened this weekend in Berlin and they had a street festival called Amerika Fest. The state of WV had a booth setup to for tourism that I got to work at. Sunday we did a little more sightseeing before making the six hour drive back to Munich. The best part of this weekend was again the food the hotel had the best continental breakfast.

July 12-13
I went to Vienna this weekend with Joseph. Vienna is a really nice city to look at, but there is nothing super interesting to see. Saturday we were going to go to Bratislava, but I forgot my passport in Munich (to much drinking the night before with John and Sarah). Instead we saw the Hundrtwasser Haus which was really cool and also the Vienna city museum which was fairly good except for the fact that after the revolutions of 1848 it stopped . . . interesting.

July 19-20
Saturday I went to Neuschwanstein with Joseph and his friend Meghan from home who came to visit. Again I had already been there but it was cool to see again. For anyone who wants to go make sure you checkout the view from the Mariabrucke. A tour of the castle will go rather fast since the castle was never finished because Ludwig II was mysteriously drowned. Sunday it rained and I stayed at the apartment; however, I now do not have any roommates all three have moved back to Ireland so I am running the joint for now.