Nürnberg, München, und Pfingsten

Nuremberg

"Go to Munich," they said. "You will love it," they said. Nuremberg is a better city. It is about the size of Milwaukee and a lot smaller than Munich, but the Old Town(Historic District) is by far the better one.

To get to Nuremberg, My host brother and I used the "Mitfahrzentrale"because tickets with Deutsche Bahn were 70 euros a piece, and the Mitfahrzentrale was only 30 per person. Mitfahrzentrale is like craigslist for hitchhikers. You call up someone going to the same city of you and meet up somewhere and ride together. Before the experience, I was a little skeptic, but now I would recommend this to everyone.

In Nuremberg, we stayed with my Host Uncle. When we arrived, his girlfriend asked us if we had brought wandering shoes because the next day we were going to walk a beer wandering trail. The beer wander was the favorite thing we did. We woke up at nine, and then took the train a good half-hour to 45 minutes north from the city. The trail took you too five different breweries, and you receive a stamp when you bought a beer. When you collected all four stamps, you could buy a mug from the tour for 2 or 4 euros (I don't remember exactly, but it was cheap.) The trail was 18 km. (~9mi.)

On the second the second day, we went to the Adidas headquarters because the girlfriend from my Host Uncle worked there. I learned that reebok is actually owned by Adidas. After the HQ, we went to see Nuremberg during the daytime. My host uncle lives on the north side, where "the berg" is. The Berg is an old castle or fort on the north side of the city wall. We ended up walking the wall. The top of the wall was actually a park with trees and gardens, not what I expected.

The top of the wall is the the left and "the berg" with the old town are below.

Munich


We went to Munich on the same day as the FC Bayern München vs. Chelsea Champions League game. The city was packed with Bayern fans. The vibe of the city was great. My friend from the US surprised me on the platform when the train pulled up, one of the best memories from Munich.

Our first stop was the Olympic Park. On the way to the Olympic Park is across the street from the BMW HQ, so that was our real first stop. After we went to the top of the Olympic Tower. Later that day, the stadium in the back, was filled with people for public viewing of the soccer game. The Olympic Park was nice, but I was more excited for our next stop, Marienplatz. The bear was loose on the Marienplatz. All the Bayern fans had taken over the square, so that you could barely walk through.

After seeing the two city halls, the old city hall is my favorite.










We saw the Frauenkirche, but the church and frauenplatz were under construction, so that is was ugly. The Theatinerkirche was a lot nicer inside and out. It was weird seeing things I learned out in my German class.

After the Theatinerkirche, we walked north to the Englischer Garten. We watched the surfers at the south end for a good 20 minutes. Then we walked a little bit north through the naked people between surfing and the botanic garden. I didn't take too many pictures of the Englischer Garten because I wasn't sure if there would be a naked person in them. I saw the Chinesischer tower, but I was not able to get to the second floor, like a German teacher I know. Afterwards, we found a bar and just relaxed in the beautiful sun.

when we got back to the train station, People had already taken over there too. There was a wall of police to make sure no one started rioting around the moving trains. Our train pulled in with standing room only for the people getting out. We boarded and all you could smell was piss, B.O., and beer. the place was trashed and about 100 degrees fahrenheit.

The garden below is not actually the Englischer Garten but the Hofgarten.

Pfingsten

Pfingsten is a church holiday that no one knows why it is celebrated anymore, but no one complains. All I know, is that when I think of Pfingsten, I think of the street in Northbrook. For Pfingsten weekend, we get Monday and Tuesday off from school. My friends and I went on a bike trip for Pfingsten my friend's grandma. My friends grandma lives on a farm somewhere northeast of where I live in "Arsch der Welt." We spent the weekend camping in the back of the farm. That was great weekend. I am the brownest out of my friends, but Petra is still tanner. I believe I need to go New Jersey mom to beat her this summer.

I Didn't Forget About The Blog yet...

I have been gone for the last three weeks touring Europe. An experience that brought us as exchange students closer together as one giant family, and was the greatest vacation of my life,  I am not sure how I will split up the cities because there are 11 of them, and I am sure it will too long for one blog post.

I didn't go with my Rotary club on their Deutschland Tour because I wanted to the Europatour, and I didn't have the money for both. (The Deutschland Tour was 800 €; so don't get crazy Frau.) I kind have wish I did do the Deutschland Tour, after becoming closer to people I only knew threw Rotary weekends. Europa Tour was a 22 day Prague to Paris roller coaster of an adventure.

So that brings me to Prague. Prague was one of my favorite cities. In fact I loved eastern Europe in general. I thought I wouldn't like as much as western. There was one thing that I thought was weird about Prague. You are not allowed to drink on the streets, only in bars/restaurants.

After driving the 13 hours from Duisburg to Prague, Prague was exactly what I expected it to be. We pulled into a parking lot under an expressway in a ghetto part of town. After walking a few minutes, we found our hostel in the heart of the old city. Our hostel was in the strangest part of town. It was a completely safe part of town, but next to the hostel was a smoke shop/ liquor store, next to that was a strip club, and on the other side of the street were bars and souvenir shops. The economy from Prague pretty much thrived on Tourist shops.

On what was left on our first day, we got stopped by German Embassy security guards after a ballon went of the fence of the embassy. The best part of that was seeing the male security guard jump more than the female when the balloon popped. Then we did the Czech Parliament.

The second day was my birthday. As we met in the courtyard that morning, Rotex (our tour guides) made me stand on a flower bed while everyone sang, and then they gave me a Czech T-shirt and a card everyone signed. It was a cool way to start the morning. After being shown around the city a little, we got 5 hours free time. We ended up going to a communism museum that was actually pretty interesting. After that we found a beer garden behind the Museum that had two euro liter beer. On our way back to the meeting point we saw this girl literally strip to her bra and panties and strut down the Carl's Bridge. That night Rotex took us to a bar to celebrate my birthday. It was a pretty chill night.

My only regret with Prague, is that I didn't try absinth. I Think I will just do a city a post for now on because they are pretty long. Here's the skyline of Prague.

I Drank Something Delicious

I am not sure what it was, all my Host-Grandpa said it that is was red christmas berry. I am thinking cranberry, but it could of been pomegranate. It was bitter and way to hot, but once you added the rum, it became one of the best none-beer drinks I have had. Best beer tho, goes to Kölsch. It is only brewed in Köln, so you must make a special trip there to get it.

Köln was a cool city. I am not sure if I liked better than Berlin or not. October is the month to see it in because all the trees make the city look a lot better. Köln is known for its churches. They have nearly as many churches as people in the city. The main church that everyone can recognize by the infamous photo of it with the Rhine and train bridge in the foreground. The walk up was a total of 1.066 steps. 533 up and 533 down. I was surprisingly easy. It was a spiral stair case maybe 2 1/2 feet wide, and it carried up and down traffic. Ever try passing some one and the narrow end of a spiral staircase? Its a lot of fun. That wasn't the worse part, to get to the top, you must climb up a cone shaped roof piece. To get up this cone, you must walk up a cheap, metal scaffolding staircase. That was the worse part for me. You were at the top and this staircase isn't attached to the walls and it wobbles to I felt like I was going to fall over. I recommend going in the morning when foot traffic is light. The old city was converted into a pedestrian  zone with an endless shopping center. That was cool except for all the people. Köln is Germany's San Francisco, according to Daniel, but I saw more gay people in Berlin. I was also only in the old city, and I was all over Berlin.

I finely played a full game of Monopoly for once. This week Albert and I have been playing every board game in the house. Is it weird that I enjoyed watching Albert go into debt to afford a stay at the Berliner Strasse Hotel. I found that the trick to winning is to buy the foreclosed properties from Albert and flip them. I need to go spend 150 years in Prison with Bernie Madoff. I was on a winning streak until yesterday when he beat me at some medieval build a city game.

I got spend Halloween, what that's tomorrow Hunter, in Germany's biggest club (Index). It was also the biggest Halloween party in Europe, so that is pretty cool to be able to say. This club was huge. I remember that the one part we were in, I think it was called Tender, had at least four levels and nine bars. Index was pretty much all stairs, and home to the worlds largest Ice bar. I didn't see it, because I wasn't dressed appropriately for it. My flannel would not have been warm enough.

I need to learn to drive manuel because right now I am the equivalent to an old man. That doesn't matter because all old men here have Mercedes so I'll be an old man with my Mercedes.