Ich spreche kein Deutsch.

Monday, Oktober 6, 2008 BERLIN, GERMANY!!! (for the first time, something other than Greece or VENICE!)

I don't have much time to write this post, because I am going on a bike tour of Berlin in just a few minutes, but I wanted everyone to know that I had a GREAT time in Munich!! I promise to post the details a little bit later if I don't get them in on this post (as in a few hours when I get back from the bike tour and Meredith is in her 6-8 class. Typing on this computer is quite difficult actually because the z and y are mixed up. Plus the shift key is shorter so I end up with "i" instead of "I" a lot... oh well.... Plus there is no spell check like there is on my computer, so I am really very sorry.

Thursday night slash Friday morning: Kayla, Megan, Ana and I set out on our overnight adventure. I was very nervous because the Munich plans were pretty much my responsibility and I was feeling a lot of pressure that everyone have fun and met up etc. But once we got on the train, it was fine. Kayla and I ended up in a compartment with one other guy (sketchball that he was). He pulled down this little bed thing above the chairs, so Kayla and I got to spread out on our chairs and have a delightful nights sleep! kinda... We got to the train station around 6,00 am and spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out which train to take to this OTHER train station to meet up with Mer. After waiting for a while, we found her and headed to the hotel. This is where I was SUPER nervous because we were trying to get 7 people into a 2 person room (an expensive hotel is much more managable 7 ways than 2. Don't judge) Despite being questioned about our excessive baggage and extra people, we (didn't lie simply) EVADED questions.

We then decided to go visit Dachau, the concentration camp in Dachau (slightly outside Munich). I am so glad that I went, but it was a very sobering and sad experience. We saw the places where thousands and thousands of people slept and died. Meredith was with us and she had visited twice before (she is also is essentially fluent in German and lived in Munich one summer...) so she was our unofficial tour guide. Like I said, I am glad I went and would have been disappointed if I didn't, but it was so depressing there. The rain didnt help.

We walked around a bunch and saw some really cool things like Marianplatz (sorry, Mer, if I misspelled that...). In the train station there, we ran into Paige Harryman, one of my classmates at Wake and sorority sisters!!!!! IN ALL OF MUNICH, we WOULD be in the same train station.... haha We also happened upon a Oktoberfest tent where we had a little snack. It was SOO cool!!!! We grabbed pretzels and waited to meet up with Katie and Ryan, other wake friends staying with us in our hotel. We met up with them and explored Munich. This is when I learned my one and only German phrase (thus the title...)

We found dinner at this PRECIOUS little restaurant for dinner. They had some authentic food (apparently, thats what I was told...) After dinner, we walked around a little and headed back to the hotel where we were going to squish 6 people into 2 twin beds and a teeeeeny bit of floor. super. The girls slept on the bed (there were 3 of us) and the boys (well, at that point, only Ryan) slept on the floor. The boys were so gentlemanly about the whole thing and it was actually pretty fun! (well, I can say that having slept on the bed...) It was like a big sleepover! The other two more boys (Matt and Joe) came in late. Wow. Day one down.

Saturday: The boys who got in late got up at 6 am to get into the tents, but we just decided that we were going to "sleep in" until 9 and head on out. So we did (minus sleeping through our alarm...whoops...). We stopped by a German bakery and I had the most DELICIOUS croissant and this bar that was a mix between mixed-nut brittle and granola... it was divine. Oh yeah, and a cappuccino. Then we headed over to Oktoberfest. We found out that Joe and Matt couldn't make it in, so clearly we HAD to get in to show them up. Afterall, they had been there for 4 hours already and didnt make it in. Don't even worry. We walked right up, and walked right in. No problemo. I think that they want to let in more girls (to bring the boys, and thus more beer, and more money...) so they were willing to let us in. It was INSANE. Singing breaking out all the time, and just general craziness. Friday was German's equivalent of the Fourth of July, so they were feeling very patriotic that weekend. People would just start singing, there was a BAND in the middle of the tent (I am not kidding...). When I say tent, you might be thinking like a camping tent, well that is what I was thinking, but no, this is like a building. A huge building filled with German beer. Oh Germany, I do love you. We didn't have reservations, so we had to table hop as we kept getting kicked out, but we eventually befriended our friends Max, Alex, and American-do-rag-guy (I forgot his name...oops). We stayed there for the next few hours (minus a quick walk around the rides etc with Kayla. We were also sitting right next to the exit (guarded by the security guard) but we befriended him also and with a little persuasion he let Zach, Jaimie, and Karen in the side door!! One point for us.

When we FINALLY left the tent and decided to head to dinner in the direction of our hotel, we ran into another Wake group!! We also purposely met up with some other Wake students. We headed to dinner at this wonderful little restaurant where I had a delicious baked potato with chicken and cheese!! :) After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for showers and an early night! LOVE THOSE!

Sunday was our last day in Munich. People were leaving at all different times, so we all kinda did our own things. Mer and I were not flying out until 8:30 pm (or 20:30 if you want to go Euro with me). This means another whole day to sight see!! We went to the English Gardens and walked around , saw the Chinese tower, had coffee with one of Mer's Munich friends, visited the Olympic grounds from the 1972 Munich Olympics (close to my heart having visited the Atlanta Centennial Park only about a thousand times)!! Around 4:30 or so, we decided that we had seen everything we wanted to see and headed towards the airport to relieve some of our stress about flying from Munich to Berlin. Our flight was uneventful except that Berlin lovingly greeted us with GROSS rain. Boo. We decided to taxi-it home because in the rain with my bag it would take about a hour and a half and it would just be miserable.

We arrived (on the FIFTH floor mind you) to Mer's house and it is WONDERFUL! It is a cozy apartment with her host mom and host brother. I have a little palate on the floor, but in reality, Mer and I spend a lot of time cuddling on her bed... We went RIGHT to sleep.

Munich, I LOVED YOU. But I am moving on. Sorry. Here I am, Berlin!!!