At last, I bring you Munich

The biggest trip that Em and I took was to Munich. We rented a car (first time on the Autobahn for me!) and drove as fast as our little 4-cylinder rental car could take us....we made it up over 100 mph at one point, but quickly dropped back to 85 when our car started shaking.

The afternoon we arrived we went to Dachau, just outside of the city center. For those that don't know, Dachau was a concentration camp during WWII. It's now a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, and much of what was originally there is now gone. The museum at the site though is very good. On the train on the way back to Munich, we met a man whose parents were both Holocaust survivors...his mom was in hiding, and his dad was in a concentration camp. After the war, Germany apparently turned much of Hitler's land into shelters for refugees, so this man was actually born in Hitler's airplane hangar. Very interesting person to talk to.

That night we made the quintessential visit to the Hofbrauhaus. It's a little intimidating at first, because it's huge and full of people and you have to seat yourself. Of course, it's not like you get a table to yourself. You just have to walk up and ask if you can squeeze in at a table with other people. This concept is actually pretty typical in Germany. Anyway, we wanted a table that was locals, not tourists, and that looked like nice people to chat with. We ended up choosing a table of 4 German men who work for BMW. They were really nice, and let us practice our German all night....mostly because they didn't speak very good English. Later another couple of guys joined our table who were in Munich for a big soccer game the next day. It was a fun night, drinking Maß (liters of beer) and eating Wurst and Bretzeln.

Em and me inside the Hofbrauhaus with Maß in hand!

Our group of German buddies...minus one of the soccer fan guys

That night we actually met up with the soccer fan guys, who took us to a bunch of fun bars and dance clubs in a part of town we never would've found on our own. It was a lot of fun. The only bad part was when we decided to head back to our hotel. Turns out at 2am the trains don't come all that frequently. So we had to wait on the train platform, in the cold, for 47 minutes. Luckily the guys were nice enough to wait with us and make sure we made it home okay.

The next morning, we forced ourselves out of bed and headed downtown to do some more sightseeing. We saw the famous Glockenspiel clock in Marienplatz, climbed up St. Peter's Cathedral to get a view of the city, ate Bratwurst and Weisswurst for lunch, went to Odeonplatz, saw the Munich palace, and then headed to the Chinesisch Turm beer garden in the beautiful English Gardens. It was a whirlwind trip, but super, super fun. I can't wait to go back to Munich for Oktoberfest this fall!

Glockenspiel clock in Marienplatz

View from the top of St. Peter's Cathedral

Our lunch: Weisswurst und Brezeln & Bratwurst und Saurkraut

Movie star Em in Odeonplatz

Something special that lots of tour groups stopped to look at. :)

Cool yellow church

Lion outside the Munich palace entrance

Courtyard in the palace

Cool "Walking Man" we passed near the English Gardens

The Chinesisch Turm (Chinese Tower)

Em enjoying one last Bier und Brezeln before leaving town

And then there was Strassburg

As I said before, Emily and I took a trip to Strassburg, France. The town is just a short jump across the German-French border, and easily accessible by train. So, we got a group ticket and organized a group of five girls: Em, me, Shravanthi, Katie, and Kathleen. Mostly we just wandered around the city. It's very quaint and beautiful, situated on a little island and surrounded by a narrow channel of water. The buildings are all lovely and medieval in style. Just a really pretty place to visit. The highlights of the trip included our charming lunch at a small French cafe, our strolls through the neighborhoods, the Strassburg cathedral, and a boat tour around the channel (actually, that part was kind of boring...). There is also a lot of nice wine in that region, so I brought back a nice bottle of Pinot Noir that Andy, Em, and split the next night. I'm hoping that Andy and I can go back soon for a weekend sometime this summer.

Houses along the water

Lunch at the French cafe

Walking along the streets near the cafe

Interesting house near the cathedral

Strassburg Cathedral

The boat tour was so fascinating, that all of the
teenagers there on school trips fell asleep! :)

Gute Fahrt!

So this post is probably long overdue, but I thought I would tell you about the "false friends" of the German language. By this I mean phrases that sound or look similar to ones in English, but mean something totally different.

For example, "Gute Fahrt!" does not mean "Wow. You are awesome at cuttin' the cheese!" It means: "Have a good trip!". Other favorite confusing German words include:

- bald = soon
- Chef = boss
- Gymnasium = high school
- Pickel = pimple
- Gift = poison
- Beamer = a projector
- Schmuck = jewelry
- Handy = cell phone
- Fahrt = drive or way
- Gummi = condom

Of course, in normal conversation it's usually pretty easy to distinguish the meanings, but we still giggle whenever we see an entrance with a "Fahrt" sign.

Cheesy, but Awesome

As we've mentioned several times, there's a store here called Tchibo, that has all of these wonderful, fun, themed items that change every week. Their slogan is "Each week, a new world." Since I'm on their mailing list (of course! they're awesome!), I get little magazines every now and then with a preview of what'll be sold in the coming weeks.

Well, the ads are always a bit cheesy, but this latest one takes the cake. The theme for next week is "Miami Weiss"...pronounced "Miami Vice", but translated as "Miami White". Very clever. It's all kitchen wares with a clean, white theme. So they have these two men dressed Miami Vice-style modeling all of the new kitchen wares. My favorite page of the ad layout is shown below...note that the "gun" the guy on the left is holding are really salad tongs. :) Just hilarious. Gotta love it.

I've got tongs and I'm not afraid to use them!

Can't get you out of my head

I don't know if this song is a hit in the US too, but the Scissor Sisters are pretty big over here. I think I first heard this song at the end of last summer, and now that I have the album I listen to it a lot. It's just so darn catchy! And now that I found this (kind of ridiculous) video, I love it even more!

Baby Steps...

I am the first to admit that I love to travel, and I love taking pictures, but man is it a crazy task to sort through all of those pics when you get back! I've been dragging my feet to get all of the pics from our escapades with Emily posted, because, well, there are just so darned many of them! :) So, I thought I would start small and post the pics one escapade at a time....

First on the list is Tubingen. Emily's cousin, John, lives there with his girlfriend Kat. So, Andy, Em, and I hopped on a train, and an hour later we were there. John met us at the train station and happily gave us a detailed tour of the city.

Rows of houses along the Neckar River

Wood-frame, marshmallow-y house we walked by

Entrance to the Tubingen Castle
(note the statue pointing a gun at intruders, upper left)Em and me at an overlook by the castle
Poseiden statue in front of the Tubingen Rathaus

Although it's true that Tubingen is a lovely town, with colorful houses stretched along the river that runs through the city, it's also true that it's a town full of history. Back in the day, Tubingen attracted such famous writers as Herman Hesse and Goethe. John and Kat took us to the bookstore where Herman Hesse used to work, and to the window from which Goethe once puked onto the street below (some claim to fame, huh?).

"Here Puked Goethe"

After finishing our tour of the city center, John and Kat decided to take us for a scenic drive. We got to see all sorts of lovely views and neighborhoods. It was really nice. Unfortunately (or rather comically?) we had some trouble doing a U-turn in the snow, so Andy and John had to rescue Kat's car from the mud... We were lucky to have such industrious men along with us!!

Beautiful old cloister outside of town

Our heroes in action!

Finally, at the end of our day of fun and adventure, we headed to the French Quarter, a charming part of town with lots of little cafes and bars. What better way to end the day than with frothy cappuccinos and delicious chocolate & cherry cake?

The whole gang at a French Quarter cafe

So, now that you've all seen Tubingen, there're just pics of Strassburg and Munich left to share. Hopefully I can get those up before we leave for Greece in 10 days. I tell you what... being world-travelers is hard work! :)

Identity Crisis

How Ironic; right now I'm living the life of an American in Deutchland. I was doing really well assimilating into Deutchkulture for the past five months, and then the inevitable happened - I got a job related to the US Government. One week I'm walking in Deutchland and talking German, the next week I find myself in Little America walking the walk and talking the talk you know oh-so-well.

At least the word Dude reentered my vernacular.. oh how I missed you, Dude.

Although, I'm not exactly American. I work in Little America, but as far as my access is concerned, I am not able to purchase goods (food, clothes, gas, etc) like other Americans. That's because I'm an Amerikaner, or an American working as a German. The German Gov't says so, because they want my tax dollars to pay for the services I use. Okay, I can respect that for now, but I hope someday that I can legally purchase goods in the many Little Americas dimpled throughout these knobby hills. If I weren't an Amerikaner, but a true American, I wouldn't be required to pay any taxes whatsoever. How cool is that? Well, cool for those of you who qualify. I'm just happy to be here.. and have a job that's challenging.

As usual, I'm working too much. It's just a habit. I love solving problems! And blogging isn't problem-solving.. not usually anyway.

And just as our C-Town friend Em returned to the Windy, WAW should be on the way here after a romantic stint in .. Rainy London. ;) Get your arse over here, WAW. It's my turn to show someone around!!

And for the rest of you, Pony Up, yah? I may not have any more vacation time left, but thanks to friends, family and the semi-weekly wanderings, we know of a LOT to do around here. Besides, I just bought all this beer not remembering when Em was leaving.. and, well, we just need some help with it all.. y'know?

April Fish!

So, last Monday I was in Strassburg, France for the day. It's only a couple of hours by train, and since we got a group together (Emily, me, Shravanthi, Katie, and Kathleen), it was only 10 Euros a person, round-trip. Not too shabby, considering a ticket from Chicago to France would be at least 50 times that!

Anyway, we kept seeing these beautiful "fish" chocolates in all of the bakeries. They were shaped like Chinese goldfish, and the chocolate used to make them was swirled with red and orange. Since it's close to Easter, I figured they had something to do with the "loaf of bread and fish" story from the Bible.

Chinese Goldfish

Well, as Guillaume later clarified, it's actually because of April Fish Day (aka April Fool's Day). In France, the traditional prank is to tape a picture of a fish on someone's back and see how long it takes them to figure it out.....with bonus points for successfully putting an April Fish (Poisson d'Avril) on a teacher's back. You learn somethin' new every day. :)