PROST! - Munich, Germany

Huge, completely overstuffed backpacks strapped on and we’re off again for another weekend away.  Fortunately this time before the train arrived everyone was early and prepared, Eurails and all.  Overall we switched trains three times throughout the 8 hour trip to Munich. We arrived in Munich around 10 pm and were lucky enough to have our hostel, Wombats, just down the street…. We only found this out shortly after stopping a pair of polizia that happened to be walking by and asking for directions as best we could considering not one of us knows a lick of German.   First things first I needed to go to an ATM to get euros because I didn’t have time to go to the conversion place in Lugano before we left.  A BIG THANKS TO MY PARENTS FOR MAKING ME A PARANOID AMERICAN…. I’m waiting outside with a couple of girls for the rest of the group that needs to go to the ATM, holding all of our stuff, when a rather large, pink haired woman comes up to us and asks if any of us have a lighter she could borrow…. mom and dad told me 10000x before I left “If they ask you for help they’re waiting for you to let your guard down then they’re going to steal from you, just say sorry and walk away!” …. I didn’t have a lighter anyways so I honestly couldn’t help the woman but it was quite interesting that the moment I arrive in a foreign country I’m asked “do you have a lighter?” and immediate paranoia hits thanks to good old mom and dad.  Turns out it was an Israeli woman named Adriana who was actually extremely nice and LOVED Americans.  She described us as "pure quality, mature, and genuine people" She befriended many people in our group throughout the weekend (don’t worry mom and dad you still scared me enough I know they all won’t be nice).

Adriana and some of our group

We had a 6 person all female room that was SO perfect we couldn’t have asked for me.

Clean sheets, towels, plenty of plugs, and a complimentary hair dryer, it was ideal…. Except for the SINGLE mirror which all six of us shared, we got by quite well!

After getting aquainted in our room we walked downstairs to the bar at our hostel and made friends with the locals and other people traveling from all over the world.  Hostels are a really fun place because there are always people from everywhere and everyone is so intrigued by each others stories that you learn so much about different cultures.  We even met a guy who now lived in Munich but grew up in Blacksburg and had spent his freshman year at Virginia Tech! How crazy!?!

Our group and the guy from Blacksburg!

The next morning we woke up a little too late and missed our scheduled free tour because we couldn’t get to the meeting place in time…. But I could not be happier because we ended up taking the tour through our hostel with an Australian man named Ozzy who now lives in Munich and it was PHENOMENAL.

The tour guide-- Oz and I!

He was awesome! He did a great job of making the history of the city interesting and relevant, making everything connect in one way or another.  We started by entering the walking district of Munich which is a surprisingly very bopping area with our first stop being the Frauenkirche church, the Pope Benedict XVI's home church where he was a bishop way back when

Then we moved on to the Marienplatz (city centre) just in time to see the bells chiming and the figurines dancing around. 

Everyone took a lot of pictures and videos and just watched the Glockenspiel for a little before we continued on to an area filled with small vendors and markets.  It was about time for lunch so Ozzy took us to a bratwurst stand where we could choose between red and white sausages and a variety of drinks.  He recommended we try the Mezzo Mix (half coke, half orange juice) because it is such a popular drink.  I decided upon a red sausage and the Mezzo Mix—both of which were less than 5 euros :) and was more than satisfied.

We continued to work our way through the markets to a pickle stand with quite the variety of huuuuge fresh pickles.  I decided to sit this one out as I am not much of a pickle fan but I did take a bite or two out of a couple people’s just to have a taste of authentic german pickles.  The whole market experience was definitely a highlight of the tour.  We continued on our tour and saw the maypole before making it to a corner where we could easily see each of the famous beer logos in Germany proudly displayed.  Ozzy made sure to tell us the order in which they were ranked so we wouldn’t make mistakes when ordering later on.   After that we headed to a TIIIINY little bar to try a shot of authentic German raspberry schnapps.  He made fun of us Americans for always automatically ordering jager and not giving the others a try.   Personally…. I thought it tasted quite awful but I think there were some who enjoyed it. 

I think that Ozzy taking us to the markets and the very obviously local non-touristy bar was one of the coolest aspects of the tour.  He kept telling us places we could get authentic German meals and experiences without being bombarded by fake touristy attractions.  Afterwards we finally made it to the Hofbrauhas to experience the famous beer hall where the Nazi party beer hall putsch of 1923 occurred.  

 

Where Hitler gave his speeches

Ozzy gave us the ins and outs of the place we never would have known on our own. For example the flags strategically painted on the ceiling to cover up all of the swastikas. 

[[ insert swastika pic ]]

While there Ozzy also told us everything from beer steins, how to order like a local, and how to “cheers” like a german—Prost!

Swastika symbol in the flags

The tour took us on a few more iconic sites and ended with a  group picture on the steps of Odeonsplatz.

Afterwards a few of us stopped at souvenir stands along the way back home and made our way back into the hofbrauhaus to try an authentic German pretzel.  We ATTEMPTED to get a picture with the pretzel girl but she was extremely unfriendly and unfortunately when we finally got the picture the screen was black… disappointing but Sarah (who was taking the picture) told us the pretzel girl had the most obvious frown on her face so it probably wouldn’t have turned out to be a good picture anyways.  We finally headed back to the hostel and met up with everyone who had put in a reservation for the 20 of us at the “Augustiner Brau Munchen” another famous but less touristy beer hall in Munich.  I enjoyed the Brewer Master Special which included a slice of roasted pork saddle, swabian ravioli, a grilled meat ball, creamy mushroom, pretzel—dumpling and gravy.  Even with the mushrooms I was surprisingly satisfied!  Being in Munich of course we all had to order the famous liter of beer, it was quite a sight seeing the waiter bringing out 20 liters full of beer for each of us.  There were certainly many “Prosts!” to follow.

Dinner was a lot of fun, the atmosphere and food was fantastic.  The next morning we woke up and headed to Dachau, the site of the first Nazi concentration camp.   We all bought the audio guided tour to help in our tour throughout the camp.  It certainly was eye-opening.  I cannot believe all of the horrors experienced at that place. I felt sick to my stomach reading, listening, and watching videos with original footage from the camp. 

Living quarters

Gas Chamber

Crematoria

After returning from Dachau we had yet another train catastrophe when only 4 of us made it off the train in time with less than an hour before we had to catch our train home.  Luckily everyone else was able to get off a couple minutes later and caught up to us in no time but it was quite the scare.  Once we were all together again we grabbed our bags, headed to the train station and made our way home.  We arrived in Lugano around 11:30 pm exhausted and ready for bed.   While walking up the hill back to the Montarina I could tell I already feel at home here.  Two weeks in and I’ve already made so many new close friends and cannot even imagine what’s left to come.

Munich was a fantastic weekend, I can’t wait to return again one day.  I’m so excited for a weekend of masks and costumes at Carnevale in Venice this weekend.  Until then… as the swiss-italians will say SEEYABYE!

I forgot to mention... on the train home during one of the connections, one of the European things we've all been dreading finally happened.  The train bathrooms were disgusting so we decided to wait until we pulled into the next station.  It was one of our longer connections so we rushed around the  station to find a bathroom in the hopes it would be a bit cleaner than the one on the train.  We finally found the bathroom and.... yep you guessed it, you have to pay.

Since we were back in Switzerland the currency had switched from euros to francs and because Munich was euros, none of us even had francs on us to pay for the bathroom.  Thus, we had to wait until we were back on the stinky train again.  Lesson learned: sometimes its best to just suck it up while its free because paying to use the bathroom is just annoying.

Trains on Trains on Trains

Two weekend train experiences down…. Many more to come

The train rides are actually not bad at all.  I really enjoy looking at the scenery out the window and talking with the occasional English speaking European that ends up in our vicinity.  They are all certainly intrigued by us…. Many times we are talking for about 30 minutes before they speak up and we realize they understand everything we’re saying…. On the way to Interlaken this happened with a guy named Christian who was on his way home to study for his finals.  We all started talking to him and it turns out he had won a country music contest in Europe last summer for a few trip to Nashville (haven’t heard any country music here yet so I was quite surprised).  We asked him about everywhere he went and he wasn’t quite sure of the names of all of the places but we think he went from Nashville to West VA some and parts of Virginia.  The funniest part was when someone mentioned Richmond quickly and his immediate response was “Oh I’ve been to Richmond, that place is how you say F***** up!!!” ….. “We live there” … “oh, I’m sorry… I don’t know there was just a bunch of windmills and broken down buildings… wasn’t really a place I was looking to stay.”  It was quite funny, but we think he must have been in the far outskirts of Richmond or a different Richmond because it didn’t sound like anything we recognized.  He also told us he had been to Busch Gardens and boy did he have words about that place.  Apparently the new ride “Verbolten” is not even a real German word…. He assumes they wanted to say “Verboten” which means forbidden or prohibited, but the extra L really seemed to make him angry—“I don’t understand why they wouldn’t have just asked a German man, it’s stupid, the music the name, IT’S NOT EVEN GERMAN.”  Christian definitely made our ride a lot more enjoyable, I hope we get to sit by some more entertaining Europeans in the future. 

There are also some not so happy Europeans to be stuck in the middle of us…. On the way home from Munich a couple made the mistake of sitting in the train car that was filled with everyone from our group and no one else… I don’t think they’ll ever make that mistake again, they did not seem to be enjoying themselves. On our connecting train (which was extremely crowded with very few empty seats) Maureen, Kimber, and I sat with a man who was busy on his computer and didn’t seem to happy to be sitting with three girls either. I’m not sure he enjoyed our game of Egyptian Ratscrew …. We tried to keep it quiet but we had to entertain ourselves… hopefully we weren’t too much of a bother, we truly weren't trying to be.

He looks happy, right?

Life as a Luganian

    Classes are going pretty well.  To start the day, everyone meets downstairs and then we leave the Montarina about 30 minutes before class.  We’re still getting crazy looks walking in such a huge pack to class everyday, but we’re getting used to it.  Dr. Brinberg’s class is extremely discussion based but I like it better that way because it keeps us all engaged.   Our mid-term was due this morning, a paper on our choice of social issue and all of the constructs that might lead to it, followed by our ideas for a solution.  We have a lot of discussion about social issues and what causes them, its very interesting to see everyone’s point of view in class.  My Italian teacher, Magda, is a small lady probably in her late 40’s early 50’s and its clear that she thoroughly enjoys teaching us Italian and can’t help but laugh at us a lot of the time.  Our first Italian test is tomorrow and I’m pretty sure none of us are feeling very prepared…. I’m sure it’s going to be an evening of straight Italian in the Montarina for everybody.

and I almost forgot… the chocolate. Seriously words cannot explain how amazingly delicious it tastes (or as Caroline would say “SCRUMPTIOUS!! :)” )  It very well could be the death of me, but don’t worry I’ll bring plenty home for everyone to have a taste.

Things I’ve noticed around Lugano…. 
1)  Nutella is EVERYWHERE, they’ve pretty much replaced peanut butter over here and it’s jars on jars of nutella and one meeeeasly row of peanut butter (I think it’s pretty opposite at home).  Since everything is so expensive here we’ve all gotten used to having either a nutella sandwich or a peanut butter sandwich everyday for lunch… back to elementary school for all the luganians.

Giant Nutella on display near the plaza

2) FUR—every single woman in this town owns and wears a fur coat that is probably worth at least $50,000 everyday….. its outrageous.

3) CARS- here in Lugano the Mercedes, BWM, and Audi are equivalent to the Honda, Ford, and Jeep at home….. they’re everywhere.  Then there’s always at least one Porsche, Ferrari, or Bentley in sight.

4) Everybody smokes cigarettes…. We were all told this would be the case when we arrived but we were all kind of taken aback to see a group that couldn’t have been older than 13 hanging out smoking in the plaza. It was kind of sad.

5) TRUST--- everybody trusts everyone here…. When we went to Interlaken Lindsay rented a snowboard where all she did was pay cash, didn’t sign ANYTHING and was just expected to bring it back on Sunday. When we’re shopping we’ve noticed some women parking their babies in their strollers and then walking throughout the store without a second glance…. I know it used to be this way at home (memama said all the women used to park the babies outside the grocery store or restaurant while they shopped/ate then came back out when they were done) but the amount of trust that still exists here today is amazing.

6) Coffee shops, fast food, etc.—all the coffee shops have liquor bars behind the counter, its quite interesting to walk into our equivalent of Einstein’s (though I have yet to find a bagel here) and see a liquor bar behind the counter.  You can also buy beer in McDonald’s, Burger King, and any other fast food type place, I wasn’t really expecting any of that.

7) TIIIINY elevators—not sure why the Europeans don’t like space but everytime we get in an elevator here we’re literally like a pack of sardines because they are all soooo small

8) Common Courtesy--- we have yet to figure out if it’s because we’re American or if they are always acting this way but no one here seems to have common courtesy… they’re all ready to plow us down on the sidewalk and definitely would if we didn’t move out of the way and even when they actually hit us whether with themselves or one of their bags, no “scusi” is heard, just a harsh look and they’re on their way…

Interlaken- “between two seas”

Words cannot describe our first weekend outside of Lugano, it was absolutely amazing-- but I will try my best.  To start things off, we are Eurail idiots.  The train station is a 5 minute walk from the Montarina, so we figured okay our train leaves at 2:11 so we can just walk down there around 2:00. Wrong. We did not take into account that our train is the only one coming in and we would have to go to a specific platform for our particular train.  We were on time but had no idea where to go so we were all freaking out trying to find out which one went to Interlaken.  Meanwhile, Megan goes to ask someone for help and they told her to show them her Eurail pass so when she goes to grab it she realizes she has mistakenly brought her flight boarding pass instead (they looked similar) with only 7 minutes until the train leaves.  She immediately dropped her things and took off in a sprint for the Montarina.  We are all waiting by the platform and Lindsey and Kerry waited in the tunnel to direct Megan when she came back when we see the train coming in—they literally only stop for like 1 minute so people can get on and then go- Megan, Kerry, and Lindsey came out of the platform and we all jumped on the train with only seconds until it pulled away.  It was quite the start to our weekend, I’ll say we all learned the important lesson of being early and prepared.  To make matters worse, we are in the mountains so the train was weaving from the start and the combination of sprinting and motion sickness did not do well for Megan. She had to go to the porta-potty type bathroom on the train and throw up.  She said it was quite possibly the worst thing she has ever done in her life sticking her head down and vomiting into a bowl filled with god knows what.  However, after some instant dramaine and time to cool off the rest of the trip went smoothly for all of us.  The first two trains we rode were quite spacious and we were all saying “this isn’t bad at all!” until we got on our third VERY tight train and realized that some will be much much better than others.  Riding the train through the alps was BEAUTIFUL. I spent the entire trip gawking out the window at everything.

            We arrived in Interlaken around 7 and checked into Balmer’s Hotel and Hostel.  The rooms were straight bunk beds all over but it was a little better than what we were expecting. 

Starving from the train we went to the only place we knew we could find food we would like and be able to MAYBE read and understand the menu—Hooter’s of Interlaken.   

After dinner we walked back to the hostel and went downstairs to the club that was also a part of the hostel.  One thing I learned from the club was that foreigners CANNOT dance.  It pretty much became an American dance party with everyone else standing and watching all 18 of us have a great time.  Somehow a dance off got started and there were two guys who were actually amazing dancers that kept going back and forth, but we all know Maureen…. of course she got in on it too. I wish I could post videos on here because it was quite a show.  Unfortunately for Megan, Kerry, and myself we got stock in the room with the boys.  I have never stayed in a more fowl smelling room in my life.  Not to mention the first night I’m on the bottom bunk and at around 4 am two snowboards, 1 set of skis, a suitcase, and Jack come crashing to the floor by my bed.  I screamed bloody murder.  He was dreaming he was falling out of a chair and fell out of the top bunk.  Luckily he’s okay, just a few bruises on his back but it was terrifying.

            The next morning some of the girls and I went paragliding while others went skiing/snowboarding or just walked around the town.  Paragliding in the alps was the most beautiful and amazing experience I’ve ever had.  Pictures and words cannot even describe how incredible it was.

View from the mountain

another view from the mountain

view from paragliding

After paragliding we went to Ex-Port Pizzeria and had our first Doner Kabob experience.  It was deeeeelicious.   

Then we just kind of walked around the town and admired the gigantic mountains surrounding us.    

Megan and I

Once everyone was back from the slopes we all got ready and headed back down to the club to finish off our weekend in Interlaken.  The dj was awesome both nights and everyone had such a great time.  Definitely a very successful first weekend away from Lugano.

"Ciao! lo sono Rachael, sono Americana. Sono di Richmond, Virginia." "E tu di dove sei?" First week of classes

For our first set of classes we have Consumer Behavior on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30-12:30 and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00-4:00.  Our school, is called Università della Svizzera italiana. 

 It takes about 25-30 minutes to walk there everyday but the views are amazing.  

The walk there is not bad because it’s all downhill, but that makes the walk home ENTIRELY uphill.  By the time we all get to the top of the hill across from the Montarina everyone is always unzipping jackets and breathing heavily.  If I’ve learned anything about this town it’s that I’m going to walk up a huge hill anywhere I go and Nutella grows on trees. Seriously, people here LOVE Nutella.   Anyways, we have Italian on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9:00-12:00.  In consumer behavior we cover about a chapter a day and have a quiz, project, or test everyday.  It might be a little hard to keep up with but I think by covering the material almost everyday it shouldn’t be too bad.   Italian class sure was a wakeup call.  Our instructor is really sweet but she moves quickly.  We learned a lot in our first week but I’m going to try reaaaally hard to keep up so that I can communicate and understand a little better outside of class.