Fall in Munich

It's now the end of my 8th week in Munich, and I couldn't be happier. I woke up today to the pleasant surprise of having an extra hour, as Europe switches over to "Winter Time."

My second week of classes just came to an end. The classes I'm taking here in Germany are as follows:

-German Language Course, taken with the Lewis & Clark Institute (which runs my study abroad program)
-Basic Course in Transportation Engineering and Planning, taken at the TUM (technical univeristy)
-Technical Thermodynamics, taken at the TUM
-Globalizing the American Way of Life, History of the Consumer Society, taken at the LMU (liberal arts university)

So far it has been somewhat difficult to understand everything going on in class, but I've been more or less following along nonetheless. I finished my first engineering homework assignment and have already done some readings in German. Both definitely took quite a bit of time due to the language barrier. However, I think it will probably get much easier over the next month or two. It will be nice once I can contribute to the class, rather than just survive it.

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying some great weather. In the last few days it has started to get a bit cold, but we've only had a handful of rainy days in October, and it has generally been sunny and mild. When my parents and I traveled through Austria two weeks ago, it was particularly nice,and we enjoyed some breathtaking views of the Alps.

Here are some recent pictures from Munich and from the trip through Austria

Fall in the museum park across the street from the Technische Universität, where I am taking most of my classes.

Perlacher Forst, Munich's own little forest on the south side of the city.

The gate to Dachau concentration camp on the outskirts of Munich. I visited the camp turned monument with my parents while they were visiting Munich. The sign reads "Work sets you free"--a twisted statement of sarcasm aimed at the camp prisoners.

The Austrian Alps in the setting sun viewed from the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, self-proclaimed most-beautiful road in the Alps.

A few small boats lined up in the morning lake fog near Zell am See, a picturesque mountain lakeside town that we stayed in.

Nonstop amazing views from the Austrian Autobahn.

The town of Salzburg. The Fortress Hohensalzburg lies in the upper right hand corner.

My parents walking through an arbor featured in the Sound of Music film.

A beautiful tree takes over the scene of another Sound of Music film location.

My mom enjoying dessert in Salzburg--a local delicasy, the Salzburger Nockerl, looks reminiscent of the snow-covered Alps that surround the city.

The awesome view looking out beyond Hitler's Eagle Nest headquarters, built for his 50th birthday.

-TG-

End of Oktoberfest

I didn't manage to post before heading off to Berlin, so I will take the chance now to share a little bit more about Oktoberfest, which ended this past Sunday.

I realized that I left out some of the background information on Oktoberfest, so I'd like to fill everyone in. Oktoberfest started in 1810 as a wedding ceremony for the Bavarian prince Ludwig. The original festival included horse races and such, but it has since evolved/degraded into its current form, which roughly resembles a hybrid combination of theme park, state fair, and--of course--Munich's famous beer houses. In recent years the festival has been visited by more than 6 million people across its two weeks. Munich itself has a population of only 1.2 million.

My last trip to the Oktoberfest was during the second/middle weekend, or the so-called "Italian Weekend"--when hordes of Italians drive up to Germany hoping to have a good time. There's usually one of two practices: 1) they leave at 3am to drive over the Alps into Bavaria, spend the whole day drinking, and try to drive back the same night--thus, to the dismay of Munich residents, the police have been forced to set up traffic-jam inducing checkpoints around the city during the festival, in order to cut down on drunk driving; 2) they drive up in campers and try to park all over the city, which has lead police to ban camping vehicles in the city and try to contain them in vast parking areas on the outskirts of town.

Anyway, we showed up at 8am so that we could be among the first let into the tents. I met up with a German friend of mine, along with his family and friends visiting from Heidelberg. We chose the Armbrustschützen-Paulaner tent, since one of the friends was actually competing in the German crossbow shooting championship in an attached area. There are 14 major beer tents in all, each seating between 1,000 and 8,500 guests inside, plus additional outdoor seating.

The Armbrustschützen-Paulaner tent, in the early morning.

A view of the Tent from the front balcony. The balconies contain mostly reserved seating, which you have to get 6 or more months ahead of time. In the middle of the tent, you can see the band stage. They play traditional music all day, and starting around 6pm in the evening, they are allowed to play popular songs, such as well known anthems and soccer cheers, which tend to make the crowd a bit rowdier.

Our group near the middle of the day.

My German friend Sascha, myself, and an Italian woman who couldn't speak German or English--so I got to practice my limited Italian (i.e. Spanish) skills with her.

Two of the other American students who practiced the best strategy for Italian weekend--they found a group of wealthy Italian men with a reserved table and managed to get them to buy all of their drinks and food. I met up with them to mooch some chicken.

A waitress carrying 9 liters of beer. The most talented ones can carry more like 12 to 15.

After we got out of the tent around 8pm, we decided to go for a ride on the "Freefall Tower." Fortunately, nobody threw up, and I managed to get some great night shots of the festival from above!

The view along the major row of beer tents.

The view in the direction of the roller coasters and one of the entrances.

The beer tent of the famous Hofbräuhaus. All Germans know to avoid it, due to the massive throngs of clueless tourists.


That about raps up Oktoberfest. In other news, my parents are visiting Germany and Austria this week. They spent the last couple of days with me in Munich, and now I'm travelling with them for a few days through the Austrian Alps. Once I get back to Munich, classes at the University will start on Monday, and meanwhile I'll try to share more from my travels. Bis dann!

-TG-