Vienna and Munich

Lightning in the distance, seen from the Isar River

I'm sitting inside watching the 5th or 6th flash thunderstorm we've had in Munich this month. They're pretty cool: first the wind picks up mysteriously, then the heavy clouds quickly and suddenly roll in, the sky often turns a funny almost greenish color (tonight it's actually stayed pretty normal grey though), then it sprinkles for a minute or two before begging to drop massive torrents of rain. The thunder and lightning pick up and continue for about 20 to 30 minutes, then the whole thing blows away and the weather is fine again, often even sunny. I think it's really cool, but I also haven't been caught outside in one yet.

I got back from Vienna almost two weeks ago, and in the few days I was there I had a blast. Some photos...

The Melk Abbey, or Stift Melk, located along the Donau just over an hour west of Vienna.

An UNESCO World Heritage site, and home to one of the most beautiful libraries I've ever seen.

Hundertwasserhaus, still a low-income housing block despite being one of the most visited buildings in Austria.

And a stairwell of the Kunst Haus Wien...a Museum of all of the works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, plus they had a great Picasso exhibition.

A view of part of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, which along with the rest of the inner city is also an UNESCO World Heritage site.

Side view showing the beautiful tile roof of the St. Stephen's Cathedral in the center of the Old town.

A snapshot of Viennese coffehouse culture. My plum strudel and melange, the typical Viennese coffee prepared with hot foamed milk, and always accompanied by a glass of water.

My friend Nico looking appalled at the sight of a 18 euro liter of water at an upscale supermarket in Downtown Vienna.

We did buy one thing at the supermarket though: Marzipan in the shape of an apple, a mushroom, and a black fig. Only 2 euros a pop, and delicious!

We ate them after a great meal at this traditional Viennese wine cellar restaurant.

Viennese Opera House. A highlight of our trip was getting to watch a ballet, Romeo & Juliet, here and feeling mighty hoity toity.


A cool piece of modern architecture located just across from St. Stephen's cathedral at the very center of the city.

Cool looking record shop. What I love about Vienna--the mixture of old, grandiose and new, hip, modern. This is an image that is sadly lacking in Munich.

Vienna was an awesome city, and even though I was there only a few short days, it may have overtaken Berlin as my favorite German-speaking city. Perhaps this isn't so surprising, considering that Vienna is now the city with the highest quality of life in the world (or so some fancy consulting firm has absurdly determined). Anyway, Vienna has so much going on it makes Munich feel provincial, and the old town is full of beautiful, monumental buildings. Real Wiener Schnitzel is also really, really tasty--and much better than the stuff I've ever been served anywhere else.

Real Wiener Schnitzel. The portions are also massive.

After getting back from Vienna, I almost started to list off the reasons why I don't like Munich, and why I found Vienna so much better. However, as usually happens, just as I was getting down about Munich, it went and surprised me with something cool and different...

This Thursday we had another public holiday (one of Bavaria's charms is the ridiculous amount of holidays the workers here get....I believe 12 per year), and I went with a friend to a street festival near downtown, and it was awesome! Food and drinks and lots of music, including a live band, and the atmosphere was just great, with a nice mix of people. As it turns out, this is just the beginning of what could be called "street festival season" (i.e. summer), and there's tons of festivals coming up all over the city--fish markets, beer garden festivals, the music fest put on by my university, and more. I'm so glad that summer is just getting started, and that I'll be here to enjoy it in Munich.

Keeping busy

Well I suppose it's about time I cleaned the dust off this thing again. I have actually been quite busy since the start of the semester, traveling and trying to keep up with all my classes.

I spent a cloudy, but fun weekend in Paris while my brother was there, and then he came to visit Munich. I also spent a beautiful birthday weekend in the beach resort of Rimini, Italy with 6 friends after I found dirt cheap round trip airfare back in February. It was still off-season, but we lucked out on weather and therefore had the beaches all to ourselves...couldn't ask for a better way to celebrate turning 21.

But, it's not just all fun and games; I am taking 4 engineering classes in German, instead of just the 2 I did last semester, plus my German review course and a Portuguese course, which I decided to start taking.

As my time in Germany begins to count down however, I'm becoming quite a bit more reflective on my experience thus far, and I thought I might use this blog as at least one place to share and/or save some of my thoughts and observations.

Where to begin...

Well, everyone here is convinced that global warming is really starting to set in because spring has just been way too nice and sunny, apparently. I'm just wondering what all the northern Europeans complain about so much...take a trip to Chicago my friends. Anyhow, the coming summer should be interesting for me, seeing as how this is the first time in about 15 years that I've seen much of anything but a dry Mediterranean version of the season. So far we've already had a few intense flash thunderstorms, which is certainly not what I'm used to. I've had a taste of such things early or late in the school year at Northwestern, but I think I end up spending more time outside here, making it all the more apparent.

One nice thing about the good weather is how many more bikers and people walking around there are...it makes quiet little Munich feel more alive, which is a big plus. I have also had a chance to really, completely fall in love with the English Garden, which begins only about 2 minutes from my dorm and is simply fantastic. Not full of sports fields or museums or zoos or any of that junk that a lot of big urban parks in the U.S. cram in, but rather just a few biergartens, bounded by seemingly endless trees, meadows, streams, a lake, and a river. And when the weather is nice, everyone in Munich flocks there to tan, grill, run around, drink, and just generally let their (normally carefully restrained) proverbial hair down. It's really amazing to have such a place right next door, and I can even bike through it on my way to the university.

My view in the English Garden while spending an April spring day laying in the sun

Now, I have to get back to preparing for a presentation in my German class tomorrow. On Friday, I head off for a long weekend in Vienna with my program, and that will probably be the end of any major traveling until the semester is over at the end of July.

Back in time for Spring

Well, the snow is long gone, and today is about the fourth day of what feels like Spring here in Munich.

The people of Munich have reemerged en masse from their houses , on foot, bicycle, roller blades, and even surf boards.

Springtime activity in the English Garden.

A view of Karlsplatz in downtown Munich looking towards the Justizpalast (Palace of Justice).

The winter has been long yet eventful, and my 2 month winter semester break is slowly drawing to a close. The summer semester begins on April 20th, and will continue until near the end of July. I will stick around here in Germany until September, to allow me to take all my exams, which will occur during still to be finalized dates during the summer semester break.

What that all means, is that with about another 5 or so months ahead of me I'm only about halfway done with my time here in Munich, and the lovely weather has (somewhat ironically) inspired me to spend more time inside on the computer and try and update this blog, seeing as how I have fallen oh so far behind with it.

Tomorrow morning I head to Switzerland on a four day field trip of sorts organized by the the Environmental Engineering department at the TUM. We will be touring environmentally friendly construction methods for tunnels and highways, as well as visiting some engineering firms. Look for an upcoming post chronicling some of my travels and such from winter.