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-

Switching gears

Today was the final test for the intensive language course that the other program participants and myself have been taking for the past four weeks. It's quite satisfying to finally be done with it. I'm really looking forward to things from here on out. Having class for 5 to 6 hours a day every day of the week and a significant amount of homework most night has been somewhat disappointing, partly because it is all time spent hanging out with other Americans and not being able to explore Munich on my own as much as I would like to.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get in one more visit to Oktoberfest because on Monday, we are heading to the Hauptstadt (Berlin, that is), for a five day trip. I'm a little worried that the trip might be too packed with organized activities, but I'm excited nonetheless because Berlin is just plain cool, and I had such a great time when I visited it last summer.

Meanwhile, classes at the university here start 2 weeks from Monday, and I've been busy trying to figure out what classes I'm going to take and how one needs to sign up for them (it's different for every class and every department). I'm excited to begin taking classes with other Germans though.

Schöne Wochenende!

-TG-

Anfang des Oktoberfests

So, the first day of Oktoberfest has come and gone, and it was quite an adventure. Here's the day in pictures...

Our group looking somewhat determined to make it into the tents at around 9am.

Our view of the Bavaria Statue as we entered the Theresienwiese.

Part of the Löwenbräu tent.

The Hacker Festzelt, and the parade leading up to the 12pm tapping of the first barrel, or Fass, by the mayor of Munich.

A video showing the Entry of the Oktoberfest Staff and Brewers in front of the Augustiner tent.

Me enjoying eine Maß!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get inside the tents, but we still had quite a bit of fun and drank a whole lot of beer! We were glad that we got to see some of the big opening ceremonies and all make it home safely.

I'll probably have more to report from Oktoberfest later, as I'm going back tomorrow with some Germans that I met through a friend last year in Evanston.

Prosit!

-TG-

Castles & more

I thought I should at least offer a quick update. Neuschwanstein was pretty cool, although I think it looks better from the outside than inside. We also saw a few other famous churches and palaces as well. Here are some of them:

Neuschwanstein


The view from behind Neuschwanstein...including the freezing mountain lake in which we went swimming!

Wiesnkirche, a famous Baroque church--really unique and interesting

Myself, and the view of the Alpen foothills from Wiesnkirche

Another palace built by the same king as Neuschwanstein...and the only one that he finished

In other news, the weather has plummeted Chicago-style from around 25 C on average to around 12 C (or 77 F to 53 F). What happened to the nice range of temperature in between!? Anyway, I'm glad I managed to take advantage of the nice weather while it was around. It also rained for a number of days, but it seems to be drying up just in time for Oktoberfest!

Yes, the famed Oktoberfest is indeed coming up tomorrow, when the two weeks of festivities will begin. A group of the other American students and myself are all waking up early to find seats in the beer tents. Wish us luck, as we head out in Tracht.

-TG-

Die erste Woche

As I head into my second week in Munich, I'm still having a blast. We have a bit more homework from the language course, which I find unfortunate, but I still can't help but go outside and enjoy Munich as much as possible, as the weather has been great.

For my first Saturday in Munich, I got a group of my fellow students to come with me to a nearby lake, Ammersee, to enjoy the especially warm weather. It took a little over an hour to get there with the regional/commuter rail (not including having to work out the rather complex manner in which to pay for the trip), but it was well worth it.

This is the awesome little spot we found along the lake. Beautiful, clear water? Check. Dock for jumping off? Check.


Nice grass for sunbathing? Check. Beach volleyball court and beer stand? Check check.

And this was a beautiful old house that was part of a small tennis club or something that we walked by.

And we enjoyed a small picnic on our fun little day trip.

Tomorrow, instead of having our language course, we're going to visit the King Ludwig castles, including the ever famous Neuschwanstein. I can only hope it's as cool as it looks in pictures.

-TG-

Ich bin schon da!

So, nearly 24 hours of travelling and one lost bag later, I made it to Munich and finally found a helpful German to set up the internet on my computer, since it seems to take quite a bit of careful negotiation.

This is my fourth day in Munich, after having arrived around 2pm on Monday. Yesterday, I finally got my second checked bag back from the airlines, who originally left it in Frankfurt. (note to self: avoid US Airways in the future)

Unlike most of the other 20 or so students in the study abroad program, I didn't arrive early in the weekend, so I still haven't had much time to explore the city. Our language course began on Tuesday morning. Mostly, I've only had time to unpack, buy various things to furnish my dorm room, and try and catch up on the sleep I lost to traveling. So far, everything has gone pretty well--even the lost bag hasn't really dampened my spirits, as I am incredibly excited to be back in Germany.

Most of what I have seen of the city is from the bicycle tour that we went on Tuesday afternoon. We left from the Hauptbahnhof, and went past several of Munich's landmarks.

After leaving the Hauptbahnhof, we stopped to learn some historical context in the Königsplatz.


Karolinenplatz--Hitler gave "private" speeches in the houses here after being banned from speaking in public.


A fusion of old and new architecture at the home of the Bavarian Chancellor.


The Englischer Garten, one of the largest urban parks in the world. It runs all the way from the Stadtzentrum (city center) to the Studentenstadt (where I live), and beyond. It has something for everyone, from lakes, to grassy fields, to rivers, to biergartens.


There's even a spot where one can practice some version of surfing (though it's officially "verboten").


Half of the group of students went on the tour with me, and the other half will go on Friday.

The bike tour was also a great chance to see the amazing biking facilities in Munich, which make it incredibly easy to get around town by bike. I can't wait to find a second-hand bike, which I can add to the thousands and thousands of others that crowd the sidewalks throughout the city.

And, one final thing worth mentioning--last night, I went to my first biergarten, a beautiful spot on Kleinhesselohersee (a small lake) in the Englischer Garten. So, I'll end with a photo of the Seehaus Biergarten.

-TG-