There’s something to be said about a beautiful summer day in Munich. While my host-family played at the lake near their vacation home in Kitzbühel, Austria this past weekend I enjoyed one glorious day of summer weather here in the city. Thursday was my first official day off since they departed on Wednesday evening and I definitely took advantage of my free time and the golden sunshine. I’ve recently discovered that I love riding my bike through the city so I definitely did that on Thursday and went from my house in Schwabing to Marienplatz which took me all of 20 minutes. I had my German lessons going on my iPod so anyone that passed me surely witnessed that I was talking to myself in German verbs and phrases. Ha. I stopped at the post office to mail off some post cards (look out California!) and then carried on into the city where I wandered around looking for playing cards for Friday’s pizza and poker night. I got distracted by H&M and walked out with some new clothes and a cheap pair of earrings. Damn you, H&M. I eventually found playing cards at Muller in the kinderwerk section for 2,99 EUR. Totally worth it. They’re so shiny and beautiful. Also, I managed to find the coolest dirndl store ever – that has my size. I am so getting one of these soon, even if I have to put it on the credit card.
Later in the day I made the bike trek again but with Jessica. We were wandering around Marienplatz and decided to surprise Harry at his apartment since we were in the ‘neighborhood.’ Which is pretty much the whole of central Munich. If you live anywhere near Marienplatz, you’re fair game for a surprise visit. He was a good sport about it and gave us food. Thanks, Harry! The three of us then went to Beach 38 for a ToyTown meet-up which is probably the weirdest bar in Munich. It’s a bar with beach volleyball –indoor and out – and it’s covered in sand and other beachy looking things. But there isn’t any water. Anywhere. And the bar is located near Ostbanhof in an industrial neighborhood. It’s a poor excuse for a beach. Haha.
Friday it was rainy and depressing and I stayed inside for most of the day. Minus the 45-minute excursion I made out to Ungererstrasse to drop of Jessica’s bike for her and visit the supermarket. Our friendly neighborhood bike fixer man lowered her seat and straightened her handle bars all for free and so I didn’t have to leave it there and could actually ride it home. In the supermarket I got pizzas and Cornflakes (we were out!) and was amazed that the handsome stock boy that worked there kept smiling at me (like, he really smiled) every time I walked by him (I’ll admit it, I started doing it on purpose after a while, haha). This was amazing to me because I was still wearing Thursday night’s make-up, my pajamas, Uggs, and a half-ass ponytail. And I was soaked from traveling in the rain. Classy, isn’t it?
Friday evening my friends came over to the house for a pizza and poker night. Which was successful on the pizza part but the poker kind of fell flat. In the end, we ended up in the living room watching Sex and the City episodes. It was a good night and I like being the hostess with the mostess (as Clare calls me). My favorite picture of the night:
Me and Eric, who is fast becoming one of my bestest friends here in Munich.
We even pinky promised to be BFFs. I absolutely adore him. Obviously.
Saturday was rainy again. So I stayed inside. Again. Until about 3 o’clock when I decided to ride my bike to the Munich Readery. It was the perfect excursion. The weather was feeling very much like fall – crisp and just a tid nippley. :) I had my scarf on and my big, monster headphones and I just rode my bike. I successfully completed my first try at riding with traffic (no room on the sidewalks nor was their a bike path) and it was scary as hell. Next time I won’t wear my headphones. Later in the day, I met up with Clare at about 7 and we went to Jaeger’s for happy hour beers. Which, we’ve discovered, have gone up in price from 3 EUR to 4 EUR for a Mass. Chris was already there so the three of us just drank beer and waited for everyone else to show up. Eric graced us with his presence and then later Fi, Laura, Catherine, and Catherine’s boyfriend and his friends arrived. We got a big table and our corner of the table got busy quoting Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, and other random one-liners. We went to Euro’s Hostel afterwards for even cheaper beers and a better atmosphere. Met a lot of interesting people that night. Stayed out much, much later than I intended to seeing as I was journeying to Garmisch early in the morning on Sunday and needless to say, I fell asleep on the train a few times.
My Sunday trip to Garmisch was the perfect getaway. Even though I felt sick all day (and not hung over sick, give me some credit) it was still a great day. I have family friend who lives there so it’s an incredible blessing to have a little bit of home so close by. She is the mother of one of my dearest and nearest friends and professional contacts back home and she’s incredibly wonderful. She picked me up at the train station and took me to the American commissary (she works for the U.S. military) and I was able to get the things that I’d been missing: Ranch dressing, bagels, cheddar cheese, Cap’n Crunch Berries, regular Coca Cola, Ruffles Sour Cream and Onion chips, Cheez-Its. I scored the mother load. Germany just got a little bit better! I almost got Lucky Charms but I knew that could be disastrous. If I have one box, I’m going to want 12. Maybe next time.
After the commissary we had lunch at her adorable little apartment. We made weisswurst (white sausage) with kartoffelsalat (potato salad) and brot (bread). And just talked and talked. About California, about how much we both love the entire Burns-Riddoch family, about my job and the Frau and the girls, about her life as an au pair in Vermont in 1959 (she still visits the family she cared for!), and I practiced my German on her. After lunch we went on a walk to the ski jumps which were used during the Olympics and which will be used again in February for the 2011 Alpine something or other. 100,000+ people will be coming into Garmisch to watch the skiing events! We rode the gondolas up to the top of the mountain because I wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t up for hiking. And it was so beautiful! I couldn’t believe that I forgot my camera. We were surrounded by the Alps – Austria on one side, Germany on the other – and were breathing some righteously awesome mountain air. We stopped at the mountain restaurant and just enjoyed the sunshine and the people, the mountains, the green grass, and trees. Something we also didn’t do but should have (I hated my body and brain and muscles for this…) was hike through the partnachklamm – a gorgeous ravine through the mountains where you walk along the flowing river that comes down from Zugspitze.
I didn’t take those pictures because I FORGOT MY CAMERA. Did hell just freeze over? I think somebody should check.
Anyway, we rode the gondolas back down the mountain and walked back to her house. Both of us ended up passing out for at least 30 minutes. And then I had to catch my train – goodies in hand and ready for a date with this blog and my bed. I was still feeling really crappy when I got home but I managed to make myself some dinner and surprisingly – I felt better after that. It was such a great day. I was so grateful to get out of the city and slow down. And spending time with Kathe (that’s her name, by the way) was lovely. It was so great to have a little bit of home so close to me. Her family is so important to me and I love them so much so it’s nice to know that I have good neighbors and a lot of love nearby! I can’t wait to go back to visit her, hopefully when Tante Susie comes in September! But I’m definitely going to organize a weekend hiking trip this fall – maybe for October. Can’t wait to go back to the mountains and with my camera this time! And I’m going to get my body ready for this trip, too. None of this sickness and riding gondolas crap! I’m proper hiking.
Now I am back in Munich – ready for another week with die zweillinge. And more goodness with my friends. But a lot of leaving is going on this week – friends that I have grown really close to and will be very sad to say goodbye to. Right now, I refuse to think about this and will go to bed. Guten nacht!
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Am I your official photographer yet?
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