So my friend Nikki and I left from IES around 5:45pm on Thursday night to go to Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). We went to Denfert-Rochereau, which is right by IES and is a metro/train (RER) station, to board the RER B to CDG. We had read and heard that the RER would cost 8.40 euros each way, but when we got to the station, we couldn't figure out how to buy any tickets. There were no signs and the office was closed. So we decided to give our Navigos (unlimited swipe cards that work in zones 1 and 2 of Paris) a shot. They worked! We were kind of freaking out that some transportation police would find out we hadn't paid and fine us a whole bunch of money, so we called our friend, Sarah, who had gone to CDG the weekend before. She said that since we had gotten through the gate, there shouldn't be any problem because there were no other check points to get through except the one at CDG leaving the RER. We figured if someone realized we hadn't paid and wanted to fine us, we would pretend we didn't speak French and try to pull off the whole stupid tourist thing. But it wasn't a problem! (note: I do know that the fine for being on the metro without a ticket is 40 euros, and my dad said it's like 500 euros for the RER)
We were so happy to be going to CDG instead of Beauvais. It was soooo much easier to get to, so much cleaner, so much more helpful, etc. Plus, we left early in the evening to be there for our 9:30 flight, so we could relax. It was weird, though, because our passports were never really looked at. In fact, we didn't get a stamp in either France or Germany. Maybe it's because they're both on the same continent, unlike Ireland which is an island. We made our way to the Lufthansa terminal and hung out until boarding time. Aaah CDG is really nice- they had moving floors everywhere (one that was bouncy haha!) and they had a charging station for electronics, so I could charge my phone before I left. We were both really excited about the Crunchy M&Ms (which seem to have disappeared from the US) we saw in a store in the terminal, so we both bought some. For some reason, they're not as good as I remember. Maybe that's why they're not really available anymore... or maybe it's just that European Crunchy M&Ms are not as good. Nikki came back from the store to our seats and told me I had to look at the magazine rack in there. I looked, and there was a pair of breasts staring back at me! They weren't fake, and the girl wasn't even in a sexy pose- she was just naked. Bizarre.
Lufthansa is a really nice airline. I wouldn't mind flying on Lufthansa for the rest of my life at this point! The seats were leather and there was a lot of leg space and storage space, and they served drinks- that's normal but we were excited for such luxuries after Ryanair last weekend. The abnormal thing was they served us all a little free sandwich that was actually really good. On that flight, I got the ham sandwich that was just some German bread and ham, and although I'm normally not a big fan of dry sandwiches, it was great. They also gave us Twix bars. Yum! When I asked what the drink options were, the flight attendant responded, "Whatever you like." Yes! Service!
I sat next to a man named Rolf, who works for Cadence, so he travels between Munich and Paris a fair amount. He gave me the rundown on Münchener things to do: eat Brezeln (pretzels), but only before noon; eat Weißwurst (white sausage, the ß is pronounced "ss") and eat it with the traditional sweet mustard, Weisswurstsenf, say fertig (or something like that) when saying goodbye. I learned in German class last semester to say Gruß Gott! (god's greetings) when saying hello, and Rolf said that Fertig! means something along the same lines. Since Bavaria is the most conservative and religious (Catholic) region in Germany, it's the only region where these kinds of phrases are acceptable to use. When I asked him what were some German things he loves but can't find in other places, he said the bread. I was surprised because I feel like I'm living in the land of good bread, but Bavarian bread is dark and a little bitter or something, and really soft.
We got to the Munich airport a little on the late side, since our plane had had some technical difficulties before we left. Nikki's friend, John, was there to meet us and take us back to his place, where we stayed on the floor. He's studying German at the Goethe Institute in Munich for two months and then going to some little German town until August (for the whole German semester). It was really nice to have him around since he acted as our interpreter the whole time, and he had already bought our three day metro pass and our rail tickets to Schloss Neuschwanstein. He also had bought a lot of German snacks for us to try when we got to his place- Haribo gummy bears, Riesen-covered marshmellows, Haselnuss-Schnitte (chocolate and hazelnut wafers), stuff like that.
The next morning we went and got breakfast at a little Munich bakery he knew about. The bakery/restaurant was decorated for Rosenmontag (lit: Running Monday, meaning Collop Monday before Ash Wednesday) and Fasching (Mardi Gras). The waitresses were dressed up- one as a clown and one as a police woman. Thinking about it now, though, the place might just look that way all the time, since our dining room was clown themed...
The bakery/restaurant in Munich (see the clown?)
I had the famous Weißwurst and a pretzel and a Weißbier (wheat beer), so I satisfied that touristy thing I had to do right away. The beer for breakfast was strange, but it all came as the Münchener Frühstücke (typical Munich breakfast plate), so I had it. I have to say it all went together well. The pretzel, as are apparently all traditional Bavarian pretzel, as pretty hard, but really good.
Then we spent the morning wandering around in Munich while it snowed, much to my feet's dismay. I was wearing leather boots that did nothing to keep the water out, so I was pretty cold. But I loved seeing the town. We walked to the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, where the Scholl siblings, who were founders of die Weiße Rose (White Rose) anti-Nazi group, were caught by a janitor throwing anti-Nazi propaganda off of a balcony. They were beheaded a few days later and are now huge German heros. It was eery to be where they were and to imagine what the whole scene was like. Apparently there's a movie about the event, called the White Rose (I think).
Scholl Sibling Place
White Rose Pamphlets in the stones outside of the University
Scholl sibling memorial inside the UniversityAfter the Ludwig Maximilians University, we went over to the Englischer Garten (English Gardens), so called apparently because they are in the informal style of 18th century English gardens. It's basically a huge public park- one of the biggest in the world.
The Monopteros in the Englischer Garten
Then John took us to his favorite Turkish Doner Kabob place in the center of Munich. They actually left to go get cheese for us, which was good because the cheese (a little like feta) really made the kabob. He had to go to class then, so Nikki and I spent awhile wandering around the center of town. There were a lot of decorations up for Fasching, such as pinata-type things on lamp posts. We saw some of the most ornate churches I've ever seen. We gasped when we turned the corner and saw the Neues Rathaus (the new city hall), which was incredible, and which has the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, that displays life-size figures that reenact stories a few times a day.
"Thirst is worse than homesickness"
My Hoffbräuhaus Kaiserscharrn- something to do with a Kaiser- so yummy!
The German band at Hoffbräuhaus
The next day we got up early to take a train two hours south to Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland. It was beautiful, and I feel like it was worth the trip. We got out of the city, got to see the Alps, and got to see a really cool castle. The Alps in Germany are strange because they shoot up out of nowhere. The lands is really flat and then all of a sudden- WHOOSH- there are the Alps. We ate lunch at a little hotel/restaurant in Füssen, where the trainstation is, and apparently where Steve McQueen did a lot of his motorcycle stunts for the Great Escape and where there was a Dachau Concentration Subcamp.
No one was really in there except a group of German men dressed in black coat tails and top hats with big red sashes that had buttons all over them. We didn't really know what that was about, so we just sat down. Our food came out on slices of tree trunk- pretty cool! It wasn't any better than the food in Munich, though. A little while after our lunch came out, we heard a marching band outside. Nikki and I got up to look outside to see what was going on. All the men in top hats had gone out and there was a marching band of 20 or so men in uniforms and gold helmets marching right up to our restaurant. We snapped a picture and went back in to eat, not thinking anything of it. Five minutes later, the band started a new song and entered the little restaurant! The marched around while playing some German songs, sat down, exchanged some group yells with the men in top hats, drank a beer with the men in top hats, stood up and played another song while they marched out. They all looked like characters- some came over and chatted with us. There was also a really pretty girl dressed in a red dress with her hair done up with sparkles. This whole thing was for Fasching, and she was the Fasching Princess. How cool is that?
The Fasching gathering at the little restaurant we ate at in Füssen
Our horse-drawn carriage that sat 12 (including the driver) at the top of the mountain
We had about an eight minute climb after that the rest of the way up, which we prolonged by taking lots of pictures of the mountains around the castle, which were breath-taking. We had bought our tickets for the English tour of the castle down in Schwangau, so we just waited around for awhile, and looked at the bridge that is across a little valley from which one can apparently see the best view of Neuschwanstein. We kind of considered going over there, until we realized that the big gate that said something along the lines of "Don't enter- dangerous, falling rocks and snow" was blocking the entrance to the path to the bridge. We saw a lot of people go around the gate though. The phonecalls home about being crushed by rocks and snow or slipping off the side of a cliff didn't seem worth it.
The bridge with the spectacular view of Neuschwanstein to which I would like to hike in the summer, without the avalanches
Schloss Neuschwantstein
The tour was cool, if on the shorter side of what I expected. That's because King Ludwig II, the king who had Neuschwanstein built as his vacation castle in the late 1800s, died before it was finished. It took seventeen years to get as far as they did, and he died with only a third of the rooms finished. We saw the chapel, his bedroom (with his incredible bed that took 17 woodworkers something like 4 years to make, with replicas of all the gothic cathedrals in Bavaria all over the top of it), the living room, the dining hall, and some others. It was really really ornate, with swans as the dominant motif. I can only imagine what he had planned for the rest of it. Although it was short, I'd say the whole effort was worth it. I would definitely do it again.
When we got back, we went to an Augustiner brewhouse (there are at least two), where I ate one of my few non-sausage meals. I had traditional roast pork with a gravy and a gelatinous mashed potato ball. The dish was so good- the meat just melted in your mouth and was so flavorful. We were there right after a huge rugby match that Munich lost. We saw lots of red and white (the Munich colors, I'm assuming) and heard some singing, and I even saw a guy with a Munich team tattoo on his forehead (hoping it was fake).
The giant "Das Boot" (actually der Stiefel) for 500 euros that I saw on the way out of the restaurant
Ich bin Googler (saw it on the way to the club)
The next morning, we got up and went to the Hauptbonhof (the main train station) to catch our train to the airport. You wouldn't believe the selection of good food even at the train station! I got some, you guessed it, sausage as well as an Apfelstreudel (apple streudel) and some other donut-like thing for the journey home.
We got to the airport and went through security really easily. We sat around for awhile watching the bicathlon (cross-country skiing and shooting) that was all over every tv there. The Germans are so outdoorsy! Then we heard the announcement that our plane was delayed for some reason, and that they'd give us an update in 10-15 minutes. Five minutes later, we had an update saying that the plane wasn't going to be used anymore, and they'd let us know the new departure time in another 10-15 minutes. Five minutes later we were told when it was, and soon after that we were boarding the plane. After we passed through the ticket gate, we were loaded onto buses that took us out to where the new plane was, where we got on. It turned out to be a really small plane, so Nikki and my bags didn't fit. We decided to check them, a little dismayed because of the extra time it would take in Paris. We didn't have to worry at all, since they had them right outside of the plane for us when we landed. I was extremely impressed with the effictiveness of Lufthansa- they always made announcements before they said they would and they avoided a domino effect of late planes by busing us to the location of the new plane. It wasn't exciting or anything, I was just very impressed.
Yesterday I took my first dance class in Paris at the Centre de Danse du Marais. It was a two hour-long Funk Jazz Hip Hop class that was really challenging for two reasons: 1) I'm out of dancing shape and 2) it was at a pretty advanced level. I was definitely not the worst in the class, though, so that's encouraging. The teacher was this young black woman with bright red braids sticking out every which way and she was an awesome dancer. She would show a combination like it was nothing and then two of the best male dancers in the class would immediately join in and do the combination perfectly. She spoke for the most part in French, but her American accent was perfect, so I wonder if she was brought up bilingual. There was some sort of assistant guy there who kept an eye on me and two other new girls, and gave us hints and words of encouragement. I'm going to be trying out more classes over the next few weeks so I'll let you know how they go. I never realized how cool Marais is- I saw a funky tea place and a cuban restaurant on the way home, as well as a gay bar and lots of little jewelry and purse shops. I can't wait to go there with my friends!
Today in Paris was absolutely beautiful- upper 40s and sunny. I took the metro from school to the Anvers exit in Montmartre to go look at a hostel there. The hostel turned out to be a bust, but rather than head home Tonight for dinner, we had this pasta with carrots and onions in it that was pretty good. We had the usual cheese and salad, but we also had an apple compote with lemons and vanilla in it that I thought was worth relaying to you all.
Well, that's all for now! I'm happy to be in Paris for awhile now- I'm a little travelled out and I am looking forward to getting to know Paris better. And I really really can't wait to see my family in a week and a half and Taylor a week after that!
The Monopteros in the Englischer Garten
Nikki and I at the Monopteros, infront of the skyline of Munich
After the Englischer Garten, we went over to the BMW Wert (BMW World) and the Olympic Center. It wasn't too exciting- no one at BMW paid us any attention since we were obviously not there to buy cars. Everything except for the pool at the Olympic Complex was closed, which was fine. We basically wandered around, saw the buildings and fields, and saw the Autobahn.
What the Olympic Complex looks like in the summer
What we saw in the middle of winter
What the Olympic Complex looks like in the summer
What we saw in the middle of winter
Das Autobahn
Then John took us to his favorite Turkish Doner Kabob place in the center of Munich. They actually left to go get cheese for us, which was good because the cheese (a little like feta) really made the kabob. He had to go to class then, so Nikki and I spent awhile wandering around the center of town. There were a lot of decorations up for Fasching, such as pinata-type things on lamp posts. We saw some of the most ornate churches I've ever seen. We gasped when we turned the corner and saw the Neues Rathaus (the new city hall), which was incredible, and which has the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, that displays life-size figures that reenact stories a few times a day.
A big clown hanging from the gates to old Munich for Fasching
A church in the center of Munich
A church in the center of Munich
Das Neues Rathaus in Marienplatz. The green area in the front of the tower is the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.
That night we went to a typical Munchener restaurant and had more sausage. I thought one helping of Weisswurst was enough, so I got some darker, grilled sausages and sauerkraut- aaah I am making myself hungry! Then we met up with John's friends at Hoffbräuhaus- the famous beer hall that has a German band and lots of German food (at good prices), German beer, and tourists. However, it wasn't particularly touristy. That's how all of Munich seemed to me- it retained its German-ness really well, and there weren't that many tourists when we were there (probably because of the freezing temperatures).
"Thirst is worse than homesickness"
My Hoffbräuhaus Kaiserscharrn- something to do with a Kaiser- so yummy!
The German band at HoffbräuhausThe next day we got up early to take a train two hours south to Schloss Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland. It was beautiful, and I feel like it was worth the trip. We got out of the city, got to see the Alps, and got to see a really cool castle. The Alps in Germany are strange because they shoot up out of nowhere. The lands is really flat and then all of a sudden- WHOOSH- there are the Alps. We ate lunch at a little hotel/restaurant in Füssen, where the trainstation is, and apparently where Steve McQueen did a lot of his motorcycle stunts for the Great Escape and where there was a Dachau Concentration Subcamp.
No one was really in there except a group of German men dressed in black coat tails and top hats with big red sashes that had buttons all over them. We didn't really know what that was about, so we just sat down. Our food came out on slices of tree trunk- pretty cool! It wasn't any better than the food in Munich, though. A little while after our lunch came out, we heard a marching band outside. Nikki and I got up to look outside to see what was going on. All the men in top hats had gone out and there was a marching band of 20 or so men in uniforms and gold helmets marching right up to our restaurant. We snapped a picture and went back in to eat, not thinking anything of it. Five minutes later, the band started a new song and entered the little restaurant! The marched around while playing some German songs, sat down, exchanged some group yells with the men in top hats, drank a beer with the men in top hats, stood up and played another song while they marched out. They all looked like characters- some came over and chatted with us. There was also a really pretty girl dressed in a red dress with her hair done up with sparkles. This whole thing was for Fasching, and she was the Fasching Princess. How cool is that?
The Fasching gathering at the little restaurant we ate at in FüssenNeuschwanstein is at the base of the Alps, but we did have to take a shuttle from the trainstation in Füssen to the closest town to it, Schwangau. Then we were supposed to be able to take a shuttle from Schwangau further up the mountain, but since the roads were too dangerous for buses, we took a horsedrawn carriage for 9 euros round trip. Believe me, it was worth it. The mountain was steep and wet and it would have taken us around an hour and a half total.
Our horse-drawn carriage that sat 12 (including the driver) at the top of the mountainWe had about an eight minute climb after that the rest of the way up, which we prolonged by taking lots of pictures of the mountains around the castle, which were breath-taking. We had bought our tickets for the English tour of the castle down in Schwangau, so we just waited around for awhile, and looked at the bridge that is across a little valley from which one can apparently see the best view of Neuschwanstein. We kind of considered going over there, until we realized that the big gate that said something along the lines of "Don't enter- dangerous, falling rocks and snow" was blocking the entrance to the path to the bridge. We saw a lot of people go around the gate though. The phonecalls home about being crushed by rocks and snow or slipping off the side of a cliff didn't seem worth it.
The bridge with the spectacular view of Neuschwanstein to which I would like to hike in the summer, without the avalanches
Schloss NeuschwantsteinThe tour was cool, if on the shorter side of what I expected. That's because King Ludwig II, the king who had Neuschwanstein built as his vacation castle in the late 1800s, died before it was finished. It took seventeen years to get as far as they did, and he died with only a third of the rooms finished. We saw the chapel, his bedroom (with his incredible bed that took 17 woodworkers something like 4 years to make, with replicas of all the gothic cathedrals in Bavaria all over the top of it), the living room, the dining hall, and some others. It was really really ornate, with swans as the dominant motif. I can only imagine what he had planned for the rest of it. Although it was short, I'd say the whole effort was worth it. I would definitely do it again.
When we got back, we went to an Augustiner brewhouse (there are at least two), where I ate one of my few non-sausage meals. I had traditional roast pork with a gravy and a gelatinous mashed potato ball. The dish was so good- the meat just melted in your mouth and was so flavorful. We were there right after a huge rugby match that Munich lost. We saw lots of red and white (the Munich colors, I'm assuming) and heard some singing, and I even saw a guy with a Munich team tattoo on his forehead (hoping it was fake).
The giant "Das Boot" (actually der Stiefel) for 500 euros that I saw on the way out of the restaurant
A little later that night, we went to this club called 8 Seasons, which had some popular techno guys playing. It was fun, but it wasn't as interesting as the rest of my time in Munich. I mean, a club is a club anywhere to me. But I had a good time.
Ich bin Googler (saw it on the way to the club)The next morning, we got up and went to the Hauptbonhof (the main train station) to catch our train to the airport. You wouldn't believe the selection of good food even at the train station! I got some, you guessed it, sausage as well as an Apfelstreudel (apple streudel) and some other donut-like thing for the journey home.
We got to the airport and went through security really easily. We sat around for awhile watching the bicathlon (cross-country skiing and shooting) that was all over every tv there. The Germans are so outdoorsy! Then we heard the announcement that our plane was delayed for some reason, and that they'd give us an update in 10-15 minutes. Five minutes later, we had an update saying that the plane wasn't going to be used anymore, and they'd let us know the new departure time in another 10-15 minutes. Five minutes later we were told when it was, and soon after that we were boarding the plane. After we passed through the ticket gate, we were loaded onto buses that took us out to where the new plane was, where we got on. It turned out to be a really small plane, so Nikki and my bags didn't fit. We decided to check them, a little dismayed because of the extra time it would take in Paris. We didn't have to worry at all, since they had them right outside of the plane for us when we landed. I was extremely impressed with the effictiveness of Lufthansa- they always made announcements before they said they would and they avoided a domino effect of late planes by busing us to the location of the new plane. It wasn't exciting or anything, I was just very impressed.
Yesterday I took my first dance class in Paris at the Centre de Danse du Marais. It was a two hour-long Funk Jazz Hip Hop class that was really challenging for two reasons: 1) I'm out of dancing shape and 2) it was at a pretty advanced level. I was definitely not the worst in the class, though, so that's encouraging. The teacher was this young black woman with bright red braids sticking out every which way and she was an awesome dancer. She would show a combination like it was nothing and then two of the best male dancers in the class would immediately join in and do the combination perfectly. She spoke for the most part in French, but her American accent was perfect, so I wonder if she was brought up bilingual. There was some sort of assistant guy there who kept an eye on me and two other new girls, and gave us hints and words of encouragement. I'm going to be trying out more classes over the next few weeks so I'll let you know how they go. I never realized how cool Marais is- I saw a funky tea place and a cuban restaurant on the way home, as well as a gay bar and lots of little jewelry and purse shops. I can't wait to go there with my friends!
Today in Paris was absolutely beautiful- upper 40s and sunny. I took the metro from school to the Anvers exit in Montmartre to go look at a hostel there. The hostel turned out to be a bust, but rather than head home Tonight for dinner, we had this pasta with carrots and onions in it that was pretty good. We had the usual cheese and salad, but we also had an apple compote with lemons and vanilla in it that I thought was worth relaying to you all.
Well, that's all for now! I'm happy to be in Paris for awhile now- I'm a little travelled out and I am looking forward to getting to know Paris better. And I really really can't wait to see my family in a week and a half and Taylor a week after that!
"Bye and see you soon" in the subway station
Fertig,
Ellie
Ellie
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