To Munich for the Weekend

It's been a while since my last post--life has been busy!

We finished out the week with a great set of rehearsals. We now have a concept to our piece, and I know that it will all fit together pretty coherently in the end.

Couple days ago, a few of us collectively decided to visit Munich. We all have Eurail passes, so why not? Friday night was spent furiously washing necessary clothes needed for the short trip. The strange thing about Austria--and a lot of Europe as I gather--is that there are no drying machines. So I had to find any and all appropriate surfaces of the apartment to hang my wet clothes. By the morning, they still weren't dry, but oh well.

This morning, I woke up around 6:45 to finish packing. I packed enough for two days, as we were intending to stay the entire weekend. Hollis, Kristin, and I left together for the train station and met Amelia and Maggie there. Our train departed for Munich at 9:00 AM.

The ride was beautiful! It was only about an hour and a half, but most of it was spent winding through the German countryside (Salzburg is right on the border of Austria and Germany). Every small town we passed on the train had a church and steeple at it's center. We arrived in Munich around 10:40, with thousands of other futbol fans. Apparently there was a big game between Stuttgart and some other European team. It felt like pre-USC football game all over the city.

We walked around a lot. I can't even remember most of the places we went to. We walked through the Twin Towers Cathedral--the largest cathedral in Munich. Several side-streets and the English Gardens (comparable to Central Park in New York). We found lunch at Cafe Munich. Original, eh? Being in Germany, I decided to order a veil schnitzel--delicious. About an hour after we sat down, people piled into the cafe to watch the game. It was great people-watching.

We walked back towards the center of town after lunch, stopping in another garden (don't know the name). Gorgeous views of the Bavarian Museum!! At this point, we were all re-thinking whether staying an extra day would be worth it. We finally decided that we would return to Salzburg that night--meaning that we could have an extra day of travel on our Eurail pass for another trip. The map showed a viewpoint at St Peter's Cathedral; so without doubt we paid the 1 euro to climb up 350 stairs (or something like that). The staircases were incredibly narrow...But when we got to the top...!!!!
We were able to see the entire city from one vantage point! It was awesome!!

We headed back toward the train station, grabbing some well-deserved ice-cream along the way. A few wanted to try the local beer. I tried the peach iced-tea. It was pleasant to sit at the side-walk cafe, witnessing bachelor parties and after-game festivities. Finally, we went to the train station and boarded our train to Salzburg.

It was an exhausting day, but completely well worth it. Now: sleep. Later: sleep.