Germany

On June 6th, 2012 the 68th anniversary of D-Day we stormed into Germany.

We woke up at 5:30 in Amsterdam and got on the 6:26 train into Hannover and then Göttingen where Fabian picked us up! From there we hopped on the autobahn and drove at a speed of 140!.. Kilometers/hour (roughly 85 mph, so not that cool) and stopped for some traditional German fast food of currywurst before we finally reached Tübingen and were pleasantly greeted by Fabian's German fraternity brothers. From there we shared a few beers as they tried to teach us some German cheers and other German words. Then we ordered some pizza and were in bed around midnight.

The next day started around 10 AM and was the big day for the Stockerkanner (more on that later). We had a big traditional Bavarian style breakfast made by the pledges of sausages, breads, eggs, tomatoes, pickles, juice, coffee, and wheat beer. Yep beer for breakfast. Anyways as we were finishing breakfast their longtime friends from a Swiss fraternity showed up (who knew all these countries had fraternities too?). From there we set off for the big boat race--the Stockerkanner. This was the main reason us, and everyone else was in Tübingen for the weekend and is a competition between fraternities and other groups on campus. Fabian was able to get us a spot on the fraternity's other boat which gave us a great view of the city, the thousands of other tourists watching the race, and the race itself. The boats are specific to southern Germany but they are similar to the gondolas in Venice. The race was a lot of fun to see and after we hung out for a bit with the racers at the finish line. After that, we started looking for a place to eat. All the lines for food in the city were packed from the event so we took the bus to get away from the crowd to a restaurant in the German country side where we enjoyed yet another traditional meal with an assortment of cheeses, and you guessed it, sausage. Then we went back to Fabian's and right as we were about to go out the door the doorbell rang and it was another fraternity and their guests from a different fraternity from Heidelberg, Germany. Apparently it's an old tradition to do this and ask for beer and hang out with them and share stories. So that happened and then they spontaneously started a ritual, which in Germany involves the singing of a lot of very old songs about their history (like 'when the Romans got lazy is Fabian's favorite). Then we went to bed way too late.

The next morning, which started around noon with a breakfast of wiener schnitzel (not breakfast food in Germany, but it was homemade by Fabian's mother, very good) and bread and butter and nuttella. Then we spent a little while gathering the troops before we went on a boat ride down the river, grilled out, and were able to try driving the Stockerkanner. What did we cook you ask? Sausages of course as well as some chicken. We were in Germany after all. It took longer than planned and when we got back we had to run up the hill (oh yeah forgot to mention that, we stayed on top of a giant hill/mountain again) so that we could see the kickoff of the Germany vs. Portugal Euro cup soccer game. Luckily, Deutschland won! Go Schland!! (that's their shortened version of cheering on their country, kind of like 'Merica!!) So then we had to go out in Tübingen to celebrate with Fabian and his buddies. It was a great night to be in Germany.

Sunday we were feeling a little lethargic, so we got a slow start in the morning. After taking it easy and watching some useless YouTube videos with Fabian's friend, Hendrik, we headed into town for a bite to eat. Fabian took us to a nice restaurant/beer garden along the river called the Neckarmüller where there were guys in traditional lederhosen singing old drinking songs (typical German stuff). Guess what we had for lunch! Nope. It was a salad, but it had sausage in it as well as cheese, onions, and pickles. After that, Fabian gave us the full tour of the town and the castle before we trekked up the hill/mountain to catch more Euro cup games. Once the games were over we ordered some pizza which had some unique toppings and they put in a movie called Iron Sky, which is a low-budget independent film about the Nazi's living in space and came back to attack earth. It was ridiculous to say the least. But after the movie we needed a goodnight's rest and went to bed.

Monday morning we were out the door by 8:30 and on our way to Munich or in Germany, München with the guidance of one of Fabian's friends, Toby. Once we arrived there we set off on a journey. Since we didn't have wifi while we were with Fabian we didn't know where our hostel was, but we knew it was close to the train station. Luckily, we eventually found it on the second street we walked to and didn't have to stop at a Starbucks or McDonalds to get wifi. Once our stuff was dropped off and we were reconnected with internet we went out exploring. First stop, whether we intended it or not was the glockenspiel and the town square. A hop skip and a jump later we found ourselves in the Hofbrauhaus enjoying some food and a liter :) We then set off for more sights and sounds walking past the church and through the English gardens (the biggest metropolitan park in the world) then Grant grabbed a kebab and we headed back to our hostel to watch the soccer game and meet everyone else back at the hostel.

Tuesday we woke up at 9 packed up our stuff, grabbed a quick breakfast and set out on an official free walking tour of the city. It was great to learn about the history of the place, like learn the meaning of the name Munich, Bavarian history, how Octoberfest got started (celebration of the kings marriage, turned out that people loved the party) and even some WWII history since its where the Nazis were started and well, unsuccessful in Munich. Anyways after the tour of the city we set off on our own to see the Olympic village from the 1972 Olympics. It wasn't as easy as we thought it would be as it was a lot farther than we had expected--we had walked 4 miles and were still not there. Oh yeah, and it started to pour! We chose that it wasn't worth it and got drenched and became freezing on the walk back. We gathered our things from the hostel and then got on the train towards Prague! (Praha) and got in here around 11:00 PM and just checked into our hostel