What we have been doing so far...

Once again falling behind on my updates. As most of you know Diana arrived on the 26th and since then life has been a whirlwind of adventures, goodbyes, and missed trains. We spent our last days in Munich having vegan dinner with couch-surfing friends, wandering the city, finishing up school, and organizing for the next two weeks of travel. We left Munich on Monday following the sad loss of the euro cup soccer competition by Germany to Spain the previous night. Our first experience with train station personnel was awful causing us to miss the 11:50 train we could have taken and wait for the more direct but later train at 12:50. Our first stop on our tour of Bavaria was Fuessen, which we have determined is an overrated tourist town. From Fuessen we took the bus to see the Neuschwanstein and Hohenchwangau castles which were also crowded with tourists and might as well be owned by Disney considering how fake they look. We ended our Monday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen where we stayed over night with an amazing couch-surfer named Stephanie in the dorms for the employees of the military R&R hotel in Garmisch. It was a bit unnerving having to show our passports to get passed the German guards at the entrance but Stephanie was a really great host. Tuesday morning we got on the 8:30 bus from downtown Garmisch up to the Skistadion where the Olympic ski jump is and began our ascent of the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany standing tall at just under 10,000 feet. This may sound small compared to the mountains we have, but due to our not so optimal physical condition the 6,000 feet of elevation gain over the course of to days was really brutal. The beginning was very beautiful. Our route took us first through a river gorge called the Partnachklamm where a brilliant blue glacier river gushes it ways forth through a slot canyon. Another two and a half hours of hiking through forested river land brought us to the hut we planed to have lunch at, called Reintal-Anger Huette. As we were finishing our meal there at about 2:30 the afternoon thunderstorm hit and we were forced to stay there instead of continuing up another two hours to the next hut, which would have put us within three-hours hiking time to the summit. We spent a leisurely afternoon napping and eat a very nice German dinner at the hut before calling it an early night. The next morning we had planed to get up at half past five to start our grueling hike but instead where awoken at five by the alarm clock of the other guests in our matrazenlager, both of whom hit snooze and went back to sleep. Needless to say we hit the trail early, 5:27 if I remember correctly and watched the sun come up on the towering granite peaks we would be conquering in the next few hours. The ascent to Knorrhuette, where we had originally planed to sleep our first night was brutal. We climbed over two thousand feet to breakfast at the hut. The following two-hour hike up the summit cable car was very beautiful but exhausting. The herds of mountain goats and sheep with their tinkling bells added another worldly charm to the whole hike; the actual summit was rather touristy filled with people of all nationalities who are dry and cheery after their train/gondola ascent from the valley floor. After enjoying a nice lunch we took a cable car down to the Eibsee and swam for a bit before returning to Garmisch to beg one more night from our brilliant host. A few hours after we arrived in Garmisch it started to hail and then pour torrents of rain. The night we went out to a small Italian restaurant with our host and then took our soggy selves back to the dorms to clean up. We caught an early train to Innsbruck in the morning and spent the day exploring that city and worrying about our host for the night before taking the train to Lucerne, Switzerland and meeting our wonderful hosts there. We stayed in a flat with three couples but had our own alcove with a very comfortable mattress. We made stir-fry for our hosts and spent the night talking about the differences between English and German and then German and Swiss-German. The next day the weather was beautiful and we spent about six hours exploring the very quaint city of Lucerne. We had fondue for lunch and got many strange looks from Swiss people as cheese fondue is really more of a winter dish and very hearty. At four we caught the train to Interlaken where we couchsurfed at a hotel in an attic full of mattresses. Not sure if I got pictures but it was very creepy the first night until we got to know Barbara who is one of the nicest Swiss people we met during our entire stay in the country. On Saturday afternoon we went paragliding, which was amazing! It would have been a lot nicer if I had taken a motion sickness pill as I really felt nauseated the whole time but the weather was perfect and flying like that was really mind-blowing. A Canadian man we met in our mattress room went skydiving and came back lit up about how great it was. After another night in our windowless attic room we made the train-bus-cable car trip up to a village called Gimmelwald where we stayed in a place called that mountain hostel which struck us more like a Frat house with obscene rules. The beds we comfortable and we went on a hike with a very nice Bostonian couple that was on their honeymoon. We hiked up to a waterfall with a view of a glacier mountain but it rained most of the time so the views were not as good as the could have been. From the waterfall we hiked up to a small family restaurant where we got a piece of tort and bread to go with our Alpkaese, which is some of the best cheese I have ever had. The hike back down the mountain was not very enjoyable as it poured rain the entire time and we got extremely wet. The rest of the afternoon and most of the evening was spend making two trips into the hot tub which was very hot, 44 Celsius, the first time because it is heated by a woodstove and someone had added to much fuel. The atmosphere in the hostel made us both feel a bit uncomfortable but here was a small village festival to raise money for the youth ski team going on so we went and enjoyed some really Swiss food and funny village music which was really fun. For dinner we enjoyed chocolate fondue, which was nice with fresh fruit, and half of a very good pizza that one of the guys we met could not finish, and wanted to share. Getting up in the morning was really difficult as we did not want to wake up our six roommates but we had to catch the 8:30 cable car down so we could make our train connection.

plans and bavaria

hey everyone, here is our plan for the next few days:
Tomorrow July 1 we start our ascent of the the Zugspitze hiking about 7 miles to Knorhuette which is a mountain lodge just about the tree line of the mountain

Wednesday July 2 we complete our ascent and then make our way back down to Garmisch where we can pick up the rest of our stuff from the people we are staying with tonight and take the train to Innsbruck.

Thursday July 3 we leave Innsbruck for Lucerne and sleep in Lucerne.

Will write more soon. But must sleep.

busy busy bee and the coming of a friend

Once again have been much to exhausted and busy to post and must set myself now to the daunting task of summarizing all of the fun I have been having. On last Wednesday I went to a battle of the bands concert for some local bands where I met CS girl who has just moved to Munich to work for the summer. It was really excellent. I was originally feeling very tired that day so I considered not going but I am so happy that I did. The majority of the eight bands were very good and we had a blast. This past weekend was very eventful. On saturday I rode my bicycle about 15 km out side of the city to a small lake called Langwiedersee and met some friends who I had met on a train ride home one night for a day of swimming. On Sunday I went to Austria with my friends Christian, who drove, Norberto, and a funny bavarian guy named Bo, which is short for something I can't remember because it has nothing to do with his given name. Norbs, Bo, and I hiked up to the top of a ski area where we met Christian, who was paragliding. I really must try that some time soon. It looks the massive amounts of fun. On tuesday of this week I went on a bike ride by the river with two friends and went swimming afterward. That night I baked some chocolate chip cookies with a friend but accidentally used baking powder instead of baking soda. Yesterday, Wednesday I went to the English Garden to watch the semi-final soccer match between Germany and Turkey. The game was a bit boring until the end when germany scored two goals in the last five minutes winning 4-2. Which means that this Sunday Germany will play in the finale against either Russia or Spain. The party after the game was absolute chaos but utterly beautiful. I have never been in a crowd so united in happiness. Today Diana arrived. I was so excited i could barley sit through class this morning. We met and the main train station. Tonight we are probably going to sit in a beer garden and go over our itinerary which is changing, due to weather and recommendations I have had since I arrived. Some of the pictures in this slideshow are repeats because I uploaded my new pics into an old folder by accident so bare with them. Can't wait to go out and show Diana the city.

Been busy having fun

Since it has been a very eventful week I am just now getting a chance to post some pictures of what I have been getting into. Last Wednesday I went on a walk in a park near my house. The weather was iffy but it was really neat to stroll around by myself and see what I could see. It is amusing to me that every park here has at least one beer garden, the bavarians really don't mess around when it comes to beer. On thursday Germany played another Eurocup game, which they lost sadly but I did enjoy a nice BBQ at our viewing location, at least until it started to pour rain. I met a really nice couchsurfer (story of my life right?) so hopefully we can go hiking together. I am really hoping the weather this weekend is better because I has been raining everyday now for way to long and I want to get out of the city. Enough complaining, on Saturday I went swimming at the olympic pool which was amazing but honestly a little to massive for my tastes. I felt like an ant in a giant ocean, only a bit though. The diving board there was very fun. Then that night I went to a huge street festival for the 850 birthday of the city. I got my face painted like a little kid and wandered around taking pictures for about two hours. On sunday the weather was relatively OK so I went on a really long bike ride along the Izar river bike path. The path is really nice. I rode all the way out of the city, 12.5 km and then back. I was hoping it would be warm enough to swim but the clouds had come back in. This Monday I went out and met all the couchsurfers for the Germany vs. AUstria game, which Germany won, Hurray!!! I learned the german national anthem and a few other football songs and last night was the birthday party for my guest mother which was very fun, if a bit intimidating because of all people. All and all excellent week. I wish I could stay here longer because the time is flying by, but I guess that just means I will have to come back some day. soon. Check out the pics. Love you all!

photos from the dinner

my newly acquired friend Marcus has been kind enough to post some of his pictures from the veggie dinner last night. Enjoy if you are in the mood.
Dinner Pics

Deutsches Museum

Hi all,
Yesterday I took an excursion with some of my classmates after school to the Deutsches Museum. It is basically the German equivalent ot the Smithsonian, devoted entirely to the sciences. It is huge. We were there for two and a half hours and I only saw about a tenth of the exhibits. I will definitely go back when I have more time. Last night I went to a couchsuring vegan potluck but forgot to take pictures. Hope you enjoy the pictures of the museum.
Jeanne

Second weekend here in Munich

It is hard to believe that I am already finished with my first week of school here. The time is really flying by. This weekend is really jammed with things to do. Yesterday, Saturday, I started off the day by doing some figure drawing with a couchsurfing friend. Around 4:30 we met a big group of people at a street festival in our area on Ludwigstrasse. We did not spend much time actually out on the street as it was raining quite a bit so we went inside an irish pub to watch the euro cup soccer game from yesterday which was Switzerland and Croatia I think. After the festival and football I went home to change with my friend Karla, had dinner at Norbs house and then all of us went to a fire show under a bridge on the other side of the city. http://www.buschfeuer-muenchen.de/homeindex.html, check it out. Those are the people who organize it but anyone can come and dance. I was able to get some really interesting shots. The weather here has been really as the Germans say schrecklich, or awful. There have been a lo of thunderstorms and sudden rain but I have still been managing to have fun. Couchsurfing has really become a nice group of friends and community for me. Today for example I am meeting some people for a late breakfast, watching some movies, going to a bar to see Germany play Poland and the going to a Jazz jam session all with a bunch of people from couchsurfing. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I am just posting the link to a slideshow this time because there are to many to post in the body of this blog. The pics are in a funny order because I uploaded them out of squecence so it will show sunny sunday, the fire show and then the Ludwig Strasse stuff. So check it out. Copy and Paste or whatever. Click here for slideshow

Long awaited photos

Hello all,
Here are the photos I keep promising you. I have been having so much fun that I am hardly even on the computer. Munich is a very beautiful city and the Bayernische people are very nice. It is so safe here. You can walk around anywhere at night and no one will bother you. The couchsurfer that I stayed with was very nice and introduced me to a bunch of other couchsurfers and Muencherners. I am so used to using Germany that it is hard to write this because it comes out German first. Jetzt photos:

here is a slide show you can watch if you want.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeannebeanie88/MunichToExport/photo?authkey=qXz5h_neKzw#s5207755400223662994

The guy on the left is my host from Couchsurfing (Norbs) We are sitting on the grass next the Izar.

On the right is the other girl who was staying with Norbs, her husband is taking the picture. In the middle is girl from New Hampshire that we meet at a couchsuring meeting and then I am on the left.

Me with a group of men dressed in Lederhosen in the subway (U-Bahn)

Me sitting on the steps of a monument which is coincidentally where Hitler staged his take over of the German government.

The tour guide from aforementioned walking tour of the city. He related everything to Hitler or Beer. Often times both.

Muenchen

Hello all who are following my journey,
So far on my first day in Munich I have taken a very long (3 1/2 hours) walking tour of the cities sights. Leaving the hostel which is next to the main train station we walked to the city center and the Frauenkirche which was really beautiful. The tour guide on the trip related all history in Munich to beer and/or Hitler which was funny It be honest it was a bit of a stretch sometimes but it was really good for a free tour. After the Frauenkirche we walked to Marienplatz and watched the glocken-spiel show. Then we toured the viktualianmarkt and walked to the Engish Garden. via der Hoffbraeuhaus. Having problems with photos but will send some soon.

warum fahre ich nach Deutschland?

Why am I going to Germany? This is why:

If you think this is the cutest thing ever scroll across at the end and watch the video "Friedrich sagt ein Gedicht" super cute!
also going for this: