Germany!

Por Fin! (Finally!) My trip to Germany had arrived.  After what could only be described as the worst week of my semester (awful stomach illness combined with outrageously rainy weather), I had come to the trip I was most excited for.  Almost exactly two months before, I had bought my tickets to go visit my buddy Mark D. in Stuttgart, Germany, and the time had finally come.  This isn't to say It went completely smoothly... I almost didn't make it there.  I honestly felt so sick that I was considering not going, but I was able to suck it up and deal.  Waking up on Thursday morning before my flight, I realized I never printed my itinerary which I would need to get my boarding passes.  The school was closed, as was Discover Sevilla, so I was pretty much out of options.  I walked by a travel agency called ArenaTravel, and desperately ran inside.  After much discussion, the man inside agreed to print my itinerary for me for the unreasonable sum of 20 euro.  After that I rushed home to grab my bags and head to the airport... which also presented its own issues.  It started pouring rain while I was waiting for a taxi, which I later learned (an hour later) were only running in a close loop because of Feria.  I started asking about the bus to the Airport, which lead me on a bit of a wild goose chase through the rain. (I ended up calling Mom just for someone to talk to... I was going crazy).  Anyways, I was able to catch the bus, and make it to the airport on time to get my flight to Palma de Mallorca.  From there I had to catch my connector to Stuttgart, but there was a 2 hour delay, which meant that I was getting on the plane right when I was supposed to land in Germany.  Luckily Mark was still there when I arrived, and we caught a taxi back to his apartment.  His place was incredible... everything was brand new and clean with plenty of space.  We stayed up till 4:30 am showing each other pictures and catching up on life... it was really great.  The next morning we got up to make breakfast, and I was sick again... puking my guts out.  I was really scared that I was going to be sick the whole weekend, but I felt better almost instantly, and fortunately that was the only time I got sick for the rest of my duration in Germany.  We decided to head into the center of town, which was really easy because there is a tram stop in Mark's back yard.  We made our way to the Mercedes- Benz museum, which neither of us had been to yet.

The museum was really something else.  We were able to score a student discount thanks to my CC-CS ID (the receptionist laughed at my hair in my photo... it was an old one), and we also got free audio guides.  

We spent the whole afternoon there, being as it was 6 or 7 floors full of history and incredible cars.  The bullet-proof popemobile was there on display, as well as Austrian mail trucks and busses and cars from all over the world.  We also tried out a driving simulator and got to keep the lanyards from our audio guides for free.  All-in-all, a pretty awesome way to spend the day in Stuttgart.  

The next morning Mark, his roomate Fil, and Myself got up and went to catch our train to make our way to Munich.  We were meeting up with a bunch of Mark's friends from URI that were also in Germany for the same thing he was, and we met up with Steph, Matt, and Adam at the train station in Ulm.  Further along the way we met up with Eric and Drew, who filled out the crew of us staying in the Hostel.

Before we knew it we were in Munich.  We met up with two other kids from the URI program, Joe and Ray, who were living in and around the city.  They served as our tour guides, kinda, as we roamed the city.  The architecture is so different from that in Spain, so regular buildings looked quite spectacular to me.  

Granted, this is no regular building.  Admittedly I have no idea what it is, but it certainly looks great in the picture.  We checked out the main street and the English Gardens, where we found people surfing in the river.  It was really cool to see a surf culture in the middle of such a big city, and while it doesn't quite touch on being coastal it was definitely really awesome.  From there we went to a restaurant to check out some food and drink, and I had my first German draught.  It was delicious, and we were quickly back out onto the road in search of more stuff to do.  We explored the city a little more and headed of to Haufbrauhouse, one of the most famous German brew houses.  Its said that Hitler started the Nazi party at an HB... kindof crazy to think about.  We all hoisted our Mass' (not stein... coincidentally stein means stone in German) high and toasted "Prost" (the German form of Cheers).  The night was really indescribable, with much singing and story telling.  It was a fantastic celebration of the lives we are so lucky to live.

The next day brought us back to the train, which brought us back to Stuttgart.  It was a bummer thinking that I'd have to leave the next day because I was having such a blast.  Its funny how you don't always realize how bad you miss someone until you see them again... especially with Mark.  He'd been gone so long that I had nearly forgotten how great it was to have him around.  We traded music that night, swapped a few more stories, and rose early on Monday morning to get me to the airport.  My flights home came with minimal delays and I was back in Sevilla by 5:30pm.  It was a truly fantastic weekend, one that I will be sure to remember forever.