Mnichov

(Translation: Munich)

I promise this will be a short post! I'm using the hotel computer which has a somewhat different keyboard, so the post will be as long as I can tolerate this!

Just wanted to give a quick update. My last night in London was great. My friend Cathy from RI is studying abroad in London and her dorm was literally a hundred yards from my hotel, so she picked me up and we went to a great dinner at this place called Giraffe. She had never been, and we were in love with it. After that I headed back to the hotel and met up with kids from the trip and just went to a pub for a bit. We made it an early night because...

Yesterday morning we had to be outside the hotel for FIVE AM (London time, not your time), in order to get to the airport on time. We made it to Munich without a problem.

I think that going to London first spoiled me. I love every building in London, and the architecture and detail of every building is beautiful. When we got to Munich I was slightly disappointed because the city doesn't hold that same beauty. It's more of that severe, boxy style (which I know we learned in Civ so I'm mad I can't remember the name), but I'm not a huge fan of that style. We ended up going on a two hour tour of the city that the program had scheduled for everyone and once we saw the old town or main part of the city I liked Munich a lot better. Those buildings had the detail and color that I had been expecting. We got to see the major sights, including Hofbrauhaus, the famous beer hall. (Dad, mission accomplished.) Anyway, after the tour we had a very economical dinner or brie and baguette from the market next door and headed out to Hofbrauhaus for the Munich experience. Once I'm using a computer besides the hotel one I'll post some pictures!

Mom and Grandma, stop reading now!

So my friend Alexa and I learned several important lessons last night, including that we HATE travelling in groups, that the German language is very confusing when looking at subway maps, that we should always bring our own map, and, most importantly, when in a city where you don't speak the language, don#t followsomeone out at night and think that you'll be able to get back without a map AND WITHOUT KNOWING THE ADDRESS OF YOUR HOTEL. Apparently there are several "Hotel Ibises" throughout the city so getting directions to the hotel didn't even help. Luckily I remembered that I had seen a main train station near the hotel and we finally got directions to that, but Alexa and I learned quite the lesson! (Don't worry, we weren't in any danger. It was definitely more comedic/frustrating than life-threatening).

Anyway, for some reason I'm up early so I'm heading for a run. Leave for Prague in a few hours so my next post will be from there. And I promise that I will add some photos soon!