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Ignore the photo representing Germany.... that's actually Austria as apparently the photo library on this page has NO pictures of this country.
I toured the BBC Television Studio on Thursday, which was interesting. If you're not familiar with it, it's essentially where all BBC tv is headquartered out of. The building is inn the shape of a question mark. We saw the various studios & the BBC News Center, which was my favorite part. There are 8,000 people who work in that building... absurd. Kacie and I didn't know any of the shows that they were talking about, but we did see the set for a show called Dance X and I ended up watching the show in the hotel on Saturday.
Friday was my last day at work, which was pretty sad. Carter took everyone in the office out to lunch at a pub, which turned into a 2 hour break. The weather was gorgeous, so we sat outside for quite a while. My flatmates and I went out Friday night to a place near Tottenham Court Road called The Spanish Bar... or something similar. Zach and I picked up a chocolate loaf cake on the way back to the flat... excellent.
I had to check out of the flat by 10am on Saturday. I sent one of my two rolling bags back with Matt, but I still had so much stuff left that I had to buy a duffel to fit everything else into. Needless to say it was a long journey to my hotel at Heathrow. I spent the afternoon doing absolutely nothing and it was fantastic. I got my fill of television certainly, as I haven't watched TV since I arrived in London (with the exception of Liverpool & a dubbed version of The Simpsons in Paris). I arrived at the airport by noon on Sunday and went through the hell that is known as Heathrow Airport. Ughhhh. Painful.
I arrived in Munich around 7 and Basti picked me up. Basti is from Munich, but came to the states last year as an exchange student in my program. We became good friends while he was in Cincinnati. Anyways it was good to see him. I'm staying with Emilee & Stephan in their apartment in the city. It's a lovely building and the apartment was just remodeled... it's beautiful and in a great location. The 3 of us went to dinner near the University. On Monday, Em & Stephan had to work, so I bought a map and wandered around all day. The main square in the city is called Marienplatz, which has a church, the old city hall & various shops. From there I walked to this really old market that sells flowers, food, wine, etc. I spent the afternoon in the English Gardens, which is this huge park in the city. I became completely lost and ended up wandering entirely in the wrong direction. On Monday night, we went to my very first German Beer Garden. Beer Gardens are essentially enormous outdoor seating areas. They serve cafeteria style food (German dishes, of course), pretzels & large quantities of beer. The seating is picnic table style and you just sit wherever a space is open. The one we went to is relatively small, but some of the larger beer gardens in the city seat 5000-7000 people. I drank one of the HUGE glasses of beer and stole the glass... also called a mass, I've been told.
On Tuesday, I took a bus tour of the city. I really do like the bus tours because they give me a stronger understanding of locations in the city, as well as an overview of monuments. It basically eliminates the need to go visit the sites individually. I also walked from Karlsplatz to Marienplatz, stopping in shops here and there.
On Tuesday night, Em & I stopped by Cafe Puck to see 2 of our professors and a group of students from our program who are studying here for the summer. We had some excellent sushi nearby, as well.
Yesterday was fairly uneventful. I woke up with a massive headache, which I think is due to the large amounts of rain we've had. I spent the afternoon attempting to get to the Alte Pinakothek Museum. Once I finally got there, I found it to be rather unimpressive. The collection spread from about 1100-1600. I read that there are works of da Vinci and Rubens there, but couldn't find any. Finding my way back to the apartment proved to be interesting as I seemingly overestimate my ability to use German public transportation. Munich has a system of buses, trams & and underground system. As I don't speak any German, reading signs that say thing such as "Tram 12 is not running during the summer months" is impossible. So I learned the hard way.
This evening we are renting a car and driving up to see Sascha in Bomberg (sp?) about 2 hours away. Stephan & Sascha came to the states in December. The 4 of us spent New Years together in Chicago, so I'm excited to see him. We'll probably spend 2 nights there and then drive to Zurich on Saturday. There is a large street parade going on there. Sunday evening I head back to London and then fly home to Cinci on Monday morning!
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