Munich

This last weekend we made a visit to the city of Munich, a trip I have been excited for since we arrived! Everyone (Keith especially) had been telling me that I HAD to go to the Haufbrauhaus in Munich, so I made sure that we planned a trip there! Originally, all I had planned on doing was going to the Haufbrauhaus, but then I decided I'd better research some other places and things to do while I was there ;)

Day 1: Off to explore Marienpltaz (roughly translates to Mary's Place) where all of the main shopping, restaurants, and sites are. We went to meet up with a free walking tour group, but ended up leaving about half way through the tour. There was not enough walking and too much standing in one place, and it was WAY too cold for that. Decided to take the town on our own after a nice LONG coffee break :)

Found a funny fountain...not quite sure the significance of it, but we could not resist the photo op :)

(PS, notice our WSU color coordination ;) )

Although the skies were shining blue and the sun was out, don't let it fool you! We were frozen to the bone! Thank goodness for lots of good shopping and indoor activities in Munich!

We visited the English Gardens, which is comparable to Central Park and Hyde Park. We only saw a fraction of it but the park was beautiful. I can only imagine what it would look like in the summer!

One of the places I had also looked forward to seeing, other than the Haufbrauhaus, was the BMW museum. I'm not a big car person, but I do like BMW's. Now, I couldn't tell you hardly anything about the cars, but I do know that they are nice cars and nice to look at :) I definitely would not mind driving one of my own someday!

This one was my favorite, if anyone wants to buy me one I would definitely not complain ;)

Or this one... I look good in it right?? :P

I've still never rode on a motorcycle before, it scares me a bit, but after sitting on this one I feel like I could probably handle it!

We also visited the Olympic Park! This building is where swimming took place. All of the buildings where the different events were are all very close to each other. It was cool to walk around and see where everything was held.

Finally made it to the Haufbrauhaus! This picture was actually taken from our SECOND visit. We made our fist visit Saturday night, and then decided to go back for lunch the next day. 

Our first visit I had a GIANT liter of beer, so the second time I opted for a "small" half liter...the beer in Germany sure is good! Not sure if I'll be able to drink beer when I get back to the states, nothing is going to compare!

Besides beer, I have really grown to love the pretzels in Germany. There's just something about the way they make them here that makes them extra delicious! Every Friday, a group of the teachers meet for what we call "pretzel Friday." We have pretzels and orange juice before school and it's just a nice treat to look forward to each week! The Haufbrauhaus happened to have these HUGE pretzels. Let me tell you, beer and pretzels just won't be the same when I go back home!

One of my favorite parts of traveling is getting to meet new people! We have met people from all over the world: New Zealand, Sweden, Holland, Australia, England, Croatia, Dubai, France, Italy, and more! I have learned so much about different parts of the world and what a privilege it has been for me to be here experiencing all of this culture. I have learned more from meeting people than I think I would ever learn by just doing the typical touristy things and going to tons of museums and tons of tours. Those things are all great to do too, but it's my favorite part to meet people from the area and to meet others traveling like us.