NaeNae, willst du ein Schneemann bauen?

This past weekend was needed. It felt good to take a break from the typical routine. I had almost forgotten what being back in the working world was like. After work last Friday, I took a trip to München (Munich), which is in the German state of Bayern. Of course Munich is famous worldwide for one of the biggest beer drinking festivals in the world a.k.a. Oktoberfest! The last time I was in Munich was to experience Oktoberfest, if you haven't read back that far click here.  

This time it was to visit some participants who live in the area. Which is all I seem to do as of late. Although I will say this, one upside of living in Reutlingen is if I do want to travel somewhere it wouldn't take no more than 3hrs in whatever direction I go in. Saarbrücken, Munich, Strasbourg France, Switzerland, Radolfzell am Bodensee, Köln, Frankfurt, etc. All have been less than 3hrs of traveling by train, which is helpful when you want to make the most out of your weekend. Unless of course you happen to be traveling to East Bumblef*ck (I'm talking about you Czech Republic). 

Anyway, I met up with two PPP'rs,  at the main train station.

S-Bahn selfies with Haley and KC

That night me and KC kicked it at this super chill gay bar, had a couple drinks, and chatted. It felt great to just relax and not think about the last couple of week's series of unfortunate events. Afterwards we grabbed some food, and then some random lady handed me a little blue modern day Bible (in English at that!) I guess I looked like I could use the good word. The plan for that weekend was to go hiking in Tegernsee. Tegernsee is a beautiful town just an hour South from Munich and very close to the border of Austria. It's so cool how all these countries border Germany and it takes a lot less time to get to them. For instance it takes about 8hrs to drive from from Mobile, AL to Huntsville, AL. 8 WHOLE HOURS! In that amount of time you could be in the Czech Republic. or halfway across France. or actually from here where I live in Baden-Württemberg you could  drive from my dorm to Florence, Italy in 7hrs!

We woke up around 9am that morning and met up with Haley at the station after a slight train delay, a poop filled train car, and me "accidentally" leaving that little Bible on the train we arrived to this gorgeous view!

At the base, isnt the view purrty? (photocreds go to: KC Fong)

hunched over, struggling to make it up the mountain. I wonder what being in shape feels like?

Kandids with KC

total postcard  moment"Wish you were here"! (photocreds go to: KC Fong)

So I'll be the first to admit that I have a bittersweet feeling towards rachet behavior and I've noticed it's just gotten more intense in the U.S. over the past 7 months. A few months ago I was introduced to the "Nae nae" dance and definitely wasn't feeling it. Because, lesbehonest.. It looks a hot mess. But hey, opinions change.

YAAAHHHHHHHH

So on the way up the mountain I showed Haley and KC how to do it and we literally danced our to the top (well more me and kc, haley wasn't really feeling it).

The farther up we got, the more snow started to appear. We began this trek breaking a sweat, but the weather kept changing as we proceeded onward and upward. There was almost like a cutoff point to where things stopped melting and began to freeze over. This was my first time climbing a snow covered mountain EVER so it took a minute for me to get adjusted. Imagine being on the verge of having a heatstroke, then 10 minutes later you're shivering and wishing a nice cup of hot chocolate would fall out of the sky (with a little parachute attached of course; otherwise that would be rather unpleasant if you happened to look up as it came crashing down).

 I'd say after about an hour or less, we made it to the top switched into tourist mode.

Strike a pose.  (photocreds go to: KC Fong)

Diabolical/Maniacal laughter with dark clouds in the background... I could totally be a Disney villain. (photocreds go to: KC Fong)

We reached the top and it was so unbelievably coldddddd. I wanted to build a snowman, but there was a hut/restaurant right across from where we took that photo.  Eating hot food, being warm, and far away from frostbite for awhile kind of changed my mind about it entirely. Maybe next time.

listening to Haley as I contemplate how damn good that Chili con Carne was. photocreds go to: KC Fong

Frozen in place, trying to make it back down the mountain. (photocreds go to: Haley Keller)

Idk what we were talking about here, but MORE IMPORTANTLY the guy in the background with his son on his shoulders almost slipped and fell like 2-3 times with his son. still on his shoulders. (photocreds go to: Haley Keller)

Defrosted and made it back down, just gazing up into the wild yonder. photocreds go to: KC Fong

trying to focus my tangerine so I can get a clear photo haha.

After an exhausting day of hiking, we made it back into the city and went back to rest up. The plan was to rest and hit up some club that night. After a few hours of restlessness and sore calf muscles, we came to the notion that the hike was just too much for us so we stayed in and chatted with Kc's roommate's haha.

My bus was scheduled to leave at 3:40pm, so that  morning the three of us went to do what big kids do on Sundays... go to the Kino (Cinema) and see Disney movies at 10am.  We watched Frozen, which I had already seen before in English, but seeing a Disney animated movie auf Deutsch is a different experience entirely. In German, the movie Frozen is called Die Eiskönigin-Völlig unverfroren. A mouthful right? Germany has a way of translating short English titles into long ridiculous words for no reason in particular. Either way the translations were pretty dead on. I'm glad I saw it in English first because I understood the German translations pretty well. That's one thing I am happy about. Although my speaking isn't the best, my comprehension of the German language as a whole has really improved since my time here.

This weekend is a huge event called "Karneval" in Köln. A city I haven't seen since almost the beginning of the program when I took that trip in early September. I'm sooo excited, I've been told it's like a once in a lifetime event that everyone should experience. It's 1am and I'm currently packing for it now. 

What is sleep?

Til next time.

Bis spæter!