DISCLAIMER: My travel dates were from May 25, 2013 - June 28, 2013
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| My boarding pass... Let's do this thing! |
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| Landing in Munich! |
Last time you heard from me things were a little grey. I had millions of things to take care of: passport renewals, visa applications, health insurance phone calls, final projects, eating Chipotle; you name it. If you are saying to yourself: “I think he made it to Germany!” you are guessing correctly, because I survived the chaos of the tedious paperwork transactions, and find myself in German soil. It also says it on the headline of this blog entry, but we will pretend you figured it all out, you Sherlock Holmes, you! It feels fantastic to be here. Believe me, I cannot believe I got on one of those silver birds and crossed the Atlantic, and now I am here in Munich! (I have been told that the silver bird that said United Airlines on it, and brought me to Germany was a plane… who would have known?)
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| Beautiful landscape design right off the plane: Munich Airport. |
It is supposed to be summer, but it feels like the last week of October in New Jersey. It is also rainy as can be, but who cares? I am in Germany, and for me this rain is just beautiful plant food right now. Everything is special, and nothing bothers me. Besides, I brought boots and my toes are warm…
I must brief you on the following: I fell in love with Audrey Hepburn on the plane. Allow me to explain: this was a long flight, I was not sleepy, and the silver bird had a pretty awesome movie collection available. Remember how I said I wanted to go to Italy, but could not, and so on? Well, the closer I was going to get to Italy now was by watching “Roman Holiday” with my headphones on; inside the darkness of the bird that was flying over the Atlantic. It was love at first sight I tell you. I took a picture of her waving at me and all… I will show you in a bit.
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| Audrey Hepburn waving at me like I previously stated... I love you, too, Audrey. |
Anyway, back to Germany we go. The first night here I was told NOT* to go to sleep until night time. You know, to fight hard against the malevolent intentions of jetlag. Our professor picked me and this other girl up at the airport, and then we met with the rest of the group at Marienplatz, a beautiful plaza in the heart of Munich. This is Munich’s main plaza, and there were hundreds of people gathered about, shouting, singing, and being rowdy (but I liked that!) That night was the final match of the UEFA Champions League (That is a European soccer tourney for those of you Super Bowl aficionados), and Munich was playing in it. So that is it, my first day in Germany, and I walk into a gigantic party, but I have to mention other academic things prior to telling you how this unraveled.
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| Mariensäule: Mary's column located in the middle of Marienplatz |
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Bayern Munich fans celebrating their team making it to the finale of the
UEFA Champions League. |
After leaving Marienplatz and eating some Pretzel Ellen shared with me, we walked around with our professor for hours, and hours, and hours. He never gets tired. Ever! We visited many sites that day. Many parks and plazas, which is what we came here to do… it is what our major is all about. Landscape architecture focuses on designing open spaces for the people, be it a plaza, a park, a garden, etc. After going around on this quick-paced walk, I managed to fight the evil jetlag whilst falling in love more and more with the city after turning every corner. The rain was trying to break the enchantment, but alas it could not.
Here are some pictures from that walk:
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Landschaftstraße : Landscape Street ... How appropriate for a
Landscape Architecture student visiting Germany. |
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Munich's Hofgarten (5 above pictures)
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| Englischer Garten : English Garden |
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| More English Garden! |
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| Monopteros at English Garden |
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| Chinese Tower at English Garden |
Later that night after the mini-tour, we had our welcome dinner to the program, because the group was all there. We chose a little place by our hostel called “Rick’s Café” that served traditional German food and beer, but above all, it was broadcasting the game! I ate a Wiener schnitzel, and drank a few beers, and oh Lord I was in German heaven. Soccer, and Wiener schnitzel, and beer... and beer!
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I should not get in trouble for posting this for may reasons. For one I am over
the drinking age of both the rest of the world, and the US, two, this
thing was cheaper than a Coca-Cola or even water, and three,
this was me embracing that German culture! |
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| Wiener Schnitzel! |
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| Some of the guys figuring out the German menu. |
After much rooting for Bayern, they won, and as you can imagine; the whole entire city went berserks. We were jumping around; hugging our new German friends we just met over soccer, and decided to go celebrate. We went to Leopoldstrasse (Leopold Street) to continue the celebration with the locals. I was not ready for that: Literally thousands of people celebrating on the streets, being one gigantic family in the bond of soccer and beer (because it is perfectly okay to drink in public in Germany.) Most of the people in our group came out that night, and we had fun, and it was fantastic.
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Germany is kind to foreigners (at least during extraordinary nights such as this)
This Bayern Munich fan gave me a beer, and we hugged and cheered as if
he knew me for forever. See? Soccer and beer are the key to happiness in
Germany! |
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Trying to get out of the crowded subway station that was packed with hundreds of people.
Note that drinking in public is perfectly fine, so me holding this beer here that my new buddy
gave me is oh so legal! |
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| Sporting that "Oh Lord, what now?" look as we came out into this awesome chaos. |
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Picture this: Bayern Munich fans celebrating their team's victory as far as the eye can see. It is like when a city's team
wins the Superbowl, but multiplied times two million. Besides, soccer is better... what? |
This was the perfect first night in Germany. It is not often that one gets to say you celebrated a team’s victory of the UEFA Champions League, and that you were actually in that city when it happened.
I would like to think I brought the team a little bit of luck… and who is to say otherwise? It was my first day there; I might as well just say so.
Super Bayern, Super Bayern AY! AY!
I promise every post from now on should be more academic.
Amen.
- Arturo Sangregorio says "auf wiedersehen" 
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