Now, like most people in the US, I associate hitchhiking with ghost stories, chainsaw murders, and unsolved mysteries...but after talking to travellers throughout Eurpoe I began to see it as a legitimate travel form. And, more importantly, as an ADVENTURE! And I can NEVER say no to an ADVENTURE!
So a few weeks ago, Jessica and I headed off on a journey to hitchhike to Nuremberg!
Being great planners, we had no idea where to start, or what to bring, so the first hour (until about 7:30 pm) was spent wandering around, buying markers to make signs and snacks to eat, and asking passerby's the best place to start form to catch someone going the right direction. Everyone was nice (cars would stop and talk to us and offer advice, but none were going where we were), but we had no luck until one man told us a better u-Bahn stop to go to. And in ADDITION, he went with us there, and walked to the on-ramp, where Murphy's law slapped us in the face with a GIANT construction site and closed roads! Our helper said he's go find some maps for us to find somewhere else to start, and wandered off. We didn't really expect him to come back, but sure enough, half an hour later he came back with FIVE pages of color google maps, both street and satellite view, explained to us exactly where to go, and apologized he couldn't take us there in person! And then he strolled off into the sunset, not even giving us time to thank him, as if taking an hour of his day to help two novice hitchhikers was so ordinary that no special thanks was required.
So we get to the next onramp around 10pm, and once again find ourselves in a position of not many cars going our way...which is fine, because we have Poi, Snickers, Wine, and Biscuits to occupy us! Not to mention most cars that weren't going our way would stop to wish us luck, chat, or just wave nicely. We continued to wait, holding a flashlight on our sign and hiding the wine bottle when cars came, until finally a few hours in someone offered to take us to a rest stop near Nuremberg. There we waited once again until a nice person picked us up, plugged the address we were going to into his navigation system and dropped us directly off- after a nice conversation he even told me to drop him a line if I wanted an internship at his Electrical Engineering company!
Nuremberg itself was FANTASTIC- after a scavenger hunt that involved lots of playing on playgrounds, a free outdoor concert of the Nurembger Symphpony, we went to a crazy party and danced like mad people to music from all over the world (largely Balkan), then all sang and made kick lines and other group-frenzy dances to Abba and Queen, and more or less had a BLAST until the trams started to run again at 5am.
To hitchhike back, we took the subway to a small town just outside Nuremberg, then started looking fora ride to the rest station we had been at before. Of course, like one would in any small town in Southern Germany, we got picked up and driven 20 minute sout of the town by two nice people who had only intended to go out for coffee, and said "eh, its a Sunday!" when we asked if it was too inconvenient, and then proceeded to play Bob Marley the whole way over! Once there we quicly got picked up by an old lady and her dog, who was content to let us sleep in the back seat all the way home.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Nancy and Sini Prove Their Badass Motherfucker-ness
So this weekend Sini came down from Berlin to check out the Munich scene and revisit the crazy adventurous lifestyle we shared in Berlin- and the quest was extremely successful! We started off by buying 2 bottles of wine and heading down to the Isar river. It started to pour on the way, scaring the rest of the beach-goers away, so when the sun returned we had the whole river almost completely to ourselves- and a gigantic pack of swans. We drank and talked and lounged, and at one point a swan started floating down the river in front of us. Full of bravado from the wine, Sini idly threw a rock at it. Normally, this would be fine....Sini has aiming issues. In fact, Sini aiming at the swan would normally guarantee its safety. By some trick of fate, however, this rock skipped off the island in the middle of the river and landed directly in front of the swan. And the swan was not happy. It didn't just float towards us....it cut a 90 degree corner, swam across the river, walked over the island, then across the other half of the river, directly up to the bank we were on, and started coming at us. We desperately grabbed the bottle of wine, jumped up, and prepared to run. The swan seemed to be content just sitting there and intimidating us, though. At least, until Sini started cursing at it, when it started once again glaring and threatening to get up and come kick our asses. Eventually it tired of the game however, and our lives were spared.
Naturally, after downing the two bottles of wine at the beach, we decided on our way home that we need a third, and then hung out with one of my roommates, a law student named Oliver (whose name I still hadn't figured out after a week of living with him, so I eventually found out by breaking into his room and looking through his wallet) and finished off that bottle of wine while preparing for a night on the town. I vaguely remembered a place offering 1 euro tequila shots the night before, so we headed there. It turns out that offer no longer applied, but with my wit fully lubricated by a bottle and a half of wine I talked the employee into extending the offer for us, so we grabbed a quick few shots and another beer before heading out. We were headed to a club called 2Rooms, which was supposedly a hip hop club re-opening that weekend. On the way, though, we decided to stop by yet ANOTHER bar. After ordering another beer, Sini and Oliver started talking politics and religion, so to drown them out I chilled with the employees (from Iraq and Afghanistan) and talked about music and other things that I've forgotten... And, as usual, this led to free shots (EXACTLY what we needed- Daniel taught me the dangerous skill of aqcuiring free shots at an increasing rate as I drink more). After all this, though, we must have had it SOMEWHAT together, because upon entry at the club we were given another free beer! As for the club, well; none of us really remember much of it. There were lights? And maybe music? I hung around for about an hour, and then lost Sini and Oliver and somehow meandered home- luckily they managed to do the same a few hours later (and Sini EVENTUALLY ended up back in my room ;) )
The next morning/early afternoon was filled with recovery and vows of not drinking again for a while....right. It was also the 850th Birthday of Munich Celebration, so we checked out some live music and other fun there. I had heard about an international breakdancing competition from someone I met in a Munich crew, so we stopped by for that. It turns out one of the crews was from San Franscisco, so we talked to them during a break, established how cool we were, and immediately got an offer to go clubbing with them. They asked us if we knew any hip hop clubs....the only club in Munich I'd heard hip hop associated with was 2Rooms (the elektro scene in Germany is absolutely oppressive), which I didn't remember at ALL from the night before, but it was close and we figured it had to be cool, so we suggested that and were seconded by another member of the competition who had heard the same. We agreed to meet there around 1.
Sini and I were of course late getting there (we were watching an AMAZING dance performance with fire spinners and people dancing vertically on church walls, dancing in large bowls of water and flying through the air, and also with a giant dancing metal lion!). So we get to the club and are easily let in and start to look around for our friends. We didn't see them anywhere, but we did see an AMAZING shirtless male pole dancer- this guy had obviously had some practice. He was springing off railing and spinning upside down down the pole, and doing other amazing moves. We wanted to ask him where he learned that (we're always on the lookout for a good male strip club), but he was also obviously on crack, because as soon as he hit the ground he was off like a squirrel, sprinting to the other side of the club. This also triggered something in my head, and I started to look around. At this point I realized that there were very few girls in the club. And very very many gay men. I point this out to Sini and we finally look at the screen and realize that it says "2Rooms: Sodom and Gomorrah"
Shit.
It was a gay club.
We had told an international alliance of badass bboys from San Francisco, Russia, and Scotland to meet us at a gay club.
We immediately ran outside so if we saw them we could stop them, but after they didn't show for a while we figured they had left earlier. Luckily one of them had my number, and we met them at a train station nearby. Apparently they had stopped by the club and the bouncers hadn't let them in (thank god!), but they were waiting for another crew anyway, so it was no loss. We waited for all the dancers to show up and then headed off to another club where someone had negotiated free entry for all of us. The club was amazing- the guys strolled in and took right over. After a few beers Sini and I were right in there dancing with the crews, and at some point I managed to not look embarrassing in a one on one mini dance-off with one of the San Francisco crew!
Around 5am we all headed off to the flat where the San Fran boys were staying...on the UBahn home they "made friends" with a giant Turkish guy who called himslef "Crazy Joseph" and started off belligerent but was soon tamed by their charm, and ended up in a push up contest on the UBahn. One of the crew also took the time to explain to him at one point the difference between breakdancing crews and the Bloods and Crips (Crazy Joseph was very curious about them)- he said "When you have a problem with the Bloods and Crips, you don't see each other again. That's the end for you. But us, when we got something going with someone, at the end we take what happened and say, ok, we'll see each other again the next week." Haha, the origin and spirit of BBoying captured in just a few almost coherent sentences.
We hung at their flat for a while with some vodka, rum and beer. At some point one of the other residents complained, but he came out to do this only wearing a shirt and some tight underwear, which no one could quite get past. The leader explained very maturely that we were not playing music or being excessively loud, and "god DAMN you don't have any trousers! You can't come out here with no trousers and tell our asses to be quiet!?!" and so forth... Just imagine this type of talk continuing to come from a breakdancer...infinite entertainment. (Incidentally, this guy's day job was teaching dance, and his two "Hustles" were the San Fran crew and Calligraphy!) I don't think I've ever been quite so amused in my life. We relocated to a room, and ended up talking until past 9am. We talked about EVERYTHING from philosophy to a whole conversation and lesson in breakdance "burns"- we mostly learned the "put your dick in their mouth" move. The explanation and critiques of this were quite amusing- "more extension! Is that how big your dick is?! Come on, put some power behind that!" I finally "had it right" when I practiced the move, and as one of the guys was trying to criticize/retaliate I said "Why are you talking? Why are you taking? There's a dick in your mouth!" (thank you, band, for making me comfortable saying that). After about four hours of this, we all passed out and slept until about 1pm. All the guys were great, and it turned out all from different crews in San Francisco, and they told us to come clubbing with them on weekends when we got back! (that's right- we now have ins with THREE breakdancing crews in San Francisco! Three of them were also in that movie BBoys that came out recently about breakdancing, which I've wanted to see forEVER!). Most importantly, though, Sini and I were fucking cool enough to chill with breakdancers from all over the world for 12 hours. Shiiit. (Oooh! And one of them even thought that *I* was a breakdancer....muah ha ha)
Our international breakdance friends!!!
You rock that hat, Sini
Naturally, after downing the two bottles of wine at the beach, we decided on our way home that we need a third, and then hung out with one of my roommates, a law student named Oliver (whose name I still hadn't figured out after a week of living with him, so I eventually found out by breaking into his room and looking through his wallet) and finished off that bottle of wine while preparing for a night on the town. I vaguely remembered a place offering 1 euro tequila shots the night before, so we headed there. It turns out that offer no longer applied, but with my wit fully lubricated by a bottle and a half of wine I talked the employee into extending the offer for us, so we grabbed a quick few shots and another beer before heading out. We were headed to a club called 2Rooms, which was supposedly a hip hop club re-opening that weekend. On the way, though, we decided to stop by yet ANOTHER bar. After ordering another beer, Sini and Oliver started talking politics and religion, so to drown them out I chilled with the employees (from Iraq and Afghanistan) and talked about music and other things that I've forgotten... And, as usual, this led to free shots (EXACTLY what we needed- Daniel taught me the dangerous skill of aqcuiring free shots at an increasing rate as I drink more). After all this, though, we must have had it SOMEWHAT together, because upon entry at the club we were given another free beer! As for the club, well; none of us really remember much of it. There were lights? And maybe music? I hung around for about an hour, and then lost Sini and Oliver and somehow meandered home- luckily they managed to do the same a few hours later (and Sini EVENTUALLY ended up back in my room ;) )
The next morning/early afternoon was filled with recovery and vows of not drinking again for a while....right. It was also the 850th Birthday of Munich Celebration, so we checked out some live music and other fun there. I had heard about an international breakdancing competition from someone I met in a Munich crew, so we stopped by for that. It turns out one of the crews was from San Franscisco, so we talked to them during a break, established how cool we were, and immediately got an offer to go clubbing with them. They asked us if we knew any hip hop clubs....the only club in Munich I'd heard hip hop associated with was 2Rooms (the elektro scene in Germany is absolutely oppressive), which I didn't remember at ALL from the night before, but it was close and we figured it had to be cool, so we suggested that and were seconded by another member of the competition who had heard the same. We agreed to meet there around 1.
Sini and I were of course late getting there (we were watching an AMAZING dance performance with fire spinners and people dancing vertically on church walls, dancing in large bowls of water and flying through the air, and also with a giant dancing metal lion!). So we get to the club and are easily let in and start to look around for our friends. We didn't see them anywhere, but we did see an AMAZING shirtless male pole dancer- this guy had obviously had some practice. He was springing off railing and spinning upside down down the pole, and doing other amazing moves. We wanted to ask him where he learned that (we're always on the lookout for a good male strip club), but he was also obviously on crack, because as soon as he hit the ground he was off like a squirrel, sprinting to the other side of the club. This also triggered something in my head, and I started to look around. At this point I realized that there were very few girls in the club. And very very many gay men. I point this out to Sini and we finally look at the screen and realize that it says "2Rooms: Sodom and Gomorrah"
Shit.
It was a gay club.
We had told an international alliance of badass bboys from San Francisco, Russia, and Scotland to meet us at a gay club.
We immediately ran outside so if we saw them we could stop them, but after they didn't show for a while we figured they had left earlier. Luckily one of them had my number, and we met them at a train station nearby. Apparently they had stopped by the club and the bouncers hadn't let them in (thank god!), but they were waiting for another crew anyway, so it was no loss. We waited for all the dancers to show up and then headed off to another club where someone had negotiated free entry for all of us. The club was amazing- the guys strolled in and took right over. After a few beers Sini and I were right in there dancing with the crews, and at some point I managed to not look embarrassing in a one on one mini dance-off with one of the San Francisco crew!
Around 5am we all headed off to the flat where the San Fran boys were staying...on the UBahn home they "made friends" with a giant Turkish guy who called himslef "Crazy Joseph" and started off belligerent but was soon tamed by their charm, and ended up in a push up contest on the UBahn. One of the crew also took the time to explain to him at one point the difference between breakdancing crews and the Bloods and Crips (Crazy Joseph was very curious about them)- he said "When you have a problem with the Bloods and Crips, you don't see each other again. That's the end for you. But us, when we got something going with someone, at the end we take what happened and say, ok, we'll see each other again the next week." Haha, the origin and spirit of BBoying captured in just a few almost coherent sentences.
We hung at their flat for a while with some vodka, rum and beer. At some point one of the other residents complained, but he came out to do this only wearing a shirt and some tight underwear, which no one could quite get past. The leader explained very maturely that we were not playing music or being excessively loud, and "god DAMN you don't have any trousers! You can't come out here with no trousers and tell our asses to be quiet!?!" and so forth... Just imagine this type of talk continuing to come from a breakdancer...infinite entertainment. (Incidentally, this guy's day job was teaching dance, and his two "Hustles" were the San Fran crew and Calligraphy!) I don't think I've ever been quite so amused in my life. We relocated to a room, and ended up talking until past 9am. We talked about EVERYTHING from philosophy to a whole conversation and lesson in breakdance "burns"- we mostly learned the "put your dick in their mouth" move. The explanation and critiques of this were quite amusing- "more extension! Is that how big your dick is?! Come on, put some power behind that!" I finally "had it right" when I practiced the move, and as one of the guys was trying to criticize/retaliate I said "Why are you talking? Why are you taking? There's a dick in your mouth!" (thank you, band, for making me comfortable saying that). After about four hours of this, we all passed out and slept until about 1pm. All the guys were great, and it turned out all from different crews in San Francisco, and they told us to come clubbing with them on weekends when we got back! (that's right- we now have ins with THREE breakdancing crews in San Francisco! Three of them were also in that movie BBoys that came out recently about breakdancing, which I've wanted to see forEVER!). Most importantly, though, Sini and I were fucking cool enough to chill with breakdancers from all over the world for 12 hours. Shiiit. (Oooh! And one of them even thought that *I* was a breakdancer....muah ha ha)
Our international breakdance friends!!!
You rock that hat, Sini
What I Don't Tell You....
Just a quick note- in order not to bore you all to tears, I leave a lot of stuff that I consider "standard events" out of this blog....for example, all the times I go clubbing until 5 in the morning, or hang out at rivers with international travellers the whole day, or go to the Englischer Gartens and learn Poi, etc. Maybe I'll put up some more pictures, though. Or maybe I won't! It really doesn't matter- I think I'm the only one who reads this shit anyway...
EXAMPLE:
A typical day in Munich:
Start off at a lake or the gardens, dance, play drums, spin some Poi
Don't go ANYWHERE without a beer!
Of course, Germany is also know for its white wine
And what day is complete without DANCING!!!
And the trains don't run again until 7am....so......this is 6:30
Also....giant flying dancing metal death robot lions EVERYWHERE in Munich!!!
EXAMPLE:
A typical day in Munich:
Start off at a lake or the gardens, dance, play drums, spin some Poi
Don't go ANYWHERE without a beer!
Of course, Germany is also know for its white wine
And what day is complete without DANCING!!!
And the trains don't run again until 7am....so......this is 6:30
Also....giant flying dancing metal death robot lions EVERYWHERE in Munich!!!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Weltweit Gratis Umarmung Tag!
See us in action!
That's right! Saturday was International Free Hugs Day! As I never miss a chance to hug people, I got together with a group of people from couchsurfing, and we invaded the tourist center of Munich with signs and smiles and hugged the world! My fellow huggers were absolutely fantastic- from all over the world, all living in Munich for the time, and always up for a good night of conversation, beer, dancing, or travelling! A group of us got together later in the night and picniced on a lawn that was invaded my Fire Spinners and African Drummers as soon as it got dark out- this continued deep into the morning and was one of the most spectacular, chill things I've ever seen (AND I got my first Poi lessons! Pyromania, here I come!)
There was also a day-after-4th-of-July BBQ with a bunch of Americans on one of the many BEAUTIFUL rivers in Munich, where food, beer, wine, and Tequila flowed freely. Friday was the largest student party of the year in Munich, which was interesting, but severly misstepped in musical selection on all 5 dance floors. And Sunday involved an attempt at floating down a river in the Englisher Gartens and a visit to the HUGE Tollwood festival, but the plans were hampered by rain so I ended up watching movies with the mother in the apartment I'm staying at, heavily drinking wine to dull the terror (I'm not so good with scary movies). Yes, yes, I know this was a boring post, but the pictures are awesome, and I needed SOME sort of explanation....or maybe not. Hmmm. Apologies.
Nancy and Lauren Narrowly Avoid Being Strippers
So after a disappointing venture into Bavarian dancing with Nina (it was quite boring, but the wait staff was really funny and talked to me when I got bored out of my wits), Lauren (also from Stanford) and I decided go explore… With absolutely no destination in mind, we meandered around Munich (getting ice cream TWICE- once at the greatest place EVER! with Banana caramel ice cream) and then ended up accidentally in Suburbia and despaired of finding ANYTHING…
And then we heard the music! Being crazy adventurers, we followed it to a building under construction, where we saw a small sign saying "richtfest 5 etage." We had no idea what that meant, but we saw the word FEST so of COURSE we, without a second thought, walk to the elevator. When we get off we immediately saw two older gentlemen, who seemed very excited to see us…and my first thought was "OMG, this is a Bavarian bachelor party and they think we're the strippers they ordered." So I very adamantly asked for an explanation (politely- we WERE crashing, of course) of what it was before we got far from the elevator. It turns out, when the roof is first built (mind you the building is FAR from finished), they have a party! Because, as they explained, Bavarians celebrate EVERYTHING!!! They all seemed excited to learn about us, so we sat down at a table on the unfinished, open air top floor of this building, and mingled with the 30 or so people there- architects, electricians, builders, and their families. We had a GREAT time talking (and joking! I TOTALLY joked in German!) It was almost entirely an older crowd who made especially sure we got plenty of dessert and drinks. They treated us like long-lost daughters, with everyone running over to meet us, saying "OH! You two are the nice californian girls who heard the music!" Haha, ALL sweethearts! There was also a dancefloor upstairs with great music (world, hip hop, latin, german, EVERYTHING good).
We made friends with all the "big guys" in the company, and soon the main boss pointed out two younger guys (mid 20's maybe) and said apologetically, "this is all we have to offer you" It took me a minute to realize that he was so concerned about us enjoying the party we had crashed that he had deemed it necessary to supply us with men as well as food and drinks....and, hahaha, ALL?!?! They were two carpenters who worked on the house…and I swear to god, the boss walked over and talked to them for a minute, and then they kind of looked at each other, shrugged, and took their shirts off! (and SHIT. Just……shit).
So we stayed at this party the whole night (the nicest people in the WORLD! I love Bavarians.) And the whole time they were trying to sell these carpenters on us ("what's your sign? Libra? Oh good- Julius- you two are perfect!" "they're the nicest guys. The nicest" "how are those two nice young men working out for you two?") Even more interesting, we were terribly confused because we had this confusing Danglish interaction which left us thinking that they were a gay couple- which I found out later not to be true ;) (They had been trying to communicate to us that they were nice guys who weren't looking to do anything sleazy, but all that came out mutually comprehensible was that they were "not looking for women", which Lauren and I misunderstood...hahaha, oh how language barriers make everything interesting...)
So on what started as a boring to disappointing Thursday night, we ended up dancing, drinking, and talking the night away (AND made a conga line go through the whole house- which gave me an excuse to put my hands on some extraordinary upper body ;) ), and promised to return for the next party, which, in Bavaria, shouldn't be too far off...
And then we heard the music! Being crazy adventurers, we followed it to a building under construction, where we saw a small sign saying "richtfest 5 etage." We had no idea what that meant, but we saw the word FEST so of COURSE we, without a second thought, walk to the elevator. When we get off we immediately saw two older gentlemen, who seemed very excited to see us…and my first thought was "OMG, this is a Bavarian bachelor party and they think we're the strippers they ordered." So I very adamantly asked for an explanation (politely- we WERE crashing, of course) of what it was before we got far from the elevator. It turns out, when the roof is first built (mind you the building is FAR from finished), they have a party! Because, as they explained, Bavarians celebrate EVERYTHING!!! They all seemed excited to learn about us, so we sat down at a table on the unfinished, open air top floor of this building, and mingled with the 30 or so people there- architects, electricians, builders, and their families. We had a GREAT time talking (and joking! I TOTALLY joked in German!) It was almost entirely an older crowd who made especially sure we got plenty of dessert and drinks. They treated us like long-lost daughters, with everyone running over to meet us, saying "OH! You two are the nice californian girls who heard the music!" Haha, ALL sweethearts! There was also a dancefloor upstairs with great music (world, hip hop, latin, german, EVERYTHING good).
We made friends with all the "big guys" in the company, and soon the main boss pointed out two younger guys (mid 20's maybe) and said apologetically, "this is all we have to offer you" It took me a minute to realize that he was so concerned about us enjoying the party we had crashed that he had deemed it necessary to supply us with men as well as food and drinks....and, hahaha, ALL?!?! They were two carpenters who worked on the house…and I swear to god, the boss walked over and talked to them for a minute, and then they kind of looked at each other, shrugged, and took their shirts off! (and SHIT. Just……shit).
So we stayed at this party the whole night (the nicest people in the WORLD! I love Bavarians.) And the whole time they were trying to sell these carpenters on us ("what's your sign? Libra? Oh good- Julius- you two are perfect!" "they're the nicest guys. The nicest" "how are those two nice young men working out for you two?") Even more interesting, we were terribly confused because we had this confusing Danglish interaction which left us thinking that they were a gay couple- which I found out later not to be true ;) (They had been trying to communicate to us that they were nice guys who weren't looking to do anything sleazy, but all that came out mutually comprehensible was that they were "not looking for women", which Lauren and I misunderstood...hahaha, oh how language barriers make everything interesting...)
So on what started as a boring to disappointing Thursday night, we ended up dancing, drinking, and talking the night away (AND made a conga line go through the whole house- which gave me an excuse to put my hands on some extraordinary upper body ;) ), and promised to return for the next party, which, in Bavaria, shouldn't be too far off...
Nancy Gets Pushed Off a Cliff
So I should begin with talking about my first days in Munich. It was a rough series of events....first my landlord pulled a "Surprise! You don't actually get the room I said I would rent you, but you CAN sleep on a couch for 500 dollars a month!" Which I immediately walked out on, and ended up bumming for a few days while looking for real housing. And then I got to work and Infineon said "Surprise! We're not actually going to pay you what we said we would- how about a third of that amount?" and then my boss said "Surprise! Your project was cancelled, but we DO need some tedious manual labor done!" and my co-workers ALL said "Surprise! Only one of us speaks English!"
So not the greatest start.
In addition, I had absolutely no idea how to meet people- my two other Stanford peeps were off chilling with their co-workers, but my 45 years old+ non-english speaking buddies at work were not really the "let's go drinking!" type, so I turned to desperate maneuvers.... which is how I ended up in Austria
So I was wandering around one day trying to find more permanent housing or someone to talk to, and I noticed a table of 3 nice looking people at a bar downstairs from where I was staying. I awkwardly walked past and smiled twice, and finally gave in the third time and asked in German if I could chill with them because I was new and lonely and needed a stiff drink but wasn't quite desperate enough to drink alone. And they let me! They said they had been curious when I smiled (automatic for me, but rare in Germany) and were hoping I would come talk to them! (btw, I love Bavarians). So we talked and drank for a few hours (all German, of course, so I mosty just stumbled along inane small talk, but I had been practicing my slightly embarrassed winning smile, so it was OK), and then we decided that Wednesday night was a GREAT clubbing night and hit the road...where we found an amazing club with strong, well made 3 Euro Cocktails! Now, a deal like that doesn't come along often, so we felt morally obligated to take full advantage of it, and proceeded to drink and dance the night away. Completely. When the dancing was done, I realized I had about half an hour to get to work, and proceeded to go directly there without stopping by home (incidentally, that's really becoming a habit of mine- but its SO efficient!)
The next day I get a text from one of the guys, who is an outdoors guide from Austria, which contained a train number and time for Friday. Ever curious and somewhat reckless, I hopped on the train Friday afternoon and headed off to the random tiny Austrian town, where I had arguable the greatest weekend of my life (besides every other weekend in Germany). As soon as I got there, Miguel (German, but with a Spanish father) tossed me a wetsuit and said we were going Canyoning. I was like, "cool! That sounds fun and relaxing!" Which I continued to believe until we went to the center of a bridge and I was tossed off the side and into a raging river. The next two hours was an adrenaline filled adventure of sliding down waterfalls, jumping off cliffs, and rapelling down wall faces. (http://www.faszinatour.de/adventure-sports/canyoning/video.html) We finally hit the end, and then gathered wood for a fire and BBQed deep into the night, listened to the river, watched a herd of wild horses meander by, and drank good bavarian river-chilled beer.
The next day continued to be awesome- Miguel works at an extreme/outdoors sports company with an amazing group of guides from Germany, Austria, Scotland, and England who are bound by a common love of the great outdoors and Schnapps. The owners of the place were great and let me tag along the White Water rafting trips for free, and I spent the afternoons having drinking contests with the English and Scottish guys (NONE of which I lost, incidentally). We all went clubbing one night after a particularly heavy Schnapps hour, which ended in all of us dancing on tables and all the guys (not me, sorry) taking off their shirts and waving them around while dancing like crazy people and singing along where possible. The other night culminated in a huge barbecue with endless food and beer and more good times, german lessons, and salutes to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was having so much fun that I missed 5 possible trains back, and ended up once AGAIN going directly from partying to work, after a 2 hour 5am train ride. My coworkers may think I'm a mad person (and it may be true), but when I'm getting paid BELOW minimum wage, I'm sure as hell going to live it up with no worries :) plus, the only jokes we mutually understand are jabs at me about falling asleep at work because I party too much- so...it facilitates bonding?
So not the greatest start.
In addition, I had absolutely no idea how to meet people- my two other Stanford peeps were off chilling with their co-workers, but my 45 years old+ non-english speaking buddies at work were not really the "let's go drinking!" type, so I turned to desperate maneuvers.... which is how I ended up in Austria
So I was wandering around one day trying to find more permanent housing or someone to talk to, and I noticed a table of 3 nice looking people at a bar downstairs from where I was staying. I awkwardly walked past and smiled twice, and finally gave in the third time and asked in German if I could chill with them because I was new and lonely and needed a stiff drink but wasn't quite desperate enough to drink alone. And they let me! They said they had been curious when I smiled (automatic for me, but rare in Germany) and were hoping I would come talk to them! (btw, I love Bavarians). So we talked and drank for a few hours (all German, of course, so I mosty just stumbled along inane small talk, but I had been practicing my slightly embarrassed winning smile, so it was OK), and then we decided that Wednesday night was a GREAT clubbing night and hit the road...where we found an amazing club with strong, well made 3 Euro Cocktails! Now, a deal like that doesn't come along often, so we felt morally obligated to take full advantage of it, and proceeded to drink and dance the night away. Completely. When the dancing was done, I realized I had about half an hour to get to work, and proceeded to go directly there without stopping by home (incidentally, that's really becoming a habit of mine- but its SO efficient!)
The next day I get a text from one of the guys, who is an outdoors guide from Austria, which contained a train number and time for Friday. Ever curious and somewhat reckless, I hopped on the train Friday afternoon and headed off to the random tiny Austrian town, where I had arguable the greatest weekend of my life (besides every other weekend in Germany). As soon as I got there, Miguel (German, but with a Spanish father) tossed me a wetsuit and said we were going Canyoning. I was like, "cool! That sounds fun and relaxing!" Which I continued to believe until we went to the center of a bridge and I was tossed off the side and into a raging river. The next two hours was an adrenaline filled adventure of sliding down waterfalls, jumping off cliffs, and rapelling down wall faces. (http://www.faszinatour.de/adventure-sports/canyoning/video.html) We finally hit the end, and then gathered wood for a fire and BBQed deep into the night, listened to the river, watched a herd of wild horses meander by, and drank good bavarian river-chilled beer.
The next day continued to be awesome- Miguel works at an extreme/outdoors sports company with an amazing group of guides from Germany, Austria, Scotland, and England who are bound by a common love of the great outdoors and Schnapps. The owners of the place were great and let me tag along the White Water rafting trips for free, and I spent the afternoons having drinking contests with the English and Scottish guys (NONE of which I lost, incidentally). We all went clubbing one night after a particularly heavy Schnapps hour, which ended in all of us dancing on tables and all the guys (not me, sorry) taking off their shirts and waving them around while dancing like crazy people and singing along where possible. The other night culminated in a huge barbecue with endless food and beer and more good times, german lessons, and salutes to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I was having so much fun that I missed 5 possible trains back, and ended up once AGAIN going directly from partying to work, after a 2 hour 5am train ride. My coworkers may think I'm a mad person (and it may be true), but when I'm getting paid BELOW minimum wage, I'm sure as hell going to live it up with no worries :) plus, the only jokes we mutually understand are jabs at me about falling asleep at work because I party too much- so...it facilitates bonding?
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