Munich and Maastricht

Well what a few weekends it has been. Last weekend was our trip to Munich (which was significantly different than Berlin). After taking a bright an early bus (6am) we got into Munich and almost went one city to far... yea hard to do but I blame my friend. There were two bus stops in Munich, one the airport, and one the "city" which was as far from the city as possible. So after n0ot getting off at the airport, we went to the next one, expecting it to be the city and it was still the suburb so, we stayed on. Right before they left for the next stop, they said, where are you going again? We answered Munich, and they were like ohhh this is the last stop (after the bus driver said it wasn't but basically it was an english-german issue. We took the metro all the way in (it was the last stop on the line), we got to our hostel and we found out why it was ranked number 1 in Munich. We all walked around, explored some markets, had some food, and then got ready to go out. After going down to the hostel bar to have a drink before going out, we walked in an there were 200 people in the Hostel Bar? yea that doesn't happen, but it did. Apparently our hostel (named Wombats) is a major place where young people who speak english go and have a drink or two and mingel. So we were going to go clubbing but we never left the hostel bar because it was an amazing time.... We met people from everywhere including a German high school class who was at the hostel. They were all about 19, and they had one person who looked just slightly older and I asked her what she was doing with them and she said she was their teacher. They then preceeded to take a tequilla shot as a class with their teacher.......... yea that happens in the states all the time... not.

We went on a walking tour the next morning which ended up being almost 3 hours... Then it was BMW time... we went to the BMW factory and saw the whole production tour which was awesome.... but the best part was at the end, we asked if we could test drive a car and they said yea it was 30 euros... and oh how tragic, the Autobahn happens to be 100 feet from the factory.... sooooooooooo a friend an I took a sports coop for a ride on the Autobahn... which was to say the least, fun.

We then all went back to the hostel, went out to a beer hall for dinner (the famous beer halls and gardens) and then had the same experience back at the hostel bar... yea still confuses me but we enjoyed it

Then there was class... and well yea class is class.

Then this weekend, I flew from Prague to Brussels and took a train to Maastricht to visit Lauren and experience CARNAVAL.... which was an experience.. it didn't officially start until sunday but people were in full out costumes by thursday.... they have an entire week off of school for Carnaval (and yes the grocery store is closed for 5 days.... yea its a big deal) so basically it was Halloween on steroids. people of all ages were decked out head to toe day after day. there was one big square where everyone was and that was an experience..... i can still hear the distinctive carnival music... oh good times... pictures will be up on FB and flickr eventually

Now its back to work, I have 20 pages to write by Weds.... yea sounds fun... not (especially since some is for Richmond which I currently do not attend)