Central & Alpine Europe

Nicole and Annie getting a bit of a rest before their (mis)adventures

MUNICH

When you think of Munich, thoughts of lederhosen, bar maids and giant brats probably come to mind. You might even consider yourself an expert on Munich history if you can recognize places like the Hofbrau House, Olympic park and can figure your way out of the massive subway.
Well, I’m sorry to say that you have only just sipped the deep brew of culture that is Munich.

To begin with, Munich is a rich and expansive city and it is quite near impossible to explore all of its nooks and crannies in only three days.
And being the adventurous free spirits we are, Annie and I decided that we would try to find a way to see as much as possible. The solution to our problem arose after a long morning at Dachau. Having just returned to our hotel after spending 4 hours at the Concentration Camp, we stumbled across some of the other students who were going to take a bike tour.
We were hesitant at first, what with our lack of money, my lack of coordination and Annie’s habit of stopping to buy pashminas, but once we learned of the reasonable price of … FREE, we signed up!

On the bridge in the English Gardens

We both knew right away this would be well worth its price when our tour guide introduced himself in an Australian accent as Travis. All joking aside though, he began the tour with some unknown facts about some of the sights we had been passing every day. He even taught us a Medieval dance thought to keep away the plague, which we all performed gratefully, hoping it had equally repellant powers against the swine flu. After ushering us around the main attractions of the city, Travis, took us to the English Gardens. Now, the English Gardens may sound like a place with elderly bourgeoise ladies sipping teas and twirling parasols, however to think this would be a dire mistake. We entered the lush gardens only to find ourselves face to face with dozens of naked people, no parasols or tea. As disturbing as it might sound, one can not fully appreciate Munich until one meets a tall, dark and wrinkly naked people sunning themselves on the lawn.  After the nudes, we all meandered to the end of the park only to find fully clothed park goers surfing. Ja, I said surfing. At the end of the tour, we had covered a lot of ground, learned a lot of facts and had seen a lot of bratwursts. All in all it was a great day, and if you are ever in Munich it is definitely worth it to wait in Marionplatz for the Australian man giving bike tours. 

– Nicole and Annie

PRAGUE

The Charles Bridge--by Annie

Along with the abundance of clubs, bars and the general college appeal of Prague, Nicole and I thought we would take in some culture, along with a life lesson or two. We decided that the Opera, The Phantom of the Opera to be precise, would be a perfect way to get a dose of opera, ballet and the big C, culture - the trifecta of entertainment. Having passed an ornately decorated opera house on the way back from the hotel, we decided that it must be same one where the Opera would be taking place that night. Nicole and I were bound for the opera- pashminas and all—and in the true native fashion we walked the whole way. This seemingly harmless choice ultimately defined the rest of the night.
After walking rather briskly in heels on cobblestone, Nicole and I finally made it to the Opera house from earlier with 10 minutes to spare. We walked up to the opulent building only to find that we were at the wrong Opera house, (who knew there would be more than one?). It seemed that we were at the National Opera house, not the State Opera house. The ticket taker informed us that the State Opera house was a good 20 minutes away from were we currently were. With our egos a little bruised and our feet a little blistered, we decided to pull out a map and book it to the other building. . We managed to arrive at 7:02, two minutes after the performance began, but the ticket lady had apparently gone home and we were denied our cultural experience.
Thankfully though, after about 10 minutes of sulking, two mad dashes across busy Czech highways and one minor wardrobe malfunction, we decided to try out a restaurant we had heard about in our handy dandy tour book. By some miracle of the Czech food gods, we found the restaurant and enjoyed the best and cheapest food thus far on the trip.
While it was WAY off the beaten path, it was well worth it.

–Annie and Nicole