München

A taste of Oktoberfest, if it pleases you:

So yes, I went to Munich and it was an absolute blast. My friend Ben generously hosted me for three days, and it was really cool seeing the city with someone who lives there. We met up with two other kids from my school at Oktoberfest, as well as another American Ben met in his German class. At first we were sort of caught in the rain outside in the beer gardens, but we eventually made it inside the Augustiner tent. The "tents" which are basically buildings that eventually come down, are filled with happy drunk people from all over the world, and there's a band in the middle playing songs suited to the occasion. I had some sausage and sauerkraut, although I just realized that I forgot to eat a pretzel.

The next day we took a train to the countryside, and visited two lakes, one at Wessing and the other at Steinebach. That evening I followed Ben's longboard on a bike to a restaurant called Simplicissimus that served traditional Bavarian food. We had a salad with baked goat cheese, and a ox and potato dish. Mmm. Right before I had to leave for my flight, I visited the Deutsches Museum, which is a science and technology museum. It was fun for me seeing all the historical technologies, like the exhibit on ships.

München

Some notes:

In Germany (or perhaps only in airports or more generally in western Europe), instead of having toilet seat covers, they have toilet cleaning sprays, with which you put on a little toilet paper and wipe down.

If you are going to Munich for some time, consider buying the three-day city tour card for tourists, which is €29,50 when a one way ticket to or from the airport is already €9,20. Here's a link for the MVV prices; it's worth taking some time to decode: http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/de/home/fahrgastinformation/tickets-preise/einzelfahrkarte/index.html

It was a fun process seeing myself pick up some German. I'm far from being able to speak the language, but between explicitly asking my friends what words meant and figuring out things from context cues, I may be on my way to surviving in Vienna, should I make it there in the winter. "Pardon" is entshuldigung, probably the most useful word I learned.