My Vacation in Germany or the Time When I Visited an Old? Friend: The Two Cities

  So I took the train to Ingolstadt.

  "Ingolstadt? Why Ingolstadt?" said everybody I talked to. "Audi's museum is right there," "Oh, so it's a day trip then!" "No, I'm staying there for 3 days." "WHY?"

  Well, during my studies in Canada, I made a friend, her name is Das Bayerische Mädchen. I've been planning to meet her during my trip in Germany since last year, when she's still in Canada. Not really, it was just a brief mention like "Oh hey, I will be going to Germany!" "Hey, I'm from Germany, we should totally meet up!" kind of thing. But then, things tend to spiral out of control and now here I am, at Ingolstadt. "Unless you really like Audi, there's no reason to go there," everyone German I talked to, 2016.

  Ingolstadt isn't a bad town, its a small peaceful little town inhabited by old people. Almost everything is in walking distance and you can walk from one end of the main town square to another in about 40 minutes? The problem with it is that it isn't really a tourist spot (except for Audi), as it is located in between tourist powerhouses Nürnberg und München.

Figure 11.1: Bavaria is a fantastical place

  Das Bayerische Mädchen just moved to Ingolstadt 2 weeks prior to my arrival for her Masters degree, so she was very busy and could only spend time with me when her classes are over. I was there for 3 days, so I toured around Ingolstadt first, then I moved on to the two cities the following days: Nürnberg und München.

  The Audi Museum was pretty damn cool.

Figure 11.2: Only 7 of this was produced

  I had dinner with Dem Bayerische Mädchen in some really old school Bavarian diner. The food was good and the beer was cheap and there was a lot of meat and I don't think I can enjoy Canadian potato salad anymore now that I've tried Kartoffelsalat. Moving on.

  The next day, I went to München. The first place I went to was of course, Allianz Arena. I left quite late in the afternoon, and the stadium tour closes at 5pm. And that was pretty much the highlight of my München tour. Don't get me wrong, the Old City is BEAUTIFUL, but it had all been turned into shops. Thankfully, the very same night, was the Athletico Bayern Champion's League game. After the stadium tour, I went back to the old city and basically scout out a pub to watch the game. I had dinner in the pub, and basically sat there for the next few hours. When a major game will be going on, you definitely want to find yourself a seat first before the place gets too cramp and you're forced to stand because there will no chairs left for you to sit.

Figure 11.3: A typical Bavarian meal

  After the game (Bayern lost 2-1), I took the train back to Ingolstadt and called it a night.

  The following day, I took the train to Nürnberg. Nürnberg's old city centre is filled with beautiful gothic churches. I personally feel Nürnberg was way way more beautiful than München but that's just my opinion. My day at Nürnberg was also one of the strangest, as every time I exit a building, the weather changes. While I was in the train, the weather looks horrible, it was raining and the sky was gloomy, I was super unenthusiastic about this day trip (because it was an impulse decision), but as soon as I stepped out of the train, the rain stopped and it became extremely extremely sunny. 

  With a new disposition in life, I then visited the majestic St. Lorenz church. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, all of the churches are amazing. Nürnberg has in my opinion, the best churches amongst all the cities I visited in this trip.

Figure 11.4: St. Lorenzkirche

   As soon as I stepped out of the church, it was raining heavily. My spirits was dampened again, so I decided to just walk around the old city, sight see as they call it. Despite the rain, the city still looks beautiful. The lack of people walking out in the open gives it a serene, peaceful feeling. I bought some kebab for lunch, and ate it under an awning, as I watched the people frantically run out of the open to avoid the rain.

  I visited the some other churches and the Nuremberg Castle, and went back to Ingolstadt early, as it was my last day, and I want to have one last dinner with Dem Bayerische Mädchen. We ate some pizza, and I packed up my things and went to the Hauptbanhof, ready to take my train to my next destination, Dresden.

  I missed the train unfortunately but that's some other story. Here are some pictures I took.

Figure 11.5

Figure 11.6: München

Figure 11.7: Allianz Arena

Figure 11.8: A rainy Nürnberg

Figure 11.9: Frauenkirche

Figure 11.10: Nürnberger Burg

Joy

My Vacation in Germany or the Time When I Couchsurfed for the First Time: Episode I - The Frankfurt Menace

  "Goodbye Hermano," I whispered, as I forced my embrace onto my roommate's body. "Safe flight, get off me," he said, as he tried to move his luggage into the taxi. 

  We were all leaving that day. I was going to Germany, the Friendly Giantess was going home, and my roommate and his girlfriend was going to HIS home. We said our goodbyes, and the Giantess and I went out for dinner, with this guy known as Schoolmate (because he didn't regard us as his friends T.T). We (Schoolmate and I) had one last Canadian beer, talked about Portugal or something, and went home to prepare for the long flight.

  When we got back, my Hermano and his girlfriend was already home. One month has passed, not really, their flight was cancelled. They told us that due to the foggy weather, many flights were cancelled. We checked and pretty much all flights that day were cancelled, except ours. We got our stuff, we picked up Schoolmate, checked in and all those shindig. 

  When we got in, there was a guy doing a survey. He asked what was our relationship. We were all awkwardly quiet for awhile, but then as I was about to say 'we're friends', he said "we're schoolmates" (thus the name). So Schoolmate is forever Schoolmate. If you're reading this SCHOOLMATE, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, hej!

  All 3 of us were taking the same flight to Heathrow, that's where we split up and fly to our respective places. I barely had any sleep in my 5 hours flight, but I did watch Mr Robot though. The flight from Heathrow to Frankfurt was only an hour or so, and I slept throughout the flight. 

  My couchsurf host was there to pick me up at the Frankfurt airport (how nice of him!). We took my stuff to his place, and then we walked around the city. My first day wasn't very interesting (for you), but it was for me, because it was one of the biggest challenge I faced during my vacation, which was trying to stay awake without looking disinterested. At night, he brought me to his friend's house party. I spoke most with this guy who barely speaks any English. 75% of the night was just me speaking broken German, as he replied in broken English. That night basically cemented my habit of saying "schön" to everything, for the rest of the trip. 

  That night was the 'Night of the Museums', where you can buy 1 ticket that allows admission to all of Frankfurt's museums, and the museums will be opened until 2am. But alas, poor Jerry, he was too tired to go out that night, and frankfurtly, he almost fell asleep multiple times during the party, so he and his host went back and he finally took a well-deserved sleep.

  I woke up 12 hours later, and my host already prepared breakfast for us. I don't know what Frischkäse is, but it was really really good, and is now my favourite cheese.

Figure 10.1: Top to bottom, Flatbread, tomatoes, some olive oil thing, Frischkäse, butter, cheese, feta cheese, cheese and honey

  Today, we took the train to Darmstadt, a little city south of Frankfurt, to meet up with his friends in a Spielhaus. I met his friends there, they were all international students, they were all very nice. Germany may be the hub for board games, but as we arrived there, we encountered a complication: all the instructions and manuals are in German. None of us are fluent enough to explain the rules, so we ended playing with playing cards. 

  The next day, we met up with another couchsurfer. We practically spent our entire day in Goethe-Haus. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived an extremely luxurious life. Not gonna spoil anything here, its extremely worth going. Fun fact: Goethe's mom's favourite drink was hot chocolate. Many of the other museums were closed because museums in Germany do not open on a Monday, so we were pretty lucky with Goethe-Haus. 

  We then had dinner, and went back to my host's place to watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones. I know nothing, so I was quite annoying during the show (who's this? Who's that?), but luckily, the other surfer was very excited, and does not hesitate on explaining what is going on. We watched for 3 mins, and then he paused the show for the next 5 minute, explaining to us the backstory of the scene. This went on for the rest of the show. 

  The next day was the day I left Frankfurt, onward to Ingolstadt. That was my first time coming to Germany, and also my first time couchsurfing. It was an amazing experience, the people are rather helpful and I would absolutely recommend couchsurfing to people. My host taught me everything I need to know about Germany, it's dining ethics, how Deutsche Bahn works (which really really really helped, as I rely heavily on it), and showed me how nice people can be. Also I had a dream about Emperor Palpatine, I actually didn't, but I just threw that in there to make my title relevant. Here are some photos of my Frankfurt-Darmstadt trip.

Figure 10.2: Frankfurt

Figure 10.3

Figure 10.4: Darmstadt

Figure 10.5

Figure 10.6: Fisch mit Grüne Soße

Figure 10.7

Figure 10.8: Hauptbahnhof

Figure 10.9