Germany

Germany
We were really excited to see Germany. We had two friends we were especially visiting, Joe and Dylan. So after a very long and uncomfortable sitting up overnight journey, we arrived at Stuggart at 4 in the morning, a bit tired. Joe was kind enough to pick us up in Stuggart with another friend from America, Kai. We saw the VW museum and other car and beer factories as well as a great futbol stadium. Around 6 in the morning we went to sleep until 1PM aka 13:00. Joe made us a huge German breakfast with delicious pasta with meat inside just boiled with another dish made with the same kind of pasta with fresh tomatoes and eggs mixed in. We also got German pretzels which are a little harder version of our soft pretzels. After that we saw Schwabisch Gmund where Joe lives. They have lots of beautiful old buildings and churches. Tall church towers, flowers in the streets, bakeries, ice cream shops, fresh fruit stands were plentiful. The city also had some midevil festivals going on, lots of music and costumes. We sat outside for a cold drink by an old palace that just looked like a doll house. From there we visited a German family that hosted Dylan a few years ago to join them to celebrate his birthday, but we couldn't say that because in German tradition that is bad luck if it is not actually the individuals birthday yet. Another tradition we learned is that we you say "Prost" it means cheers and you have to look deep into the eyes of the person you are cheering with or else you will have gay children (?), kind of weird but made us all laugh. The family we visited was awesome..they lived in a beautiful place with lots of land and animals. The dinner we had was delicious and a 4 course feast...every step as good or better as the one before. Our favorite dessert is fresh fruit and ice cream so we were very pleased. After a wonderful fun evening we drove 2.5 hours on the autobahn! to Munich where Dylan has his apartment, we got to begin celebrating his birthday before we even arrived. after a German beer and some good conversation we hit the sack once more. Dylan had class and we slept in a bit. Once we woke we toured Munich! We saw the city hall, the outside of some great museums, and the main square.  Munich is part of Bavaria which is a state in Germany where many German stereotypes are founded. Some of these we experienced. We walked in the English gardens and met some of Dylan's friends. Then we got a little caravan together, mostly students in the same program as Dylan and made  our way with a grill and bratwursts to the river where we took a very cool dip. The friends we made were from all over the US, from California, Ohio, New York, DC, another Michigander, Canada and more. We grilled, talked, drank, swam, and adventured through the woods stumbling upon an old naked man strolling proudly by the river along the paths. The weather we had in Germany was wonderful...blue skies and warm enough to wear shorts or dresses. Germans have a very structured system, all the way from metro schedules to recycling. The warmth,the flowers, the fresh bread, the alps, the old architecture, the hospitality and our friends (old and new) made this country an even greater experience than we had hoped