Since the weather was really nice today I decided to walk around and see a section of Munich that I haven’t seen yet. We’ve had a huge storm blowing through Germany earlier this week, but yesterday and today have had beautiful weather. I went to the east bank of the Isar River and found almost all the sites that I had looked up and written down earlier. I took the U-Bahn to the East side of the river and got out at Max-Weber Platz. From there I walked west towards the river. The first sight I had planned was Maximilianeum, the seat of the Bavarian government. It’s in a huge walled enclosure and the building towered over the rest of the street. I walked along Maximiliansbrücke (Maximilian’s Bridge), which had a few cool statues. Halfway along ... read more

Schloß Neuschwanstein is one of the many castles built by King Ludwig II during his reign. King Ludwig II is known also as the “fairy tale king”, because of this and the many other castles he built. Neuschwanstein was unfortunately never finished. Before the castle could be finished Ludwig was forced to abdicate by the members of government, because he was so deep in debt from building so many castles. The very next morning after arriving in Munich, he was found drowned in the Starnbergersee (where I went last weekend!). The circumstances of his death are still a mystery. Neuschwanstein is only one kilometer away from another castle called Schloß Hohenschwangau, which we were also able to see. Neuschwanstein is the castle that Walt Disney modeled the castle in Sleeping Beauty and the Disneyland castle after. ... read more

So I'm finally in Prague. The ride here actually wasn't bad at all. I took a bus with Autobus Oberbayern, it was an amazing deal and I would recommend the company. The ride was only 6 hours from Munich and I got an awesome seat on the bus with a great view. It was a double decker bus and since I got there really early I got a seat on the top of the bus right in the front so I could see out the top windshield. I couldn't sleep on the bus, as usual, but the trip went really well. The countryside the whole way there was really beautiful. We passed a lot of beautiful small towns, rivers, and then through a few Czech towns. Crossing the border into the Czech Republic was just like ... read more

We had a really great day today in Vienna. Our bus left at 6am so I got up at 4am to catch the U Bahn so I could make it on time. Some of the people who went stayed out all night Friday drinking and partying and came straight to the bus. I don't know how they did it, because I couldn't tour a city drunk. The bus ride was 6 hours and we stopped halfway in a small town in the Alps. Our bus was a double decker and all of the students with us had the top section reserved. And since we drove next to the Alps all day we had an awesome view. The rest area we stopped at was really cool. It was a hotel with an awesome breakfast dining room with ... read more

October 11, 2010 It's been a stressful day, but I got a lot done. I had classes at noon so this morning I went grocery shopping since I moved into my new place. I still need to get some bowls and other silverware, but I'm ok for now. After class I went to the gym, then I took all my clothes to the laundry mat and got that done. Tomorrow I'm meeting everyone to decide which museums we're going to see on Saturday night. In case I didn't already explain, we're going to Die Lange Nacht der Münchner Museen, which is a local special deal type thing here in Munich. We pay 15 euro up front for a ticket, then from 7pm to 2am we have a bus that takes us to any of the 90 ... read more