Schnitzel and Schwarzwald!

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FRIEBURG, GERMANY
Elizabeth Watkins and I began our final leg of the European adventure after an early morning flight from Madrid to Frankfurt. We went directly to the train station to head to Frieburg, where we planned on hiking in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). Conveniently I had misplaced every important paper that we would need for the next two weeks: hostel bookings, a few train reservations,etc. The good thing was, we actually found a cheaper route than we had reserved on the internet, and discovered that up to 5 people can travel for one, combined, ridiculously low price, usually around 29 euro. The trick is to take the regional trains. It requires many switches, and takes a couple hours longer but beats the 40-60 euro / person!

We didn't really start missing those "important papers" until we got into Frieburg. With a closed tourist office, closed internet cafes, no map, and no address... we cluelessly wandered around a couple hours. The guilt from losing the papers was getting as heavy as the luggage we were hauling around. I finally asked a nice lad sitting next to us at the tram station if he knew where it was. Like everyone else, he replied that he wasn't sure, but went on to say he could use his friend's computer and find out! We had brought a cell phone we were using in Spain, so he texted us the address very promptly! Everyone in this little town was so nice, we called them the friendly fried-burgers. The town itself is quaint mixture of modern stores amidst its old architecture, including the Freiburg Münster medieval cathedral. I felt extremely safe the whole visit.

That night we hit the town... meaning we filled ourselves full of schnitzel and local "bier" (Furstenburg) and went straight to bed. Although schnitzel is traditionally an Austrian dish, it seemed to be the local favorite. Germany was going to nourish and rightfully plumpen my lightly mediterranean-cuisined stomach of Spain.

Our hostel charged us 3 euro for linen, so we opted to sleep without it. We had to cut costs somewhere to afford the crazy lives we were leading. Unfolded, my turban from Morocco sufficed as a nice small blue sheet. The only downside was the strange herbal /tagine spice odors clinging to it...

The next morning we hit the grocery store, and each got a huge chunk of bread, or should I say, wad of birdseed. We tossed these and a couple pieces of fruit and water into my versatile turban that was now serving as a backpack. (Since both of ours were stolen in Malaga.) The way I had it wrapped around me looked like I was carrying an oddly contorted baby on my back, so I was a little embarrased when we ran into our friendly fried-burger from the day before.

We took a cable car up to Mount Schauinsland, and started hiking for hours. It was raining the majority of the hike, so we found it rather mossy and sluggy. 21 slugs to be exact, 15 black, 3 orange, 2 brown, 1 green. + 1 snail. I was duly impressed with their camo abilities, Watkins really had a great eye for them. We came out of the forest in a small town that didn't quite look like the Frieburg we had left...we had ended up having to take a train a couple stops down.

I coupled my sherry sauce snitzel that night with spätzle, a dumpling pasta.

MüNCHEN, DEUTSCHLAND... DAY TRIP!
We left for Munich the next morning, the Frieburg streets as friendly at a dark 5 am. as they were the day before. We stored our luggage at the train station. Might I just add here that I had luckily been able to send my main big bag home with another student directly from Spain, but Elizabeth had not had such luck. She had already shipped home much of its contents, but Fat Freddy, her bulky rectangular suitcase was our enemy from day one of travel.

The churches in Munich were quite a change from the churches in Spain. Instead of the huge, intricate gold altarpieces being so dusty that the churches seemed dark, the walls in Bavaria had more whites and gentle pastels, seeming more open and friendly. The Frauenkirche (Cathedral of our Blessed Lady) contained the tomb of the Emperor Louis IV. The Michaelskirchena and Peterskirche were beautiful as well.

At the food market Viktualienmarkt, we finally ate a German bratwurst before making our way to the famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. I did not realize how large my beer was going to be, but I noticed someone laughing and taking a picture as my skinny little arm struggled the mug to my lips. Watkins enjoyed the Radler, half bier, half lemonade, a popular choice. We ordered a Bavarian platter of different meat spreads, and gorged on thick pretzels. A friendly old man named Edmund came and sat at our table, explaining that Munich was indeed the best city in the world. We toasted"Prost" and learned that the R in the german language is always very soft, and only spoken to prepare for the following letter. One thing Watkins and I noticed was that we found the German language quite pleasant to listen to as opposed to our original stereotypes. It would be a fun language to learn.

We learned valuable information from Edmund such as a recommendation for RitterSport chocolate, and the Deutches museum. We arrived there after closing hours, and I was quite sad, because it sounded awesome - the world's largest museum of technology and science.

We managed to walk around the city enough to get lost and have the cutest little german boy on a bike, with a matching cute accent point us back in the right direction. We wandered through the English Gardens, which Edmund was bragging as better than London's Hyde Park. It is very green and open, with water running through. We saw a great fluffy dog bouncing along.

We definitely went through Munich like a storm. I would love to go back someday and see all the many things it still had to offer!

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