Octoberfest!

Well needless to say Octoberfest is amazing. It is hard to get in to a beer tent if you want to see the parade but you can still get a liter somewhere. Tomorrow we're doing it again and I'm sure we'll have just as much fun. We waited in line for 2 hours at one piont and got our necks burned to find out waiting was a lost cause. We did end up finding a tent and a place to sit thanks to a nice guy who said we could sit for an hour. His wife wasn't happy but we were. Now we feel spoiled at our hotel after the hostel and we're pumped for both tomorrows festivities and our upcoming farm placement! Pictures are coming that will provide a good visual image of our first week!
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Day in Salzburg

Today was a lovely day. We got up early and took the train from Munich to Salzburg, Austria and spent the day there. Salzburg is a beautiful city. We did a little hike up to the fortress above the city, from which there were some breathtaking views of the city and of the mountains. Then we pretty much just wandered for the afternoon until it was time to come back. We didn't get a chance to do any of the Mozart museums because they were a bit too expensive so that was too bad but we had fun window shopping and checking out some cathedrals. Had some wursts and sauerkraut for lunch and apfel streudel for dessert!

Some random observations: It's pretty amazing how prevalent both beer and cigarettes are here! They sell beer on the train and all over in the streets, though we've been hard-pressed to find a diet coke! And everyone smokes. Everyone. That's the one thing we haven't liked; all the restaurants are smoky.
We've also been pretty impressed by how environmentally-friendly they are here. There are separate recycling bins for paper, plastic, etc all over the city and on the train rides we noticed that in the country some of the houses and most of the farms have solar panels on the roof! That's pretty cool.
We also saw graffiti that had George Bush's face and the word LIAR in Salzburg today.
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Thursday-Donnerstag

Today was both exciting and deppressing. On top of our usual trips to a beer hall and walking we went to Dracheu which was the biggest concentration camp made. I don't know if I could ever express what it felt like to be there. The train stop that we got off was the same station that all other prisoners got off and we walked the same route as they did. We were goin to go to a movie at the memorial meuseum but we had had enough by the time the showing was. There's nothing else I can say besides how horrific of an event this was and how unimaginable it was.
Tomorrow we are going to Salzburg for the day so get excited for that post!
As far as the food... We've been eating a lot meat, beer (which can be purchased by the liter), and lots of pretzles.
Also, we'd like to mention how great or bags have been already. So thanks to Cathy (mother in law) and Ali (great friend) for helping us with that.
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Die Alpen

Our first venture into the Alps today - just breathtaking, even on a foggy day. It really feels like being in a fairy tale in these tiny red-roof villages in the clouds. We visited Neuschwanstein Castle which is spectacular. Try googling it for pictures; it was actually the inspiration for the castle at the Magic Kingdom!
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Guten tag vom Munchen!

Today was our first full day in Munich. It was great; the city is beautiful. We did a (free!) walking tour that was wonderful so now we feel like we know our way around a little better. One of the most fascinating parts of the tour was hearing about which things had and hadn't bee rebuilt after WW2. Only 2% of the buildings here were unharmed during the war so a lot of the city looks pretty new. I was disappointed about that at first because I like my European cities to look old and feel like they're full of history; but of course the very fact that much of this city doesn't look particularly old is an important record of its history. We also toured the Residenz, which was the palace of the Bavarian kings for about 800 years. We went to a beerhall which was a fun place to listen to live music, drink local brews, and eat sixteen-inch pretzels with five hundred other people. We had a good time hanging out there, especially since it was really cold and rainy today. We're getting a little more confident about trying out the language and Ed remembers a lot more than he expected to. My favorite word of the day was Munchnerkindel - someone who has lived in Munich their whole life. Try saying it, it's fun!
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