Time for another blog, not quite as dramatic as my last few, but one just to let everyone know some of the more interesting things I've been up to.
-OKTOBERFEST, that's right
Oktoberfest 2007 has come and gone, and I was there! I made it up to Munich about 5 times to go to the fest and had a great time. I ate 2 whole grilled chickens, the spike-grilled fish, a few giant pretzels, lots of candied almonds, and who knows how many Maßen of sweet, sweet Oktoberfest specialty beers from the 14 awesomely decorated tents from the various Munich breweries. I tried to do the swing-over-the-bar swing and almost but didn't quite make it. I rode the ferris-wheel, and Whit and I checked out the mouse-circus and laughed our butts off.
VanSickle and see
Sabrina took me the first day, I got a pipe as a souvenir, and then we went to see
Daywatch and the next day I went back and then finally got to see
HarryPotter 5. Despite both being awesome films, it is a struggle to stay awake after a couple Maßen. While there I also saw an advertisement for and went and found an awesome
ENGLISH second-hand bookstore, from which I has acquired another David Brooks books (score!).
-Recently, I had to go to
Murnau for a doctor visit and saw an advertisement and, long story short, Ann, Lauren, Hannah, and myself went the annual Murnau KunstNACHT (art night). They released hundreds of Chinese hot air balloons into the sky after sunset. Then there was a fashion show out on the marienplatz, a ballet demonstration, a Japanese drumming group, and 12 bands in 12 bars. The best one we saw was
a rockabilly band (in Bavaria, who would have guessed!) that a bunch of people came to see and swing dance to. I chatted one of the better dancers up and, long story short, I'm going to be taking
lessons in Munich in November to learn the
balboa bal-swing.
-A couple weeks ago, I decided it to go visit the fairy-tale
Black Forest and pay the Boettigers another visit on my weekend. I made it over to the town of
Triberg, home of Germany's highest waterfalls, right in the middle of the
Schwarzwald. The Black Forest is gorgeous, easily the most beautiful woods I've ever seen – I can totally understand why fairy-tales are set there. It is incredibly green and thick with trees and is made up of high hills with drastically sudden and steep valleys and ravines. Plus there are cuckoo-clock shops everywhere. I hiked around the falls before going and picking up a birthday present for my mom at the
House of 1000 Clocks. Then I drove over to Tübingen and stayed the night with the Boettigers - seriously, they are the best. It is like having another set of parents right here in Germany that I can go visit. The next day they referred me to
Burg Hohenzollern castle outside of the town of
Hechingen. It is a masterpiece of defense - the mountain it is on is too steep for most attacking equipment and the entrance into the castle goes through 9 gates and entrance-ways that twist around on themselves as they ascend so that at each gate attackers would be bottled in the entrance-way completely vulnerable to the positions above. It reminded me a lot of
Stirling Castle in Scotland, one of my other favorite places that I have visited.
