Day at Statbergersee 16.06.2013

Lost count of what blog this is sorry.

So I was supposed to take a trip today with the Goethe Institut to I believe Salsburg, in which we were going to take a tour and a 15 km hike around but it was apparently thunder-storming and "too dangerous". The leader of the trip quickly abandoned us so we just decided to make a day trip to the Statbergersee in to the southeast of Munich. It was quick and easy and easy to get there and if the rain came down on us we could easily be back via metro in 30 minutes. We got there 30 minutes later and it was definitely the nicest day (weather wise) since I've been in Munich. Anyway, we just started to explore and in what seemed like a heavily Italian-influenced area or what the Italians that were with me said "not-so-Italian-influenced" area. It was filled with even more gelato shops then usual and fresh seafood served "sea-side", it's a giant freshwater lake but Bavarians

love the ocean that they don't have. So we walked down the shore of the lake for a while until we found a clearing that had a dock at the end with a few people tanning on it. We decided to head on the dock just to take pictures but ended up spending about 2 hours there as people took off there shoes and enjoyed the lethally-cold water. Yeah some of us jumped in, yeah I jumped, YOLO. By the time we left to go grab a gelato I realized the clearing was full of people tanning and pretending they were at the beach as much as possible. Any way after the gelato and a lot of pictures we returned to the city around mid-day and split up. I once again walked through the streets to enjoy the continuing sights and sounds of the Munich's birthday festival. Once I was a little tired, I returned to my room to tke an hour nap and then had by far the most delicious dinner so far at the infamous Hofbrahaus. Afterward, I enjoyed some music, still playing at the birthday fest. Great day!!

06.15.2013 (Week of June 10)

                                                    Monoptreus in Englischgarten

                                                    Englischgarten

                                                   Protest in Marienplatz

                                                    Protest contd.

                                                   Munich Birthday Festival Marienplatz

                                                    Marienplatz contd.

                                                   Marienplatz contd.

                                                   How i spent the day

                                                   Gotta Love Beer

                                                    Dudes in Laderhosen

                         Where the regulars at the Hofbrauhaus keep their personalized Beer glasses

                                              Entertainment there

                                                     Munich Birthday Celebration in Odeonplatz

                                                    More Birthday Celebration in Hirschgarten

                                                    Hirschgarten contd.

                                                    Biergarten @ Hirschgarten

                                                     My dinner

So I haven't posted all week but that is because I really have not taken pictures all week/done anything that interesting. In general the majority of my week consisted of homework, working out, and class but I'll give you the breakdown of my week anyway, I think my last post was Monday so I'll start with Tuesday:

Tuesday- It was another all-day-rain and way to cold for June day so I beside spending sometime exploring through some basic parts of the city nothing was really done.

Wednesday- The sun finally came out after two consecutive rainy days to bring another one of those beautiful days in Bavaria that just makes you love your life that much more. I decided to explore through the Englischergarten near the University side of the city. I haven't spent much here and I heard they had a great Biergarten so I decided to go through there and read. I did not find the Biergarten but I was able to find a beer and just decided to read on this great spot I found in the garden as I heard jazz bands practice in the distance for the weekends's festivities. Pictures below.

Thursday- Another great weather in the park, so naturally I had to find a Biergarten. If you don't know what a Biergarten is, it is a typical custom in Germany for their parks or restaurants to have areas called a Biergarten in which is usually located in areas with enormous amounts of shade. These areas depend on the location and can hold from 200 to 2.000 people with plenty of tables and benches. Here usually typical Bavarian food is offered and of course, Beer. As much of you can think of and probably a barrel more. The second the weather turns as nice as it is now, Germans speed to these areas and just guzzle beer down as they have pretzels, ribs, or sausages to accompany the beer. This is a place for Germans to socialize or just unwind after work with delicious beer and food. Pictures below. After this beautiful afternoon the Institut was hosting a soccer game right there so I decided to join and ended up playing for three hours with some randoms and it turned into a great evening.

Friday - Friday was once again cold and a little rainy so after my usual routine of class and work outs I decided to just grab dinner and then watch a movie, in German. I saw After Earth and although it was dubbed in German I still roughly followed along and my verdict on the movie: it was not good. Maybe it was because it was in German, maybe it was because Willow Smith is not the best actor, or maybe its the previous two reasons combined. Anyway on a side-note, they sell beer at the Movie Theater, who would have thought. 

Saturday- Finally catching up today, Munich celebrated its 855th birthday so naturally, there was a lot of beer. And a lot more! Starting from Karlsplatz (Stachus) leading to Odeonplatz, which is about 3-5 kilometers distance, many different booths, stands, and stages were set up over night. This two day festival lasting Saturday and Sunday attracts many tourists as well as non-tourists to see many different kinds of musical acts on stage meanwhile of enjoying a crisp, cool beer in the beautiful yet hot weather, Many booths were set up of people selling traditional Bavarian trinkets and handcrafted pieces of art. Along with that of course many crepe stands as well wurst stands were wheeled in to provide the food. To top it all off, if you own your pair of laderhosen you were definitely stunntin it around Munich this weekend. The beautiful weather making its clutch appearance as well as the amount of people having a great time lead to great afternoon. After walking through this festival I explored a little further and found corners of the city I havent seen so far and ran into the internally famous Hofbrauhaus and an awesome market selling fresh seafood and vegetables was filled with people as well as a large Biergarten filled with beer. I had plan to spend my evening in the Hofbrauhaus but after I realized I locked myself out of my room and other complications I ended up in the Hirschgarten Biergarten near home.

That's my week! Sorry it's so long but here's the best part:

Day 5 10.06.2013

Did not do much on this rainy Monday but had the usual class and workouts routine and decided to do some shopping for my family. I walked through Stachus and Marienplatz which are definitely the most populated areas of the Munich and my favorite. These two areas are full of great stores with a very large price range that attracts all kinds of spenders. Here all kinds of German is spoken so I am to hear the most and absorb the most German culture/language I can. The area is also littered with very pricey but worth it restaurants, bakeries, and bars that are delicious! I went to a restaurant/bar called zum Spöckmeier. I had a huge but tasty Beef Straganohf(weird spelling sorry) with a delicious liter of Munich-brewed beer which is honestly the best I have ever had. The restaurant was pricey but it was a lot of food and beer and I am still full six hours later. Here are some pics as usual.

Day 4 Saturday 08.06.2013

Today was a short day but I was able to catch up on some sleep and just decided to spend the day at the zoo (Tierpark). I spent all day looking through the exhibits but I can't say it was anything special especially since some exhibits were closed or under repair which was a shame. After the zoo at around 18:00 I grabbed some dinner and went back to the room. I had been feeling sick all day probably because of the sudden change in weather to a very hot, dry Bavarian day. Here are some pictures from today: