Jared's Official Review of Deutschland

Germany. Lets see here. Everyone is tall, churches are old and pretty, Brent's roommates are cool, Christmas markets are festive, hostels are a throwback to college dorming days, it's colder than I thought it would be, form does not follow function when it comes to shoes, trains are fast, and pork is what's for dinner.

I've been having a great time hanging out with Brent and seeing the sights. We spent 4 days in Munster, where I rented the requisite bike and checked out the town, visited the Christmas markets, and drank some Gluwine (hot spiced wine). We celebrated Hendrik's (one of Brents roommates) birthday on Dec. 20 with a party, which was fun. All of Brent's roommates speak english, so I was able to make some new friends.

After that, we hopped a train to Munich and checked in to my first ever hostel experience. We had a 5 good days of sightseeing and eating and drinking. Met some fun Australians, and had some good roommates, some really crappy roommates, and one superstar snoring roommate (other than Brent!).

We did a day trip to the more mountainous Salzberg, Austria and saw a good many historical castles, churches, and buildings. My favorite part was a long walk we took through the woods, following signs that had a little beer mug on them.  After a while, we found a cool little beer hall that use to be monastery. It seemed very authentic, and not at all touristy, which I tend to be a bit jaded about these days.

We then took the train to Nurnberg for a 3 day stay. Here we did a bit more relaxing, and better roommates allowed us to catch up on some sleep. We saw the German Historical Museum, which was huge, and had a cool musical instrument exhibit that I enjoyed.

I feel a bit like I skipped Christmas this year. Brent and I spent our Christmas munching on potatoes and schnitzel, drinking beer, and playing pool in a bar with a bunch of Australians. Happy Birthday Jesus!

We are now back in Munster to properly celebrate New Years, and I leave for Italy on the 2nd. I'm really looking forward to it, and will be taking things pretty easy I think so I don't run out of travel juice before the end. I say this in light of the fact that our last 8 days of travel kind of wore me out, and I have 19 more days to go! I know, you feel sorry for me, right?

So I'll say, Happy New Year! And I'll see all you Ohio folk in about 3 weeks. Go Buckeyes!

Blogger is giving me a hard time uploading pictures, so this is all you get!

Bike rack at the train station.  None are abandoned.

No smoking allowed on the trains, but picking your nose is required.

One of many pretty old churches in Munich.

Enjoying some gluwine at the Munich Christmas Market.

Our colorful hostel room in Nurnberg.

Mmmmmm...

I'm Outta Here

I'm leaving tomorrow for good ol' Pataskala, a short 2 days stay, then LOOK OUT, there'll be 2 Witherses in Deutschland. Bier and Munster cheese to be had. Then after new years, I'm off to Italy to see what kind of trouble I can get into. Then back to Ohio for a few weeks before returning to the upper 1. Should be a fun time.

Cheri, a college friend of mine, came on up to visit for my last week here and has made it a lot of fun. I gave her the disclaimer about it being cold and dark and empty this time of year, but she came anyway. We went downhill skiing for a day and XC skiing for a day and then came back to the park so I could wrap things up. She keeps organizing things around my cabin without warning. I couldn't find my silverware because she put it in the silverware drawer (it's usually in the drying rack). We both fly out at 1AM on Thursday, so we are driving down to Anchorage tomorrow.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll see some of you soon!

The neat effects of low sun angle.

Sunrise on Denali.
Cheri and I XC skiing at Hatcher Pass.

She must have been going 30.