Before we knew it, it was 4 o'clock and we had to check into our hotel. Once again, we took the metro. We arrived to our stop which was Harras and a short walk later we had arrived to our hotel. We all passed out for about an hour in the hotel. Although the bed look ridiculously small and awkward, it was probably the warmest and coziest bed I've ever slept in. We ate dinner at some hole in the wall next door because we had no idea where else to go. By now, my friend Katie had contacted her friends Niels and Arne. They are German exchange students that she met at her high school in California. One of them lives in Munich and the other one drove two hours just to spend time with us over the weekend. They came to our hotel in Arne's freakishly small car and drove us back to Niels' flat. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not really sure why we went back to his flat. But it was really cool to meet his flatmates and see how young people live in Germany. This was also the moment when Niels said that we were going to take the metro to his sister's flat for a pre game. And all of us knew that we had forgotten something. We had to walk back to our hotel from the flat to get our dumb little metro ticket that no one ever checks for. We thought it's better safe than sorry and a half hour later, we were on the metro to God knows where.

I had no idea what to expect after meeting these boys. Could they understand me? Where are they taking us? And why do they keep speaking German to one another? I'm almost positive they were talking about us while we were standing right in front of them. But, both of them were very nice and outgoing. They seemed to know what they were doing, so I immediately felt comfortable traveling around with them. When we got to the pre game, all of us were a little apprehensive. But Niel's sister was very welcoming and we ended up staying there from 11 pm to 1 am. They gave us beer, which is way better than any other beer I've been given at a pre-game. I probably didn't appreciate the special German taste as much as I should have, but hey, at least I drank it! They played German music and we played American music. We found out that we know no German music and they know a lot of American music. We ended up played KINGS until we ran out of cards and interest. This was probably one of the most fun pre-games that I've ever been to. I would've been content going home right after this, however Germans like to stay up very late and party. Let's just say when we left that flat, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

A short bus ride later, I found myself in my first ever club. Who knew it would be in Munich, Germany of all place. It turned out to be a little different from how I expected it to be. The DJ was constantly shouting over the music and the majority of the songs were German. Random people kept coming up to us and trying to dance with us. However, Arne and Niels (being the polite guys they are) pulled us out of the awkward situation. Every time someone creepy would come up, one of them immediately grabbed my hands and started dancing with me, only to turn me around so their body was blocking the creeper away. Minus the weird people, it was a good time! We danced until someone decided it was time to go. By now, it was 4 a.m. and all of us realized we had a 10:45 a.m. three hour walking tour in the morning. We said goodbye to our new friends and headed back to our hotel. We slept for about 4 hours that night and then we woke up and headed back into town for the tour.

The tour was very interesting and free (the most important part). We learned about the Glockenspiel and at 11:00 am the Glockenspiel clock rang. Our tour guide said it was one of the top five most overrated tourist attractions in the world. But we watched the clock anyway. The cool thing about this clock is that there are moving figures that dance around on the clock tower and they tell an old German tale (sorry I've forgotten the story). From then on, we wandered throughout the city. I picked up some fun facts like when someone turns eighteen in Munich, the town hall sends them a letter inviting them to a massive party. Our tour guide said that all the kids get completely smashed at this party, but we asked Niels and Arne and they said it was more of a political gathering. We went back to the Habrauhaus and our tour guide told us that the "best beer" in town was actually at the beer hall down the street. I also got to see a street that Germans would take to avoid saluting Hitler's monument. This is when I realized that I was walking through history. Hitler started his Nazi movement in Munich and I was in silently freaking out. We could see bullet holes in the old buildings and the remains of plaques that were put up during the Holocaust.

After the tour, we ate a delicious little lunch. I got these cute brats with sauerkraut and mustard (it actually tasted a lot like the kind my mom makes).After lunch, the girls and I went for a wintery walk through the English Gardens. Since it's winter, we didn't see any surfers in the river. On the bright side, it started to warm up and we got to take some cute photos in the snow. We went to Starbucks to warm up from our walk and then we realized the boys had been trying to get a hold of us. Oops. They met us at Starbucks and we left shortly after to grab a bite for dinner. Niels' said he knew this really popular Turkish place, so I was quite excited because I've never tried it before. We went to the metro station and thats when the tragedy happened. The metro came and we all got on... Or so we thought. It just so happened that the doors closed before Kelsey and Arne could get on. It was like it all happened in slow motion: I locked eyes with Kelsey and I before I knew it, I was zooming away on the metro. Arne was the one that didn't live in Munich and he also didn't know where we were going. So naturally, I was freaking out. Niels was laughing hysterically saying it would be no big deal and called Arne to tell him where to get off. Within minutes we were reunited with them. Did I forget to mention that Arne's phone was at 2%. Our journey continued to the "famous" Turkish restaurant.
This is what we saw:

We all died laughing as Niels just looked at the restaurant in disbelief. The poor kid was starving. So, we set of in search of another restaurant that was actually opened. Arne said he wanted a "cozy" restaurant and I think we did pretty well here. Niels said it was traditional Bavarian which is the German state that we were in. The entire menu was in German which meant they had to translate it for us. They made us try this German drink that is a mix of apple juice and sparkling water. I ended up getting a salad with chicken, cucumbers, peppers, and some other stuff. There were even potatoes in it! After finishing my meal, I passed it to Arne because he was a bottomless pit and ate everyone's leftovers. We sat and talked for about two hours after eating. It was probably one of my favorite memories I will have of Germany. We talked about our majors, our futures, and the places we want to travel to. It was overwhelming. We had so much in common, yet we grew up with completely different lives. We all share the same passion for traveling and learning, but always carry the burden of deciding what we want to do for our career and what our path is. It was nice to have people interested in where I am going in my life. They were both very attractive as well which just made me even more flustered. Don't worry, I don't think they noticed.

After dinner, we hopped back on the metro and made our way back to the hotel. We talked outside the hotel for a few minutes, dreading the goodbyes. It was such a good weekend and I didn't want it to end yet. But we were exhausted and they had to study for finals. So, we hugged goodbye and I was surprised to hear Niels say that he would come and visit us in Rome while we're still here. The next morning, we went to the bakery across the street from our hotel for breakfast and then to St. Peter's Cathedral for mass. But we missed mass, so we prayed and sat in silence for a while. I couldn't stop staring at the beautiful art in the church. After mass, we walked around town one last time and eventually we got back on the metro to the airport. Our flight got delayed because there was a snowstorm, so we arrived in Rome around 6:00 p.m. Once we got home, the first thing we did was go out for pizza. Both the boys texted us and said that they're both coming Rome sometime soon, which is very exciting!!! I know this is a really long rambling post, but I had such a good weekend and it was honestly nothing I expected. I hope my next weekend trips are as good as this one, because all four of us can agree this was one of our best decisions.

Thank you for reading if you've gotten this far!!

Pictures from Munich------------------------------------------

Airplane Selfie

A very very old lady took this for us in the English Gardens. Well done!!

Our hotel gave us this cookie and we thought we could eat. It turned out to be nasty and when we asked Niels and Arne they said that those cookies are only for show and you aren't suppose to eat them. LOL Whoops..

Arne stole my camera at dinner

Already missing our German friends!!

This past week, I have been on a lot of tours around Rome. This Wednesday, we visited beautiful churches, the Pantheon, the Italian president's house, the Trevi Fountain, the Barberini palace, Piazza di Spagna which is also called the Spanish Steps, and the high-end shops surrounding it. I learned a lot about the history of these historical monuments and what they really mean.
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This past Saturday, we met at 9:00 a.m. to tour the Roman Forum and The Colosseum. The Roman Forum was first and I honestly had no idea what it was until we got there. Our tour guide was an archeology professor that was associated with our college. She was absolutely obsessed with this place. The Roman Forum includes the government buildings of ancient Rome. It was basically the meeting place for the Romans. All of the elections, speeches, and gladiatorial matches were held here. The Forum is located in a valley between these massive hills called The Palatine Hills and The Capitoline Hills. The Romans created the city within these hills in order to protect the city and it's people from war. We even got to see the center of Rome. Umbilicus Urbis translates to umbilical which then means it's the "bellybutton" of the town. Our professor was very excited to share this bit of information with us, but it was just kind of weird, but still interesting. This is where Roman leaders would stand for speeches in front of the Roman Republic. Along with these places, we also saw the senate house, the temples, government offices, memorials, and tons of statues. One of the temples was dedicated to a goddess named Vesta. She is known to be the goddess of family. Dedicating this temple to a woman was a big deal because women were not considered leaders. I also remember our professor saying that a woman managed majority of the city, which is also pretty amazing. We were able to walk through these caved secret pathways to the top of one of the hills. The Roman Forum just opened up the path about a month ago, so it was really cool to be one of the first ones going there. The Roman Forum was far more interesting than I thought it would be.
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Next, we went to the Colosseum. The first thing we learned about were the holes. The holes were used for the scaffeling in the Colosseum. Then we walked around the first floor and then the second floor of the Colosseum. Those steps are freaking steep! The poorest people had to sit at the very top of the Colosseum and the richest people got front row seats. The platform is mostly gone, so all that is left is the underground/backstage area which is the maze-like area in the center of the Colosseum.  I was constantly taking photos and trying to wrap my head around where I was standing. There's not much more to say about the Colosseum, it is simply beautiful and I cannot believe I had the chance the visit it!












Thank you for reading!

Meg