Essen -- Essen What?

Just a heads up... This is a photo-intensive blog-post! :)

So we took the train yesterday from Munich to Essen, and it might have been the nicest train I've ever been on! The seats were comfortable, there were little displays over your seats telling the conductor where you got on and where you were getting off, and last but by far not least, there was a power plug at each seat!

This meant that during our 5 1/2 hour train ride, we got to watch a movie on my laptop. That was of course, after we got it to work again. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my laptop broke. Something is wrong with it, and on the train, the only way I could get it to work was by smashing it on the floor. Needless to say, the couple sitting opposite us on the train stared at us a lot as I continually dropped my laptop from about a 1/2 foot from the ground! ö

So Jenna and I enjoyed V for Vendetta during the train, which was fun. Neither of us had time to watch any tv, let alone movies up until this part of the trip.

Once we got to Essen, we found Matt Schröeder waiting for us at the platform. We jumped in his car (it looks like a little German taxi!) and headed to the Schröeder home.

When we got there, we met Mrs. Schroder, and saw his house, and even met his dad who came home from work just to meet us.. They all thought it was funny to "arrest" the American.. ;)

Matt started telling us all about what he had planned for our stay. It was quite elaborate! We started by going to a German club the first night, which was a lot of fun. It was an abandoned factory.

We got back to his house around 2am and headed to bed, as he had another big day planned for us the next day.

When we woke up, we went and visited this gas tower which people can go inside (www.gasometer.de) and went to the biggest shopping mall in all of Europe. It was fun. We found the Jagermeister store, and met up with one of Matias' friends too!

(The Gasometer from the inside looking up!)

We returned to his house for lunch where we ate some of the codfish that his dad caught during his yearly fishing trip to Denmark! We also finally got to meet his brother, Martin. Although he barely spoke at all, it was nice finally meeting him.

After lunch, we continued by going to an abandoned coal mine that had been turned into this huge public park / art gallery.. I didn't think it would be that cool... Boy was I wrong.. We walked around the coal mine for a good couple hours, took lots of cool pictures, and even found a break in the fence where we could go into this building!


After all this, as we walked back to the entrance, Matt mentioned that there was a Dunkin Donuts in his town... Immediately, we were all craving iced coffees and iced lattes! So this became our new destination.. When we finally got them, Matias wanted me to get a McDonald's hamburger.. I don't know why.. But I think it was to complete my image as a "fat american who eats only McDonalds".. So I did, and we got a picture of me; in an "American's" glory.. with my Dunkin Donuts in one hand, and my McDonalds in the other!!

After all this, we headed back to Matt's house to get ready to go out that night. Matias had us going to this strip of bars outside the mall we had been to earlier. All I can say about them is that they were AWESOME!! I had this drink called the Oriental Dream which was absolutely amazing! It tasted like some Hawaiian fruit cocktail, but supposedly had a lot of alcohol too! After a long while at that bar, we moved down a few bars to this bar where Matias wanted me to try a Mai Tai. I did, and wow. There was sooo much alcohol in that drink!

It wasn't long before Matias and I were both trying to sing the United States National Anthem.. Oh man.. Needless to say, we had a great time out that night!

OKTOBERFEST... One more time!!

So, we survived Oktoberfest, though I don't know how!

Yesterday, Jenna and I decided to do a little (emphasis on little) sight-seeing. It consisted of getting off the subway at a stop (Odeonsplatz) and walking to the next stop (Marienplatz). We passed a couple famous brew houses, the once-royal palace, a Starbucks which we got drinks at (thank you globalization!) and a very angry German man yelling and flicking off a slightly enraged driver!

At that point, we figured we had seen enough and that the only logical thing to do would be continue to Oktoberfest and start drinking.. So that's exactly what we did.

We got to our normal tent (Haufbrauhaus - on left) and found my favorite waitress (Tina). We ended up at a table with 6 guys from Munich on our end of the table. They were all flight attendants, so they spoke english which was nice. I finally found out what the story of my favorite German drinking song is.

Listen/Download here - Sportfreunde Stiller

It's a song about how they thought they were going to win the world cup in 2006, but now they know they are going to win in 2010.

But everytime that came on in the beer tent, everyone went crazy singing it! It was as if Sweet Caroline came on in a Boston bar..

We had a great time, drinking, making new friends from all over the world, and singing tons of songs. Needless to say, time flys when you're having fun.. Before we knew it, it was 9:30. Jenna and I both left so we could try and find my friends who were supposed to meet us there, but had no luck.

One good thing that came out of last night, was the fact that Jenna and I somehow managed to get 3 more 1-liter drinking mugs out of the tent. All together, we made it out with 5!!

Now we are packing our things up and getting ready to check out of this beautiful hotel. Today's destination: Essen, Germany

Until later, Pröst!

OKTOBERFEST!!!

Munich, or München as they call it here, has been amazing so far!

Last night, we headed out to the party, which I understood to be a big tent, but come to find out, is more like a HUGE carnival, with about 15 beer tents that are about the size of a football field!

We found one we thought looked fun (no scientific method for determining level of fun, other than finding a lot of drunk people our age outside the tent) and went in. Inside was a completely different world.

Imagine a room, full of long tables, row after row, with thousands of Germans standing on their benches, holding 1-liter glasses (or steins as they call them here) rocking back and forth, cheersing eachother, while singing along to German drinking songs. That was what our eyes met as we walked through the doors. I was soooooooo excited!

We walked around for a little while unsure of how to get beer. Women were walking around carrying sometimes as many as 10 liter-glasses around but they were all being taken somewhere. It took us one whole walk around the inside before we got the courage to ask someone how we get beer. She told us we had to be at a table to beer served, so she brought us to the closest table, and told us to just stand at the end, and that she'd be right back with two beers..

By the time she came back (about 2 minutes), the people at the table had told us to get up on the benches along with them and start singing and dancing. Then, when our beer finally came, we were in heaven.. Having a blast, drinking, singing, and dancing..

We went table to table for a while, found some cool Australian friends, some kids from California, and some from right here in Munich. I was drunk after my second beer. Keep in mind though that each beer is 1 liter is just over 2 pints, and that german beer is stronger than american beer!

When we left the beer hall, I took a glass with me (on right..), and somehow got it past the security guards that were frisking people. They took Jenna's from her. Oops. I was hungry, so we headed over to a food stand and I ordered a half chicken. It was so good. At one point, some girl came over and just started talking to me in German and taking some of my chicken! I didn't know what was going on, but I just kept on smiling..

We met up with some kids while I was eating my chicken from New Zealand. They were a lot of fun, but sadly were leaving the next day.. Oh well! I think I'm going to go back to sleep now.

Arriving in Munich, Germany

So today, after another train ride from hell, we arrived in Munich Germany. While the train ride had potential to be exciting, as it was Jenna's birthday at midnight, and we had alcohol with us, we were to exhausted to do anything, so we started to doze off. We had to share a compartment with 2 other semi-sketchy old guys, but it wasn't the worst. After I fell asleep, it seemed like every 15 minutes i would wake up, and check my watch, and look around. I was antsy, and I couldn't get any good sleep. Finally around 4 am, I stopped trying. I just sat there and waited for our stop in Munich at 6:30am.

When we arrived in Munich, I was exhausted from 3 nights of terrible sleep on trains, not eating well, and not knowing how to speak German.. Things were looking pretty bad. So we went to the information booth and asked if they knew where our hotel was. Luckily, practically every german knows a little English.. ;) She told us how to get there by subway, so we headed on our way. The subways in Munich are very clean, but some of the cars are really old. And for some reason, no one has to pay to use them! We got to our stop, and walked toward the hotel.. It looked like paradise!

We got inside and they said our room was ready, we marched upstairs, only to find the MOST comfortable beds in the world, with down comforters and amazing feeling sheets.. We decided to go down and use the gym, try out the saunas, and then sleep from 9am till whenever we woke up.. And that is exactly what we did.

We woke up about an hour ago at 5:30 pm. We've just finished showering, changing, and getting ready and now are about to head off for the Oktoberfest Festival... Munich, here I come!!!

A diamond in the rough!!

Scilla, Italy - Sept 17th
Today was our last day down in Reggio de Calabria, and one of Jenna's cousins, Enzo, said he would take us to the beach! So we hopped in his car and went for a 20 minute ride to this small town called Scilla. Only one word can describe this town, Beautiful!

We swam and sun bathed while Enzo went spear fishing! He was crazy. All decked out with his wet suit, weights, flippers and spear. He was gone for about an hour while we lay there. After he came back, it had started to get cold as it was around 6:15pm, so we got in the car, and drove to a lookout in the city. Believe it or not, where I'm standing above the city is actually the center of town!! Below is just the part that caters to tourists. Oh, and when I say tourists, I mean Italian tourists! No Americans vacation here!!! This is where Italians go for vacation, and you could tell!


Here is a picture of myself, Jenna and Enzo in the train before we left Reggio for Rome..

Scilla, Italy

I just had to share this picture of the beach we went to. Words cannot describe it!
(I loved it sooo much I had to add it as a part of my blog page.. It is now the footer!)

Cannes, France.....Amazing

So we arrived in Cannes this morning around 8am. We got off the train, and were immediately lost. Not only did we not speak french, but we also didn't know where our hotel was.. Luckily, we found a map right outside of the train station that had our hotel listed on it.

As soon as we got to the hotel, we took a nap.. We were both exhausted from the train ride. The room was small, but nice.

After snoozing for a bit, we headed out for the beach, and oh what a beach it was....

The small streets were cool, the food places were great, and shops were even cooler. We went down to the beach and lay down for a bit soaking in the rays. It was beautiful.

Another day of travel :-/

Santander, Espana --> Cannes, France - Sept 10th
We left Santander at about 7:30 am on Sunday morning for Cannes, a small city on the southern shore of France (many celebs vacation there!!). The train ride was a 24-hour trip from hell... or so I thought.

It started with the world's longest local train ride from Santander to Venta de Banos which was in the middle of nowhere.. (pictured to the right). Then, we hopped on a train to Hendaya, France. That ride took until about 6pm, about six hours. Not too bad, just cramped in a train, the terrible part was yet to come. When we arrived in Hendaya, the language was now, for the first time, foreign.. French!
Although we were stressed over not knowing anything in French, all the train stations in France play the coolest noise whenever an announcement is made... It still rings in my head.
We finally got on our final leg of the trip in Hendaya.. an overnight ride to Cannes. This was the bad leg of the trip. Not only was the train absolutely packed, the seats in the French trains for some reason allow you to recline as far back as you like, so I had some random hippie-backpacker in my lap the whole night.. Not Comfortable! Add to that a loud black girl sitting behind me who refused to hang up her cell phone. She got so bad around 1am that someone went and got the conductor to make her hang up. She complied only until he left the car... :(

The trip so far...

Wow.. so I haven't been able to post at all because I haven't really had access to a computer long enough!! I figure this can't wait any longer! I want to tell you all everything I've experienced so far, but obviously there is not enough time to tell you everything about the last week!
So... I will give you a brief recap..

Send-off & Plane Ride - Sept 7th
I thought this would be terribly sad, but with my parent's calm composure, and my surreal feeling for the day, it was fine. Once at the airport, Jenna and I hung out with our parents for one last time... for the next 3 1/2 months anyways..
The plane ride was pleasant, but short. Here, I was thinking I would have a great 8-hour plane ride to sleep and dream about this new experience awaiting me, only to find out that the first 2 1/2 hours would be utter chaos while trying to get food, and spend our last remaining American dollars on as many alcoholic beverages as possible (i.e. as many times as the beverage cart came by..) We then dozed off for about 2 hours, only to be awoken for breakfast! An hour later, we arrived in Barajas International Airport in Madrid.. All I could think was, Wow, it has begun..

Madrid, Espana --> Santander, Espana - Sept 8th
When we got in the airport, it really hit hard when we approached customs and the guy just sat there and rambled on in Spanish.. I'm screwed!! Oh well, we grabbed our bags and headed off into Madrid.
Our first task was finding out how exactly we get to Santander.. We knew we had a Eurail Pass that we spent a crap load of money on, but no idea how to use it.. So we headed to the Chamartin Station in Madrid where our train would leave from. We took the subway there, which by the way is the cleanest subway in the world probably, only to arrive at the station, three levels below the main level with NO elevator!! I had to drag my two bags (about 40 lbs each) along with Jenna's two bags (about 70 lbs each (no joke.. she had to pay extra for both to go on the airplane!)) up three flights of stairs.. and these were not short flights!!
Once we got to the station, and bought our tickets, we started around Madrid..
We walked for about 4 hours around the city and then returned for our overnight train to Santander..








Santander, Espana - Sept 9th
The trip to Santander was fun. We saw a really cool castle on the way, and then started dozing off.. We woke up multiple times to find the train stopped at a station, sometimes for up to 45 minutes per station. Later, we found out that was so that the train, which only takes 5 hours to get to Santander, arrives at a decent hour, 7:30 am. Nothing was open!

We finally got in touch with Chema, the head of the English department at the school I'll be working at, so that he could come pick up our bags. He agreed to hold half our bags with him so we didn't have to drag them across Europe..

We explored Santander all day, and went out at night. I have fallen in love with my new city. It is everything I could have hoped for! We went out to an awesome Spanish club that night, and danced until 4am!! It's going to take some getting used to before that will feel normal!

I'll write more as soon as I get a chance! Today we were in Rome, but you'll find out about that soon enough!
I hope everyone is doing well! If you haven't already, send me your address to get a postcard!

Besitos,
Mateo