Enough of Eurotrip 2008... back to San Diego

So there wasn’t much internet access over the past few days of the trip. I’m now on the flight back to the U.S. from Munich. On our second day in Ulm, we got to sleep in and then have some traditional food from Kathi’s mom. I have no clue how to spell, or even say, what it was, but it was a traditional dish from that region of Germany (Schaeben?). A very different kind of noodle, topped with some kind of beans and a wiener, of course! Then we headed into Ulm to meet up with Luke and check out the town. At Luke’s recommendation, I tried some spaghetti ice cream and it was awesome! (not actual pasta or tomato sauce, but lots of ice cream goodness that is pressed out to look like spaghetti. That was our fuel to climb the 768 steps to the top of the old church in town.

The main tower, which we climbed, is the tallest church tower in the world. The view was incredible from up there, and it was the most exercise that I’ve gotten for the past couple weeks… but that’s not saying much. Here are some pics from up top. The main square in town is directly below in front of the church.

After trying a new kind of local beer from the town (a blonde-like beer, kind of like a light Hefe), we headed back to Kathi’s house to meet up with some others before going out for the night. We went to a cool bar in Ulm, where they serve the biggest Mojitos and Long Island Ice Teas that I have ever seen in my life. I had a couple of the LI Ice Teas, and each one had to be around 750ml. Josh and I also got our first taste of tobacco snuff. I’m definitely not a tobacco guy, but we had never seen “snuff” before and figured we have to try it once. It was interesting, but it was really funny to see Kathi’s brother snort the biggest line of snuff imaginable. It was basically the equivalent of stuffing a wad of chew up each nostril… pretty gnarly. It pretty much wrecked him too, as we never saw him the next morning. His mom just told us he wasn’t doing too well. So that was our last night in Ulm. The next morning, we tried some schnapps with Kathi’s dad, and then hung out at Luke’s place for a while until our train time. Actually, we got to see Luke demonstrate his physical therapy skills as he straightened Josh up and fixed his back pains. Luke, his still says how much better he feels... so thanks for the freebie treatment!

Kathi, thank you so much for having us and showing us around for a couple days... we had a GREAT time!!! We can't thank you and your family enough!!

When we got into Munich, we went down to Marienplatz (the main square) and had one last liter of beer at one of the outdoor cafes. And as this was Josh’s first trip to Munich, I figured that we couldn’t leave without paying a visit to the Hofbrau Haus. It’s the famous place for traditional german food and liter beers… and polka music! So we headed there and had a couple more liters of beer each, and a giant pretzel. Josh had a very interesting beer concoction that we will have to try back in the states. It’s basically beer (hefewiesen or pils) with lemonade, but I don’t know the ratio(that’s what Wikipedia if for). So suddenly being 3 liters made our night peak a little early, but we still made it out to a bar off in one of the neighborhoods near the university, but it was relatively dead since it was mid-week… but definitely a place that I will remember for next time.

I guess that wraps things up for this trip. Since I don’t yet have a job, I now begin my vacation in San Diego! This was my first shot at a blog like this, so I hope it wasn’t horribly boring for anyone who was interested in following along or just in a distraction from work. To my friends back in San Diego, I will see you soon and look forward to the races this weekend!

Tschϋs!

Langer