My Apologies for late pictures.

Sorry. I never updated when I said I would. I was tired last night and couldn't function too well because I had a really long day. But since I have a few days to cover here, this will be slightly different. Mainly my days in Munich have just been walking around sightseeing, so I have pictures and a couple stories told bY the tour guide for Monday. 

But rewind to Sunday, I had a truly memorable day in the Alps! Jörg and his family and I drove to the German side of the Alps, near one of the peaks. I guess they go every so often, once or twice every year, so they know the path pretty well.

So yeah. There we were, hiking up these mountains. The first part was the strenuous part. You elevate about 600 meters, while walking forward just a couple kilometers, so it got steep at points. But it was so worth it in the end. We got some amazing views of the area, and the river that passes through. It's a limestone bed, so it makes the water look really cloudy, but it was beautiful. 

Here's some of the views from halfway up.

That's where we had lunch. There's a small restaurant where I had some potato soup. But the really interesting part is what came next.

After we left the restaurant, we started up the cave hike. So we were walking in and out of caves dug in the walls. It was the only way to escape the constant spray from the waterfalls and the dripping of horribly cold water down from the sides of the mountain. But the river and the mountain were just so so amazing and I really liked it and I'm so glad I was able to go.

Also, Jörg's son Birk is like half my height but twice my speed and like 50x better at soccer than I am. And I have long legs... You'd think it'd be easy...

Alrighty, so on Monday morning, I left Landsberg for the last time (although it's very nice so maybe I'll come back some day) and got on my train to Munich. I reached the hostel in time to drop off my backpack and take the walking tour of the city! And as always, I'm so glad I did! It gave me good insight to the city, like the following stories:

This is the St Peter's Church (which you'll hear about a bit later), and it was destroyed in WW2 along with ~70% of the city. Like, completely. There was nothing left. But when they were rebuilding it, the remaining couple bricks were dated back to about 1050. So that's a pretty old church. All the renovation to the whole city was done exactly to code, exactly how it was. 

Insert imaginary picture of a church with a giant tower.

This is a maypole, and they have this in most big cities here in Germany. 

But I guess people also like to steal these when possible. Because why not, am I right? Like who wouldn't want a maypole? Well, the thieves don't even want it. They only would steal it for the ransom. And what do you ask for in ransom for a maypole in Germany?

Beer, of course. So when they gave it up, they were given thousands of liters of beer. Good for them.

There was another time that the maypole near the airport got stolen (it was smaller than this one) and so when the police started the search for who stole it, they asked everyone near there if they saw it. Eventually, after a few days, the culprit was found: some of the policemen stole it for the ransom. So guess which country's police department had a giant beer party... Germany.

We visited the world-famous Hofbräuhaus, where they only allowed men for about 200 years. Also, if you get squeamish or disgusted, skip to the next paragraph. Since nobody wanted to ever leave their seat because their seat, and their beer, would be all gone by the time they returned from the bathroom, they all started going right under the bar seats. Fun, right?

Also, the Hofbräuhaus is the home to one of the last remaining swastikas in Germany, and it's only still there because it's painted over and very difficult to see. I don't have a picture on here though. Only on the camera. Just know that I wasn't able to even see it, but people insist that it's there.

There is the opera house, which has been built 5 times, exactly the same way. It was built the first time, of course, and then it had to be rebuilt after WW2. So what about the other 3 times? Well, it burned down in winter, so they couldn't use the water storage underneath because it was frozen over. So they got the idea to form a fire brigade. That seems smart, right?

Wrong. They decided since there was no water nearby, they would put out the fire with beer! Smart!

(I mean, it could be worse...) The problem was the help.  Every time the bucket of beer would pass by one of the brigaders, he would take a small sip of the bucket. By the time it reached the opera house, the bucket was empty. Every time. 

So the opera house burned down three times because Germans love their beer.

That's the last big story. There's an Australian embassy right in town because the Australians like to challenge the Germans to drinking contests, so they always get super wasted, and always end up losing things. Wallets, keys, etc, but mainly passports. The Australians always lose their passports. So they opened an embassy so they could make the passports easier to replace. 

That was the main part of my Monday. I mostly just walked around a lot. 

Aaaand the same goes for today, with a twist...

So today, my last FULL DAY OF MY TRIP, I ventured into town so I could climb up the St Peter's Church Lookout tower. There's 308 steps up. That's a lot, but it gives an incredible view of the city from up there:

So as I'm walking down, I see one of those 'pressed penny' machines, so I want one as a momento but also because I have a lot of them from around the U.S.  So I got a cool one of the view of the city. 

After that, I start walking about 1.5km over to the English Gardens, which are supposedly very beautiful. I'm almost there, and I walk through a tunnel. There's a guy playing guitar, so I wanted to tip him some money. So I look in my pockets, and... No coins. Oh well. Maybe I put them in my wallet. But my wallet is also missing. So I have to run in the 90 degree weather, in jeans, 1.5km back to St Peter's Church to see if it's still where I left it. I asked the guy at the ticket booth and he was waiting for me to show up. So luckily that happened. 

I can't believe I actually walked back to the English Gardens after that. I had to check my pockets every few minutes, just to make sure...

There was this surfers wave, which was just part of the river that people like to surf on, which is actually pretty cool.

That's actually been the majority. It doesn't seem like much but it's been about 5.5 miles, so a lot of walking. I'm really just tired so I'm resting here in the hostel. 

Wow. I'm almost done with day 79/80. That's so weird. In a matter of 31 hours, I'll be back home. (At the time of writing this, that is. 6:08pm here.)

Tonight I'll go out for a bigger dinner. You know, as a celebration as my last supper here. I have to find something completely German. Or maybe something the hostel recommends. Anyway...

My dinner was roasted pork and dumpling, which I'll show you, if the wifi ever decides to work. Maybe I can update at the airport. They might have wifi. 

Trying to post this now, and now it's 10:11, so 27 hours.

My dinner was some roasted pork and dumpling in this nice restaurant. A good final dinner in Europe...

Landsberg am Lech

Wow. Here I am, on Friday, August 28. I have no more Thursdays left of my trip. I'm in my final week in Europe, and I can't believe how quickly 75 days have gone by. It always seemed very slow when it was passing, but I feel like I just left a couple weeks ago, though it was actually almost 11 weeks ago.

And how do I sum up the past few days in a short post? So much has happened.

The last thing I wrote about was that I was leaving Salzburg. Now, and for the past few days, I have been in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, about 50 minutes west of Munich. I'm staying with Jörg, another friend of my history teacher. Look, here we are eating pumpkin soup on my first night:

So on my first day in Landsberg, I wanted to just walk around the town, so that's what I did. I walked for about 7 miles around he city, which reminds me of Grass Valley a bit. It has old buildings, and a population of only 30,000, and its surrounded and filled with trees and hiking trails. The main difference is that this town dates back to the 1300s... There's some towers on the hills around the area, which I hiked up to, but couldn't go up into the tower because it was closed.

Also, there is a huge River Lech through the town, with a large dam-like structure right in the center, so I like sitting by the water and listening to the rush of the river in the cool air. So when I got waffles and berries on Wednesday, I ate them in front of the river. (And it was really good!!)

Okay I'm switching topics now because I have a lot to cover. Later that afternoon, Jörg and I drove up to Dachau, which was a major concentration camp before and during WW2, and let me tell you, it was truly horrific. To think that the grounds I was standing on had thousands of future-victims to the war just 80 years ago is extremely disturbing. We visited the rebuilt barracks, which clearly had no room for anyone to have personal space. The massive burial site for unknown victims' ashes. I think the most disturbing part though was the ovens. All of this is the reason I never want to visit a concentration camp again. It's too much. 

Oh also I had beer. 

(Not this full glass. That would be too much for me. It was so strong that I could only drink about half of it.)

Okay happier topic now. Yesterday, on Thursday, I took a day trip to Augsburg, another city about 50 minutes northeast of Landsberg. The two cities and Munich all form an equilateral triangle, roughly, if that gives you an idea. 

The problem with Augsburg is that I had no specific plans: I didn't know where anything was, nor where I should visit. Eventually, after wandering around for about an hour, I was able to find a map with all the major tourist attractions! So I started off on my journey, roughly following the green line, a few pictures down.

So I visited the Dom, the city's cathedral, which was very very impressive. An organ concert was in session at the time, so I got to listen to that while I walked down the aisles and through the corridors.

My next stop was the City Hall, or the Rathaus, which was originally destroyed in WW2 but then rebuilt exactly alike to the old one.

One of the biggest attractions in Augsburg is the Fuggeri House, where the Fugger family lived in the 15th century. Who is the Fugger family? I hear you asking. Well, I'm not too sure, but I know they were filthy rich because I think they sold salt which was huge back then, so they still own the land and the house. They built a bunker there during the war, so I got to go down there! That was rad. I've never been in an underground bunker before. 

Also when I was wandering around, I think I discovered the secret to teleportation: wander around in a city that you think you understand because you have a map and then you get lost and find out that you're about a mile from where you thought you were. At least, that's what happened to me, so I'm still not sure how that happened. So my walk back to the train station looked a bit like this:

(Transporter marked by red dots)

Disclaimer: I'm sorry I have like no pictures of Augsburg. The app is being weird and won't let me download many of them?? Sorry

When I got back to Landsberg, I met Jörg's wife and 5 year old son, and we went out to dinner. I had paprika and feta cheese, so that was interesting I guess.

I was accidentally up until 2am and I'm not sure why. 

Today, on Friday, I spent the day in Landsberg again, and got more ice cream* before Jörg's babysitter for his son met up with me, so he and his friends could show me around the city. Look, here we all are!!

Anyway, yeah. I don't think I'll update until maybe the 31st, when I will have time to write on my train to Munich. That's my last stop. I stay there for two nights before I fly out. It passed quickly...

It's a (von) Trapp!

pSee what I did there? It's funny because Sound of Music and Star Wars humor. Haha.

Anyway... So I've been in Salzburg for the past day and a half (and this morning but only briefly.) and I can honestly say that it's the most beautiful city I've been in on this trip. Sorry, Ljubljana and Edinburgh. You have nothing on this view:

Okay, so on Sunday, my train arrived and I got to my hostel to check in, and then I walked into town.

And I was just amazed at how amazing the view -- even from the city streets -- was. I was constantly in direct view of the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which was used in the olden ages as a defense/lookout tower. Given the view, seen above, I can imagine. But more on that later. 

My first stop was the National History Museum, which was a good way to start off the city. It had many many rooms on Art history, but more importantly, it talked a lot about WW1, because Austria was a huge part in that. After all, it was the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination that was one of the main sparks to the fire. But yeah, there was a lot of information on all that. Lot of information in general.

I walked over to Pommes Botique, per the suggestion of the hostel, because I heard they have really good burgers for cheap, so I got a really good chicken burger, then walked over to the riverside to eat. How often do you get a view like this for lunch?

(I was over on that hillside, near the other people you see over there.)

I also visited some Gardens, which I forget the names of, but they were a lot like the other gardens I've talked about. Lots of flowers. What made this one unique, however, was the Pegasus statue, which is briefly seen in Sound of Music:

My hostel is pretty cool. My roommates are super nice. 2 of them are from Australia, and the other 3 are from Korea, but I didn't talk to them much because they didn't speak much English. I did make friends with the two Australians and they're super rad and were willing to talk about why America is a joke to the rest of the world right now...

The hostel also plays Sound of Music every night. Every. Night. At 8:30. Every night. They currently have the record for most consecutive nights playing the movie. Maybe any movie. So I watched that with about 30 other people. 

Okay so that was my half day in Salzburg. My full day was much, much more walking. I hiked up to the Fortress, like I said earlier, which just gave me the most incredible view of the mountains and the city. I guess the whole area used to be a lake for several thousand years, but it drained out in about 8000BC, so all that remained inside the mountains was one giant hill, where they built the fort.

(You get the point.)

After a couple hours up there, I headed back down and rested at the hostel for a bit, before leaving to an old monestary-turned-church on a hill, which took way too many steps and my legs kinda wanted to die.

But after that, I discovered the residence and the birthplace of some composer. His name is like Mayonaisse or something? Or Most Tarts? Oh. Mozart. His birthplace and residence, which I didn't feel like it would be worth paying €10 for each, were filled with tourists, but was still an interesting sight. You know, no biggie. Just a huge pop-star of his time was born there. 

My last two stops for the day were two very different churches. On one side, one looked very old. You can just imagine an old stone church built into the side of a rock. Pretty old, yeah? Look at the inside.

There's blue and violet lights everywhere and it makes this old church look like a night club??

Then this other one was just a nice simple white one, but in its simplicity, I found it lovely and I liked it anyway so yeah. 

I ate dinner at the hostel, because I figured it was a good way to meet people. I ate some goulash soup with an Austrian and a Texan, so that was interesting. He didn't have a southern accent.

Wow okay it's only 10:40pm but I feel like my eyes are going to kill me if I stay awake any longer so bye. Love you all!

Also, if you need a quick laugh, this one never fails to give me the giggles: