Germany, Part II
We got up on Friday and walked around Munich’s city center and around an outdoor market in the area. I picked up several souvenirs, had some beers, and pumpkin soup for lunch. We headed back to Kimo’s and went to the supermarket for some necessary chocolate and groceries due to the country being “closed” the following day for the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. We then caught a ride back to Münster with someone from an online service where you search for people traveling from point A to B with extra seats in their car.
The next morning we met up with Kata (another friend from New Zealand) and her boyfriend for coffee/beer/baguettes. After visiting for a little while, we stumbled upon a wine shop that was doing a free wine tasting of as many wines that you wanted. After hanging out there for a half hour or so, we caught a train to meet Carolin’s parents, who took us on a scenic route through the country and many German villages to the biergarten where Carolin works. This biergarten is voted the best in Germany and is owned by the family of her boyfriend. We got seating at a large fenced-in round table and had another liter of beer. Afterward we drove around to several places, trying to find somewhere to eat. Most places were full due to the country being “closed”. We finally found a traditional schnitzel restaurant that Carolin’s parents treated us all to.
Later, we went to Carolin’s parents house and drank with her dad at their bar for a few hours. He made Tuomas and I several of his favorite Cuba libres (Coke with Havana club rum) and took a number of shots of German Korn (wheat) schnapps before leaving us there and going to bed.
Carolin’s parents’ humble abode
We woke up early the next morning for a nice breakfast with Carolin’s parents before driving to Amsterdam with her dad. The day started off in heavy fog for the drive, but cleared up to be a really nice day shortly after arriving. We did some walking around and peaking in shops (there is TONS of shopping to do in Amsterdam) before stopping for coffee and hot chocolate (with rum) and then continuing on. I found a nice smoke cafe where I bought a weed brownie (had to… It’s Amsterdam! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) for 7€. We then walked to the Red Light District, which was still early on in the day, so there wasn’t much going on. In the Red Light District, women stand in windows waiting to be picked. The whole street typically would be filled with this, but since it was so early, we only caught a glimpse of a few. We got another beer with Carolin’s dad’s friend from the area, who took us for some famous Amsterdam fries with joppie sauce and a boat tour of the city through its canals. (It was right around this time that I really started to feel the brownie.) Afterward we stopped for another beer and dropped Tuomas at the airport before heading back to Carolin’s for the night. I caught up on some major sleep on the drive home, that evening on Carolin’s couch while attempting to watch a movie, and through the night.
Yesterday we got up and went to all you can eat sushi. You can recieve 16 small portions per round, which you can do every ten minutes. We left with a little too much food in our system after only three rounds. We left to walk around and see more of Münster. We went in many shops, finishing up some last souvenir shopping. We sat by the Aasee, a lake in Münster which holds many paddleboats, one of which is the famous swan paddleboat that a black swan fell in love with in 2006. We visited the botanic gardens at Carolin’s university and grabbed a Altbierbowle (dark beer with peaches and strawberries in it) before heading back to Carolin’s to bake Flammkucken (a thin French pizza). We turned in early to get up for my train to the airport at 4am.
Carolin took the 1.5 hour train to the airport with me to drop me off this morning and I am now about two hours from Chicago! I’ll be home by the time this is up, but I got all the writing done on the plane while it was all fresh and I had some extra time!
