I guess I'll start with the epic bike ride on Wednesday. After work, I joined 15 of my labmates on a 35km bike ride to the Ammersee lake outside of Munich. My labmates wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and the incredible beer garden right next to the lake. They assured me that the 35 kilometers would only take two hours to bike there. Only two hours. No big deal, right?
I was initially a little hesitant about going because I had just caught a cold and I had to wake up early the next morning to head off to Italy, but as I started the journey with my labmates, I soon realized that I didn't need to worry about myself surviving the trip. Instead, I needed to worry about whether the ancient bike my landlady gave me would survive. Sure enough, 3/4 of the way to the lake, the front tire of my bike popped. Luckily, Germans are bikers and they know how to handle these situations easily and efficiently. I was soon on my way again after my labmates replaced the inner tube of the tire. (albiet still concerned because the tire wasn't 100% in place properly as the bike was so old and rusty).
But that's not all! Just as we reached the beer garden, my front tire popped again! 35 kilometers, 2 flat tires, and 2 hours later, I made it to the lake and sat down with my labmates to enjoy some delicious authentic Bavarian food. The perfect weather, relaxed beer garden, and nice conversation with my labmates definitely made up for the two flat tires. And it certainly did make for a memorable bike ride!
The beer garden inches away from the lake. Filled with locals doing what they do best--drinking beer!
The lake. We got there just in time for the sunset!
After the bike ride, the adventure continued. I left early Thursday morning to go to Frankfurt and meet up with Shawn. Together, we went to Venice on Thursday, left Venice for Rome early Saturday morning (waking up at 4:30am to catch a 6am train, yay!), and then narrowly caught our overnight train back to Munich on Sunday evening. I'm sure you'll hear much more about the trip from Shawn, but it was filled with sightseeing, delicious pasta/pizza, gelato, and picture-taking. We even saw the Pope through a window in the Vatican on Sunday! He actually spoke to the crowd for a good ten minutes. About what? I'll never know because he wasn't speaking English. But the experience was still incredible!
Venice really is a beautiful and unique city. I've never seen so many boats used as a main form of transportation before! They even have "water buses," which is Venice's version of public transport.
We went up the Campanile and got the best view of all of Venice! Venice is surprisingly small though.. you can walk across the whole island in half an hour. However, what little room Venice has is completely jammed packed with tourists.
It's not immediately apparent from this picture, but this was taken outside the Colosseum.
The Pantheon, my favorite building out of all my travels so far. Don't let the outside of it fool you, the inside is the most stunning place I've ever seen!
Blurry picture of the Pope!
My favorite part of being abroad this summer has been the conversations with the people I've met. The grad students and masters students in the lab have shown me a lot of what life is like in Munich for young people who are full of energy and enthusiasm. While in Italy, we encountered lots of other tourists and locals who added an additional perspective to the world with their different backgrounds. For example, on the overnight train, I had a long conversation with an Italian young woman on pop culture in the US and Italy. It was fascinating to hear her opinion on things and to realize that even though we're from different parts of the world and grew up in completely different settings, the world is not so different for us. And we're not so different from each other. In many ways, it seemed like we could have grown up right next to each other.
Anyway, stay tuned for where I go this weekend. No weekend is a boring weekend here. :)
i always feel so lazy after reading hannah's blogs! always so much walking, hiking, biking, etc! I think it sounds like you're adjusting well to the Munich lifestyle :-)
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