A Whole New World

Okay, sticking with the music theme...this blog entry is called "A Whole New World." Why you may ask? Because it just is. It's a great song (from Disney’s Aladdin) and sort of reflective on my "new start" in my own little world, so there you go. :)

Okay, so what's been going on since my last post (which yes, I realize, was forever ago now)? Let's see, shortly after my last post, I ventured off to Munich, Germany with my flatmate, Melissa, and her boyfriend, Jono. We left on a Thursday and came back on a Monday. While in Munich (oh, and for the record, I won't be typing many place names because frankly, I wouldn't know how to begin to spell them), we had some interesting adventures. The Thursday night we went to one of the main "touristy areas" where it wasn't to crowded, but then again, everyone was still at work. We found a little side street and sat outside drinking a beer. Well, we then decided it would be a good idea to move into the basement of the place for two reasons: 1) It started raining on us, and 2) We were hungry for dinner.

We had one of the most amazing waiters ever. He was hilarious and didn't really understand English, so that was a lot of fun. I did learn a phrase of the night, "Dies ist gut! Ja?" Apparently this, roughly translated, means "This is good! Yes?" So, throughout the stay in Munich, I repeated this phrase and probably sounded like a maniac. Oh well, when in Rome...er...Munich! So, at the dinner, while waiting for the food to come out, I show Melissa and Jono a "trick" my dad used to help me with all the time whenever we went to a place with stacks full of coasters on the table. Okay, so you're supposed to get as many coasters as you can and put them halfway off the edge of the table. Then, this the back part of your hand, flip the coasters inward toward the table and try to catch all of them! I beat my previous record of 14 and made it all the way to 23! Jono, on the other hand only made it to 10 or 11 I believe. I have a SUPER FUNNY video of him doing this. I haven't downloaded it yet, but will try to remember to post it next time.

The actual dinner was AMAZING! I had the best mushroom soup of my life there! I wanted the recipe soooo bad, but had no clue how to ask for it...haha. Let's see, we finally paid for the meal when the waiter brought us 2 gifts: 1) A free glass to take home as a souvenir, and then 2) a free shot of some Bavarian vodka. Holy crap that thing was potent! The waiter had a shot with us and he downed that sucker like it was no big deal. Apparently I need to build up my tolerance for straight vodka that's closer to Moonshine! It was ridiculous! But hey, it was free. :)

As for the rest of the trip, I was sick for most of it. I think it was due to the change in temperatures and going from air conditioning (everything in the US and my London Hotel) to non-air conditioning (my flat) and back to air conditioning (the Munich hotel). I think it all took a toll on me. But, I turned off the air conditioning in the evenings in the hotel room and started to feel much better by the time we left that Monday. I pretty much locked myself in my hotel room on Friday trying to just get plenty of rest, where I wound up watching 3 movies from the in-room service thing. On Saturday I started feeling a bit better, so I ventured out to meet Jono and Melissa at Oktoberfest (since that was the main reason for going to Munich in the first place). We met up and went to the famous Hofbräuhaus (yeah, I looked up how to spell it). We literally waited in a crowded line for an hour before saying "screw it" and just going to their outdoor beer garden. We wound up sitting at a table with some awesome Japanese guys (and 1 girl). They were absolutely hilarious! We kept chanting "Prost!" meaning "Cheers" back in the States.

After a while we got to know one of the waitress beer (bier) girls and she was able to sneak us into the actual building. Holy crap! I don't think I've ever seen that many people crammed into one place ever in my life! There were people EVERYWHERE and you literally had to try and glide your way through the crowd or you were stuck. Oh, and don't forget that this IS Oktoberfest, so everyone was pretty much wasted/drunk, yelling, and staggering everywhere. Of course, there was the occasional person, such as myself, who didn't really take part in the drinking part of the festivities. You see, I was still sick and I really don't care for beer...at all. So, I had about 1/4th a stein (gave the rest to Jono) and then switched to steins of Coca-Cola. It was grand. Eventually we left and went back to the hotel (with some random, crazy happenings in between that I'll share in person, rather than on here).

The next day Melissa and Jono stayed in the Munich area and I decided to venture out on a tour of the former Nazi Concentration Camp, Dachau. Now, I went to the site expecting to come away so dreadfully depressed that I had prepared myself. However, I left the place feeling as though I just came out of a history class. Don't me wrong, it was incredible to see the site where 1000s of people were killed, but it didn't impact me in the way that I thought it would. I have always enjoyed learning more about World War II and the roles the Nazi Party had. I did learn a few interesting things: 1) Dachau was not a death camp, but rather a labor camp, even though over 20,000 people died there. 2) They originally built accommodations for 120 people in each barrack (to share no showers, 7 toilets, a room of lockers, and a bed for every person). In the end, over 400 people could be stuffed into each barrack at any given time. 3) They had different levels of "ranks" for the prisoners. One person could easily have around 3-4 different marks for identification just on one piece of clothing. It really was an educational experience and I was glad I went to see it, but again, since they (over the last year) decided to remove all of the videos and graphic images from the camp, I just didn't see it as a place where 1000s were slaughtered. I mean, I understand that, but it is hard to imagine it because there were no visual aids. They actually did that on purpose so that it would be a place for education rather than an emotional experience. Personally, I think I would have gotten more out of the trip had it been more emotionally driven.

Anyhow, we took it easy that night and departed back for London the next morning. After arriving in London I immediately unpacked, did laundry, and then repacked for my trip to Dublin the next day. I took a midday flight to Dublin on that Tuesday and met up with my Aunt and her boyfriend (now, fiancee) for dinner. We called it a relatively early night since Terry had to be up early the next morning for the conference he was attending. The next day my Aunt Ruth and I met up mid-morning and decided to do the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus tour around Dublin. We walked around St. Stephen's Green for a little bit (since it was right outside of their hotel) and then went to several other places on the tour: Dublin Castle, Christchurch, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Modern Museum of Art.

Dublin Castle was really interesting. It's not an actual castle like you may think, but more of an older home. They had it wonderfully decorated and we took a guided tour throughout the building. Although, we were not able to make it down to the excavation site because I started getting sick from the smell. It was horrendous! I feel awful just thinking about it now! Yuck!

After Dublin Castle, we ventured on to Christchurch, where we discovered it was closed due to filming episodes of "The Tudors." I've personally never seen the show, but it's pretty cool to think that I've been there if I ever do watch it.

St. Patrick's Cathedral was nice, but I imagined it would have been much larger. It seemed to pale in size when compared to Christchurch. There really wasn't too much to enjoy about the church, so we didn't stay there all too long. Although, had we realized there was a courtyard to the side of it, I'm sure we would have explored that area. Oh, well.

The last thing on the tour we saw was the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA - yeah, took us both a while to figure out what IMMA stood for...haha). We ate lunch at the cafe in the building and it was excellent food! After the meal we stopped by the bookstore (it was on the way to the exhibit halls). I got a couple of things and really enjoyed their selection of books! If I didn't have to worry about a luggage weight limit, then I would have gotten a lot more things! We finally made it into the museum exhibits...and I don't think we were too impressed with most of the exhibits. A lot of them reminded of the Jackson Pollock style (splatters and such). Some of the sculptures were okay though. I still think the bookstore and cafe were the best features of the IMMA. :)

We parted ways after here because Aunt Ruth and Terry had a dinner thing with Terry's conference. I met up with both of them again the next day later in the morning and we did two more stops on the Hop-On/Hop-Off Bus Tour: Christchurch and Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). Christchurch was open this day to the public for tours, so we decided to try it again. Wow...I'm definitely glad we did. It is so beautiful and has such a rich history! We did the audio guide tour and I learned a WHOLE lot about not only the history of the church, but also about Ireland in general. Out of all the audio tours I have ever done, this was by far one of my top 3! After Christchurch, we ventured off to Kilmainham Gaol, (known for it's no-tolerance policy) formerly a political prison, whose youngest prisoner was a 5 year old boy for stealing bread for his dinner (or something minuscule like that). This prison is also famous for being the execution site of 14 political figures that were essentially responsible for the main rebellion that later gained the Republic of Ireland's independence from British rule. This was a really neat tour, but unfortunately we had to skip out on the last bit of it so I could get to the airport in time for my flight.

I made it home safely to London and my flat, where I discovered it was Pizza and Wine night. Yay for awesome friends already! Last night we got a group of between 7 and 10 (it varied depending on the point of the night) together for a pub crawl. It was a LOT of fun and I think we hit a total of 5 or 6 places. All I have to say is yay for cider and friends! Today I think we all took it easy. I met up with another Deltasig brother, Eileen, and Deb and we went to lunch at one of my favorite dining establishments, Pizza Express (even the one I used to go to all the time when I lived in Marylebone). :) After that we were on the quest for hangers, which ultimately led us to an IKEA. I am now happy to know that there is one a WHOLE LOT CLOSER than the other one I went to last time. Holy cow...a LOT closer! Haha. For dinner tonight some of the girls came over and we cooked soup (it was awful...boo on Tesco's carton soups) and watched The X-Factor (Britain's version of American Idol). We actually saw a familiar face on the show! One of the people we met while on the pub crawl last night is a current contestant on the show. I actually recognized him and told him I was cheering for him to win! His name is Rikki Loney if you want to look him up on YouTube. I got a picture with him. I'll post it another time since I haven't put it on my computer yet. :)

So many adventures already and I'm only into Week 3 of being out of the States. One of my best friends Rachel was scheduled to come out here tomorrow, but apparently the flight was oversold and she wasn’t allowed on (she’s a flight attendant, so she was nonreving it over). Was definitely looking forward to seeing her, but these things happen. :( Good news, she can try to come back again soon! :)

Okay, dinally off to bed now (considering it's nearly 4:00am here). Hope you enjoyed the LONG blog...sorry about that!

- Steph



P.S. If you're on Facebook, I'll be posting photos of all of these experiences very soon, I promise. :)