Deutschland
I left Los Angeles on July 8th for London. Needless to say, my flight was phenomenal. For those of you who don't know, my Grandfather (William Scully) works for American Airlines as a plane mechanic, so as a family member I get spoiled with certain perks like free flying and possible coach upgrades. Well this flight was a double wammy, free and upgraded. Do you hate me? I almost hate me too, so don't worry about it.
Arriving in London was nothing short of exciting, despite what it cost me to call home and the complexities surrounding bus tickets. My hour transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick contained little scenery but I was so enthralled to be in Europe that my senses were excitable by anything from a British guy lighting a cigarette, to how modern their buses looked (seriously though, i felt like i was in Children of Men). Gatwick was simple enough, by this time I was hungry but the price numbers were the same as in the States, so I figured the cost in dollars would be ridiculous. From Gatwick I flew Aer Lingus, an Irish airline, to München, Germany where I had a heck of a time figuring out where to go for a bus to the hotel I was suppose to be meeting Evan at. With no cell phone and no messenger pigeon I would have to rely on the gernerosity and overall friendliness of the German people. Luckily for me, Germans are by far the most helpful people I've met thus far. Eventually I found my way to the hotel, I was fortunate that it was visible from the autobahn.
Next advernture was waiting for about 40 minutes in the hotel lobby (Marriot ist ser Deutsch, ja?) trying to convince the consierge that I'm staying with Evan and his friends in the hotel and that she only needed to give me a room keycard to make all things well. I suppose I'm not very persuasive seeing as I ended waiting those 40 minutes until Evan and Dre arrived good and jolly from a near by pub (restaurant people, its a common form of restaurant.) Relieved, I unwound listening to the guys' stories of the past few days and took delight in seeing Evo again.
The following day (July 10th) we journeyed about an hour and a half south west to a town called Füssen, where we took another bus to the base of a hill which was topped by a Disney-esque castle, or festung, known as Neuschwanstein.
Here is a photo of said castle. This king had a sort of fetish for fantasy, having the walls and decor fashioned after well known fairytales. The most impressive to me was the floor of one the rooms which was a giant mosaic piece. It was beautiful and very impressive, but photography was not allowed inside this room. It would have been difficult to get a picture of the floor anyways because it was a semi-large room and there were lots of tourists packed in there with us. But the artwork reminded me of the sort of style that might have been used in early church artwork.
Here is a photo of said castle. This king had a sort of fetish for fantasy, having the walls and decor fashioned after well known fairytales. The most impressive to me was the floor of one the rooms which was a giant mosaic piece. It was beautiful and very impressive, but photography was not allowed inside this room. It would have been difficult to get a picture of the floor anyways because it was a semi-large room and there were lots of tourists packed in there with us. But the artwork reminded me of the sort of style that might have been used in early church artwork.We didn't do much else that day because we returned in the evening, so we had some tasty food at the Austiner Biergarten and walked around for a bit, returning to the hotel room for another nice night of sleep.
Day three of my travels, my second full day in Germany, was wonderful as well. Evan and gang took off to Berlin for a music festival which sounded like a lot fun. But remained in Munich to meet Marte. Let me just say that Marte is so great, I hope you all have a chance to meet her. Quite a little (literally) force of life. She helped me about the city and told me about certain areas and specific buildings in a knowledgeable manner. Currywurst, and German made Chinese towers, inner city surfing, and free WC's made for a great day. After all was said and done we caught a train to Kaufbeuren, another small town south west of the city where we stayed with the Stubani family. 
They were also very wonderful, this is where I learned of German hospitality and got to know the country a little better (Bavaria at least). This family took me to this place called Bergwelt, which means mountain world. Its this sort of amusement park that has various activities. The two we happen to do are the most popular I suspect, and they are the Kletterwelt and the Alpsee coaster. Kletterwelt, which I assumed to translate to something like climing world, was a high ropes course. Let me emphasize high. I've never been to a ropes course before so it was quite the learning experience. The difficulty of the courses is color coded and, of course, black was the hardest. The courses ranged from 1-2 meters to 16 meters for the more advanced. So much fun and very tiring. I can't recall how many courses we did, but we definitely did the brown, second to hardest, and because of time allotment, we had to do the short version of the black. The Stubanis also took me to a local place in Kaufbeuren where we had some tasty crepe type deals that they lit on fire. The next day Marte and I both departed, Marte back to Busingen and me onto Austria. But before I left I had two first time experiences - entering my first H&M (to my surprise it was just like every other store, weird huh?) and I ate a Döner kebap (so flippin' tasty).
They were also very wonderful, this is where I learned of German hospitality and got to know the country a little better (Bavaria at least). This family took me to this place called Bergwelt, which means mountain world. Its this sort of amusement park that has various activities. The two we happen to do are the most popular I suspect, and they are the Kletterwelt and the Alpsee coaster. Kletterwelt, which I assumed to translate to something like climing world, was a high ropes course. Let me emphasize high. I've never been to a ropes course before so it was quite the learning experience. The difficulty of the courses is color coded and, of course, black was the hardest. The courses ranged from 1-2 meters to 16 meters for the more advanced. So much fun and very tiring. I can't recall how many courses we did, but we definitely did the brown, second to hardest, and because of time allotment, we had to do the short version of the black. The Stubanis also took me to a local place in Kaufbeuren where we had some tasty crepe type deals that they lit on fire. The next day Marte and I both departed, Marte back to Busingen and me onto Austria. But before I left I had two first time experiences - entering my first H&M (to my surprise it was just like every other store, weird huh?) and I ate a Döner kebap (so flippin' tasty).Now my entry into Austria was not as planned. If any of you had talked to me about the course of my trip I might have told you that I was hitch hiking to Austria, but that didn't work out quite as planned. More on Austria later. That was Germany in a nutshell.
Peace to you,
jm
there are more photos on my facebook, so if you'd like to see those head 