A Very Good Place To Start

Thanks to a friendly reminder, I have realized that I have not posted in about 3 weeks or so. Well, it is all for good reason. Here comes three posts all in a row, so get ready for some adventure. You will laugh, cry, and maybe the hero of our story will make it through! We will begin the tale and by the end we shall know more than we do now.

It all begins in an airport. Yes, the airport. Not the airplane. It appears as if SAS decided to strike the one weekend that half of DIS was going to travel. All planes were cancelled as negotiations were made. After meeting Ian (the over-stressed, over-caffeinated, over-tired intern, not the housemate), he informed us that we would, in fact, be going to Munich! We just had to switch out entire class to Lufthansa Airlines for a flight (drumroll please...) eight hours later! And so a small group of us decided to stay in the airport and wait it out. Quality bonding time, in my opinion. SAS was so generous, they gave us a 100DKK voucher to use in the airport! For those who are not familiar with the Danish Kroner, it was about 1 USD to 6.5 DKK at that time, so they gave us approximately $17 to spend. Cheers, SAS.

We landed in Munich safely, but a bit later than expected. As standard for the Neuroscience program at DIS, we immediately went out to a brewhouse paid for by the program. Classic neuroscience. A bunch of nerds getting drunk and talking about brains is honestly all I could ever ask for.

The next day we went on a Third Reich walking tour in the rain! The tour guide was so nice, he even brought highlighter blue ponchos for every single person to wear while walking around town. All twenty-five of us following one man, wearing the exact same bright blue ponchos. We were pretty much blue ducklings. The tour guide also gave us some good tips for bars later that evening...

And so the evening began. Munich. 2015. Hofbrauhaus. Day:

Night:

In the wise words of Forrest Gump: "That's all I have to say about that."

On the bike tour the following afternoon we saw some cool landmarks around Munich. We got a nice cultural experience and learned about river surfing. Yes, river surfing.

The next day we went to the Ludwig-Maximillian Institute to learn about brains and things. They were developing this process that takes the fats and lipids straight out from the brain and makes it completely clear. They can then dye different types of expressed cells and show it in a 3-Dimensional network! What is he talking about? See below. It basically allows you to paint circuits in the brain and see only them. Dope.The institute was also known for a scientist named Alois Alzheimer, where he conducted research on patients with a new disorder which he named after himself... Alzheimer's disease. We got to see the ORIGINAL brain slices that he prepared back when the disease was being discovered. Also dope.

THAT VERY NIGHT we decided to go to a Bayern Munich football match! The German national team just won the most recent World Cup, and most of the players on the national team play for Bayern Munich. So, they are pretty good. The match was spectacular, particularly because they were playing a team no one has heard of before. Still, that was not the most exciting part. The energy of the crowd was so overwhelming. The chants! The cheers! The shouts! The Hooligans were waving banners and screaming chants the entire match. Everyone wanted to be there and they were ready to show it. The atmosphere is completely different in a European football stadium.

And so we come to Thursday. Quite possibly the most exciting day of the trip. Welcome to Salzberg! For those of you who do not know, this was the setting for the movie musical The Sound of Music. I was the resident expert on The Sound of Music. Who would have thought? Try spotting the scenes from the movie, I was all too excited.

We started our tour with this very matter-of-fact tour guide who was unexpectedly hilarious. She took us around the lower grounds of Salzberg and obviously pointed out every scene from The Sound of Music. Also, Mozart was born there. Which is cool, I guess. I don't think he ever got as popular as Julie Andrews, though. In the middle of the tour, it began to snow! Salzberg in the snow was so beautiful. It continued to be beautiful until it turned into hail. I still had a great time.

A few friends and I decided to go up the tram to the fortress overlooking the city. It was... foggy up there. The snow clouds were now at eye level and you could barely see the city in front of you (as the pictures will show). We spent some time walking around the fortress and warming up in the gift shop. Just as we were about to head back down to the city to leave, the clouds disappeared. It was like magic. They were just completely gone. The valley cleared up and we could see clearly again! It was such a magnificent sight. Which called for more photos.

Let's start at the very beginning

A very good place to start

When you read you begin with A B C

When you sing you begin with Do Re Mi

The first three notes just happen to be

Do Re Mi

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti

Doe a deer, a female deer

Ray a drop of golden sun

Me a name I call myself

Far a long, long way to run

Sew a needle pulling thread

La a note to follow So

Tea a drink with jam and bread

That will bring us back to Do -oh -oh -oh

As we left, we could see the Alps out of the bus window...

We returned to Munich for our last day in the city. I had already been to this church, but I decided to go up the tower yet again on a much clearer day. I had been told that out of the tower you can see the Alps on a clear day. Well, it was true. Enjoy the last view of Munich.

#munich #strike #surfer #river