Karlsrue and Strasburg

after about 4 hours of fitful sleep, with the large indian family and their baby crying through the night, we awoke to "breakfast", piece of bread, jam, and coffee. we then got off in salzbourg for our 2.5 hour layover. we then hopped on the next train for 5.5 hours where we slpt, read, and enjoyed the marvelous german countrside. of all i've seen, i like the german idllic views the best. soft but wide rolling hills, some mountains in the background, and varying colors from all the different types of agriculture.
then we arrived and was greeted by an old friend of mine from seattle. she took us to see the hostel and her place. when she went to work for a few hours we went on a hike she told us about. one tram ride and 728 stairs later we stood in front of a spectacular view of karlsruhe and the panorama of the surrounding city.
after a much needed shower and break we went to the grocery store to get some food for the bbq. there were about 10 people there, all from local universities. half were intercultural business and communication and half civil engineers, woot! the setting reminded me exactly of the bbq in england, cool people and good food. although the food here was sooo much better. they gave me this drink called radner which is a mix of beer and sprite, or beer and lemonade. both of which put an image of disgust on my face, but after trying it, i really liked it. that plus the other beers they had, were amazing, even the not so expensive stuff was so good. besides the fact that they spoke a lot of german at the table, which is perfectly understandable, it was a lot of fun. and its always cool to talk to people from another place. we realized there are lot of similarities between the countries, in terms of state rivalries, different accents, surficial social jokes and whatnot.
after dinner my friend, jule, had to go back since she had work in the morning, so me jay and one her friends went to a bar for an hour. the beers were all so good, and SO cheap. 5 euros for 1 litre, and 3 euro for a half litre. maloneys serves 4 dollar liters for coors (i think) at a special time. this is the everyday price for good tasting stuff. its all part of the german culture of beer at the dinner table from when they turn 14. we talked about business, school, his time in the german army, weather and whatnot. it was really cool to talk to someone who's truely lived and grew up in another country and then look at similarities and differences.

we woke the next day nice and late since we had some tiime to burn. after walking by the castle in the center of the city and sitting near the duck pond and fountains we walked to meet jule where she worked. after getting lost real quick, a stranger walking by stopped to help us and we find her. a coule friends joined us for a typical german meal. i had a flamekuhe, which is a thin pizza crust with sour cream instead of marinara and other toppings. it was surprisingly good for beiing how different it was. and i had a hefeweizen with it. we then walked towards a berewery for a tour and tasting. besides the fact that it was soley in german, and it was hot, and raining outside, it was cool to say that i saw beer made in germany. on the tour was a school group. no koke, a high school class of probably 16 year olds were there, and drank the beers far faster than we did. it was a lot of fun though. then,we got to do laundry! it was spectacular, the clean clothes, not the actual washing of it. after another doner kebab for dinner we met jule and her friends at a bar. they had some food with the drinks. one was potatoe wedges with kwak, really good yogurt/sour cream/mayo- esque (not mixture)sauce. then we went to the last bar of the night, called shooters. they literally only have shooters/shots and 1 selection of beer in 2 liter containers. some of these were so good and some were aweful. new mix, blue curacao and lemon juice. after some more good conversation we all went back home to get some rest.

we woke upp thursday morning, dropped our stuff in jule's room and headed out for strasbourg, which is not in germany, but rather france. cool little town, bunch of churches as usual, and quaint little cafe's and stores with lots of tourists. all we really did was walk around for the day, take some pictures and eat some good french food. i had potatoe pancakes with smoked salmon for lunch and a banana/nutella crepe with strawberry ice cream for dessert. so amazing. it was really just a nice easy day and was pretty relaxing. after getting back, we had another doner kebab for dinner and picked u some drinks and water for the night. for the rest of the night we just watched youtube/southppark/music and had an easy night.

and now, i'm on a train to munich with jay and jule ready to exlore what is essentially our final stop of our european adventure. good times ahead.