The Swiss Alps, Oktoberfest, and Moving to Madrid!

Hola from Spain! Pia and I are currently visiting my home away from home... Caceres! A lot a lot a lot has happened in the past week - we climbed through the Swiss Alps with our Airbnb host, Andy, we enjoyed one crazy day of Oktoberfest with our couchsurfing host, Mika, and we found myself a piso (apartment) in Madrid!

Our time in Switzerland was incredible. I don´t know if I´ve ever seen a more beautiful country. Pia and I took about a 4 hour train from Lyon, France to Luzern, Switzerland and stayed with a very nice man named Andy. We were having trouble finding a reasonably priced hostel, so we looked at Airbnb.com and we are so grateful we found Andy! Andy is very chatty and corky, but very sweet. He has a library of movies (and Pia and I were SO happy that we were able to watch 2 Harry Potter movies) and he watches about 3 episodes of Lost every night in German. He also thinks the US government is out to get us and we need to take ALL of our money out of our bank accounts now. Pia and I just tried to move aside from that whole subject. He took us on a three hour tour of Luzern in the rain, where we stopped every 5 minutes to ´make a picture´. On our last day, he drove us to Burgenstock and hiked with us to the very top of the mountain (again ´making pictures´ every 5 minutes). Pia and I also went in the cable car up to Pilatus, where is was snowing!!! The views were incredible.

the city of Luzern

top of Burgenstock with our new cow friend

Andy!

After spending 3 days in Luzern, we made our way back to Germany. This time, we were going to Munchen. (And yes, I did find an ´I love Munchen´ tshirt.) However, getting to Munich was a little more difficult than we anticipated. We were supposed to take a train from Luzern to Zurich, then Zurich to Munich, but at our layover in Zurich, the train we were supposed to take was cancelled because it was derailed. I don´t think anyone was on the train because we never heard anything about it on the news, but it´s not very comforting when you hear the announcement that the train you´re supposed to take has been derailed. So instead, we took a train to St. Gallen, then the S Bahn to St. Marghareten, THEN a train to Munich. We were about 2 hours late when arriving to Mika´s flat. He wasn´t there when we arrived because he had gone to the train station to find us, but right as we were leaving, he came walking up the stairs.

Let me tell you a little bit about Mika. He is from France and has been working in Germany for two years. He designs for BMW, and even though he has lived in Munich for 2 years, he claims to not know ANY German. Let´s just say he has a very strong and not so nice opinion on Germany and the Germans. He found us on couchsurfing.com, saw we were looking for a couch, and asked if we wanted to stay on his ´magic couch´ for free. Now, I know that doesn´t sound the safest, but Pia and I could NOT find anything in Munich during this time because of Oktoberfest! So we kept his offer in mind and said we would use it as a last resort, which we ended up doing. But everything was fine and we enjoyed our time with Mika. And it turns out, he uses the word ´magic´ to describe almost everything, so it isn´t as creepy as it sounds. He just doesn´t know very many other adjectives in the English language, I suppose.

On our first day in Munich, Pia and I went to Dachau, where we saw the first concentration camp. Unfortunately, all of my photos from Dachau are on my dslr and I can´t upload them now, but we are glad we went. It was a very somber and somewhat depressing 5 hours, but we learned so much and it was very powerful to see it and spend the day there. We saw the main museum, the crematory, the bunkers, and the memorials.

The next day in Munich was basically the opposite of our day in Dachau. Pia and I went to the Oktoberfest parade that morning and then went to the Oktoberfest fairgrounds that afternoon around 2pm with Mika. As we were standing in line with MANY other people for the most popular tent, the HB tent, a woman who worked there came up to us (we were near the back of the crowd) and asked if we wanted to go in. We all looked at each other, a little confused, and obviously said yes. She brought us through the crowd and told the guards it was okay, she had three people coming with her. Then we sat outside in the beer garden for a good three hours, drinking liters of HB beer and eating chicken, preztels, and pork knuckle (aka haxen). Afterwards, we made our way inside the tent (where the real party was) and stayed until the tent closed around midnight. Here are a bunch of photos of the day/night!

because every dog loves a good parade

Oktoberfest parade

entering the fairgrounds

the dangerously overcrowded metro

happy to be in a beer garden!

pretzels bigger than my face

this one is for Joe Laipert... he knows why.

inside the tent

our host, Mika!

my new Aussie friend, Byron

The next morning, Pia and I had to wake up at 6am (it was rough) and catch a flight to Barcelona. Once we arrived at the airport in Spain, our checked bags were not on the belt. So we stood in line for almost two hours at the lost baggage counter, and the woman said they would be sent to Madrid and we could pick them up there. She told us to check another belt before we left the airport, and there they were, by themselves on this belt in the corner. Of course. At that point, we had missed the train we wanted to take to Madrid, and the next two trains to Madrid were full! So we didn´t get on a train until 5pm and we didn´t arrive in Madrid until nearly 11pm. We made it to our hostel around midnight that night and I had orientation for my new job the next morning at 9am. Talk about a long day.

I spent 4 hours at orientation and then Pia and I were on a serious mission to find myself an apartment. We saw 7 apartments in less than 3 days until I found the perfect one. But you should have seen some of the apartments! And some of the neighborhoods they were in! I was about to give up this past Wednesday when I had an appointment to see an apartment at 930am. I had an appointment with my school at 11am and I wanted to leave by 10 to make it on time. The landlady arrived a half hour late, quickly showed me the apartment, and within 5 minutes I told her I wanted it. Then I ran to the metro and made it to my school, where I met my teachers and they showed me around the school. The school and the teachers are so great! I will be at a publc bilingual elementary school, potentially teaching 1st-5th grade. After my meeting, I came back to the city center and tried to come up with enough cash to put a deposit down on the apartment. Now THAT was a stressful afternoon. The agency wouldn´t allow me to pay with a card, and even though I had enough money in my account for the deposit, I could only withdraw so much cash from the ATMs. So I called US Bank and they told me I could get a cash advance from ANY bank in Europe as long as they accept Visa. Well, that´s a lie. Pia and I ran in and out of nearly 8 banks before they all closed for siesta (my appointment was at 4pm) and none of them could give me a cash advance unless I had a bank account with that specific branch. So Pia called her mom, whojust happened to be on her way to work, so she stopped by a US Bank, deposited the rest of the money that I needed into Pia´s account... at about 3:45 pm. Talk about cutting it close! Thank you, Linda!!!

After that afternoon, I was able to experience what stress feels like again. I do not miss it.

But now, I have an apartment in Madrid!!!!!!! It´s a 5 bedroom, 2 bath apartment and I share it with 2 Italian students, a Spaniard, and a Venezuelan. It´s quite the cultural mix. Even though no one speaks English, I am able to communicate with half of my roommates in Spanish. Communicating with the Italians has been very interesting so far. But I love my apartment, my roommates are awesome, and I love my room! I live in a very nice neighborhood, too. There´s a Starbucks across the street as well as an Irish Pub, so I´m all set.

After moving into the apartment on Wednesday, Pia and I went out to celebrate at one of my favorite tapas places in Madrid - El Tigre. We met up with a couple friends of ours that we met in Dublin, Ireland at the very beginning of this trip, two months ago! We walked around the city with them and then they drove us back to our place in their verrry nice Volvo convertible. Seeing the city at night from a convertible is a nice change of scenery from those digusting metros.

loving our convertible ride after a stressful day!

On Thursday, Pia and I came to Caceres! Lola and her friend, Susana, greeted us with big hugs and many besos, along with tortilla patata and Spanish salad for dinner. I will write about the rest of our time in Caceres in my next blog, along with photos of my new apartment! But now, Pia and I are off to enjoy our last night in Caceres with the best host mom.

Thank you all for the prayers, happy thoughts, and good vibes as I was searching for an apartment! I am so thrilled to have a place that I can call ´home´ for the next 9 months! Now come visit me!

Hasta luego,
Shea