Ahh I’ve gotten pretty behind on this thing, whoops!
Monday (July 17) was a relatively slow day. I spent the day working and then after work grabbed some groceries and then spent the night in. We had a crazy weekend of traveling so it was nice to get to hang out for a bit and not do much.
Tuesday was a great day. My professor and advisor had a conference to attend in another city so I got the day off. I got to sleep in, which was AMAZING, and then I headed into the city on my own to do some shopping. I bought some new clothes from a European store called Mango and picked up a couple souvenirs as well. I also bought my new favorite item I own, my Fjällräven Kånken backpack. Our German teacher, Lydia, had one and I loved it so much so I finally decided to go get one for myself. This thing is amazing and I am so happy that I have it now. I grabbed a sandwich and some juice from the Viktualienmarkt and then sat on a bench in the gardens and ate my lunch. It was such a beautiful and peaceful day. While I was waiting for my friends to get off work and come join me, I spoke to my family on the phone for a couple hours. Around 4 or 5 Jayme came to join me and we hung out in the English Gardens by the river and devoured some wine and cheese. Then the boys came and joined us for a bit before we decided to grab a late dinner and head home.
On Wednesday we went into work and then left a bit early to check out the BMW Museum. We got there about an hour before closing so we did not have that much time to check out all the exhibits, but it was still a very cool place. They had all sorts of cars and bikes and motors. They even had Elvis’s BMW which was really really cool to see. After the museum, we spent the afternoon in the gardens again, unsurprisingly enough.
I started out Thursday morning at work. At this point I was so close to finishing my robot, all I had to do was get both wheels to turn at the same time and at the same speed. However, this was proving to be difficult because one wheel would only start turning at full speed. I was getting incredibly frustrated because nothing was working. I took a half day this day and spent the afternoon at a coffeeshop in town reading and blogging. It was very peaceful after such a stressful morning. That evening Jayme and I went to a movie theater and saw Spiderman: Homecoming — in English, thankfully. The movie was so so good, I highly recommend it.
On Friday I was FINALLY able to get my car to work! All I had to do was fix one little pin on one of the boards and the whole thing worked! It was frustrating that such a small thing was causing a huge issue, and we’re still not sure why changing the pin fixed the issue but hey, I’m not complaining because I have a working robot now! After work on Friday, Jayme and I headed into town to find the Freibier Freitag event and we met up with a few of our German friends there and then Robert joined us a little while later. It was weird going to Freibier without the whole entire squad, but them being gone wasn’t going to stop us from attending our favorite event! The night was still a blast and afterwards Jayme, Robert, and I travelled to the Munich ZOB bus station and hopped on an overnight bus to Budapest! The ride honestly sucked. It was hot and sweaty and uncomfortable, and I don’t think I have ever been that grateful to get out of a car before. But it was okay because by 10 am Saturday morning we made it to Budapest!
We started out Saturday on the Pest side of the city by grabbing some coffee and food. It started raining while we were picking out postcards in the souvenir shop across the road, so Robert had to buy an umbrella because he didn’t have one. We then travelled throughout the city looking at all the beautiful buildings like the Opera House and St. Stephen’s Basilica. We then grabbed some delicious donuts and headed across the Chain Bridge to the Buda side of the city. There we checked out Fisherman’s Bastion, which was this gorgeous white terrace next to the Matthias Church, which had the coolest tile roof! We then walked over and looked at the Buda castle before heading back to the Pest side of the city. By this time the rain had cleared up so we decided to climb to the top of St. Stephen’s where there was an incredible view of the city. We then grabbed some dinner and drinks from this hip outdoor restaurant area before heading to the trip’s main event: the Széchenyi Thermal Baths. This was actually one of the coolest things I did this summer. The building was the most beautiful yellow with intricate designs all over it. We spent most of our time there in the 3 outdoor pools but we did check out a sauna inside. One of the outdoor pools had a little whirlpool-ish thing where you could get pulled by the current in a circular motion and it was honestly so fun! After a bit we dried off and walked by the Heroes’ Square which was GORGEOUS. On our way there we walked past one of the locations of the Fina World Championships, which we did not even know was happening! Actually, we didn’t really even know what it was until my friend Monica from high school posted about being there for synchronized swimming! I wish we had looked more into it because it would have been really cool to go watch some of the swimming or diving events. Around 9 pm we hopped back onto a bus and travelled to Munich. This time the bus ride was much more pleasant. Saturday was a whirlwind of a day but it was absolutely awesome and Budapest was super cool!
We got home around 7am on Sunday and I immediately fell asleep until around 11 that morning. Jayme and I then headed into the city for some brunch and a visit to the Nymphenburg Palace. This is a palace right in the center of Munich and it is HUGE! Unfortunately we could not go inside due to an event, but we spent much of the afternoon reading in the palace gardens before grabbing some dinner and heading back home.
This week was really cool because I got to spend much of it just hanging out around Munich and falling even more in love with this amazing city. Check out the photos from this week right here!