Sorry for being so absent, but I haven't had much to photograph/write about since the semester began! Anyway, it snowed yesterday! As much as I love Portland, the lack of snow does get to me. And, as much as I love Munich, snow before Halloween? It's absolutely beautiful though. Four inches or so accumulated last night. Today I went for a walk in the Englischer Garten and it was completely picturesque. Snowmen, kids playing, and a dogsled(!?) - a perfect Sunday.

The view from my window

Ilana's snack

A bunch of confused looking trees.

The dogsled woman!

A Krampus snowman? Or a Halloween snowman? Who knows...

This week off was spent relaxing and going on a few adventures. On Tuesday I went to Ikea, and felt like I was back in America/Sweden. On Thursday, I travelled out to Kloster Andechs - a cloister/brewery out in the countryside. It took forever to get there, but our determination served us well with excellent beer.

Tiemo, Ben & Daniel

Ilana - Wie süß!

On Saturday, I hiked a portion of the Risserkogel in the Alps. Autumn is beginning to make everything look, feel and smell wonderful here.

Justin looking very Mysterious.

At the foot of the mountain is the Tegernsee, and a beautiful (but expensive!) vacation type town

Some quaint castle nestled into the side of another mountain

Then I skyped with my sleepy dog. 

Classes have begun this week and so far everything seems awesome. I'm taking three classes with L&C, and 4 at the University here - though I'll drop three once I've figured out which ones are the best. This coming saturday is "Die Lange Nacht der Münchner Museen" (The Long Night of the Munich Museums - for 15 Euros you have access to all of the participating Museums from 7 until 2 in the morning) which I plan on attending - so I'll post again soon!

Last Saturday began our 5-day stay in Berlin. Mostly, we did rather touristy stuff and to be honest I hardy feel like I got to know the city at all - but I'd like to return to explore some more. Berlin is much bigger than Munich - the population there is almost triple what it is here. Additionally, Berlin seems to be much more spread out. Nonetheless, I had a great stay, and excellent Döner. Miss you already Mustafa's. 

Bored train ride "art"

Graffiti was a breath of fresh air - in Munich it hardly exists at all

Atop the Bundestag/Reichstag building

A beautiful old Zionist church we found in Prenzlauer Berg 

For 1 euro we were allowed to climb up the tower

to find this incredible view of the city

There was also a running theme of "mini books" while in Berlin, I have no idea what was up with that..

The Western side of a portion of the wall

 Inside the Pergamon Museum:

There were amazing rugs and tapestries in the Islamic portion of the Museum too

Nebuchadnezzar II's Ishtar Gate

 I've been sick since I've been back - but this coming week I'm off from school, so I plan to explore the nooks and crannies of Munich more extensively.