Regensburg round 1 (sorry for the long post)

We should have only driven for 1 1/2 hours to make it to Regensburg but while we were leaving Nuremburg we came across 2 accidents, the first we have seen since being in Germany. Instead it took us an exhausting 2 and ½ hours. Needless to say we were very tired and extremely hungry. Getting to the campsite wasn’t all that difficult. A few things happened at this campsite that left an extremely sour taste in our mouths. Anna insists it’s our license plates. The owners of the campsite, from the moment we arrived, were treating us as rudely as they could. They provided us with no information, talked short with us and even criticized my backing in because I didn’t do it in one movement. They were the first rude people we have met on this trip. It got worse the next day too. When we went to leave the site to go free camp, they tried and failed to lock up our electrical cord, yelled at Julie when I wasn’t around for driving between the hours of noon and 3 pm, then he showed me a piece of paper with German on it looking at me as if I knew what it said. Then when 3 pm came around we went to leave, but they were busy bringing in new customers, at one point it seemed to us that they were trying to keep us so they could charge us for another night, well, we paid the night before so as soon as the last van blocking our exit was led to a spot we peeled out and didn’t look back. Anyway, we used the internet in the bar to find out if Anna was online so we could let her know we made it and find out about plans for the next day. Lucky for us, she was online and we were able to talk for only a bit as the internet was 2 euro for 30 minutes. Julie said when the 30 minutes were up that we should call her because it would be cheaper. We spoke with Anna after 3 messed up calls on our part (ran out of money for the call) for only 5 minutes and it cost us over 5 euros. Lesson learned. After Julie and I had a quick bite to eat and much needed showers we went off to meet Anna at her new apartment. It turns out that she was only about 1.4 km away from where we were camping so we were pretty happy about that. Anna has a much larger apartment than her last one I stayed at 3 years ago and it’s downtown too, so it was a great location for us to meet up for the remainder of our stay. We met two of Anna’s friends and Anna’s boyfriend Michael. We weren’t originally going to go to the HB, but other cheap food places were closed and they really wanted to show Julie and I traditional German food. We went really out on the edge too, we both tried Schnitzel and knoodle on the side. What surprised me was that Julie had no idea what Schnitzel was. To her surprise she liked it (I did too), but we both have trouble trying to describe what knoodle is exactly. So think of a round white ball that is almost like dough and potato mixed together. It’s good and soaks up the beer pretty good too. By the time the food was done, one of Michael’s friends, Jonas, stopped by for a quick beer with us. It was a great pub, with good food and even better company. But we didn’t stop there, we made our way to another bar for another drink, this one was fancier and Julie was able to have some wine, as she still doesn’t fancy beer, can’t remember the name of the place though.

Day 2
The next day we took our time getting ready, as we wanted to use up every last minute we paid for at the campsite. One thing we tried to do was our laundry. We washed it by hand as usual, but we needed to dry them that day so we placed them in the dryer for about 2 hours and they came out warm and wet. Just another thing to make our stay at the campsite unpleasant. Around 3pm we took off to Anna’s place as Michael was going to try to help us find a free, safe place to park. However, we needed to park the van somewhere before we met up with them. We drove around for about 20 minutes trying to find a place to park that was close enough to Anna’s, as well as free. We ended up finding a spot in a 30 minute zone outside a church. Now it should have only taken about 20 steps to get to Anna’s, but we went right rather then left and walked around for about 15 minutes before we got to her apartment. Once there, it was clear sailing to a parking spot on the side of a road, near a school and the police station. Michael and I walked back to Anna’s, but since Julie had our back pack and all our clothes, I didn’t have the GPS to mark the van, so unfortunately for Michael, he had to show us back to the van the following night. That night Anna treated us to some delicious pizza and Augustiner beer, according to locals, the best beer you can get in Munich and probably Bavaria. I have to say I did enjoy the beer. Lots of people showed up for Anna’s party, one of which I remember from my first visit here to Germany, was Niko – he invited Curtis and I to his birthday party last time around. There were so many new faces Julie and I have trouble recalling all their names. The first bar we hit up was called the Orange club, a 70’s style bar where Julie and I were treated to more beer, cocktails and shooters (thanks again Michael and Vera), around 3am the bar was closing so we made our way over to the Wunder bar which was down a flight of steps and was very crowded as most people venture here for the longer hours. This bar was also pretty alternative, the music they played was alternative and some of the clientele were dressed up. Nonetheless, it was another great bar and Julie did try to drink some beer but gave up after half. It was around 4:30 in the morning when we left this bar to get some food at a WurstleTony – basically a hot dog vendor, but selling all sorts of sausage dishes, along with fries etc. We waited outside for it to open (opened at 5am), and at first we were only a few people. At 5am though, there were so many people lined up and they all started pushing forward to order their food, it was like being in the front row at a concert. It was just craziness. Julie and I did spot that same vendor in our wanderings of the town and it was not nearly as packed. I tried a Knacker, sausage on a bun with sweet mustard and Julie tried currywurst with fries. We both enjoyed the food suggested to us by our friends, which surprised me because I’m not a huge fan of sausages. Instead of having Michael guide us back to the van, we opted to just sleep at Anna’s to make things easier, as we were all meeting up for breakfast that morning around 10ish.

Day 3
We all managed to sleep despite Anna’s cell phone beeping every few minutes (we didn’t know it was her cell phone until the morning when we actually cared to see what it was). Michael, Anna, Niko, Julia, Anne, Julie and I all went out for breakfast at a small café. We both tried the English breakfast, bacon, eggs, baked beans, toast with jam, salad and orange juice. It was good, as was the coffee I had and the continued conversations with the group. Music was a popular conversation topic, as I couldn’t believe how much American songs are played on the radio and both Niko and Michael are in bands. That Sunday was special in Regensburg, as all the shops were allowed to be open; they called it “Jazz Shopping” because most of the stores had Jazz bands playing. Julie finally bought herself a jacket at the extremely affordable H&M (it wasn’t a black jacket!!!). We took a stroll to pass the Cathedral and went inside to have a quick look. After our brief stay there we went to the old bridge to have a look at it and the river Danube. Both Anna and Michael were very knowledgeable guides; however we still went by the tourist office for more information and a city map. Since the next week Julie and I would have 5 days to go exploring on our own. Shortly afterwards Anna drove us up to Walhalla. Walhalla is a huge monument overlooking Regensburg and the River. It is pretty impressive and during the summer months it is a popular place to get drunk. However, since it was pretty cold (too bad), we didn’t hang out for to long and headed back to Anna’s place. While we were out we went by a grocery store and Anna was nice enough to explain what some of the things were. We also found something like Kraft Dinner but fancier for about 59 cents and so far it’s not bad. For dinner we had fried Camembert with a berry sauce (preiselbeeren), that reminded us of berries that you would find in the bush. We also had fried Eggplant on healthy bread, this of course was prepared for us by our gracious hosts Anna and Michael. Once Anna started nodding off, we headed back to the van and tried, for the 5th time since we started to watch the movie, to watch the end of Transformers with no luck. The past few days were pretty draining on Julie and I so we just decided to laze around today in the van before we met up with Anna and Michael to hang out. They put on a western spoof made by two famous German comedians, it was pretty funny – Blazing Saddles would be the English equivalent.

Day 4
The next day we headed into town to have another look at the Dom and some other sites. The Dom is pretty impressive from the outside and pretty decent on the inside, one thing that could use some work is the crypt, it wasn’t very large or very interesting when compared to others we have been in (we haven’t been in many). Julie really wants to buy a traditional dress for Oktoberfest so when we saw the stores we went in to have a look. It’s a pretty expensive outfit for a one time wear, but Julie intends to wear it for Halloween as well when she gets one. We wandered around some more, down some alleys and came across some interesting, and some not, stores. We didn’t buy anything though, just looked around. On our way into town we spotted Anna riding her bike – she was in a world unto itself so she rode right past us for a few meters before realizing someone had said hello to her and turning around. We didn’t talk long, but we did learn where the cheap bike store was. For 20 euros we could have had a bike that wouldn’t be worth stealing. But since walking is doing us fine at the moment, we decided to sleep on it. That night we went over to Michael’s place for dinner. Diner, once again was great. We had meatballs with schupfnudeln and salad. We hung out talking until late in the night.

Day 5
The following day we did absolutely nothing.

Day 6
So the day after that day, we headed into town as early as we could muster and finished our explorations of the city center, we also finished exploring the mall, critiquing the dinnerware. We intended to eat at a restaurant that Anna recommended but were unable to find it. So we once again went to McDonald’s to eat. This is our third time since we have arrived in Europe and we hate going in, but this time we were rewarded. Our dinner meals came with coke glasses. Since we have only been able to drink out of our metal camping mugs, this is an ideal change and we have made plans to go back and get two more the next day (for when we have company). We continued exploring a bit more before we met up with Anna and Michael that night. We all went to a bar called the Büro which serves 1.50 beers on Thursday’s. We ran into one of Anna’s friends at the bar, Nina, one we remember from Anna’s birthday party too. Julie had her first beer here, well sort of. She had a Raddler, which is half beer and half sprite. I’m glad to say she liked it and has ordered it more often (probably because her normal drinks aren’t available and because Raddlers are cheaper). After the pub it was home for a rest.

Day 7
Friday was a more interesting day for Julie and I. We were running a little late that morning as we left our van to meet up with Anna for coffee and a light lunch. Since we didn’t know where the cafe “Black Bean” was, we met her at the Dom. Luckily for us she was running a bit late too. It was a short walk (about 5 mins) to the café; there are two in Regensburg both with unique styling. Both have a very relaxed, lounge like feel. However, the one we went to was decorated with Buddha’s, rattan furniture and plants. Since it was an extremely nice day (the nicest since we arrived in Regensburg) we chose to sit outside the store in the sun. We went back to these coffee places twice more before we left Regensburg, and I tried my first Caramel Macchiato and Cappuccino, whereas Julie had her favorite Chai Tea Latte. The Macchiato was quite nice, not as sweet as I had expected. While we were chatting, Tobias (one of Anna’s friends) happened to see us and stopped by to join us. Since I don’t have a watch, I can’t tell you how long we sat for, but I am pretty sure we made Anna late. Afterwards, Tobias offered to show us a very inexpensive but good place to have lunch. On the way he also showed us his new office and explained how they were going to fix it up a bit over the weekend. Once we arrived at the restaurant, he joined us for a bit, helping us order and decode the menu. He was right, the place he took us to was fairly inexpensive (10 euro for the two of us) and quite good. On top of that, we couldn’t have asked for a nicer place to enjoy our afternoon. We sat in a small courtyard, surrounded by an old church on one side and the museum on the other. The courtyard was extremely quiet because it was cut off from the busy Maximillanstrasse just outside and beautiful because of all the plants. Julie and I continued to explore for at least an hour or so, because Anna and Michael were coming by later that night to pick us up and bring us to Wieden.