I can officially leave Germany happily – not only have I fulfilled my goal of seeing the peaks of the Alps but I also RODE the peaks. This past weekend my roommate and I were originally looking to ski locally at a small mountain in the Black Forest. Upon texting our German friend, Matthias, he said, “actually I’m going to Munich this weekend and then heading south to Austria to ski the Alps, want to come?” YES!!

Taking the 6 hour car-ride to Munich, we arrived in the heart of Bavaria. Walking through the city, I loved how…GERMAN it was. One of the locals told us, that Bavaria is like the Texas of Germany and that whenever people think of Germany, they think of the Bavarian proud traditions of liederhosen, beer steins, and weisswurst. Sure enough there was tons of that! The locals greeted us with “Gruss Gott”, which I remember learning from my high school German class. It is equivalent to “Guten Tag” and is specific to the Bavarian region.

Where we stayed in Munich

Matthias is part of a German singing fraternity in Freiburg (very different from American fraternities and not affiliated with the Greek system). He has a sister singing fraternity located in Munich and after a quick call, they offered to house us for the weekend! Receiving our own room in the guesthouse of the home, we were so ecstatic for the great free housing. The brothers were extremely nice and cooked us an authentic Bavarian breakfast. Fresh weisswurst and soft pretzels with a delicious sweet mustard on the side – yummm. (Weisswurst literally means white sausage and was a spongier sausage that comes in a casing that you peel off once you cook them in water.) The brothers also showed us around all of Munich – we couldn’t have asked for better hosts.

The Alps

I love mountain range landscapes and I had been looking forward to the Alps for my entire trip. Clearest blue skies, breath-taking views, and peaceful massive mountains. I was in heaven. After waking at 4:30 AM to drive 3 hours to the Alps, I was re-awakened and revived by the crisp air and scenery. Being acclimated to the sub-freezing slopes of the American North-East, I was remarkably happy to find myself snowboarding without a ski mask and with 2 of my layers tied around my waist. I couldn’t help but exclaim “wow” every time I looked up at the mountains as I went down the slopes …hopefully no one heard me over the swooshing of the snow! Words just can’t do the whole experience justice…

After an exhausting and action-packed weekend, this was one of my favorite trips so far. The Alps were peacefully breath taking. Plus, I fell in love with Bavaria – can’t wait to come back to Munich at the beginning of May.

Location: St Anton am Arlberg, Austria