Germany: Part 1

I'm finally back in Rome after a long trip throughout Germany. I made it to six cities over the nine days I was there, so by the end I was pretty exhausted.
Because I did so much while I was out there, this will be "Part 1" of my Germany trip and I'll put up part two in a couple days.

Breakin in Dusseldorf
Ok, so the first thing on the agenda when I got to Germany was a breakdancing competition outside of Dusseldorf. A good friend of mine who used to be a gymnast and later a performer in La Reve in Vegas, is now part of a big breakdancing crew in the US called Full Force. They were invited to compete in this battle and he asked me if I wanted to come check it out. I had nothing better to do, so I got on a plane to Germany and went to check out my first breakdancing experience.
The battle was in what looked like an old warehouse that seemed ideal for the event and it was packed. The crowd had a pretty eclectic group with hip hop listening teenagers sitting next to grandparents with their grandchildren.
Being a gymnast, I can really appreciate the difficulty of breakdancing, but watching it firsthand was just awesome. There were teams from all over the world and even though Full Force didn't win (they lost in the semi-final to the eventual winner, Belgium) they had a distinct style that in my opinion was not matched by the other teams. At the end of the battle two 8 year old kids came out and did a little show for the crowd...it was incredible. One of the kids did air flairs! I'm sure most of you don't know what those are so here's a quick video of what they look like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAnNXYTK6uk&feature=related

...wow.


Gymnastics Stop #1
From there I took the train to Stuttgart where I got the chance to watch the Champions Trophy competition. My old coach from the OTC, Vitaly, and one of my old teammates, Joey, were there competing, and it was great to be able to watch them out on the floor. The prize for winning the Champions Trophy was 15,000 Euro and a brand new convertible Mercedes...where were those prizes when I was competing?!! The gymnastics community is small so at big competitions like this one I not only get to see friends from the USA, but from all over the world. We all went out and had a chance to enjoy the Stuttgart nightlife a little bit.
While I was in Stuttgart I stumbled upon a German holiday tradition, Gluhwein. It's hot red wine that they mix with spices and a little piece of fruit. I can see why Germans like this stuff during the cold winters!

Hangin in Munich
Next stop on the trip around Germany was Munich. I stayed in a hostel for the first time and met a bunch of people from around the world who are doing the same thing as me...just taking some time and traveling the world. It was interesting to see where their travels had taken them and what cities they thought were worth checking out. After spending a few days there seeing the sites, taking the tours, and of course drinking the beer, Munich has now been included in my list of favorite cities (of course it's a long list that includes NYC, SF, Rome, Tokyo, Paris...). One of the coolest things I learned about Munich was that before the war Hitler had the Munich city plans and all the major artwork taken to a secret location in the Alps so that if the city was damaged they could rebuild in the same way. Well, it was just about completely destroyed by air-strikes and instead of rebuilding in a modern way, they found the original city plans and artwork Hitler had hidden and rebuilt the entire city! Looking around the city you can't tell that just about everything is 60-70 years old. Munich is a city rich in tradition and they are people who are very proud of what they have to offer. They also seem to have a pretty big rivalry with Berlin which I wasn't aware of. I still haven't visited Berlin, but I'm sure I'll get there at some point so I can make my own comparisons.
Here are some other things I did in Munich:
-visited the BMW museum and showroom. I've now seen the BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche museums. All very different...and all worth seeing. (Also, saw the stadium from the '72 Olympic Games which is close to the museum).
-went running in the "English Gardens." This park in the city is also twice the size of Central Park in NYC. That's the second city I've been to in the last couple weeks that had a park of that size. (Dublin was the first)
-went to the Deutsches museum. It's one of the biggest science museums in the world. I spent about and two hours there and I saw about a third of it. You could spend a couple days in this place seeing everything.
-had a beer at the famous Hofbrauhaus. I was told it's a tourist trap with pretty high prices, but you have to experience it once, right?? Right.


In Part 2...
-visiting Fabian in Wetzlar
-Cologne and a bad ending to the trip.