Just Another Day..

It's the second weekend of the program, which means  that we've officially been here over a week now. What a week it's been. For now, I'm gonna focus on what I've been doing the past two days, because they've been great.

Yesterday, a few of us went to Olympic Park to check out the pool, because one of the guys in our group dives for Pitt. It took a while to get there (we had no idea where we were going), but once we got there, the park was absolutely stunning. The main attractions, of course, are the pool and the Olympic stadium (which we didn't take the time to visit). However, the surrounding park area is beautiful. I need to take a day, possibly tomorrow, just to explore the park and the surrounding area. The pool facility though, is also breathtaking. Being an Olympic structure, the architecture just makes it seem like something from a different world.

Coming in the main entrance, you're immediately greeted with this great view of the pool, and the giant wall of glass windows that leads to the outside. Paying to get access was very reasonable, considering the experience would be using the same facilities as some of the world's best athletes.

Today, we visited BMW World and the BMW Museum, and followed that with a trip to Marienplatz for the celebration of FC Bayern Munich winning the Bundesliga.

The trip to BMW was amazing to me. I'm a sucker for classic cars and car design. Getting to see not only the newest technology and vehicles, but also their predecessors, was a great experience. Again, this building was just an amazing structure. The inside of BMW World was littered with all of their newest models for people to view inside and out. They even had some of the other brands they own, such as Mini and Rolls Royce. I never thought I'd be that close to a Rolls Royce in person, but I think I at least now have a life goal for a car that I'd like to own.

The BMW Museum is probably going to end up as one of my favorite events of this trip. Growing up, my dad owned several classic cars, so I've got a lifelong love for these vehicles. Getting to literally walk through the history of BMW automobiles was incredible, and is something I'll likely never forget. On top of all of the classics though, they also had several concepts, which were simply mindblowing. Overall, it was a great experience.

After we left, we headed to Marienplatz for the FC Bayern Munchen celebration. I'm not a regular soccer fan, but I know enough to know that winning the Bundesliga is a big deal. In fact, this is the second year in a row that the men have won the title, and both the men's and women's teams won this year. Getting in to the plaza was difficult, with security checkpoints and a large number of fans. Actually being in the plaza though, was a crazy experience. I don't think I'll ever love anything as much as these fans love their soccer team. When the celebration actually got underway, I had zero idea what was happening, as the entire program was in German (naturally). However, between the chants and the singing, you could tell it was a great time and that everyone really loved their team. I even ended up a bit of a fan by the end of it.