Everything was going smoothly to start the trip to Germany; our first flight to Charlotte went well and we were well on our way to Munich. Suddenly, on the Munich flight the pilot announced a detour to JFK airport in New York. Fast forward 5-hours of sitting around in an airport, we finally board the plane to Munich. Our (second) flight to Munich went without any technical difficulties and we arrived in Germany at noon.

After arriving in Munich, we then needed to take a bus to Augsburg. By the time we arrived, we were starving, so I got food at a local Doener restaurant. Doener is a type of Turkish food that became popular in Germany with the arrival of Turkish immigrants. After this, we took a brief tour of Augsburg and toured the Fuggerei: the oldest remaining social housing complex on Earth. At the end of the day, we ate dinner with students from the University of Augsburg.

My biggest surprise from my first day in Germany is that the masking policy is very lax. I was expecting strict enforcements of masking in restaurants and other crowded indoor places, but it seems to only really be enforced on public transportation. Besides this, everything was pretty much expected, except for our delayed flight.

Servus,

Nate Ginck