In February of 2015, my friend Jess and I used skyscanner to search for cheap flights during one of our rare weekends without M.A. classes on Friday evening. We found a great deal for Munich, so we downloaded DuoLingo German to our phones and practiced during our commutes for a week. Then, on Friday afternoon, we hopped on a plane to Germany.

It was frigid, so that evening we did nothing except eat kabobs and marvel at the universality of the English language.

On Saturday, we took a train south to visit Neuschwanstein Castle, which is something straight out of a fairy tale. That evening and Sunday morning, we explored the city of Munich a little longer, and then headed back to Madrid.