Munich!!!!!

June 30

After only getting about 4 hours of sleep, we all woke up to travel to Munich. What was really nice is that you can buy a group regional ticket (so that you don’t have to waste one of your ten days on the Eurail pass; we only want to use those for five overnight/weekend trips and we have 7 weekends here) that ends up only 10 Euros per person for the entire day. Next we had to start figuring out the train system. All in all it took about 5 hours to get to Munich. We all pretty much slept on the longer train ( we had to take three different trains to get there!) and sometimes had to squeeze close because the closer we got to Munich the more crowded it got. In Munich we took a free 3 hour walking tour of all the big tourist sites. Munich was so cool. Most of it was basically like a San Francisco type of town; they even had a small shopping center/ mall underneath the street that you could go into so that you didn’t have to cross this huge major street area. Once you get to the main plaza you start seeing all the amazing old buildings. They are all so beautiful but most of them are under restoration. Our tour guide was a young British man named Jon and he was so awesome. He really knew his history and he gave great details on everything. There was so much I can’t even remember all of it (mostly because it was 90 degrees so nobody could stand and walk in the sun and continue to pay attention). But some big things I remember  is that before World War I and II the government had blue prints and pictures and documentation of all the important buildings and churches so that after all the war and destruction they could rebuild everything exactly the way it was before (unlike places like Berlin that plopped newer buildings right on top of the destruction). I took a ton of pictures and I will be sure to put them up on Facebook with captions for everything so that I can give some better details about my trip. I learned so much about the Catholic church, the dark days of the Nazis, and their huge export of beer and there was so much to see. I tried a sip of my friend Katie’s beer at the Hofbrauhaus house and it was actually pretty good. I’m finding that the after taste of beer here is actually better tasting than back home. The Hofbrauhaus was so cool. It was the typical big pub that you think of with the huge band and performers in those funny costumes you see for Oktoberfest and the people sing loudly and swing their huge pints of beer around. We also learned that when everyone gets their beer, you all cheers in the middle (I forget what you say) and then hit it down on the table and then drink. We also learned about the farmers market (which is HUGE there and it’s there every day unlike back home) and about different clock towers. On one clock tower with 2 clocks on each side of the building, the top has a cross that faces at a 90 degree difference from all the other buildings and crosses in Munich. The silly story goes that one day the cross fell off and so they had to find someone dumb enough to climb to the top of the building to put it back so they just went down to a beer hole and found some drunk to put it back and he stuck it on the wrong way. We also learned that the big halls in the beer gardens are called wash rooms because they had to clean them so much because they used to have the gutters to pee in right on the floor under the tables (gross! And back when only guys were allowed in). After the tour we climb 360 stairs for 1 euro to get the best view of Munich. It was at the top of the clock tower and it was amazing (you’ll see in the pictures I put up). At the top couples will lock a lock with their names on it for good luck and hope that their love will last forever. It was so pretty and on our way back down we all signed our names on the walls (it’s tradition) to make our mark on Munich. After that we were so beat that we went to find somewhere to eat and then head home. Unfortunately people in Germany don’t believe in AC, ice, or cold drinks, so even the café we went into for dinner was hot and miserable. But I had an amazing Banana daiquiri (the only cold drinks) and sausage with bread. It pretty much was just like a typical American hot dog but it was cheap and quick so that was what I ate. After that it was time to go home. I wish we could have spent more time there because we didn’t even have time to really shop or see anything in the shops (so who know if and when I will get actual German souvenirs) but  I am thankful I got to see all the things I did.

The ride home was cool and on one of our trains it was a double Decker train… so of course we sat on the top deck. It was a long and draining day but so worth it. When we got back there was a huge storm; lightning that took up the whole sky, downpours, and wind that could knock you off you feet. It was insane.

Be sure to check out Facebook because I will be able to remember and tell more details of the tour by having the pictures right there.