Munich, Germany

Monday, June 6th

Today is our first and only full day in Munich. A breakfast buffet is served at our hostel for 3.70 Euro. Morgan took advantage of this, while Mark and I slept until 10AM. We quickly showered and got ready for a free tour at 11AM. I, Natalie, also researched carpooling once again. I asked the front desk to call 5 or 6 German numbers but all to no avail. We put transportation to Berlin aside, and headed on our tour. 

The tour was led by a man who was half Bavarian and half Portuguese. He was born in the Bahamas, raised in Canada, has lived in four states, and somehow is now living in Munich as a tour guide since 2006, and has done over 2000 tours. The man was brilliant, and one of the best guides we've had so far. He told us the history of Bavaria, about the culture of Munich, the differences between Munich and Berlin, as well as, the Nazi history. Germany as a country is only about 140 years old. It is the accumulation of 16 separate states, that to this day are still incredibly different and biased towards one another. Munich or Munchen or Monaco of Bavaria are all the names for this city. These terms all relate to a town with Monks. This city of Munich has also been one of the wealthiest in Germany since the middle ages. Munich once controlled Salzburg, which is a city with a massive salt mine. Salt was white gold back in the day. Our term "SALary" comes from the word salt. By controlling the salt trade, Munich gained incredible wealth. 

Munich or the state of Bavaria is also incredibly catholic. The Protestant movement never was able to form in Bavaria. The leader of the movement loved Munich and knew of its wealth. So the leader took 42 Munich hostages, and asked for a 300,000 dollars of their currency in exchange. This was an incredible sum back then, but Munich paid it off in 3 years. So Munich was allowed to stay catholic. The current pope is from Germany, and was the archbishop at the catholic church in Munich during the 70s and 80s. Munich is so catholic that the glochensphell or the giant clock tower that plays 4 songs everyday at noon, is not allowed to play on one day out of the year...Good Friday. Any public establishment, like a bar, is also not allowed to play any music on Good Friday. Doing so will cost you nearly a 100 euro fine. 

Being catholic also establishes them as a very conservative state. Being conservative is a general assumption of an older population. When you're young, you're liberal and as you age one becomes more conservative. Also, the older you are, generally the more wealthy you are. So Munich is an old, traditional, conservative, wealthy, catholic state. These are all traits completely opposite that of Berlin. Berlin is a very modern city, striving to move forward, has a much younger, liberal population, and is protestant. Berlin and Munich are rival cities to the core, and completely opposite in every aspect it seems. You cannot even mention lederhosen in Berlin, because they take offense to it. Lederhosen is a purely Munich tradition and is only in the Bavarian culture. Again, Munich is old and in the past, while Berlin is fancy and modern. Munich even has a clock that is backwards. The numbers are in a counterclockwise arrangement and the clock even runs counterclockwise. 

The food is even different. When you think of typical German food, bratwurst and beer come to mind. Pork is the major staple of Munich, not Berlin. Berlin is much farther norther and closer to the sea. Hops fields cover the landscape surrounding Munich, and employees are even allowed to drink 1.5 liters of beer a day at work. Monks that lived here during lent, back in the day, were fasting on Fridays so could not eat. However, they were allowed to drink 5 liters of beer a day. It was incredibly concentrated at nearly 18% alcohol per liter or over 700 calories or like eating 1.5 Big Macs. Munich is full of beer gardens and we walked through the most famous beer hall called the hofbrauhaus. The beer gardens are tables surrounded by chairs, all under the shade of chestnut tree. Young adults, families, and even grandmas can be see enjoying a liter of beer under the shade. These gardens are the social meeting place for many people on a hot summers day.

Our guide also talked about the Nazi history of the city. The Nazi party was formed in 1920 and Hitler declared Munich as the capital of the Nazi party. Munich was not bombed in WWI but because of this title, only 4 buildings still stood after WWII. On 11.9.1921 the fascist movement began in Italy under Mussolini. Two years, 11.9.1923 Hitler saved the collapse of the Nazi party. During a meeting, Hitler showed up and took into a room three heads of state include the head of the police and head of military. He asked each one to join him. If they said no he would kill them, then commit suicide. That obviously did not happen so the Nazi movement was saved. In 1925 the SS was created. In 1933, the first labor camp, Dachau, was established outside of Munich. It was used for people defying the Nazi party. The camp forced people to work long hours with little food. So prisoners died a slow death. 

The idea of Jews as a scapegoat for the Nazi party was born after a Jewish man in Paris assassinated a German diplomat. The German working class was already incredibly bitter over the 6 trillion British pound debt the Versailles treaty had put on them after WWII. The Jews were the richest citizens, so it was not easy to plant the idea of blaming the Jews for their economic hard ache after the assassination of the diplomat. In 1938 was the glass breaking event, where Nazis went around breaking glass in the Jewish shops, and stealing on the goods. And soon after in 1939, WWII began which lasted until 1945. All except 4 buildings in Munich were leveled from the 54 American bombings. Nearly everything we saw on the tour has been built in the last 60 years. Everything was rebuilt to look as it did, so one year old cobblestone streets or two year old buildings are made to look hundreds of years old. Again, Munich is traditional, conservative, and old.

So overall, the tour was amazing. This is probably the most information we have ever remembered from any tour. After the tour we walked to the train station where we found out the train takes 10 hours for 18 euro. Or we could spend over 100 euro to ride a speed train. Mark and I opted for a 30 euro carpool ride, which our hostel was finally able to nail down for us. Then it started to pour. Thankfully the rain stopped after about two hours. 

The Texan named Ed, that Morgan and I had met in Serbia, comes to Munich every year for Oktoberfest so he had given us a list of restaurants and beer gardens to try. We went to his favorite restaurant called Augustine Mundart. This place was about a 20 minute walk from the city center, so we were in the more residential, non touristy area. There are many restaurants and beer gardens with the name Augustine, because Augustine is the brand of beer they serve. I had Augustine hell or lager, Mark had Augustine Wies? or wheat beer, and Morgan had a dark Augustine. The entire menu was in German, and since we were off the beaten path, they had no English menus. We asked him for some suggestions, and we choose a beef goulash, a fried spetzel and cheese dish, and a schnitzel with mushroom saw and spetzel. They were all fabulous and incredibly filling. 

We then wondered back to the main city center in search of a beer garden. The boys were looking for the giant beer hall called the Hofbrauhaus. Mark and I inadvertently stumbled upon it. We just followed the loud music and bam, there it was in all it's glory. The men were wearing leiderhosen, the woman had dresses on that pushed up their boobs, there were beer steins bigger than my head, and giant bavarian pretzels being passed out. There were massive wooden tables with white and blue table cloths and giant wood benches. The food coming out of the kitchen looked wonderful as well. During the night the boys each got two giant beer steins of about one liter each. I finally caved and ordered a dessert. It was a large pancake type dessert with raisins and powdered sugar. It also oddly came with a side of apple sauce to dip it in. It was good none the less. Four liters of beer, one dessert, and many stories later, we were ready to go. We slowly trekked back to our hotel for a good nights rest and to prepare for Berlin tomorrow. Our last city together!

Tuesday June 7th 

This morning Morgan left on the train to Berlin. His train took about 5-6 hours so he arrived around 3pm. Mark and I did not have a ride till 330pm, so we had some time to kill. After eating breakfast, we'd been given a suggestion to walk around the English Garden. On the map it looked like a big park, with a a large pond/small lake, and a chinese tower structure. It took us about 45 minutes to walk to the entrance. 

The park was beautiful with a stream/river running through it. At points there were small water falls and rapids. It was an incredibly fast moving stream. Everything was incredibly green and the trees were gigantic. I sadly am allergic to something in Germany, so walking through the park was probably not the best idea. I sneezed and blew my nose the whole time. But the scenery was still worth my suffering. We even passed a nude beach with old men laying on their stomachs basking in the sun. They must sunbathe a lot because their skin was a leathering brown color and did not look healthy. After winding our way through this gorgeous park, we came upon the chinese tower. It was a large, wooden, multi-story tower that had about 5 floors. The floors' circumferences got progressively smaller as you went up. There were a few beer gardens around the tower so we took a short break. We then found the large pond and walked around it. It was beautiful. Geese, ducks, and various birds were everywhere. People were paddle boating and fishing. There was a jogging and biking path around the whole thing, so many people were getting their exercise in for the day. It reminding me a lot of Madison and it's lakes during the summer. It was a peaceful hour walk around and back to the entrance of the park. Near the entrance was a bridge with a surfer wave underneath that we had missed earlier. The river is very quick under the bridge and the geography of the bottom made a large wave at the base of the bridge for surfers. On each bank of the river was a line of about 6 surfers in wet suits. A surfer would jump on his board and cruise back and forth on this large wave until he fell. Then within 5 seconds the next surfer would have a go. It was an efficient system, and was a lot of fun to watch.

We then walked back towards the hostel. Along the way we grabbed a drink in the beer garden and attempted to blend in with the locals. Afterward, we grabbed our bags and headed for the metro station. We had to change metros and wait five stops before we arrived at the station where we were supposed to meet our ride. I attempted to call the driver but he did not speak English. I quickly found an English speaking woman, who communicated to the driver for me in German. Apparently, we were at the wrong station and needed to go one more. This was completely different from the information we'd received the day before. We made it to the next stop, and found a Turkish man that spoke no English. He was apparently our ride, even though he was driving a completely different car then specified. It was a large van that was going to hold 6 other passengers. I said "Berlin?" He gave me a blank stare and nodded. That was not the most reassuring answer. When another girl came up, I asked her what was going on. She said that this van was going to Berlin, so then we felt better. I sat by her in the front, while Mark sat in the back with the five other men.

Her name was Veronica and she had grown up near Munich but had recently moved to Berlin. She was 25 and was a waitress. She was in Munich for an interview to work at a beer garden during Oktberfest. During those two weeks she said she would make 7,000 Euro!! She had to work 8am-12am though for two weeks straight. I wished her the best of luck. She was incredibly nice and we talked about everything including jobs, schooling, Texas, Germany, family, food, and bars. After the nearly 6 hour car ride, she even helped us through the metro system to find our hostel. She thankfully lived only two metro stops away from us, so she helped us navigate through Berlin. We had been dropped off on the VERY edge of the city, so it took another 40 minutes on the metro to finally get to the hostel. We said goodbye to her, and said we would try to meet for food and drinks tomorrow.

The hostel was directly on the corner of the metro exit, so it was easy to find this time. We checked-in and dropped our bags off. I met two Brazilian guys in my room, so they invited us out to a club around 1030pm. Mark met an Australian named Hayden in his room, so he joined us as well. We walked to a club called Kaffee Burger, which we thought had burgers to eat. Apparently burger in German means people, so they had no food! After a drink, we went down the street for some falafel and dessert. We went back to the club, listened to the DJ, and watched drunken people dance. The DJ was supposed to be playing dub step, but she was not. It was an odd electronic type music, that was not that interesting. We wandered back to the hostel asking for another suggestion even though it was two in the morning. He suggested Delicious Donut, which we never found. We trekked back to the hostel and went to bed. My sleeping cycle must be off, because I was not tired and decided to take a shower. The shower may have helped because I don't remember falling asleep. Hopefully my sleep cycle being off does not cause problems since I leave on Friday. The first full day in Berlin tomorrow!