Munich

Ok, so I know that I was going to write about Munich yesterday, but it was TOO HOT in Freiburg, and Germans don't believe in air conditioning, so I spent most of the day trying to keep cool, which meant not having the hot computer on my lap.

I had such an awesome time in Munich, it was a great weekend spent with great people. We left in the morning on Thursday and decided to go there the cheap way, which means all regional trains. We had to stop and switch trains a bunch of times, the coolest place being in Ulm, which is right on the border of Bavaria. We had an hour wait there and found out it was home to the biggest church tower in the world, so we went to check it out. It was pretty awesome, but we ended up missing our connection. Also a fun fact: Ulm is the birthplace of Albert Einstein!

We finally arrived in Munich hot and tired. The eight of us checked into our hostel and then went straight to the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer hall in the world, for a traditional German dinner. I got bockwurst with sauerkraut. I have lived in Germany for 3 months but I am still not a fan of sauerkraut, grosssss. We headed back after dinner because we were too exhausted to go anywhere else.

Being in one hostel room with 7 other people is totally ridiculous and totally hilarious. Since we all knew each other, it was non-stop joking and ripping on each other. The only problem with our room is that there was only one bathroom! Since I wake up so early, I was put in charge of getting people moving in the morning. On average, it took us between 2.5 and 3 hours every morning to get ready, since some people are sloooow movers. It was hilarious though trying to figure out who the sleep talkers, snorers, and loud sighers were, and frightening when the person on the bunk above you moved!

The next morning when we all did manage to get up and moving, we went to explore the city. We saw 3 different churches (Europe is all churches if you haven't realized by now, and maybe a castle or 2 thrown in for good measure) and went to the Marienplatz to see the world famous Glockenspiel chime at 11:00. It was slightly disappointing, but definitely something we couldn't miss while we were there.

In the afternoon we split up. Some of us wanted to go to the concentration camp Dachau, and some people wanted to stay behind. I decided to go. Dachau was the only concentration camp open during the entire war from 1933-1945 and was one of the worst labor camps during this time. Upon arrival, there was a path that led up to the main gates which read Arbeit macht Frei (work will set you free) and all the prisoners saw as they entered the camp. Some American tourists decided it would be cool to shut themselves inside the prison gates and have people take pictures of them stuck inside a concentration camp, which I found to be totally classless and kind of disgusting. Anyway, inside there was a big courtyard where the prisoners had to line up every day for roll call and stand for hours and hours. I visited the inside of a bunker where hundreds of people were crammed into tiny little beds, a really large and extensive museum that told the entire history of the camp, and the crematorium/gas chambers which was the most chilling part of the concentration camp. Most of Dachau was burned down after the war ended, but there were still the foundations of all the bunkers where the thousands of prisoners
were kept. The whole experience was very moving and I'm glad I decided to go and learn more about the darker side of the country I'm studying in.

The next day, we took a two hour train to Neuschwanstein, the castle that Walt Disney based the ones in Disneyworld and Disneyland on. When we got there, we took a bus to the foot of the mountain and then had to hike up to the castle. It was very hot and we were all sweaty. We had to get a guided tour (there is no other option), and we had a 3 or 4 hour wait, so we decided to hike around the gorgeous surrounding area and wandered upon an alpine stream with freezing cold water. We dipped our feet in and immediately felt refreshed. When it was finally time for the tour, some of us decided to do it in English and some chose to do it in German. I chose English and kind of regretted it a little, again because of ridiculous American tourists that think it's ok to bring little kids and let them scream and climb all over everything. The castle itself was actually really interesting. It was built by King Ludwig II and took 17 years before it was complete enough for him to move in. He only lived there for a little more than 100 days before he was mysteriously found dead in a lake in Munich. To this day, no one knows how he died and the castle remained unfinished, but opened to the public only 6 weeks after his death in 1886.

That night, after a terrible train ride home filled with just about every crazy person living in Munich, we met up with Jeff's friend living in the city and she brought us to a restaurant where all the Munich locals eat. I ordered some wieners and they were amazing. I discovered I am also not a fan of potato salad either, though.

In the morning, some of us headed back to Munich, some decided to travel on, and some remained in Munich for the rest of the day. I was part of the crew who headed home early which was kind of a terrible experience filled with long, hot, train rides, OBNOXIOUS children, too many changes, and one train that just didn't show up at all and stranded us at a tiny hick station in the middle-of-nowhere Germany. Coming back to the Freiburg Hauptbahnhof is always an amazing feeling though and we all agreed that there's no place like home.