Spring Break: Munich

Stop #3. Munich.

For my friend Marc's birthday, his friends and I were going to Munich with him. We signed up through a program that brings American students on European weekend trips. They took care of transportation, housing, and gave us a bunch of activities to do when we were in Munich. Lots of Americans!

Thursday night:

We got on the bus from Florence at 7 pm. It was a pretty nice coach bus with a bathroom and American movies. The 8 hour bus ride wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! I watched "SuperTroopers", "The Layer Cake", and some other movie that I am blanking on that was horrible...oh yeah, "Tropic Thunder". We got to our hotel in Munich around 3 am and went right to bed. I was in a room with Marc, 2 of his roommates, and 2 random guys from Penn State. But it was a nice hostel in a great location!

Friday:
Woke up at 10 in time for the free hostel breakfast. The director of the trip walked us into the main part of Munich, giving us tid bits of information along the way. There, we met Lenny, our bike tour guide for Saturday. It was sort of cold and rainy so he gave us the introduction to the bike tour (talking about the Glockenspeil, the main square, a little history of Munich) so we could have a long bike tour the next day. It was pretty interesting. Munich was the hotbed of Nazism and the city was destroyed in WWII but it is gorgeous now! There are a lot of churches and really cool, old buildings. Me and the people I was with (about 8 of us) went from there to Dachau Concentration Camp. It was about a 40 minute journey from the center of Munich to the suburb of Dachau. We then hopped on a short bus to the Concentration Camp. It was a cold, rainy, windy day and it seemed like fitting weather to visit the camp. I think it reinforced the severity of what happened there. It was chilling. The "Work Shall Set You Free" sign, the barracaks and bunks, the gas chamber that was supposedly "never used". We rented audio guides and wandered around the camp, witnessing touching memorials and gruesome accounts of life in the Concentration Camp. They had a very well done museum on the grounds that detailed life in the camps, who was there, what happened to people, etc. Most of the Jews were sent to Death Camps from Dachau. There were many other political and ethnic prisoners there as well. The Americans forced the people of Dachau to tour the camp just after liberation and see the mounds of dead bodies in the incinerators. The entire journey was very interesting and sad. Just the amount of people that came through that camp and the horrible experiments that were done. It was important for me to see it and be able to have that experience to continue to pass down.

We left the camp and made our way back to Munich. It was hard to come from that experience and continue to sight see and explore. We took a little nap/break at the hotel to 'recover'. From there, we made our way to the OktoberFest grounds to celebrate FruhlingsFest (Spring Fest). It is a huge carnival and beer festival. You walk out of the Metro and there are rides, games, carnival food, people everywhere, it's crazy. In the middle of it all is a beer hall that can fit around 5,000 people! It's completely full of picnic tables and everybody goes in there and to drink, eat amazing German food, and sing! There is a live band that plays all night. We met a bunch of people we knew at the Beer Tent and stayed there for about 4 hours, having dinner and drinking great liter beers! We meet a ton of funny people from all over the world and had an amazing night!

Saturday:
Woke up in the morning and met Lenny and his crew for our bike tour. It was Free!! Which was great for all the students. You are just expected to tip at the end, I gave 10 euro. The tour was great. Despite the fact that we were 3 groups of 30 on these California Cruiser bikes wreaking havoc on the Bavarian Capital, we were pretty discrete. We biked through a ton of historical sights in the city: The Max Palace, monuments , the place where Hitler and the German government had a standoff in the 1920's after Hitler took 3 Bavarian officials hostage! The English Gardens (a park twice the size of Central Park), and a lot of other places. We saw a man-made surfer wave in the alpine river that runs through Munich. We had lunch at the Chinese Beer Gardens - amazing food and beer. The tour provided us the perfect opportunity to really see Munich - definitely not boring! Afterward, we had a beer at the Augustine Beer Haus. There was a bachelor party there and the groom-to-be was dressed in a giant diaper and spandex. He had a list of things he needed to do during the day, and had to get everybody in the bar to sing a song about him and his fiancée. It was hilarious - people come to Munich to have a great time! We took a quick nap back at the hostel and made our way, again, to the Beer Tents at Fruhlingsfest! We had a few beers, went go-karting, slid down some giant slides, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Then, we took Marc out to Sushi for his 21st birthday. The place we went to was actually amazing! Good sushi in Munich! We were exhausted from a long day of touring and drinking so we went to bed around midnight. Happy Birthday Marc!

Sunday:
Sunday morning, the kids from Florence all boarded their bus to go back to Italy. I was leaving from Munich for Barcelona so I had a few hours to kill before the airport. I walked from the hostel to the Pinakothec Modern Art Museum. The building is stunning, housing a design exhibit and an architecture exhibit along with the modern art. There were some great neon pieces, a whole history of Ikea and furniture design (I feel like I saw a lot of stuff that was similiar to things from my Grandparents old house in Highland Park). I never really thought of furniture as art but it was really interesting. After the museum, I made my way back to the Hostel, got my bags, and took a train to the Munich Airport, which is one of the nicest airports I have ever been in! Off to Spain!