As we rode our train through The Alps from Venice to Munich, we instantly realized that Germany would be vastly different than Italy. Perhaps it was the snow we saw all around us during our train ride. Perhaps it was the fact that we have all been wearing long johns for the first time since we’ve been here in Munich. Whatever it is, it has been a change we have all welcomed.Arriving in Munich, we immediately took notice to the full size humans walking about. We had not seen that in weeks. Our hostel, Jaegers, was under construction but the inside was not so bad. After getting acquainted with our hostel, we headed out to our first German meal at a beer hall called Augustiner Brausuber. We can safely say our little eyes glistened when the huge MaB’s came out, beer glasses equivalent to 1 liter. Alex and David ordered the Braumiester, or brew master, which consisted of potato dumplings, two slabs of meat, ravioli, all smothered in cream of mushroom soup/gravy. The most delicious thing I have eaten ever. We also had huge Weissbiers and david had a Radler (half beer half lemon soda). Checklist: normal sized humans, normal size portions of food, huge beers, and the nicest people we’ve come across. Germany is great. After the first night we all pledged our allegiance, to Augustiner beer, one of the 6 famous and legendary beers of Bavaria. In fact, the only six beers allowed being drunk at Oktoberfest. The others are Lowenbrau, Spaten, Hofbrau, Hacker-Pschorr, and Paulaner, all brewed in Munich, and surrounding areas.
We came home to our roommate, harry, as I call him, Brittany calls him Eugene levy, and says he is a little bitch baby. (I only call him that because every night we come into the room and he has turned up the heat to a blazing 150 F. When I finally figured out how to turn down the radiator he is wrapped up in a blanket with the covers to his eyes, like somehow in the 20 seconds the heater has been off he is so cold that he has to wrap up like a little bitch boy burrito.) He is at least 34+ and so very hairy that every morning we have to look at Chewbacca’s back hair clogging up the shower drain. Unhumanly amounts of body hair. Like Robin Williams knuckles (or Kevin Derderian’s feet – David). The hair renders the bathroom useless until someone takes one for the team and washes down the entire bathroom. Nothing can describe how horrifying this task is.
We went on a walking tour our first full day in Munich and was lucky enough to have sun the entire tour. Sights included: The Feldhernhalle(Memorial to Bavarian Generals), Viktualienmarkt(famous market), Marienplatz, The Royal Residence, Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), The National Theater/Opera House, Memorial to the German Resistance, Maximillian Strasse, Church of St. Peter, The Old Town Hall, The Hofbrauhaus, The New Town Hall, Max-Joseph-Platz, Beer Hall Putsch, New Synagogue, The Glockenspiel, St. Jakobplatz. We also learned about Oktoberfest, maypoles, the history of beer gardens, and of course Hitler. We finished the walking tour and went to have drinks at the Hofbrauhaus, very good dunkel and starkbier, but the weiss was not near that of augustiner. There is a 3-4 week period for lent where every brewery has a strong beer or starkbier, which has a ton more alcohol in it. It is not advertised, we got tipped off by our friend Heidi (our tour guide who also moonlights as a pretzel girl at the Hofrauhaus), and only those in the know can get it. We ate dinner at the beer hall Augustiner-keller. It is one of the oldest beer halls and has the brewery on site. It also has a downstairs dungeon/bunker where live bands play polka and Bavarian folk. We had the sweetest old lady as our waitress and assisted us on our beer decisions. “We have two beers the special beer that is dark or the regular lighter one, both tapped directly from wooden barrels”. “Well ok, we’ll have the special one!” The meal consisted of a huge “pork knuckle” and other germanic barbarian delights. A liter of the special beer proved to move an average sized man to the “tipsy” side of the spectrum. Supposedly the monks, who first started brewing, brewed this extra strong beer for lent, when they fasted, and called it liquid bread. Again we went home to the little man-baby nestled in his blanket cocoon.
Our third day was a bit uneventful due to the fact we tried to go to Dachau on a tour, but not enough people showed up so the tour was cancelled. As a consolation, we decided to go to the biggest beer garden in Munich, the Englisher Gardern. On the way, I (David) wanted to show Alex and Brittany a spot on the river where a pipe under the water causes a constant wave. At this point, several Germans regularly wear wetsuits, and drop into the wave with their surf boards and surf this wave. Unfortunately, we never passed this point because I couldn’t remember where exactly it was, but luckily to prove to them that it actually occurs, we happened to pass a news paper stand that had a picture of Germans actually surfing at this spot I remembered. Once we arrived at the garden, it was not a green, lush, and full of people like I remembered it. Instead, the trees were all dead and there were about 12 people around the area that can easily hold thousands. We enjoyed a very cold beer, and after about 30minutes in the cold, decided we had enough of the beer garden. We later had a delicious meal of Japanese food that we walked through a bit of a snow storm (light flurry) to get to. This is when Alex announced the title quote and we all had a good laugh. After dinner, we decided to try to make the morning tour for Dachau the following day, so we went to bed a bit earlier than usual.The next day we woke up early and were greeted by a high of 38 and a low of 24. We decided it was a good time to on a tour, and went to the Dachau, the first concentration camp, on a guided tour through the grounds and the memorial site (We showed up for the earlier tour and were happy to see enough others showed to make the tour possible). Dachau was the only concentration camp to run the full 12 years of the 3rd Reich and also the training grounds of all the SS troops. Dachau was also the blue print for all other concentration camps in terms of the overall layout, so we got a sense of what all the concentration camps looked and felt like. Needless to say this tour was a very depressing. Our tour guide was certified guide of the camp and was full of information. It was especially interesting to hear about what the Germans living around this camp thought was going on. Unfortunately, a family of trolls (later described as mongloids, Cro-Magnons, or some sort of human subspecies) that was on the tour with us did not like hearing the whole story and decided to have a debate with the tour guide. This was a bit distracting, but luckily did not ruin the memorable experience for us. The tour ended up running longer than we anticipated, so we were all quite famished once we returned, so we had a lunch/dinner of Subway, which was a nice change of pace from the hearty German cuisine that had been taking its toll on our digestive systems. (This is an understatement. Some of us have been paying the price for these meals for the last 3 days). After the meal, we went to the grocery store to grab a few last traditional Bavarian beers we had yet to try, and decided to call it a quiet night in our hostel due to our early train ride to Vienna the next day.
new pictures up at the following:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/euroexplosion/
&
http://www.flickr.com/photos/euroexplosion2/
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