Ok, so maybe the title isn't the best, since in all honesty, I learned so much, there would be no way to tell you what I learned. Having said that... I apologize in advance for the length of this blog post. :)
So Thursday, Kevin and I left Cambridge and headed to the airport to go to Germany! We got there kind of early and gates don't get posted until about 45-60 min before the flight, so we just hung out. I found a World of Whiskey store and made sure to get a pic for dad. :) We got onto our plane (Easyjet) and we were already to go (even got decent seats, minus the 2 annoying kids in front of us) and the pilot came on and told us we had been delayed an hour and a half, and we had to stay on the plane. When we finally did take off, all was smooth until we got almost to Munich. There was a storm going on, so we were put in a circle pattern for a half hour before we could land. As we began descending, lightning was flashing all around us (super scary). And of course the two kids in front of us were like "cool! look, i can see fork lightning!" It's a miracle no one strangled them. When we did get in, we grabbed our bag, and we were exhausted. Unfortunately, we then had to figure out how to use the German underground (U-bahn/S-bahn). When we got our tickets (finally), we got on the train, but that ended up terminating sooner than we needed it to, and so at 11:30 pm we were trying to figure out what to do. We don't speak great german, and no one speaks great English. It was interesting to say the least. We finally got to the Pension, and checked in and crashed.
Day 2 was a day trip to Salzburg, Austria. We had to be at the central train station at 9 am, so we were up at 7 and figuring out how to get there. We got there, and all was good. We only got lost once or twice (lol). :) It was rainy in the morning, and we were hoping it wouldn't rain all day. Anyways, we met w/ our tour group, and hopped on a train to Salzburg. By the time we got there (about 11:30) it had stopped raining, but was still cloudy. We got about an hour and a half tour of the city. We saw Mozart's house, the steps/gardens where the "do re mi" scenes were filmed, and this awesome castle that has never fallen (as in war time fallen, not physically fallen). We had the afternoon to ourselves to grab lunch and explore. It was beautiful. Sunny and about 75 degrees. perfect weather. So we grabbed lunch, and then headed to the castle. We went up the tram and got some 360 views of Salzburg and the Alps. After that we went to this church where there was some good statues and such. After that we went to the market area and got a pretzel. :) We met up w/ our group about 4:30 and headed back to the train station to head back to Munich. As we got on the train, the clouds started creeping up, and about half way back, it started raining again. By the time we got back it was about 7pm so Kevin and I headed back to the pension, and just grabbed dinner in the neighborhood we were staying in. I had my first kebab. It wasn't too bad, but the language barrier made it difficult to get what I was wanting. After that we just headed back to the Pension and chilled. Again, it was a beautiful day all day, and that night it stormed again.
Day 3 was time in Munich. The first half of the day we went on a Third Reich Walking Tour of Munich it started in the town center by the "new" town hall. However, they were finishing setting up for gay pride weekend when we got there so it made things extremely interesting. :) We met up w/ our tour group and headed off. It was really interesting seeing all these famous places and learning about the history.
A few things I learned: 80% of Munich was bombed; many of the taller landmarks were left alone so they could be used as landmarks; The Haufbrahaus was where Hitler began making speeches because beer halls are where everyone hung out and it's a lot easier to persuade people to do stuff when they're drunk; Hitler originally wanted to be a painter, but was turned down by university twice; After WWII, they were originally going to leave bombed out Munich as is and then rebuild about 50 miles away, but they couldn't do that, so they rebuilt, but a lot of the buildings were built w/ new materials in the old style.
That afternoon we went back to the train station to meet up w/ Kevin's cousin Jared and Jared's friend Sam who are both stationed up by Nuremberg. That proved difficult b/c they got in late, and we didn't know, and when we did find out, we had already left, so we had to go back and find them. We did, and so after that we literally just walked around Munich aimlessly for an hour and a half. So there was also apparently some sort of convention going on as well as gay pride weekend b/c we saw a lot of people dressed up in Star Wars weekends as we walked around (they could be related, but I don't think so). The good thing about the German S-bahn/U-bahn is that you can buy what are called partner tickets and they cover up to 5 people on ticket. So it was less than 10 euros total for a day ticket for us to ride around on. Also, no one actually checks the tickets. It's basically on the honor system. I don't think I saw one conductor/station person the entire time we used the S-bahn/U-bahn. Anyways, since we had this partner ticket we took Jared and Sam back to our pension for a half hour or so. Then we headed to the fun part of our evening. :)
The beer and food tour!!!!! The four of us had tickets, and so we headed back to the train station (it was literally our second residence while we were in Munich). We met up with our tour. There was about 16 of us total. We had a welcome beer and got a quick run down of what we were going to do, and then it was off to the Oktoberfest Museum. Now, I should mention here that it had been gorgeous all day, and as we went into the Museum, the clouds started rolling in. The plan was for us to be at the Museum until about 8 and then head to Haufbrakeller. We got through our guided tour of the museum, and at the end we got to sample 3 different beers (I definitely like the Weisse biere). They also gave us pretzels to eat, and not just any pretzels, but Bavarian pretzels that are like the size of your hand. Anyways, it had started raining while we were in the museum, so we had to chill a little longer until it stopped, which it eventually did. Then we caught the tram and headed to Haufbrakeller, but we didn't get there until about 8:45/9. Jared and Sam had to duck out by 9:20 in order to catch the tram back to the station. However, they got to eat w/ us first. We were served a traditional Bavarian cold dinner complete w/ different sausages/brautworsts/salamis, cheese, ham, bread, onions, sauerkraut, pretzels, and pickles. It was all really good. And of course, we all had another beer there (When in Rome). When we were all done it was about 9:45/10 and so we headed back out to catch the tram and go to the Haufbrahaus. However, the tram ended up being late, and it had started raining again as we waited. So about 10 of us (some people had left) huddled under the cover trying to stay dry. The tram came and we all hopped on and headed off. Unfortunately, the tram line was being work on and it was terminated about a mile from our destination and the rain really started coming down. So we ducked into a theater lobby to wait it out. As we were discussing what to do, the house manager came up and offered to let us watch the last 15-20 min of this 100 euro dinner show for free while we waited for the rain to stop. About 6 of us accepted, and the other 4 caught taxis to wherever they needed to go. The show was called "Move" and there was no talking, just music. So we saw the end of a Spanish dance, we saw a trapeze act (it was amazing, words cannot describe it), and then we saw the finale which involved jump roping and a pom dance. It was pretty cool. When it was done, we all headed back out, and the rain had let up, but it hadn't quit, so the decision passed to us, so the 6 of us decided to just go through the rain. So we did. Once there, 2 more left for the train. So 4 of us got a quick tour of the Haufbrahaus (it was 11pm) before we were let loose to go get a drink. Last call was at 11, so we found a table and grabbed a biere. Now, after 6pm, this place doesn't serve anything less than 1 liter beers. It was awesome. There was a band, and lots of drunk people to watch, lol. After that, Kevin and I went our separate ways and headed back to the pension.
Day 4 was our last day in Munich. It, also, started off beautiful. We checked out and went and got a luggage locker at the train station for the day. After that we went out and caught the Hop on Hop off tour bus. It took us to a lot of places we had already been, but it was still nice to see it again. So we had tickets to ride that around all day, and we had all day 4-zone tickets (b/c we had to go to the airport later). So after we rode through the whole thing once, we rode around again to the royal gardens, got out, and walked to the english gardens. We walked around the gardens and saw a standing wave where people were surfing (in Munich! go figure) and the Chinese bieregarten. We also saw a lot of people laying out b/c it was so nice, unfortunately for us, it was clothing optional, lol. Anyways. For lunch we went to one of the bieregartens and got some food. Then we hopped on the S-bahn/U-bahn out to Olympic park. It was pretty cool. They had made some improvements since they were competing for the 2018 winter Olympics (they lost to South Korea I believe). We spent a few hours there just chilling. There was also a BMW museum there that we stopped off in. We headed back to the city center so we could watch the glockenspiel go off (we ended up being disappointed, it's broken). So we caught the U-bahn/S-bahn still in and caught the hop on hop off bus around to Marienplatz (city center). It had started raining while we were underground though (go figure). Luckily, I had my umbrella. We got there kind of early so we people watched a little at the gay pride weekend thing and listened to what was going on on stage (I think it was a drag show. I couldn't see or understand what was being said). After we were disappointed, we went back to the train station, got our bags, and headed to the airport (much less adventurous this time around). We grabbed dinner there, and listened to the thunderstorm come through. It cleared off before we took off though, which was nice.
But, just because that wasn't enough of an adventure... Our flight ended up being delayed about a half hour b/c so many people brought suitcases that it wouldn't all fit in the overhead bins so they had to get some people to come out and stick them below. So Kevin and I got in at 11:10 instead of 10:45 and our bus back to Cambridge left at 11:35. Needless to say, we did not make it. We had to take a tram back to the main terminal, and then get through customs. We were like, crap, I guess we're sleeping in the airport. But, we went to the bus station anyways, just in case they had another bus going that way. Lucky for us, they did!!! Yay!!!! It left at 1am. So we had about an hour to kill, and then we took a 40 minute bus ride back to Cambridge. We got in about 1:45. Monday morning, we were both up for classes, and neither of us fell asleep in class (at least, not for the whole class) ;).
It was definitely a fun weekend, and one that will definitely be remembered. It's always things that don't go according to plan that you remember distinctly for years to come. Pics are up on facebook, but I think i'll post a few on here as well.
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