Noch Ein Bier, Bitte!

Prost! I just returned from a weekend in Munich, Germany- mostly to see the spring version of Oktoberfest- Fruhlingsfest.

I was anticipating a super long and awful bus ride; but it actually wasn’t too bad. We left Florence around 7/7:30 Thursday night, I was able to sleep from 11-ish on until we arrived in Munich around 3:30 am—at which point I went straight to bed once we got to our hostel rooms.

Friday morning, we tested out the hostel breakfast (pretty good, I must say- but nothing can top the cappuccinos from Sorrento) before meeting in the lobby at 10:30 to get to the center of town for our bike tour. Unfortunately our hostel was a bit inconveniently located- we weren’t within walking distance to anything and needed to take the metro. Not terrible, but definitely not ideal either. 

Once we figured out the metro for the first time and arrived at Marienplatz station (also the name of the central square in Munich), we met up with the leaders of our bike tour. I’ll admit that I may have started the day with a slightly negative attitude. It’s just difficult to stay positive at the thought of biking in the rain with an expensive camera and no hood.

But everything worked out fine- I was able to buy a 1 euro poncho at the bike station and then it stopped raining anyway about 10 minutes after we started biking. I LOVED biking around the city. We went through a lot of cute parks as well, which certainly made a nice change from the cement and pavement of Florence (OMG-Is that grass??).

Pork Knuckle with Potato Dumpling

After the tour (2:30 ish pm), we had a late lunch at Hofbräuhaus, one of the most famous beer halls in Munich. I split an order of Schweinshaxe (pork knuckle) with Liz as well as a giant pretzel. Our meal also came with a potato dumpling, which I still don’t know how I feel about- just kind of an odd texture/consistency. But everything was delicious, and I was definitely glad I didn’t order a plate all to myself!

As we were finishing up our meal, we glanced outside only to realize that it had begun to rain again. By the time we ventured outside, it was pouring. We quickly ran back to the station and took the metro back to our hostel to relax for a little while since we were still running on limited hours of sleep.

Langos with Nutella 

Later than we originally planned, around 6, we left the hostel to experience the festival for the first time. I had no idea that there were rides and game booths- it’s basically a huge carnival. The first beer tent we tried to go into asked us if we had a reservation and then promptly refused us entry when we gave blank stares and head shakes as a reply. We were able to go in the second tent, but never found a table for the whole time we were there- SO crowded! But also very cool- everyone was dancing on tables and singing German or American songs (there was a band). I had really wanted to rent or buy a traditional dress- dirndl- but there was never really time, and also they can be quite expensive. More room in my suitcase home for other things, I suppose. Next trip :)

That night at Springfest, after finally leaving the tent, we went searching for something sweet and chocolatey- and found just that. Michelle and I split a circle like pancake dough thing with nutella on top- Langos. Aka the most delicious carnival food ever. 

Saturday, Liz, Marina, and I decided to take a day trip to see Schloss Neuschwanstein, instead of spending the entire day at the festival. This palace that was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s and Cinderella’s fictional castles-the Disney versions, of course!

We decided to take a horse and buggy ride to the top of the mountain where the castle was (in lieu of walking). In retrospect, this was a mistake and I wouldn’t do it again. The ride was pretty and it was nice since I haven’t done the horse/carriage ride here yet (very touristy and expensive in most places), but we had to wait in line for almost an hour. Our tour was scheduled for 1:35, and around 1 we realized we might be in trouble. However, it was too late to back out and walk- we’d be late. We were finally able to squeeze onto a buggy around 1:20 and arrived at the castle (after stopping twice for the horses to poop) at 1:38. :( We rushed over to see if we could get in, but the guard just told us to go get a new tour time. So, our tour was changed to 2:05. At least we were still able to see the castle- very pretty and so detailed. 

My favorite part was a cave on the 4^th floor with access to a garden that had a window overlooking the mountain. I have no idea why there was a cave on the second to highest floor of a castle, but it was cool.

The castle architecture combines Gothic, Bavarian, and Romanesque styles. The king that commissioned it used all his own private money to build the palace instead of the public money- which obviously made him very popular in the people’s eyes. However, the King was only able to enjoy the completed castle for 120 days before he died! They have a splendid grand hall that was planned for him to host big events, but he never had the chance.

After our (late) tour, we found other members of the group- finally!- to figure out where the next meeting point was and how much time we had left. They were coming back from a beautiful overlook and a bridge that gave you a view of the castle which we “probably wouldn’t have time to get to and back down the mountain.” Challenge Accepted.

We basically alternated sprinting and power walking over to the viewpoint and then to the bridge- totally worth it! Then we continued sprinting back to the castle and walked/ran down the mountain. At one point, Marina was behind Liz and I and we heard her hurried steps and thought we were starting to run again- at which point we then heard a very adamant “DO NOT RUN, I am just catching up!” In summary- horse ride: bad idea, but made for some great stories and laughs. AND workout- I’m still sore!

Oh, and we made it back to the bus only 5 minutes after the time our guide said. And then there were still others that boarded the bus after us.

The castle is located in Hohenschwangu, which is about an hour and a half-2 hour bus ride from our hostel so we watched movies on the bus/slept. Once we arrived back at the hostel, we took a little time to relax and refresh before leaving again to go to Springfest for the night!

Our primary objective was food, because the overpriced sandwich I had at the castle around noon was long gone. We found one of many stands selling the German version of carnival food and ordered bratwurst hotdogs and pommes frites (French fries). Later, we walked around the festival- just taking in everything and doing some people watching. Then Marina and Liz went on a couple rides and I stayed on the ground.

We wanted to go to a beer tent again, but when we passed the place we had gone the night before and saw crowds of people waiting far into the street (I guess it was a line- more of a cluster though)… we decided to look for somewhere else. We found a slightly different version of a beer tent- much more open than the others. Cool because we were outside and there was more room and air, literally cool because it started getting cold really fast! We all ordered steins of beer-Maßkrugs- which are exactly 1 liter (33.8 fluid ounces). I had some trouble finishing mine because the beer makes you feel very full. 

Around 8:55 we left the beer tent to go meet up with Michelle, Lexi, Margaret, and Kristin. On the way, we ran into 2 Germans who ended up walking with us to our meeting point and talking with us for about 30 minutes as we waited until we decided that they were probably in bed already since they had been at the festival all day. Patrick and Jonas (who asked us to pronounce his name with a hard J instead of the German “yo”- probably because it sounded more American), went back to a table at the beer tent with us and we all talked more- even though they didn’t end up ordering a beer. Around 10:30 we were told by one of the servers to either order something or leave, and if we ordered something we had 10 minutes before leaving because they were closing! So we left, because no one really wanted to get yelled at by a tired and angry German lady.

Patrick singing a german folk song in the metro station!

Patrick and Jonas took the metro back with us, and even walked all the way to our hostel with us before saying goodnight and going back to their respective houses. So nice to be able to meet and talk with them! They kept apologizing for their English, which wasn’t necessary because their English was great. We should have been apologizing for our (not really existent) German!

Sunday was an early morning- we made it downstairs for breakfast by 7:30ish so we could meet in the lobby by 8, with our packed bags stored in the luggage room. From there we took the metro, and then the bus to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. We purchased audio guides to enhance the self-guided tour, as entrance was free and the student rate for an audio guide was 2.50 euros.

I found all the information very interesting and thought that everything was laid out very nicely. It was tragically amazing to think about the horrific events that took place there-maybe in the same place I was standing. I enjoyed the museum the most- although I still don’t think I read everything and we inside for almost 2 hours. They had many quotes from survivors of the camp and others that made everything even more impactful. 

There was also a lot of information that I had never hear about before- mostly specific to Dachau, but also about concentration camps in general. The most interesting to me was the press propaganda put out by the Nazis. They made posters with pictures of prisoners and captions such as “professional criminal” or “mentally ill”. This was to make the public believe that the only people in the camps were felons or infirmed and ensure that they felt no pity for them. Dachau also gave tours of the camp to journalists and other foreign ambassadors. During these tours, they were able to show only the prisoners and the certain parts of the camp they wanted them to see and hide the rest. This gave the majority of the rest of the world a flawed, but positive view of the camps.

When we finally finished our walk around the memorial site, we took the bus back to the metro stop and then got a quick lunch at a really cute café. I had a chicken sandwich that also included hardboiled egg slices, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and pickles. Then I also got Nusschnecke (a pastry with nuts) for dessert and a slice of lemon cake for a snack on the bus later.

We arrived back at the hostel just in time to get on the bus and leave for Florence. I had a lovely visit to Munich, but it just so nice to be back in a country where I can usually understand at least half of what’s going on in the native language. And of course, to my own bed and the ever lovely Florence.  :)