The trip over
Based on past experiences with
United, the expectation was that we would leave Wednesday afternoon and arrive
anywhere from slightly delayed, to sometime next week. Neither of those
happened. Apparently other international airlines actually intend to arrive
when they say? We enjoyed our overly joyous male flight attendants’ service,
and took advantage of the gourmet chicken cordon bleu which may or may not have
been chicken but was more than definitely blue. I gave Becca a decent dosage of
Ambien, effectively putting her in a vegetative state for a few hours, while I
tried just about every angle within a 360 degree radius of sleeping. There was
a point my head was actually between the seats and I almost dipped my hair in
the lady’s 3 AM coffee behind me. I was just too excited for what was to come.
Around 4 AM I grew desperate and decided it would be a good idea to down some Benadryl. That worked
to an extent, though I awoke with a completely lifeless and numb right leg due to
the angle I managed. Awoke at 7 again to our chipper male flight attendants
prancing down the aisles, and just decided to abort Mission Sleep on Airplane. I was so ready.
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| Not a scene from Walking Dead, actually |
On arrival, we immediately picked up on Germany’s pinpoint accuracy and
efficiency, as we were wisked through customs in a matter of minutes. I also
noticed they are a much humbler people. Where we have Burger KING, they just
have Burger Citizen:
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A quaint homage
to the actual Burger Kings, I think. Adorable!
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Some background
Things I previously knew about
Munich: Oktoberfest is there, the traditional lederhosen garb is hilarious,
Bayern Munich is consistently a top soccer club in the world, Haufbrauhaus is
here, the Nazi party was founded here, they really adore beer. You’ll notice that half of that list
revolves around beer.
Things I now know about Munich: The beer thing was 1000% accurate. Traditional Bavarian breakfast? Weiswurstl (white sausage) and Wies Bier (white beer). Beer. For breakfast. Good effort guys! Munich was founded in the 1100s, and although I thought Munchen meant either
‘munchkins’, ‘munchin’, or ‘monkeys’, it actually means ‘monks.’ The original town was
founded in one of the most hilarious ways I’ve ever heard. Basically, one man
formerly had control of a wooden bridge that crossed the nearby river. Those in
the salt trade needed to use this bridge, so he taxed them all and made a
fortune. That was until Henry the Lion came along, saw his profits, and said
“I’m Henry the Lion, I’m burning your bridge down now.” So he did. And then
built another a few feet away, right in his face. He then gave the original owner and founder some money to go run
away, and with the new bridge, Munich could be founded and centered around where
the monks were living. From there, they basically drank beer and ate
wienerschnitzl until today, and had a small hiccup along the way with a guy who started World War II.
Hostel
Our hostel was basically a Four Seasons if the Four Seasons
were modeled after a cardboard box. While we didn’t have A/C, the
beds were made of stone, and the walls could have collapsed at any moment, we
did have a fantastic location AND a cutting edge shower-sink-toilet hybrid
bathroom. They just combined them all into one. Or maybe the bathroom was just
2 feet wide. Same idea.
SO MANY ACTIVITIES:
We started the day dropping our bags at the hostel and seeking our third coffees at the food
market down the street, dropping our bags in the Hostel luggage room without changing or even seeing our room. Becca immediately fell in love. This is how I lured her
in the first time in Europe as well: cappuccinos, food markets, and a view.
We
walked over to Marienplatz, the absolutely stunning city center, and made it for the 11 a.m.
Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel is a tourist hot bed, and lasts for seven
minutes while the city square bells chime, Asians furiously snap as many photos
as they can, and we all watch the German version of the It’s a Small World
Disney World ride. Plastic figurines rotate in slow motion up in the tower and
then…well that’s really it. Over and over. But it’s Unique!
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| GO, GO, GO! ...Five minutes later... GOOOO!!!! Ok let's leave. |
Next, we met up with my dear Boston College friend Billy,
whom I have now seen more in Munich over the last two days than in America over
the last 3 years. We figured a bike ride around the city was the perfect way to
start the trip, fresh off our 13-hour travel day. Becca might have fallen
asleep at the wheel at one point. But the ex-pats giving the Mike’s Bikes tours
were worth the money. They shared stories so rich in city and world history my
head was spinning, and I felt like I needed to stay in and study by the end.
Englischengarten (English Gardens for you mere English speakers), Hofgarten
(Royal garden), Munich Residence (obese palace in the middle of the city for
Munich royalty), Theatinerskirche (Tina Turner’s church, I’m pretty sure), and
the Isor river were all stops, to name a few, as well as a standard German
lunch that was only 5 or 6 thousand calories of carbs and I think a vegetable
or two. In other words, my dream lunch.
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| Munich 2-day residents in Munich Residence |
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| Don't take selfies and bike. Unless the lady in front of you is moving 2 mph. |
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| Pay me later for this one |
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| I love you. You too, Becca, love you too. |
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| Surfing exists in Munich...on a river. In a park. |
That night we walked the compact
city, stumbled upon fountains galore, and noticed that the entire city is
exactly what you stereotype Germany as: clean, colorful, traditional German
architecture, infested with BMWs, and obsessed with beer. I also now have
Maximilliansplatz firmly ranked as my number 1 favorite street name of all
time. We paid due homage to Haufbrauhaus, as apparently every tourist ever
does, sat for a nice dinner and had a conversation with a German man. These
“conversations” with Germans generally consist of 80% hand gestures, 5%
attempted German, 12% them just bailing out and started to speak the English
they can, and 3% Billy actually having a real, brief exchange in German. We
took the next half hour to translate the menu, until the Germans then retrieved
an English version. I said we didn’t want it. That was too easy. But it turned
out our guesses were all wrong so it was probably for the best. That was until
a massive Bavarian woman came over with our 1-Liter beverages, as well as 8
more, hooked around her arms like clothing hangers. She then demanded we pay.
No argument was made, mainly because I was terrified of her swollen biceps.
Dinner was forfeited, and we took off (quickly) to the less-travelled
Augustine-Keller beer hall for the 2nd half of the Germany-Poland
game, only managing to get lost ~3 times on the way.
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| Bayerische Staatzensomething |
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| BEST EVER |
Here, Billy, Becca and I enjoyed
another conversation with some lovely elder Germans at our community table.
Becca kept repeating words, but louder, and for some reason they still didn’t
understand. Some of that may be due to the fact that her whole German
vocabulary is derived from watching Sound of Music and finishing one “basics”
lesson on Duo Lingo. “Ich bein frau,” or, “I am a woman,” only gets her so far,
unfortunately. Billy came in with a few saves in broken German, and I just
started yelling German soccer players names to which they would give a thumbs
up or down of approval or disapproval. This is what being cultured is all
about.
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| Best friend Germans we couldn't communicate with |
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Lookin' good fellas |
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