Munich,
Bavaria,
Germany
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Today we arrived in Munich! We took the bus from Granada to Madrid, and then flew out of Madrid, making our travel about a twelve hour ordeal. It was long, but definitely worth it! We are staying at the Euro Youth Hotel, but it's a hostel. I know, kind of confusing. I am here with Julie, Carlee, Courtney, Brittany, and Natalie. As for the Munich train station, the most American place I've seen so far in Europe. We all loved it. Anyways today we walked around the city, found Marian Plats and did a little shopping. Our favorite store was a discount one that had everything you could possibly need. A few of us bought flip flops, bags, and me a new black bra because mine isn't quite up to par anymore. It was pretty funny. Germany reminded me so much of the States; I finally understand why Oma and Opa picked awesome Illinois to settle in. I know Munich is a city, and Woodstock is a small town, but just the landscape and the ways things look is so similar. Oh, and as for me being tall, not true in Germany! You were right mom! Tonight we were going to go on a bar crawl, but Carlee has been sick and complained so plans changed and we ate some delicious pizza and went to the Hofbräuhaus House. We ate the pizza outside and some Italian guy came up to us and said "Come on, I'm from Italy, you have to give me a piece of pizza." Haha Seriously, I have more funny quotes from random people, it's crazy. Oh what a time that was! It turns out they sell these HUGE mugs of delicious beer for 6.50 euros. We all chatted, drank one, and decided it was time for round two, not sure if that was a great idea. Well, we ended up playing the game "never have I ever" and Brittany's was "never have I ever been so drunk I peed." The guy at the next table turned around and just busted out laughing at us. Of course we all laughed because we got caught, but the best part is Brittany leans over to us and says "well I can't drink now, he'll know!" It was hilarious! Then Julie got attacked by a group of Italian kids. Brittany got the best photo of her face, priceless. We ended up closing down the Hofbräuhaus House and I had this amazing idea to steal the HUGE mug; thanks to mi padre we kind of have this tradition. Well, I was oh so secretive and held it in my hands with my jacket, north face, and Julie's jacket on top. Well, as I casually walked past a very large, scary man who happened to be one of the security guards when I heard "Ms. I need to check your jackets." He then continued to take out of my hands my jacket, my north face, and Julie's jacket and finally displaying this HUGE mug that is impossible to hide. He then told me I was stealing and to put my hands on the wall and that I was going to jail. He first told me one night, then asked my nationally, and then said three nights because I'm an American. I followed his instruction and he began talking in German in his little radio. At the time I really thought he was calling the police, but he was probably telling the other security guards to come check this out that he had an American girl up on the wall. Julie saw me from afar and came running. She began talking to the guy telling him "we'll buy the mug, we'll buy three, hell we'll even by four" and then I leaned over her shoulder with a 50 euro bill and told him "you can keep the change." All I could think about was I'm going to have to find Monica's phone number and explain all this to her, and at least I would have a German citizen backing me up. I kept eyeing the door ready to run because I did have flats on, but the other security guard stood right in between the doors starring at me. Well this went on for a good 20 minutes. Finally one of the managers began laughing and told me to just go. I looked at him and figured it out that it was all a joke. Not sure though, I made him walk me out to make sure I did not really get arrested. As I left all of the managers and security guards stood at the door laughing hysterically. As I left I told them this was not funny, but began laughing as well. All I have to say is Julie really did stick by my side through it all, when the other girls were no where to be found. Even though it turned out to be a joke she was in front of the security guard the whole time defending me. It really meant a lot to me. Back to the story. Since we were by ourselves we decided to check out a few bars before going back to the hostel. We stopped in a sports bar, used the bathroom, and ended up sitting on this counter thing for who knows how long having a little heart to heart. Nice bonding time. After stopping at a few more bars we headed back to the hostel and crashed.
Today, Saturday, we went to Dachau Concentration Camp. We went with a tour guide who is definitely the most World War II informed person I have ever met. She was amazing! We spent five hours there. I walked thru the entrance to the camp passing through a gate with the words "Arbeit macht frei" meaning "work will set you free." Passing thru this gate meant giving up three things: possessions, dignity, and all rights as a human being. I saw the crematorium and gas chambers, which were separate from the camp. The shuntroom was where prisoners were registered and given a number. The prison bunker was where 'special prisoners' were kept, such as well-known political and religious leaders. Regular prisoners were also brought there to be tortured and receive other types of 'special treatment.' The sleeping grounds were called barracks. Seeing it all really hit hard. Once we got back into Munich we ate brots, and I studied for my art history midterm while everyone else napped. For dinner we went out to a delicious German dinner! Natalie, Julie, and I ordered the same meal of pork with this really good mushroom sauce, and spatzle on the side. Afterwards we hung out at the hostel, played some cards, and then went to bed.
For our last day in Germany we went on a History of Munich free walking tour. It began raining so Julie, Natalie, and Britt bought red, one euro ponchos. Britt wore hers all day, it was pretty funny. For lunch we went to Subway! It was nice to have an actual sandwich with stuff on it, not just bread, butter, and meat. Our tour went past the Hofbräuhaus House and we all started laughing. After the tour we went back, ate some apple straddle, and then bought the big mugs to remember our little incident. I bought another glass for Dad. I don't expect him to really use it; it's more for looks I guess. Sorry dad if you just read this, you know what one of your souvenirs are! Sorry if it's missing when I leave for school. On our way out we took a picture with the security guards from the previous night. We were all laughing hysterically. I think, overall, I've laughed more in the past three days than ever before!
