Let me just start by saying that after going to Munich I absolutely LOVE Germany and am so excited that I get to go back in a few days (to Berlin)! After going to Frankfurt a few years ago, I was not so in love with Germany but my opinion changed completely after this weekend! On Friday we got a really early start-our train left at 6:12 am… I luckily fell asleep and woke up in Zurich to switch trains and from there the ride really was not bad! We got into Munich mid-afternoon and went right to our hostel. It was a short walk, maybe 4 minutes, but in that time there was an overwhelming aroma of delicious food! This was amusing to me because in Frankfurt, my mom, sister and I still have a running joke about how bad the food was!
After getting all settled in to our hostel, we decide to go find this outdoor market. The weather could not have been more beautiful! It was around 60 degrees… we were walking around without jackets on, it was great! The street that we had to take to the market was so cool- it was a pedestrian street that had all these fruit vendors lining it. The fruit did not just look good, it looked mouth-watering. The strawberries looked like they were on steroids, there was dragon-fruit, ruby red raspberries and many other fruits, all for so cheap! That was another great thing that we discovered about Munich- it is SO much cheaper than Lugano! We finally get to the outdoor market and it was not like what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more of a flee-market kind of thing, with all temporary stands but it actually was more like Bryant park in the city! The different little shops were permanently there, and all very unique! There were pastry shops (all with huge pretzels!), butchers, honey shops, fruit and veggie vendors, places that sold herbs, olives, and oils, little trinket shops and then places that sold beer- those were the most crowded haha! Eventually we made our way back to our hostel and met one of our random roommates. He was a nice guy from Seattle, WA who was spending the spring travelling around Europe. That night we went to a nice authentic German meal, where my friend, Abbie, got pork knuckles! After dinner we made our way to the famous beer house, Hophrahaus. It was like something I’ve never seen before! The place was HUGE and without fail, if you were of age, you had a beer in hand. We were sitting next to this big group of German guys, all of which loved their drinking songs haha! I have never tasted beer that was this good!! There were waitresses walking around selling these pretzels that were easily twice the side of my head- we all wanted one but we restrained ourselves!
The next morning we went on our free walking tour of Munich! This tour was definitely necessary to take but it was so heavily focused on history. Our tour guide was this crazy British guy who started out our tour by letting us see the ‘second biggest let down in Europe’ aka the little scene at the Glockenspiel. I will have to say that he was correct about that! This tour seemed to drag on a little bit because there was just so much information to take in but overall it was very helpful! I have found that without taking tours of cities, I do not appreciate what I am seeing nearly as much (mainly because I don’t even know what they are! Haha)
That night we went back to the Hophrahaus and we were in the upstairs this time. Here there were a bunch of performances going on that included some german dancing, a band performing and then the strangest of them all was these two guys got up on stage and played these instruments that looked like fishing poles. I’m not quite sure exactly what it was but it just made this insane clicking sound. It was so impressive because they were twirling these wires around with something at the end of them and when they hit together, that’s how it made the noise. I feel like I would hit myself in the face if I ever tried! We got pretzels that were no joke two times the size of my head! And it was the most delicious pretzel I have ever eaten!
The next day we went to the Dachau concentration camp.. it was a very emotional experience, but one I am glad I had. It was all so depressing and very uncomfortable knowing that I was standing and touring around the first concentration camp. It was so weird standing somewhere that I have learned about for years, but you cant grasp the whole essence of a concentration camp until you go to one…
On a brighter note, I really don’t have enough good things to say about Munich!
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