Beer, Bratwurst and Oompa Bands

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Guten tag! We arrived in Munich about a month and a half too late to experience the infamous and legendary Oktoberfest, but we managed to have an amazing time regardless. We arrived from Salzburg after a pleasantly short train journey north. We stayed at the Euro Youth Hostel which was recommended to us by Chelsea and Peter (thanks guys!) It was fantastic!

On our first day, we checked in and grabbed some food, and then joined up with the free walking tour offered by the same company as the one we went on in Paris. The tour took us around the heart of Munich and gave a good, accurate overview of the historical events that took place in the area. It was particularly interesting because TJ and Teija have both studied WWII history extensively, and the tour showed us some cool sights. For instance, we saw the place where Hitler was almost killed in the failed "beer hall putsch" of 1923. He lived because his bodyguard jumped on top of him and was shot 11 times (and the guy lived too!), but it's amazing to think that it could have all ended there. We also visited a beautiful old church that had been mostly bombed out during the wall, with the exception of the tower that was kept in place as a guide to Allied pilots. After the tour, we went with our guide to a local restuarant that served hot stew and cold beer for cheap... delicious! That evening we partied at the excellent hostel bar.

The next day we began the morning by visiting the much-hyped glockenspiel which stands on the new town hall. We soon discovered why it was voted the 2nd most overrated sight in Europe. The bells sounded like a cacophonous wailing. Allegedly they had just been tuned in Holland, but something must have gone horribly wrong. TJ was amused by the figure of the "children's entertainer", a clown who slowly thrust his pelvis in time with the noise. Wow. Next we climbed up the nearby church tower to have a birds eye view of the old town. It was aroiund this time that we began to notice that there were a lot of cops around. Way more than usual. And then they began to erect barricades around certain roads. By the time we returned to our hostel for lunch, there were literally thousands of cops in the street and people were everywhere. We emerged from our hostel to see a parade of about 30 neo-nazis, escorted by tons of cops for their own safety, making their way down the road while thousands of onlookers booed and hurled insults and various objects. It was an incredible energy and we just watched, shocked that people have the nerve (and ignorance!) to proclaim themselves as nazis. After the mob cleared, we cut across to the metro and rode out to BMW World. It is basically a huge, classy showcase of everything to do with BMWs. And even better, it's free! Visitors got the chance to sit in the cars and view exhibits demonstrating the technologies in the cars. Next we saw the Olympic park where the 1972 Munich olympics were held. The evening brought us another lively night at the hostel bar!

On Day 3 we paid to do a tour out to Dachau concentration camp, about 20 minutes from Munich on the S-bahn. It was a very sad, sobering experience, but we felt it was really important to visit since we had the opportunity. The former camp is now a memorial site, and we were able to see the barracks (and the conditions in which prisoners were forced to live), the "prison" area within the prison where punishments were dealt out, and "Barrack X", where a fully funtional gas chamber and crematorium existed. Visting the site firsthand really allowed us to absorb the horror of the atrocities committed in the camp and in the many more like it. We headed back to our hostel afterwards and had some down time just to process what we had seen. We had a nice dinner out with our Aussie roommates at and authentic German restaurant that served delicious schnitzel.

On our last day we visited the Deutsch Museum which is like a much bigger and better Science World. It was great fun, and we spent almost 3 hours there. Next we went to the famous Hofbrauhaus, the largest and funnest beer hall in Europe (and the world). TJ had a delicious stein of beer (by the litre of course) and Teija had a pretzel (haha). The atmosphere was excellent, with the waitresses dressed in traditional German "beer wench" outfits and an oompah band playing live. Feeling very festive after that, we went in search of some lederhosen (bavarian leather pants seen in German stereotypes) for TJ to buy and bring home. Unfortunately they cost about $200 Euro, so TJ bought a $14 alternative that you can all see when we return.

We reluctantly left Munich and traveled a boring 5 hours north to Dresden. It was very cold in Dresden, but we really liked the city. The city was firebombed by the Allies in 1945, and basically the whole thing was left devestated. It has since been rebuilt to look the same as it once did. In the case of one church, it was rebuilt using some of the same, fire-blackened bricks as the original. Interestingly, the World Chess Olympiad was in town at the same time as us, and our hostel was taken over by chess enthusiasts. It was interesting...

We are in Prague now. We saw snow today! But we will update about Czech later!

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Comments

[Andrea]

fauxhausen = hawt
Getting shot 11 times - that's more than fiddy cent! Deutsch Museum sounds like lots of fun, and the beer hall too - instead of a pretzel, Teija you should have gotten into a beer wench costume to go with TJ's fauxhausen. Dresden has really interested me since reading Slaughter House 5 in school years ago, I'm glad you guys liked it and went there because it seems like so many people haven't heard of it or what happened to the town.