Munchen; The land of wonder!!!!!

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Munich, the heart of Bavaria and where all stero typical German things come from. Bavaria’s gifts to the world include Lederhosen (The leather pants worn by German men), beer halls, oomph bands and romantic castles! After our short stint in Dusseldorf we were both excited to see what was on offer in the rest of Germany, however we were still in Utrecht (Holland) and needed to get there first. This involved having to check out of our B&B at 11am, catch a 30min train to Amsterdam and sit around for 10 hrs while we waited for our 10pm night train to depart!!! We had all our packs and bags and neither of us was happy at the prospect of sitting around! We had that morning realised that Bee was no longer in possession of the diamond ring I had bought her two Christmases ago. So with our moods at an all time low and no place to go we sat around at Amsterdam station for a while until I went exploring and stumbled across a luggage hold where we could store our packs in lockers for the day. This made the wait a little bit more bearable as we could at least walk around the city and kill some time. After a boring day in Amsterdam we rocked back to the station at just after 7pm. Through pure luck I decided to check our tickets for seat numbers only to realise that our train was not at 10pm like I thought it was, it was at 8! We quickly gathered our packs and found our platform with about 15mins before our train departed. I was so happy we had realised before it was too late! God only knows what we would have done at 10pm at night in the middle of Amsterdam with no where to stay and no way of getting to Munich for our next hostel reservation!

The train to Munich was interesting to say the least. We were watching a DVD with head phones when all of a sudden four men randomly started searching people, demanding passports be shown, looking through bags and altogether acting strange. By the time they got to me and asked for our passports I had no idea what was going on, I asked who they where and I one of the guys stared at me quickly said police and that was all. It was pretty freaky because we had no way of knowing they were actually police. No badges, no uniforms, nothing! After searching one of my bags and checking our passports they moved on to another carriage. We suspect they were looking for someone in particular because they paid no attention to Bee or any of the other women on board. I have a bad track record when it comes to Amsterdam. That’s the second time I’ve been searched and questioned, the first was 2 mins after arriving there the first time back in March. The rest of the trip past without event and 11hrs later we were in Munich!

Day 1 was pretty much a write off. Bee was starting to get really sick a couple of days before hand and wasn’t really getting better so we found a pharmacy for some cold and flu meds and she curled up and fell asleep as I did some holiday research on the web (We still had 7 hrs before we could check in). Our hostel was really nice. Big, spacious, clean and all together well run. It had its own bar and restaurant (that was only open one night out of 5 we were there!) and the rooms were huge compared to what we have been in previously. The rooms however don’t always decide how well you will sleep or how comfortable you will be! The people staying in the dorm play a part in that as well and Munich proved to be one of the worst places for roommates. It started with an overly friendly African who didn’t shut up and at one stage woke me up in the morning to ask me a bunch of annoying and pointless questions about myself, continued with a guy who not only snored but also screamed while he was sleeping all through the night, (I’ve heard people talk in their sleep but never screaming!) then finally finished with a small Asian guy who I thought was going to die from the extremely loud sounds he made while snoring on our final night. He was so bad that at one pt a German girl staying in the room hit him till he woke up then yelled at him in German haha.

Our real Munich experience began on our second day when we decided to do the free walking tour run by our Hostel. We had been in other cities where we had seen these run but had never bothered to go on them (Which I kinda regret now knowing how good they can be). The way the tours work is that they go for about 3 hrs, you walk all over the city, visit the monuments and get a good history lesson about the area plus some helpful hints for getting around the city and good places to eat and stuff and at the end if you enjoyed the tour you can tip the guide with what you think the tour was worth. We were sceptical at first but our tour guide Ozzy changed all that very quickly! The tour was awesome, ended up going for about 4 1/2hrs because we sat and chatted in a beer hall for ages during the middle of the tour all about Munich and its history.

We found out information we would have never guessed, such as that about 90% of Munich was destroyed during WWII but because the Nazi’s had been so anal about their cities and had photographed every inch of the city (Inside and out of buildings), Munich was completely restored to its former glory. Every building was rebuilt as it had been and if necessary artificially aged to look how it use to. It was impossible to tell what was new and what had survived the bombings of WWII. Also that Munich, as the birth place of the Nazi’s had tried very hard to wash over any historical connection to Hitler and what happened in the war. The first Nazi headquarters is now a mattress shop, the place where the ‘Night of broken glass’ occurred (First violent acts towards the Jewish community) is now a toy store and the memorials that they had for the people of that time are very hard to spot. They don’t have huge statues commemorating the people who died or suffered throughout the war but have very subtle memorials you would never realise where there unless pointed out to you. We came away with more of an appreciation for Germany and what it has gone through in the past, a pretty good idea of how to get around, an awesome cheap place to eat which we visited that night and for me the first spark of my love affair with Munich.

I can’t go any further without stating that Munich is officially my greatest city on earth. I want to learn German and move here I love it so much. The way of life, the food, the beer, the history, the city itself are all perfect and interesting for me! It will be the one place that I will definitely come back to in the next few years to visit if not to live! I don’t think words can describe how I feel about this city. You get the feeling everyone knows how to relax and be happy in Munich, walking down the street you get a real sense of community from these people especially at their markets and beer halls where everyone has a friendly word for those passing by.

After our walking tour we had dinner at a beer hall/restaurant our tour guide had suggested, the ‘Auster Keller’ and we weren’t disappointed. Places like this are really atmospheric, they have long tables where you just find a spot and sit down next to bunches of hungry Germans. No one minds that different groups are all sitting at the one table and everyone is happily downing the local beer. Waitress are always running around at full speed but we were lucky enough to have one stop long enough to guess we didn’t speak German and provided us with English menus which were life savers. Bee got an awesome Schnitzel and I got a beautiful serving of Roast pork and potato dumpling. The food and beer were both delicious and pretty cheap as well!

The next day as a surprise for Bee considering her birthday had been a pretty dreary event in Belgium we went to Munich Zoo. It was a beautiful warm sunny day and we had an awesome time. We watched the elephant show, which even though all in German was still fun. Watched the tigers being fed up close and saw a million other little and big creatures! The best part of the day however was at the beginning and end . Just after you enter the zoo they have an area full of sheep and goats you can pat and fed. This in itself would have been cute and fun for both of us but we were lucky enough to be there just at the beginning of spring when all the babies had been born. We were surrounded by baby goats and lambs all vying for attention and food! We would have spent at least and hr and half all up in that area patting the animals and picking the smaller ones up and getting some good photos! You could buy feed for the animals as well from a vending machine, however some very smart goat and sheep had figured out what those machines were for and the second you put your money in and the food starting coming out it was on for young and old! They just jumped straight up to the hole the food comes from and stick their head in before you get a chance to pull any out into your hands! It was funny watching people trying to get the food and then freaking out when these huge goats pushed them out of the way to get at it!

After the zoo we decided to take advantage of the cheap dinner at the hostel which was pretty tasty! While having a drink after dinner I got to talking with a guy who was also staying in our room about the crazy guy who screams in his sleep. Eric was from Brazil but had been living in Ireland working for a few months and Camilla, a girl he had met on his walking tour today and who was staying at our hostel as well was also on holiday from Brazil. After talking for a few mins we realised we both wanted to go to Neuschwanstein castle or as it is commonly known as the Disney Castle! So we decided to all go together the next day as we could buy a regional ticket which would allow all of us to travel for only 28 Euro so it ended up costing 7 Euro each which was awesome for all of us as we were going to pay 14 euro each if the two groups went separately. So up bright and early the next day we all met in the lobby and walked over to the main station where we ran into some trouble, no one knew how to buy the group ticket we needed from the ticket machines, after some time we sorted it out but by then we had a minute until our train so all four of us were rushing like mad through Munich’s main station (it was an hr wait for the next train!). Luckily we caught it just as it was about to leave and the conductor was nice enough to hold it when he saw us running!

From there it was a 2hr train trip which by the end was passing by beautiful scenery with the Bavarian Alps just visible in the distance. We arrived at the foot of the Alps where the castle is located and quickly went to the store to get some supplies for the long trek to come (Beer and Pommes/hot chips!) We decided to walk the 30mins up the mountain to the castle instead of taking the bus. The walk wasn’t too difficult, even though both I and Eric agreed there should have been another place to buy beer half way up the climb, and the views were spectacular. There was still snow on the Alps; it was a crystal clear day and about 15 degrees or so, in other words a perfect day for a hike in the mountains.

Once we arrived at the castle we were impressed. This was the castle that inspired the Disney castle and you can see why. Everything about it screams fantasy. Its spires, its colour, its location perched on the Alps with nothing else around except amazing views of the valley below and the Alps. The photos I took hardly do it justice. At this point our little group broke up, Eric and Camilla did a 45min tour of the interior which me and bee were too cheap to pay for. While they got their tour action on we climbed around the castle and onto a bridge which separates two of the mountains and goes over a waterfall which just happens to have an awesome view of the castle. Now this is the part where I start to sketch out. As you will see in the photos this bridge is not close to the ground, quite the opposite actually. It also is made of wooden planks which move and shift as people walk over them. Now me being petrified of heights I was torn between getting a good view and possibly plummeting to a bloody death on the rocks below. The need to get good photos for you people prevailed and I strode out (Actually quite timidly walked out) onto the bridge. It was worth it, the photos speak for themselves but it was actually a lot prettier. The castle on one side, the waterfall behind and beneath us and the Alps in the distance. After a minute or two my paranoia about the bridge got the best of me and I got the hell off it.

The story doesn’t end there however, I am on a European trip experiencing things I have never seen or done before so maybe it was time to try and conqueror a little bit of my fear as well. With the help of Bee we went back onto the bridge and walked across the entire length, even getting some photos peering off the edge. I even recorded the whole thing so you can see how freaky it was. It was great though. We spent another 15 or so mins on the bridge taking photos and afterwards I was quite proud of myself. What I was even happier about where the photos I got when I was on it!

Bee Dandy: I was so proud of him! He totally wasn't even the biggest scaredy cat there either...I thought this one girl was going to pee her pants. Disney Castle is madness. That is all.

We caught up again with Eric and Camilla who enjoyed their tour and we walked back down to the bus stop to go back to the station. Once we arrived there we realised we had about an hr and a half wait for our train so we walked into Fussen, the town at the foot of the Alps where the station was to grab a beer. We found a pub with a really nice owner who chatted with us about his brew and served us up some beautiful beer. Eric was talked into getting a darker beer and when he didn’t really like it the owner simply gave him a Pilsner like I had for free (That’s what I love about Germany, stuff like that would happen all the time. The people are just really nice and friendly). As we sat and drank our beer I couldn’t help but think there was no way you could live in this little town and not be content. The Alps were in the background, the town itself was beautiful and the people all seemed happy.

Bee Dandy: Umm Smic is just speaking for himself...it was a super pretty town but it was TINY and I would've gotten bored if I lived there. It looked like a toy town though so that was kinda cool. Woo. Actually...it looks kinda like main street USA at Disneyland but more European!!

Once back at the train station we were told by this middle aged guy wearing jeans and dark glasses that the trains weren’t running and we had to catch a bus. We were sceptical at first because we had no idea who the hell this guy was until he told us he was driving the bus that had replaced the train. Our trip home was uneventful and very very long. Took about 3 or 4 hrs with all the extra stuff around with the trains not working. We finally arrived back at our hostel and crashed out.

We left Munich the next day but not before exchanging details with Eric and Camilla who we have stayed in touch with. Ended up being a really good day and has been the first time we have done something with other backpackers we haven’t known.

After this mammoth blog which you may have fallen asleep through, the main pts you need to take away are that Munich is amazing, the beer is the best I’ve ever tasted and its now my number one destination in the world!!! I think I’ve been converted to a Bavarian!

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