Bayern Munchen! (part one-with videos)

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So while I was in Amsterdam, I realized my Eurorail pass was about to expire. I got ahold of Mateo, who was living in a type of student housing area in Munich. We made plans for him to meet me in the München Hauptbahnhof, underneath the blue sign. What I failed to realize is that there are two main entrances to München Hauptbahnhof, and there are also two blue signs. I arrived in Munich, and could NOT find Mateo. I randomly walked away from the train station, no way of contacting Mateo, no hostel reservations made, ect. I walked to a Casino that had an "internet" sign, and made my way to the back computers, where I got on FB and contacted Mateo, who luckily came and found me. I don't think I have ever been so relieved for someone to find me- Let alone to hear another Texan's voice after being lost (again). Mateo found me (thank god) and took me to go get beer from The Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München. There are these long tables where you sit family style. (no separation between you and other guests.) We sat across from this older gentleman, who would randomly "cheers" us at certain parts of a song that a band was playing.

Once when I was walking the city after one of the walking tours, I heard this music, oddly familiar, yet beautiful. I walked through the streets trying to find where this music was coming from. Underneath a covering in an alley somewhere in downtown Munich I stumbled upon this guy playing (see video). It was one of the coolest things to stumble upon mid-day in Germany. [

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We grabbed Mexican food on the way to Mateo's place. I saw Dos Equis (beer choice)- and I totally had Mateo order me one, not realizing that it was in fact a very expensive imported beer (duh, right?). I forgot any concept of geography and ordered my go-to-beer instead of trying to figure out what beer I actually wanted. Luckily, that didn't happen more than once on this trip, so at least I learned something.

Mateo set me up with keys to his apartment, and he took off for work for a week at a farm. This is all fine and dandy, but I did find it funny that this Texan had to go to Germany to finally get on a horse for the first time in his life. When Mateo came back from work, we went to a few of his Baseball games and practices. I met some of his friends, most of whom were American. One night we played Mario Party on the game cube at one of his teammates houses. All the instructions were in German, and I didn't know the controls for the game cube system, but I rock at Mario Party. At some point the boys stopped reading me the German directions anymore for the games.

We went to a bunch of Biergartens (beer gardens, where you can bring your food, or purchase food there, and drink the beer). One night we stayed so long at one of them that they locked us in and we had to climb under fences to get out.

I saw this one place in the park in Munich where the people had decided that they wanted to surf. They took a piece of the canal of water that ran through the city and made it flow a certain way as to surf the waves. That was defiantly some ingenuity. (see video) [

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Me and Mateo did take off one weekend to see Dachau. Dachau is one of the (if not the) first concentration camps in Germany. It was a very somber experience, and a very unique "no-words-for-this-moment" time. If you want to know more about Dachau, there is http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/dachau.html. Although it was a depressing real look at life, it was necessary in understanding Germany.

One thing that I have to mention on this blog about Germany is the Holocaust. On one of the walking tours, given by a German Native, their experience and views on what happened during the war were very real and understandable. They talked of rebellion against the Nazis, the strength of resistance movements, and other acts of bravery. They talked of how Hitler became into power through trickery and lies. Now, from an American standpoint, I had never heard anything of anti-Nazi coming from Germany. I kind of feel like my understanding of the topic was largely biased by what country I had learned the history from. I guess I never knew there was a third side to the story.



So I am on this walking tour one day, and we go to Der Teufelstritt (The Devil's Footprint) Church. The story goes "According to legend, in 1468 architect Jorg von Halspach went looking for money to build a new cathedral in Munich and ended up making a bargain with the Devil: the Devil would provide the funds for the huge building on the condition that it be a celebration of darkness, with no windows to let in light.

When the building was complete, von Helpach led the Devil inside to survey his work, and to show him that he had held up his end of the bargain. Although there was light, there seemed to be no windows, and the devil was satisfied. But then when he took another step further, the columns that had been blocking the view of the windows opened up and, in his fury at being tricked, he stamped his foot, forever marking the floor with his black footprint."

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Photos

Glockenspiel
Every day at 11 a.m. and noon, a crowd of people gathers in front of Munich’s Town Hall on Mariensquare to hear the traditional Glockenspiel chime. For over 100 years now, the Glockenspiel, which is housed in the Town Hall’s tower, has reenacted historical Bavarian events

English Garten
Relax in the English Garden (Englischer Garten), the green heart of Munich, which is even bigger than Central Park in New York. Locals love their park for its many lakes, traditional beer gardens, overgrown paths, and lush lawns like the Schoenfeld Wiese, where you can also sunbathe nude.

Maypole
The pole is usually a very tall treetrunk denuded of its branches, and it is installed by the villagers on the eve of 1st May, to remain in place for at least a month. The process is very much do-it-yourself, and usually orchestrated by a farmer with a tractor, but the business of actually getting the pole to the vertical is the business of the menfolk of the village, using a Lilliputian selection of long sticks and ropes. The process is usually helped by lots of shouting, and the provision of Bratwurst and beer, and once the pole is up, its bottom section bedded into a deep hole in the ground, it is decorated with tinsel and garlands and often with the symbols of local crafts and guilds.
Surprisingly exempt from health and safety regulations
The pole then becomes the centrepiece of a village or town fete which takes place on 30th April or 1st May, the ‘Tanz in den Mai’, with all-night dancing and drinking. It’s a real celebration of spring, and southern communities approach it with enthusiasm.
The maypole’s part in village life doesn’t stop there, because maypole climbing (Maibaum kraxeln) competitions follow the May festival, all over the country. Young men climb the tree to a certain height and ring a bell, whereupon their climbing time is stopped, or else they climb all the way to the top to retrieve a bunch of sausages. The competition is accompanied by (you guessed it) excessive eating and drinking.
Not all maypoles are huge and public, for there’s also a tradition of private poling, where a young man puts a maypole with a love symbol (heart, initials carved in the wood, etc) into the front garden of his beloved. It stays there for a month. If she wants, she can then invite him for a meal.
There’s also a ritual of good-natured maypole theft during the night of 30th April/1st May. Rivals attempt to steal any reasonably portable maypole, despite the fact that most will be specifically guarded against such an eventuality. There are differing local rules: guards can be coaxed away, guards must have/must not have a hand on maypole all night, etc. Once the maypole is stolen, it has to be released against a forfeit, which is usually some kind of alcoholic refreshment.
And then there’s other frivolities, such as how many people can you have hanging off one maypole at any one time. The record is held by a village in Austria, which also has the maypole tradition, and currently stands at 34. With that many people up there, you’d have to hope that the tree was sturdy, and the farmer who supervised its installation hadn’t had too much pilsener before making sure the job was properly done.

the Feldherrenhalle
The Feldherrenhalle, or Field Marshal’s Hall, was commissioned by King Ludwig to commemorate the Bavarian army. In 1923, the stately hall became infamous when Hitler’s attempted coup to overtake the Bavarian government was defeated in front of the Field Marshal’s Hall.

Comments

[anonymous]

Antient story
your way of writing wouldn't let me leave the page until I finished good effort so long Kristin