I love Munich

Alright, alright Germany you have stolen my heart.


** I was very excited to be going to Germany... but in all honesty I felt no connection to the place before arriving. I was 100% bias about the food and the sights compared to my beloved Italy. Germany always seemed like a dreary, dark place. Also, German does not stem from a romantic language (which I already struggle with) so the language barrier in my mind was hopeless. I thought I was destined to walk around Munich lost and confused while eating brats (not THAT terrible right?) However, I saw a quote this morning and I think it sums up my adventure.








The adventure began with an 8 hour train to Munich, Germany. My stomach was still a little delicate from the orange juice incident, so when we had an hour layover in Zurich I opted out of the seafood dinner that my group had. Train station seafood. Yep, I'm glad I dodged that bullet. When we finally arrived at 11 at night we were so excited to not only explore the city, but this was the first country we had all been to that uses the Euro let alone the first cheap country we had all visited. Within 2 minutes of being there we found delicious pretzels with butter and chives for one Euro... it was like a gift from God.





Traveling in a group of 30 is best summed up as the blind leading the blind. We walked around Munich in the cold snowy slush for an hour before we went to a club, got turned down because someone didn't have their ID, and ended up taking a cab back to our hostel pub. Solid. It was a blast though! We drank the cheapest Augustine beer (the natty light of Germany.) We also met lots of Australians because it is summer there and apparently everyone travels to Europe. The first Aussies we met were two burly guys who claimed to go to university with Herman Rockefeller's son. They told us about how his father went to a swinger's party without a partner and then got cut up by a chainsaw... I had never heard this story and found it very mean to be laughing about such a morbid death. However, the story actually pans out and I guess I missed it when the story hit the American news circuit. They also claimed that one of their dads owned an oil rig... but I was still drinking the cheapest beer at the bar, so I am still a skeptic.

This was our tour guide the whole time we were there... she had an awesome hat!

Munich will getcha with the buildings.

The next morning we had to be up and ready for our free walking tour of Munich at 11. I am a morning person, but I am NOT a cold weather person. This problem has not stopped me form going to school in the arctic of Blacksburg, so I figured I could easily take on Munich, Germany. Wrong. I lasted one hour out of the three hours I was supposed to spend on the walking tour. Not only was it heavily snowing with slushy puddles everywhere, but I learned my boots were in fact not water proof and nylon gloves are a sick joke.


Overall I wasn't sad that I missed most of the tour. The other kids didn't make it sound that amazing and a lot of it was a history based rather than architecture and art. However, I did maximize my hour and saw some really awesome things.

The New Town Hall building... very beautiful.

First we met up at the New Town Hall and saw Rathaus-Glockenspiel which is a beautiful large building with 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures that dance around for 15 minutes and is a huge tourist attraction. Then we went to The Frauenkirche which translates to the "Cathedral of Our Lady."It was a gorgeous church where we were told the legend of the Devil’s footprint. The basic gist of it is that there was an architect who was building a church and it had no windows, but he didn't have enough money to finish it. The devil came in and said I will help you finish the church and it will be my house of worship if you do not build anymore windows. The architect agreed and finished the church. Then the devil came back and was very angry because he saw windows. If you go inside the church and face the front alter, there are columns that block all of the windows so it looks very dark. However, if you move to either sides you can see the beautiful stained glass windows. The devil was so angry about this he stomped down his foot and you can literally see "the devils footprint."Then we went to another square where they talked about the "white trade" or salt trade and how the Pope gets special beer imported to him from Germany. They also spoke about culture in Munich and how on Sunday you're not supposed to work at all and have a day of rest (even laundry YAY!) Finally we went to another square near a scholar's beer hall were Hitler recited some of his first speeches and later returned when he overthrew the government.

No windows!

The roof of the church was destroyed in a war and the groups that help rebuild it are commemorated on the ceiling. Because of this there are not only Jewish stars, but flags from other countries in a German Catholic Church.

The Devil's footprint.

After that part of the tour I was so done. I could hardly walk my toes were so frozen so I ran to the nearest Puma store and bought fleece gloves.


I hope you enjoyed my educational Munich post.. tomorrow will be shopping and nightlife :)