The Land of Lederhosen

It is raining in the lemon tree courtyard. Since there are no other non-classroom spaces at the lovely local of JCU, the weather has forced everyone inside to the computer labs or the vending machine room. I chilled out in the vending machine room for a while, eating my poorly planned lunch of canned tuna and crackers (I say poorly planned because the crackers got all smooshed and the tuna had to be drained of its oil, so I had to get a really gross tea from the vending machine and chug it so I had something to drain my tuna oil in). That got boring, so here I am, in the computer lab. The lemon tree courtyard did recently get tents for sitting underneath. I guess these are supposed to provide warmth and shelter, but they are really just smoke houses since the Italians and Fauxtalians just sit under them and smoke, with no where for carcinogens to escape. Love thee, JCU. At least the rain gives me the perfect opportunity to tell you about Munich.
First, some background info. I'm German (I'm also Italian, but you should have assumed that by now). I'm so German that I call my grandma "Oma", holidays always involve spaetzle (noodles), and I wore a durndel for my first few Christmases. My dad's maternal grandparents were from Munich, Germany. I suspect they were pretty cool since they owned some nightclubs. World War II happened, and the Fleischmans ended up in Canton, Ohio. That is probably more information than you ever wanted to know about my family. If you skipped that paragraph, I understand. One more tidbit...there is a statue of King Maximilian II in Munich. The artist's original small-scale model for this statue sits in my Oma's house. My goal for Munich was to find this statue. Now for tales from Deutchland. (Disclaimer: I will probably spell every German word incorrectly)
I'm getting a great sampling of European airlines, as every trip I take, I use a different one. This time, it was Condor, and it is my favorite. It shows you a cute little Sim-looking video about safety instructions. It involves a man, woman, and child. It's a thrilling movie, with drama (the masks have dropped! what now?!), suspense (how will he inflate the lifevest?), and romance (once the woman slides down the emergency exit slide, she rushes into the arms of the animated man and they share a passionate kiss after their death-defying experience). Condor also has a camera attached the front of the plane to let you see what's going on or maybe so you can see what it would be like to be an airplane yourself. I'm not sure how I feel about the cameras, considering if the plane were heading into anything bad, I don't think I'd want to see the impending doom. The best part about Condor were the muffins. Most budget European airlines do not give you food, but Condor rolled out the red carpet with complimentary muffins and beverages. Eventually we got off the plane and I had real, important experiences that are actually worth telling.
We got into Munich pretty late, so we went straight to our hostel. We stayed at the Wombat again (same hostel chain we had stayed at in Vienna). Wombat is an excellent hostel--very clean and helpful. The best part of this particular Wombat, however, was the pass-out room. It was technically called a lounge, but every time I walked in there, there were people laying all over the place--passed out on padded floor, sleeping on the technicolor couch, draped across a hammock. This scene could be found at any time of day or night.
Since it was so late, the only thing we did that night was get kebabs, now a traveling tradition. While at the Kebab place, I met a guy from Frankfurt. He was pretty cool and spoke perfect English, which is excellent since I speak not one single word of German (despite my aforementioned German heritage). I thought he was around my age, but it turns out he was 28. This happens a lot, because the people who always seem at my level of education/life are always quite a few years older than me, probably because European school lasts longer, but it still throws me off.
We were staying in a 6 person room, but there were only 5 of us in that particular room (9 total people in the ND group). When we went to bed, we didn't have a 6th roommate. When we woke up, there was a really old guy sleeping in the bunk under Caitlin! Ahh! When we started to wake up and get our stuff together, he silently got out of bed and left. It wasn't not a pleasant thing to wake up to, but that's what you'll get in hostels, even in the Wombat.
Our first day in Munich was spent at Neuschwantein Castle, the castle that Disney modeled its Cinderella castle off of. It was a two hour train ride to Fussen, where we could get a bus to the castle. The train ride was actually pretty awesome, because it let us see the German countryside. It was especially cool because it was snowing and made everything look like a Christmas village or a scenic painting. We killed some time in Fussen while waiting for our bus to get there. It was a cute little town with a big shop filled with traditional German clothing. I guess people actually wear that still. I picture big German proms where everyone wears lederhosen and durndels.
After the bus, we took a cozy horse-drawn carriage to the front of the castle. I say cozy because they fit as many people as they could into the carriage, so it was a little cramped, but still so cool to ride to a castle in a carriage. The castle itself is absolutely gorgeous. It's massive, but set against the even more massive Alps. This, plus all the snow, made for a really beautiful setting. We got our pictures outside the castle then went inside to thaw out. The castle was never actually lived in because King Ludwig died right before it was finished, so only a few rooms inside are actually decorated. However, if those few rooms are an indication of what the completed castle interior would have looked like, it was set to be one incredible castle. Mosaics and jewels and lavish decor are everywhere. The best part is the cave room. It is literally a room made to look like the inside of a cave. Mad King Ludwig indeed!
We caught the train back to Munich just in time to get back to the city for dinner. We went to the Hofbrauhaus, Munich's famous beer hall. Picture what you would expect a German beer house to look like, including all ridiculousness and stereotypes. That is exactly what this was. We walked in and it was loud and bright and crowded. There were men walking around in lederhosen with big steins of beer and women in durndels with baskets of pretzels. A band dressed in traditional German attire played brass instruments and waiters carried around platefuls of sausages. No one seats you, you just have to find a table. This was a chore and after a half hour, we finally found somewhere to sit. We all enjoyed potatoes, sauerkraut, bratwurst, and beer--pretty much the opposite of Italian cuisine. The theme of the Hofbrauhaus was definitely eat, drink, and be merry.
The next day, we took a train to Dachau concentration camp. It was a very interesting place and a chilling experience (both literally and figuratively, due to the snow and wind). We each got audio guides and went our own ways. There's not much else I can say about it, but I would recommend seeing it.
For lunch, we went to a Mexican restaurant. Before you judge us about not sticking with the culture we were visiting, we had gotten recommendations for this Mexican restaurant from lots of people and guide books. Plus, we were kind of sick of sausages. It was excellent Mexican food.
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping. Germany has a lot more department stores than Italy, and a lot bigger sizes. The people are a swarthy breed, and who can blame them when there is nothing but yellow and brown colored food to eat. Aside from the departments stores are a lot of souvenir shops, most selling Christmas ornaments. The ornaments were really pretty and oddly familiar. There were a few types of decorations I had seen at my Oma's house, but had never known they were German, but there they were in every souvenir shop. There were also a lot of chains like Starbucks, H&M, and Forever 18 (I guess 18 is better than 21 in Europe).
For dinner, we went to another, quieter beer hall called the Augusteiner. The waiter was very forward. We sat down and he said, "You will all have the house beer. It is the best." and left before we could protest. When Colleen asked for a water, he said, "You know, water is expensive. Are you sure you want it?" In fact, beer is the cheapest thing on the menu and water is more expensive. Strange. Later, the waiter put a basket of pretzels on our table and said, "These aren't free, you know." He was kind of crazy, but it was a fun place.
On Sunday, not much was open, so some of us went on the free walking tour provided by the hostel. It was raining and cold--not the best conditions for walking around Munich--but it was a really good tour. We saw the city center with the Glockenspiel that had little dancing puppet things. Another stop was the devil's church. The devil's church has a weird legend surrounding it. Apparently, the devil helped build it, on the condition that it would have no windows because he thought that no windows would lead to no one going into the church. Well, the devil's plan didn't work out because people still went in to the church (I think to avoid the cold weather in Munich). He rode in on wind, went into the church, stomped on the floor, leaving a footprint, then ran off in a fury, leaving his wind. That is why there is a dent in the floor and a lot of wind in the area. The stories people make up to explain normal things...
Near the church, there is a miniature model of the city of Munich. According to the tour guide, this is for the blind because it is written in "the language of the blind." So, I guess blind people like Munich.
It was nearing the end of our time in Munich and I still hadn't found the family famed Max statue. I asked my tour guide where this statue might be. He claimed it didn't exist, but after some further explanation (I had to specify that it was a statue of Maximilian II, not I) he pointed me in the "right" direction. I ended up wandering around for a while, never stumbling upon the statue that would fulfill my quest. It was a sad moment, but I had to get back to the hostel. I started out pretty confident in where I was going, but eventually got lost and ended up at the Hofbrauhaus wondering where the metro was. An older German man said something in German to me, then noticing my perplexed deer in lights gaze I give whenever anyone says something in a foregin language to me, he repeated in English, "Were you just in the Hofbrauhaus?". I said I wasn't then he proceeded to talk my ear of about whatever popped into his German mind. He was very nice and very chatty, so I asked him to lead me to the subway station. On the way there, he asked me where I was from. I said Ohio and got the usual blank stare so I said, "It's kind of close to Chicago." His face lit up and he said, "Chicago! How wonderful! I would like to live in Colorado because I like to ski! Or maybe Texas!" This man obviously had ADD. We got to the metro and after the subtly snide remark that Europeans usually give me about President Bush, he shook my hand, said something in Italian, and walked away. Nice, but obviously crazy.
Munich was an excellent place and one of my favorite cities I've been to during this semester. However, I will be very glad to be in Rome this weekend. I need to focus a bit on this thing called school they're making me do here...