Voices

It’s been quite a while since my last blog post, but that’s because for the past 10 days, I’ve been on spring break in Europe! (Since I am studying abroad, it just makes life a little bit easier to travel to other European countries, even on a student budget!) After all my midterms were said and done, I quickly packed for spring break and jumped on the road!

On Friday, March 26, I had a flight scheduled to Munich (München, as the Germans call it) from the Bremen airport. For about 2 months now, I planned this spring break with several Lafayette friends also studying in Bremen. Candice Prager, Amy Hinkel, Mike Gaykowski, Scott Gordon, Jeremiah Totten-Greenwood, and I set our alarms for 4:00AM early that morning and had to make it to the train station by 4:27AM. It was a rough wake-up, to say the least, but we all made it – except for Scott! Unfortunately, he did not wake up to his alarms and we had no time to run back to campus to pick him up, so we thought, “oh well, I guess he’s missing his flight!” He did, fortunately, wake up in a scurry at around 5AM and booked the next train ticket from Bremen to Munich. We caught our 6:30AM flight from Bremen to Munich via RyanAir. We were to be using RyanAir for the rest of our spring break, as well, to get to Italy & Malta.

It was a pretty smooth flight, and we landed at around 8AM. Funny thing about RyanAir is that, since it is such a small plane and the tickets are so incredibly cheap (and student-friendly), it does not fly directly into large cities. Although our ticket destination listed “Munich-Memmingen Airport,” we landed in the small town of Memmingen – 100km outside of Munich. There were many buses and taxis trying to make us pay 18-20 Euros just to get into Munich, but since we are all cheap traveling college students with a budget, we headed to the Information Desk at the airport and asked for the least expensive way to get into Munich. The Information Desk sold us “Bavaria Passes” for a group of 5 students (we had 5 students total, since Scott missed the flight), and we paid a total of 6 Euros each to make it to the city. Unfortunately, we had a bus to catch, and several long train rides, before we reached the heart of München. We finally arrived in the München Hauptbahnhof by noon. Luckily we made up for the lack of sleep the night before, by sleeping on the plane, and all those bus/train rides!I

t was a beautiful sunny day in München! It felt as if it were a scorching 75-80 degrees outside; I had never experienced weather like that in Germany, thus far. Immediately, my mood lightened up from the draining ride to Munich, and we were on the go! A few of our friends (Scott, Amy, and Candice) were to stay in a hostel in Munich, while myself, Mike & Jeremiah were going to graciously stay at Mike’s host sister’s apartment about 20 minutes outside of Munich (saved me money!). We quickly led our friends Amy and Candice to check into their hostel, and took advantage of the hostel’s free WiFi to contact our friend Scott. I received an email from him saying that he would meet up with us in Munich at around 1:30PM. Forunately enough, he caught the next train down to Munich, so we were beyond relieved our friend found another way down to the city.

We had some time to kill, so we headed straight to the Marienplatz of München. The Marienplatz is a central square in the city center of Munich, Germany since 1158. The word “Marienplatz” is translated from “Mary’s Square,” or “Our Lady’s Square.”

The Neues Rathaus & The Glockenspiel

The Marienplatz is dominated by the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus). The Glockenspiel (glocken=bells,spiel=to play) is in the tower of the New City Hall, plays music and draws millions & millions of tourists every year.

Crowded Marienplatz City Center

In Front of the Neues Rathaus & Glockenspiel

Amy, Candice, and Myself in front of Neues Rathaus & Glockenspiel

After quickly checking out the Marienplatz, though, we had to head straight back to the hostel to find our friend Scott. He finally made it to Munich, safe, and in one piece! We were all sure he had a rough and stressful morning, so after he dropped off his bags, we went straight back to the center of Munich and went to the famous Beer Garden.München Biergarten

“Biergarten” (Beer Garden) is an open-air area where beer and prepared typically local foods are served. They had large pretzels, bratwursts, currywursts, potato salad, and more of the typical German cuisine for sale! The concept originates from the Southern Germany area (typically Bavaria which is where Munich is located in). The Biergarten is usually very crowded, as you can see in the picture, but it was a good time and experience! I ordered a bratwurst to eat, and it was beyond delicious!

Later that day, though we decided to take a free-tour, that was offered at the center of the Marienplatz. This tour lasted for about 3 hours, but our tour guide was incredibly friendly and active. He shared many historical stories with us and brought us to some of the main sites to see.Running Into Other Lafayette Students!

We ran into Luna, Austin, and Joel (other Lafayette students studying in Bremen) who took a train down to Munich, earlier! They decided to take the free tour with us, as well! What a coincidence.

After our tour, we wandered around Munich some more, and ate some dinner. We decided we’d call it an early night and head back to our hostel and Mike’s host sister’s apartment to go to bed early.

Mike’s host family in Germany has a daughter (age 28) who lives 20 minutes outside of Munich. Mike asked me and Jeremiah if we would like to stay in his host sister’s apartment while in Munich to save some money (instead of paying for a hostel) and to also learn some things about Bavarian life from a native-German. I gladly accepted the offer, of course! Unfortunately, Mike did not want to invite the entire group to stay at the apartment, since we did not want to inconvenience his host sister.

Mike’s host sister’s name is Marian. As I said, she is 28 years old, and has a 1.5 year old son. She lives with her son and her boyfriend, Benjamin in a very small, but cozy apartment. We met them, and they graciously offered their living room space for myself, Mike, and Jeremiah to sleep in. They cooked dinner for us the first night, and we got to talk to them and learn about their family life and some stories of Germany (particularly Munich). Her son is the most adorable blonde-haired boy ever, and very well-behaved! Every morning, when we woke up to get our day started, Marian would prepare us a very lovely Bavarian breakfast with some fresh bread rolls, jams, chocolate spread, meats, juice, and hot tea. Marian was very kind and hospitable, and I am so thankful I got to spend my time there with her, getting to know more about the German life-style!

Now, back to Munich!The Hofbräuhaus!

What is Munich without visiting the famous Hofbräuhaus?! The Hofbräuhaus is in Munich,Germany. It is owned by the state government. This internationally-known beer hall could be easily called the #1 tourist attraction in the München city center. It is everything that Bavaria is all about! As a large beer drinking hall, you can see all the traditions of a Bavarian beer drinker (i.e. long wooden tables & benches). Beer is only served in 1 liter-sized glasses (called “Maß”). There are giant pretzels for sale to soak up the beer (and make customers thirsty for MORE beer), and an “ompah” band plays traditional Bavarian brass music! We sat down at a table and ordered some traditional German cuisine and some beers. The food was pretty pricey, but it was definitely an enjoyable experience!

Our third day in Munich, it was a Sunday and nothing is every open in Germany on Sundays! Marian (Mike’s host sister) offered to take us to a modern-art museum, featuring authentic Andy Warhol pieces. That morning, we met up with Candice, Scott, and Amy who were staying in a hostel, and we all went to the art museum. To be honest, I’m not a great fan of modern-art, but it was a very interesting and neat museum! (Not to mention, the entrance fee was only 1 Euro on Sundays, as opposed to 7 Euros on other weekdays)

Andy Warhol’s “The Last Supper”

We spent our morning in the museum, and then Marian left with her son to go back to her apartment. Our last day in Munich, we decided to spend it at a park and we also wanted to check out the large field where the famous yearly Oktoberfest is held.

Pictures of the Park

Large Oktoberfest Field

The Munich Oktoberfest – known by the locals as the “Wiesn,” is the biggest public festival in the world. Each year, the Oktoberfest is attended by 6 million visitors, who drink more than 5 million liters of beer and consume over 200,000 pairs of pork sausages – mostly in the “beer tents” put up by the traditional Munich breweries. This year’s upcoming Oktoberfest will take place from September 18-October 4, 2010 and will be the 177th Oktoberfest held. This picture does no justice! The field was absolutely HUGE!Augustiner-Bräu Beer

For dinner, we went to a local popular German restaurant (the food was a lot cheaper than the Hofbräuhaus food!). We ordered Augustiner-Bräu Beer to accompany our meal. Augustiner beer has been brewed since 1328. The Augustiner Bräu is a brewery located in Munich, Germany, and is still Munich’s oldest still independent brewery and produces some of Munich’s most popular brands of beer. What we learned on our free-tour, though, was that the Augustiner-Bräu Beer is the current catholic Pope’s favorite beer, and he receives a free barrel of the Augustiner Beer every month!

My Last Authentic München Dinner

Augustiner-Bräu Beer, German potato salad, Schweineschnitzel (breaded pork)

We were in München, Germany from Friday afternoon until Monday morning, when we departed for Italy for the rest of our spring break. München (in southern Germany) definitely had a different environment than Bremen, where we are studying (northern Germany). Bavaria is a very nice place with a great atmosphere, and the culture of the München people was quite overwhelming! There was a lot to see, and a lot to do, and although 3 days was plenty enough to explore the main sites of the large city, I would definitely love to return one day (when I have a job and more money) to learn more about the München culture.

My blogs of my trip to Italy and Malta will come shortly! Auf Wiedersehen!