München, the land of castles and beer

When I went to France and Spain with high school in 2007, we took a night train from Paris to Barcelona. When we got on the train, we were told that the cleaning crew was on strike and since we used their sheets on the train, we were completely grossed out. Then when I was on the train from Novgorod to Moscow, I left my sweatpants on the train. So when I got on the train from Copenhagen to Munich, I didn't have the best experiences on night trains. And of course, this train did not disappoint. Since there was no internet and no power cords and I get motion sickness if I try to read in moving vehicles, I got bored and went to bed before we reached Hamburg. When I woke up at 7am to give myself time to get ready to get into Munich at 9, I learned that the train was FOUR hours delayed and that we weren't going to get into Munich until 13:00. However, we could transfer to a faster train in Fulda and get in at noon. I relayed a message to Monica, the friend picking me up when I arrived, then made the transfer. Halfway to Munich, that train had problems and I was delayed for another two hours. When I finally got to Munich at 14:00, I had been travelling for 22 hours and had wasted Monica's entire day. It was completely ridiculous.

After a long train ride, going on a free tour of the city, and meeting some of Monica's friends on Wednesday, I was ready to begin the most important trip of my semester: going to the Alps to see Neuschwanstein Castle. It was a two hour train ride from Munich to Füssen, but it was gorgeous. We headed towards the Alps and watched them slowly get bigger which was amazing. Seeing the towering, snow-covered mountains in the background with the little houses and green lawns in the foreground was beautiful and very Sound of Music. Once I got to the little village of Hohenschwangau, I was even more blown away by the beauty of the area. There were two amazing castles, a gorgeous lake, and enormous mountains. There really are no words for how beautiful it is there. I took hundreds of pictures of the castles, the lake, and the mountains. Getting to go into the castle was the highlight of my semester. It still doesn't feel real that I was there. After climbing a mountain and taking a tour of the castle, I explored the town for a couple hours and took in the view. I'm so glad I made the trip.





That night, Monica took me to a biergarten and then to the smaller springtime version of Oktoberfest. It was in the same place, but smaller and with fewer drunk Australians. Munich was founded on beer production, so naturally it's a big deal there. They buy a liter of beer for under 10 euro, very different from the prices in Copenhagen. All of the men were dressed in lederhosen and everyone was standing on the tables singing. I didn't participate because I had spent all day in the sun and was burnt and figured it would be a bad idea, but it's inspired me to make it back to Munich sometime for Oktoberfest.

My final day in Munich started out with a visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial. It was a rough morning, but definitely worth it. All over the camp there were informational signs in English and German which described camp life (and death) in detail. Dachau was one of the first camps because Munich is where Hitler began accumulating power. Because of this, there were multiple stages to the camp where you could see the progression of how awful camp life was. There was one major downside to the trip and the sober atmosphere in the camp, however, which were the party tents set up in both the Roll Call Square and outside the New Crematorium (side note: the Nazis weren't burning people fast enough for a crematorium with two furnaces, so they needed to build a new, bigger one). I imagine there was some sort of remembrance event going on, but it seemed so frivolous when viewed next to the reconstructed barracks and fences.

Later that day I boarded another train and made it successfully to Copenhagen the next day with no major problems. Except for the issues I had the first day, I really like night trains and sleep really well when they're moving. When the train stops, however, is when I have my problems. Talking to people on trains is really interesting too. On the way to Munich, there was a woman from Penfield in my cabin, and on the way back a girl from Jutland who was really impressed that I knew any Danish. Plus, we made fun of Swedes in typical Danish fashion. It was a great, great trip and I think I've fallen in love with Germany. Which makes my upcoming trip to Berlin with Kristie even more exciting.