München Pt 2

26th January 2013
As I mentioned previously, I did not plan anything for the remainder of my trip in Europe so locations, attractions and everything of that nature is basically unknown to me.

On our second day in Munich, the skies were blue which was incredible although it was still quite chilly. We strolled through the main square and past the city hall. We stumbled upon an outdoor market and Sunbear ordered some sort of assorted nuts for us. It honestly tasted like these weird walnuts that my highschool friend used to bring to school; I am sure that they tasted incredible as they were probably coated in MSG.








When I was in the States, I gained weight near the halfway mark. I blamed, and still do, on Sunbear. He ate a lot and all the time which resulted in me to overeat too. So it wasn't too surprising when he found a square filled with tiny establishments and tables outside. Everyone was drinking a beer stein and it was only 10am in the morning! Sunbear ordered (so glad that he knew German) and he got us mulled wine (glühwein), mulled cider (glühmost), horse meat sausage and hot chips with mayo. Fun fact, he believed that thick cut chips were European and it was something that I needed to try. Hmm. Mayo with hot chips is apparently quite a big deal in the Netherlands. I am actually not quite a big fan of thick cut chips; unless the potato and crisy-ness ratio is just right, I would rather not eat them.














For dinner we found some random restaurant (actually, he was interested in visiting a sushi place originally. I don't quite understand people's obsession with sushi, especially Europeans. I guess you like the things that aren't as readily available?).


First time trying blood sausage. It was alright, just a little too salty for my liking.



27th January 2013
Today we headed to Dachau Concentration Camp. Sunbear was the driver and I was meant to be the navigator. I am not terrible at reading maps and I did have plenty of experience in the States, but is something else when I couldn't even read the names of the roads. Turn left onto Thierschstraße and then turn onto Widenmayerstraße before turning right to Ifflandstraße. Nope. It just wasn't happening. I would just look at the word and I didn't even know where to start.






Gas chamber, although it was never used.




Arbeit macht frei - work will set you free
We wandered around the grounds. All of the barracks except one (though not the original, it was re built to house the memorial/ museum part) were demolished however concrete foundations were laid down to illustrate the location of the barracks. The special barracks (the one with the aqua walls) was where they housed the special prisoners such as clergy. It's just chilling as to be expected. Just a really weird feeling and we didn't finish going through the museum since Sunbear found it a little too overwhelming. It was also very weird walking through the gas chambers (which apparently were never used as there was a lack of evidence; the gas is meant to leave a residue on all the walls) and past the crematorium. Reading that they had to build a larger and second one because the first couldn't cope with the workload. Ugh. I don't know if I want to visit any other concentration camps in the future. I just don't know. Part of me find it incredibly eerie (the same feeling that I get at cemeteries but multiplied by 1000 times) and I just end up feeling quite detached (on purpose).

We hopped back into the car and Sunbear wanted to drive around the area. We stumbled upon a barn full of cows and I never knew that cows were so affectionate! Once I started petting one, 4 others joined and they all wanted me to pet them! It was really weird and funny since there was this one cow who wanted all the attention and at one point actually shoved the other cows aside.




Lunch at this "town" or "village", wait apparently there is this thing called a "hamlet".








For dinner, we stumbled upon another quaint village and we just got stared at by the owner. Not sure if it was because we were tourists or if it was me.


French onion soup. Also note the owner staring in the background.

My Overall Thoughts
Munich was a much larger city than Hamburg although it is a little odd because when I associate "big city" I think of a city similar to Sydney or London whereas Munich is a big city but in a different way. I guess it is just that I am too used to one type. Munich was a lovely city and it did illustrate the difference between the northern and southern parts of Germany. Aside from the terribly rude people at Neuschwanstein Castle, everyone was incredibly friendly even to me when I was always just standing next to Sunbear and smiling awkwardly as he spoke in German. I guess it is somewhat similar to the US where it is perceived that Southerners are warmer.

Would I re-visit?
Not in the near future. No ill feelings towards the city, but sort of "too much to see and not enough time".

Next stop: the Netherlands! 

München Pt 1

25th January 2013
My dad always used to say, "if you need to be doing something, don't talk to your friends". Not exactly groundbreaking but it was so true. From Hamburg, we were flying to Innsburck, Austria to pick up a car from Hertz to then drive into Germany again. This was because it ended up around €100 cheaper than if we were to just have picked it up from Germany. The fact that Europe is so small geographically still boggles my mind. On the way to the airport, we were chatting on the train and we weren't paying attention. After a while, I realised that the train was taking an awfully long time (it was meant to be gone to the airport. By this stage, we only had an hour before our flight took off. Cue panic. By the time we reached the airport, it was 45 minutes left and we ran from the station to the check-in kiosks. Well, tried to run would be more accurate. At some point, this thought honestly crossed my mind: go on without me, it's fine. I am normally not much a runner let alone having an extra 16 kilos on my body; I am not cut out for the Amazing Race it seems. We got to security and the woman was intent on being this super bitch. I had canned corn from Rome (meaning that I flew out from Venice to Prague without a problem). But the woman threw a massive fit about the thing and was so rude: "Do you speak German or English?" (I tell her I speak English) "DO. YOU. SPEAK. ENGLISH. OR. GERMAN?". Yep. Finally she let us go and we ran to the boarding gate and they were just starting to board everyone! Although, I wasn't sure if they would allow my other hiking bag onboard (since it was a budget flight, they are quite strict about it). All I remember is that Exchange Dude was talking to the woman at the boarding gate and gesturing towards me and I just made sure I looked forlorn. Ha it worked though and we boarded with all our luggage!

Innsbruck was pretty, especially with the snow capped mountains. The plan was to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. It was an incredibly pretty drive.











Neuschwanstein Castle gives me a little bit of a sour taste when I think back to the memory. By the time we arrived, it was just past 4pm and we purchased tickets for the 5pm tour of the castle. However, from the parking lot to the castle, it was a 40min walk (which we did not realise initially) and by the time we actually arrived at the entrance we were rudely informed by the employee that the castle was closed and 5pm was the last tour and there was nothing they could do. And she proceeded to storm off. Exchange Dude was fuming as a) I had purchased both tickets for I believe a total of €50 which had just been wasted and b) the rudeness of the employee. It wasn't as though it was just some random woman on the streets, no it was an employee working at a tourist attraction and didn't even care about anyone else. Really.





In addition to that terrible experience, the castle was underwhelming. In the pictures it looked like this



In reality, it was quite ugly up close.








After the frustrating experience, we headed to Munich. To get there, we had to go on the autobahn. The autobahn are highways or expressways which have no speed limits. Yes, that's right, no speed limits. I believe Exchange Dude reached 180km/h (which was the maximum the car could reach) which was an interesting experience. Though, what was scary was the fact that we were one of the slower cars on the road.


At some point we managed to drive out to Austria and back into Germany unknowingly.
Bavaria is quite different to Nothern Germany, it feels warmer and more home-y. I also had my first proper meal in a very long time. Exchange Dude ordered (it is lovely having someone who can speak the language, although there was some difficult in understanding as I have been told that the Bavarian accent is quite thick and difficult to understand). We had pork, reindeer and spätzle.








Love this stuff!


Reindeer
I had to go to the bathroom and once again, I was fuming that there was a woman collecting money for use of the bathroom. I actually snuck into the bathroom and then quickly walked past the woman, pretending that I didn't see her. It was a glorious moment and the most rebellious I have ever been.

Hamburg

24th January 2013
Hamburg, Germany was my next destination and it was where I was meeting up with Exchange Dude. On the train from Berlin to Hamburg, there was this middle aged woman sitting in my carriage and we struck up a conversation. Well, more accurately she started to talk to me. I don't remember too much about the conversation apart from the fact that she was from Munich but lived in Hamburg now and visited Berlin for a concert with her girlfriends.

When I imagined our reunion, I thought it would be nothing short of a movie moment. Oh boy, that didn't happen. I had received a call earlier that day informing me that Exchange Dude was late due to his delayed train. Funny story actually. When I went to check out of my hostel, the person at reception said, "Some guy called to tell you to check your email because your boyfriend's train is delayed". The most bizarre sentence since I actually thought, "wait what boyfriend?". Lol.

I didn't have a working phone with me therefore I couldn't actually contact Exchange Dude and had to hope that he wouldn't miss me when he arrived at the station. It was quite an experience standing in the cold outside the station, looking at everyone who was leaving whilst the Swan Lake piece played on repeat by the station.


Finally, finally he arrived and it was the most anti-climatic moment of my entire existence. I actually thought I would have been more emotional, but I was just... not feeling it. The thing that struck me was that he sounded so British. We then went for a quick lunch (although I wasn't really hungry).




Exchange Dude is actually trilingual; he knows English, Dutch and German. Also knows French but more on a basic/ intermediate level. On exchange, there was a girl called Franzi who was from Hamburg and Exchange Dude had asked her for some advice when visiting. She highly recommended the Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg.

Miniatur Wunderland (German for miniature wonderland) is a model railway attraction in Hamburg, Germany and the largest of its kind in the world, built by the twins Gerrit and Frederik Braun. As of January 2011, the railway consists of 12,000 metres (39,370 ft) of track in HO scale, divided into seven sections: Harz, the fictitious city of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. Of the 6,400 square metres (68,889 sq ft) of floorspace, the model takes 1,150 m2 (12,378 sq ft).

City Hall








The place was incredible!! There was so much detail and honestly, you could have spent hours at the place. Within each landscape, there were clearly stories going on with the tiny people and a lot of interesting things happening too. The one that comes to mind is a sunflower field with a man lying on a checkered picnic blanket naked and a girl hovering around his nether regions. Every 15 minutes or so, the lights would go off, switching from day to night and the landscape would completely change. One of the coolest parts was the airport where it was programmed to take off as well as land and the usual waiting in line before the runway.

By the time we left, it was dark and we went to a park with the intention of visiting a fair. I didn't do any sort of planning for the remainder of the trip since Exchange Dude wanted to plan it all. Turns out the fair wasn't on that night so we headed back to the hotel.

Forgot to mention this for Berlin post but one of the things that irritated me the most about Europe, especially Germany was the need to pay for the bathroom. It is understandable to have to pay to use a public bathroom, but it was so frustrating when I was already a paying customer at restaurant and still had to dish out to use their bathroom. Seriously.

Would I visit again?
Probably not.