Munich was an interesting trip, to say the least. After getting tickets almost at the last minute (the day before, but still), it was an adventure to get down there. From Leipzig on the ICE (fast train) it was four or five hours, and that's a long time on the train. Basically traveling was all we did on Friday, and I was glad because it had been a long day--in the morning our class had a day trip of Leipzig.
The hostel was where things go interesting. There were seven of us (me, Jake, Amber, Joe, Derek, Molly, and Virginia) and we had reserved an eight person room. The thing with hostels is if you don't have the exact number of people, there is always the chance you will end up sharing a room with strangers. Well, that's what happened with us; we ended up sharing the room with this older guy who was a bit of a creeper. Needless to say, we tried to avoid being in the room when he was there as a sort of privacy thing.
Saturday morning/afternoon we went to Neuschwanstein. Built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria (aka the Swan King, who was a bit mad and drowned suspiciously at a rather early age) this is the castle that Walt Disney based Cinderella's castle on. It took two hours from Munich by train, then a short bus ride, then a trek partially up the side of a mountain to get to it, but it was worth it. Part of it was under year-long renovation in preparation for the Luther Jubilee in 2017, but the part that wasn't covered by scaffolding was very beautiful. It's your quintessential German castle, and although we didn't pay to do the tour I thought it was still very neat.
After getting back to Munich, Jake was nice enough to take us on a walking tour of the city. We went through the main tourist area (that is, the busiest street in Munich) and saw the Glockenspiel clock. Supposedly the figures are supposed to dance and music plays, but it never did it while we were there, which was a bit of a let-down. Then we went and had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus--one of the oldest breweries in the city. There were so many people there that I didn't think we were going to find a seat! We wandered through it for ages, creeping on people who looked like they were leaving, until we finally found a table. The food was very good and the beer was also good--there's a reason that they have seat for up to 1,300 people in the main hall. Also, a live house band playing polka! You can't get more Bavarian than that, guys.
Sunday we wandered around Munich, going to the English Garden and Olympiapark. The English Garden is a huge public park and larger than New York's Central Park. We saw so many dogs that it was a bit ridiculous, but it was fun. The Olympiapark consists of the Olympic Stadium, the swim hall, and the multipurpose hall that were built for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The park is very large and it was busy when we were there, and the stadium is massive, but also the architecture was interesting.
All in all, we had a good time but I wish it would have been longer. Dachau is very close to Munich and I would have loved to have gone to see it, but we didn't have enough time. It's spring break now, which basically means I'm lazing about, but we'll see what I can find to do around Wittenberg and the surrounding areas. Just because I can't go to Italy, Austria, or Paris doesn't mean I can't have fun, right? Right. =)
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