Munich!

Munich is wonderful.

We had to be at the Main Station at 4:40 Saturday morning to catch the train to the airport...that was really early. The flight was only about an hour long, and then we had to take a 40 minute train from the Munich airport to the city. The traveling wasn't that bad, I slept most of the way. Our hostel was super close to the train station which was great, it was a wonderful location. The hostel itself was awesome. The people working were really nice, and the place was clean and fun. We set our stuff down in the hostel, but since check-in wasn't until 2 we set it in the luggage room and went to try and make our plans for the day. We found out information about a Dachau tour and a Beer and Brewery Tour. We had some time before the Dachau tour, so we found some breakfast. This little bakery had all these wonderful looking donuts so it was hard to pick one...when I was paying I asked the lady working what was in the donut and she said alcohol. Interesting. So I ate the donut, and you could definitely taste the alcohol. It wasn't bad, but if given the choice, I probably wouldn't get that again.

Dachau was really interesting. It is really sobering being in that concentration camp, but it was soooo interesting. There were a couple of people on our tour that were annoying, but it wasn't that bad. Dachau was the first concentration camp and it was a work camp. There were no mass murders at Dachau like there were at Aushwitz. The camp started as a place for opposers, people who spoke out against the Third Reich. As Hitler started gaining more and more control, more people were forced into concentration camps and the camp started getting more and more crowded. I think our tour guide said the camp was meant for 2,000 people maybe, and at one point in time there were like 76,000...that could be a very wrong statistic, but it was something to that effect. So while there was a gas chamber, it is claimed to have never been used. I am glad I went, but it is definitely a depressing tour. We were instructed to go drink a beer after the tour.

Once we got back from the tour, we went to check into the hostel and put our stuff in our rooms. Then we had a little less than an hour to kill before the Beer and Brewery Tour so we went and ate Donners, which were delicious. This tour was very different than the Dachau one, clearly. We went to 3 different breweries in Munich. Schneider's and Sons was the first one and it was okay...the beer I had was a dark beer and I am not a big fan of dark beers. The second one we went to was Paulaner, and at this one we were actually taken through the factory to learn how beer is made and learned the history of beer...which was pretty interesting. The monks first discovered beer during lent, because they were fasting they needed something to sustain them...thus beer was born. Every year in Munich during lent is known as the Beer Season. We got to sample 3 different beers at this one too. The last place we went was th original Hofbrauhaus, which was an experience. Interestingly enough, that Hofbrauhaus was the birth place of the Third Reich, the first couple for meetings between Hitler and the Third Reich took place in that Hofbrauhaus. It was really fun, most everyone finished their drinks and then left but there were 5 of us that stayed and hung out for like an hour or so longer. It was me and Kyle, this 50 year old British lady who was awesome, and 2 guys in the U.S. Army that are stationed in Germany. One of those guys actually went to college in Kentucky so we talked about that. At one point in time we were arguing about Ale8 and everyone on our tour was looking at us because our southern accents were coming out really strong and people said that couldn't even understand what we were talking about...which is kinda funnny.

After the beer tour, we went back to the hostel and there were a bunch of people hanging out in the bar in the hostel so we went in there and met some really nice and interesting people there. The next day, check-out was at 10 so we had to get up and get moving. We decided that we were just going to walk around Munich since we didn't get a chance to on Saturday. Munich is absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect. We climbed up this clock tower thing to get an amazing view of the city. We didn't really do much except explore the city...but it was beautiful and I would love to go back there.

I kinda wish that my placement was there instead of Cologne because there is more to do in Munich, and more people speak English. But, it was nice that when we finally were done traveling and back in Munich that feeling of "home" was there. I knew exactly where I was going when I got back to Cologne, and I was relieved to be back here...so it was interesing the way that works.