Munich, Germany

(I obviously didn't take these pictures but I found them on the web. They are pictures of the castle that we saw on Saturday! Absolutely beautiful, huh?)

What a great weekend in Germany!!! This weekend I went to Munich, Germany with Brad, Ann, Liz, Derek, Jaime, and Jake. We left from our house at 6:45 AM on Friday morning to head to the train station. We stopped by the ATM to get euros before heading to Germany. We travelled from Leuven to Liege. Then from Liege to Frankfurt, Germany on a high speed train. Then our last train was from Frankfurt to Munich, also on a high speed train. We arrived shortly after 2:00 PM. Then we walked one block to our hostel called Wombats to check in. It is awesome!!! We got one room with 6 beds. There is an awesome bar and atrium at our hostel and they gave us each a free beer ticket for the bar. There is also happy hour at the bar from 6-8 PM and 12-1 AM. As soon as we got settled in and made our beds, we headed out to get some dinner and make our way to the legendary Hofbrauhaus. We stopped to eat at an Italian/German restaurant. Ann and I had the Weinerschnitzel. We expected it to be a sausage with fries, but it was actually a huge piece of veal that was battered and fried. It was very good. I also got the most giant Diet Coke that I have had since I have been in Europe. It was 0.5 Liters! (but it was also 4 euros). Then we walked a little longer until we got to the Hofbrauhaus. We walked into the huge beer hall. We found a table where we could all fit and sat down next to a nice man who only spoke German. We each ordered a beer from our nice little German/Asian waitress who was very flustered the whole time. I had a White Wheat Beer that was only 0.5 Liters. Liz also had one of these but then had some white wine. Jake had a Dunkel or dark beer that was 1 Liter! All the others also had 1 Liter beers. Then, while we were just hanging out and listening to the Om-pah band, four Aggies walked in and sat down at our table with us. Ann decided to try the beer with lemonade. It was sooooooo delicious! I bought some awesome souvenirs at the Hofbrauhaus also. After most of us had 2 liters of beer, we headed back to the hostel. Derek stayed with the Aggies and ended up drinking 7 Liters of beer!!!!!! He somehow made it back to the hostel later that night. The rest of us drank a little bit more at the Wombar with our free beer tickets. We had a fun night, even though it rained the entire day.

On Saturday morning we slept in until almost 10 AM. It was raining again and ended up raining throughout the entire day. Then we went downstairs to eat breakfast which shut at 10:30 AM. It cost 3,70 euros each but it is a buffet style. But, in Germany, people each sandwiches for breakfast. They have a panini maker here at the hostel so I had white bread with ham, cheese, tomato, and strawberry jelly smashed into a panini with Orangesaft (orange juice). It was very good and held us over until we ate a bratwurst at the castles. We had initially planned to go on the free walking tour of the city of Munich provided at Wombats at 11 AM. The tour guide showed up about 30 minutes late and made a very bad first impression on us. He said the tour would last until 3:30 or 4 PM and we would have to pay anywhere between 7 and 17 euros each at the end of the "free" walking tour. So, we decided to bail and head to the castles. We rode a train to Fussen that took around 2 hours. Once we got to Fussen, we had to take a bus to the castles. They are on the border between Germany (Bavaria) and Austria up in the mountains. I actually only had to pay for the bus ride back because a girl we met on the train from Guatemala got me on the bus for free with her pass. The castles that we saw were Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. We saw both of them for 15 euros. Our first tour was at 3:45 of the Hohenschwangau Castle which was the castle that King Ludwig's parents lived in. It is yellow and set above a lake. The name of the castle means Highland of the Swans. On top of the castle there is a giant swan. We were able to go inside and go on an English tour but pictures were not allowed inside so I bought a guide with pictures of the rooms for 3,50 euros. It was a 10 minute walk up to this castle. Our tour of Neuschwanstein started at 5:55 PM, so we decided to walk there instead of paying for a horse carriage or a bus to take us up to the top of the mountain. It was supposed to be a 40 minute walk but we made it up there in about 25 minutes. It was the most difficult climb I have ever been on! I was definitely breathless but it was a beautiful walk in which we saw many natural waterfalls. The rain was a bummer but we made the most out of our day. When we made it up the mountain to the castle, I ate a pretzel and a water. Fabulous snack. Also, when we got up to the castle and were waiting for our English tour to start, I met Lauren, an Aggie whose dad is in the air force and just recently got stationed in Germany near the castles. She is a sophomore at A&M. We also made friend with a family from Florida that were on both of our castle tours. Neuschwanstein was King Ludwig's castle that was built from 1869-1886. However, it was never finished because King Ludwig was found drowned in a lake. He had only lived in the castle for a little over 150 days. And, Bavaria never finished the castle. It was turned over to the people and tours have been given ever since. It is the most beautiful site I have ever seen. Walt Disney got his idea for Sleeping Beauty's castle from Neuschwanstein. The castles that are found at Disney Land and Disney World are based off of this beautiful castle. I got one especially awesome souvenir in a shop outside the castles. We finally made it home to Wombats around 10:30 PM. Ann and I ate pizza and a salad at the pizzeria right outside our hostel. Then we all fell alseep!

Today, we woke up a little bit earlier, around 9:30 AM. I went downstairs and ate breakfast and then waited for the Gordon's tour that we were supposed to be meeting at 10:15 AM. The tour costed 17 euros and was supposed to take us on a 5 hour tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp, the first concentration camp built. However, Gordon got sick so we had to once again go on our own. We rode a subway 21 minutes to the city of Dachau. Then we rode a bus to the actual camp site. The admission to the memorial was free but I bought an audio guide for 2,50 euros. We stayed there until nearly 3 PM just touring the museum and the different buildings remaining at Dachau. We saw many horrifying sites and pictures. We also watched a documentary movie in English at 2:00 PM. It was very, very sad. It was an extremely moving experience though. We saw the bunk houses and the crematorium while there. It was a very sad day but we were glad that the sun was shining and it was not raining. We made it back to Munich around 4:30 PM. We had already decided that we were going to shop during the afternoon today. We had all seen some steins on Friday that we wanted to buy for souvenirs. I also had planned to buy some Birkenstocks that I found right outside our hostel. They were silver t-strap Birkenstocks for only 39,95 euros. However, EVERYTHING was closed!!!! The only place that I could find a stein was in the train station. I was extremely sad about not being able to buy the shoes or steins. But, Ann and Liz and I were able to see the premiere party of Toy Story 3 here in Germany. There were lots of papparazi around to take pictures of the Germans who had done the voices. How cool, huh? Then we all walked to a bier garten/bavarian restaurant about 15 minutes away called Augustiner. It was awesome!!! I had 4 pork brautwursts with potato salad. Brad had liver soup....? And Ann had a GIANT blueberry pancake that was delicious. I had a half liter of beer. It was a great experience.

And now, we are hanging out in the hostel trying to solidify our plans to go home tomorrow. We are leaving here at 9:55 AM tomorrow morning and will not make it back to Leuven, Belgium until after 4:30 PM. I will then have to finish my Field Trip #2 report and then study for both of my mid-term exams. I plan to post some pictures of the castles and such on this blog once I get a chance. We have BAEN 460 mid-term on Tuesday and BAEN 465 mid-term on Wednesday. I still have not decided where I am going next weekend, but I will figure it out soon.

My bug bites have pretty much all healed since we have been here in Germany, but I am sure they will start to bother me again when I get back to the student house and get new bites. I really hope they start leaving me alone. We have been on this study abroad trip for about 18 days and have about 19 days left. We are right in the middle of the program. However, many of us are starting to get homesick and are ready to get back to Texas. I am sure these feelings will intensify over the next 2 weeks. Next weekend is our last full 4 day weekend to travel. The next weekend is our overnight field trip to Bruge, Belgium on Thursday and Friday. We will be able to travel on Saturday and Sunday. Ann and Brad and I had talked about staying in Brussels or other places in Belgium that weekend since we will most likely be BROKE by then! So, since I have so much to do when I get back to Leuven tomorrow, I may not write another blog. But I will try to post pictures from the castles and other German sites on this blog and Facebook whenever I get time. Peace and Love from Munich, Germany!!!