Notes from Abroad

The trip to Munich was short and sweet. We made two pit stops: the first in Lucerne and the second in Liechtenstein.

Lucerne is probably a very cute little town, but since we were there on a Sunday morning and there had been a festival that weekend, the town was pretty much shut down and it smelled of urine and vomit. Fun times…

Liechtenstein was just a stop for funsies – just so we can say we’ve been there. I think we stopped for all of 2 hours, enough to grab some lunch and, if we wanted to pay the 2 Euro, get our passports stamped (I did it. It’s about time I got another stamp!). It, too, was a cute little town (err..country?). Definitely more lively than Lucerne, but still swamped with tourists.

We stayed at the Wombat’s hostel in Munich. It’s in a great location and they have a nifty little common area in their “winter garden” – free wifi, hammocks, and lounge chairs, and closed off from the elements but still feels like it’s outside. I was a fan.

Renae, my roommate in Lauterbrunnen also ended up being my roommate in Munich which was fun. We were in a 6 bed dorm again, but this one was much, much, much larger than our cabin in Switzerland. Like back in Venice and Rome, we managed to form a nice little group of travelers who hung out in the evenings, etc. Completely different people this time, but it was just as fun.

We’d established a meeting time and place: 7:30 in the lobby. We planned to go to the Hofbräuhaus, Munich’s most famous beer hall, for dinner. After some general lazing about (travel days are killer for your energy level. I still don’t get it – you spend an entire day sitting on a bus or train and when you finally arrive at your destination all you really want is a nap. It makes no sense. Anyway…), 7:30 rolled around and we were off to the Hofbräu.

I’m not a fan of beer. It generally takes me quite a long time to finish a bottle and even then I don’t particularly enjoy it. I was kind of skeptical of about going to the Hofbräuhaus because the focus is on the beer – and not just a measley bottle. I would have to suffer through an entire liter of it! I knew it was part of the Munich experience, though, so I decided to go and just see what happpened.

The place itself was really fun, if not a bit over the top. I kept mentioning that it felt like I was having dinner at Epcot. It was a bit TOO authentic. The funny thing is, though, that it turns out that people in Bavaria wear lederhosen ALL THE TIME. Not just in movies or for special occasions. They wear it out to the beer gardens, to go get their morning paper, everywhere! That part was really entertaining.

I read the menu and started to get nervous. No chicken. No veggies. Just beef. And pork. I don’t like beef. I don’t like pork. I don’t drink beer. This was going to be an interesting evening. I could have just ordered an apple strudel and been done with it, but again, I’m all about the experience. So, I hunkered down and ordered what seemed like a beef stew. I figured if it didn’t have the texture of beef and a good amount of broth I might be OK. On the menu I also saw what was described as beer with lemonade: a Radler. When I mentioned it, everyone said “oh, like a chandy?” What the heck is a chandy and how have I never heard of it?

So my beer arrived, all 1 liter of it, and after a hearty “proust,” we all drank up. It wasn’t too bad. The lemonade definitely helped. My dinner wasn’t particularly gross either and after seeing some of the other dishes (pork knuckle?!), I was happy with my selection. Apart from the actual food, we had a lot of fun together. I, once again, was the only American in the bunch which always makes the conversation entertaining when we come across words or topics that I just don’t get. I think I’m nearly fluent in Aussie now, though.

After a quick stop for gelato we all headed back to the hostel and most of us went to sleep. I know I certainly crashed.

The next morning Renae and I planned to do the free walking tour that leaves from our hostel. I didn’t know much about Munich beyond its reputation for beer before arriving and we’d heard good things about the tour. Our tour guide’s name was Ozzie. He was FANTASTIC. A really quality tour where he didn’t treat you like you were an idiot. He was really passionate about Munich, its history and its place in regional and world history. He took everything and applied it to American, Canadian, and Australian histories so that we would have a better understanding of what it was like. It was honestly like sitting in a lecture at Cornell. Not dumbed down and really exhausting by the end.

We stopped for lunch at the Viktualienmarkt where I had a brat and a 1/2 liter of beer. It was the only thing I could figure out how to order (I pointed to the guy in front of me and said I’ll have that too, danke schön). Let’s just say that Munich put me way out of my food comfort zone.

About 3.5 hours later we ended the tour and Renae and I along with another Aussie that we met, Nathan, headed back to the hostel. Big plans for that afternoon: laundry. Desperate times. And let it be known that German washing machines are probably the most confusing appliance on earth. Usability? Ha! Just push a bunch of buttons and hope that you didn’t just agree to send your dirty socks into space.

So that and more lounging around the common areas pretty much filled up the rest of the afternoon. That night at 7:30 the group of us gathered again. This time we wanted to head to one of the Augustiner Brau. We’d learned on the walking tour that there is one that’s much cheaper than the other more touristed breweries, so we set out for that one.

Unfortunately there are two Augstiner’s really close to each other and if you take the wrong side of the fork in the road at the beginning of your walk you end up at the wrong one. That’s what we did, but we didn’t realize it until we sat down.

The prices were painfully high. I’m talking 7.90 Euro for a liter of beer. That’s about 13 bucks. Ick. Not only that but the menu was completely different from the one we’d read earlier (the one that had potato pancakes and apple sauce on it which I was really looking forward to for the entire day). AND, to top it off, our waiter was miserable. He wanted nothing to do with us and basically threw things at us. We decided that we didn’t want to put up with that, finished our beers, paid, and left without any food. Off to the OTHER Augustiner.

We found it without much of a problem and somehow along the way we managed to pick up another 6 people. No idea where they came from but we all piled in to the Augustiner and filled their largest table. THIS was the right one and I was so excited to order my potato pancakes.

Given that we’d all already downed 1 liter of beer, I was hesitant to order any more, but they don’t really serve much besides beer in beer halls (whoda thunk it?) so I went for a half liter of the Radler. I’m convinced that Augustiner Brau makes the best Radlers around. They barely tasted like beer and you could easily just chug them down. Don’t worry, I refrained.

By this point we were all a little…well, beered up. Not only does drinking a liter of beer make you a little goofy, but it’s also a LOT of liquid! The food was great, though, and we had a really great time. Especially during the walk home, where, once again, we felt it necessary to point out the differences between American and Aussie accents. We were also invited to a gay party by these guys hanging out of a window above. So many jokes…soooo many. If you ever encounter an Aussie who’s up for it, try getting them to say “god daughter” in a New York accent. It’s hysterical.

Having covered pretty much everything that we wanted to in Munich, we all pretty much spent the next day hanging around the hostel and just chatting, etc. It may seem like I spend a lot of time just “hanging out” but you have no idea how necessary it is for your sanity. Some days you just need to chill out. It is still technically a vacation, after all.

I also spent a good portion of the day trying to sort out the rest of my trip. I had originally planned to go to Berlin the next day, catch the BusAbout to Prague, then train it to Vienna and Salzburg and go home from there, but it turns out that Continental doesn’t fly out of Austria, so I pretty much had to invert the remaining stops on my trip. It turned out that Nathan, the guy we’d met on the walking tour was also going to Salzburg the next day so we planned to catch the train together.

Since it was our last night in Munich, we, of course, had to go out to a beer hall. We all really enjoyed our time at the Hofbräuhaus so we decided to go back, this time to sit in the actual garden. Apart from the cigarette smoke (something I don’t think I’ll really ever get used to) the atmosphere in the garden was really vibrant. There were giant tables of guys in lederhosen singing and drinking and just having a grand ole time.

Sadly, though, it was the last night most of us would be together because from Munich we were pretty much scattering in all different directions. Nathan and I were off to Salzburg, Renae and a bunch of others were off to St. Johann, some were off to Venice, etc. It was kind of sad to see yet another really great group of people split up again after only a few nights, but it was awesome to get to spend some time together. And, if all goes well, we’ll be catching up again on various trips to the States and Australia :).

The next morning we were up and out. Nathan and I said goodbye to the BusAbout bus and headed over to the train station. Off to Salzburg with one mission: The Sound of Music tour.

Tags: Adventures, City, Germany, Journal, Munich