Study Abroad Fall 2013: BAVARIA!

This weekend DJ and I took a trip off to Munich to see our friends Billy and Gerard from home. We left on Thursday night excited and grabbed some delicious gyros by our tram stop on our way to the bus station. The bus ride was smooth and they even played Anger Management during it which we enjoyed. Then we pulled into the Munich train station. It was very cold and raining and DJ and I walked to our hostel only getting slightly lost for a moment. When we arrived we checked in no problem and I said I can’t wait to see Billy and Gerard, who were to get there after us. After I gave them my name at the front desk, they handed me a note saying that “Billy and will not be arriving until 7 am.” They forgot Gerard’s name and I also was unsure about what had happened! Knowing they had to be ok if they called the hostel, DJ and I put down our things and went out to explore the city around midnight. In our wanderings, having no idea where the center of town was located, (two train stops away!) we walked for about an hour and stumbled onto a street that has tons of strip clubs on it. After walking through that, we eventually came upon a train station and decided to go underground and attempt to figure out where we were in the city. We had made it one train stop and had one more to go. Although the trains run much more spread out at night, we decided to wait because it was almost one am at this point and we knew we’d have to get up early tomorrow to greet Billy and Gerard and sort out why they were going to be so much later than originally planned for. We could not risk getting too lost. We finally emerged from Marianplatz to the main square in Munich to look straight up at the Glockenspiel lit up by lights in the darkness. Because it was a Thursday night, no one was really there and we had freedom to look around some major sites in the wee hours of the morning before heading to bed at our hostel around one thirty.
At 7:30 am Billy and Gerard came in the door exhausted. They had gotten on a train an hour early and this train happened to make more stops than their originally intended train causing them to miss their connection and spend most of their night in train stations. So we let them take a little nap before we all got breakfast and headed off to our tour of Dachau, a concentration camp about 10 km north of Munich. The tour was powerful to say the least. We were able to walk through buildings that were actually used during the Nazi takeover of Germany. Dachau was used as a work camp and not a death camp, but the people still went through very similar processes when entering the camp. At first when we walked into the area I did not know that the gates were on the right side as our tour guide took us left. When he said the entrance way was behind us, my heart dropped. It was crazy to think I was walking the same steps that so many before me had, but I did it by choice. The gates and doors of Dachau no longer lock we were informed because it is no longer a prison and everyone who does visit, is free. I found that to be extremely powerful. Then we toured through rooms where they would take people’s belongings and shave them down and give them the same uniform as everyone else; the room where they took away people’s dignity. Then we went through the concentration camp prison and the living quarters of those who were brought there as well as the physical Dachau memorial.The camp went through different phases, the second phase having the worst conditions because at the end of the war, they wanted to put on a show. Finally we walked along the paths where there are now chapels of many different denominations as memorials of hope. Finally we walked to where the crematorium was as well as the only still standing gas chamber of all the concentration camps. It is said this one was never used for mass deaths, but that is was tested many times with different chemicals. After we left we were all very somber. The weather that day had been cold and rainy so it was very appropriate and now our spirits were as gray as the clouds above us. But then the sun came out as were started to slowly process all that we had just witnessed inside of Dachau. Once we arrived back in Munich we went to the center of the city and we went up one of the towers and saw a beautiful panorama of the surrounding area. We walked around the middle of town for a little while and then chose to go to Haufbrauhaus, the famous beer hall in Munich. We all ate traditional german foods and the boys all got some beer while I had a glass of wine. Our food took a very long time to come, but we bought a pretzel while we waited. The pretzel was one of our best decisions of the whole trip. Afterwards we went out for some dessert at a coffee shop by our hostel before turning in to prepare for the day ahead.

Saturday was amazing because it was the day we went to Neuschwanstien castle! This castle was used as a model for Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyworld. We got up early and met with our tour guide who happened to be American. Then we rode out into the Bavarian countryside for two hours on a train. About ten minutes away from our stop, suddenly mountains appeared. We were staring at the alps. I had forgotten until that morning that I was going to get to fulfill one of my dreams by seeing them. The clouds covered the top and there was snow on the ground as we got closer. Once we emerged from the train, the air was cool and crisp. With the colorful leaves on the trees and the snow on the ground it was like we were caught between seasons. The area was breathtaking. Once we got off the train, we still couldn’t see the castle though so we had to take a bus up to the base of the hill it is on. The first time we saw it, it was from further away and it looked so tiny, but as we got closer, it grew in size. Throughout our tour there we learned all about King Ludwig II and his life dreaming of being part of a fairytale. It was extremely interesting as he was a also a friend of Richard Wagner and all of this was occurring in the 1860s and 1870s while the United States was going through a Civil War. Bavaria was being ruled by a monarch up into the 19th century. But the best part of the day was just being in nature. The views of the castle and from the castle were spectacular from every single angle. We got to go onto a bridge over a waterfall and view it from several angles as well as climb down into the gorge which included a part where we walked on an area of metal screwed into the rock over a precarious area of running water and rocks. There is nothing like a little bit of adventure! Then we rode home super hungry and had to find somewhere for dinner as soon as we returned to Munich. While strolling through the streets I saw a tree covered in white Christmas lights. I’ve decided that is the way to choose restaurants. It was a small restaurant like Haufbrauhaus, but way less crowded and we all found the food to be better. While there we even got dessert. Afterward we took a quick trip back to the hostel to regroup and figure out where a live music venue DJ had read about was. Well we found it. And we left. When we arrived it turned out to be filled with clear punk rock lovers. We students from NJ, did not exactly fit in. So we found ourselves at a nice bar down the road where we relaxed for a bit to enjoy our last night together. When we were done the waiter asked us if we had, “any more wishes?” and we had a laugh about the translation. Then we walked home and went to bed, but not before some drunk people we passed in the street told us we’re all sexy.

In the morning DJ and I got up to check out with Billy and Gerard and to make sure they made it safely onto their train before we set out to explore the city on our last day there. Once Billy and Gerard had left DJ and I set out to find an outdoor market and an indoor market right next to each other. We did not factor in that it was going to be Sunday and alas, they were closed. So then we walked towards an underground art gallery. It was Sunday and they were switching exhibits and alas, it was closed. So we found ourselves in the English Garden park to grab a cup of coffee and to make a game plan. We decided to head over to the old olympic stadiums from the 1972 summer games. It was spectacular. As it turned out, the Munich marathon was happening and it ended in the massive stadium. This meant that something we usually would have to pay to see we got into for free!!! There was also a hill nearby with some spectacular views of the whole city. Then we strolled into the BMW museum briefly and took some pictures of the fancy cars. Afterwards we went back to see the middle of town one last time before heading off to our hostel to gather our things and head home. This upcoming weekend we’re off to Krakow, Poland so we have four days of rigorous work ahead of us!

Dachau memorial