Thursday, May 1st
May 1st is Europe's Labor Day so I think the majority of the people in all of Europe don't work on this day. Lucky for us though, the airport still operates, because with barely any sleep, Stephanie, Karin, and I met at 6 a.m. to take a bus to a bus to the airport to get on a plane to Munich, Germany. First of all, I want to say that Lufthansa is a really good airline and I would definitely recommend flying them. I would also like to add that I was an absolutely horrible passenger and I probably contributed to the flight attendants having one of their worst flights, too. :( You know those times where you think about the possibility of something happen if you do something and then you do it anyway and then the thing you were afraid of happening, happens...yea, it's horrible. As I stored my bag equipped with my water bottle, I thought "Hmm, maybe I should take my water out" followed by "No, it should be fine, there's no way it will open.."
Welp, you guessed it, halfway through the flight, I woke up from sleeping to see the flight attendants trying to find the source of a leak that was leaking on a poor man. I knew immediately what had happened and I embarrassingly had to stand up and admit to what I had done. And then I got scolded by the flight attendant to never put liquids up there and that it could have caused electrical problems. Needless to say, I was already upset enough and to hear "You could have taken down the whole plane" (That was how I heard what she said in my head) made me cry. Well luckily nothing did happen and I went on to eat a really good Lufthansa breakfast, but couldn't fall back asleep after that. So, I just sat there quietly to later see that the crew was handling a situation where an older lady was being administered oxygen...maybe she heard that the plane could be going down, too. Ha, just kidding. Anyway, it was an okay flight considering and I will say that the flight attendants handle everything really well, but I was the idiot one the flight. :( Learned my lesson. I think I was upset, too, because I had thought about it before I did it.
And the people next to me had a rolling suitcase that wouldn't fit in the overhead compartment, so when they got on, I offered them my spot because I just had a backpack, but they turned it down. If they would have said yes, it wouldn't have been an issue. Oh, fate..you suck. Also, I would like to point out that when we got off the plane, I saw several people pulling wine bottles out of the overhead, because of course that's one of the things you buy in Spain..so what happens if those would have broken?! Enough with the "what ifs" though. I was just glad to be off the flight.
Once there, we made our way to Studentenstadt, which is where Karin lived when she studied abroad in Germany. It is a group of dorm buildings for students, but not for a particular university. Any student from any university can live there. We left our bags with one of her friends so that we didn't have to carry them around all day and then headed to the center of town. The first thing we did was eat a white brat for lunch and it was delicious. Apparently ketchup isn't widely used and it's more popular to put mustard on your brat, but I don't like mustard, so ketchup it was. We saw the
Glockenspiel, which is a clock tower on the town hall. It's popular amongst the tourist because on the hour it goes off and these little figures spin around under the clock. We didn't see that on Thursday, but we did climb the tower of St. Peter's Church, Alte Peter, to get a view of the city.
Karin pointed out a bunch of buildings and places from the top and then we continued our tour with her. Our first stop was a road that had a strip of golden bricks running through it. Karin explained to us that on the opposite side of the block was a plaza,
Odeonsplatz, where a
loggia stands (
Feldherrnhalle).
Feldherrnhalle kind of became a shrine after the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed attempt by the Nazis to take over Bavaria which occurred on November 9, 1923. Anyway, after that and when the Nazis did take over, people were obligated to salute guards that stood there, so they would walk down the back alley,
Drückebergergasse (Dodgers' Alley), to avoid saluting the Nazi guards. It was pretty unsafe to walk down the back alley, but many people risked it anyway and now there is a memorial that stands for the brave that walked there.
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| Dodgers' Alley |
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| Theatinerkirche |
Then, we saw a place where a plaque used to hang on the wall and the plaque was a memorial for the 16 Nazi marchers that were killed and those wounded during the Beer Hall Putsch, but it was taken down and no longer hangs in the plaza, but you can see where it used to be. When we got to the plaza, where the Nazi guards used to stand, there was a protest going on for the Middle East. Then, we went into the "Baby church"..that's what I know it as, but it's actually called Theatinerkirche. I just call it the baby church, because our wonderful tour guide Karin told us that the Prince and Princess were unable to have children, but miraculously they had one, so they erected this particular church to thank the Lord for giving them a child. Therefore, the church has a lot of images of babies and many women who are trying to get pregnant go to that church to pray. We also saw part of a palace, Munich Residenz, that was huge. It was for the former Bavarian monarchs forget who the palace was for, but it was enormous from the outside. We then walked to a small park and World War I memorial. Then, we walked by an art museum, Haus der Kunst, that used to be disguised to look like it was trees. It was the first building of Nazi architecture and Nazi propaganda. The Nazis hid it to avoid the building being discovered and destroyed, which I thought was pretty smart, but later they were found and then the U.S. armies used the building as a mess hall. The museum is now once again an art museum.
Then we walked to the good old English Garden,
Englischer Garten. It is one of the largest urban parks in the world. It is 1.4 square miles (896 acres) and 53 acres larger than Central Park. We started by going to a section of the park where a small river runs through and there is a strong wave that people surf. We stood there for quite awhile watching the surfers and I was wondering how cold the water must be. It was a beautiful day though, we got lucky on day one.
We continued through the park and saw some things that we didn't care to see (It's okay to be naked in the park) and we relaxed for a little while in the sun. Then, we walked to a Chinese tower that is in the park (don't ask me why it's there...I do not know) and we got a huge pretzel to share. Pretzels are German by the way.
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Stephanie, Karin, and I by the Chinese Tower
in the English Garden |
We then made our way back to the center to eat dinner. On our way back to the center, we swung by a few of the university buildings of Karin's university, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The plaza where the buildings are is called Geschwister-Scholl-Platz and the plaza is a memorial for a brother and sister duo who were students and founders of the White Rose Nazi resistance group. They were known for handing out anti-Nazi flyers at the university.They were caught and had a super short trial and were killed along with everyone else involved, like the guy who sold them paper, who might not have even known what they were doing with the paper. After that, we made our way to Paulaner for dinner and it was delicious. I had
Sauerbraten, but also got to try Karin's
Spätzle and Stephanie's
Leberkäse. Also, I had a Spezi to drink, which is a soft drink made by Coca-Cola and it's a mixture of Coke and lemon-lime soda. After dinner, we headed back to Studentenstadt and hung out with Karin's friend and watched Germany's Next Top Model. It's apparently a huge deal there and the guys are not embarrassed to watch it. From what I could tell, it would be almost a sin not to watch it. Ha. Anyway, we went to our hosts house and got all settled in and went to bed. It was a good first day in Munich.
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| Sauerbraten |
Friday, May 2nd
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| Olympic torch |
On Friday, our day was devoted to exploring the Olympic city. The 1972 Olympics took place in Munich so we went to check out all of the buildings and such. We saw the Swimming Hall, the Olympic Hall, and the Olympic Stadium and the design was created by Günter Behnisch and was consider revolutionary for its time. Not only was it cool to see the stadium, but they had nice information boards set up about the prominent athletes of the '72 games and other aspects of the games like the building of the Olympic city, the logo designs, the opening ceremony, etc. Also, there was a board that talked about the attack on an Israeli team at the games. Some of you reading this might remember this happening. "[On September 5th] Around 4:30 a.m., eight Palestinians broke into Olympic Village. They took 11 athletes hostage from the apartments of the Israeli team. Shortly after the attack, tough negotiations began between the hostage takers and a crisis team. When the terrorists' demand for the release of Palestinians currently held in Israeli jails could not be realized, they demanded to be flown out together with the hostages. The terrorists and the hostages were brought by helicopter to the military airbase Fürstenfeldbruck. A planned rescue mission failed there: 11 dead Israeli athletes, 1 dead policeman, and 5 dead terrorists." The games did not get cancelled however it did put a somber feeling over the rest of the games and a memorial service was held.
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| 1972 Olympic Stadium |
After seeing the stadium, we walked up to the top of a hill to see the view of the whole Olympic city, then we went to the Olympic village where the athletes stayed and it was so cool! They are all little individual apartments and a lot of people choose to paint their apartment in a fun way. It definitely looked like a fun place to live! They had signs up, too, saying what athlete stayed in each apartment during the Olympics. After that, we walked to BMW World, which is just what you would imagine. A building filled with BMW stuff. And then, we went home to relax for a little bit because we had a long night ahead of us.
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| Olympic village |
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| BMW Welt |
After relaxing for awhile, we went to Frülingsfest. What Frülingsfest is is Oktoberfest not on steroids. It's on a smaller scale, but still a big party. It has food stands, carnival rides, and, of course, two beer tents. We walked around for a little bit when we got there and then we went to a beer tent. Karin had told us before that you can't be served unless you're at a table, but apparently that's not always true anymore because we got served. And what you get served is a liter of beer. I don't even like beer, but in the spirit of things, I had to get one. And boy, are they heavy! There's no joking around with those things and the beer maids can carry like 8 or 9 of them, I swear. Since I have been watching The Amazing Race recently all I could think of is how that could be (or may have already been) a challenge. You have to serve so many customers as a beer maid. That would suck..seriously I think I would be incapable of doing it. I'm pretty sure they must go through some kind of schooling for that. Ha.
Anyway, we stood for awhile, but then a nice group of people offered their table to us and it was right around the time that the music was starting and when this starts, everyone stands up on the benches and rocks out to the German songs. I wish I would have known the lyrics, but it was still really fun. I liked seeing all the traditional dress, hearing the German music, and drinking a liter of beer (even though I still would never actually choose to drink it). Also, I should add that the brat we had afterwards was so good! :) After Frülingsfest, we went back to Studentenstadt to hang out with Karin's friends. I listened to them speak German, have fun, and turn playing Mariokart into an intense drinking game and Stephanie and I got super tired and went back to our hosts house. And we slept super well because we had a really comfortable bed. The night before, we were sleeping on a poorly inflated mattress and the second night we got to sleep on a real mattress and because of how tired we were, it felt glorious!
On Saturday, we got up and showered and just chilled all morning. It was kind of gloomy out which sucked, but we did what we could. We went to the center of town around 1:00 p.m. and met one of Karin's friends, Julia, a little later for lunch. We ate more German food and this time I had Hausgemachte Käsespätzle mit Röstzwiebein und kleinem Salat. Don't ask me what it was. Just kidding, it's kind of like mac-and-cheese, but the noodles are homemade and dumpling like and the cheese is super heavy. It was so good though. :) After lunch, we walked around for a little bit and looked at some buildings. We saw a museum that had bombed and rebuilt so part of the building is built with different bricks to show the damage from the building. We also saw a few Roman looking museums, that were built in that style by the Nazi to show their power. Then, we split up with Julia and went souvenir shopping and we went to a drendl store, too. Not that we were going to buy a drendl, but it was cool to see all of the different kinds they had. Also, when we strolled by the main square, we got to see the
Glockenspiel working, with the song and the turning figures. It was cute, but not anything spectacular. We also went to another brewery/restaurant called Hofbräuhaus, which apparently is famous. And apparently there is one in Chicago, so I'll have to check that out when I get back. Then, we did a little more souvenir shopping and went home for a little bit. Then, we went back to Studentenstadt at night to hang out with Karin's friends. There is a little pub at the dorms, too, so we went there for a little bit and, if I wasn't already aware that I was horrible at foosball, then that night would have confirmed it. I really suck. Stephanie and I again went home because apparently we (well, I shouldn't speak for Stephanie), but apparently I can't keep up with the German lifestyle. So we went home and went to bed.
Sunday, May 4th
On Sunday Karin left because she had to work on Monday, but Stephanie and I stayed. Our plan for the day was to go to Dachau Concentration Camp, which I was really interested in going to, but it took quite awhile to get there. We left around 10 a.m. to get there and we should have arrived there a little after 11 a.m. and yet we didn't get there until 1 p.m. and here's what happened. First of all, we took the U-Bahn (metro) to the main square, then we got on the S-Bahn (which goes a little further outside of the city) and I was counting stops instead of looking at signs, so we got off when we were "at our stop," but the stop that we got off at wasn't on the map we had so we ended up getting off one stop early, so we had to waiting a long time for the next train to come. I don't remember how long it was, but it was over 15 minutes I'm pretty sure. We took that time to do some exercising. Ha. At one point, a train honked and I'm almost 100% sure that he was honking at us exercising on the train platform. Haha. Anyway, the train finally came and we got to our stop and we were supposed to switch lines, but there were no trains listed for the one we wanted to get. So, us along with four Canadians, two Spaniards, and two Israelis were stranded all trying to get to the same place. We got on a random bus going in the opposite direction and the bus driver helped us figure out how to get there. So, we had to get back on the U-Bahn, then switch to another line on the U-Bahn, then take a bus for its entire route to the original station that we wanted to get to, then take another bus to get to the camp! It was ridiculous, but we made it. The day before, Karin's friend had said that some of the train lines were under construction so I thought maybe that was the reason why there was no train, but come to find out later, the train was running, but it just wasn't listed because we would have had to wait over an hour. So either way, we would have gotten there a lot later than we wanted to. I should also point out that there was no person at the train stop to help us. And it was also fun talking to all of the friends we made. The Canadians were talking about U.S. Americans and how they have been asked by people if they have electricity and questions like that and it just embarrasses me. It's kind of hard for Stephanie and I to apologize on the behalf of all ignorant U.S. Americans, but really it was fun talking to them. And I'm pretty sure one of the Canadian dads was a psychic because he guessed that I had a serious boyfriend at home without me even saying anything. He also guessed something else, but I forget what it was.
Anyway, on to the somber part of our trip. We got to the camp around 1 p.m. and we just prepared ourselves for the day. We started by walking down a path that had information boards about the arrival of the prisoners and the camp itself. It was first set up in 1933, but torn down and rebuilt to be bigger in 1937-1938. The camp was built for 6,000 prisoners and when it was liberated on April 29, 1945, there were 32,000 prisoners. The camp has been somewhat rebuilt as a memorial for the victims and survivors that were imprisoned at Dachau. I'm not really sure how to address blogging about this site. Stephanie and I read so much interesting information in the museum, watched a documentary, and saw so many things that I don't know how to begin. Also I just don't really want to tell you about it at all, but I will try to keep it brief. I will say though that if you ever get a chance to go to a memorial site such as this, take it. It's worth your time. We started by walking down the same path that the prisoners marched to enter the camp and entered through the gate labeled "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work sets one free"). Then, we moved onto the bunker (the former camp prison), where the "special" prisoners stayed and where tortures and harsh interrogations/punishments occurred. The "special" prisoners were usually politicians, royalty, former Nazis, clergymen, etc. Then, we made our way through the museum. We really did things backwards because we were supposed to start in the museum, then go to the bunker and instead, we went to the bunker, then went through the museum backwards--starting with the liberation. Whoops, I don't think it really mattered though, besides the fact that we started "happy" and got sad, instead of being sad and becoming "happy."
The museum is in the old maintenance building, which had the prisoners showers, where they were registered as new arrivals, as well as storehouses, workshops, and the prisoners kitchen and laundry. The exhibit was incredible and talked about everything you would ever want to know about not only Dachau, but the war in general. For example, they talked about the medical experiments that were performed on prisoners (like giving them malaria), women, Jehovah's Witness, homosexuals, etc. in the camp, the living conditions, their work, the nationalities of people in the camp, the aftermath, etc. It was really good. I also really "enjoyed" the documentary. I think the thing that was most shocking to me was just how skinny the people were. I mean you read about the conditions and how skinny the prisoners were and how they lived, but it really hits you when you see pictures. However, on the flip side, I think my favorite picture is from the liberation. Because even though the people have been through so much and had to stay at the camp for awhile after liberation to be nursed back to health, so many of them are smiling and rejoicing, which is just incredible. I wish you could actually see their faces in this picture.
After the museum, we walked to the International Memorial, which I also "liked" seeing. It sits in front of the maintenance building and behind the Roll-call square, the place where prisoners would stand at attention everyday rain or shine, maybe for hours, in order to be counted and/or punished. The International Memorial though is a really pretty and it has flowers from many countries that had prisoners in the camp.
Then, we went to see a barrack. All of the barracks have been destroyed and only two barracks of 34 stand today and even those are reconstructions. The bunker showed the lockers and the wooden slabs that the prisoners slept on. We then made our way down Camp Road to the religious memorials that stand at the edge of the camp. There is a Mortal Agony of Christ Chapel, a Carmelite Convent, a Protestant Church of Reconciliation, a Jewish Memorial, and a Russian-Orthodox Chapel. Then, we made our way to one of the most disturbing parts of the site, the crematorium and gas chamber. There were actually two crematoriums, because the first one did not have the capacity for all of the deceased, as sad as that sounds. It's almost unthinkable to be standing in a place where so many people were tortured, killed, and burned.
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| Camp Road and where the barracks used to stand on both sides |
After visiting the memorial site, we finished with all of the people that we started with, which was pretty neat, but not a lot of us had anything to say. Not to forget everything I just told you about, but I am going to go ahead and continue talking about my day. It got a little brighter. Stephanie and I took a bus and the train we were supposed to get in the morning to Frühlingsfest again. We got corn on the cob and a brat and they were delicious! Then, we went to Marienplatz, the central square, one last time and order spaghettieis, which is regular ice cream, but it is meant to look like spaghetti and it does! They put it through a strainer type thing to make the "noodles" then top it with strawberry sauce (sauce) and white chocolate (parmesan cheese).
It was good. :) We made our way back to Studentenstadt to stay with Karin's friends for the last night, but before going to bed, we of course had to watch the semi-finals of Germany's Next Top Model. I already had my favorite picked out from the other night that we watched it, so I cheered for her to continue on in the competition. Oh, also, I should point out that the show is not an hour, like it was in the U.S., it's more like three hours, that's what it seemed like anyway. It was definitely at least two! Anyway, we watched that and then we went to bed.
Later that week, I did check online to see who the winner was and it was the girl that I picked as my favorite. :) Yay. Ha.
Monday, May 5th
On Monday, I got up early (around 6:15) to get on a bus to go to the airport. I'm pretty sure absolutely no one checked my passport during the whole trip. I mean, I realize that it makes it convenient, but there have been a few places now that I don't have a stamp for, which is sad. :( But oh well, I'm gonna talk up Lufthansa again because they had free tea, coffee, and newspapers at the gates and a nice little lounge area. Plus breakfast on the plane was delicious and just in general, my flight was better than the first flight. No water mishaps. I was a little nervous at first when I plopped down right next to a couple and their baby, but that baby didn't make a sound the whole time! It was incredible! I couldn't believe it. I and other passengers told the parents how good the baby was after the flight. Also, we flew over the Alps, which was pretty cool.
It felt good to be back in Madrid though, as always. It was nice to relax after a long weekend of traveling. I went to Spanish class in the evening and I talked to my mom, sister, and my boyfriend. I was also supposed to have a phone screening that night, but it didn't happen, so I went to bed.
Overall it was a really good trip! I would have done a few things differently, like went on a day trip to
Neuschwanstein Castle or to Salzburg, Austria, but I was still so thankful to get the opportunity to go and so glad that Karin could show us around. Also, I was happy that we got two beautiful sunny days out of the four days. :) Hope you enjoyed this post!
Once we were in Gibraltar, we found an ATM to take out money in pounds, which I didn't even think about before arriving. They take euros too, though, but we got pounds anyway. Then, we sat down to have an English lunch. I got shepherd's pie and it was so good and our waitress was really spunky so that was fun! :D Tonisha and I sat at lunch for so long just catching up some more and talking about life! We probably sat for too long because I'm sure we didn't see all we could of Gibraltar, but I don't regret it one bit. It was great to just sit and talk to my friend. After we finally got up from lunch, we made our way to the cable car that took us up to the Rock of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is just a really unique and strange place. For one, it's attached to Spain, but it's British. They have a mountain that just juts out of the ground from nowhere. They have a language called Llanito, which is a mixture of English and Spanish. An airport that is just right there in the middle of things. And apes. And it's a lot bigger than it seems. And I'm sure I can think of more things, but yea...it is just one peculiar little place, and I liked it. Anyway, we went up to the rock where there are wild apes, the Barbary macaques. They just hang out and aren't scared of humans. They are known to grab things though, but this did not happen to me luckily. Ha. Also, they supposedly bite and if you feed them, you can be charged up to 4000 pounds! Holy cow! We didn't risk it. We walked around for a little bit up top and then we made our way back down to town.
