"The Führer would be very disappointed" - Evan
Our first day in Munich began with the new Munich free walking tour, this tour was probably my favourite one I've done. For such a young country it has a lot history. It started in Marienplatz where we watched the Glockenspiel, a 15 minute "show" of figurines moving around the clock. The best part about it was listening to our guides slag it and telling us to watch the tourists hold their cameras waiting for something exciting as it's just bells for the first 6 minutes or so. We didn't even stay for the finale. Also In this square was the new and old city halls. Ironically, the old city hall was actually rebuilt more re
cently than the new city hall. Michael then took us to Frauhenkirche and told us the story if the devils footprint, however it ended anticlimactically as the footprint was just that of the architect.
cently than the new city hall. Michael then took us to Frauhenkirche and told us the story if the devils footprint, however it ended anticlimactically as the footprint was just that of the architect. The funniest thing I learnt on the tour was that during Oktoberfest, the Australian embassy moves from Berlin and rents out a small part of the British embassy in Munich for the 2 weeks. This is because in Germany the law says you need to carry ID with you all the time and so many Australians lose theirs (maybe due to slight inebriation) and you would need it to get to the embassy in Berlin. Aussie Aussie Aussie!
After the free tour the four of us walked to the English beer garden which was absolutely gorgeous. It's this massive park and in the centre is for some reason a Chinese tower and a beer garden. It was such a nice a warm day and I felt just like a local with my beer and white sausage. On the way back we stopped and had a lay in the park with he hundreds of others.
That night we embarked on the new Europe Beer Challenge. It was the first new europe pub crawl that I have actually thought was worth it. The Edinburgh one was pretty good, we got a fair amount of drinks included in that one. But this one was actually a tour as well. We went to four bars, one of which was the only beer and
Oktoberfest museum in the world. Michael recommended good beers for us to try and told us a bit about it.
The tour started at the Munich main train station near our hostel, and our first beer was a roadie. It was so good catching the train and walking through the street with a beer in hand...legally. The next bar we had a wheat beer which was vey different but quite nice - I think it was a Paulaner. I've since decided wheat beer is the best. Then it was the museum, another one, then a quick walk through the hofbrauhaus before our last bar: the Euro Youth hotel bar. At the end of the night we were all awarded Beer Challange survivors membership cards, and Chris won the Beer Challenge or something by speaking in the most convincing Irish accent - since Michael was Irish. I met this novocastrian girl as well on the tour, the first one I'd met while being overseas, or at least the first I've really spoken to. She was from Eleebana so of course she knew all the landmarks round Belmont and that. She even knows where the Squids Ink was which I think was the most exciting thing.
That night we embarked on the new Europe Beer Challenge. It was the first new europe pub crawl that I have actually thought was worth it. The Edinburgh one was pretty good, we got a fair amount of drinks included in that one. But this one was actually a tour as well. We went to four bars, one of which was the only beer and
Oktoberfest museum in the world. Michael recommended good beers for us to try and told us a bit about it.The tour started at the Munich main train station near our hostel, and our first beer was a roadie. It was so good catching the train and walking through the street with a beer in hand...legally. The next bar we had a wheat beer which was vey different but quite nice - I think it was a Paulaner. I've since decided wheat beer is the best. Then it was the museum, another one, then a quick walk through the hofbrauhaus before our last bar: the Euro Youth hotel bar. At the end of the night we were all awarded Beer Challange survivors membership cards, and Chris won the Beer Challenge or something by speaking in the most convincing Irish accent - since Michael was Irish. I met this novocastrian girl as well on the tour, the first one I'd met while being overseas, or at least the first I've really spoken to. She was from Eleebana so of course she knew all the landmarks round Belmont and that. She even knows where the Squids Ink was which I think was the most exciting thing.
9 April
Today was the day ventured into the Bavarian countryside and found a small dwelling commonly referred to as Neuschwanstein Castle. It is the castle that the Disney castle is modeled off in the Bavarian alps. The best bit about it for me was the fact there are these 2 castles on top of these hills out in the mountains. The insides of them, while impressive, was similar to all the other castles I've seen. Like Versailles. It's all very ridiculously intricately decorated and over the top. If it were me I totally would decorate it less because I reckon it would be really annoying to have every wall in my house so busy. You'd never sleep because there would be so much action happening on every wall and floor!
Today was the day ventured into the Bavarian countryside and found a small dwelling commonly referred to as Neuschwanstein Castle. It is the castle that the Disney castle is modeled off in the Bavarian alps. The best bit about it for me was the fact there are these 2 castles on top of these hills out in the mountains. The insides of them, while impressive, was similar to all the other castles I've seen. Like Versailles. It's all very ridiculously intricately decorated and over the top. If it were me I totally would decorate it less because I reckon it would be really annoying to have every wall in my house so busy. You'd never sleep because there would be so much action happening on every wall and floor!
So inside the castle, for whatever reason, they don't allow photography. Not just flash photography but all photography. But there's an easy way around this...you just wait til the guide has left the room before taking your snaps. Easy. Or so you would think. I was just going about my business happily taking photos, I let my guard down an
d put the flash on because I couldn't get the shot. Some knob in our group (not an employee) pipes up and goes "oi, no photos" then gave me some speech about it ruins things or some crap. I totally disregarded it but at the same time made sure he had also left the room until I took some more. Right at the end he catches me taking one and yells out "OI!" but it was too late, I'd taken it and didn't care. What a douche.
d put the flash on because I couldn't get the shot. Some knob in our group (not an employee) pipes up and goes "oi, no photos" then gave me some speech about it ruins things or some crap. I totally disregarded it but at the same time made sure he had also left the room until I took some more. Right at the end he catches me taking one and yells out "OI!" but it was too late, I'd taken it and didn't care. What a douche.That night we stayed at Regina's who is a friend of Yazmin's. Funny story - yes, another Yazmin gem. So Yazmin was traveling with Emily, they were meant to keep traveling and end up in France or something because they got mad cheap flights from there. But Yazmin got sick and wanted to hang around or go back to Leeds or something. Either way they split up in Munich and Emily decided to join us to Berlin, she found her own way there and we had a ridiculously early flight to catch. Instead of staying at the airport Regina (Yazmin's friend) invited us 3 to stay at her place...but Regina wasn't there with us. So effectively we stayed at a friend of a friends place, who didn't stay with us. She let 3 people stay at her place whom she had met the day before.
April 10 - what is it with Europeans and gigantic arse pillows
So Chris and I got up ridiculously early at Regina's, we set the alarm for 3:45 in the AM, which I think wasn't even early enough, that or w
e had the train timetable wrong because one didn't come in time so we caught a €50 taxi to the airport, because you know...that's just the kind of money we have to splash around. On the plane I fell asleep before takeoff. We met up with Stephen again at the hostel and met his friend Kevin and a whole bunch of other people in the hostel. This hostel is very different from all the others I've stayed at. It's very small and has a very personal feel. It's privately run by Arthur and is has a random theme of Hawaiian. After settling in and a couple of coffees we set off to the Brandenburg gate, going via the Jewish new synagogue. From the gate we took the new Berlin 'Third Reich' tour, which was absolutely incredible. It was all about Germany during Hitler's reign from 1933-1945. It took us past us past the Reichstag (German Parliament) and plenty of WWII memories, including the Jewish Holocaust memorial which is a large square with thousands of stone blocks protruding the ground. It's purposefully ambiguous to leave it open to interpretation.
The tour then went past the site of the Führer's bunker where Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. It's now just an insignificant car park. Also on the tour was the Luftwaffe HQ, the only Nazi building not to be bombed in the bombing of Berlin and ended at a section of the Berlin wall.
After the tour ended we hit up Checkpoint Charlie, the checkpoint controlled by the US. This was probably the best tour I did in Berlin...maybe. It was so fascinating learning about Berlin and Hitler during the Nazi regime, so much so I spent a few hours that night reading Wikipedia articles on this and other related articles.
April 11
Today was the day for the free tour. Unfortunately it covered many of the same things as the Third Reich tour, but it did go into different details. It went to the Holocaust memorial, the carpark, Checkpoint Charlie, Book Burning memorial, Luftwaffe HQ and more. It culminated on the steps of the Berliner Dome with an ep
ic tale about the day the wall came down.
ic tale about the day the wall came down. We then met back up with Emily, Stephen and Kevin who were at museums and went into the Dome, which was of course incredible. We took a bit of a detoured walk back via the Rathaus (town hall) and the TV tower at Alexanderplatz. That night we chilled out in the room again and went to a wine bar where you only pay as much as you feel necessary. We hung out with a guy from the hostel called Arlan. He was a very interesting character who makes his own sidetrance "music" and believes UFO's are people the future trying to help us.
April 12
Our last day in Berlin began at the East Side Gallery: the longest section of the wall still preserved (1.3km) which has been painted. I took so many photos of them as they were all pretty amazing. This led into our third New Berlin Tour, the Red Berlin tour. This took us through what it was like living in Communist East Germany (DPR) between 1945 and 1989. We had this incredible guide from Bulgaria who escaped to the States 30 years ago. He told us stories of paranoia and of the Stasi spying on people and CIA spying on the Stasi. Chris and I went to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, which I think has been bombed and not been rebuilt. Next to it was a Jewish synagogue. It's built as a square and inside the light shines through all these blue tiles. I loved it because it was something new and different.
By this time we were stuffed and headed back. Found a random Vietnamese restaurant with some people from the hostel and tried to have an early night but as usual failed miserably.
So that wraps up Germany off to Brussels now all on my lonesome. Chris is heading to Stockholm and Emily stayed on in Berlin because she's loving it. She ended up staying there for about 12 days because of our good friend the Icelandic volcano.
