From 20 December to 6 January, I traveled from London to Munich to Zurich to Milan to Florence to Rome to Paris, with daytrips to Garmisch (Germany) and Salzburg and Pisa. Now I'm back at school in London, and it's time to hit the ground running.
Here's an entry from the journal I kept on the trip:
Wed. Dec. 22, 2010
We finally made it to the Munich train station--Hauptbahnhof-- and it was huge! It had Christmas lights everywhere and was really busy even though it was pretty late. We'd been given very specific directions to our hostel, beginning with "take the exit underneath the big Coca-Cola sign," and sure enough, there was a giant Coke sign over one of the exits. Our hostel, Jaeger's is really nice. It looks very modern. When Jason was paying the girl at the front desk, she gave him back 50 euros and we were both a little confused but figured she knew what she was doing. Turns out she made a mistake--the manager came up to our room and asked us about it--he was really apologetic. We gave her the 50 euros and she was so grateful. I guess they'd have taken it out of her salary if we had refused to pay it.
On Tuesday we went downstairs for the hostel's breakfast: delicious! For 4.80 each we get a buffet of scrambled eggs, rolls, bread, meat and cheese, fruit, yogurt, muesli, orange juice and coffee. Definitely my favorite aspect of this hostel.
After breakfast, we went to the station and got train tickets to Dachau. We were standing there trying to figure out which train to take, and this guy came up and asked us, in a heavy German accent, if we needed any help. He told us which train to get on and told us about the area of Dachau--he'd applied for a job there before. I thought it was so nice of him to go out of his way to help two confused tourists. That is something you would rarely ever see happening in, say, Paddington station. It gave me a good impression of Germans in general--and it is true that people here tend to be friendly and patient.
Once in Dachau, we got off the train and briefly latched on to a tour group. We got a little bit of background information about the concentration camp. It was the first camp in Germany, and set the standard for other camps. It was also a training facility for guards who were then sent to other camps.
The camp felt cold and vast and bleak. It didn't help that I felt sick that day. There were various memorials--a Catholic church with a road in back leading to a convent, modern sculptures. The most powerful one was the Jewish memorial: you step down into a dark, dungeon-like space and look up up up to a bright hole with a menorah-like symbol on the top. We were able to go inside the sleeping barracks and see the stacked wooden cots you see in history books filled with skeletal bodies. There was a museum as well, but we didn't look around it much because I still wasn't feeling well. On the way to the camp, the path was lined with big white houses where the SS officers lived with their families. It reminded me of the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
We took the bus back to the train station, got back to our hostel and asked the girl at the front desk where the best Christmas markets were. She recommended one in a park called Thereseinweise, so that's where we headed. It was huge! There was an outdoor and an indoor section. Jason got wurst and chips and then we went to the indoor bazaar. I could have wandered around there forever. There was so much to see and it was colorful and warm inside. I bought this notebook, and Jason got a music box, the kind where you turn a handle to make it play.
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Another comparison of Munich to London: everyone talks when they're riding mass transportation--people are actually happy!
Today was our tour to the royal castles of Neuschwanstein! We went to meet our bus outside the department/grocery store at 8:30. Our tour guide knew at least five languages. The first castle was fairly small but amazingly ornate inside. In the restroom I met a girl who's from Virginia and knew about Randolph College. She knew about SLC also, since her freshman roomate went to Juan Diego!
The second castle looked straight out of a fairy tale. The surrounding landscape was amazing as well, with the snowy Alps as a backdrop. We had time for lunch before our tour, and our guide steered everyone toward a reserved hotel restaurant. We checked out the menu posted outside, and it was pretty expensive so we wandered around looking at everyone else's menus til we found a cheap one where I could order something other than wurst. Then we made our way up the mountain to the castle! I thought the outside of this castle was much more impressive than the inside. King Ludwig was an interesting dude. He was super shy and quite the recluse. Jason said he reminded him of the beast from Beauty and the Beast, which I thought was a good comparison, except apparently Ludwig was very handsome when he was in his prime, not beastlike at all, except eventually he got really fat and had bad teeth.
We had a stressful grocery store experience once back in Munich. I wanted healthy snacks but all we ended up with was bananas...the store was closing and a guy tried to tell us in German to leave out of a certain exit but we couldn't understand him...not knowing the language can be difficult, though it seems like most people here know at least a little English. It makes me wish I'd majored in some combination of different languages, rather than--of all things--English.
In Germany, tis the season for gluhwein, which is basically mulled wine. I tried mulled wine at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland, and I'm not a big fan--it's just hot wine!
We wandered around and found ourselves in the Marienplatz. I loved this area of Munich. It is essentially an outdoor shopping center, but when we were there everything was closed. There was a good and festive atmosphere. Lots of people, musicians, and Christmas lights. Also, a HUGE gothic cathedral overshadowing everything. We stumbled upon another little outdoor festival that was packed with students. Made me wish even more that I spoke the language...
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