Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye (MUNICH)

 After all the time I have spent in Europe, Paris and the other places I went to GERMANY, where I had been waiting for!! I immediately loved it there. Even the border control when we first got there was funny. He continued to speak German to me although he knew I was American, and laughed when I was clueless, even about how to say How are you? in German. Anyways, the next person we met in Germany was our guardian angel. Stephen is a guy we met at the train station when we were buying tickets to get to our hostel in town. He saw what we were doing and asked us if we needed any help. With his help, we bought a group travel pass instead of single, and we saved half the money on the train. Stephen was incredibly nice. We talked to him on the somewhat long train ride back to and found out he worked with BMW and he was just getting back from New York.

When we got into Munich he walked us around, pointed out a cheap place to get food, walked us to the place to buy train tickets and walked us through how to buy a train ticket to Nueschwanstein castle for the next day. Again, saved us a ton of money, time and hassle. He would show us one thing then say "Okay vollow me now." He even pointed us to our where our hostel should be and mentioned some places that he knows a lot of college people like to shop. I can go on more about how great Stephen was but I am sure I have said enough.

We got into our hotel late on Wednesday night and we SWEATED out the night there. You may know this, but Germany is not an air-conditioned country. Normally they don't need it, but when it is in the 90s all day, you notice when you don't have it. It was a struggle the first couple of nights but after it was perfect. Anyways, these first couple of pictures are us on our way to Nueschwanstein castle. It was crazy beautiful. This one of the left is just outside the train window. (The train, also not airconditioned)

 We sat by some Turkish people on the train that were very loud and whom it took me a while to figure out their nationality. This picture on the right is a quick peek of the castle. Just a faraway view and I was so excited. The little town at the base of the castles was so quaint and extremely German. Our waitress wore one of those typical German outfits.

Emily and Megan posed in the street for my picture. The whole town is made up on a hill going up towards the castle.

 After we got out tickets to the castle, we stopped to get lunch, and I was really looking forward to that. Oh did I mention that I had a giant pretzel for lunch? I definitely got used to German cuisine very quickly.


Another note: our hostel in Munich was extremely nice (minus no airconditioning) and it was so close to the train station and everything we wanted to get to. We walked everywhere.

Anway, I went ahead and took a picture of what I got on the menu, I got Bauernschmaus. The roast pork and the sauerkraut were to die for. I LOVE German food, and this was the best.

 Emily and I shared the food and there is the picture of it below. Bought water too, it was only 3.50 for it, such a steal! Not really.

This is the Hofbrauhaus Castle I believe it was called. We did not go into this one but it is I think where King Ludwig II was born, who was the king that built Nueschwanstein.

Moving on past that, we kind of had to hike up to get to Nueschwanstein castle. The higher we got the more German countryside you could see. There was a little creek at one bridge that we got off the trail to walk beside because it was so pretty. There's just me, then a pic of me and Emily and one picture before we decided, why not climb up it?

 I was this II close to buying this hat/wig. Isn't it just so German and perfect? Felt green hats were everywhere and I got one for a special person. Aren't you hoping and praying that this lucky person is you? Jealous? You should be. This may be what I looked like if Mom was German, making me 100% German, so who knows.






This is just the start of several views that we had on our hike up the mountain. All the countryside that we saw on the train over to the castle, we were able to see from above.

 The distance that we could see while we were up there was just unreal. While all the Japanese tourists (which there were always buses and buses of)  were taking every single picture they could get a hold of, we enjoyed this view of the country. It was breathtaking.

 I took a video in hopes that you would be able to more clearly see the beauty that I did. Maybe it will work, it is above if so. I just wanted to include all of the pictures I took at this level because I thought it was so beautiful. There are several, so I hope you enjoy as well.

 I don't know if I got a picture of it but on the bottom picture of the views, to the left of that shot, is Swan Lake. King Ludwig II loved Swans apparently. It was a huge fettish. Strange, but it had a big influence on the area.

In between these pictures we got in a tour of Nueschwanstein. Now this was interesting. I was unsure of what our guide was saying every other word. At first we were all sure that we were on the German speaking tour. That's how bad she was. 

 The way her pitch and tone changed while she was talking was incredible. Think of the most RIDICULOUS German accent that you think could surely be impossible. That was exactly how she talked. It was amusing, but unfortunately I don't have much to say about the castle because I am just not sure.

It was built in the late 1800s by King Ludwig the II of Bavaria (which is like a state in Germany). He apparently ran his region bankrupt building this castle and others that he worked on. Its ironic because people seem to talk to him like he is a famous King in history that was responsible for these beautiful castles, but really he seems like he was a terrible ruler. Oh I did catch this from the tour guide. She said that his title was taken away from him because he went crazy basically. Later he "drowned" in a pool. Assume with those quotation marks what you may...

 This is my best attempt at an incredulous face. I really was incredulous, but obviously photos don't always translate.

 This is the castle that supposedly Cinderella's castle and the Disney castle were based off of, which was pretty cool. It was built so magnificently onto the side of the cliff and I can see why he chose to build it where he did. The view was incredible. We hiked up a little higher to get a complete view of the castle.


If you looked down on the bridge that we were one, there was a beautiful waterfall and several walking trails. I could see myself coming back here for sure. There were so many trails and hikes that you could take and it would be amazing if we had time to hike them. The castle was so cool, but a lot of it was the beauty of the area around that. It was so beautiful and the castle was built in the perfect spot to enjoy all of God's beauty surrounding it.

We took the train back to Munich that night and got some dinner. More sausage, of course, I took advantage. Molly, I got some Kinder chocolate and it was delicious. Not sure how German specific this is, but it was good. 

 On Friday and Saturday we just went shopping and hung out around Munich, taking our pleasant time. It was relaxing and a nice break from all the going we have been doing (but oh we still went hard). To the left you will see a store with, yes Dindrl and Lederhosen. I thought surely it was a cultural stereotype we were taking part in but they embrace it and it is true. There was a whole shop with the outfits. If they weren't so expensive or if I had a little girl I definitely would have bought some. Even in the department store they went into they had a section devoted to these clothes. A few people    wore them around on a normal day, CRAZY!

 Anyways, our first stop was the Marienplatz where we saw the Glockenspiel. Every day at 11, 12 and 5 they would have a little show where it'd spin around, dance and joust. I tried to do a video, who knows if it'll work. It was a really cool atmosphere though.

After we looked around we stopped at a huge market in Munich. It had all sorts of cool spices, foods, specialties and it was all so cool to look out. Look at some of those cool fruits they were selling!


I was lucky enough to meet up with my good friend Grace in Munich on Friday. We talked about how wierd it was that we were both in Munich, at the same time, studying abroad and how cool it was that we got to meet up and hang out there.
Grace has been in Munich for several months now and so we got to walk around, talk and hang out for a while. Her German is pretty impressive, in my opinion. She thinks the natives can tell that she is American, but I can't remotely tell what she's saying so that must mean she's pretty authentic.

 After I hung out with Grace we went back to the English Garden (where Grace and I hung out earlier) to see it. It was so pretty. We got in this river where several people were swimming in and laying around (even though the water was freezing). However, apparently the weather wasn't too cold for some people. So in Germany, going nude in the park is acceptable. Absolutely no limitations. So there were plenty of nude people laying around the park and there was one too close for comfort next to us on the river. That was experiencing culture. I have been around enough of these situations at this point I think I am scarred permanently.

 We kept walking through the park and it was beautiful (as seen left). Then we went to the beach!!! See, there are people surfing. Well you would think that'd be true but no. They made artificial waves at the front of the park and people got in full out wetsuits to catch a wave. Random, but fun.
 

My supper, once again, sausage and sauerkraut. Couldn't resist. On Saturday we just hung out, chilled and went to this English Garden again. They had a band playing and singing some very pretty German music and wearing, once again, Lederhosen. So many people and it was like a random festival. People were eating, having a good time, listening to music! It was such a cool atmosphere and I think it was just a random Saturday that we were there.

Hopefully this video works, I tried!

 These two places below were close to each other. We spent a lot of time walking through this mini garden in Munich and it was a beautiful day outside most everyday. There were people playing violins and that was so beautiful. Right across the street there was this building. I don't know much about it but only the main middle part was left undamaged. Apparently it got ruined during the war and the bombings in Munich and they had to rebuild the rest. So sad.

 Overall, Munich was such a beautiful city, with nice people, great food and several fun things to see. It was such a full but relaxing weekend and I realized how much I love Germany and I really want to go back someday. I hope to get the chance. I have loved the beautiful cities we went into but one thought became clear to me while I was in Munich and after seeing some nature: God's creations are so much greater than anything man could dream up.

Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye. To You, and You, and you.