Munchen, Schloss Neuschwanstein, Dachau and Berlin

This weekend rocked. We saw so many cool things, but still kept things really chill. It was just my friend Meg and I, which was a boon (waiting for a gaggle of 5 other people can be extremely frustrating). Looking back, I can't believe we fit in everything we did!

We left on Thursday afternoon and got into Munich around 9 or so. In the middle of our ride we caught a good glimpse of the Frankfurt skyline, which was very modern and architecturally striking. You don't skylines like that in many European cities, and some cities (like Paris) have building height restrictions to preserve the formability of the Old-world buildings that currently dominate their skylines.

When we got into Munich, we went to our hostel, which was all of 5 minutes from the train station. We dropped off our stuff and went out to walk around and soak up the Bavarian mood.

We felt like we were in Epcot. We couldn't believe people walked the Marienplatz (Marien Street, or something) and went in these unbelievable gothic buildings every day. It all seemed so old but at the same time so modern, so anachronistic but so cutting-edge. Worldwide-known brands were juxtaposed with centuries-old cathedrals, meeting halls and fountains. This oldness felt different from the oldness of Prague, which was more weathered and generally more out-of-date in the present. Munich's old buildings still have a niche. They fit right in.

We went to a beer hall, and since I don't like beer, I got Munich's regional pseudo-beer offering: Radler, a half-lemonade, half-beer blend. It was delicious. There are beer halls throughout Munich, and the one we went to Thursday was pretty quiet (maybe because it was a Thursday). The halls are not stratified by demographics--there is no 20s beer hall, no singles beer hall, no older professionals beer hall, no gay beer hall. Everyone goes to the same place. It's so cool. The halls were very well-lit and filled with long tables and servers in traditional Bavarian dress. It was such a friendly atmosphere, and we drank it up.

We got up early Friday morning (7) to catch a train to Schloss Neuschwanstein, or King Ludwig's Castle. Google Image Search that shiz. Incredible.

The most surprising thing about the castle is that it was built in the 1860s. At that point, people didn't do the castle thing anymore, or at least they didn't do the new, huge-beyond-huge, castle in the German Alps thing anymore. King Ludwig II, who commissioned the castle, was forced to relinquish his rule it was found he was mentally ill. He must've been mentally ill, because some things about the castle were really weird. It was like that house in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, except Narnia was in the frigging castle, not in Narnia. There were swans all over the place (Swan Lake was written at the lake at the foot of the castle) and Wagner, the prolific German composer, was enshrined in multiple locations. Meg said it was every little girl's ideal doll house.

The castle was difficult to get to (more than 5 hours of traveling, round-trip), but so worth it. In Fussen, the small town we went through to get to Neuschwanstein, there was a great little bakery which we patronized (twice, actually). There, I got a traditional Bavarian pretzel and a rasberry crumble danish thing for 1.50 Euro! Hooray for a reprieve from city prices!

That night, we met up with another Emerson student (he was traveling on his own, which is not a bad idea if you want to see the things you want to see). We went out to dinner at a Tahitian chain restaurant (it was reasonably priced and German sausage didn't sound too desirable at the time), where I had fish tacos. Oh, yah. After, we went to the Hofbrauhaus, the largest beer hall in Munich and the most widely-known in the world, so Meg tells me, though I'd never heard of it.

There must've been thousands of people in that place. Oh my gosh. The seating never ended! It was like the Kowloon except with a much more efficient (and almost cramped) use of space. We each had a liter (I stuck with the Radler) and split a pretzel and another Bravarian staple, apple strudel. We stayed for a while, listening to the music (which alternated between jazz and Bavarian folk) and observing the scene. After walking around the city once more, we went back to the hostel and went to sleep.

In the morning we got up at 7:30 to go to the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. Most of the original structures of the camp have long since been demolished, and only fraction have been reconstructed. The resulting open expanses were very impactful and brought up questions. How did something this vast and this terrible go on for so long? I didn't feel quite right being there, not because I'm not Jewish, but because I had arrived of my own accord and left when I wished, a few hours later. None of the camp victims had that choice.

We left and Meg and I parted ways with Strauss as we headed for Berlin! We ate a lunch of fruit and Nutella on wheat puff crackers. Everything tastes better when you're on trains.

We got to Berlin at like 7. Berlin's freaking huge. I almost missed going to Berlin, so I was really glad we could fit it into this trip! Berlin may be the coolest city I've been to (though Dublin's still my favorite, and Paris, Dubrovnik, Barcelona, Milan, Rome or Florence will probably be the prettiest), mostly because of the omnipresence of it's history--Prussian, Nazi, Soviet and post-Soviet.

It was like a movie set. Some buildings were still shelled-out from WWII, and giant concrete slabs end serve as new, improvised walls. The East-West divide is still very evident, especially with the number of cranes and construction sites in the East.

We went up to the top of the Reichtag, Germany's national parliamentary building. It looked like the popper thing from that board game Trouble. The view from the top was impressive and gave us a sense of the vastness of the city. To finish off the day, we walked through the Brandenburg Gate and some of Germany's other most picturesque districts.

Sunday morning, we got up and went to the Berlin Wall Memorial Museum, which was fairly small but well-done. Now, the wall looks incredibly vulnerable. It looks like had they really wanted to, Berliners may have been able to knocked down the wall long before they actually did. The security restrictions, though, made this impossible. Berlin is still transitioning from the two, fragmented infrastructures of East and West Berlin to a single, harmonized infrastructure. They're opening a new airport next year, I think.

After the wall, we went to the DDR (East Germany) museum. Statist socialism is so interesting. It was really fun to look at, and even though the museum was crowded as balls, it was well worth our time.

We went back to Berlin's central train station, brought some foodstuffs for the train, and headed home. It was an incredible weekend, and I'm very thankful for all I got to see and how smoothly it all went!

Tomorrow late-morning we leave for Paris! We have no classes Easter Monday, so I won't be back until that night. I am so excited about this trip! I just hope I can get good sleep tonight.