Epic of Munich
Gruess Gott!
This past week I took a little vacation to Bavaria. On Monday I took a train to Munich. It was a very pleasant trip and an excellent opportunity to see some more of Germany's landscape. Monday afternoon I arrived in my youth hostel. It's called "Euro Youth Hostel", and I highly recommend it if you go to Munich. It's in a pretty old building and not far from the main train station. On the ground floor there's a big lounge with a bar, TV, and lots of couches and chairs where the other backpackers hangout, drink beer, and chat. There happened to be a lot of Americans there because of Spring Break.
It was already pretty late on Monday when I got there, so I just wondered around the center of town an bit and grabbed a bite to eat. That evening I met some cool (and not so cool) people in the hostel, including Mike, one of the few major annoyances of my trip. For example he's the sort who will ask if you want another beer, and when you say no, he asks why not and pesters you every five minutes until you just give in and say yes. I hate people like that. Anyho!
Tuesday I decided to start my adventures in Munich with the Alte Pinakothek, which housed alot of european art from the 14th to early 18th centuries. It was interesting, but after the three hours I was getting a little sick of looking at paintings with Christian themes. Apparently there was nohing else to paint back then, or probably more likely, there was no one else to pay for the paintings. I'm exagerating a bit, but not by a much. I did find a new artist that I rather enjoy: Jan Brueghal der Aelter.
After I'd had my fill of high culture, I had lunch and headed to the Nymphenburger Castle. I really don't know the history of this castle, but gardens in front and behind it were pretty even though they were covered in snow. The weather on Tuesday was actually somewhat agreeable, so I decided I'd best do all the outdoor stuff on that day in case the rest of the week was cold (and I was right). My next stop was then the English Garden, which is a massive park with a great view of the Munich skyline. Sadly I couldn't stay long because it was already late afternoon, but it was still pretty despite of the deadness of winter. At that point I headed back to the hostel to rest my feet.
Wednesday morning I waited around in the cold to watch the famous Glockenspiel on the front of the city court house. Basically there are two tracks with life-size figures that move around in a circle to music played by bells inside the towner. It was actually not all that exciting. I don't know why it's famous. The rest of the afternoon I explored the Deutsches Museum (creatively "German Musuem" in English). It is an absolutely massive museum of science, technology, and industry. It is absolutely impossible to see it all in one afternoon. I was there for close to five hours and saw maybe a fourth of it. Not only was the museum huge (effectively five stories), the material presented was also very detailed and at an impressively high level. For example in the physics section they explained experiments such as the Stern-Gerlach (probably missspelled), ESR, and other quantum experiments at a level that I learned in my first four semesters of physics courses. Some displays even had equations! The evening I spent chatting with a student from Mexico. It was interesting to be in Munich but end up speaking so much English.
Thursday was another grey, cold day. In the morning I went to the Residenz museum and treasury. The Residenz was the residence for the Bavarian dukes, electors, and eventually kings from the middle ages to 1918. I should probably stop and mention that within Germany, like the US, there are several distinct regions, namely west-non Bavaria, Bavaria, and east Germany. The reason for this is that for much of the history of the region that is now Germany, Bavaria was its own state. That means it has its own culture and the mentality of the people are different. True Bavarian German is different enough from High German that Germans who didn't grow up with it often can't understand it. The thickness of dialect varies, so I could understand the people who spoke with a Bavarian accent, but the really thick Bavarian was like another language. It's actually quite fascinating. Anyho, I digress. The Residenz was built over time in stages and was therefore an interesting mix of various architectural styles. Later in the afternoon I climbed the tower of St. Peter's church, which offered a great view of the city, and probably the Alps as well if the weather had been clearer.
After three days of wandering around, I was rather tired and headed back to the hostel early. I also waited on a call from my sister because it was her 18th birthday. I'm still trying to figure out how she got to be so old. Craziness.
Thursday evening also ended up being rather frustrating. I planned on going to an open rehearsal of the Muenchener Philharmoniker (Munich Symphony). The tickets go on sale one hour before the rehearsal begins. I figured there wouldn't be so many people there and arrived half an hour before the ticket counters opened. Big mistake. I show up to find a REALLY long line of people waiting. When the ticket counters opened I was so far back in the line I didn't even know where it led. Though I'm awful at estimating such things, I'd say there had to be at least 200 people in front of me. Maybe more. There was also a second line with exactly as many people. During the first 45 minutes of the wait the line didn't move at all. Eventually things started to pick up, and the end was in sight. Then came the dreaded announcement. Only 20 tickets left. At this point there were only 30 people in front of me, but still too many. It's extremely frustrating to be one of the last 30 of 200 people. Just as the ticket counters closed there curtains a woman walked by offering an extra ticket, but the woman next to me was quicker. It was not my night. Frustrated that it didn't work out, I decided to swing by the Hofbraeuhaus, the famous Munich tourist trap, I mean beer hall. I decided not to stay because the beer was expensive and really not so exciting. I've been in Germany long enough that it wasn't really anything special. Just big. It was my first (and only) opportunity to see Lederhosen though. Oddly enough most of the sterotypical German things that we know of in the US are really more sterotypical Bavarian. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
Friday was my last day in Muenchen. I spent the morning and early afternoon in the Neue Pinakothek. Also interesting. There were a couple paintings from Casper David Friedrick and Schinkel, as well as some impressionists and expressionists. At this point I was tired and decided to just go to the train station, eat some lunch, and wait until my train left. The trip from Munich to Regensburg was not particularly eventful. Tobias picked me up, and I got my first view of the small city of Regensburg. Regensburg is probably the most picturesque German city I've seen. It's not too big (pop. 150,000), the Danube flows through it, and was not bombed during World War II so all of the old buildings are still intact. It's history goes back to Roman times and was the residence of many important people, not least of all Johannes Kepler. Because of this fact the city is remarkably well maintained and clean. There are also a lot of bars, and I saw a good number of them. Friday evening Tobias and I did some pretty hardcore bar hopping. We started in a local brewery, hit a pub with Koelsch and played a game of foosball for old times sake, discovered an irish pub with both Guiness and Beamish (it was St. Patrick's Day after all), and went to a couple really cool underground bars. The bars also closed at 2 am just like in Iowa. It was silly, though in this case good for our state of being the next day.
Saturday we slept late, drank lots of coffee and whatnot. In the afternoon we went on a wonderful walk through the city and on a mountain next to the city. That evening we went to see "Walk the Line" about the country singer Johnny Cash. I really enjoyed it. Particularly impressive was that the actors sang the songs themselves. I wouldn't've thought Reece Witherspoon had it in her, but she did a wonderful job. A well deserved Oscar.
Sunday I headed back to Bonn around lunch time. The weather was warm and sunny. Sunshine always makes traveling by train better.
Tobias also introduced me to a new religious movement. It's called FSM. I highly recommend you wikipedia it. (Is wikipedia a verb yet like "google"? If not it's going to be, and I'm setting a trend.) A hint regarding the disabiguation of "FSM": what I'm refering to has something to do with pasta.
I'm having problems at the moment with the photos. I'll try again later.
Enjoy!
This past week I took a little vacation to Bavaria. On Monday I took a train to Munich. It was a very pleasant trip and an excellent opportunity to see some more of Germany's landscape. Monday afternoon I arrived in my youth hostel. It's called "Euro Youth Hostel", and I highly recommend it if you go to Munich. It's in a pretty old building and not far from the main train station. On the ground floor there's a big lounge with a bar, TV, and lots of couches and chairs where the other backpackers hangout, drink beer, and chat. There happened to be a lot of Americans there because of Spring Break.
It was already pretty late on Monday when I got there, so I just wondered around the center of town an bit and grabbed a bite to eat. That evening I met some cool (and not so cool) people in the hostel, including Mike, one of the few major annoyances of my trip. For example he's the sort who will ask if you want another beer, and when you say no, he asks why not and pesters you every five minutes until you just give in and say yes. I hate people like that. Anyho!
Tuesday I decided to start my adventures in Munich with the Alte Pinakothek, which housed alot of european art from the 14th to early 18th centuries. It was interesting, but after the three hours I was getting a little sick of looking at paintings with Christian themes. Apparently there was nohing else to paint back then, or probably more likely, there was no one else to pay for the paintings. I'm exagerating a bit, but not by a much. I did find a new artist that I rather enjoy: Jan Brueghal der Aelter.
After I'd had my fill of high culture, I had lunch and headed to the Nymphenburger Castle. I really don't know the history of this castle, but gardens in front and behind it were pretty even though they were covered in snow. The weather on Tuesday was actually somewhat agreeable, so I decided I'd best do all the outdoor stuff on that day in case the rest of the week was cold (and I was right). My next stop was then the English Garden, which is a massive park with a great view of the Munich skyline. Sadly I couldn't stay long because it was already late afternoon, but it was still pretty despite of the deadness of winter. At that point I headed back to the hostel to rest my feet.
Wednesday morning I waited around in the cold to watch the famous Glockenspiel on the front of the city court house. Basically there are two tracks with life-size figures that move around in a circle to music played by bells inside the towner. It was actually not all that exciting. I don't know why it's famous. The rest of the afternoon I explored the Deutsches Museum (creatively "German Musuem" in English). It is an absolutely massive museum of science, technology, and industry. It is absolutely impossible to see it all in one afternoon. I was there for close to five hours and saw maybe a fourth of it. Not only was the museum huge (effectively five stories), the material presented was also very detailed and at an impressively high level. For example in the physics section they explained experiments such as the Stern-Gerlach (probably missspelled), ESR, and other quantum experiments at a level that I learned in my first four semesters of physics courses. Some displays even had equations! The evening I spent chatting with a student from Mexico. It was interesting to be in Munich but end up speaking so much English.
Thursday was another grey, cold day. In the morning I went to the Residenz museum and treasury. The Residenz was the residence for the Bavarian dukes, electors, and eventually kings from the middle ages to 1918. I should probably stop and mention that within Germany, like the US, there are several distinct regions, namely west-non Bavaria, Bavaria, and east Germany. The reason for this is that for much of the history of the region that is now Germany, Bavaria was its own state. That means it has its own culture and the mentality of the people are different. True Bavarian German is different enough from High German that Germans who didn't grow up with it often can't understand it. The thickness of dialect varies, so I could understand the people who spoke with a Bavarian accent, but the really thick Bavarian was like another language. It's actually quite fascinating. Anyho, I digress. The Residenz was built over time in stages and was therefore an interesting mix of various architectural styles. Later in the afternoon I climbed the tower of St. Peter's church, which offered a great view of the city, and probably the Alps as well if the weather had been clearer.
After three days of wandering around, I was rather tired and headed back to the hostel early. I also waited on a call from my sister because it was her 18th birthday. I'm still trying to figure out how she got to be so old. Craziness.
Thursday evening also ended up being rather frustrating. I planned on going to an open rehearsal of the Muenchener Philharmoniker (Munich Symphony). The tickets go on sale one hour before the rehearsal begins. I figured there wouldn't be so many people there and arrived half an hour before the ticket counters opened. Big mistake. I show up to find a REALLY long line of people waiting. When the ticket counters opened I was so far back in the line I didn't even know where it led. Though I'm awful at estimating such things, I'd say there had to be at least 200 people in front of me. Maybe more. There was also a second line with exactly as many people. During the first 45 minutes of the wait the line didn't move at all. Eventually things started to pick up, and the end was in sight. Then came the dreaded announcement. Only 20 tickets left. At this point there were only 30 people in front of me, but still too many. It's extremely frustrating to be one of the last 30 of 200 people. Just as the ticket counters closed there curtains a woman walked by offering an extra ticket, but the woman next to me was quicker. It was not my night. Frustrated that it didn't work out, I decided to swing by the Hofbraeuhaus, the famous Munich tourist trap, I mean beer hall. I decided not to stay because the beer was expensive and really not so exciting. I've been in Germany long enough that it wasn't really anything special. Just big. It was my first (and only) opportunity to see Lederhosen though. Oddly enough most of the sterotypical German things that we know of in the US are really more sterotypical Bavarian. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
Friday was my last day in Muenchen. I spent the morning and early afternoon in the Neue Pinakothek. Also interesting. There were a couple paintings from Casper David Friedrick and Schinkel, as well as some impressionists and expressionists. At this point I was tired and decided to just go to the train station, eat some lunch, and wait until my train left. The trip from Munich to Regensburg was not particularly eventful. Tobias picked me up, and I got my first view of the small city of Regensburg. Regensburg is probably the most picturesque German city I've seen. It's not too big (pop. 150,000), the Danube flows through it, and was not bombed during World War II so all of the old buildings are still intact. It's history goes back to Roman times and was the residence of many important people, not least of all Johannes Kepler. Because of this fact the city is remarkably well maintained and clean. There are also a lot of bars, and I saw a good number of them. Friday evening Tobias and I did some pretty hardcore bar hopping. We started in a local brewery, hit a pub with Koelsch and played a game of foosball for old times sake, discovered an irish pub with both Guiness and Beamish (it was St. Patrick's Day after all), and went to a couple really cool underground bars. The bars also closed at 2 am just like in Iowa. It was silly, though in this case good for our state of being the next day.
Saturday we slept late, drank lots of coffee and whatnot. In the afternoon we went on a wonderful walk through the city and on a mountain next to the city. That evening we went to see "Walk the Line" about the country singer Johnny Cash. I really enjoyed it. Particularly impressive was that the actors sang the songs themselves. I wouldn't've thought Reece Witherspoon had it in her, but she did a wonderful job. A well deserved Oscar.
Sunday I headed back to Bonn around lunch time. The weather was warm and sunny. Sunshine always makes traveling by train better.
Tobias also introduced me to a new religious movement. It's called FSM. I highly recommend you wikipedia it. (Is wikipedia a verb yet like "google"? If not it's going to be, and I'm setting a trend.) A hint regarding the disabiguation of "FSM": what I'm refering to has something to do with pasta.
I'm having problems at the moment with the photos. I'll try again later.
Enjoy!
posted by laura s at 4:10 AM
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