Ohmigoodness, I can't believe how LONG it's been since I've written! I apologize, faithful readers! Things have been (believe it or not) getting hectic around here.
I will begin with our first journey outside of Austria; our first mini-vacation on our own, as grown ups in Europe! I'll brief you on the 5 "W's" of this trip before getting into our adventures:
Where: Munich, Germany. To those who speak German it is actually called "Muenchen." Because the area was inhabited by so many monasteries, monks, and priests, people would describe where they lived by saying they lived "by the monks." Muenchen is the German work for monk. And there you have it. On an express train a trip to Munich takes about 4 1/2 hours. Located in southern Germany (which was a relief to Olivia and I. There are some subtle language and grammar differences between Germany and Austria. However, in southern Germany the language much more resembles Austrian dialect... meaning you say "Gruss Gott" to say hello and "Tschuss" to say goodbye, etc.). If you google the history of Munich, you will see that it was a forefront city for Hitler and the Neo-Nazi party during the 3rd Reich.
When: We departed Vienna Friday morning, September 12th, by train and left Munich Sunday afternoon.
Who and Why: Well, Olivia and I--of course! I am pleased to say that there is an additional "who" included in this trip. That person is, indeed, Eric M. Bond himself!!!!! How is this possible, you might ask? Eric was (and still is) on a European excursion with some members of the International Programs Office at OSU. Their trip took them through Munich, Heidelberg, Cologne and Hamburg and allowed them to have site visits to some major international coporation offices--FedEx, DHL, MercedesBenz, etc. When I found out that Eric was going to be within 5 hours of me I had to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity :) Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
What: This is the part where I tell you what happened on the trip... the meat and potatoes of the post! So heeeeere we go!
So Olivia and I hop on our train, Eurail passes in hand, groggy as ever at 8 in the morning but excited for our adventure! For the first few stops, we luck out by having the entire 6-seat cabin to ourselves.... yeeeees! In the time following, we were still lucky enough to have wonderful and polite cabin mates. The first was an older Austrian woman on her way to Salzburg to visit a friend (and yes, we figured this out in a German conversation, DANKE!). I made the mistake of asking her what a certain word meant in my Austrian garfield comic strip (courtesy of the free Austrian daily newspaper "Heute") and she went on for 5 minutes in German trying to explain it to us... Olivia and I played the polite and patient Americans and just sat there, intermittently nodding our heads like we TOTALLY understood what she was saying, meanwhile shooting "I have no idea what's going on" glances to one another. Haha! Our next cabinmates were a group of 3 girls from Britain who were on a three week backpacking tour of Europe. They made for lovely conversation... and I particularly liked the topic of toilets we'd experienced thus far (ha!).
Four and a half hours later, we arrived at the Munich Hauptbahnhof. It's literally 50 degrees. And drizzling. And blustery. Nothing like the 80 degree day we had previously in Vienna. But we bundled up, put up our dilapitated umbrellas and braced ourselves for the city. We checked into our hostel (which was really quite nice) and were on our way to find FOOOOOOOD. We searched high and low for a restaurant that would quench our intense hunger, and where did we eat? Did we indulge ourselves in fatty, startchy German cuisine? Did we stay true to our oath of expanding our cultural horizons? No. We ate at Subway ;) We wanted ourselves some SUBS! And it was just like at home... you know, the same "Subway" smell, the same decor.
Aaanyway, we kept hearing these sirens getting louder and then stopping somewhere nearby. We shrugged it off, naturally. We're practically immune to it after living in the ghetto of Vienna for a month lol. Turns out that there had been a bomb threat at the same Hauptbahnhof that we had left not yet an hour prior! And bombthreats in Europe aren't as common as those in America... so Olivia and I were very scared slash excited to take part in such a rare experience! The whole city block was surrounded by emergency vehicles and the equivalent of German SWAT men. And of course, everyone was gawking and standing around. Another situation where you realize that regardless of whether you're Austrian, German, Chinese or American--we're all human. We all are rubber-neckers at heart.
So after all that excitement was said and done, Olivia and I returned to the hostel where we would be meeting a tour group. This was a 3 hour FREE walking tour of Munich, and yes, I did say FREE. We met our guide--a genuine and intelligent looking girl from Manchester named Jess. She was EXTREMELY informative and completely personable. The ideal guide. Often very funny and sarcastic. I would even say that she is better than some of the guides on tours I spent 30 euro on. And this girl doesn't even get paid. She works solely on a tip basis.
Aside from my time with Eric, this has to be my favorite three hours in Munich. I learned so much about the city--its historical background, its extreme links with the Neo-Nazi party... I wish I could relay it all here! But I will hit on some of my favorites:
The Frauenkirche is a beautiful basillica in the heart of the city. If you look at pictures of Munich, you can pick this particular cathedral out because of its two onion-shaped domes. This kirche is significant in many ways: It is the current Pope Benedict's former church (and there are busts and paintings to honor him), it was almost entirely reconstructed after the war by many communities (including the Jewish community), and it contains the "Devil's Footprint." Long story short, when looking at the church from the front, it appears to have no windows, as they are hidden by columns. So, when it was being built, the Devil got all excited... "No windows? These people will be worshipping darkness! Perfect! More souls!" Well, when the devil found out that he had been duped and that there actually WERE windows, he stomped his foot (apparently wearing Birkenstocks) at the door of the church and the footprint remains to this day! In reality, the footprint is that of the architect, leaving his "signature" on his handiwork.
The Haufbraeuhaus: The preferred brewery of the dukes and nobelmen of yesteryear, the HBH is a hoppin' tourist attraction and functioning restaurant and beer house. It sticks out in my mind not only because it is often where Neo Nazi meetings were held, but also because of it's literal take on "indoor plumbing." Back in the day, it was legal to go out and urinate in the gutter. However, at the HBH, seating was prized and no one wanted to abandon their beer for a second. HBH installed "gutters" underneath the bars so all the men would have to do was unbutton their liederhosen and relieve themselves. The indoor gutter would then lead outside to the actual gutter. Can you imagine the SMELL in that place during asparagus season!?
The Rathaus (town hall) and Marienplatz. Basically the aesthetic center of town. You can get to all of the popular sites from here. Located in the center is a gold statue commemorating the Virgin Mary (or perhaps you would rather use Eric's alternative name: "The Golden Baby.") The rathaus is a lovely church-like looking building with the coolest centerpiece ever--a glockenspiel containing 43 bells AND moving slash dancing life-size figurines! At 11, 12 and 5 the bells ring and 15 minutes worth of Bavarian dance and wedding music are played. Also depicted is a joust between France and Bavaria (but I don't think France has ever won lol) and an hooting/dancing owl that brings the whole ordeal to a close. Quite a spectacle, actually.
Gosh... there are seriously so many amazing historical stories.... alas, I fear I should not even begin to try, as I could not do it justice! So your assignment: Wikipedia Munich history and monuments. lol!
Sooo anyway, not only was this tour great for seeing the sights, but also for meeting the people! Allow me to explain. First of all, we meet this kid from Canada (well, hardly a kid... he's 26, but partly Chinese... they all look so dang young anyway...) named Mike. He seems like a pretty chill guy, and actually initially strikes up a conversation about this program he's doing called "Couch Surfing." It's an internet database very similar to facebook in which people can search for available couches all around the world. Mike, for example, has been travelling for the past three months around Europe, not having to pay a cent for housing and staying on hosts' couches. AMAZING and novel idea. And we loved it. Within the three hours we got to know about Mike's life, ambitions, travels, family--almost like we'd known him for years! He's a cartoon animator, and he's worked on a few shows that Olivia and I have actually heard of! Basically travelling around Europe until his next gig and until he goes broke. Looking for a place to move in a few years. Honestly though, between the three of us there wasn't a moment of silence lol! And it felt wonderful to meet someone who was genuinely travelling for the culture and for the experience of it all, not like our American friends who only come to Europe to get schwasted every night. He has actually contacted me since and is coming in to Vienna this Friday. We're going to show him around the city a bit and make our first trip to the English movie theater to see The Dark Knight!
MOMENT OF IRONY #1: Olivia and I are just chillin' in the tour group, talking to Mike about Ohio weather, when all of the sudden an older gentleman whips around excitedly: "Ohio?! Who said Ohio?! Are you from Ohio?" Of course, I obliged in telling him that I was, indeed from said state. "We are too! We're all from Columbus!" It was then that I noticed that one of the gentlemen had an OSU Bucks windbreaker on... and I was seriously psyched! Thus began the conversation about how I was meeting a group from OSU in Munich the next day, and how there were 10 colleagues from their business in New Albany with them, and how I'm from New Philadelphia... "Oh! We know New Phila! We know the Cody's... work with them, in fact." The new inside joke became one of us randomly busting out "OH!" and the other finishing "IO!" I have never been so proud and excited to be an Ohioan.
MOMENT OF IRONY #2: After the tour, Mike asks us to dinner with him and his other couch surfing Canadian friend, Kimberly. Kimberly has to be the sweetest, most kind-hearted person I've ever met. Think Annie Worth (love that girl). Again, conversation here was effortless. Only 19 years old, she's travelling around a bit before starting University. We ate random meat specialties at an Imbiss (think fast food, but with real food) and then traipsed off to find ourselves some gelato. Frickin' nutella gelato. Mmmm..... anyway, Kimberly starts talking about this girl she knows who can play the mandolin... Olivia mentions that she, too, knows someone who plays the mandolin... Kimberly mentions the name Anna, Olivia's eyes widen and soon they realize that they are talking about the SAME PERSON. This Anna character was one of Kimberly's closer friends while doing this summer program, and Olivia actually took Anna to church on occasion. HOW CRAZY IS THAT!? Out of all the people we could meet in Munich, we were put in the path of a mutual friend. God works in mysterious ways!
We bid our parting adieus to Mike and Kim and head back to the hostel. We stop down to the internet cafe (which is actually located in the bar) and decide to try some Munich Augustine beer recommended by Tour Guide Jess. We dislike beer. We find it hardly tolerable. But heck, why not give it a chance... maybe this one is different? It was tolerable. Very "wheat-y." But not enough for me to understand how men can drink liters of the stuff at a time lol. So here we are, minding our own business at the computers when all of a sudden: "Wahlkjsfhlakjdhflkjhf!!! AHHHH!!! Whooo hoooo!" A group of girls dressed in bright orange mini skirts and neon wigs come running in, followed by a group of men wearing orange cut-off tanks and... a moose. They are blowing whistles, whooping and hollaring, playing ungodly loud techno music, dancing on the bar, screaming "JAGERMEISTER!" Some kind of promotional thing for Jagermeister, I guess. Regardless, it was all downhill from here, as they were giving out free drinks and prizes.
And here is where Olivia and I again realize what old prudes we are.
(Sorry guys but I'm typing in my class breaks... will leave this one unfinished until later today. Back to my German midterm I go! Whoooooo!)
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