Wow! What a great few days in Munich. The moment we got to our hostel around 10pm, sat down and had a beer, we joked about staying longer if we were having fun. And that's exactly what we did.
So let's talk about Munich. A beautiful historic city kept that way because of the people. The people here do not like change (remind you of someone), so much so that before ww2 they took pictures of all the buildings so that after all the damage they would be able to rebuild exactly the same way. You can still see some buildings not badly damaged just have the old design painted over like a movie set. A far change from Berlin who has decided to go modern in every respect. There is one more interesting difference between Berlin and Munich, but i'll get to that later.
The other thing they love is beer. Munich arguably has he best beer in the world. Sadly to the rest of the world they do not export any of it. Oh, except the current Pope who is from here. Vatican City is the only place in the world the beer is shipped. He says that because it is his favorite beer, it is also God's favorite beer. Go figure.
On our first full day, we did a walking tour as we do in every city and learned a ton including some of the interesting facts I shared with you already. On a more serious topic, we learned about how Hitler and the Nazi party began here. Due to hyper inflation and unemployment, Germany was in shambles after ww1 and extreme political parties began to combat the situation. Hitler quickly rose in the ranks in the Nazi party and failed in his first big demonstration here when he attempted to kidnap 3 high government officials and tried to get them to join the Nazis. This failure led to him being sent to jail where he infamously wrote his novel and only served 11 months of a 5 year sentence from a trial that was a joke in the first place because the judges were Nazi sympathizers. Then we learned that other interesting difference between Berlin and Munich I hinted at earlier. Berlin's monuments and memorials to ww2 and the holocaust are designed in a way that smacks you in the face and says, "Hey, look at me! Don't forget this happened!" Munich on the other hand takes a much more subtle approach. For instance, we were on the tour and began walking on a side road with golden cobble stones in a distinct path. The guide soon stopped and began telling us the story of how there was a spot around the corner where when you walked past it, you had to give the Nazi salute. There was a soldier stationed there so if you didn't, he would beat you. The disgruntled and brave anti-Nazi citizens through protest would puposefully take a different route so they didn't pass this area. Although the Nazis caught on eventually, the golden path lays here today in rememberance. And as I said before, with Munich's different style, this path is not marked or explained anywhere. Their reasoning behind their style is that it forces people to notice these sights and look it up later or ask someone on their own and therefore will remember it better. I've gone back and forth on which style is better and although I personally think there could be a happy medium between the two, both get the job done. On an individual level, we all remember and grieve losses in our own way but as long as the end result is the same, countries, and in this case cities, can do the same. Boom! Knowledge bomb.
That night our hostel was hosting a beer tour. We joined, along with our new friend, Kevin, who we befriended on the tour earlier. Quick note about Kevin, he is currently traveling across the globe on his way home from his job... on Antartica.
The tour was so much fun. Steve met his lost brother. He was our guide who being a Canadian and hockey fan was also called by his friends, The Bear. As he began the tour he tempted us all by offering a free mug to the person in the group that takes part in everything and helps the group as a whole have fun. Greg and I met eyes and called it, our one and only Bear, Steve, won and is now lugging around a 1 liter beer mug. A true testiment to Steve being the winner, we walked into the hostel 2 days later and all of a sudden we hear one of the guides from the tour go,"The Bear" as Steve walked by. Local Munich celebrity we got here.
The next day we did one thing you have to do when in Munich, and that is going to the concentration camp, Dachau. Needless to say it was a heavy experience. I have been to holocaust and ww2 museums all over the world but to physically be walking around the same grounds was something new. I liked how our tour guide said the word 'imagine' is an understatment because you can never fully imagine what it was like.
That night after a nap we went to a beer garden for dinner. Beer gardens have the coolest concept. On the same property of a brewery or kennel that holds loads of beer, put a restaurant filled with long tables and hearty food and just let people enjoy. We were sat at a table with a family and were soon greeted by what would become one of my favorite waiters of all time. After asking for english menus he knew we were American and soon after sat 3 girls at our table. "English( pointed to us), english( pointed to he girls), sit sit."
We eventually got to talking and after our 1-liter beers and delicious half chicken with potato salad dinners the group friendship was born. The girls( ugly of course compared to our lovely girlfriends, haha) were studying abroad in Germany for the semester from Union College in New York. The dinner was made better by a great waiter who joked with us and made fun of Greg and I when we only got half liters. After dinner we invited the girls back to our hostel to help us get rid of some free beers we had left over from the beer tour the previous night. Now before you all get suspicious, it should be made aware that throught the course of conversation we all talked about our girlfriends and how awesome they are. We even agreed on our way back that they were only staying for one drink and we were not gonna walk them home, perfect. A fun night ended with us watching episodes of Modern Family on Greg's ipad. Great show.
The next day we went to Olympic Park where the infamous 1972 games were held where terrorists kidnapped and killed the Israeli athletes. Although we did not learn much more in our visit we talked about the movie Munich and the Israeli retaliation. We spent a lot of time in front of a pond playing hackey sack. We got 3 hacks in a row!
That night we were headed to the English Gardens( park with outdoor beer garden that is also home to the famous Chinese Tower). But the forecast called for rain. Instead we went back to the same beer garden as the previous night and met up with the same girls who brought the other 5 girls in their group. It was another fun night made special by a tubba and trumpit player playing the national anthem, because they knew we were American, and we saw our great waiter from the night before. When he and Greg made eye contact, Greg jokingly pointed to the girls then gave him a thumbs up and he loved it. He later came over and laughed about it. He even at one point shooed(sp?) away a guy we were talking to because he thought he was hitting on the girls. Little did he know nothing romantic would come of his accidental match making but the moment was hilarious. After dinner we went and crashed at our hotel for the night.
On our final day, we relaxed for a while and we booked the rest of our hostels. Crazy right? Then as the weather cleared up we walked to the English Gardens, had one more German beer and a snack before getting ready for the night train.
We are now on a boat from Venice to Greece and because of our extension in Munich, a day later then we originally planned. But that's the beauty of this trip. We made it and can change it whenever we want.
We spent a perfect 7ish hours in Venice. The night train here was crappy. Very uncomfortable chairs made it a rough sleep. But we hit a 2nd wind getting to a new city. Took a boat( which is their metro) to San Marco Square and walked back seeing all the major sights. We agreed," we'll come back to Venice one day with our wives."
Leaving Venice by boat was a wonderful experience. I know Steve will be mentioning it too and it's funny because we were both on different parts of the ship at the time. My feeling was a mix between Jack from Titanic's " I'm the king of the world" and Lou Gehrig's "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth." I realize how fortunate I am to to be on this adventure. Not many people have the time or money etc to do this and I appreciate all of this so much.
We just got into Piraeus, Greece and have spent the last 45 minutes calling home as we hadn't talked to anyone for 2 days. The ferry from Venice was an experience. As we got on we saw people claiming floor spots and chairs like it was America in the 1800s claiming land in the mid-west. Sleeping bags and coolers came out as to mark their territory. We were able to snag chairs and slept on the floor with the seat cushions from the chair as a mattress with a short over my eyes because the lights wouldn't turn off. But now we are in our hotel, taking warm showers and each have a bed. Happy days.
Okay, there ya have it. Hope all is well with all of you.
Dave
