Munich! Venice! The Adriatic Sea!!

If you have followed this blog, or any before, you probably have realized that I love to update the blog with my thoughts. It comes as no surprise, then, that many of you have emailed wondering why lately the updates have been few and further in between. I can only tell you, we have been having so much fun it has literally been a struggle to sit down and write! But here we go.

MUNICH

Munich, and the state of Bavaria is like a young person's heaven. The self-proclaimed world capital of beer, a thrilling history, beautiful sights and a vibrant population all combine to create a city that was so hard to leave we extended our stay by 24 hours (read on).

We arrived on Sunday- a week ago- and found a great hostel that was only a few minutes from the Haubtbanhof (main train station). Our hostel had a great bar with really friendly staff and other customers and after stashing our bags we went downstairs for a quick drink. One sip of Berlin's famous "Augustiner" beer and we were hooked.

The following morning was easter Monday, and after a great all-you-can-eat breakfast, we headed out to Munich's main square to participate in a free tour of the city. Our tour guide was Liz, a nice british gal who led us around the city with a hilarious and exciting look into Munich's medieval and more recently, Nazi history. I had heard that the Nazi party had gotten its start as a working-class party in Bavaria but I never knew the details. For instance, Hitler was arrested and held in Munich after holding government officials hostage at a beer hall one day- but his trial was such a joke it was nicknamed the circus. Even though he spent time in prison, it was in his Munich cell that "Mein Kampf" was written and he was released after only 9 months. As he took over the city over the next 10 years, many of the decisions he made in munich carried over to the whole of Germany in the years that followed. It was really, really interesting to see all of this played out in front of us.

After the tour, we decided to participate in another tour of sorts, this one of Munich's greatest achievement- its beer. Munich takes drinking beer to a whole new level. It is like The Olympics of beer drinking. For one thing, the sizes are ridiculous: small is a half-liter, most places serve giant Liters as the norm. Second: instead of packing into tiny dark bars to consume their pride and joy, Munichers have perfected the art of drinking socially in Beer Halls and Beer Gardens. Essentially, these massive areas are full of benches and tables, are always open seating and provide gargantuan mugs of beer as well as manly food like half-chickens and pigs' legs. They are always full of locals who are laughing with friends and family and it is very common to bring your young children along.

Our tour (nicknamed the "Size Matters Beer Tour") took the three of us and about 30 others to a few of the city's most famous drinking establishments while providing us with some history, a lot of beer drinking know-how and a lot of entertainment with our new friends. The leader of the pack was named "The Bear" and as you might imagine, he and Steve were best buds about 4 minutes into the tour. At the end of the trip, Steve (called by everyone "Bear number two") was awarded the prestigious beer-drinking-liter-mug-award for his service and entertainment to the group. I don't think I have ever seen steve so happy as when he was declared the winner after 5 hours of touring Munich's greatest hits. Along the way, we met some great friends: Deep and Om from UTexas, Kevin who was traveling home after working for months in Antarctica, Paulette from Canada, as well as a venerable who's who of characters from all over the world- each of which became crazier and crazier as they started knocking back their liters of beer.


The next day, Tuesday was- forgive the pun- a much sobering experience. We decided to head out to Dakau, the Nazi's first concentration camp and the only one that lasted the entire length of the war. None of us had ever been to a concentration camp before, and I can tell you that it was a sad and moving tour through the depths of history. It brought the holocaust to a level I did not think possible, while still reminding me that I could never even begin to imagine the conditions that so many people faced only a few years ago. The tour took us through the old gates of the camp, the old headquarters, barracks as well as the crematorium and gas chambers. Nothing I can say can describe being there, and being there only scratches the surface of such a terrible history. To me, being there- however painful it is- reminds the world that this was a very real chapter of history that can never be forgotten. Being there honors the millions who died.

On that subject, Munich as a city decides to remember the years of nazi leadership with a much quieter strategy than their brothers and sisters in Berlin. While it's nearly impossible to miss the history while in Berlin with their huge memorials every city block, Munich quietly leaves clues around to validate their history. While I appreciated both strategies, I worry that as the years pass, the meanings of such small memorials in Munich will be forgotten. It is up to its citizens and governments to make sure this is never the case.

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That night, we decided to head down the street to another of Berlin's most famous beer halls, where we had an incredible experience. After sitting down next to a nice german family, we started examining the menu. A few minutes later, three English-speaking girls were walking by, looking for a seat. The hilarious German waiter, realizing that there were three English-speaking males only a few feet away from these three English-speaking ladies could not help himself. He grabbed them and ushered them towards us, banging on our table to get us to scooch down to accommodate them. As he had a laugh at the potentially awkward situation he had just created, the 6 of us got to talking. Becca, Brianne, and Nicole were sophomores from Union College in New York State, on a 2-month study abroad program in Germany. Like us, they were in transit in Munich, stopping for a few days before moving on to a new city (for them, Berlin).

Over the next 2 hours we shared great food, amazing beer and even better conversation. As all 6 of us were in relationships back home, the pressure was off and before we knew it, they were heading back to our hostel-bar with us to take advantage of the free beer tickets we had racked up the night before. We exchanged emails and said goodnight and just laughed at how a seemingly random event had given us such an entertaining night.


The next day, Wednesday, was to be our last in Munich. Having so much fun, we decided to extend our stay by 24 hours and leave for Venice on the night train Thursday night instead. For the day, we headed out on the Subway ("S-Bahn") to Munich's grand Olympic park, the host of two games and the infamous massacre of israeli athletes in 1972. The park was amazingly beautiful with the famous Olympic stadium built into the landscape in a unique top-down design. We moseyed around, enjoying the sights and playing hackie sack on the banks of the huge lake that dominates the park. After, we headed to BMW World Headquarters where we acted like little boys, walking among the shiny cars, imagining what it would be like to speed down the Autobahn in one.

When we returned to our hostel, we decided to meet up with our friends from the night before, who were planning on going to the same place we had met them at. We agreed on a meeting time and headed out there. When we finally saw them later, they had brought their entire study-abroad program- like 8 additional girls- to the beer hall. We sat down with them, laughed about the randomness of it all and then had another great dinner and drinks. We ran into our waiter from the day, who was proud to see that he had set up three American boys with like 10 other girls. As the night went on he got us drinks and even posed for pictures with us. A German tuba band even made an appearance and, after hearing that we were Americans, they did a rousing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner that made me laugh so hard for about 5 minutes straight. You literally cannot make this stuff up. It was a great night. We were sorry to see our new friends go- but such is traveling; cool people come into your life so quickly and so intensely and then vanish in the same way. It always reminds me that there are so many people out in the world to go and befriend. It shouldn't take the audacity of a German waiter to meet some of them, but it doesn't hurt when it does.


Our last day in Munich there was no availability in our hostel, so we had headed down the street to The Courtyard where 'Ma and 'Pa Lessans treated us to a great night of western-style accommodation. After sleeping in all morning long, we had an amazing breakfast and then took our time getting moving while we booked hostels for the remainder of the trip.

Finally, in the afternoon we went to the English Gardens, the largest Municipal park in the world and relaxed all day. After a great nap on the grass and a great afternoon of people-watching we headed back. Before we knew it we were saying goodbye to Munich and off on a night train to Venice, Italy.



VENICE

after a mostly sleepless night in a train compartment, we arrived at 6:30 or so to the famous canal city of Venice.

Venice was incredible. There is literally one road in and out and then all canals. To get around, you hop on city boats that motor down the canals like busses on a freeway. In the morning, hundreds of small delivery boats flew by dropping off products everywhere. Unfortunately, since everything- everything- is delivered via boat and then hand-trucked to its destination, prices are through-the-roof. As 3 budget travelers, staying in Venice for more than a few hours would have broken the bank, but being there that long was an experience in itself.

We followed Rick Steve's self-guided tour down the grand canal as we got a crash course in venetian history and architecture. We continued all the way down to the famed St. Mark's square with its equally famous pigeons who are so severely domesticated that they land on you without thinking twice. We met a nice American couple who were traveling with their kids (who, having brought bread crumbs for the birds, were being mauled by about 35 hungry pigeons).

We walked about, paid the outrageous €1.50 to use the toilet (to get the full venetian experience), and walked all the way back to the north of the island, winding through the tiny back streets and crossing over the canals.

Venice is unlike any other place in the world- it just takes your breath away. I can't wait to return one day when I have much more moolah :-)


FERRY TO GREECE

We departed Venice 8 hours after arriving on a Minoan Lines ferry that would take us all the way to the West coast of Greece after a 30 hour transit. This mammoth crossing was included in our Eurail pass, so we were not quick to complain. We tied down some airplane-like seats on the 7th deck and just relaxed for 2 days. On the way, we passed islands all around the Adriatic Sea. It was beautiful.

I was very happy to be back on the water, and I couldn't contain the thousands of SAS memories that bubbled to the surface. I really enjoyed it :-)

Saturday night at 8pm, we arrived to the port city of Patras, Greece on the west coast of the country- and our greek adventure began. But that will have to wait for another blog...

Currently, as I write this we are on another ferry- this one from Athens to the island of Santorini. I have heard so many good things about Santorini and I can't wait to arrive (even though our arrival is set for 4:45 in the morning, haha). As I wrote this blog I kept taking breaks to go out to the outside promenade on the side of the ship to just watch the waves roll by. Back on Semester at Sea, I used to love going out on the promenades at night to just look at all the darkness, and I love it out here just the same. There is something so liberating about being out in the middle of the ocean- I'm hooked.

Can't wait to update you again in a few days.

Talk soon, thanks for reading,

Greg






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