Das Bier ist lecker in Munchen!

On Monday I traveled to Munchen to visit a friend from my childhood. It was a fantastic trip! We did not make any major tourist mistakes, get in trouble with the law, or end up in a disgusting hostel. We made a great team with her knowledge of Europe and my basic understanding of the German language. 

I took a two and a half hour bus ride from Stuttgart to arrive at the ZOB bus station in Munich. As soon as I walked to our Smart Stay Hostel, I was reunited with Sam and our adventures began. At the hostel we were in an all-girl room with 6 beds and the place was pretty clean. We locked our belongings and headed to Munich City Center or Marienplatz. Since the weather was decent and the skies somewhat clear we headed up to the viewing tower of St. Peter's Church. The view was worth the 1 Euro and a half charge and the climbing of hundreds of stairs. The stairway was super narrow and the stairs were made of crumbling brick and wood. Only one person at a time could fit in the stairway so you had to work as a team with everyone else trying to go up and down the stairs. Since language was a barrier (we heard German, English, Chinese, and French) you communicated with the people on the landings with a combination of smiles, grunts, and hand gestures to determine when it was your turn.

After walking around the Marienplatz for awhile we headed to the famous Hofbrauhaus for some dinner and beer. Unfortunately we did not see the main entrance to the hall since it was covered with scaffolding so we ended up eating in the nice dining room. Same food and beer but definitely a different atmosphere (we were the youngest in the room by about 30 years and everyone was eating quietly). We found the main hall after we finished our dinner. They should really put signs in English or put the separate entrances together. I guess we did make one tourist mistake...

The following morning we had breakfast on our way to Marienplatz again and explored the Rathaus, the New Town Hall, even though the building looks as old as ever. We waited with our free tour group to listen to the second most over-rated tourist attraction in the world...the Glockenspiel. For 15 minutes, bells that are out of tune chime as figurines slowly move in a circle around the clock. The stories and history behind the display were very interesting but I was very cold. We then walked for three hours learning about the history of Munich from a great guide with Sandmans NewEurope Tours. I definitely recommend the free walking tours of cities in Europe. We saw and learned a lot!

I have tons of pictures and facts on the architecture of Munchen so if you are interested let me know, but it is an overwhelming amount of info to share in my blog and I want to keep this fun and interesting.

It began snowing Tuesday afternoon pretty heavily so we headed back to our hostel with the intention of resting and then heading out for a night in the bar scene at Kultfabrik. We actually ended up going to a nice relaxing dinner with two other American girls from our room and then calling it a night. The city accumulated about five inches of snow that night so it was probably a good call.