Our last full day in the city was the only one that we had real sightseeing plans and they mainly involved a walking tour of the city at 2:30. Until then, we just walked around and had coffee and waffles. We had actually managed to see most of the main sights around Brussels by ourselves already but really wanted to take the tour to learn the history of what we had been admiring from afar for the past few days. Before the tour we bought more chocolate (shock!) and actually found a new part of town that we hadn't walked in yet. It seemed like a more affluent area with lots of high end artifact stores (the city seemed overly found of African carvings, Asian bowls and any stuffed game animal) chocolatiers and flower shops. We walked though an antique market that was full of all the aforementioned interesting collectors items plus china dishes, clocks, a horse skeleton, two replicas of "David", a zebra skin, and chandeliers galore.
The walking tour came around and of course, it started raining harder than it had all day. The next four hours (four hours! It was such a long time.) we're spent listening to n interesting man talk about Brussels and how it became a country, beer, chocolate, French fries, wars, and lots of important guys named Leopold. At 6:30, we were exhausted, thoroughly damp and chilled to the bone, so we ran into the first restaurant we saw with two girls we met on the tour for a traditional Belgian meal and Belgian beer. The meal was meatballs with apple syrup sauce and the beer was something I can't pronounce but very tasty (not as good as German beer though. German beer will be hard to top I think). Katlin had a beer called Kriek, a cherry beer that is a class all it's own for good reason, since it tasted like a bit of cherry heaven. After dinner, waffles followed (of course) and we eventually said goodbye to our new friends, although they are both going to be in Amsterdam when we are going to be, so we hope to meet up with them again. Brussels may not have made it quite to the top of the list as a city with Prague, Florence and Barcelona but it definitely has some parts that have made it to my "best of" list, like best food that wasn't a real meal (chocolate, waffles, French fries) and best city square (the grand place, where the flower carpet happens every few years, is a open square surrounded by gilded buildings and grand halls, coffee and waffle shops, museums and city buildings). Brussels certainly gets a thumbs up (mostly a sincere thumbs up, but sometimes, like when we finally found the little peeing man, it was a sarcastic thumbs up) from me!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Easter in Brussels
After spreading all of my bag out in the hotel room (and not caring about it because we don't have roommates!) we ventured out for the city center without any real plans in mind accept to find a waffle. We managed to make it down to what seemed like the main part of town, and eventually found a waffle stand where we got a waffle with hot chocolate sauce on it! There was a chocolate shop next to the waffle stand (we had no idea at this point how many chocolate shops there were in Brussels) do of course we had to go in. The next few hours are blur of streets, markets, chocolate shops (every shop gives you free samples...did I mention that?) and french fry stands. When we felt like we had covered enough ground to justify going home, we went back to the hotel to relax before deciding what to do for dinner.
Turns out we didn't want to venture far from our hotel room (I'm ashamed how much I enjoyed laying on a bed in front of a tv for a while) so we went across the street to a grocery market thing where we got salami, cheese, a loaf of bread, chips, waffles, the most delicious spread in the world called speculous spread (like spice cookies all mashed up in a peanut butter consistency. It would make week old stale bread wonderful), and a coke. We gathered our supplies and had a picnic on the floor of the room while watching some American show that had been dubbed over in French and went to bed happy campers at 11.
The next morning was Easter Sunday and so we wanted to get out and attend a service at one of the churched in town. It was such a wonderful way to spend the morning and even though the service was in French and Dutch, it was still comforting and calming. The only word in English the whole time were "Christ has risen" and "happy Easter " but those are about all you need I suppose. My favorite part was when you turn and greet your neighbor. It was a joyful few minutes, turning this way and that to say hello and shake hands with everyone around us, all strangers of different languages but united by the place we were in and the holiday we were celebrating.
After service, we wandered around some more in search of the famous Mannekin Pis, the small statue of a peeing boy. At the time, we didn't know why he was famous but we knew we should probably find him and see what the fuss was all about. Turns out, the fuss is over nothing. The boy is about a meter tall and its just on a corner in a touristy neighborhood. A national landmark? Maybe. Interesting? No so much. We aimed to soothe our disappointment in chocolate and it was precisely what we did. It may say a lot about what I really associate with Easter, but the chocolate stores smelled just like Easter, even at home. It was uncanny. The chocolate tasted a hundred times better though. They say it's from the fact that they only melt the coco butter and chocolate once but whatever it is, the Belgians do it right. Dark, milk, white. Mixed with nuts, carmel, cookies, fruit. Pralines, truffles, Squares. In the shape of bunnies, chicks, eggs. If its Belgian, I will eat it. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Bags of chocolate in hand, we went out to find another Belgian tressure: french fries. It sounds strange, but the French fry was invented here and then in the first world war when Americans were here and first tasted the snack, they were mostly sold by frenchmen in Belgium, ergo, the "French" fry. Here they are special because they are still fried in animal fat and fried twice! The first time is at some lower temperature and then renee you order them, they fry them again to make them extra crispy and addicting. They serve them in a paper cone if you are taking them to go, or in a paper boat with a teeny tiny fork if you are eating at the stand. The cherry on top is actually the sauce. Normal ketchup will just not do, so there are about 8 different options, all mayonnaise based. We ask for a recommendation and got the "kind of spicy" one and it was scrumptious. After more sightseeing (or looking at the outside of things since most places we closed) we went back to the hotel and again settled in for a picnic and a little bit of tv watching (BBC nature documentaries mostly) before another great night of warm, soft, uninterrupted sleep.
Turns out we didn't want to venture far from our hotel room (I'm ashamed how much I enjoyed laying on a bed in front of a tv for a while) so we went across the street to a grocery market thing where we got salami, cheese, a loaf of bread, chips, waffles, the most delicious spread in the world called speculous spread (like spice cookies all mashed up in a peanut butter consistency. It would make week old stale bread wonderful), and a coke. We gathered our supplies and had a picnic on the floor of the room while watching some American show that had been dubbed over in French and went to bed happy campers at 11.
The next morning was Easter Sunday and so we wanted to get out and attend a service at one of the churched in town. It was such a wonderful way to spend the morning and even though the service was in French and Dutch, it was still comforting and calming. The only word in English the whole time were "Christ has risen" and "happy Easter " but those are about all you need I suppose. My favorite part was when you turn and greet your neighbor. It was a joyful few minutes, turning this way and that to say hello and shake hands with everyone around us, all strangers of different languages but united by the place we were in and the holiday we were celebrating.
After service, we wandered around some more in search of the famous Mannekin Pis, the small statue of a peeing boy. At the time, we didn't know why he was famous but we knew we should probably find him and see what the fuss was all about. Turns out, the fuss is over nothing. The boy is about a meter tall and its just on a corner in a touristy neighborhood. A national landmark? Maybe. Interesting? No so much. We aimed to soothe our disappointment in chocolate and it was precisely what we did. It may say a lot about what I really associate with Easter, but the chocolate stores smelled just like Easter, even at home. It was uncanny. The chocolate tasted a hundred times better though. They say it's from the fact that they only melt the coco butter and chocolate once but whatever it is, the Belgians do it right. Dark, milk, white. Mixed with nuts, carmel, cookies, fruit. Pralines, truffles, Squares. In the shape of bunnies, chicks, eggs. If its Belgian, I will eat it. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Bags of chocolate in hand, we went out to find another Belgian tressure: french fries. It sounds strange, but the French fry was invented here and then in the first world war when Americans were here and first tasted the snack, they were mostly sold by frenchmen in Belgium, ergo, the "French" fry. Here they are special because they are still fried in animal fat and fried twice! The first time is at some lower temperature and then renee you order them, they fry them again to make them extra crispy and addicting. They serve them in a paper cone if you are taking them to go, or in a paper boat with a teeny tiny fork if you are eating at the stand. The cherry on top is actually the sauce. Normal ketchup will just not do, so there are about 8 different options, all mayonnaise based. We ask for a recommendation and got the "kind of spicy" one and it was scrumptious. After more sightseeing (or looking at the outside of things since most places we closed) we went back to the hotel and again settled in for a picnic and a little bit of tv watching (BBC nature documentaries mostly) before another great night of warm, soft, uninterrupted sleep.
Almost
After we got back from Dachau, we were exhausted and didn't want to do much of anything, but we still needed to pick up a few things in town before heading back to the hostel. Turns out, everything in Munich closes for Easter. Everything. Most restaurants, all the little shops that have great German made things, clothing stores, even the McDonald's. All closed. So we were a little concerned and off put because we couldn't get the things that we had planned on buying and we were worried that nothing would be open for dinner. We headed back to the hostel and decided to put a load of laundry in the smaller washer we had ever seen and catch up on emails and whatnot. After the wash was done and we put it in the smallest dryer ever (seriously, this is a hostel with probably 300 people in it and the washer/dryer was the size of a 5 gallon bucket. Poor planning!) and ran out to get some dinner (a "kebab", which is actually a sandwich made from meat that they shave off of a huge chunk rotating on a stick. Weird but so very tasty). Not wanting to be terribly anti social, we down in the common area to eat and met three girls that had just gotten into town. We exchanged our life stories in about half and hour before they needed to go to dinner, so we suggested Augustiners and we ended up deciding to go with them to get a beer and hang out.
Here is the first "almost" of the next twenty four hours. Since it was raining, we had to run upstairs to get our jackets and on the way up, I happened to remember our laundry that had finished drying about fifteen minutes ago. We grabbed it, spread it on the bed to finish drying (shocker...the small dryer wasn't good at drying clothes!) and had a good laugh. What if we had left the next morning without all of our socks and underwear? Haha!
After a beer and more pretzels, we said our goodbyes and went back to pack since we had a 6:45am train to catch to Brussels. Skip to 6:00 the next morning and me groggily waking up, checking my watch, checking it again, counting the place where the six hand should be and finally realizing that it really was 6:00 and that I should probably wake Katlin. I leaned over my top bunk into hers and we had this conversation.
J: Katlin...Katlin..psstt...Katlin!
K: Whatt?
J: what time is it? (you see, I was really paranoid that I was so sleepy I was unable to read time and it was really like 4:00or something and I says panicking for nothing)
K: 6:00.
J: isn't our train at 6:45?
K: yes Jordan, it is.
J:but its 6:00 now?
K: yes. Oh..oh! Crap!
Que frantic last packing, and running downstairs to turn in keys, and more sprinting through the streets the three block to the station. ( We had guys out in the street that we're cheering us on!) we get to the station and our train is not on the big board of departures. It's now 6:18. More frantic running to find a info stations. We find one, ask the guy why our train isn't up there and he says we have to board one that is going to Frankfurt, then transfer. Ok, we say, what train it that? He says, well there is one leaving from platform 2 at 6:22. We look down at our watch...it was literally 6:21. We (again) sprint t o the train and jump on as the conductor is blowing his whistle and the doors shut about 10 seconds after our bags clear the threshold. (two things about trains. Yes, a conductor really does blow a whistle before the doors close and they leave exactly when they says they are going to, not a minute later).
Great, we think! We made it! We have a great laugh about the morning that we have had, one of those laughs that is only possible because you are where you need to be. Its only funny because we made the train after having an alarm clock mishap! Haha! Yay for us! We almost didn't make it! W assay a quick thanks to the travel gods and settle in for the next six hours on a train, thankful that the way to the hotel in Brussels is just a hop on the metro.
Skip to getting off the train in Brussels and heading to the metro gate. We find it, but strange thing is, the metal door is pulled down and there is a line of police offers blocking it. I immediately just know, there is a strike going on. A strike! What luck we have! The whole public transportation system is on strike after a workers death that morning. We shake it off and go to an info station to find about other options, which there are none. A taxi it is then! We go outside to hail one, but they are all full. We walk around to where they are coming from and there is a line about thirty people deep, waiting for taxis, in the cold drizzly rain. Oh joy. We eventually get in a taxi and make it to our hotel, but the ride was not a comfortable one (the idea of a taxi in general make me nervous...you don't know where you are, where you are going, in this case we don't really speak the same language. Not a fun situation).
Anyways, it was a travel day from hell. But, we can look at it now and laugh because we made it safe and sound to our hotel (an elevator! Comfy beds! Doors that lock! A shower without shower shoes! A real pillow!). That hole day again reinforced that we are actually great travelers and that we have learned to adapt more than I thought we ever would. It also should be said that we got through that whole day with not one short word with each other, even though it was the most stressful day that we have she yet. Huzzah!
Here is the first "almost" of the next twenty four hours. Since it was raining, we had to run upstairs to get our jackets and on the way up, I happened to remember our laundry that had finished drying about fifteen minutes ago. We grabbed it, spread it on the bed to finish drying (shocker...the small dryer wasn't good at drying clothes!) and had a good laugh. What if we had left the next morning without all of our socks and underwear? Haha!
After a beer and more pretzels, we said our goodbyes and went back to pack since we had a 6:45am train to catch to Brussels. Skip to 6:00 the next morning and me groggily waking up, checking my watch, checking it again, counting the place where the six hand should be and finally realizing that it really was 6:00 and that I should probably wake Katlin. I leaned over my top bunk into hers and we had this conversation.
J: Katlin...Katlin..psstt...Katlin!
K: Whatt?
J: what time is it? (you see, I was really paranoid that I was so sleepy I was unable to read time and it was really like 4:00or something and I says panicking for nothing)
K: 6:00.
J: isn't our train at 6:45?
K: yes Jordan, it is.
J:but its 6:00 now?
K: yes. Oh..oh! Crap!
Que frantic last packing, and running downstairs to turn in keys, and more sprinting through the streets the three block to the station. ( We had guys out in the street that we're cheering us on!) we get to the station and our train is not on the big board of departures. It's now 6:18. More frantic running to find a info stations. We find one, ask the guy why our train isn't up there and he says we have to board one that is going to Frankfurt, then transfer. Ok, we say, what train it that? He says, well there is one leaving from platform 2 at 6:22. We look down at our watch...it was literally 6:21. We (again) sprint t o the train and jump on as the conductor is blowing his whistle and the doors shut about 10 seconds after our bags clear the threshold. (two things about trains. Yes, a conductor really does blow a whistle before the doors close and they leave exactly when they says they are going to, not a minute later).
Great, we think! We made it! We have a great laugh about the morning that we have had, one of those laughs that is only possible because you are where you need to be. Its only funny because we made the train after having an alarm clock mishap! Haha! Yay for us! We almost didn't make it! W assay a quick thanks to the travel gods and settle in for the next six hours on a train, thankful that the way to the hotel in Brussels is just a hop on the metro.
Skip to getting off the train in Brussels and heading to the metro gate. We find it, but strange thing is, the metal door is pulled down and there is a line of police offers blocking it. I immediately just know, there is a strike going on. A strike! What luck we have! The whole public transportation system is on strike after a workers death that morning. We shake it off and go to an info station to find about other options, which there are none. A taxi it is then! We go outside to hail one, but they are all full. We walk around to where they are coming from and there is a line about thirty people deep, waiting for taxis, in the cold drizzly rain. Oh joy. We eventually get in a taxi and make it to our hotel, but the ride was not a comfortable one (the idea of a taxi in general make me nervous...you don't know where you are, where you are going, in this case we don't really speak the same language. Not a fun situation).
Anyways, it was a travel day from hell. But, we can look at it now and laugh because we made it safe and sound to our hotel (an elevator! Comfy beds! Doors that lock! A shower without shower shoes! A real pillow!). That hole day again reinforced that we are actually great travelers and that we have learned to adapt more than I thought we ever would. It also should be said that we got through that whole day with not one short word with each other, even though it was the most stressful day that we have she yet. Huzzah!
Dachau
One of our reasons for switching from Berlin to Munich was the proximity to Dachau, the first concentration camp that was put into use by the nazis in 1933. We felt like it was something that we had a duty to go see while we were here, and espcaially after tourning the city and seeing the places that Hitler and the SS staged speechs or forced citizens to salute to his riegn, we wanted to travel the path that the history of Munich and countless Cather cities followed. After some debate, we decided to head out by ourselves instead of with a tour group since it was a pretty straightforward trip out there and we could take a guided tour with the staff there without fear of being rushed back by the tour guide. With that decided, we planned to go out by train to transfer to a bus to get to the remains of the camp that have been preserved and transformed into memorial site and museum. The disire to go out is hard to describe, because we knew what we would see and we were by no means looking forward to it, but we owe it to those who suffered to learn about the past as much as we can to insure that it never happens again.
So we woke up to an appropriately cold and rainy morning and made the hour journey to the now suburb city of Dachau. After registering for the guided tour, we leafed through the bookstore and read snips of the histories of those who left behind diaries in the camps or while hiding in attics, or of those who were liberated and wrote memoirs of their experiences. The tour was to go around the grounds, into the administration building now museum, the reconstructed barracks and the crematorium and give us information about the history of concentration camps in general, Dachau, Hitler's rise to power and of the lives of the people that were imprisoned there I've the 12 years that it was in use.
I think I'm still processing what we saw and learned yesterday. I went in thinking it was a place that was predominately Populated by Jews, but that wasn't the case in Dachau. Because it was the first camp to be built and used, it mostly held prisoners that opposed the SS for political or religious reasons or those that were deemed socially unexceptable by Hitler (the homeless, the social outcasts, the physically or mentally disabled). I had never viewed the camps as prisons either, but that is what they were. There may not have been bars on every door but they were trapped, oppressed, beaten and tourchered bySS officers and even sometimes fellow prisoners. The information given by our guide and in the museum was terrible. Unbelievable. Unfathomable. Overwhelming. Painful. To imagine what those sent to Dachau experience, to walk though the blocks that they were held in, stand under the places where they were hung and beaten, see the fence that some ran to, just to end their suffering, it's impossible. And to think that Dachau was a concentration camp, not a death camp or extermination camp as others were, to know that what happened here was multiplied by thousand elsewhere, it's depressing. You just get lost in the darkness. Going there was a painful necessity though. To go is to admit that it happened, to acknowledge that evil exists and sometimes it is found in another human being, capable of murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people for a senseless cause. To see and learn is to honor the memory of those we lost. It's to honor the dead and remind the living. To trace how it happened to see that what we do shapes the future for us and the history for the generations that come after us. The memorial says it best:
"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 and 1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect of their fellow man."
So we woke up to an appropriately cold and rainy morning and made the hour journey to the now suburb city of Dachau. After registering for the guided tour, we leafed through the bookstore and read snips of the histories of those who left behind diaries in the camps or while hiding in attics, or of those who were liberated and wrote memoirs of their experiences. The tour was to go around the grounds, into the administration building now museum, the reconstructed barracks and the crematorium and give us information about the history of concentration camps in general, Dachau, Hitler's rise to power and of the lives of the people that were imprisoned there I've the 12 years that it was in use.
I think I'm still processing what we saw and learned yesterday. I went in thinking it was a place that was predominately Populated by Jews, but that wasn't the case in Dachau. Because it was the first camp to be built and used, it mostly held prisoners that opposed the SS for political or religious reasons or those that were deemed socially unexceptable by Hitler (the homeless, the social outcasts, the physically or mentally disabled). I had never viewed the camps as prisons either, but that is what they were. There may not have been bars on every door but they were trapped, oppressed, beaten and tourchered bySS officers and even sometimes fellow prisoners. The information given by our guide and in the museum was terrible. Unbelievable. Unfathomable. Overwhelming. Painful. To imagine what those sent to Dachau experience, to walk though the blocks that they were held in, stand under the places where they were hung and beaten, see the fence that some ran to, just to end their suffering, it's impossible. And to think that Dachau was a concentration camp, not a death camp or extermination camp as others were, to know that what happened here was multiplied by thousand elsewhere, it's depressing. You just get lost in the darkness. Going there was a painful necessity though. To go is to admit that it happened, to acknowledge that evil exists and sometimes it is found in another human being, capable of murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people for a senseless cause. To see and learn is to honor the memory of those we lost. It's to honor the dead and remind the living. To trace how it happened to see that what we do shapes the future for us and the history for the generations that come after us. The memorial says it best:
"May the example of those who were exterminated here between 1933 and 1945 because they resisted Nazism help to unite the living for the defense of peace and freedom and in respect of their fellow man."
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Munich!
After getting and being pleasantly surprised at how close our hostel was from the train station (a whopping three blocks, tops) we dropped our bags off, ran into Jimma and Teri (the Australian sisters) and met with Alex and Scott to get me jacket back, and finally ventured out into the city to grab a bite to eat. On the recommendation of the hostel staff for a good beer hall, we walked to a place called Augustine's that has been brewing beer and serving bavarian deliciousness since 1381. If you have never been in a beer hall, let me break it down for you, it is one of the most intimidating places that I've ever walked in because there are literally rows and rows of wooden tables in a large room with traditionally dressed waitstaff running around with a minimum of 4 half liter beer glasses in hand at all times. We had no idea what to do so we found a waiter and conveyed that we wanted food and he showed us to our own small table in a back room where we saw the most heavenly sight....baskets of fresh, salty pretzels! I ordered honestly the tastiest beer that I've ever had to go along with my meatballs and potato salad (and by meatballs they mean small burger sized patties of melt in your mouth meat and by potato salad they mean potatoes and cucumbers mixed up in the strangest and most perfect way ever). Eventually we got sat with a group of people in an EF tour like the ones we first came abroad with, so that was a fun little coincidence since we are now abroad on our own, exploring without the help of Mr and Mrs Knape.
After dinner we went back and explored the hostel bar but went to bed to get a good nights sleep so we could be ready to take on the site the next day. We've decided that if it possible, we should always take a guided walking tour the first day that we are in a place to get our bearing, so that was the first order of business on Thursday. We went with the New Europe free tours again and guess who showed up? Alex and Scott, of course. The tour was great and took us all around the city while learning about the history of Bavaria, the nazi party and the third reich and the rich history of German beer making. After the tour, pour guide so kindly led us to a favorite beer hall of his where we had a beer that was described as "fireworks in your mouth" ( he said that first, but it was actually on the menu as the description haha) and lunch of tasty meat and potato pancakes.
Our bellies full and satisfied, we walked around the local market that had all minds of veggies, sweets, breads and Easter decorations in it before going back to the hostel to relax, close our eyes for a minute and prepare our stomachs for more beer and food later. You may have noticed that a solid portion of this blog and of our days are situated around food, and you would be right! The food in all the difference countries has been a great way to get into the culture a little more and it's been so fun to ask recommendations forum locals in where to go and what to get. To our giddy surprise, even though we eat a lot of heavy food (especially in the last three countries where its been meat and potatoes) and a lot of it, we never feel like disgusting full feeling like I do in the states. We think it's because the food, while not necessarily healthier calorie wise, is far fresher and less processed than what we get in the states. Likewise, the wine doesn't give me a headache because there is (in general) less sulfates and I actually enjoy drinking a beer with dinner, which doesn't ever really happen at home.
Anyways, we went back to Augustine's to drink a liter of beer (think glass mug the size of my head or half a two liter bottle of soda...its a little bit of a rite of passage here) and split a plate of sausages since we were still full from lunch. Then we returned to the hostel, played a little pool with some new hostel friends (a boy from Texas studying in Belgium and another guy traveling from Chile) and had another beer at a smaller pub around the corner. All in all, it was a really good day for Munich! We wished we had more time in the city because the next day we had dedicated to spending at Dachau, the concentration camp outside of town. It was also raining, but it did not dampen our day nearly as much as it has in other cities sometimes. We just wished it had been slightly nicer so we could have enjoyed the gardens and the the river surfing that Munich has to offer. It's just yet another place that we out on the list to come back to!
After dinner we went back and explored the hostel bar but went to bed to get a good nights sleep so we could be ready to take on the site the next day. We've decided that if it possible, we should always take a guided walking tour the first day that we are in a place to get our bearing, so that was the first order of business on Thursday. We went with the New Europe free tours again and guess who showed up? Alex and Scott, of course. The tour was great and took us all around the city while learning about the history of Bavaria, the nazi party and the third reich and the rich history of German beer making. After the tour, pour guide so kindly led us to a favorite beer hall of his where we had a beer that was described as "fireworks in your mouth" ( he said that first, but it was actually on the menu as the description haha) and lunch of tasty meat and potato pancakes.
Our bellies full and satisfied, we walked around the local market that had all minds of veggies, sweets, breads and Easter decorations in it before going back to the hostel to relax, close our eyes for a minute and prepare our stomachs for more beer and food later. You may have noticed that a solid portion of this blog and of our days are situated around food, and you would be right! The food in all the difference countries has been a great way to get into the culture a little more and it's been so fun to ask recommendations forum locals in where to go and what to get. To our giddy surprise, even though we eat a lot of heavy food (especially in the last three countries where its been meat and potatoes) and a lot of it, we never feel like disgusting full feeling like I do in the states. We think it's because the food, while not necessarily healthier calorie wise, is far fresher and less processed than what we get in the states. Likewise, the wine doesn't give me a headache because there is (in general) less sulfates and I actually enjoy drinking a beer with dinner, which doesn't ever really happen at home.
Anyways, we went back to Augustine's to drink a liter of beer (think glass mug the size of my head or half a two liter bottle of soda...its a little bit of a rite of passage here) and split a plate of sausages since we were still full from lunch. Then we returned to the hostel, played a little pool with some new hostel friends (a boy from Texas studying in Belgium and another guy traveling from Chile) and had another beer at a smaller pub around the corner. All in all, it was a really good day for Munich! We wished we had more time in the city because the next day we had dedicated to spending at Dachau, the concentration camp outside of town. It was also raining, but it did not dampen our day nearly as much as it has in other cities sometimes. We just wished it had been slightly nicer so we could have enjoyed the gardens and the the river surfing that Munich has to offer. It's just yet another place that we out on the list to come back to!
Coincidence?
Before I get into Munich though...you know that age old saying "it's a small world"? Turns out thats true, even in Europe. Yesterday alone, we ran into three different groups of people that we met in three different cities in the past two weeks. Crazy! The first was on the train from Prague to Munich: as we were getting on the train and trying to figure our where to sit, a couple that we met on the train from Vienna to Prague saw us and came to say hi. They are our parents age, from the midwest and are traveling around for a bit after the guy had a conference in Prague. They were great train company on the way over and we were happy to see them again.
The second was a planned meeting, but still random: a few days ago I got an email from the hostel we stayed at in Vienna saying that one if the guys in our room had accidentally taken my rain jacket and wanted to get in touch with me to return it, so I email him and incredibly we were planning on arriving in Munich the same afternoon and staying in neighboring hostels (you also have to remember that we changed our plans from Berlin to Munich two days before we got there). So nice they got in by train they swung by to give my jacket back, which was so nice to have since it rained in Munich (honestly I hadn't really noticed it missing before he emailed me, it had be so nice in Prague!). The third run in was with two sisters that we met in Rome who are traveling around together: they were checking out of our hostel in Munich as we were checking in. Its too bad because they were quite funny (they are from Australia and as a general rule, we've found Australians to be hilarious) and we would have loved to hang out in Munich with them.
Anyways, we thought that all of that was worth mentioning. But really, how strange is it that we managed to see all of them within one afternoon? I would say the chances are pretty slim, especially since we weren't going to even be there in the first place. Honestly, it made us feel pretty well connected and popular in a silly way. We managed to meet three very different pairs of people that all liked us enough to either go out of their way to just say hi or do me a favor (did I mention Munich was about 48 and rainy? Brrrr. I don't know what I would have done without that jacket!) and the other pair was genuinely sorry to be leaving, just as we were sorry to see them go. It's like that awkward middle school feeling where you realize that people actually want to be your friend and that you fit in!
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Since I can't make pictures work...
Despite my best intentions, I still can't make pictures pop up on this blog. I can give you this link though, which is to my YouTube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/JordanZentmeyer?feature=mhee
Recently I started taking a few short videos of neat places and things that we see, so hopefully these will tide you over until I can show you the ridiculous number of pictures that I've been taking!
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