Tuesday, February 8, 2011

18. Munchen

So it's been like forever since i've updated and that's for two reasons. 1) turns out blogging isn't as fun as i thought it would be. i mean i don't hate it but it definitely takes effort; and 2) i'm really lazy. So that is why I am updating you on my weekend in Munich on the Wednesday after. Oh well.

So.... Thursday after class Hailey and I took the train to London Gatwick Airport. it's not a bad train ride but it always makes us really sleepy! We ate dinner at the airport then headed to our hotel, the Europa Gatwick Hotel. It was pretty nice for a cheap rate and had the cutest old man at the front desk. He looked like Mr. Magoo and he just got a kick out of giving us a hard time. He kept saying we didnt have reservations, perhaps we were at the wrong hotel, that the shuttle bus didn't take us to the airport, etc. He was a doll and even guessed that we were from Dallas, which obviously we're not, but it was a very close guess! We're supposed to get on some Venture website for our future travel needs and in return we didn't have to pay to ride the shuttle to the airport, which did come by the way, and did leav at 4:15 in the am. We got to the airport and left for Munich at 6:15. We arrived in Munich and had walked around the airport waiting for hailey's parents' flight when she realized she left her notebook and her book on the airplane. The book is something you could replace but the notebook had allllll of her notes from all of our classes (and we had a final in like 4 days) and her letter from the university that you have to present to Customs officials. So she went on a hunt for lost and found and it was just the biggest hassle, but luckily she got them back. Oh and i was able to take my huge hair spray in my carry-on, which is soo against travel policy, but i felt it was a small victory since i had not brought shampoo, conditioner, lotion, ANYTHINg with me.

So we find Hailey's parents and head to our hotel. We ran into a guy who will be starting school in the fall so we enlightened him and approved of his schedule and chattered awhile till we went to dinner.

We went to the Hofbrauhaus, a huge touristy place with amazing food and biers. Hailey and I shared some sausages and sauerkraut and marinated bavarian beef with pretzel dumplings. It was delicious! THen we went back to the hotel where we slept on a cute pallet on the floor (hey free is me). The next day we went to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial in the pouring down rain. It was awful but at the same time mesmerizing. It was so crazy to see a place that inflicted such horrors and atrocities right in front of me and to know I was somewhere I had always read about, learned about, and wondered about. It was reallllly cool. But it rained and poured and we were soaked. So then we went to lunch at this cute place by our hotel and i had "Schankennuddel" or something to that effect. It was basically German pasta with ham and onions and egg and it was to die for! I finally got an actual water glass full of ice at this place so i tried to never leave! That night we went to a place called Ratskellar which is in Rathaus in downtown Munich. The building was gorgeous!

I had the duck with potato dumplings and cabbage and Hailey had weinerschnitzel with fries and omgggg it was all so yummy. (if you're sensing a theme of we really like to eat, you are really correct.)
Sunday we went to the English Garden to the Chinese tower and had delicious bratwurst and french fries and German bier. again, soooo delicious! this place was amazing and a great people-watching area. there were kids doing silly things all over the place, cute dogs (i even petted one that looked like Boomer!), and food everywhere. So it was heaven basically. Later that night we went to Olympic Park and got to go up in the tower and see Germany from an amazing view. It was so pretty and there are pics on facebook if you haven't checked them out. We went to a place for dinner that was smaller and much more low-key with not as many tourists. It was sooo cute and delicious, of course.

In Munich, I learned what Bavaria was, we met really nice cab drivers who were very helpful (except the one who took us to the wrong hotel bc he knew like zero english), and had a great time!
We had a final yesterday and enjoyed some pub time last night. We leave London a week from Friday! It has gone so fast!
Love! Love!