Munich, Germany!

Let the fun begin!!  The first official blog of THE tour of 2011, and I am so excited to share our adventures!  As we are currently on a 6 hour train into Budapest, you may even get 2 blogs, but we'll see about that when I finish this one.  So, MUNICH!  What a wonderful city it is!  Beautiful, fun, so friendly, and surprisingly relaxing.  We arrived around 10:00pm Wednesday after a 6 hour train ride from Paris, with no idea what the night had in store.  For those of you who don't know, I am an avid supporter of the couchsurfing project, an online organization that allows you to network with people, share travel stories and experience, and make friends in cities all across the world.  It is also a way for you to gain free accommodations across the world, as you quite literally petition to surf people's couches.  I have done it a few times before in Europe and had great success each time, so Jaimie and I decided that we would try and couchsurf as much as possible on this trip, not only to save costs, but also to make friends and experience cities in a whole new light.  So, our first couchsurfing host was Greg, an aerospace engineering student living in Munich.  He graciously met us at the train station after assuring us that the metro system was a bit difficult to figure out…he was right.  He escorted us back to his apartment, but not before stopping to treat us to our first beers of the trip!  Back at his house, we met up with his roommate, Felix, and their 2 friends, Julia and Manuel, who opted to cook us a delicious spaghetti bolognese dinner from scratch!  Tired, makeup-less, and feeling quite crummy, we were somehow urged to join them for a night at their favourite club.  Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and Jaimie and I packed no clubbing clothes, or shoes.  So, white t-shirt, skinny jeans, and sneakers it was!  I have never felt like such a tard in my life!  The club was cool, the company was great, but the music left something to be desired.  It was combination high school dance  and Euro-raver, with far too many slow songs to keep me sane.  We called it a night around 5am and were quite ready to be home by then!

So excited to be on our way!!

With Greg's friend Julia at the club

Thursday we took advantage of the empty house and slept in until about 10:30.  After a walk around the city center, we decided to stop in a little whole in the wall restaurant for lunch.  Turns out the place had a beautiful beer garden, so we sat outside in the sun enjoying our beer, goulash (for me), and schnitzel (for Jaim)--soo delish!  We then wandered and found ourselves in the famed English Garden.  This park is enormous, complete with a rushing river/creek, a Chinese "temple", and an elaborate beer garden.  We came across a section of the river that was completely flooded with people, both tanning alongside it, and swimming inside it.  There was one part with a make-shift wave that people were actually lining up to surf, and they were quite good!  Never did I think I would associate surfing with Munich, but now I do!  After this it was time for a refreshment, so we made our way to the beer garden to indulge in some delicious beers before meeting up with Greg at the library and heading home.  He and his friends had organized a BBQ that night alongside the Isor River and he invited us to come along, so we raced home to make a salad and grab some things and set off back to a different area of the English Garden.  They cooked us delicious chicken and sausage to go with our caprese salad and bread, and of course, more beer!  After a few hours, we all parted ways, and Greg insisted that we should pay a visit to the famous Hofbrauhaus for some 1 Liter beers, so he accompanied us there.  It was a crazy, rowdy environment, complete with a live band and waiters in costume, and a whole lotto beer.  I was already stuffed from dinner and honestly have no idea how I finished the whole thing, especially after just being able to tolerate beer a few short weeks ago! 

Munich City Hall

Our first beer garden experience

delicious "goulash" and dumpling lunch for me

and schnitzel for Jaim!

St. Paul's church

In the English Garden

"Ice River" running through garden

People surfing in the river!

It truly was like ice

Beer Garden #2, with a little bit bigger beers...

Waiting in the Munich Uni Library for Greg to take us home.

BBQ on the river with Greg and his friends.

At the Hofbrauhaus for our first 1 Liter beers!!

Hofbrauhaus with Greg

We finished!!

The next day we slept in a bit again, deciding to take advantage while we still can!  We went to the large fresh market in the centre of town after hearing many recommendations for it.  Bought some fresh fruit and a piece of streusel to try for breakfast before making our way back to the English Garden for a little swim/tan sesh.  Munich is great, but there really isn't much to see, so we didn't feel one bit guilty passing up the sight-seeing in favour of relaxing!  Turns out, there are two sides of the river, one being "normal" and the other being "clothing-optional"--guess which side we unknowingly picked?  Yep, guess we got in a little more sight-seeing than we planned…unfortunately!  Honestly, these old men must realize they are strange when they are the ONLY ones on the entire side to be butt-naked.  I am scarred for life.  We laid out for a while, made conversation with a couple next to us speaking English, turns out they are vacationing here from Folsom, CA!  Such a small world!  When the heat was finally too much to bear, and man was it HOT in Munich, we decided to take a little dip in the river.  This water was deceivingly cold, I mean ice cold.  We later learned that the literal translation of the name of it is "ice river"..makes sense!  We went home early around 5pm in order to shower and freshen up for the night's activities.  We wanted to cook Greg a nice meal to thank him for being such an incredible host, so we found a grocery store and wandered around until we finally decided on burgers.  What's better on a hot day than a nice burger and a cold beer?  The dinner was a success, and we spent the rest of the evening hanging out, chatting, and trying different beers.  Being out in public, we witnessed so many people opening beer bottles with whatever they could find…lighters, plastic water bottles, belts, so I made it my goal to learn how to open a beer bottle with something other than a bottle opener by the end of our time in Munich.  So this night was spent doing just that!  After a few attempts, I successfully opened my beer with a lighter!  I can leave Munich in peace now.  We decided that for our last night, we would go to this Irish/Australian pub that Greg had been talking about.  It was a fun vibe, but with a slightly awful AC/DC cover band.  We happened to meet a Scottish guy named Ross there, who decided to hang with us for the rest of the night.  We ventured out to try a couple other bars and clubs, but with no success, so we ended up at a tiny little club with great music and a sticky floor--those are the 2 things that stand out to me!  

At the market to grab some fresh fruit for breakfast

Back to the river to lounge like these characters

Homemade burger night!

Success!!
 

At the Irish Pub

By Saturday morning, we weren't necessarily ready to leave Munich, but were ready to move on with our adventure.  Greg wanted to treat us to a traditional Bavarian breakfast, so he popped out to the store and made us white sausages with sweet mustard and pretzels with butter.  The meal is traditional enjoyed with a beer as well, but beer for breakfast was just far too foreign to us, so we passed on that part of it.  The meal was delicious, and it was the unnecessary icing on the cake that made Greg one of the best couchsurfing hosts ever.  Truly, we are grateful!  Here's hoping that the rest are just as great!  After breakfast it was time to pack, clean, and head out to catch our 2:45pm train to Salzburg!

Delicious Breakfast!

Clearly we're not quite awake yet...

Our make shift beds--a matress and a pool floatie.

We couldn't have asked for a better start to our trip!  Munich was beautiful and fun and the people are entirely too friendly.  We've decided a trip back is definitely necessary…we're thinking Oktoberfest 2012…any takers?