Beer Tour: Munchen (Munich)

Inside of BMW Welt (world)



The stadium where the famous black fist was first displayed

The swimming stadium where Mark Spitz won his 7 gold metals and where Joel swims
BMW Welt (World)



The palace we visited
Marienplantz at night

Joel and I in the back of a Beer Hall where we ate
The road where Hitler tried to start his social movement.
A couple in the world's largest city park
The Beer Garden in the world's largest city park. I guess they have bands in the structe in the middle.
River Surfing


Huge Beer Hall HB.


Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf takes place in the Black woods which is in the North of Germany. Fun Fact Joel's fmaily is from the North of Germany and his relative in the Mayor of the town they are from.
Traditional outfits worn during festivals (they have 100 days of festival in Germany each year!!)
The student housing joel lived in
Marienplatz.. this one and the two below




I Arrived late on Sunday. The trip to Joel’s place took about an hour train (S-bahn) to the Marienplatz a main stop on the metro. Then I took the U-bahn to Joel’s place at Harderer Stern which was kind of shady at night. However, I found out Munich is the safest place in the world so turns out there were no problems. Joel asked his friends where is the area not to go to or especially at night, and all the locals said we do not have an area like that… they are all safe. Also Munich has very strict police. One cannot cross the street unless the green man or walk symbol is lit. If you cross before its around a 60 euro ticket. They are also very strict on bike laws which I can appreciate given the bikers in Chicago. Munich is an extremely clean, green, wide city. It has the largest park in the world that is located in a city. Joel and I went to the Beer Garden there. It was beautiful and it felt like we were miles from any major city. Joel is a very interesting guy. He was born in Alaska and moved to a small town in Pennsylvania. He made his own lawn care company at the age of 14. He also took a year off of high school and studied in Argentina for six months as sort of a study abroad. Yet he still graduated in time for High School. He is also a very intense tri-athlete. He said he is always in shape to run a marathon. He also did a Mountain Marathon which is a 32 mile race up and down a mountain (sometimes through rivers and un-manicured paths). He is quite intense but you would never guess it by meeting or hanging out with him. He also was born in Alaska.

On Monday, I went out on the town to see the city center and had some white sausage and then headed back to Joel’s place for my interview. Then I headed back into the city while Joel was still in class and walked around and went to the Hofbraehaus Beer Hall. I met Joel there and we went to the Beer Garden in the world’s largest city park. On our walk we saw river surfers, caught up with each other and walked along this cool rapid flowing river which was very close to overflowing. In the park it felt like I was miles away from a city. I guess when it is nice out there is a legal nudist section in the park (fun fact). Then we headed back walked around and got some food at another famous beer garden. We both had the sausage platter and some beer. Joel is really good at German. Then we met his French friend in the back of the beer garden and his cousins that were visiting. We spoke English. The night ended soon there after and Joel and I went back and hit the hay.

The next day we woke up and went to the Nymphenburg Palace and also saw this room where they painted the 30 most beautiful women of that era ranging from a shoemaker’s daughter to a princess. The physical beauty represented the moral purity of oneself (sounds like Donald Trump defending his Miss California). Then Joel had to go to class I went to the Deutsches Museum which is the world’s largest Technological Museum. I expected more to be in English, but since it was so big it was a nice way for me to narrow things down. I learned about water and bridges mainly. Sounds boring but it was quite intriguing at the time. I also struggled with this laser mirror thing. The point was to capture the most energy from this laser by positioning these mirrors to reflect the laser and at the end reflect on to a sensor. I think it is impossible to maximize the energy output the way the mirrors were positioned. Oh I forgot before the museum, I had lunch. It at first was hard to find and I thought it was siesta time in Munchen. I ate at Que-Kabap (these Turkish kebabs are the new fast food). It was kind of gross though.

Then I went to BMW Welt (world) where Joel and I met up after his class. This was really cool. It was a very cool building architecturally with cool cars, especially the employees parking deck. Then Joel and I went to check out the Olympic park where he swims. The place where he swims is where Mark Spitz won his 7 golden medals. Joel says its pretty inspiring. It is also really small compared to the Cube where Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals. This was the second Olympic park I have visited after the Olympics occurred (I am not including Atlanta but soon I will). Then we hurried back to get to a grocery store before 8pm (they all close at 8). We had to get off a few stops early and hope there was one. We were lucky. Joel also got a 40 euro ticket for not having a metro pass. Ironic part is he bought one with me. So even though he was being honest he had to accept his fate. We bought food for that night and some things for our hike in the Alps the next day. We also got some white beer. We went back and I sent my thank you email for the interview. Then I cooked the potato pasta with tomato sauce and Joel cooked the chicken and made us salad. We ate and had some beers and then proceeded to watch 3 hours of the Office. We went to bed and finally I was on an air mattress!! Oh right before that, we have been so busy that each day we forgot to ask his roommate for the air mattress and I have been sleeping on the floor with towels as cushion and some sheets as my blankets. The pillow was fine.

We awoke the next day and rushed to get ready to catch the 9:30 am train to the Alps to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I forgot my camera which sucked. On the train we met some random Americans that reminded me of two crazy aunts traveling Europe from San Diego but looked like from North Dakota. They showed us their book they made of beautiful European train rides. The whole time Joel and I were annoyed and thinking how are these two going to go hiking. They even wanted to take a taxi to the base of the hill which seems absurd since it’s a beautiful 15 min walk through the town. When we got off we found out our trail was closed. Joel wanted to take me on a hike called Hell’s Gorge haha. In the end, we had to do the family friendly hike. We bought some bread for our sandwiches and walked to the river to eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches. We then started our walk to the base of the hike path. We passed the Olympic long jump park (now my third Olympic park I have been too). Then we finally reached the hiking path and concluded that we saw the taxi of the two ladies. Then we paid two Euros to go on this scenic and cool trail through tunnels and fenced edges on this insane looking gorge. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was short though since part of the trail was closed due to construction. Then we left and took the higher and more advanced trail and went all through the alps. We even ventured on some cool bridges overlooking the gorge, and passed some grassy hills. We stopped and had some of our lunch at the river and walked on back. We had a beer before getting on the train. I passed out as Joel did work for his presentation on Thursday. We went back showered up and we went out to dinner around his university. It was a great Thai food place and I met a ton of people. A Chilean, some Italians, a Japanese girl, some French, and a guy who plays the cello in some German orchestra but studied in Bloomington Indiana at IU. There were so many languages being thrown around it was crazy!! Then Joel went back to his place to study for his presentation, and I went out with a few of his friends. I had a beer and then I was super tired and headed home. We watched some Daily Show before bed. I woke up packed and had a true German Breakfast a beer on my walk to the metro haha (different from Joel’s protein shakes which I had every morning). It was great. I arrived at the Airport and got on the flight. On the plane I met a nice couple from Dusseldorf (where I was going) in our exit row. Then I took the Dusseldorf plane to Barcelona and we were hovering around in the air due to lack of visibility and rain. We hit ground and I was happy to be back in Barcelona. I got home made a pizza, talked to Paco and Laura, and Mom and Dad, and hit the hay after writing my blog.