Munich, Germany

I got to Munich on Friday after a few days in Prague. Prague was very beautiful but out of all the places I have been, I had the hardest time with the language barrier there. Shoot, when I left Prague I just kind of listened for certain words in the crowd standing under the train board. The departure board never actually displayed what dock that the train would be arriving on. The ladies in the information booth were pretty unhelpful as well. I ended up following this older couple. On the train I rode next to Peter who was also 25 and grew up in the Czech Republic. We talked the entire train ride because he wanted to practice his English with me. After a four hour train ride to Nuremberg from Prague, I successfully made my first less than 5 minute train switch to Munich later. I was so damn proud of myself for reading the departure board and navigating the train station. I did not have much room for error!

Anyway, my friend Moritz (Paul) who was a foreign exchange student with me back in high school lives in Munich so he met me at the train station when I came in on Friday. For those of you who know him as well, he is exactly the same. Not changed a bit! We hit up a jazz club, drank a few beers and then met some of his friends out at a dance club. We pretty much watched the sun come up as we were walking home. It was a crazy night. It was nice to be in an era where I could be taken around and see some of the things without being a full blown tourist. I was able to let my guard down and not worry about getting lost because I knew Morita knew the way home.

It was amazing to hear some stories regarding World War II and see the area. Munich was where the Nazi party has a lot of roots and it was amazing to see how the area was cleaned up from the bombings. (Most of the old building debris is under the Olympia Park!) My grandpa was an American WWII veteran and he knew about WWII from a German side of things. Now we are both walking the streets together and are good friends. It's amazing how the world can change even in a lifetime.


On Saturday we took a bus tour of Munich, walked around the city, grabbed some food from the market and then went to the English Gardens. The gardens had quite the eclectic crowd. Between all the naked people, African drum circles, people playing football and the guys and girls surfing the "wave" in the river that flows through. Later in the afternoon we walked into the Englisher Garden and saw some drum circles and all of the nudists taking a dip in the creek. Over there it's like nothing, they don't even care about the nudity. America seems so stuck up and prudish compared to Europe and especially Germany. We spoke about music and shared some of our favorite songs. It was really a blast from the past and it was nice to be able to meet with an old friend while on my adventure. We chilled out for a few hours there just chatting about the old band days. Then we walked over to the world famous Hofbräuhaus and had an authentic German meal and drank a few more beers. I think I've tried about 11 different types of beer just this past weekend in Munich!


Before I forget, there is this pretty good cola drink called Mezzo Mix. The first time I saw it was at the train station in Germany so I don't know if it is sold anywhere else. It is cola mixed with a bit of orange flavor. Pretty tasty!! I also tried the carbonated water and absolutely hate it. If I need to quench my thirst, I'll just stick to something else.

We walked around town the next day and had breakfast at a little pastry shop near where he lived. He also cooked some German sausage for lunch and I did a load of laundry which was my second load on the trip! Needless to say, with the one backpack mentality, you have to hunt down laundromats during your trip.

Later that evening I left for Interlaken, Switzerland. The time was too short as always, but Moritz was a great host and one day I'll be back!

An old friend...

So, I figured I'd try to hit my buddy Paul Sperl up when I ventured into Germany. Paul (Moritz) was a German exchange student my junior year of high school. We were in a funk band called Blu Martini. Yea, we won the battle of the bands in case you were wondering! :) I rocked the drums and he rocked the trumpet. Needless to say, we've not seen each other in quite some time. I figured I would try the email addresses that I had for him back in high school.

Drafted up an email....email bounced back. "Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:" Weak!

Tried another email I had for him....email bounced back. "Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:" Again, Lame.

I tried an international phone number I had for him. "This number is no longer in service." Well, damn.

Enter Internet.

This is where having some searching skills comes in handy. I MaltEGO'd his name using various search libraries and plugins. Now we are talking.

About 30 minutes of filtering and I found several pages of soccer teams he had played on. They were all removed, so I hit the Google cache, still no emails or contact info. I found a few pages that linked to a University in Munich, Germany and looked at the geography. There was a high probability that this was him. I revised my search terms and found another dead link. Google cached that up and whaalaa, email address.

Drafted up an email...."Hey!!! Blu Martini kicks ass, give me a call at xxxxxxxxxx"

Needless to say, if you want something bad enough on the internet, you can find it.

Paul does go to that University and we are meeting up in Munich for 1,2,3,4 or maybe a few more beers.

Things to do: Munich, Germany

Visit the Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau was Germany's first concentration camp, started in 1933 because the prisons were overflowing with people the government didn't like. They didn't have enough money to just build more prisons the way we do in our War on Drugs, so the Nazis built work camps like Dachau. Dachau was not setup to be an extermination camp like Auschwitz however almost 30,000 prisoners were killed here, and many others lost their lives due to other causes while at the camp. The exact numbers are hard to determine.

I'm positive this will be one of the more sobering times of the trip, but the history cannot be forgotten. If you decide to do this, you should allow at least 3 hours of time. Dachau is suburb located 45 minutes from downtown Munich. The best way to get there is to take the S-Bahn (S2) to Dachau station, and then follow the signs. Bus service runs regularly between the station and the camp. It's a 10 min walk from there to the main entrance. The Memorial Site is open on all days except for Mondays, between 9 am and 5 pm. Entry is free but paying a guide is highly recommended.


Visit the Munich Hofbräuhaus

The world-famous Hofbräuhaus was founded in 1589 and has since been one of Munich's most popular tourist attractions. This place is everything that Bavaria is all about. It is a huge beer drinking hall and you'll see all the traditions of a Bavarian beer drinking place. Long wooden tables and benches, beer which is only served in 1 liter sized glasses (the beer "Maß"), giant pretzels on sale - to soak up the beer and an ompah band playing traditional Bavarian brass band music. I've also been told by a reader that they also play some modern pop/hip-hop. This should certainly be interesting. :)


I have a lot more to post. I just have to finish doing some editing. So check back.