Munich Frühlingsfest

We left for Munich, Germany on Thursday evening after our last class. Our destination was the spring celebration known as "Fruhlingsfest" (Oktoberfest on a smaller scale). Once we finally arrived in Munich and had time to explore the city, I found it to be a very nice place. It was extremely clean for a major city and had very modern architecture (a possible consequence of getting their shit rocked during World War II). As far as stereotypes go, not everything/ everyone in Germany was efficient, but the people of Munich were very happy and friendly toward visitors during their spring festival.

Friday
After resting up from the trip and getting a decent breakfast in our hostel, we were ready to embark on "Mike's Bike Tour" to see the city. Our tour guide was (guess who) Mike, a New Yorker who has been putting on bike tours in Munich since 1995. The tour lasted for about four hours (including a lunch in the middle) and brought us to all the major sights Munich had to offer with some historical background and interesting commentary courtesy of Mike. I can't name all the places we went, but off of the top of my head we covered Marienplatz and the town hall, the Hofgarten, the Golden Friedensengel, and many more.

We rode through a beautiful park that is 50% bigger than Central Park in New York, called the Englischer Garten (English Garden). For lunch we stopped at the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower) inside of the English Garden. Being the strange eating world traveler that I am, I had to order the strangest item on the menu. Schweinshaxe, or "pig knuckle" is a Bavarian specialty that was recommended to me earlier. It is actually the knee of a pig which is very fatty on the outside, but is full of some good pork once you get into it. Of course you can't have a real German meal without a liter of beer so I ordered that too.

Possibly the coolest spot I saw on the bike tour is known as the Eisbach, or "Ice Creek," where there is a man-made surfing current. We watched as three surfers took turns, trying to tame the wave without crashing into either side of the embankment.

We finished the bike tour at the Hofbräuhaus beer hall after getting some good views of Munich and went back to Wombat's Hostel to prepare for the first night of Fruhlingsfest 2010. The festival is held in a large fairground, Theresienwiese, the same park that hosts Oktoberfest. It was only a ten minute walk from our hostel which was very convenient since that was the reason we came to Munich in the first place. Once the fairgrounds were in sight our eyes must have lit up like little kids'. The first thing we noticed were the rides and loud music. Walking around, it was exactly like any other carnival or fair. The biggest difference were the enormous tents set up and some people dressed in traditional Germans outfits. There were two main tents: Augustiner and Paulaner. The one we spent most of our time in each night was the Augustiner tent, named after the type of beer they serve inside. In Munich, and possibly all of Germany it is most common to see beer served in steins, which are heavy glass liter mugs. Each stein holds the liquid equivalent of three beers. When taking into account the stronger alcoholic content of German beer, it works out to about four drinks. To be served, you had to find a spot to sit at one of the many tables inside the tent. We didn't get there too late, but finding a seat was still not easy. At the front of the tent, was a live band playing what I would guess to be traditional Bavarian music. Even though we had to settle for a table off to the side of the tent, we still had a great time at our first night of Fruhlingsfest.

Saturday
Saturday morning we woke up and got breakfast. I really liked the breakfast at Wombat's Hostel. They had a little more variety for a hostel breakfast than I was used to, but the difference was the panini maker. You can take two pieces of bread with cold cuts and cheese and put it into the panini maker and come out with a good sandwich. I need to get one of those mini grills for next year.

After breakfast we met up to go to one of the saddest places around Munich, the Dachau concentration camp. Dachau does not have the notoriety of Auschwitz, but was one of the first camps established in 1933. It is horrible to imagine what happened there, but I felt that it was something I had to see since I was there. I was not traumatized like I thought I would be after visiting Dachau, probably because I had already been to a very sad Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. five years earlier. It was interesting to actually walk around the huge site that was once a concentration camp. It is overwhelming to think about the historical significance as well as suffering that took place there. We took a bus back to the subway and went back to the hostel after taking everything in.

The Fruhlingsfest on Saturday night was even wilder than the night before, most likely because the Germans were not working. Had it been Oktoberfest, they supposedly would have come on Friday too. We got seats near the middle of the tent that night and enjoyed it a lot more because of that. The later it got, the wilder it was. By the end of the night people were dancing on benches and tables, stein in hand. We basically stayed until we got kicked out because no one wanted to leave our last night of Fruhlingsfest. Once they started putting up benches and cleaning off the tables we eventually found our way out. Some of my friends went on rides and others got food. I tried to order a sausage sandwich since I hadn't had one all weekend, which seems absurd in Germany. Unfortunately the item I ordered turned out to be fries. I was kind of pissed but was pretty hungry so I just went along with it. They ended up being very tasty anyway. Tyler and I walked back to the hostel and headed to the bar. There we met some soldiers who were temporarily in Munich, waiting to be sent to Afghanistan. One of them was from upstate New York and was happy to find someone else who understood his area.

Sunday
We had a good amount of Sunday to spend in Munich before heading home. We made good use of this day to go to the BMW museum and the Olympic Park used for the 1972 Summer Games. It was very convenient since these two sites are right across the street from each other and they were only a quick subway ride away from our hostel. Before finding the BMW (which I just learned translates to Bavarian Motor Works) museum we walked through the Welt, which had some new cars on display. There were also some interactive games and other cool stuff to see. Both the welt and museum are very modern, futuristic-looking buildings.

Walking through the museum, it was apparent they had put a lot of work into everything. The museum was huge with many rooms and different displays to observe. We spent awhile there before walking down the street to the Olympic Park. In 1972, Munich hosted the Summer Olympic Games. Of course I had to go there because the only thing that comes to mind when I think of that Olympic year was Steve Prefontaine's historic race. I got to see the huge Olympic pool, where Mark Spitz won seven gold medals, as well as the main event stadium. I think we also saw the Olympic village where the Iranian hostages were kidnapped as we walked out too.