Munich

Our second weekend here we decided to go to Munich, Germany. Or, as the German’s would say, Munchen.  It took us about 7 hours of train rides to get there, so we got to Munich around 3! We immediately checked into our hostel (Jaeger hostel) and were ready to explore the city! My first hostel experience was a lot better than I was expecting! One of the most interesting things about our hostel was the fact that you got a “free welcome drink” which ended up being a shot, obviously this hostel is made for college kids! The vending machine in the lobby even had beer as an option. We thought this was super random, but fun so we had to try it out & I must say, it wasn’t half bad! The room itself had 2 bunk beds, our own bathroom and 4 lockers for our stuff. I stayed with two girls I knew from camp and one random girl who was traveling by herself. She was from Australia and had spent the last 2 months traveling Europe by herself! I couldn’t imagine doing this all on my own! What a brave girl!

      

Jaeger's Hostel

Our room in our hostel

After meeting our new roommate, we were ready to hit the town! We found a lot of shopping and a massive glockenspiel. We stopped for a while to watch it and it made me think of my parents who would have loved it! Apparently the area it is in is called the Marienplatz and used to be an old town hall, Marain Column.

After watching the glockenspiel and wondering about town, we made it to the Hofbrâuhaus House for dinner. It is a famous beer hall and apparently a former royal brewery of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Complete with long benches, men in lederhosen, a polka band, and giant mugs of beer, it was a very fun experience!! I got yet another meal of sausage and sauerkraut! I just can’t get enough!! Once we had finished the meal we continued walking in town to the Oktoberfest Museum. It was probably the most random & odd museum I had ever been too! It was on the top of a restaurant and was so tiny! Brittany and I (the tall girls) could barely fit through the doorways! But we had a lot of fun messing around and finding amusing things in the museum!

The Hofbrauhaus

Another German dinner: Beer, Bratwurst & Saurkraut

The "tall girls" couldn't even fit through the doors

Playing with the Beer taps in the museum

One of the most interesting things we saw in Munich were the bachelor/bachelorette parties! A tradition in Germany seems to be that the group of people celebrating dress up in matching outfits/t-shirts. They walk around and attempt to collect money for their wedding/honeymoon by selling nick-nacks or giving out drinks. Throughout the night we saw sixteen different groups- it was entertaining to say the least!

One of the many Bachelor parties trying to sell us stuff

On Sunday we got up early and went to Dachau Concentration Camp. It was one of the most unbelievably moving things I have ever done. It is so spooky walking around and thinking of this giant area being filled with people. It is so hard to wrap your head around. There was so much history in the museums and so many different stories to read, I was sad that we had to rush through it to make it home in time. This is one thing I think everyone should do at some point in their lives.

A memorial statue in the camp

The gate to the concentration camp with the words "work will set you free"

After a long weekend we were ready to get home! Unfortunately one of our trains was super packed and we had to stand/sit on the floor for the entire hour and half trip. It was brutal as it was really hot and really stinky! Us being the camp counselors we are sang camp songs and played games the entire ride, which really made the time fly by! We finally got back to the apartment around 10 and got ourselves ready for yet another week of camp!