Munich

On the morning of August 12, Mikaela and I left Zurich for Munich. It was a 4 hour train ride, which felt like nothing compared to our 12 hour journey from Budapest to Zurich!
We decided to share my large backpack so we would have less to carry between the two of us. We had a pretty good system of carrying things: I usually carried the backpack and she carried everything else (ie. purses and food).

The backpack was wonderfully small compared to what I was used to!
We arrived at our hotel and left right away to start touring the city. We first went to see the Finanz-garten, right next to the Prinz Carl-Palais.


Has anyone yet noticed that we are matching? I bought those jeans at H&M when I was in Madrid, and when Mikaela arrived she really liked them, so we went to the H&M in Zurich so she could buy a pair too. The matching black shirts can not be explained….we just thought it would be fun!
From there we walked to the Odeonsplatz.

We had a great time just walking through all the downtown streets. There are so many shops and restaurants! The whole downtown core was packed with tourists, especially outside the Neues Rathaus (The New Town Hall) at Marienplatz. It was built in the late 1800s and has a very unique clock tower where small figures of people and knights move. At 5pm a huge crowd formed in the square and everyone was waiting for the small figures´ knights tournament to start.

That evening we decided to join a pub crawl, where we would be taken with a group to a number of different bars to try out different types of beer and drinks. We had read about it online, and thought it sounded fun!
To make the occasion a little more festive we decided to wear the new ridiculous pants we bought in Zurich.
We met lots of people, but most were from the US, which was strange for me since I had met hardly any Americans my whole trip! I have been meeting lots of British, Irish, Australian and fellow Canadian English-speakers, but almost no Americans.
We went to the world´s most famous beer hall The Hofbrauhaus. We quickly learned that the Germans drink beer out of 1 liter tankards, which are roughly the size of my head.
Our pants were a big hit, and our new friend Lexie (from Washington) was really jealous that she didn´t have a pair!
The following day we went to check out the surfers in the English Garden. The English Garden is a large park with an area of 3.7 sq km, and at the southern entrance there is a permanent wave where the local surfers ride.

The rest of the English Garden is very beautiful as well.


We actually came across a few nudists while walking through the park!! They were lounging on the grass in the nude. I have come to learn how relaxed the Europeans are with nudity… much more relaxed than Canadians!
We only realized later that day that we missed the best part of the English Garden…. The Beer Gardens!! Beer Gardens are outdoor areas with lots of tables where they serve beer and sometimes food. Traditionally, many many years ago (I wish I remembered the dates…)  they were areas outside of the city center, directly above the beer storage areas.  Since the beer gardens did not have to pay transportation costs to get the beer into the city center (contrary to the downtown taverns, who paid substantial transportation costs), they could charge cheaper rates for beer and the taverns downtown could not compete with these prices. Because of this the government made a law stating that the beer gardens could only serve beer, and no food. If people wanted to eat at the beer gardens then they were allowed to bring their own food and eat at the tables. This, of course, has changed over the years, and now beer gardens serve both beer and food.
From the English Garden we went to the the Grand Residenz, dating back to the 14th century. The palace complex was the former residence of the Bavarian kings, but it now houses many museums.


Our last stop before heading back to the hotel to pick up our stuff was the Sendlinger Tor, one of the 4 original gates to the city.
We checked out of our hotel earlier that day and had left our backpack there so we could continue to explore the city without worrying about it. A reoccurring theme of my trip has been my extreme backpack weight problems. Since Mikaela and I left most of our stuff in Budapest and were only traveling for a few days before returning to Budapest, I figured we wouldn´t have the same weight problems as I had been previously experiencing. I was wrong!!
We bought a few beer-related souvenirs, which happened to be extremely heavy, and our backpack grew exponentially into a monstrous object that could only be dragged along the floor!  The trip from the hotel (by taxi) to the train station was extremely difficult!! We each took one side of the backpack and carried it, taking breaks every few steps. It was awful! All the other backpackers laughed as we dragged, pulled, or limped along with the pack. We were finally able to shove it inside a locker and left it there for the rest of the night (our train left at midnight).
We spent the evening doing a Bavarian Beer and Food tour which included a tour of the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, beer sampling, and a very large dinner of traditional Bavarian food.
The Beer and Oktoberfest Museum was really interesting, and we learned the origins of the famous Oktoberfest festival. ¨Oktoberfest¨ as it is known today was not always like this. In October 1810 the Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese were married, and held a 2 week marriage celebration, filled with horse races and other games. The people had such a great time that the following year they asked the King if they could celebrate the 1st year anniversary of their marriage with another 2 week horse race and celebration. This continued year after year, and since these days, Oktoberfest has grown to become the Largest People´s Fair in the World!
Actually, it is not called Oktoberfest by the Bavarians and Germans, it is called ¨the meadows¨, and it primarily runs in September, running only a few days in October. To calculate the dates of the festival each year you take the 1st weekend of October, and then work backwards 2 weeks: this is the start of the festival. 
To get an idea of how large the festival is, there are generally about 6 million visitors, consuming almost 7 million liters of beer and 80 thousand liters of wine.
At the museum we also learned about beer brewing in Munich, which started 3000 years ago. Germany is world renown for their production of beer, and they take it very seriously here. Also, Bavarians are one of the world´s greatest consumers of beer, drinking about 240 liters annually per person.
At the museum we also had a chance to sample a number of different beers, all produced in different ways. We also had a taste of the traditional pretzels, covered in large chunks of salt. This is a very traditional snack at Oktoberfest for two reasons, a) the large amount of salt keep you thirsty, so you will continue to buy more beer, and b) the salt helps you retain water, so you use the toilet less often!
From there we went to the Hofbraukeller, an old restaurant and beer hall, where we were served a huge plate of traditional Bavarian food: Weisswurst, dumplings, roast pork, etc. It was delicious!!
From there we headed back to the train station for our overnight train to Budapest. We had a great stay in Munich, lots of fun, lots of beer and an overwhelming amount of delicious food!