München

Munich, as they say, is the capital of Bavaria, and it was there we went last weekend. It was my second weekend traveling with a completely different group than I normally do (excluding the first weekend) and that, with a combination of the city we were in, led to a completely different experience, something I was hoping to get when I came here - different experiences with different people (not that I don't like the group I normally travel with; in fact, we have other trips coming up - see previous post - it's just cool to try different things). The school planned a trip to Starkbierfest, which basically meant we got entry into a beer hall celebrating Starkbierfest for free and we got discounted stay at a hostel. Starkbierfest, by the way, translates to English as 'strong beer festival' (Germans do this weird thing where they combine lots of words and make a huge word out of it, remember that car dealership sign from the Berlin post?). Apparently the festival originated back in the day when monks were fasting and needed a way to stay healthy (well, 'healthy') and get enough energy for the day. Each liter of beer (that's how they're served) contains over 700 calories. I had about 8 over the weekend, along with lots of really good Bavarian food. Needless to say, I probably consumed way too much while I was there.

There are also 6 beers brewed in München, all of which have multiple beer halls all over the city - here was a subway advertisement displaying them all. I got to 'try' (my friends defined try as drinking at least 1 liter) three of them.

Anyway, we took a night train there and arrived at like 7 AM. We walked around for a while, found out hostel, and by 9 AM we tried our first beer (really bad, I know). We also went on the free walking tour around the city.

The next day, we went to Dachau concentration camp, which was the first concentration camp set up in Germany, and lasted pretty much the entire duration of the Third Reich.

Later that day was the actual Starkbierfest. The festival was really cool at the beer hall we were at; this was all in German so here's my interpretation: there was a beauty pageant and a strongest man competition, as well as live music and dancing performances throughout the night.

The last day in München was kind of rainy, and we spent most of the day just walking around exploring various parts of the city. The coolest part was the site of the 1972 Summer Olympics, where they still maintain the park and the stadium.

We also had 'Mexican food,' which I'm pretty sure was made by Indian people. This is what my chicken fajitas looked like.

Also, I'm like 80% sure I heard an Indian song played at the restaurant.

Discovery: There's a funny phenomenon that happens when you're traveling and it's cold outside all the time - it looks like in all your pictures you're a bum wearing the same clothes. I mean for me, it's pretty true, but it's still really funny to see.