Samedi en Munich!

On Saturday, the GLS Gang (Asher, Jasmine, Tyler, Jody, Ava, and I) got up to attend a FREE tour of Munich. At many hostels in Europe there are free tour group that leaves. The free tour company has been in every city I've been to so far (Asher and I participated in Paris), and they function on tips alone. When we do these tours, I usually pay about 5 to 10€ depending on how cute the tour guide is and how much I learn (because, contrary to popular belief, I am here to learn). This tour of Munich was really, really well done; the tour guide was super informative, made jokes, and was super enthusiastic!

Things to learn about Munich.
1. The answer to 99.9% of all questions is BEER. All of the questions that the tour guide asked for audience participation the answer was beer. What was the reward for blah blah blah? What did the settlers want? What did the Swedes want in exchange for getting off Bavarian land? What do all the monks point to? Beer.
2. The plaza will always have a Biergarten (German for beer garden). Beer gardena are outside tables in a gathering of trees in the center of a plaza where one can buy lots and lots of beer and sit for hours, which many do.
3. One should always drink more beer. It's just part of the city. Everything is centered on the drink of choice, the relaxation of choice, and the best way to party. It's the essential tool for living the good life in Munich.
4. The name "Munchen" in German comes from an older word "Munichen" meaning "by the monks." Really, the name just means something to the effect of "city of monks." So the city is full of a monk symbol where a monk in black robes holds a Bible in one hand and points to the famous beer house, Hofbrauhaus, with the other hand.
5. It's the third largest city in Germany behind Berlin and Hamburg.
6. The town hall is really cool because it has a little mini performance. During certain parts of the day, it plays an out-of-tune song and has figures dance around and joust! It's always Austria vs. Bavaria, and OF COURSE Bavaria always wins.
7. For clarification, Munich is part of the Bavarian region that was just Bavaria before it became part of German. They had there own royal family and hate the Austrians. (Why does this make me want to watch the Sound of Music?).

The tour guide was keen on letting us know that Munich was the place for the best beer in the world, but she was also keen on talking about World War II and the Nazi party. I honestly didn't realize the exact location of the origin of the Nazi party, but it was most certainly in Munich. During the 1920s, extremist politics and radical parties sprung up all over Munich and none other than Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government (which resulted in his imprisonment). After being released from prison, Hitler and the Nazi party thrived in Munich, eventually took hold of the city (and many other cities to come), and created the first concentration camp ten miles outside Munich. The city was absolutely destroyed during the war, and the US had a big part in restoring the city to its original state and glory after the war.

According to the tour guide, the Germans take an excellent approach to teaching others about the Nazi party and WWII. Instead of forgetting it ever happened, Munich likes to teach tourists and kids about the war in hopes that something like that will never happen again. There are many places in the city where you can still actually see that a Nazi party was present at one time, with plaques and symbols that have only been partially removed. They definitely don't want to forget, they want to learn.

This is awesome, and Germany can now claim the top seat in the competition of best European country. They are so awesome today that it's hard to think where the country was not even a hundred years ago.

The tour lasted about 3 hours, and afterward we got lunch and drank beer in the famous beer garden in the center of town. I have a massive, MASSIVE sausage hotdog thing and a beer; I know this sounds crazy and my stomach hated me afterward. We then climbed to the top of the a cathedral steeple to look out a Munich. It was really gorgeous from up there, and it gave a great view of the "Cathedral Church of Our Lady" which is a really unique church with a green, bubble roof. Lesson from Munich: climb a million stairs BEFORE going to a biergarten. Some had trouble.

This picture is at the wonderful biergarten!

This picture is certainly worth mentioning. This is some sort of beer wagon where one pays about 35€ to drink as much awesome beer as they can while pedaling around Munich. These guys are really, really drunk, yelling at us and trying to bicycle. Priceless.

We then took naps, went out to another beer hall named Ausgustiner (very German, right?). Afterwards, we somehow found the most fun park in the world that had some sort of crazy spin thing. We were way too entertained by this.

Aren't we lovely?