Rebecca Does Italy: Rebecca Does Germany

Okay, I finally made time to update you on my weekend in Munich! :)

This trip was a UGA program trip so everyone got to go. We loaded the bus around 9:30 Thursday morning- April 2nd. It was so nice to have the trip planned and to be able to just hop on a bus and relax. The bus ride took about 6.5 hours. We only stopped twice but once was at a McDonalds a hour outside of Munich. It was definitely the nicest McDonald's I have ever been to. A lot of business men were there eatting in their suits. And they had delicious waffle fries. I pretended I was eatting them in Chick-fil-A, but there was no sweet tea to complete that dream. Anyways, the ride was beautiful. I loved being able to see more of Italy's and Austria's countrysides. When we got into Munich, we went straight to our hotel. This was another plus to this trip- being able to stay in a nice hotel. No worries of lockers or smelly boys- just comfortable beds and clean private bathrooms. Couldn't ask for more. We got settled and then met Martin, our program director, in the lobby to take us into town. The subway system was really easy to navigate and it took us straight to Marienplatz- a popular square in Munich. Martin gave us a brief explaination of the area and then we headed to the most popular beer house in Munich- the Hofbräuhaus. Hitler actually used that area to speak. I'm obviously not a beer woman but it was cool to hangout there and get a pretzel. We all hung out there for a while and then wondered out to find another beer house to eat dinner. I had some delicious sausages and potato salad. After dinner we just rode the subway home and rested up for our first full day in Munich.

Friday morning we had breakfast in the hotel (another amazing plus) at 8am. The breakfast was really good and filling. This trip included a tour of the city with a tour guide so we all met in the lobby at 9:30 for that. This tour guide was great and showed us a lot of cool things that I know I wouldn't have seen had we gone on our own. First we went to the site of the famous Oktoberfest- the biggest beer festival in the world. It was hard to imagine over a million people in one area but it happens every year for a few weeks. From there we went into a building where the people involved in the White Rose movement were tried and convicted. I didn't know anything about this movement until I went to Munich. It was a small group of mostly young students at the University of Munich. It was a non-violent resistance movement that were well known for a leaflet campaign. I really encourage you to read about it- these people were incredible. Later on Friday we stopped at the University and saw the plaque of leaflets on the ground outside the building. But after we saw were they we all convicted, we rode to see Hilter's office in Munich. We saw the famous balcony that he made a lot of speeches from. The building is now a music conservatory. It was kind of weird to be where Hitler was- and to take pictures of such a well known balcony that held one of the most corrupt people. From there we went to the Nymphenburg Palace. It used to be a summer house for the rulers of the Bavaria- the state Munich is in. This place was huge. The tour guide we had was great and told us the history of all the places we went to- and he did it with such enthusiasm. From there we drove to the BMW museum. We didn't spend much time there but from the museum we could see where the olympics were held- and where the dorms were- where the famous Munich olympic tragedy occured. That pretty much ended our tour but the tour guide walked some of us to an amazing restaurant. It was italian food but they cooked all of the sauces right infront of you- and the salads and pizzas too. It was absolutely delicious! That revived us for our bike tour that was that aftertoon. Almost everyone in the group went so it was a good time. We went with the famous Mike's Bike Tour and met Mike himself. The tours overlapped a bit but the bike tour allowed us to see more inside the city. We rode through the famous Englischer Gardens- that are bigger than Central Park in New York. We also stopped at the 2nd biggest beer garden in the world. I got what I thought was plain apple juice, but it ended up being carbonated. I suffered through it but it was rough. From the beer garden we rode back to the bike shop. Most of us were pretty tired from the long day so we passed out in the hotel pretty early.

Saturday was a hard day. This day we went into Dachau Concentraion Camp. This was the first concentration camp built by Hilter and was originally used for prisioners. Obviously as the years went on it was used for mostly Jewish prisioners. We saw where they would have slept and the ovens in the back. It was so hard to imagine life in a place like that. There was a nice museum there and a movie that we all watched. It was educational but so depressing. Its heartbreaking to think that humans treat humans like that- and for no reason. It was a pretty heavy morning so when the bus dropped us off in town we just wanted to eat and debrief. We actually went back to that amazing italian place and then shopped from there. It rained for about 30 minutes which made shopping miserable. I have gotten so spoiled traveling during non-peak season that now when more tourists are around I get real irritated real fast. I did manage to get another pair of Converse All-Star Chuck Taylors though. They're gray high-tops. Overall I feel like I packed well for this trip, but my all-star sneakers were the one thing I wished I had brought, so I justified buying another pair. I'm really glad I got them though. After that we headed back to the hotel and watched a movie on my friend's laptop. We rallied enough energy to go out Saturday night and ended up in a club called NV. We didn't stay too long but it was fun! Plus I busted out the new sneaks so it was worth the trip out!

Sunday morning we woke up to get our last free, delicious breakfast before the bus ride back. The ride back was gorgeous as well. It was tempting to nap but I couldn't with the beautiful scenery around me. We got back into Verona around 4 or so. A few of us walked around Verona to get some exercise- it was a gorgeous, warm Sunday.

Munich was a great, stress-free trip. It was great to hang out and get to know everyone else in the group too. These people are great and I am enjoying learning more about them! Munich itself was a great town too. There was a lot that we missed but I hope to go back sometime!

Enjoy a few pictures!

mit all meiner Liebe (picked up a little German),

Rebecca Rose

Me on the bike- second bike tour!