Beers, Beams and Beemers in Bavaria

I spent the weekend in Munich, a large city in the southern part of Germany known as Bavaria.

Can we take a moment to appreciate just how awesome that is? I left Copenhagen on 7 pm on Friday and woke up in southern Germany at 9 am on Saturday. I love this continent. You can get anywhere so easily.

But anyway, Munich. Munich is where a lot of our stereotypes of Germany come from: staggering quantities of beer and sausage consumed by loud, raucous Germans clad in lederhosen (if you’re a gentleman) or dirndels (if you’re a lady, and if I spelled ‘dirndels’ right I’m kind of stunned) while they all listen to oom-pah music played by polka bands.

It is my pleasure to say that most of these stereotypes are true, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

My friend Eric and I boarded the train, finding ourselves in a tiny six-seat cabin and praying that we would not be joined by other people and have to end up spending the night sleeping upright. Our prayers were mostly answered, as we were joined by only one other individual–a Canadian philosophy student studying at Copenhagen University. He was a pleasure to talk to, and we had long conversations comparing travel plans and travel experiences–he has already been in Copenhagen for a semester, and seen a good part of Europe. By the sounds of it, there really isn’t a ‘bad’ part of the continent, i.e. a part that isn’t worth at least a day trip. This is both good and bad. Yes, it means that I won’t end up having a lousy time. But it also means that I’ll agonize about where to go up until I actually book my tickets because EVERY PLACE SOUNDS AMAZING. Of course, this is kind of like being at a buffet of all my favorite foods, so I can’t really complain.

Anyway, because our fellow traveler, we ended up with some creative sleeping arrangements. I can’t really remember how this happened, but they told me that there came a point where I had tried to balance my head on one seat and my feet on the other side of the isle, with my torso hanging down between the isles like I was trying to be my own hammock. To put an end to this foolishness, Eric switched with me–he took the seat and I took the floor. But you know, when you’re tired enough, even a floor is comfortable.

Thankfully, once we were in Munich, we found a place to stay that was much more comfortable than the floor. We stayed at the Wombat Hostel, which is one of a small chain of REALLY nice hostels located in Germany and Austria. The hostel has a real ‘youth’ focus, which means putting up with some eccentricities (like a koala wearing sunglasses hanging from the light fixture above the front desk) in exchange for a cheap breakfast (3.50 euro for all you can eat! Heavenly!) and a free tour of Munich in the morning. Really, I had nothing to complain about. They also had bunk beds, which never lose their charm, even if your bunk mate doesn’t feel like turning the beds into a sweet fort (thanks for being a buzzkill, Eric).

But we got to our hostel at 10 am, and we couldn’t check in until 2 pm. What are two young men in the heart of Bavaria to do with so many hours to kill?

They head to the famous Beer Halls of Munich, that’s what. Seriously, the beer halls are their own culture, and they are exactly what you expect. You sit at long tables, eating the traditional Bavarian breakfast–pretzels with sweet mustard, white veal sausages, and lots of beer, usually a style of wheat beer called weissbeer. Here is where you can see the iconic German image of one-liter beer steins, glasses so large that I probably could have put four wheels on them and called them compact cars. We didn’t opt for the steins, because, well, frankly, I don’t think my body can hold one liter of any liquid. But we did indulge in the veissbeer and the pretzels and the sausage, and the whole spread was DELICIOUS, and strangely fitting for breakfast. Veissbeer is almost sweet, so all the tastes compliment each other very well.

It is also important to mention the context of our breakfast. There was a huge football game in Munich on Saturday–Munich vs. Cologne. Munich is apparently the strongest team in Germany, and my God are the fans willing to let you know that. The beer hall was FILLED with people dressed in very, VERY eccentric costumes, a combination of pride for the Munich team and the fact that this weekend was Carnivale in Munich (and I’m sure the liters of beer added a certain…confidence to the way these people dressed). But the fans were having a great time, singing song after song and getting the entire beer hall involved. Eric and I watched in wonder. I took a video to try to capture the scene, but it doesn’t quite do it justice.

We were later joined by some guys from Cologne who told us that this whole scene was tame compared to what was going on in Cologne for the Carnivale. The only image my mind could conjure was Cologne burning. But the guys from Cologne were great–very friendly, willing to coach us on the proper etiquette of drinking at a beer hall (yes, because after all, there is no greater faux pas than not observing proper etiquette while drinking a small lake’s worth of beer). The German police even came in at one point, but they simply observed the audience for a bit, smiled appreciatively, and left. It was kind of surreal.

After the beer hall, Eric and I kicked around the city for a while, coming to the conclusion that Munich is very beautiful, very old, very Gothic, and very lively. I’m sure Carnivale had something to do with it, but there is so much energy on the streets–lots of open markets and street musicians. I probably saw the single greatest accordion player I’ve ever seen. And I know you’re thinking that a great street accordion player is either a) as impressive as a glass of water or b) as welcome as dropping a box of books on your bare foot, but seriously, the man was amazing. He was doing entire orchestral works on that thing. And besides, street musicianship in European cities is a damn impressive talent.

But the city! The city’s landscape is dominated by Gothic spires and archways, which makes the place feel very dramatic (and makes the McDonalds you come across feel very, very out of place). Eric and I wandered across this one place that, as far as we could tell, was simply a gigantic Greco-Roman temple, with huge statues and a staircase flanked by two huge lions. It was puzzling, since it seemed to serve no other purpose other than to be awe-inspiring, but my goodness it was beautiful. This was right near the university area, which I really wish we could have had more time to explore–lots of tiny hole-in-the-wall places. And in the one indulgence I allow myself in this post, Munich transportation is incredible. Apparently, you’re never more than about 300 meters from a subway stop whenever you’re in the downtown, and this is in addition to a light-rail transit system that seemed pretty comprehensive AND a bus system. So. Damn. Jealous.

Munich is also very cheap, especially coming from Copenhagen–we got sandwiches for 2.50E€, which is pretty much unheard of in Copenhagen. So we decided to celebrate with a nice dinner out at the Glockenspiel Cafe, where we had a delicious plate of gnocchi (yeah, I know, Italian food in Germany, but there’s really only so many sausage-and-pretzel combinations you can have before it get’s to you) for 8€. It was magnificent. I was so enamored with the food that I wanted to take a picture of it, but Eric simply said “No, Baird. Don’t be that person.”

The next day was our indulgence in cultured learning and, as Eric so endearingly put it, ‘car porn.’ We went to the Deutsche Museum, which holds exhibits on pretty much everything (I learned about bridges and sailboats and digital film), and the BMW museum, which holds exhibits on cars, and the BMW Welt, which is essentially an architectural wonder of a showroom. If the BMW Museum is perhaps one of the most innovative and engaging museums I have ever been in, regardless of its subject matter. The museum’s layout is very modern and simple, but the light and colors are very warm, and you’re naturally but subtly led from one exhibit to the other, as opposed to the Deutsche Museum, where you were essentially placed in a large room and you could just look at stuff. The BMW Museum did damn sure to make sure you saw everything and that you understood that BMWs are built according to principles of lightweight construction and emotional aerodynamics. And while I wish I could mock BMW for the phrase “emotional aerodynamics”, I really can’t argue that the aesthetics of both the museum and the cars are honestly really engaging and captivating. I mean, look:

They also had these REALLY cool exhibits where words projected from a monitor would run over a blank surface. You could touch the projected words and your touch would open up a window that went into detail about the subject matter. IT BLEW MY MIND.

As for the Welt…my goodness. The structure is based on a double-cone whirlwind that leads the eye up and into the showroom/exhibition hall, and again the architecture is really modern and light–you’re supposed to feel like you’re floating while you’re there, which is an accurate description. Of course, to accomplish this, they included a free-hanging bridge, which I was less thrilled about. I don’t like bridges that shake beneath your feet when the zealous ten-year old ahead of you leaps up and down. Why tempt fate?

As for Carnivale…the gods were not kind to that festival. Those participating in Carnivale were once again dressed in very eccentric ways, and there were lots of food and drink stands, although any three stands pretty much offered all there was to be had at Carnivale: pretzels and sausage, beer and liqour, and those really delicious German doughnuts that I thought were called “berliners” but apparently are called something else when you’re, you know, not in Berlin. And perhaps the greatest part were the people wearing costumes who pushed around pushcarts full of bags of confetti. That’s it. You could buy a bag of confetti to throw in the air or on your friends or at passersby (which happened to me and Eric) But despite all the fun and games, Munich was hit by the Godawful weather phenomenon I thought unique to New England that is ‘the wintry mix’. And let me tell you, when a handful of confetti thrown into the air with zest and gusto is cut down by a wind driving nearly-freezing rain at a 45-degree angle and is then shoved into the slushy mix of snow and sand and salt that is covering your boots and soaking your socks, YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE HAVING A PARTY. I’m sure it got better once enough people showed up to reach critical mass and convince everyone to laugh in the face of adversity, it was a grand old time. And I’m a little sad that we couldn’t be there to see it.

We bid Bavaria a fond farewell and boarded the train, where we were soon joined by a guy from Hamburg who was incredibly friendly, and told us that we should travel to Hamburg in order to get a more complete perspective of Germany. He said that most people base their knowledge of Germany off of Bavaria, but that life is very different in the North. So add that to the list, along with Barcelona, Cologne,

Later on in our journey, we were joined by a woman who was currently living in Copenhagen (the Frederiskberg neighborhood, where I once got lost), but had also lived in Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, and was born in Brazil. This led to some really, REALLY interesting cross-cultural discussions, including the role of the EU and what it’s like being German after WWII.

Despite the amazing conversations, I still ended up sleeping on the floor, like you do, and getting stepped on when the German got off at Hamburg. I woke up in time to head to Danish class.

Oh, and fun fact. Throughout my entire trip, I carried with me a loaf of bread. This is because I thought Eric and I had planned to make sandwiches for the train ride, but apparently Eric thought we had agreed to just take some fruit along. Now, I brought the fruit, but I also brought my loaf of bread, whereas Eric brought only fruit. So I had a loaf of bread by my side for all my travels (well, okay I left it in the hostel once we got there), and it’s been by my side all day while I’ve been in my classes. I contemplated taking it along for all my pictures, thinking I could slowly build up into a series of photos based on the ‘A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou’ poem, but I thought that having to explain away my loaf of bread just wouldn’t be worth it. So I think I’ll just make some toast and find a better traveling companion for next time.

p.s. I’m trying to get pictures on to this post, but my computer is being difficult. Pictures will follow as soon as my computer decides to cooperate.