I decided to give Germany a second chance and took off for Munich on Thursday with some of my program friends Sam and Sidney. The journey started off great we missed our bus thinking it took off from a different station!!!!!! We bought another ticket for the next bus a couple hours later and we were off! I was very impressed with Munich- the crowd was young, the streets clean, and they were very bike oriented. Since we'd been siting on a bus for seven and a half hours we decide to walk from the bus station to our hostel about 40 minutes away. That night we went out for dinner at the Lowenbraukeller brewery. I ordered two friend eggs and meatloaf and although it was very delicious, it was nothing compared to my Grandma Sue's.
Since it was pretty late we decided to go to bed semi-early since the next two nights we would be camping. One of my sorority sisters, Savannah, came from Seville and met us in the hostel that night. Saturday the four of us woke up and headed off to the campsite allocated specifically for the college student "springfesters". It was an experience to say the least. There were hundreds of tents lined up. I met all sorts of people studying abroad in various cities in Europe.
After checking in we jumped on a bus and a metro to lead us into town to the festival. The main reason for our trip to Munich was Springfest (basically Oktoberfest but in the Spring) where tens of thousands of people dress up in dirndls and lederhosens drinking big steins and eating Bavarian cuisine. The carnival had all sorts of rides but we spent most of our time in the beer tents. The beers were huge and the pretzels even bigger. They played all sorts of fun music. Afterwards we checked out Marienplatz, the city center square, with the famous St. Peter's church, 2 town halls, and a toy museum. After touring around a bit we went back to the campsite to continue the festive activities.
The next morning we woke up to the sound of blasting music and the smell of bacon. We headed off back to Springfest for round two after breakfast. We spent the entire day there listening to live music, meeting new people, and rejoicing with old friends. Talk about the small world we live in- of the hundreds of tables set up in the tents, right next to us were the same Italian study abroad students that sat in front of me on the Paddywagon bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. I ran into quite a few people I knew and spent a lot of time with some of my sorority sisters who are studying abroad in Cork and Freiburg. That night we went back to the campsite for a hearty bratwurst dinner and another night of zero sleep.
Since we figured we wouldn't sleep in much the next day, we woke up at 6am for the Neuschwanstein Castle (what the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty is based off of). We took the bus to the metro to the central train station where we bought a two hour train ticket to the castle. The ride there was absolutely marvelous. It was a smooth ride, rain drops sliding down the windows with the landscape views of green rolling hills and the snow capped Alps. There were small streams running through villages, mass amounts of yellow daffodils, and scattered forests.
We finally arrived and got the next available tour of the castle. We took a horse drawn carriage up the huge mountain (now really feeling like a princess).
The view down at the outskirts was almost as breathtaking as the castle itself.
I was extremely impressed by the interior of this castle. The art decor and the different chambers were phenomenal. We couldn't take pictures but it was exactly how you'd imagine a castle to be. The bed had a huge canopy carved intricately from wood and the King's chair was glorious. The king also had a man made grotto (the first ever man cave?) with artificial dripstone, colored lighting, and a waterfall.
The best view of the castle was a from a bridge up into the mountains but it was closed from a recent landslide. Some roads leading up to it were open but you couldn't see it amongst the trees. So there might or not might have been a couple German laws broken to get this shot but it was absolutely worth it.
Germany definitely redeemed itself and is back in the race. Less than three days to recover (and attend classes) and I'm hopping on a plane for Spring Break!