Munich (Day 1)

Well it wasn’t the best way to have a morning in Munich, but yes, i did wake up with the worlds worst hang over. I got out of bed, filled my water bottle and then stayed un-conscious until about 1pm. My room mate was worse, she had also gotten very little sleep. We both decided to fight it, so we got our bags and water bottles ready and headed out. We regretted it as soon as we boarded the tram. I managed to eat a bread roll and two panadol, but they didn’t really help. By the time we had got out to the Winter Castle, we were both quite ill. We spent about half an hour just lying on the grass in the shade complaining. We regained ourselves a little and then, like magic, the hang over lifted… Best feeling ever… I hate beer! For now…

We walked through the front promenade of the Winter Castle. It was beautiful and had a massive population of ducks and geese. Unfortunately the building was under repair and so my pictures aren’t so good. We found a map and headed into the massive gardens. We walked around a picture perfect lake and found a memorial by the water, which i got some killer photos of. It was really quite a good hang over cure! After about 2 hours of taking in the beautiful scenes, we decided to head into town to see the main palace, Residenz. We boarded the tram we had come on and after a bit of disorientation, we found Max-Joseph Platz. It was a pretty ugly building, dwarfed by the theatre next door. The palace took over 100 years to build, because according to local sources, each section of brick laid, had to be followed by a beer. These people know how to work. The back section of the building was rendered and the blue stone bricks on the front were painted on. The theatre next door has burnt down 3 times in its 300 year history, despite once having over 1000 kegs of beer poured onto it, to try to stop the fire. We then walked down to the rear and found the Imperial Gardens, which was very to my liking as it was exactly symmetrical (no mum, i don’t have OCD). There was lovely with a rotunda in the middle and a cello player busking. We continued through to the old World War I Museum, that is now the government chambers. All that remains of the old building is the front doors and facade; the rest of the building is glass to give the impression of transparent government (like Berlin). The original building, like a large number in Munich, was bombed to the ground in WWII. You can still see the holes in the original facade from the shrapnel blasts.

We moved on, heading towards the massive English Garden. We first viewed one of the coolest things i have seen on this trip so far. A man made wave, that surfers ride day and night. Who would have thought that a land locked country would have a surf culture. I will upload a video to YouTube ASAP! Essentially what happens is that they have rerouted the river into the gardens, and it runs through a massive pipe under the city. When the water comes out of the pipe, it is relieved of its pressure and as such there is a concrete hump paved into the mouth of the river, which in turn creates a rideable wave of water. It is the most bizarre thing i have ever seen. Surfers stand on the banks on both sides and wait their turn to drop in and ride and trick on the wave. We both sat their for about 20 minutes, mesmerized! Dad, you would be in heven, an endless wave, although i didn’t see any long boards. Once we had been amazed enough, we walked through the gardens to the “nude beach”, a section of grass next to one of the river routes where there is a culture of nude people, swimming and socializing. It was very very strange, and we had a giggle at a man that the locals call tripod, because… well you can guess. He is a regular at the park and loves to have a photo with the tourists, in exchange for a hand on your bum. We moved onto the other section of the park, where the teenagers ride the fast flowing current almost 2km down stream and then jump on a tram and catch it back to where they started. It was awesome and i was hanging for a try, but unfortunately, i didn’t bring any bathers. We got on the tram with the wet kids and travelled back to the Hostel.

I was meeting with the Canadians (Steph and Laura) for dinner. I had originally met them in Vienna. They were a little late, but we set out to grab some good dinner. We ended up at a place recommended by our Hostel for good authentic food at reasonable prices. It was a fair walk, so we took the S-Bahn, which was a very cool underground train. We got a little lost finding it, but got there eventually. It was a cute, busy little establishment, and we sat out the front in the courtyard under big trees. We all ordered the same thing, roast pork, with crackling, gravy, and a potato dumpling. It was really really good. The girls, Laura and Steph (sisters), drank beer, but i just couldn’t get myself to do it, so i stuck to Pepsi and water. We finished it all and contemplated desert, but decided against it. It took a while to get the bill; which i am used to now as service over here in Europe certainly isn’t high on their priorities, in fact i miss friendly Australian hospitality staff. We walked back to the S-Bahn and caught it back to the Hostel. We met up with one of the other Canadians, a 20 year old guy from a small town, and one of his friends, a 22 year old guy from London. We all chilled in the “winter garden”, a roof covered garden with beanbags and lounges at the Hostel. The boys took advantage of the 1.5litres of beer for 5 Euro, but i stayed off it. We all chatted and eventually retired to bed, around 1am.

Tomorrow i am hoping to do the bike tour and then i am doing the pub crawl AGAIN with Mary and Inger who get in tomorrow afternoon…