All Munich! (June 17th)

Today was a fantastic start to our journey across Deutschland.  After temporarily saying goodbye to my host family, we took a four-hour bus drive from Freiburg in the state of Baden-Baden Wurttemberg to Munich in the state of Bavaria. When we arrived in Munich, I knew this was going to be an exciting day of sightseeing.

Through the help of our Irish tour guide we explored some historic sites, one of which was Munich’s famous beer garden, the Hofbrauhaus, a 5,000-seat food-and-beer palace of the royal court.  It also is the place where the Nazi Party was officially established in the 1920s. The people here drink beer in one liter glasses (2.2 pints):  absolutely outstanding! We then moved on to the lower grounds of the beer hall and the guide pointed out the outline of a barely detected swastika designed on the ceiling which cannot be removed due to the nature of the design. Also we saw the place where Hitler launched his Beer Hull Putsch (attempted uprising against the government in Bavaria in favor of National Socialism) located across from the Royal Residence. These historic relics symbolize how much history there is in the wonderful city of Munich and how unique their culture is compared to that of our own.

Also while sightseeing we stumbled across drinking fountains which we used to refill our water bottles. Due to the fact that the weather today was 30 degrees Celsius, these fountains came in handy! While in Munich, we also saw the home in which Mozart grew up in and learned of the significant impact he had on German music.  We also stumbled across a statue of Juliet from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet given to Bavarians (people from Munich), as a gift from Italians in the city of Verona. The Bavarians believe that if a male or female touches her chest, he or she will find their one true love.

All in all the sightseeing was great and I enjoyed walking for a few hours getting the exercise. We ate dinner at a special Bavarian center built twenty years ago. I ate chicken legs with potato salad which was delicious! I ended the day by buying my mother a Munich t-shirt as well as a special Bavarian drinking cup for my father. 

Arman