Vita è Bella!

Backpacking Through Europe! (1st of 3 parts)

A week ago, my friend Ellen and I set out on the most incredible adventure yet. We left for Munich after a very rushed final day of classes and an alarming taxi ride, and soon found ourselves in Munich, Germany. There, we met up with my good friend Kimberley, and left for our first stay in a real hostel. It was quite an experience... the hostel gave us a card for a free beer, which we cashed in, and I was distressed to discover that, in spite of my German and Irish roots, I still don't like beer. Oh well. Our room was right above the bar, so it was kind of hard to fall asleep, but we did our best. The next morning, we went to Neuschwanstein Castle, pictured above. It was the most beautiful castle I have ever seen, not that I've seen many! The Disney castle in Disneyworld is modeled after it. King Ludwig lived here just before he went insane and died mysteriously. It's an interesting place! It was really fun to hike around, too. Waterfalls and trails and valleys... and snow!

Here are the three of us brave explorers. This was the third attempt at a picture with the castle (The first man didn't get the castle in the background, and then I tried holding the camera, but we finally found someone capable of helping us out!)

This is one of the views from inside the castle. The tour was shorter than expected, but it left more time for...

Hiking!! This was so beautiful. I tried to get closer but got scared, because the snow was a little slick. We were so tired after our day of hiking and exploring that we just crashed back at the hostel. Still didn't get much sleep, but again, we tried.

The next morning, we decided to take a tour of the Dachau Memorial Site, at the location of the former Dachau Concentration Camp. It was one of the most powerful things I have ever done, and I can scarcely comprehend what I saw there. I will likely grapple with the sheer magnitude of what I saw there, and what happened there, for the rest of my life. Dachau was the first concentration camp, and thousands went through there. An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 died there, which is actually kind of small compared to the 1.2 million in Auschwitz. Still... I was overwhelmed and deeply appalled by the size of the place, and it was very hard for me to see. I'm sure I'll post more about that soon... it will take a post of its own, I'm sure.

The original door to proclaim, "Arbeit Macht Frei," literally, "Work makes freedom." Ironically dark and twisted Nazi phrase to welcome new members of the camp.

Inside one of the nicer buildings, where they held important political and religious figures and conducted some awful experiments. It didn't feel right to take many pictures, so I don't have a lot from there. It's all too vivid in my memory, though...
Never again. (Five different languages.)

At least... we pray...
After the tour, we decided to explore Munich! This is the Glockenspiel, which we got to hear the following day at noon. It was pretty cool. We wandered into Marienplatz, the main square, witnessed an anti War in Iraq demo, went into a view churches, and eventually walked around the Englischer Gartens.

This awesome Chinese Palace was at the center of the Englischer Gartens! Too fun.

Next stop: Hofbrauhaus! You can't go to Munich without experiencing life at this lively beer hall. And goodness, it was everything I expected and more. Loud, merry, and amusing!

Yes, I know what you're thinking family. Scandalous! But keep in mind, this is legal here. And I most definitely did not finish this thing! The man brought us out three ENORMOUS beers, which we stared at incredulously, and the people at the tables around us got a kick out of watching us sip those things. They were highly amused!

And, once again... I don't even like beer. But just for that night, we decided to embrace the spirit and get the full Hofbrauhaus experience. :-)

Keeping up with that spirit, we got equally enormous pretzels to serve as around dinner! Feasting on pretzels and beer... oh, what a night. Gotta love Germany.


The next morning we went in search of a Palm Sunday Mass, and on our way there were some beautiful flowers. This one was my favorite! So bright. Keep in mind I haven't touched up any of these photos yet... I'll have to do that when I get home, though.


So this is the inside of the Frauenkirche, where we ended up going for Mass. I do believe it's my favorite church in all of Munich. I can't even tell you how beautiful the architecture is! It's incredibly tall and rather awe-inspiring, yet simple and pure. I really like it. So we went there for Mass, and wound up in the middle of an amazing outdoor procession! There was a children's choir, a little band, and people all over holding bouquets of pussy willows and pine branches.

In the band accompanying the children's choir was a Russel Crowe lookalike. We were so startled by the resemblance that we took a picture! Actually, we took a couple.

The choir was pretty much adorable. It was really fun watching them get set up! Their directors are very snappy and do a great job keeping them in line. At one point, a girl started to duck under the arm of the director to pass him and go to the other side. Without even glancing down, he reached down and grabbed onto the top of her choir robe and pulled her back towards the other side. I chuckled a bit... reminded me of when I was in children's choir, way back when.

There was a beautiful outdoor procession, and Kardinal Wetter, a retired Cardinal in Germany, presided over the Mass. We all processed around the entire church before going inside for Mass. I was able to understand much more of the Mass than I expected! All that German in high school really paid off. I was the unofficial spokeswoman and translator over the course of the entire week, actually.

After Mass, we went to hear the Glockenspiel (so cool!) and then headed into a McDonald's for some McFlurries. Mine was an Amarena Crisp (cherry croissant type of thing) and quite good. I enjoyed the "Ich liebe es" (I love it) on the balloons!

We then decided to follow the advice of a random pamphlet from our hostel and check out a museum dedicated to some comedians, one whose name was Valentin, I believe? It was really weird. We didn't really understand a lot of it, but discovered a hilarious curved mirror! This is one of my favorite pictures of the several we took.

We then left the city by train for Salzburg, after stocking up on some German candy in the Hauptbahnhof (the main train station). It was a beautiful ride... I couldn't get enough of the countryside.

And then, when we pulled into Salzburg, we were greeted by the most solid and beautiful rainbow I have ever seen! We had plenty of time to look at it, too, seeing as we missed our stop on the bus and had to ride it back around the city.

Ohhh, what a journey. And it was beginning all over again!


I loved Salzburg.

posted by Sarah @ 12:21 AM