Before leaving for Bayern, I bought a soccer ball. Since then the whole group has twice played soccer in a park in Kreuzberg, both times with local kids. That was really fun. These kids were probably about 12 years old. They were pretty good for their age, but we were a lot bigger. No one kept score, and everyone played, even if they weren't soccer-skilled. It was fun.
Bayern and the Alps were incredible. On the 18th David, Dan, and I took the Deutsche Bahn to Munich, a six hour trip. Our hostel that night was a 10-bed room at Jaeger's Hostel. That night we watched the Rugby World Cup consolation match between France and Argentina in the hostel on TV. Somehow there were tons of Argentina fans in the hostel, and no France fans. And they weren't just France-haters, because they all spoke Spanish and sang rugby songs when Argentina scored. And Argentina scored often. They trounced France. I learned a lot about rugby and british sports commentary. The next morning we saw some sights in Munich, like Frauenkirche, Alte and Neue Rathäuser (including the Glockenspiel in Neue Rathaus, a really lame animatronic wooden scene that lasts 15 minutes with figures dancing and two jousters, and a rooster at the end. We only saw about 5 minutes.), and went up in one of the domes of Frauenkirche to get a nice view of Munich from a couple hundred feet up. Frauenkirche is absolutely massive. That afternoon we met up with Hannah R., who had taken a later train, and walked around Englischer Garten, a park twice as big as Central Park. It was pretty. Dinner was had in Hofbräuhaus, a famous beer hall in Munich. I had Schweinwürstl (basically tasty sausages) with Sauerkraut and beer. It was a fun day.
The next morning David, Dan, and I hopped a morning train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a combined village of two little towns in the Alps. The Alps were unbelievable. The landscape got snowier and snowier during the hour and a half train ride, and soon mountains were in view. After some putzing around getting trail food in Garmisch, we hiked to our hostel in Burgrain, another little village nearby. Along the way there were countless beautiful views of mountains. Our youth hostel turned out to be incredibly good. We had a four bed room with individual showers across the hall, friendly staff, and cheap dinner, which I expected to be crummy, but turned out to be absolutely delicious. It was a dream hostel.
Hiking in the Alps was the most beautiful experience of my life. Both days it was lightly snowing and about 32° F. The pictures are beautiful, but they really can't do it justice at all.
Our first day in Garmisch-Partenkirchen we decided to hike over a nearby small mountain, or get as far as we could. We set out with food and six hours before dark. Eventually we came out of some woods, and for the first time got a view of the mountain. It was...mountainous. And that was only the lower peak. There was also a higher peak that we couldn't see in fog. So our goal changed to "get as far as we can". That was still pretty far. We almost reached the lower peak. The views were absolutely astonishing, and got better and better as we got higher and higher. Eventually we couldn't see the ground from where we were, because we were in fog, and it was snowing. The trail got rougher as we went up, and snow thicker, and eventually we decided that we should get down, to avoid darkness and the danger of possible escalating snowfall. Once down, we skipped into Garmisch for a nice pasta dinner, then hiked 20 minutes back to our hostel. I was pooped, but exhilarated from the absolute beauty of the place. It was the perfect winter scene, not too cold and not snowing too hard, with mountains everywhere. My expectations for the Alps were incredibly high, and they were easily easily beaten.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the hostel and got out on the trail again. This time we went to Partnachklamm Gorge, a magnificent gorge carved out by a little mountain river. The hostel lady recommended it. We had originally planned to take a cable car to a high mountain and hike down, but she told us the snow there would be a meter high, and recommended the gorge. I'm very glad she did. It was equally beautiful in a different way. The river was all rapids and a beautiful shade of blue, and the cliffs on either side were probably 60 feet tall, with tons of cool geology. It was amazing. After the gorge, we continued to hike, taking a loop up the side of a mountain, and then going in the opposite direction to the peak of a foothill/mountain called Eckbauer. From the peak we normally could have seen the entire range of big mountains around G-P, but snow limited visibility to about 500 feet. That was totally okay, because the snow was beautiful in its own right. From Eckbauer, the hike was all downhill. We stopped by Wamberg, a tiny town with about 20 buildings, the world's cutest tiniest church (thus making Wamberg an official village), and sheep/goats (we weren't sure), and then hiked back down to Garmisch. Back at the hostel, we had the incredible hostel dinner with pork, spätzle, blaukraut, some doughball things, salad, and chocolate-wafer cake, all as buffet. I ate probably 3000 calories at that meal. I was that hungry, and the food was super well made and perfect for after a hike. Very unexpected, but very welcome. After showers, we played Uno with beer, and got to bed relatively early.
It would be a dream to live in G-P one year, and be able to see the mountains through the changing of the seasons. I've never been anywhere so beautiful, and it was only a sampling of what it can be. During our stay we could have taken cable cars to Zugspitze, the highest peak, for a hefty fee, but with the snow we wouldn't have been able to see anything. Our hikes were better, prettier, less touristy, and cheaper. We had to have hiked over 15 miles over the two days, all mountainous.
With sadness and sore legs the next morning we left Garmisch-Partenkirchen for Munich again. Once there, we checked out the Neue Pinakothek, an art museum with 19th century art, then met up with Hannah R. again and went to the Deutsches Musuem, a gigantic science museum. It must be the largest museum on Earth. It had displays on everything, like mining, metals, ceramics, airplanes, space, musical instruments, etc., and we only saw a fraction. Munich actually has a ton of museums, mostly art museums. For dinner we went to Weisses Bräuhaus, another traditional German restaurant, and then made the obligatory Munich visit to a beer garden. Our choice was Augustiner Keller, where you can drink a Maß (one liter) of beer two stories below ground in a beer cellar. Everything is brick, and they serve the beer out of gigantic wooden barrels. That was fun, and a good taste of Munich culture. Also a good taste of beer.
Munich was cool, and a good way to see Bayern culture and hear Bayrisch (dialect of German, notoriously hard to understand). We saw several examples of Lederhosen, and some absolutely incredible beards and moustaches, which were probably the best part of the town. Especially in the Bräuhäuser, there were some very stereotypically German people.
That night we were back in Jaeger's, but in a four bed room. That was nicer. Jaeger's was a solid hostel, just very busy. We got lots of sleep, and the next morning took the early train back to Berlin. It took six hours again, with a change in Nürnberg this time. It was a fun trip, way better than even my high expectations. Still, it's also nice to be back.
Since then we've seen "Die Hochzeit Des Figaro" ("the marriage of Figaro"), translated into German, in the opera. That was an interesting test of being able to understand German during song. It was hard. The opera, though, was very cool. Very long, but very cool. Tonight we see "Die Physiker" on the stage. It was a really good book, written in the Cold War and concerning scientific ethics (interesting then for nuclear weapons, always for myriad reasons). It'll be interesting to see it performed.
Be sure to check out the photos of the Alps. They aren't the same, but they're still pretty. Tomorrow, I finally go to the zoo, and this Sunday and Monday, the whole group goes to Dresden. It's been great, and continues to be.
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