So...Welcome to Germany!
Germany was a wild week. Lindsey and I made a last minute decision to meet her friend Hector in Munich, travel up through Germany together and separate in Berlin. We arrived in Munich the night before Hector was flying in. Hotels were hard to come by because of Oktoberfest. Our hotel was actually 20 miles outside the city in a small town called Friesing. That night we walked around the town and had dinner. I am glad we stayed in this town as it was our first time being away from the hustle and bustle of cities and tourism. It was a true Bavarian town. The town had one main shopping street, and we had dinner at an authentic Bavarian restaurant.
The next day we met up with Hector. It took us a while to settle in, but we eventually made it into Munich and headed straight for Oktoberfest. The place is literally like a huge carnival with rides, games, food, and giant beer tents. Each tent had a band in the middle with benches and tables that surrounded it. Oktoberfest is everything you think it would be, but even crazier.
Our first day there we arrived at 2PM, and were home by 9PM. None of us really recall how we made it 20 miles back to Friesing but we did. The second day we got a very slow start! We had lunch in Friesing, and did some shopping. We tried on some Bavarian clothes….. don’t we look great!!!
We then headed back to Munich for round 2. This time we got there later and all the tents were already rocking and rolling. We found a great tent and decided to stay in this 1 all night. When we walked in the band was playing, “We are the Champions.” The whole place was singing and dancing. The beers are enormous at Oktoberfest, but we needed to catch up. It only took 1, and we were ready to join the fun. We met some Germans who were very kind. The invited us to their table. Everyone stands on the seats the whole time. They taught us the drinking songs so we could join in. Oktoberfest was a wild experience. Unfortunately, this is all we saw of Munich. I guess we will have to return next year.
We decided to visit Dresden on our way up to Berlin. Lindsey had a family friend who invited us to stay at his apartment for the night. In my own words, Tim was the man! Not only was he inviting, friendly, and knowledgeable…. he was crazy. We were a little worn out from Oktoberfest, but Tim was ready to rock. He first showed us around the city, acting as our own personal tour guide. We then went to a Greek restaurant. Everything on the menu was 7.77 euro. The food was delicious. After dinner Tim drove us around the city. We walked into a club to see how the action was. Turns out it was too dead for Tim. Instead we relaxed at a very comfortable hookah bar.
The following day Tim left early for work, and we headed out to explore the town on our own. The city of Dresden was completely demolished in War World II. When I say completely, I mean the entire place was left as rubble. It was fascinating to see how it has been rebuilt over the years. One particularly interesting story was how they rebuilt the church. They took each piece of rubble and analyzed it to determine where it belonged. This is why the church looks the way it does. We also ventured inside and to the top of the church. From the top you had a great view of the entire city.
That afternoon we boarded a train to Berlin. We got to the city at night and immediately realized that Berlin was a very large city. We decided the best way to see the whole city was to hop on a tour bus. The tour buses were actually great. You pay a small fee and you can get on and off the bus all day long as it makes numerous stops around the city. I feel I learned a lot about Germany and their post war struggles while in Berlin. We saw the remaining segments of the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag, Check Point Charlie, and the Check Point Charlie Museum...and many more famous sights.
In the museum we learned about many of the crazy, creative, and daring ways people made it over the Berlin Wall and into Western Germany. Tim recommended we visit this museum saying he could spend 4 hours there, we thought he was crazy to spend that long in a museum, until we ended up staying for about 3 hours ourselves!
Overall, Germany was wild, exiting, moving, and educational. Lindsey and I said farewell to Hector late Friday night and heading off the airport to catch our 2:00AM flight to Istanbul. We are officially leaving the cold weather and should be in flip flops for the remainder of our trip!
Stay Thirsty My Friends,
Matt and Lindsey
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