Munich day 1

Yesterday morning I woke up on my own, after spending a good chunk of last night (I was probably up until 3:30 AM) waiting for Max to get back from barhopping. I probably only got about five hours of sleep, which rarely happens to me. My body did not like that, but I did wake up on my own. Weird. Anyways, I woke up Max at 9:15, and it really did take the dude 45 minutes to get ready to leave. More, actually. I have no idea what he was doing for all that time, because I was downstairs on the internets and getting a cereal breakfast. Cereal is delicious when you haven’t had it for awhile.

In any case, we made our train that was at 11 AM, after a little worrying when a bus took longer than expected to arrive. The ride was 5 ½ hours from Berlin to Munich, but it was painless. Train travel in Europe is like that. Plus, this train was especially spiffy. Anyways, we got into our hostel soon after arrival into the Munich main train station, because our hostel is a 2 minute walk from there. Convenient. Max and I checked in, then headed down to a Christmas market in a park south of the city. It was cool, just like those in Berlin. America needs Christmas markets like this, with the Gluhwein (hot spiced wine) and happy families walking around all merry-like. I’m not a Christmas guy (I prefer Thanksgiving), but I would be if Christmas was more of a communal celebration like it is in Germany. From there, we decided to go to this one restaurant because it was the “original brewery in Munich” and it sold “cow cheeks”, among other weird dishes. Plus, it is right near the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer hall in Munich as well as our final destination of the night.

The restaurant ruled. I had a bread soup thing with Munich-style sausage (whatever that means), and it was way more food than I anticipated. We also spent the meal talking to Germans who were happy to discuss life with some young Americans. Good times. The best, however, was the beer; it was easily the best beer I have ever had. So, so delicious. I’m not a huge beer guy, but this stuff, an in-house brew, is so good. According a dude we were eating with (the place was packed, and you just sat wherever there was room), locals eat there all the time because the food and especially the beer is so good. Chalk another one up for Lonely Planet. The beer hall was fun as well, but I got no beer, because I knew it would not live up to the previous beer I had just consumed. Max confirmed my suspicions. And now we are back at the hostel, ready for a new day.