Munich - Day 74

Date: October 31st, 2009
Distance: None
Country: Germany
Song of the Day: Hey Jude - The Beatles

Woke up and had a late breakfast with Craig and Susie. It was a bit quiet, but I guess that was to be expected after the night we had. They were going to go on the free walking tour with me, but Craig wasn't feeling it. I still wanted to go though.

The walking tour was fantastic. Our guide, Ozzy, had just won an award for his tours. Plus he was a really fun guy. The tour consisted not just of when the buildings were built, but also Bavarian history. This started with the founding of the town to control the salt trade all the way though the beginning of the Nazi movement (which just so happened to start in Munich). Plus I guess 80% of the city was destroyed during the war. So almost everything that you see is new. All the signs still say when the structure was first built, but almost all are less than sixty years old. So I won't bore you with going over all the stuff we learned, but I highly recommend the tour. Plus it is free! (Okay, a good tip is somewhat expected.)

From there I went back to the hostel and did some stuff online. I was hoping to find a crew to get some dinner with, but no one was around. I did get some food and brought it back to the room. Because it was Halloween, I wanted to get a costume together. I figured that I could do an okay impression of a SCUBA diver. I had the camelback and a water bottle would work just fine. I needed some goggles though. So I spent some time cutting up my milk bottle and making a pair of goggles.

This is about when I met Davide and Evelyn, a couple of my roomates. Evelyn was from L.A. and I think just before she left she went to a party at my old loft there. How weird is that? Small world. Davide was from Italy, outside of Verona. Soon Evelyn's friend Emma joined us. (The had just met the day before, but were going to Berlin together the next day. I love hostels.) We were talking and having a good time. Unfortuneatly this annoyed one of the other guys in the room. I guess he was trying to sleep. I would feel sorry, but this was 9:00 PM on a Saturday night in Munich. Plus if you don't want to hang out with people, or have some crazy experience, don't stay at a hostel.

We decided it was about time to leave anyway. So headed downstairs and met up with some other people in the Hostel bar. They were all going to the Hofbrauhaus. It turns out that it was mostly a group of engineering students who were talking a semester in Germany. One of the girls, Blair, was really interested in bike touring as well. So if she is reading this, I hope you get some good ideas of what (not) to do. Another two of the guys were from Clemson, which some of you might know...

I did go to the Hofbrauhaus, and is probably one of the few people not to have a beer. (Emma had some wine, so it didn't make me feel too bad.) I did get one very large and expensive pretzel though. Mmmmmmm. Like I said, my pretzel intake has been off the charts. We were sitting with a German couple from the black forest. The guy kept calling me Reinhold Messner, because of my SCUBA outfit. Which was funny. (The really funny part is Messner was known for being the first guy to climb everest without oxygen.)

From there we were going to go to a club with the engineering students, but lost them along the way. So Davide, Evelyn, Emma and I just ended up going back to the hostel. We had a good time just chatting and hanging out, but in the end, I think we were all tired, so it ended up a much earlier night than the one before.

-Dravis