Berlin was my least favorite city that I traveled to. As a result, I wasn’t expecting much from its German counterpart of Munich.
Of course, I ended up being very happy with Munich. Out of all of the cities I traveled to, language barrier notwithstanding, Munich is the one I’d be most comfortable living in.
Day 18
We arrived in Munich in the evening, and I could sense right away that Munich felt different from Berlin. The train station was bustling with activity, people were lively and happy, and tons of food shops dotted the train station. We walked to our hostel, where I noticed that the hostel had sign-in cards with instructions written in German, Chinese, and Korean. In my book the presence of Asian food, language, or culture in a city is a good heuristic for being an awesome city, so Munich was scoring pretty well at that point.
We didn’t do much on the first evening, but as we wandered around the city we passed by even more Asian restaurants and supermarkets. Another point for Munich. We each had a VERY large schnitzel for dinner, which was definitely a bad idea, but I had to try it because it felt like a German thing to do.
Day 19
Victor had to deal with Princeton class registration during the day, so I went off to explore on my own. This was my first time exploring a city on my own since I explored London at the beginning of Hilary Term.
I strolled down the main shopping road of Munich and through Marienplatz, the center of the city. A large clock tower stood at the city center, and at noon a large crowd gathered around the tower to listen to the glockenspiel play. As the music wafted through the air, small toy figurines resembling creatures from a Disney movie moved around slowly in the tower. The crowd was disproportionately large for the relatively mundane spectacle, but I liked the vibrant atmosphere of the area.
Afterwards, I walked through a food market and tried German sausage and a smoothie. I then made my way over to the river, where I chanced upon a museum called the Deutsche Museum. This museum was a science and technology museum like the Tech Museum in San Jose, except better. It was everything 13-year-old me could have ever hoped for, and even for 20-year-old me, it was still pretty cool. I saw exhibits about mechanical engineering, nanotechnology and biotechnology, computer science, and astronomy, and the museum housed an open research laboratory. It had the same effect on me as the movie “The Martian” – it made me feel like a middle schooler who believed in the boundless potential and excitement of science. The museum even had a nice panoramic view from its rooftop. I could imagine myself growing up in Munich and visiting the museum with my family or friends every few months.
I made my way back to the hostel to find a distraught Victor, who was unable to get into some of the courses he wanted. Naturally, to make him feel better, we went to an Asian place for lunch, where we had cheap Vietnamese food. Afterwards Victor and I walked to the Central Park of Munich, which actually turned out to be very peaceful and spacious.
One innovative part of the park was an artificial wave-maker in the river for surfers.
After playing Frisbee for a while in the open grassy fields, we walked along the river past some nice buildings and graffiti.
Eventually, we came back through Marienplatz and the city center. We stopped by the Bayern Munich fan shop to buy a gift for Kevin and went back to the hostel for a break. At night we ate at Augustiner Bräustuben, a German beer hall that combines incredible food with a lively atmosphere. During our meal we saw people happily chatting with friends and strangers over mugs of beer, and a few random people played music on classical instruments in front of our table. One of the musicians got into a spirited conversation with a diner, and the conversation ended with the musician chugging what was left of the diner’s beer. In that beer hall I could picture myself as a Medieval Bavarian experiencing the best part of his day.
Day 20
Cinderella’s Castle
This was the last day of our short stay in Munich. We took a 2 hour train ride to Neuschwanstein Castle, one of Kind Ludwig II’s many castles and one of the most fairy-tale buildings in the world. After all, it is what Cinderella’s castle is based off of. Perched on top of a hill, the castle stands high above the countryside with steep cliffs surrounding each of its faces. Behind the castle picturesque snow-capped mountains tower, and a river runs past the castle hundreds of meters below it.
Legend has it that King Ludwig II was possibly mad, and at the very least he was quite lavish. He was obsessed with fairy-tales and spent millions of Bavarian dollars coming up with designs for and building new castles. His final masterpiece was Neuschwanstein Castle, where he spent less than a year living before being decreed mad and being forcibly moved. A few days after the move, his dead body was found floating in a lake. No one knows how he died, but some believe he was murdered, as his eccentric and fanciful tendencies had bankrupted Bavaria. At least he leaves behind Neuschwanstein, among a few other castles and homes, as his legacy.
We got tickets to see the inside of the castle then hiked up the hill to see Neuschwanstein in all its glory. On our hike we had beautiful views of the nearby Hohenschwangau Castle and the mountains in the distance.
Our first views of Neuschwanstein were these.
We reached the castle then circled around looking for better views. Our next views looked like these.
The iconic photo of the castle that tourists can take is from Marienbrücke bridge, which was unfortunately closed for construction. Victor and I had come to Munich almost entirely to take good pictures of this castle, so we weren’t going to let that stop us. We hiked up a steep muddy hill from the river up toward the bridge, jumped a wooden fence laced with barbed wire, and found exactly what we were looking for.
We could not have been any happier with the view we had. We spent quite a while standing next to the cliff taking in the magic of the castle, and we were glad that only a few other adventurous tourists were there to share the moment with us. This was better than the bridge would ever be. We were so entranced by the castle that we stayed for too long and missed our tour of the inside of the castle. We ended up taking a later tour, which we also almost missed.
The inside of the castle had a few colorful and ornate rooms as well as a few normal ones. Some of the patterns on the ceilings and walls reminded me of Dr. Seuss’s artwork. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside though.
Finally, we left Neuschwanstein and headed to the airport. We just barely made it onto our flight bound for Barcelona.
Munich, The City
The Housing
The hostel we stayed at was a standard youth Hostel near the central train station. It served a great breakfast buffet and had a nice bar area. We were excited to see that the hostel had special “beer pong Sundays” and “American sports Mondays,” but we were disappointed when those special things didn’t actually happen.
The Transportation
Munich had a metro system, but we were able to get around the city just by walking. On the day that we traveled to Neuschwanstein, we purchased a Bavaria card, which gave us unlimited rides on pretty much any train in Bavaria. This card was convenient for getting to and from the castle and for getting to the airport.
The Food
While I was in Berlin, I did not eat any German food other than currywurst at the airport (unless you count cheap Doner as German food). Thus, I left Berlin thinking that Germany had no interesting local food. I was completely wrong!
Despite being way too big, the schnitzel dinner we ate on the first night was delicious.
The sausages were good authentic local food.
The food at Augustiner Bräustuben included Bavarian soup, pretzels, beer, my meat platter, and Victor’s smoked salmon dish. Every bite of that food was filled with delicious flavors.
And of course, there was also Asian food.
Overall
Munich is wonderful, and would be my top choice for which city on the trip I’d want to live in for a few years. The city was both authentically German and multicultural at the same time, and seeing a healthy number of people walking around during the day was nice. The city is small enough not to feel overwhelming but large enough to be interesting. Living standards in the city appear high, and the food is great.
My mom mentioned to me that my family almost moved to Germany instead of Japan just before I was born. If things had gone slightly differently, I could have grown up in a city like Munich. What if that had happened? What would I be like?
What if I went to preschool with other kinder1 instead of Japanese schoolchildren? What if I grew up eating sausages and pretzels instead of curry and sushi? What if I went to the Deutsche Museum on weekends instead of the Tech Museum? What if I watched soccer instead of Pokémon?
After visiting Munich, I can imagine myself living and growing up there. And you know what? It wouldn’t be too bad.
(1) German word for children
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