Thursday, February 11, 2016

Kein Karneval nur Schlösser

This past weekend was not filled with as much Karneval as a normal bonner would like, but instead filled with castles and more castles. A group of 12 students and myself, went to Munich for the weekend. While we were in Munich, we decided to get an extra train ticket to Fussen for the day on Saturday. I would have to say that this past weekend was probably the funnest weekend so far in Germany.

On Thursday evening when we were about to catch our night train to Munich, I was feeling pretty ill. I went back and forth multiple times in my head trying to decide on if I really wanted to go to Munich for the weekend. It wasn't because I didn't want to go, but because I felt really sick. I finally ended up deciding to go ahead and go since my train ticket was already bought and the plans were already made. That night on the train, I somehow managed to get approximately five hours of sleep. Friday morning when we arrived in Munich at 6 am, I was feeling pretty good!

Friday we spent our morning walking around the city, and just getting used to being in a different town. We took a city tour with our whole group, but ended up leaving early to go get food and to checkin to our hostel. I got lucky with the hostel, by getting to stay in the private room. This room had three beds and a private bathroom. We finally got to take showers once we were all checked in. The other group that was staying in the "public" room, didn't get to checkin to their room until later in the afternoon, so pretty much everyone in our group took showers in the one private room that we had. Friday evening we all went out to Augustiner, a well known restaurant. Here, I got the chance to try my first liter of german beer. It was actually very good! I am usually not one to be a beer drinker, but I really didn't mind it. The rest of the evening was spent catching up on some much needed sleep!

Saturday we awoke quite early to meet at the hauptbahnhof to catch our train to Fussen for the day. As we were coming into Fussen, I noticed beautiful mountains covered with snow. I now knew what my host mom was talking about when she said that Fussen was one of the prettiest mountain regions in Germany. The main reason for going to Fussen was to see the two castles that are located on the snow-covered mountains. When we reached the mountain, we realized that in order to catch the last train back to Munich at five o'clock we were only going to be able to tour one castle. We all unanimously decided to tour Neuschwanstein. My host dad informed me before I left that Neuschwanstein translates to 'new swan stone'. The castle was built approximately 200 years ago by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Like most castles, it was very beautiful, and I truly got to feel like a princess for the day. The castle resembled the one in disneyland.

Sunday we went to Dachau to see the concentration camp from the Holocaust. This was a very interesting, but very sad experience. The camp depicted the sadness and torment of the people that were kept there during the Holocaust. It was a great learning experience, and I'm glad that I got to experience such a thing. Later that evening we returned to Munich, and went to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner that night. There I got to drink yet another liter of beer, but this time I had the dark beer that originated in Bavaria. The meal was very good, and the company was great.

Monday we caught our train to come home at noon. We returned back to Bonn around 5 pm. The weekend was filled with many adventures and great friends. All in all I'm very glad I decided to leave Bonn for the weekend to go to Munich and Fussen.

No comments:

Post a Comment