I fell in love with Munchen

Munchen is the German word for Munich. We obviously loved the fact that it was Munchen, because it sounds funny.
We left for Dachau concentration camp Friday morning. It was an hour outside of Munich. We got there, broke up into two groups of about 25 and headed out on our tour. The first question of the day was answered by none other than yours truly. I love history, and ended up answering most of his questions about the Holocaust and WWII. When did Hitler begin coming into power? 1933. What event happened in America and effected the rest of the world in the '30s? The stock market crash and therefore Great Depression. What sparked the beginning of WWII? The annexation of Austria. What year and if possible what month was this camp liberated? April 29th, 1945. Yes. I answered all these questions. I was on my game.
Otherwise the tour was extremely sorrowing, depressing, sad, and eye opening. Its entirely different seeing the camps in pictures as compared to actually being there. The entire site was quiet, eerie. We saw the monument stating "Never Again" in five different languages, the Catholic, Russian, Jewish, and Lutheran monuments on the site. Our guide showed us their sleeping barracks and took us to the crematorium. We saw the ovens, the chimney, the gas chambers, everything. Some kids were shocked by how much they showed us, and honestly I was too. A few people were unable to make it through the entire tour, and many didn't enter the gas chambers, crematoriums and holding rooms for the bodies. It was an extremely moving experience. Right when we were done with the tour we went to the Monastery directly behind the camp for a Good Friday Vigil. Father Brian led mass, as always (were so lucky he travels on all our trips). He had a few of us participate in reading the Gospel and I was one of them. Everyone, Catholic or not, came to the mass, which was really nice, it was good to all be together after being apart for our tours. Father Brian told us great stories and really got us in the holiday spirit.
We left, somber from our mornings events, and decided the Hofbrauhaus was the best way to change gears. It was Kiki, Chloe, Stina, Ant and Mich, Brooks, Tuck, Carl, Alex and I. We originally planned on only having one stein, lunch, and leaving. It didnt work out that way though. We all had lunch and a stein and then a second round was ordered. We met other kids from the States, one of which goes to school with, and even had class with Nick Rivers, one of mine and Brooks close friends from highschool. We hung out and talked with them for a while, and had another stein. The hours passed, new friends came and went. We saw other Gonzaga kids, met Germans, old and young. Suddenly it was night time. I met a group of German kids that were super nice and sat with them for a while. The kid next to me Lucas was a doll, and the only one who spoke English. Kiki, Lauren, Kira and I sat with the guys, had another Stein, and enjoyed learning German toast songs with them.
Everyone in our group slowly began to leave, and at midnight, the Hofbrauhaus closed. I was with Chloe. We left to find the metro. We got there fine, but when it came to finding where to go, we had some trouble. We found nice people who showed us where to go and how to get there, how to get our tickets, etc. We thanked them and went on our way. On the metro we met another kid, named Greg. Greg was from England but studying in Munich, as always, 6 degrees of separation led us to know someone similar. We ended up joining him and his friends at a bar. They were really sweet, fun kids. We talked about studying abroad, our experiences in our cities, etc. Around 4 the exhaustion hit, so Greg called us a cab and sent Chloe and I directly to our hostel.
Side Note: By far, Munich quite possibly had some of the nicest people we have met/hung out with/encountered in all of our traveling. As you can tell.
Slightly hungover we woke up the next morning, and went on a bike tour through the city. Our tour guide was crazy. Funny, out going, sometimes tried to be too funny, but all around enjoyable. I got a yellow bike (YES) and even better, they were all beach cruisers. Munich is pretty flat, so the bike ride was very leisurely. We stopped at famous sites, learned about the city, etc. The sun was shining, it was warm, we all took off our coats and soaked up the sun. We went to the second largest garden in the world, and in it, a huge beer garden. We stopped for lunch and a beer.. well, some people had beers. I had a fanta. We got back on the bikes and rode to a place on the river where surfers can go to ride the waves that come from a place in the river that is dammed up. We saw more sites, nude people laying out, kids playing, churches, statues, etc.
Yannick had been messing around on his bike all morning. Doing all kinds of tricks, and obviously making me nervous. I warned him a plethora of times, and always heard back. "Okay mom". By the end of the day he had flipped off his bike and completely annihilated his hands. I hated saying I told you so, but after wrapping up his hands, I did. haha
After the bike tour everyone broke up to do their own things. Chloe and I went with Tucker, Carl and Brooks to the BMW world and Museum. It was really cool. Beautiful cars, interactive areas to learn about them, etc. Tucker and Carl are huge car fanatics and sat there telling Chloe and I ALLL about engines and every part of a car you can imagine. It was fun to learn about what they love and see the cars. The museum had cars from the 1930s all the way till now. We fell in love with all of them, of course.
After the museum we went back to the hostel, napped, and Chloe and I left for mass. No one else had wanted to go because we were warned of the length of mass. Chloe and I are used to longer holiday masses though, and decided it would be weird to have an Easter without going to mass. We went, and couldnt be happier we did.
The cathedral was HUGE. It was St. Michael's Cathedral (google it). It was greatly damaged in WWII (as was 70% of Munich) but was restored to its original architecture after. We walked in and saw people standing, and were confused. We walked farther in to see that every single pew was completely full and that hundreds of people were standing, and even more were just sitting on the floor. The place was packed. We saw that there was a balcony, so we went to find how to get up there. We found a staircase and made our way up. Every light in the cathedral was turned off, the place was completely black. Then, the priest and about 20 alter boys and girls came in holding candles. At each pew, the person at the end would have their candle lit, and pass on the light to their pew. As the priest and alter kids made their way down, eventually every person held a lit candle. It was quite a sight to see. Chloe and I were bummed we were candle-less, but enjoyed the beautiful sight nonetheless. We were able to follow along for the most part, understanding when each reading happened, and the Gospel. We whispered to each other the stories we guessed they were telling. We guessed when the Apostles Creed happened and the Our Father, and recited them quietly in English. When it came time for communion, a man motioned us to follow him. There were about 8 people in our balcony with us, so we all followed. We passed the sacristy, and Chloe and I both got nervous. He opened a door and all of a sudden we were on the Alter. Actually, behind the alter is a better description. We were in a long line of people, walking towards the back of the church, and then when the line swerved turned to face out towards the rest of the church, it was an unbelievable sight to see the hundreds of people getting communion. A nun gave us our communion, and we headed back to our seats. They used incense, and the alter kids were a huge part of the ceremony. They were broken up on the two sides of the aisle, boys and girls, and from inside to outside, from shortest to tallest.
The mass lasted 2.5 hours, and at the end, Chloe and I stayed to look around the church and see the pictures from the war. We went to meet up with our friends at a bar after and went home early with Kiki around 1.
Sunday we had to wake up early and head over to Neuschwanstein castle. It was two hours outside of Munich, and when we arrived we had about an hour to wander. We went into shops, walked down the streets, got postcards and went into a restaurant for hot chocolate. We began the trek up to the castle. It was about a 30 minute uphill walk to get there, and, walking next to Chloe (6 ft tall) was more of a sprint. On the way up we ran into other Gonzaga kids playing a new found game. A sort of battle of sexes. The girls would give the boys a word that EVERY girl would know, and the guys would try to guess what it was. And then the boys would do it back. We started with Bangles. Every girl knows that Bangles are metal bracelets. Kirk defined it as "When your bangs are all tangled up." We realized this was a PERFECT road trip game and the girls and guys teamed up to come up with words before we got back on the bus.
The tour through the castle was short and sweet. They took us through a few rooms but only on one floor because a majority of the castle was never completed. It was meant to have over 110 rooms, but only 16 are completed. She told us some history, we asked a million Disney questions, and she answered them happily. We argued over whether it was Cinderella's or Sleeping Beauty's castle and she didnt have an answer. She did however, tell us that one of the paintings in the castle is what inspired the man who came up with the story of Bambi. King Ludwig lived there alone, he liked being alone she told us. He had an obsession with swans, and had a man made cave built in it just for fun. The castle is built up on the mountain for the sole purpose of looking down on his father's castle. He only lived there 152 days before he died.
We left the castle, a bit unsatisfied, but when we caught the view of the outside again, felt better. The outside is really whats stunning about it.
On the walk down we stopped for "snow balls" doughy balls covered in sugar. Obviously delicious.
On the bus we played our game. Us girls used mostly clothing and accessory terms, and the boys gave us car and sports terms. We won, big time. I knew most of the sports terms so did Amanda and Kiki and one of the other girls knew the car terms. There were some we had no idea about, but the guesses they would come up with were hilarious. We gave them; Romper, clutch, wedges, bangles, and spanks. Carl did get romper, but after Kirk and Cooper took some funny guesses.
I got ERA, RBI, Intentional grounding. Kiki explained cylinders and horsepower. They were frustrated we won, and we all sat to watch the on-bus movies.
It took a long time to get home because of the rain but we finally made it home by 10. We were all pretty bummed to spend our Easter on a bus, but Shelly and Linda (student life staff) gave us chocolates as a present.
I got to talk to the family when I got home, did some homework, STILL have not unpacked, and went to bed. Today has been spent in jammies, writing papers, blogs, putting up pictures, and recovering from a long, fun, weekend.
Lots of Love and Buona Pasqua!