Munich Day 2

Saturday morning we woke up around 8 to make sure we had enough time to get things done since things were actually open! Three of us, Lindsay, Marty and me, all went to the local market to walk around. We spent time at a nearby store and ended up buying Dirndl - the traditional Bavarian dress...more likely known as a beer girl's outfiit! I tried it on and just couldn't not buy it!! SO cute and now I have my Halloween costume for a few years :-) We met up with everyone else after that and went to the beer garden near the market for lunch --> Check out that pretzel, huge! I literally lived off of pretzels and beer for the weekend...really healthy I know.

1pm we met in the Marienplatz to meet a tour group that we were told we had to go on. The guides were awesome and I learned so much about Munich! I had no idea how involved it was in Hitler's rise in Germany. It was where he attempted his 'Beer Hall Putsch' where he tried to militarily begin a revolution but failed and was put in jail (where he wrote Mein Kampf- his book outlining his extreme viewpoints). Once out, he gained power politically. We saw the room he threw a party in as soon as he got word that a Jewish man killed a member of his political team, giving Hilter a reason to attack. A few days later, Kristallnacht occurred in Munich as well as close by Austria. Some interesting stuff!! Our tour lasted around 3 hours and we visited the main sites around the city and learning a ton! We ended at the famous Hofbrauhaus for a few beers and saw an Oompha Band! (sooo cool)

We left to get back to the hostel, shower and get my drinking dress on for the night. We did a "Beer Challenge" with the same tour company that did our day tour. About 60 people met at the designated meeting spot, signed up and began our tour at a popular beer garden. We stayed there for an hour before going to the next beer hall, Augustiner, where they brew the Pope's Beer - the only beer that the Pope will drink. Next stop was the Lowenbrau beer hall and finally a club that (luckily) was really close to our hostel. It was a late/really fun night :-)

Sunday morning/10 am checkout came too soon but we packed up and left our luggage behind the front desk since our train didn't leave until 4pm...another idea that would have been great had it not been Easter and everything closed. We ended up splitting up for lunch and Lindsay, Ryan and I decided to have our Easter Brunch at the Hofbrauhaus. We got there around 11am but by 12:30 (no doubt when church began to let out) it was packed! There was drinking, singing (I know a few German beer songs now) and music...it was a blast! We stayed there for most of the day and stopped by the Englisher Garten on our way back. Inside there is a river that pitches a wave and a ton of surfers hang out there. Check out the video, pretty random in the middle of Germany! We got our train back and didn't get to Riva until past midnight but I had such a good time!