Last week I was lucky enough to take a somewhat impromptu trip to Munich. Germany wasn't really on my list of must-go countries, but I feel like this can actually make a trip better because you don't have any real expectations of awesomeness ahead of time. Because I went without much of an idea of what I wanted to see or what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised.
I found Munich to be really interesting because of the history and the ways in which it seems different from other European cities. A lot of this is because the buildings are mostly newer due to the bombing in WWII, but this makes the older buildings and those that were rebuilt in their original style stand out more. Apart from the cool architecture around the Marienplatz and at the various palaces and churches, my favourite parts of Germany were the beer gardens (I have been seriously missing the boat with German beer), the heavy and rich, but delicious, food, the surfers in the park, and going up into the Alps.
I am now an official convert to German beer. I tried at least three of Munich's six locally brewed beers and they are seriously delicious. Combine them with giant pretzels, massive hunks of meat, and lots of sauerkraut and I'm sold. One culinary highlight was a trip to Bavaria's largest beer garden called Hirschgarten where I succeeded in polishing off a one litre mug of beer, an enormous plate of sauerkraut with currywurst, and a pretzel that was larger than the plate--no exaggeration. However, this meal was rivalled by a trip to the gourmet delicatessen Dallmayr, aka, the place that I will probably go when I die. I cannot even put into words how amazing this place is. Any type of food you can imagine, they probably have. Fresh fruits and veggies, gourmet chocolates, pastries, fresh bread, fresh and prepared seafood, meats and cheeses, tea, coffee, wine, prepared salads and cooked veggies, need I continue? I had an unbelievable lunch with lots of seafood, including fresh raw oysters from France, and an absurdly good banana chocolate cake. As if this wasn't enough, dinner on my last night probably ties with this one as my favourite of the trip. It was a bit of a twist on traditional German cuisine and consisted of baked camembert with cranberry sauce, really fresh salad (have to eat veggies at some point), pork schnitzel cordon bleu, and a four-cheese spaetzle (which is like a German version of mac and cheese with fried onions on top and which I would like served to me as part of my last meal on earth). Obligatory half litre of Franziskaner beer included of course.
Sorry about that excessively long paragraph on food and beer. I just have my priorities straight. Anyway, in the little time I spent not eating or drinking, I particularly enjoyed seeing the surfers in the river in the Englischer Garten. Because of some concrete structure under the water, a permanent wave is created and for about thirty minutes, I was enthralled by the guys who jump in with their short boards and ride in place for a couple of seconds each. Besides the fact that it's really bizarre and cool to see surfers in the middle of a city, some of them were really good and fun to watch. One guy in particular did some awesome tricks such as jumping into the wave backwards and doing a headstand on his board mid-ride.
The final major highlight of my trip was a visit to the German Alps. I went up one of the mountains in a gondola and was able to explore the top a bit where they have various hiking trails and a platform that overhangs the rocky drop-off so you basically have nothing between you and some rocks a couple hundred feet below. There was also the entertainment of watching paragliders take off from the peak. There's something new to add to my bucket list.
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