First Stop, Munich

First of all, background on the blog:

I am a student at American University in Washington DC, who has decided to study abroad in Amman, Jordan, to improve my Arabic language skills as well as experience the Arab culture. I will be living with a host family (who I learned don't speak English) and all my classes will be in Arabic (assuming I pass the language placement exam). But right now, I'm chilling in a hostel in Munich, Germany. My flight to Amman is tomorrow evening.

My flight to Germany was great. I flew Lufthansa and would highly recommend them. This was my first time flying outside the Americas so I took a late evening flight so I would land when it is morning. Luckily, there was no one in the seat next to me so I could lie down to sleep during the flight. The Munich airport was a bit trickier to navigate than I expected, but I made it through and got on the S-bahn train that would take me into Munich. The train ride was great. It was incredibly smooth and I loved looking at all the towns we passed along the way. The first thing that struck me about my train riding experience was that although I purchased a ticket, it was never checked. No one checked on board, and I didn't need it to get into the station or on the train. I also didn't need it to exit. I concluded that the Germans must be a trustworthy people. (Although I did notice later in the main train station that you needed a ticket to enter a certain area.)

I arrived bags and all in Munich around 11:15am and I have from then until around 2/2:30pm to explore the city. I checked into the Euro Youth Hostel with no issues and I have a small, but quaint, private room. Then I started my let's-visit-Munich-for-24-hours trip.

I went to Marienplatz, which is the main square in Munich. Unfortunately, I missed the glockenspiel performance but I'm hoping to catch it tomorrow morning. I paid 1 Euro to take an elevator to the tower of Neues Rathaus where I could see the entire city (I'll post pictures later). Then I walked to Peterskirche, which is the oldest church in Munich. It was beautiful. At the back of the church is Viktualienmarkt, which is basically a market: vegetables, cheese, wine, bratwurst. According to Frommer's (which is what I used to plan this 24-hour excursion), "one can unlock the heart of Munich by visiting it." I had some bratwurst - the roll was much heartier than expected but it was very good.

Then I started to wander. I had intentions of making it to Alte Pinakothek, an art gallery, but instead I saw Max-Joseph Platz, the Royal Residence, the Theatiner-Kirche, and Hofgarten (which are the palace gardens). Then I walked north through the Universitat up to the Siegestor, where I successfully took my first handstand photo in Europe! From there I wandered over to the Englischer Garten, which is really quite beautiful. It has the quickest moving small river I have ever seen. I walked up to the Chinese Tower and then down to the small waterfalls and then made my way back to the hostel to rest up before the evening. *Please note, don't be alarmed you have no idea what all these places are - I'll post pictures later so you have a better idea. 

Currently, I am sitting in the lounge/bar of the hostel. I am drinking Augustine beer, which was recommended to me by the bartender. There's a guy in a pink sparkly blazer with a black cowboy hat playing the guitar and singing. He's played Country Road, Walking in Memphis, Sweet Home Alabama and some others I don't recognize. One of the 20 other guys came over to me and apparently it's the pink cowboy's bachelor party and he's never played the songs before - the other guys have been handing him lyrics for him to just sing. Knowing that, he's not that bad. I'm planning on going out to eat after this - more updates later.