From Lederhosen to Litres of Hofbräuhaus

Guten tag! This edition of “Denmark Today. Tomorrow the World” will cover the highlights of my Berlin and Munich trip that I took earlier in September. Instead of doing Christmas gifts this year, Curtis and I decided we would do one big (and mildly costly) trip as our “gift to each other”. I sometimes call myself a “low-key hippie” and would totally prefer gifts that are experiences over a consumeristic good that I probably don’t actually need. (Yes, Mira, you didn’t actually need the $50 Becca highlighter you asked for Christmas in 2015). With that, we started planning and booking this trip in August!

For readers of this blog who are looking into an exchange in Copenhagen, or an exchange in general, I recommend booking Oktoberfest as early as you possibly can. Curt and I booked in August and bunks in a hostel were going for $300 CAD per night! Also, I hear “The Tent Munich” is the place to stay. Imagine those tents used for Indian weddings with bunk beds in it and you get a good photo of “The Tent Munich”. However, even that was booked up in August! Also, let me tell you, prices sky rocket. I’m not even going to mention how expensive my flight back from Munich was because frankly I am still in denial. That being said, it is a once in a lifetime experience and I really recommend going! With all that intro blurb, let’s get to it!

Wednesday, September 19^th:

I got to Berlin way earlier than Curtis. That being said, my flight to Berlin was $16 CAD. Can we take a minute? You can’t even get some decent sushi in Copenhagen for $16 CAD! I pay more for a transit day pass at home than I did for a flight to another country. If I wanted a meal on my $300 Air Canada flight to Prince George, I would pay more than my flight to another country in Europe. Let that sink in.

Okay, that aside. I then transited to a Starbucks that was our communal meeting spot because Curtis’s phone spontaneously decided to completely stop working before our trip. To make things better, the maps/ GPS on my phone doesn’t work. Nice. So I had to download the maps to get there before getting to Germany. Double Nice.

After a long 6 hours at Starbucks, in which I managed to almost fully catch up on my International Business Environment readings, I finally met up with Curtis. Both super hungry, we chose this street food vendor selling Bratwurst. Bratwurst was essentially hot dog but not just any hot dog. First of all, the meat was better than the fake meat you get in your $ 2.99 hot dogs in the back of Superstore. Secondly, they use TWO weiners. The meat to bread ratio is insanely knocked off balance, but also surprisingly tasty. Both thirsty, we decided to purchase some water. Mistake it was. It was $10 for water! Tourist trap move. We filled up our reusable water bottles in Starbucks for the rest of the trip

With full tummies we started our day at the Bradenburg Gates. Here’s the down low on the gates:

“The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the (temporarily) successful restoration of order during the early Batavian Revolution… Today [it] is considered not only as a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.” – source

Yes, I took that quote from Wikipedia. I apologize to all the elementary school teachers who are upset by that decision. The gate was really beautiful, but Curtis gave us an hour and a half allotment to see it. We saw it, we admired it, and walked through it all in 20 minutes. There’s no real activities, just a beautiful monument.

After that we walked to the Reichstag, the German parliament buildings. Again, a beautiful exterior. We lined up to see the interior to be told you have to book and provide forms to be let in months before your visit. Yikes. Our bad. At this point we were a solid 2 hours ahead of schedule.

We then visited the Holocaust memorial site. This is a work of modern art at the top, and the bottom hosts a history museum. The art is in the form of what is essentially a soccer field size worth of cement blocks on an uneven ground. I remembered Mr. Benoit talking about this in Sciences Humaines, but couldn’t remember the significance behind the art. One of the theories is that grey slabs represent the loss of identity during the Nazi regime. We decided to also do the Museum which talked about the war and all of the events in one room, a room full of postcards and letters found, and a room that told the stories of some Jewish families of the time. The first room gave me a real appreciation of what a good social studies teacher I had in high school. Everything he taught was so clear, and well engrained in my memory. The first room, I read things and remembered learning all of it. Mr. Benoit took the time to show us video clips and photos from his personal trips to help us remember things and really show us the importance of learning about the Nazi Regime and World War 2. The second room with salvaged post cards from different victims of the holocaust was extremely sad. What made me most upset was a post card from a mother writing to her daughter. You could tell she is distressed and would do anything for her daughter. Her card roughly read “If you get this, do this to reach dad. Try finding Auntie here. Maybe she can help you.” And other sentiments of a mother really only caring about her daughter surviving. It made me think of my parents and how much they would sacrifice if they and how much pain they would be in if they were in the same situation. My parents do everything for me for the littlest things, and that post card really solidified the love of parents and what they were put through during the time.

Once we were done at that museum, we had done everything scheduled but still had time! We decided to visit the Berlin Wall, which was on our plan for the following day. However, it felt like a waste to call it a day when 2 of 3 planned activities were shorter in time duration than we had anticipated.

We headed toward the Berlin wall, only getting slightly lost because German is a very different language than English and the GPS doesn’t work on my phone. When we finally made it, we walked along the Berlin wall for sunset. Then at the end, there was an opening to a water front and some live music. Curt and I sat on the grass and took in the sunset and moment.

We then decided it was time to head to our Air BnB. This is when we got real lost. Unfortunately, this happened to also be the time I got really hangry. It was not a fun experience. Our Air BnB was real cute and cozy and relatively centrally located (besides getting lost). It was also conveniently located across from an Aldi and a liquor store.

We dropped off our heavy backpacks and jetted off to get some food. Right beside the Aldi was also a small Japanese food restaurant that was super cheap. Not only was the food cheap and yummy but we got half of a litre of beer for 2 euros each! I got Beck’s because I have that Ab-In Bev Pride.

Thursday, September 20^th:

Let me tell you about how to live on a budget. We got breakfast from our Air BnB (Talk about a W), but were still kind of hungry. We hit up Lidl and got breakfast AND lunch stuff for $9 CAD. By “lunch stuff” I mean bread, cheese, and meat (no mayo, no lettuce, nothing else). Still a W because we also got some pastries and snacks for the day. First stop was the Pergamon Museum, which is arguably Berlin’s most controversial museum. Here’s the down low:

The Pergamon Museum is situated on the Museum Island in Berlin…The Pergamon Museum houses monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar, the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, the Market Gate of Miletus reconstructed from the ruins found in Anatolia, as well as the Mshatta Facade.” – source

That being said, the Altar is closed for renovation until 2023. The Pergamon was an amazing museum. I’ve never seen full on buildings in a museum before and the whole thing was pretty incomprehensible. I encourage my readers to look up some of the exhibits to get an idea of how truly beautiful everything was. In particular, the Ishtar Gate of Babylon was my favourite. It was partly reconstructed, and part made from pieces of the real gate which was constructed in 575 BCE! Can you even wrap your head around that?!

After a couple hours we headed out and ate our sad student budget lunches in a park with a fountain and live music ride across from our next stop: The Berlin Cathedral. The Berlin Cathedral was a beautiful cathedral situated on Museum island in Berlin. It is a major work of historical architecture and was first completed (the first building at least) in 1451. It blows me away how beautiful the churches in Europe are. We took the stairs up to the panoramic viewing platform, which gives a stunning over view of the city. There was also a mini museum on the church and then you can visit the crypt. That was an odd concept to me. They say a picture is worth 1000 words, so here you go:

Next up: Check Point Charlie. Check Point Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (source). It was pretty underwhelming; it is literally just a hut. But, it’s a must see therefor, we saw it.

After that we decided to go for dinner a bit early. I chose what, according to my google search, was an authentic German restaurant. When we got there I deemed my google search correct, since there was not a tourist in sight. The people eating at the restaurant were all local- and speaking German! The women serving also wore traditional Bavarian wear and the interior was tastefully, cozily decorated. I had pork schnitzel and Curtis had beef roulade and we had beer, because when in Germany, you drink beer. If I am being completely transparent, I did not like the schnitzel. I tried to like it, but I really didn’t. The potato and bacon side was delicious though. I mean, who doesn’t like potatoes and bacon? Curtis later told me he could tell I didn’t like the schnitzel, apparently acting is not my strong suit.

We then headed home, and decided to stop into the liquor store across from our Air BnB and try out some different German Beers. We drank them while watching New Girl that evening. My ideal night for sure. My favourite beers were definitely the ginger beer and the Radler, while they were low percent, they were so yummy. I’ve attached some photos for my readers to scour their local liquor stores for these gems.

Friday, September 21^st:

RISE AND SHINE. We had to be up at 3:00 AM to train and arrive at the airport in time for our 6:00 AM flight to Munich. Nice. The cons to getting the cheapest flights possible? You also get the worst times. We flew Lufthansa though, which was a nice change from low cost carriers because we got to pick seats and get goodies. Ah, the little luxuries of the bourgeois. We arrived in Munich and it was tourist filled. The amount of English spoken sky rocketed because 70% of the people in the airport were tourists arriving for Oktoberfest.

Our first stop of the day was Dachau. A small informational piece of Dachau follows:

On March 22, 1933, a few weeks after Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reich Chancellor, a concentration camp for political prisoners was set up in Dachau. This camp served as a model for all later concentration camps and as a “school of violence” for the SS men under whose command it stood. In the twelve years of its existence over 200.000 persons from all over Europe were imprisoned here and in the numerous subsidary camps. 41.500 were murdered. On April 29 1945, American troops liberated the survivors.” – source

It was a very sad, but important trip. The initial building that we toured with the memorial museum in it was built by prisoners of the camp. Then we visited the bunkers which made me sick. They even made standing cells in which prisoners would have to stand for days on days in the cells with no food or water. It was heart breaking. Then we visited the barracks. However, these were reconstructed and many of the photos shown made the living conditions look much more desirable as they were used as SS Propaganda. The stories of some soldiers written on the walls were truly heart breaking, for example if the sheets had so much as a crinkle in them the prisoners would be physically punished repeatedly. The last part of the memorial we visited were the gas chambers and crematorium. This part by far made me the most upset. I felt like I was going to hurl. The first room was where the prisoners would strip off their clothing. They were then taken to a room where they would be instructed on how to use the “showers” inside the following room. Shower heads were installed in the gas chambers that followed to increase believability. Following the chambers was the crematorium and a room in which the bodies were put in. On the day the prisoners were released, police found up to 3,000 bodies in that room. Standing on that floor, looking at that photo, made me incredibly upset. While it was an upsetting day, it was important for Curtis and I to visit a concentration camp and pay our respect to the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

After our lunch break we went to Munich Residenz. Here’s the down low:

“The Residenz in central Munich is the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach monarchs of Bavaria. The Residenz is the largest city palace in Germany and is today open to visitors for its architecture, room decorations, and displays from the former royal collections.”

Curtis and I toured the Residence, but came too late in the day to be allowed to do the Treasury as well. Like every palace I’ve visited in Europe, again, absolutely stunning. What blew me away the most about this museum was their exhibit on dining as a Royal. Their dining sets were incredibly large, elegant and expensive as a symbol of superiority and prestige. Check out the photo Curtis too of the Portrait room below. Yes, there is a room dedicated to self-portraits. The life of the royal’s man, what a life to live.

Our last stop of the day was Marienplatz. MarienPlatz is the city square in Munich. However, for us the experience was not as great as the entire square was packed corner to corner with tourists. You could barely walk! Furthermore, there was a pop up Drindl and Lederhosen Shop everywhere you looked. It was absolutely transformed to capitalize off the millions of tourists that visit during the two-week celebration. We picked up a stein for Curtis’s dad who collects them , bought some groceries for dinner, and headed home.

Our Air BnB was far. In order to save on costs, we chose an Air BnB about 45 minutes out of Munich. It was also a brand new listing with no reviews so we got it for $50/night. Risky, but what a win! Except for the first night it took us 1.5 hours to get home since we missed our first train. I got very hangry very quickly. Then our bus driver didn’t let us off at our stop, leaving us lost in the suburbs of Munich. What a time to be alive. We got to our Air BnB, chatted with our super friendly hostess, and called it a night around mid-night. Keep in mind we had been up since 3:00 AM.

Saturday, September 22^nd:

So we slept in because we were so exhausted. Which was a BAD move. You have to get to the grounds between 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM on opening day of Oktoberfest. We woke up at 7:15. I quickly got ready, had no breakfast and called a cab to make sure we’d get there quickly.

There was a solid 2,000 people in front of us in line. All in Dirndls and Lederhosen. If there’s one thing I regret about my Oktoberfest experience it is not wearing the traditional wear. In my tent I could not find a single girl who was not in a Dirndl except me. Although they come at a hefty cost, at a low of 80 Euros ($120 CAD) per dirndl, I really do believe you’ll have more fun in one. I know I felt very self-conscious and was even asked by a German girl why I wasn’t wearing one. You can rent and also look for them used if you’re not feeling the hefty price tag that comes with a new one. That being said, don’t come in a “Sexy Dirndl” costume off Amazon. That’s just distasteful. Respect that it is traditional wear for Bavarians and should not be treated as a costume.

Right before the gates opened a huge group of Americans ran through the security gates, causing a portion to fall, and trampling a security guard. It was full on hunger games getting in. Curt and I decided not to go in that way because it felt morally wrong not to wait in line. We got in pretty quickly being a party of two with one tiny bag. Our initial goal was to go into the Lowenbrau Tent (Ab-In Bev Pride friends!), but we couldn’t find it and time was ticking to get into a tent. So we ran into the closest tent with happened to be Hofbräuhaus. This is a huge tent, that is really popular amongst tourists. This was nice, as we were guaranteed to sit beside English-speakers. Even then, we struggled to find a spot. We walked all the way to the back of the tent, and asked to slide onto the end of a table given that we were a small group of two. The couple agreed and ended up being our besties for the day! Thomas and Amy were two honey mooners from the U.S. The thing about the first day of Oktoberfest is that you have to wait until noon for the mayor to tap a keg for the day to actually start. So, despite waking up at 7, arriving at 8, and getting in at 9, you spend 3 hours waiting for beer. We played heads up with Amy and Thomas to get the time to fly. The Count Down was so fun and the energy was so high. We finally got our first round of beers 45 minutes after the first keg had been tapped but after that the beer kept flowing for hours on end. The whole thing was very social and fun! We had to leave around 3:00 because our tables were reserved where we then took a break for a while. We later tried to get into Lowenbrau, but were unsuccessful and decided to call it a day around 7:00 PM. It was a real fun day, definitely one for the books.

We got home, ate frozen Pizza that we bought from Netto, and called it a night. The next morning we caught our separate flights home. This whole trip was an amazing experience, and I totally recommend seeing Berlin and Munich if you get the chance. Oktoberfest was a once in a life time experience, but if I ever get the chance to go again I would do it in a heartbeat.

Thanks for tuning into this especially long blog post! I hope you enjoyed reading about my Germany adventures and stay tuned for the next trip re-cap: Stockholm!