Münichen, The Tent, and Good Chicken

Great Beer from Hofbräuhaus. The Staatliches Hofbräuhaus in München is a brewery in Munich, Germany, owned by the Bavarian state government. The brewery owns the Hofbräuhaus am Platzl, the Hofbräukeller and the second largest tent at the Oktoberfest (Hofbräu-Festzelt). Its own brew is the only beer served.

A photo of a guy surfing at Englisher Garten. The Englischer Garten, German for “English Garden”, is a large public park in the center of Munich, Germany, stretching from the city center to the northeastern city limits.

I am really glad to have been able to go to another German town other than Berlin. Berlin was a blast, a very young hip town. Munich (Münichen in German), seems to be more conservative and upper class than Berlin. Although you won’t see throngs of people walking around the streets with their beer in hand, you will see some great beer halls and gardens. Munich is probably most famous for Octoberfest, a holiday that I am sad we will be missing. We did go and see a number of sites around Munich that are notable. After arriving in Munich at about 05:30 am, we figured out their public transportation system and how to get to our next Hostel. We arrived very early in the morning to a place called The Tent. It is a very neat idea for a place to stay. Generally you can stay there for €10.50 or €5.50 if you want to utilize your own tent. They have these giant circus type tents, I think that two of them accommodate 150 people. A lot of the travelers tend to just hang out at the camp around the fire. We slept till later in the afternoon after checking in and decided to take the 15 minute tram ride to the center of town.

We wondered for a couple of hours around the center of town just taking in the sites. We saw a fairly neat church Saint Paul. We returned to the tent fairly early and just hung out with a everybody around the camp site.

Trevor cooking a chicken over the fire while we are at The Tent Hostel in Münichen.

The next morning, after sleeping in some and lounging around the campsite reading, we decided to really start our touring around Munich. The first stop was Englischer Garten Places Page (Wikipedia article about Englischer Garten)one of the worlds largest city parks… and much larger than New York’s Central Park. We found some locals who were heading to the park themselves and we made it there perfectly well from the subway system. Right at the entrance is a man made permanent wave, where people come and surf. It is a very neat site, fun to watch all of the surfer wipe out. Wondering down the path there are tons of people sitting out in the sun or the shade all over the park. It is also not uncommon for the locals to sunbathe nude in the park… it’s all just kind of mixed in. Although we didn’t lose our cloths around the park, we did loose some of our money at the parks great beer garden for lunch. There you can order an expensive L. of beer, some some traditional bavarian food (like a pork knuckle), and listen to the traditional music played by musicians in lederhosen. It is a fun experience. After wondering around the park for several hours (and still not seeing all of it), we decided that it was time to continue on. You can check out all of the pictures from Englischer Garten and my trip to Munich on facebook. We wondered around downtown for a while, finally deciding that we wanted to head to one of the most famous beer halls in Munich, Hofbräuhaus. I would have to say that it is a must see for anybody traveling in Munich.

After stopping at the grocery story, we headed back to the tent with a few surprises for our fellow guests. First we picked up some marshmallows (no chocolate and gram crackers… we’re having to live poor). Their marshmallows are smaller and don’t cook as well as ones in the USA, but everybody enjoyed them. The later it got, we started realizing how hungry we really where. We had bought some frozen chickens, and had started boiling them. They were taking a long time. Trevor was cooking, and when I went to go and check in on him I find him stabbing the chicken with some large pointed sticks. He hands the chicken to me and explains that I am supposed to go outside and cook it via the open fire. When this all starts, everybody body starts yelling and getting really excited. They even made a wave around the fire. We were the talk of the camp site. After about an a half hour of attempting to burn our chicken (maybe I should call it… cook it Cajun Style), we decided to take the blackened chicken back to the kitchen and cook it there. All in all it was a fun night

The following morning we checked out of the hostel and hung out till it was time for our bus to leave, heading to Vienna Austria. On the overnight bus, I had the opportunity to sit next to a German girl studying social work in Vienna. We ended up talking the whole night and was a really great connection. Too bad she had plans to be camping with her boyfriend over the weekend, so she wouldn’t be able to show us around. It was a really interesting connection though.

As promised, the photos from my facebook albums from Prague; Prague 1 of 3, Prague 2 of 3, and Prague 3 of 3.