Got off the bus from Frankfurt to München and immediately met up with Garth and Stefan. Here we did a quick car tour of a small part of town as we were looking for dinner. It wasn’t anything too large like the inner city, but we did pass a few cool parts of town. We passed by the large park area that is used for Oktoberfest every year. It was basically empty. There is a few paved roads, but overall there was just patches of grass and a few people scattered around it. It was getting dark outside and I didn’t know where my camera was, so I was unable to really capture the moment, but trying to imagine that entire plot of land filled with people was hard. There must be tents and beer that make it transform into something great.
We meet Manfred and Joachim and had dinner at a Biergarten. It was filled with large green benches that looked like they came from a picnic area in Burnsville. But since there were so many, it didn’t look as scary. There was a significant amount of chestnut trees shading the entire grounds as well as umbrellas to keep the sun out. Considering it was the hottest that it has been so far this trip, the shade felt nice. I ordered a traditional sized beer, which turns out to be a full liter. They don’t goof around in Bayern; they mean beer when you say beer. It took me almost the entire meal and some time after to finish it, but it was fairly good.
During dinner we all caught up with each other while explaining certain
Bayern-esque things to me. For instance, the reason I know they were chestnut trees in the Biergartens is because those were the type of trees that grew the fastest and provided the most shade when the Biergarten was made. Since they didn’t have the sophisticated cooling systems we have now back when it was built, they had to store the beer in the ground and use the cool temperatures as a source of refrigeration. The chestnut trees helped to keep the ground cool around the beer cellars. Once they were installed and used, people would enjoy to sit in the shade around the land. Eventually it just turned into a local specialty, getting beer and hanging out in the shade, and it has stayed ever since. It was really quite an experience.
I also was able to go on one the next day because of a bike tour Manfred and Garth took me on. We started pretty early and just started biking through town. We wandered into the main part of town with all of the cathedrals and church and abbeys and monasteries and museums and universities. This town is packed. Almost every building we passed I heard Garth or Manfred telling me about how it was used as a church or a hospital or a university. The temperature was equally as hot as it was the day before so everyone was out in the city. It is also a holiday, which means even more people will be outside. As we were biking toward the biergarten in the middle of the central park (which is bigger than Central Park in New York), we saw a few people surfing on the river.
There is a certain spot on the river where the current gives off this natural wave and eventually people starting to utilize it for their love of danger. I’m not sure when, but the first people to use this area as a sport area were really declared daredevils, but eventually it became a group of people just wanting to surf on the waves in the middle of München. There was also this girl that just kicked ass. She was going up there and doing several laps back and forth, while all the other players were just falling off as soon as they got onto the water. It seemed like she was leading this group, but she also was giving weird looks to the ones that fell in right away. She was displeased at them ruining her sport. “Whatever,” she thought to herself.
Our biking tour took us through the central park area where we passed a little bit of Garth’s history. Near the path we were on was his dormitory that he stayed in the first times he visited München. He said he lived there for about four years with a very simple access to the large bike paths and running areas in this park. He was able to just go out, like we were doing now, and enjoying the hot day on a bike or on a hike. What joy! I’m also just very sweaty and uncomfortable with the weather, but I’m in München finally! I’ve been waiting for this for a while, so I don’t really care
I also got a hair cut today. It was interesting to see the differences in the cutting styles. Not only did he not converse that much, he was a he. I haven’t seen many male stylists to the places that I go. I also am not cultured in the sense of hair cutting, but observation made. This man was also very fast. He would do the same procedure as I’ve seen at home, but at twice the pace. He would snip so fast that I just heard consistent cutting sounds. I looked up and noticed that whenever he wasn’t cutting my hair, he continually cut with the scissors. Very strange. Anyway, my hair is short now and I can’t wait to really go about the town some more.
We’re going to go splash in the river.