The Million Man Village
August 6, 2013
From Greece my friend, Josh, and I flew to Munich for what was supposed to be a three day stay and over a week's worth of hiking. Being half German, I was especially looking forward to this point of the trip and immediately fell in love with Munich. There are so many things to do here, but most importantly: drink beer! Josh had looked up some beer gardens worth visiting, so on our first day we were off to the Chinese Tower beer garden in the English gardens. While walking through the gardens we saw things I'd seen on Rick Steves' show, but didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. People were surfing in the gardens! There is a small but very fast river that flows through the gardens and at a few points there are surf-able waves. It was amazing. People were lined up on either side of the banks waiting their turn to surf, and man, they were good! Even more people were lined up along the river and bridge above watching the spectacle. Further down the river people were jumping in and floating down the fast moving current. Quite unexpected sights! This was definitely the "beach" of Munich.
We kept walking towards the beer garden when we finally saw a huge wooden pagoda in the distance. Must be the tower! After staring open mouthed at the vast expanse of beer stein-filled tables we decided to join the crowd and grab some beers. I opted for a half liter (the small one!) of radler, half beer half lemonade. Upon my first sip I instantly felt happy, quenched, and thought that this was the best thing I had ever tasted. Maybe I'll just stay in Germany...
The next few days were filled with sauerkraut, sausage, beer, and sight seeing, but mostly beer. Did you know that you can get a whole liter of beer in Germany? Well, now I know ;). Despite the frequency of the beers, after all that good food and a whole liter of delicious liquid, you really can't put much else in your stomach - more beer included! So don't worry readers, I was not drunkenly wandering the beautiful streets of Munich.
After our three days was up it was time to pack up our packs and hike out of the city. And I'm not kidding when I say "hike!" Josh and I had originally planned to hike King Ludwig's Way but we discovered over our three days in Munich that no one knew what this was! We had found it online months ago and assumed it was a well known trail. Guess not! We found no books, maps, or info of any kind at the bookstore and everyone we asked gave us odd looks. So we changed gears and found a book in German that detailed a hike from Munich to Verona, with a stop in Innsbruck on day 7, where we would be staying for a few days with one of our excavation friends anyway. After wrapping my mind around the new plan we bought the book and set out for Innsbruck the next day. We walked out of Munich towards the Isar river and followed a gorgeous little path along the river. At first we were making great time and figured we would get to our first day's destination well before the book's estimate time. Nope! The second half of the 23 kilometer hike - with all of our belongings on our backs, mind you - was a maze of hilly unmarked trails and laden with educated guesses. Sometimes people passed by and we were able to ask directions, other times we went one way uphill for ten minutes only to find out we'd gone the wrong way... with 30+ pounds on my back. At the end of the day we were exhausted and in a race with the sun. We had to make it to our destination, grab a drink before the sun went down or before I was eaten alive by mosquitoes, whichever happened first. After grabbing radlers at an inn with our German friend, Sara, who we had picked up along the way, it was time to turn in. It was unseasonably warm for Bavaria, I was pooped, sore, and not particularly looking forward to a other day of wondering if we were on the right path. Though the scenery was beautiful and the company was great, I was beginning to wonder if I'd bitten off more than I could chew. This thought made me extremely angry with myself, as I am not one to back down from a physical challenge. This farm girl can do anything! Well, almost anything. Half way through the next day's hike I thought my knee was going to bust in half, and after some serious thought I decided it would be better to break the fellowship and part ways with Josh. I hiked back into the last town we'd gone through, which, luckily, had a train station. I bought a ticket and hopped the train back to Munich. I wandered into a hostel, Wombats (fantastic hostel, BTW), which I was hoping would have an open bed for me. I booked a room (hurray for cancelations!) and immediately showered off two days worth of sweat, dirt, and dead mosquitoes. It felt so good to be clean!
Once clean, I hobbled to the nearest beer garden, only a few blocks away, to write some postcards and plan out an unexpected free seven days. Sipping my radler under the chestnut trees, I couldn't help but feel happy to be back in the Million Man Village (a nickname for Munich that the tour guide would later tell me on my walking tour), despite the fact that I felt defeated for not being able to keep hiking. Stupid knee. I guess when life gives you lemons, you mix them with beer and drink radler in a quaint beer garden in Bavaria.
(Also typed on my phone in a park in Fussen -please forgive any errors and know that I will fix them soon!)
