Date: May 15th, 2023
Location: Munich, Germany
Today I woke up and I tried to get ready as early as I could. Got dressed, packed a bag, and went downstairs for breakfast in the hotel lobby. I was one of the first people there but people from my program ended up joining me pretty soon after I got there. I was still feeling under the weather and I hadn’t gotten my voice fully back though. That was unfortunate but I decided to still kind of take it easy today to make sure I don’t strain myself. But today is our last day in Salzburg so I knew we were leaving pretty soon. But luckily Salzburg is on the border of Austria. And our next city just so happens to be a two-hour drive into the bordering country: Munich, Germany!
Since I still had a little bit of time to kill, I decided to go ahead and get some souvenir shopping. I joined up with a friend and we walked over to this part of Salzburg where it was nothing but shops along one long street (and a bunch of little alleyways). I remember seeing a bunch of souvenir shops on our scavenger hunt yesterday and I figured that would be the best place to start.
One of the first stores I went into was a handpainted Christmas ornament shop called “Christmas in Salzburg” and it was amazing! I was allowed to take pictures inside there but there were so many handpainted Christmas ornaments will all sorts of different designs. There must have been thousands of ornaments in there. But the store also sold handpainted Easter Eggs (finely carved wooden eggs) with a bunch of different floral designs and easter related designs on them. I really wished my Mom was able to see this store. She loves Christmas so much (Easter is pretty high up there for her too) so I know she would have been so happy in this store. And so, I made sure to pick her up a Christmas ornament that showed the city of Salzburg and two Easter Eggs for her.
After that, I was able to hit a couple more stores to find some items for my dad, my sister, and some of my friends. I was even able to easily locate and find a bookstore to get my dad a travel bookstore from this city! Overall, very successful shopping trip! But as I was leaving the areas with all the shops, I came across this fountain in the middle of one of the city’s plazas. Once I recognized it, I knew I had to take a picture of it. Especially for my Mom. You see, the fountain I saw is this fountain called Pegasus Fountain! And it’s a highlighted location in the musical, the Sound of Music! I had never seen the film before so naturally, I didn’t know what it was at first. But I was told that this was where the Sound of Music was filmed by no less than 20 different Salzburg tour posters so I knew I was going to run into the fountain at some point!
Once I was finished with my shopping trip, I went back to the hotel and packed all my souvenirs away. The bus was about to leave in a couple of minutes so I didn’t have a whole lot of time. But everyone else was running a little close to time like me so I wasn’t that worried. Eventually, everyone in our program was able to pack away their bags underneath the bus and we were all ready to go! The drive to Munich wasn’t going to take us as long as all of the other trips so our teachers thought it would be a good idea to pass around a microphone connected to the bus and have everyone introduce themselves officially to the group.
While yes, this is very very late in the game for introductions, our teachers still wanted both the graduate students and the undergraduate students to share about their interests, majors, what lead them to study whatever it is that they’re studying, and any job experience that they had. Though for us undergrads, it was mostly hearing about internships. But I did get to hear a bunch of unconventional paths to education to from undergrads and grad students alike. It was really interesting just seeing how different some of us were from each other and how the road to wherever you get is nothing straightforward. Sometimes, you’ll end up as a butcher or working in musical theater before you end up studying Sustainability (true story!)
Right around the time everyone had finished up their introductions, we had arrived in Munich. We didn’t get to see much of Munich on the bus ride in because this time we were staying in a hotel on the outskirts of city limits. We had to take a train to get to the more urbanized area since we were very visible in the suburbs. But soon enough, the bus was dropping us off at our hotel and we were unloading and receiving our room assignments from our teachers. I lucked out this time and managed to score a single room for myself! Though I knew I couldn’t stay inside for long. We were only in Munich for one night so I wanted to make the most of it- especially since we were too far away from the city to do something in the morning. So I pretty quickly left out of my room and joined up with another group of people from my program who were going into the city early. All of our teachers wanted us to be in Munich by 5:00 pm to see the Munich Glockenspiel go off, figured going in early would give me some time to sightsee and shop!
And so, we took the train into the city. It was a pretty easy ride from where our hotel was located. But the place we were getting off was called Marienplatz, or Mary’s Square. It was just a straight couple of shots from my hotel’s nearest station but Marienplatz station was extremely busy and full. It had so many different platforms and I think it connected to trains that went outside of the Munich metro area. I always thought I was good at navigating trains and metros but this one was extremely intimidating! So glad I had some help!
After we got off the train, we took the escalators up to see that we were right in front of the Glockenspiel! The Munich Glockenspiel is basically a clock that chimes and plays little dancing animatronics at a certain time each day. This glockenspiel is connected to Munich’s town halls, but there are other glockenspiels around the world. Anyways, we had about an hour to kill before the glockenspiel was supposed to chime so we decided to go do a little sightseeing. I looked at a couple of nearby stores and ended up climbing to the top of Munich’s oldest church, St. Peter which was only a couple of hundred feet away from the Glockenspiel. Admittedly, not the best decision to do while I was still feeling kind of sick. That climb was very long and very hard. But I made it to the top and the view was wonderful!
Once I climbed down (which was significantly easier than climbing down), it was almost time for the Glockenspiel to go off. And when it did, it was really cool! It played for about ten minutes. And the first couple of minutes had one set of animatronics moving and dancing. It looks like they were showing a wedding. There seem to be partygoers and jesters all moving joyously in a circle. There was even a joust in the glockenspiel too! The last couple of minutes showed a group of men spinning and dancing around. I’m not too sure what this part meant but it was cool to witness either way. Especially when you realized they built the glockenspiel around a hundred years ago! And it continues to work today!
After watching the glockenspiel with the people in our program, we all went our separate ways. I strolled around, got lost a bunch, and shopped for souvenirs. Munich definitely felt Christmas lot harder to navigate compared to other cities I’ve been in. Though I imagine that had a lot to do with the fact that I didn’t have a tour guide showing me the area at first. And that my cell coverage was the worst it’s ever been since getting to Europe. But I managed to do just fine on my own! I got my mom a cool christmas ornament, got my dad his travel book, and I got myself a hoodie and a keychain too! Admittedly, souvenir shopping probably took me way longer than it should have. Though somehow I managed to do it without a voice or with any help so I’m pretty proud of myself! I even located the Munich Lego store! And all the little Munich displays in the store were very, very, very cute!
Though after a little while, I decided to grab dinner somewhere quick and head back to the hotel. It was starting to get dark and since I was unfamiliar with the city, I figured it would be best if I just went back and headed in. Besides, most of the tourist attractions had been closed for a while and I was in no condition to enjoy the nightlife. So I got on the train and headed back. Though finding my way back was a bit of an endeavor. I was lucky enough to get on the right train the first time. But let’s just say I consulted the map a bunch of times before I was comfortable enough to commit to my decision. Though I made it home alright and that’s what really matters!
Once I was back at the hotel, I packed away my souvenirs, took a shower, and relaxed in bed while getting some of my work done. I wish were staying closer to the city or had another day there. Munich felt a little underwhelming but I feel like that was because there was no time to visit or do anything. There was one museum I really was hoping to visit but I knew there was no chance with how little time we had in the city. Oh well. I am really happy I got to visit either way. And I’m happy about this single room too haha! Perfect place to rest.
That's it for now! I'll see you in the next entry and thanks for reading! Until next time!
-DD
Picture Sources (in order of appearance):
Pegasus Fountain - My photo!
St. Peter's Church - My photo!
View of the City! - My photo!
Glockenspiel Building - My photo!
Glockenspiel Up Close - My photo!
Lego Store in Munich - My photo!
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