Just a little late

Last weekend was our first free weekend. Our entire group decided to go to Munich. By the time we had it all decided and we made seat reservations the earliest train we could take was at 3:30 am to arrive at 9:00. Our host mom insisted on making us breakfast and driving us to the train station, it was super sweet. She is awesome. Everyone managed to make it to the train station on time and we had no problems getting on the train and switching trains in Cologne. The trip to Munich was good, I slept most of the way. Surprisingly we had no problems finding our hostel and figuring out the tram schedule to get around the city. On Saturday we explored the city, the culture there was much more vibrant it seemed than the other places we had been. I don't know if this was simply because it's more of a touristy town or if it was just the Barvarian culture. I went on the Mike's Bike Tour with a couple other people from the group. Our tour guide was super enthusiastic and made the tour really fun. It was the perfect way to see the big sites in Munich and to help get a sense of how to get around in the city. We ended the day with a trip to the Augustiner and Haufbrauhaus. The beer was excellent, especially the Edelstoff from the Augustiner. It also happens to be the beer that the pope likes which makes it even better. The haufbrauhaus had a super fun atmosphere and it was a neat experience. I drank a whole big glass of beer by myself. I did leave with a big beer glass as a souvenir, of course. On Sunday we woke up early and took a train to Fussen to visit the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Fussen is the most precious little town nestled at the bottom of the Alps. I didn't want to leave. The castles were awesome. The decorations were so intricate and beautiful it's amazing. The outside's are pretty but the inside's are so much more elaborate, I was not expecting that. Neuschwanstein was never finished so it was a pretty short tour, but the parts that were finished were amazing. It's just the amount of detail that went into designing and actually decorating them is mind blowing. I don't think anyone spends that amount of time on their house decorations, but then again, no body builds castles anymore. It was disappointing that half of Neuschwanstein was covered in scaffolding so we couldn't get the super picturesque views you see on Pinterest. Apparently it's always covered in scaffolding because of the up keep and repairs that have to be done. I also did not realize that the castles were as young as they were. When I think of castles I think of the medieval ones you see in all the renaissance movies, so I was slightly disappointed because they weren't as old as I thought. The decorations were also more elaborate than I expected. I didn't realize they painted intricate murals and carved detailed accents into every visible surface. I was expecting just regular stone walls with maybe some hung paintings and tapestries, I was definitly blown away. After the castles we went back to our hostel and packed up all our stuff because our train left for Vienna at 7:30 the next morning.