Mark's Spring Break - Part III: Munich

On the flight back from Paris to Munich, Mark and I took advantage of Air France's complimentary beverage service (read: free booze). It was refreshing, coming from a country whose airlines charge us $8 for a shrink wrapped, freeze dried Atlanta bread company sandwich. Most of all, I was excited to be back in a country where I could understand people when they were talking to me. When we arrived we took the S-Bahn from the Flughafen to the Hauptbahnhof, and then walked half a block to check into our hostel. We stayed at Jägers Hostel which was 13 Euros / (bed * night). As we were dropping our stuff off we met the couple with whom we would be spending the night. We said our hellos and tip toed around the fact that as they were coming back from their evening prepairing to go to bed, Mark and I were prepairing to go out for the evening. Instead of taking the subway we walked past Marienplatz, where the Glockenspiel is, to the Schneider Weisse brewery. We had a Hefeweizen and talked for a bit before grabbing a burger and heading back to the hostel.

The next morning I awoke to our roomate's watch alarm at 7am. They tried their best to be quiet as they got ready, but the damage had been done. I was awake. And since I was awake, that meant that Mark needed to be awake as well, something he wasn't too excited about. I woke him up and we went down to the lounge area for our free breakfast, which consisted of rolls, jams, and cereal. The only beverages available were coffee and tea, so I loaded up on coffee. As we were dining I noticed quite a bit of english being spoken around us, english with a heavy Austrailian accent. Even the guy working the desk spoke with an Austrailian accent (when he spoke english, not german). I thought back and realized that I had heard quite a bit of Austrailian english the past few Munich hostel experiences that I've had (we stayed with two austrailian girls when we went to see death cab, when we stayed in wombat's hostel the clerk spoke english with an austrailian accent and Aussie Dave was ... well you get the idea). After breakfast we shopped for a bit, and then met Mark J. at the train station. We grabbed lunch at an Augustiner resturant, where Mark R. had his first Mass beer (beer served in a Liter glass). We then hopped a train to see the memorial at Dachau. Dachau is famous for it's gas chambers disguised as showers, which were reportedly never used, but Mark, Mark, and I dilly dallied in the museum and special prisoner areas for too long and never actually got to go inside the crematorium or the sogenannte Baracke X. There was a somber mood to the entire place, and although there were quite a few people touring the memorial it was eerily quiet.

The three of us then made our way back to the downtown area and wandered about a bit compairing the prices of the souvenier stands. That evening we ate at the Hofbräuhaus, they were also serving their seasonal Urbock beer which they only serve during certain times of the year and which contains 11% alcohol by volume... and which they only serve in 1L increments. The beer was delicious, so much so that Mark R. decided that he wanted to try the Hofbräu Original, which they also only serve in 1L increments. We were all feeling a bit tired from the day, but we weren't ready to head back just yet so we decided to check out the Atomic Cafe where there was supposed to be live music (which we never ended up finding). The Atomic Cafe was a hipster's paradise, the three of us relaxed on the couches and enjoyed the vintage decour to the sounds of an odd selection of rockabilly (the entrance was pretty sweet too). We were there a bit early (because there was free entrance before 11) so there weren't too many people when we got there... actually we were the first ones, but people started to trickle in slowly. We hung out for a bit and then headed back to the hostel where we discovered a neoteric, sleeping roomate. We tried our best to be quiet and go to bed. The next morning we checked out of our hostel and hopped a train to Füssen.

Mark's Spring Break - Part II: Paris

The morning after having the most beers that I've had since my Bierdiplom, Mark, Corinne, and I set off for Paris by way of Munich. The plan was to see Amon Tobin for free at the Maison de Radio France. For two weeks the Institut national de l'audiovisuel had been presenting PRÉSENCES électronique, a free electronic music festival. The plan was to catch the train to Munich, and fly to Paris. After a short layover+pizza in Munich, we hopped a plane to Paris. Corinne's friend Arthur who was studying in Paris picked up the tickets for us, so all we had to do was make it to the venue. To get from Charles de Gaul to the stop we needed required two train changes. When we got on the final train we noticed that the stop we needed was closed due to repairs, so we decided to get out at the stop before it and take a cab. In the cab on the way to Maison de Radio France, Arthur gave us a call saying that they had closed the doors and weren't letting anyone in. We were less than 5 minutes late. All was not lost though, Arthur gave us a night tour of the student districts in Paris and introduced us to the French style of Doner which was wrapped in tortilla with french fries on top. After walking around for a bit we took a train back to Corinne's sister's house. Corinne's sister, Laurence, was nice enough to pick us up at the train station and drive us back to her place.

The next morning we woke up early and the four of us (Mark, Corinne, Laurence, and I) took a train to Paris and in one day saw all of the major sights that the city had to offer. We started at the sight where the French revolution began, the Bastille. Since the Bastille was totally demolished at the onset of the French revolution, all that was there was a monument. After that we took a train to the Louvre, since we had all been there before we just posed for a few photo ops outside and then moved on. After a scenic walk we found ourselves on the Champs-Élysées, here we purchased our lunch and took it to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. At the top we were surrounded by Japanese tourists all posing the same way. Laurence even hopped into one of their photos, which they thought was great so they made her wait while they passed around 30 cammeras. After lunch we caught a train and took a not so scenic walk to the Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge is nestled in the red light district of Paris so the walk took us past the famous Chat Noir as well as more than a few sex shops/strip clubs. Rather than going inside we decided to take a few pictures outside and move on. And move on we did, to the church of the sacred heart. At the church we had a panoramic view of Paris, along with more than a few tourists. After taking a short sit break, we caught a train to The Eiffel Tower. The lines to go up to the top were super long, and Laurence had to get back to her place so that she could prepair for work the next day, so we said adeu to her and made our way to Maison de Radio France for the last day of the music festival. I was scared that free meant not free, but luckily for us the concert was free as in beer. We listened to some incoherent abstract, really wierd post-modern noise music. The brochure assured us that the artists were soon to be huge, and used math in their music somehow... whatever. After the concert we checked out the Eiffel Tower again and grabbed some authentic French cousine. The day had left us exausted, so we headed back to Laurence's for some sleep.

The next morning we were awoken with some frantic french. Laurence thought she had to be at work at 10am and went to sleep under that impression. However, the next morning at 8:30am she recieved a call from her commanding officer (she studies and works at a french military academy) wanted to know why she wasn't at work. We quickly gathered our things and rushed out of the door. Since we didn't want to carry our luggage around with us all day, we found some lockers at Gare du Nord and left our stuff there for the day. We spent a good part of the day shopping and pretending to shop in stores that were well out of our price range. When we got back to Gare du Nord there was quite a bit of smoke pouring into the train station. Appearantly outside there was a rather large protest going on, and the protesters had set fire to a large pile of debris in the middle of the street. Curious, Corinne, Mark and I wandered outside. On the ground were several leaflets defaming International Paper as an American imperialist evil or something like that. Mark and I decided then not to speak english to each other too loudly until we were somewhere away from the people trowing/burning things. So we grabbed a coffee and then caught our train to Charles de Gaul airport.

Mark's Spring Break - Part I: the Blues Bar

Mark arrived Friday afternoon to begin his european spring break. I made it my mission to ensure that he flew back to Nashville as exausted as he could possibly be. Naturally after spending 8 hours on a plane and 3 hours on trains Mark was pretty eager for sleep. I would have none of it. After dropping his stuff off in my room, we walked around Bamberg for a bit, I showed him the shops that downtown Bamberg had to offer and fed him his first Döner. Jen's family was also in town, so that evening we met up with Jen, Jen's sister, Jen's parents, Ashley, Rebecca, and Mark (from Northern Ireland) for a few beers at the blues bar. Although Wes had given me permission to put Mark in his room for the night, my only way of accessing the room left for Nurnberg that afternoon so I ended up borrowing an air mattress from Ashley. We ended up staying out until 1:30am and woke up the next morning at 6:30am to catch the train to Munich.