Land of Beer

June 21st was summer solstice and it felt like the longest day of the year. We were attempting to head to Munich, Germany from Cinque Terre, Italy. It was the longest train journey yet. We had to switch 5 times, at one point having to get on a bus to cross back into Austria to catch another train due to engineering work. We had to change from Cinque Terre at La Spezia, Milan, Verona, and a few other Italian cities. We left the house at 9:30 am and arrived in Munich just after 1 am. When we arrived in Munich, we went to Jeanette’s house, our German couchsurfing host. She left her key on top of a phone booth outside of her flat for us because she was already out for the night. We put our things down and then a guy came into the flat and he was Murat from Istanbul who was also Jeanette’s guest. He was really kind and we walked around the neighborhood, trying to see if some street fair was still happening but it was over so we went back to her flat and had our first German beer before getting to bed.

Jeanette's little apartment that was mostly ours during our stay.


In the morning, we decided to take advantage of the free tour that is offered in some of the cities in Western Europe. We had taken them before in London and Edinburgh so we knew it was a great way to learn about the city and it’s history.

The Glockenspiel

The Glockenspiel up close. It dances and tells the same story everyday at 11 am.

A May Pole. Every city has one and if someone's may pole is stolen by another town the people who stole it get a party before giving it back.

Little Red Riding Hood



The synagogue in Munich which has been threatened many times by Neo-Nazi groups.



After the tour was over out the university that Sophie Scholl and the White Rose resistance attended during the Nazi occupation. We wanted to see the memorial for her and her brother at the university.

The Sophie Scholl memorial and is just tiles in the pavement of the leaflets of the White Rose.

Sophie Scholl was a schoolgirl who worked with the White Roses, anti-nazi group and she was distributing illegal flyers around campus and had some left-over so she pushed the whole stack over the railing and sent them flying down the stairs. She and her brother were caught for their crime and beheaded. Munich has so much World War II history and has very subtle monuments all around the cities commemorating the brave people who stood up against the nazi’s.
We went to the Modern Art museum of Munich which was really a really nice change from all of the Italian art.


There is a BMW underneath this ice and we all had to wear blankets to go into the freezing exhibit.




All at the museum

After, we were starving so we got some really good pad thai before heading to the world’s most famous/largest beer hall called Hofbrauhaus.

The Hofbrauhaus has quite a history. Hitler spent much of his time organizing the Nazi party here.

The blue and white Bavarian flags were painted over with swastikas during World War II at the request of Hitler and have been painted over since again.
We each had 1 liter of beer in the huge traditional glasses.



An employee wearing traditional outfit and selling pretzels.
Some German men were singing traditional beer songs and one came over and kissed Ellie on the cheek, telling her something in German. Before we could chat with the German Casanova, we realized we were late for the train to the suburbs to see Jeanette’s choir concert. At the train station, we met Yann her boyfriend and her friend. At the concert, we met her mother and then finally we met Jeanette. The choir concert was cool. They sang some German songs and some American classics like “ Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.” Afterwards, her mom drove us in a camper van home, which was a little scary because we were on a major highway and her mom wasn’t completely sure how to use a manual. It was a bit of a “Little Miss Sunshine” moment. Once we made it back to Munich, we went with Jeanette and Yann to an Italian bar to watch the semi-final of the European cup between Spain and Italy. We finally got back to her flat around midnight where we met some Belgian backpackers who would be taking Murat’s place since he had gone back Istanbul. They had been hitchhiking and sleeping in forests so they were pretty interesting. They seemed grateful for a shower and a bed.
The next day we decided to relax. We walked to an amazing little brunch buffet that was vegetarian. After we stuffed ourselves, we headed for famous Englisher Garten. The park is huge with a river that runs through the middle. Many people swim and some even sunbathe completely nude in the park. Mostly old men though. At the beginning of the river, there are some rapids where people can actually surf on the river by just jumping in.




It is created because of a pipe underneath the river and is therefore pretty dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. It was so cool to see people surfing a river though. Just as we were about to get settled at the park, it started to thunderstorm. We were so sad but we waited it out under a tree and it stopped luckily. Once the sun came out, we jumped in the freezing cold river and swam along and then spent the remainder of the day sunning ourselves on the bank watching the naked people.





Notice the naked man to the right!
Later we walked around the huge park which is larger than central park and eventually made our way to the beer garden section. There was a huge Japanese garden and tons of people sitting on the picnic tables, drinking liters of beer and eating massive pretzels. So we decided to do the same.



After spending all day at the gardens, Jeanette asked if we wanted to go to the Munich film festival. When we got there we fond out that almost all the films were either in German or another foreign language but with German subtitles. Luckily, we came across one Brazilian film which had English subtitles and was called “ Still Orangutuans.” The film was really good and we were happy we came along. After the film we said good-bye to Jeanette as she went to her boyfriend’s and packed up to head to Berlin the next day.

Hiking the Cinque Terre

June 18th-
We caught the train from Lucca to La Spezia before catching a bus to Biassa which is this tiny little mountain town a bus ride out of the Cinque Terre.



Biassa in the evening

Biassa in the morning with the fog rolling in.


After checking into the hostel, we went to the only little restaurant that exists in the town and had the best pizza we have had yet in Italy. It was a tomato/garlic pizza with no cheese and I also had a calzone the size of my head with gorgonzola, fontina, parm and mozzerella cheeses. The food was so good and I tried to tell the woman in my broken Italian and she just laughed and smiled at me. On the way home from the restaurant, we encountered a group of neighborhood kids who were about 8-10 and were so excited to speak English with us. They kept telling us how old they were and as we walked away the little boys screamed, “ I love youuuuu baby.” Obviously something they had heard in the movies.

We slept great and woke early to catch the 9:50 to Riomaggiore where we would base ourselves while in Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre( 5 lands) is composed of 5 villages that sit by the sea and are famous for their man-made vineyards and land. Between the five villages there are hiking trails that connect each village to each other and the hike between all the villages in 5 hours total. The hikes vary in difficulty and scenery with some that are flat near the ocean and some that are high in the mountains that resemble tropical rainforest scenery. We were staying in Riomaggiore, the first village along the hike. In the old days, there were only the trails connecting the villages but now there is also a train service that connects the villages to each other.

When we arrived at Riomaggiore, we walk down the steep main street (by main I mean the only street) towards our hostel. When we got to the office, we quickly followed the owner to a private apartment in an alley filled with other flats. It was amazing that we paid a hostel price and got our own place for just 20 euros each. It was a really nice surprise. We quickly changed into our hiking clothes, got some amazing focaccia which is one thing that the Liguria region which is the northern coastal region where Cinque Terre is located, is famous for. It was amazing. We split an onion, a veggie one and a pesto one(another thing Liguria is famous for).


Then we took the train to Monterosso, the farthest village from Riomaggiore, to begin our hike over there as we knew if was the most difficult trek and we wanted to get it over with. All of the villages are really quaint but Monterosso is the most touristic while Corniglia is the least as it is not on the ocean like the other 4.




Monterosso's beach.


Church in Vernazza.

We stopped and checked out each village and got water along the way. The trek was pretty intense and challenging at some points with the sun beating down on us but we finished in 5 hours around 7:30 at night.

Ellie overlooking the man-made vineyards.


Walking the narrow paths.






Closing in on Vernazza in the distance, our first town on the walk from Monterosso.

Vernazza!



Corniglia! The third village.


Scary bridge that actually swings back and forth.

Manarola, the town closest to Riomaggiore.

The last and easiest walk, the Via D'Amore(the tunnel of love). Notice the locks next to the little bench that I am sitting on. Couples come and put a lock together to signify their devotion or something.


We got some home-made gnocchi and some home-made pesto sauce and made pesto gnocchi along with a caprese salad and fell asleep early, exhausted from the hike.

The next day we wanted to take it easy so we woke up and had more foccacia and headed to Monterosso to go to the beach. Monterosso has the biggest sand beach but little beaches can be found after climbing on all the islands and every island has a pier to swim off of.

On the beach in Monterosso.


We stayed in Monterosso for awhile but got tired of all the tourists so we went to Manarola, the village closest to Riomaggiore. It was so good. We had a private little cove all to ourselves with just a few other people swimming there.

Kelly swimming in the water in the cove all alone.

There were caves and rocks and the water was so blue. Many kids jumped from the rocks 30 feet above into the water. The rocks even created a small waterfall. We spent the rest of the day there before getting a gelato and heading home to buy more gnocchi and special walnut sauce for dinner. We went out for a walk after dinner and sat on some cliffs watching the sunset, thinking that Cinque Terre was the most beautiful place we had been yet. We found a little bar that seemed to be suspended above the ocean and there was a guy playing beautiful Italian music on his guitar in a style that was similar to Santana except Italian and he was being recorded for his new CD. The bar was outside under the stars and you could hear the ocean hitting the cliffs below. We knew that the next day we were going to say good-bye to Italy and it was a perfect ending.