Munich, Round 3: Beer & Dancing
This past weekend marked my third visit to the city of Munich. I had gone before with the Brosi family during my exchange year, when I walked around the city and the English Garden, watched the famous Glockenspiel alongside many other international tourists, and got my first buzz at the legal age of 16. In the summer of 2011, I returned to Munich with Fabian to visit his cousin. That time, we took a guided city tour, visited the expansive national museum and ate Indian food to celebrate our 1-year dating anniversary. Our visit this time was more focused on the "festivities" Munich has to offer: food, shopping and the nightlife.
We stayed in an affordable, centrally-located hostel with 8 of Fabian's friends from his track and field team. We ate giant pizzas in the Italian/Thai restaurant under our hostel on the first evening, then walked back upstairs and got dressed to go out dancing.
Our first club was called "Pacha", which was connected to the club next door, "089". Apparently at fancy Munich clubs, they don't let large groups in. So we had to strategically split up into smaller groups, each one with a good-looking girl, in order to be admitted by the bouncer. We lucked out that our cover charge included both locations that night. The first club played a kind of music that I'm not even able to categorize - it was either house, electronic, or techno. I have no idea what the difference is (a statement which makes most Europeans gasp in horror). I liked the music in 089 significantly better - mostly pop and hip-hop dance tunes, with a bit of reggae and Latin mixed in. Here's a photo snapped by a professional photographer that night:
Those who know me well will either be surprised or proud that I stayed out until 5:00 in the morning, like a real young person. Even more shocking is that I had a great time doing it! Normally I get tired and cranky around 11:00 or midnight, but over the weekend I utilized the famous "power nap" and was able to stay awake and energized until we caught a morning commuter train back to our hostel.
We ate breakfast and ordered giant cappuccinos at a bakery the next morning, then took a nice long walk through the English Garden. It was a sunny, windy day. The leaves fell from the trees into the creek like someone had thrown a never-ending fistful of confetti. We walked past joggers, families and the U.S. Consulate (enclosed by four fences) before ending up back the Rathaus, smack in the middle of the shopping district. Munich is a very chic and wealthy city. The guys in the group commented on nearly every luxury car that sped past, and the girls of course, went window shopping.
My personal highlight was eating dinner on Saturday night at the Paulaner Brewery! We reserved a table for 10. The bill was steep, but the food was incredible. We paid 4 Euros for a Weissbier, which no one regretted. For more information on this staple of the Bavarian food pyramid, watch this wonderfully cheeky and informative video from their website, "The perfect Weissbier". Here's a photo of the copper kettles at the brewery:
After the brewery, we went dancing once again. This time, at an enormous, 4-hall dance club near the train tracks. The people around me kept raving about how good it was, but unfortunately for me, they played that same kind of electronic-sounding music that I didn't quite know what to do with. (I think it's either in European kids' blood to enjoy that music, or that they just learned to put up with it at a young age.) The club itself was fascinating: enough room for more than 2,000 sweaty people at once, equipped with enough laser light equipment to make you dizzy. Everything was black, neon green or hot pink. The DJs wore cardboard boxes with light-up jack-o-lantern eyes and painted-on smirks. They looked like evil Lite-Brites. I didn't dance or drink as much as I sat and people-watched. After we left, we ordered Döners - a kind of pita filled with kraut and shaved beef slices - at the train station to combat hangovers, before making it back to the hostel and collapsing.
On Sunday we woke up slowly, showered, checked out of the hotel, and had breakfast at the train station. Then we took the regional "Bummelzug" (the cheap 'dawdling train') back to Stuttgart, laughing and discussing our weekend adventures.
We stayed in an affordable, centrally-located hostel with 8 of Fabian's friends from his track and field team. We ate giant pizzas in the Italian/Thai restaurant under our hostel on the first evening, then walked back upstairs and got dressed to go out dancing.
Our first club was called "Pacha", which was connected to the club next door, "089". Apparently at fancy Munich clubs, they don't let large groups in. So we had to strategically split up into smaller groups, each one with a good-looking girl, in order to be admitted by the bouncer. We lucked out that our cover charge included both locations that night. The first club played a kind of music that I'm not even able to categorize - it was either house, electronic, or techno. I have no idea what the difference is (a statement which makes most Europeans gasp in horror). I liked the music in 089 significantly better - mostly pop and hip-hop dance tunes, with a bit of reggae and Latin mixed in. Here's a photo snapped by a professional photographer that night:
Those who know me well will either be surprised or proud that I stayed out until 5:00 in the morning, like a real young person. Even more shocking is that I had a great time doing it! Normally I get tired and cranky around 11:00 or midnight, but over the weekend I utilized the famous "power nap" and was able to stay awake and energized until we caught a morning commuter train back to our hostel.
We ate breakfast and ordered giant cappuccinos at a bakery the next morning, then took a nice long walk through the English Garden. It was a sunny, windy day. The leaves fell from the trees into the creek like someone had thrown a never-ending fistful of confetti. We walked past joggers, families and the U.S. Consulate (enclosed by four fences) before ending up back the Rathaus, smack in the middle of the shopping district. Munich is a very chic and wealthy city. The guys in the group commented on nearly every luxury car that sped past, and the girls of course, went window shopping.
My personal highlight was eating dinner on Saturday night at the Paulaner Brewery! We reserved a table for 10. The bill was steep, but the food was incredible. We paid 4 Euros for a Weissbier, which no one regretted. For more information on this staple of the Bavarian food pyramid, watch this wonderfully cheeky and informative video from their website, "The perfect Weissbier". Here's a photo of the copper kettles at the brewery:
After the brewery, we went dancing once again. This time, at an enormous, 4-hall dance club near the train tracks. The people around me kept raving about how good it was, but unfortunately for me, they played that same kind of electronic-sounding music that I didn't quite know what to do with. (I think it's either in European kids' blood to enjoy that music, or that they just learned to put up with it at a young age.) The club itself was fascinating: enough room for more than 2,000 sweaty people at once, equipped with enough laser light equipment to make you dizzy. Everything was black, neon green or hot pink. The DJs wore cardboard boxes with light-up jack-o-lantern eyes and painted-on smirks. They looked like evil Lite-Brites. I didn't dance or drink as much as I sat and people-watched. After we left, we ordered Döners - a kind of pita filled with kraut and shaved beef slices - at the train station to combat hangovers, before making it back to the hostel and collapsing.
On Sunday we woke up slowly, showered, checked out of the hotel, and had breakfast at the train station. Then we took the regional "Bummelzug" (the cheap 'dawdling train') back to Stuttgart, laughing and discussing our weekend adventures.
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