Because the World is Small

You can only stay in one area for so long before you get the urge to travel a bit further. This weekend I caved to that urge (the start of a trend for my weekends to come) and traveled to Munich. (That I knew someone who was going to be there for the weekend probably didn't have anything to do with it either ;P)

To keep costs down as much as possible, I arrived at 7:40 in the morning. On a train that was arriving late. That means I woke up at at actually-way-too-early AM and still managed to kind of almost miss the train. >< Mornings and me are mortal enemies I think.

The good things about early trains: You're not allowed to sleep in, guaranteeing an early start to your day and hopefully maximizing it's productivity. The bad things about early trains: You're not allowed to sleep in.

After meeting up with some friends from back home and snacking on some delicious baked goods (eaten in half of a piece increments, because somehow in the splitting of multiple pieces you end up with less total... ) we headed out for our day around Munich. I actually do mean around Munich. We didn't spend much time actually in the city.

To start off, we visited Dachau. I've seen a number of documentaries, studied it in school and even been to a few sites and museums in Berlin regarding concentration camps, but somehow being on the site was a much more powerful experience than I was really ready for. I don't think anyone could ever really be ready for it. I had thought about taking some photos, but I decided not to as I think it's something you really do have to experience for yourself.

On a happier note, we then traveled through Munich (taking a stop at the Hauptbahnhof to grab some Döner) on to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. As we exited the train talking excitedly about our kind-of-vaguely "planned" hike, we caught the interest of another American traveling abroad. He was in Munich for the summer and happened to be from... MIT. Basically, the world is full of surprises.

Together we took our free map from the tourist info center (just big enough to show us where we want to go, but if we took a wrong turn, we were likely off the map) and set out to tackle the mountain.

I am a sort of hiker. I like the idea of hiking. I know a bit about hiking. I've even been hiking a fair number of times. Just not very intense hikes. Like climbing a mountain hikes. This hike was uphill. (all the way, both ways, in the snow... well it would be in winter at least)


The view though, when we got to the outlook, was well worth all the effort. Just take a look:

I brought my nicer camera. (can you tell?)

You could see for forever. And a half.

There was a cafe at the top. Sadly we couldn't stay to check it out.

So I got up to this point of the post and realized because of stupid things like transfer cables, internet and really short battery lives, I can't actually get the pictures up right now ><

BUT I DON'T WANT TO WAIT ANY LONGER TO POST THIS. So you'll have to check back later for the photos. -.- Sincerest apologies.

EDIT: Photos now included. Fancy that.