Before last week, I had never been to Europe before. I had done some international travel to the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Costa Rica, and just across the border to Canada, so going to Germany was going to be much different from my other international travels, but I was excited. I felt like I had heard nothing but good things about Europe, except for the bed bug problem in France, which did make me a little paranoid in our hotels, every time there was a crumb or a speck of fabric that fell of a piece of clothes, I immediately thought it was a bed bug. I also watched Taken right before going over, so that was worrisome, but thankfully everything went fine
While in Germany I spent time in two cities, Berlin and Munich. Berlin was mainly for the Marathon, but there was still plenty of time to explore, and Munich was mainly for Oktoberfest, but again there was plenty of time to explore there as well.
When we landed in Berlin, we took a shuttle directly to our hotel. It was about 40 minutes to get to our hotel, and honestly I do not know what I was expecting from the highway, but it was basically the same as our highways, which makes sense, but I wanted something weird and different with crazier drivers. The scenery on the drive was pretty mundane. It was normal city fodder but more boring. At this point I had also been up forever, so I felt miserable and wanted to be wowed, but there was nothing that great to be seen on the drive.
Once we got to the hotel, we headed to the expo, and finally we started to see some more ornate buildings, and the expo itself was at an old airfield, which was massive and pretty cool to see. The next morning on the shakeout run is when I really started to see the beautiful buildings that I had been hoping for. I did not go on a boat tour, so I cannot name the buildings that I saw, but they were massive! I know a couple were museums, one was a church, a massive tower that looked like the Epcot ball had a baby with the space needle, and there were also some great arches.
The museum and churches were cool, but the two sights in Berlin that stuck out the most to me were the Brandenberg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial. The Brandenberg gate had some added importance because we ran under it at the end of the marathon, which was awesome, but it is also made up of arches and pillars, which I love! Naturally occurring arches are better, but man-made arches are cool too. The Holocaust memorial on the other hand was a much more somber viewing. It is basically a maze of concrete rectangular prisms of varying heights, some of which towered over me when I was standing next to them. It was pretty to look at and interesting to walk through, but understanding the meaning of it makes it depressing.
When we left Berlin, we took a four-hour train ride to Munich. Trains are awesome! It makes me sad that we do not have a train system that could take us all over easily in the U.S. On the ride, we got to see a bunch of the countryside. There were random villages every once in a while, but for the most part, it seemed like it was just grassy fields, and the occasional patch of trees.
Every part of Germany we were in or took a train through was basically flat. If I wanted to get 1,000 feet of gain on a run, it would be incredibly hard. It would have to be doing small hill repeats 100 times. So I did not like that. I know the alps exist in Southern Germany, but I guess we were not even close enough to get a taste of that, which was very disappointing. More than anything I wanted to see the Alps, and when I was talking to a guy at Oktoberfest, he was telling me how he lived in Colorado for college, but that the Rockies were not nearly as beautiful as the Alps, and he gave me a mountain race recommendation.
Munich mostly felt like a plain city, the mile walk from the train station to the hotel was just filled with store fronts and restaurants, but similarly to Berlin, the more I wandered around the city, the more there was to find. I would turn a corner and find a beautiful towering church with a castle-like structure or an arch.
We went to a place called the Englisch Gardens, and there was one hill, and when we were on top of it, instead of seeing a skyline of skyscrapers, it was just steeples of giant ornate churches peaking up above the tree line. The garden itself was cool. It was a massive greenspace that was filled with trails, biergartens, and other statues. It also had a section on the river where the currant was strong enough to surf. There was one guy, who was really good at surfing it, but the other dudes were struggling to get on their boards.
The river water was a beautiful emerald green (I think due to the sediment that made the river bed), and the garden was not the only place where we got to explore by the river. One afternoon, Ryan and I also went for a run along the river, and they have a great path the mixes trails and paved paths that follows the river for miles. The trail was also nice, because it had tunnels that went under the road, and in the tunnels, there was some great spray paint art with the tunnel mood lighting. All of Germany had some great graffiti.
As far as the food goes in Germany, I was not that impressed. That is not to say that it was bad, but I had heard so many compliments about the food in Europe, but I felt like I never had that amazing experience. My two favorite places were basically roadside stands. They were so small that dining inside was not possible. One place served falafel, and that falafel was life changing, and the other place was a kebab place, where they shaved the meat right in front of me.
I ate at plenty of sit-down places from a variety of different genres of food. We had German, Italian, Mediterranean, and Indian, but somehow my two favorite places were just literal holes in the wall. Also the portions were weird. At the breakfast buffet at the hotel, the plates they had were tiny. It took like five plates to satiate my appetite. Even the cups were small. I usually left my meals hungry, which is not unusual, but I usually eat to filling at least at dinner.
This brings me to my next gripe, the water. Water is super accessible in the United States. Most public places have a water fountain or a place where water bottles could be refilled, but that was not the case in Germany. It was hard to come across water to drink that was not from the hotel tap, and when I got water while out for dinner, it cost more than a beer. At Oktoberfest a cup of water was $6, and they only had sparkling water there. Even the airport was barren of a water fountain.
To be fair to Oktoberfest, it was a giant fair, and the whole goal of the fair was to drink beer and celebrate, and over the course of two days, I spent 21 hours at Oktoberfest, and I stayed till it closed at 11 back-to-back days, which is super late for me, but it was so fun! There are multiple tents from different breweries all serving their one house Oktoberfest beer. They all had bands playing, but they were different levels of rowdiness, and of course the later it got the rowdier it got. We had a table reserved one day for five hours, but after that we wandered around to different tents. Out of all the tents I went to, I think the Hofbrauhaus tent was the best. It was a massive, crowded party with a great band. I do not know how long we were in there, but it ruled.
The music did surprise me as well. There were many traditional songs that I did not know, but the songs that seem to get the biggest cheers and people singing along were “Sweet Caroline” and “Take Me Home Country Road.” There was a comedy special that I listened to, and the comedian did a joke about the white people National Anthem, and he said it was “Sweet Caroline.” No matter what is going on, if the song comes on white people will always sing along, and this is even true in Germany, which I was not expecting, but it definitely added to the fun atmosphere being able to sing along with the songs.
I also learned about a substance called Oktoberfest. When I went into the Hofbrauhaus, I saw people snorting a white powder, so I assumed it was cocaine. Later at a different tent, I saw more people doing it, and I had been talking to one of the guys, so I asked him what it was, and he told me that it was Oktoberfest Coke. I was curious, so I did my research, and found out through a Vice article that it was made from lactose, dextrose and menthol, and that it was perfectly legal. They said when snorted it gives the person a feeling of cold in their nostrils, and it feels like it opens their airways. The next day when we went back, I noticed that the vendors that are walking around selling hats were also selling vials of Oktoberfest Coke. I never tried it, but there were a surprising number of people doing it. Also the smoking culture here is wild. So many people are smoking cigarettes. Even during the marathon, I could smell people smoking. For a continent that gets a reputation for being healthy, they have some interesting habits.
The mornings following Oktoberfest, we would go and find a new café, and I would eat chocolate croissants. I ate so many chocolate croissants, it was incredible. It is the perfect breakfast food, and it does not matter where they come from, they are delicious. On the last day, we also went to a café, and I added a cinnamon roll to the order, which was a good call. Then we took the metro to the airport, which was the most stressful part of the whole vacation. Public transportation is awesome, but since I was not familiar with it, it just constantly felt like I was going to make the wrong choice and get loss, but thankfully, we figured it out.
Overall Germany was a good enough time, but I do not think I have any plans to return. I am proud of my marathon time, but I am ready for a hillier racing challenge. Also the food was good, but I was expecting to be blown out of this world by it, but mostly the taste was not too different from what I could get from home. That was also way too much time in the city for me. So needless to say, I am ready to be home, and I do not plan on going on any 7 hour flights any time soon.
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