Day 3

Today was day three of fifty for Erin and I, which is kind of a crazy thought. Our tour guide for Munich, a crazy intelligent woman named Stephanie, led us through Munich in pursuit of sites that were significant to the Nazi regime. Some of the most significant places, at least to me, included the famous Munich brewery  Hofbrauhaus, which used to brew beer exclusively for the king during the good old  Bavaria kingdom days. 

What was interesting about Hofbrauhaus is that it's a really common tourist attraction, because it's a genuine Bavarian beer hall, lederhosen and all. Yet what most people don't realize when they have a few too many beers here is that they are actually sitting two floors below the banquet hall, which is still in use for feasts today. The issue with this is that, like many organizations continue to do today, the National Socialists used to rent out this hall for meetings, and Hitler gave speeches spouting his views in this very room. It was weird to be there, as there is absolutely no recognition of the historical significance of the room by the brewery. Everyone acts as if nothing has happened there, and as if it's not weird at all to get drunk two floors below. 

In addition, we ventured down to the old Nazi headquarters, in Munich of course. It was odd to see the place where all of the evil originated. Right across the street is a beautiful plaza designed with classic architecture,which the Nazis used as a backdrop for their own propaganda. Very weird to see how everything is still so similar to the pictures taken during the time period. 

Our day ended at the University of Munich, probably one of my favorite places we've visited so far. First of all, it was beautiful, and it just reminded me that I'm paying an absurd amount of money for school, and school is essentially free in Germany, but their buildings are way cooler than Curry Student Center. 

I really liked it because we were there to see the White Rose Movement museum. I had very limited knowledge about the Movement before, but essentially it was a group of students rebelling against the oppressive Nazi regime through the use of literature and composition. The students distributed flyers on campus despite the risks, and were sentenced to death because of it. I thought this was an especially important moment because it represents the resistance to the National Socialists by the German people, which is an important lesson to learn for anyone studying this subject. 

Today was also the due date of our first paper for one of our classes. It was really awesome to put a lot of the history I've learned in the past two days alone into writing. 

Afterwards, Erin and I rewarded ourselves a little bit. 

Biergartens are still very surreal to me, this one especially. There must have been 6,000 seats, without exaggeration. People walk around in lederhosen, and there was even a band dressed in full Bavarian regalia, drinking beer on stage and playing traditional music. Does it sound a little like Disneyland? It certainly does, but the best part of the whole thing is that everyone around us was Bavarian. I couldn't have spoken English with them if I wanted to, and that is a beautiful thing.