Spring Fest in Munich Germany

This weekend I traveled to Munich Germany for Spring Fest or what the German's call Frühlingsfest!  We left at the crack of dawn on Thursday...literally to catch a bus to the airport and then our flight to Munich! (3:30am to be exact ) and arrived in Germany early in the morning.  We were able to check into our hotel and drop our bags.  We grabbed a quick bit to eat and then traveled to the town of Dachau where we toured the Dachau concentration camp.  We decided to take a guided tour of the camp so we could learn as much as possible about the site.  The guide was well worth our time.  Our guide was an lively middle aged man who had grown up in Dachau and had parents who lived in the town during World War II.  Our guide shared lot of information and personal stories with us which made the tour more meaningful and impacted us tremendously.  The camp had an Erie feel to to it and it felt surreal being there.  It was very sad to imagine how many people suffered in the exact spot I was standing in. Some interesting facts I learned that I didn't know before is that Dachau was the 1st Concentration camp ever created in 1933.  It was created as a model camp for others to reference when creating more camps.  Dachau had mostly political candidates and enemies of Hitler (people who posed a threat to his up-rise) as well as Germans, and Russians lower class civilians. Throughout the time the camp was open the camp held prisoners from 30 different countries and spoke 25 different languages.  I learned that Hitler arrested hundreds of other political figures prior to his popularity as part of his scheme to become the chosen leader. The camp was set up as a working prisoner camp and not an extermination camp, however over 40,000 people died due to epidemics, and infection.  The living conditions were just as severe as the other camps.  We visited the reconstructed barracks (sleeping cabins) where we learned that the barracks were designed to hold 206 people based on the number of beds but instead were filled with 2,097 people in each. That number is small compared to the 14,000 people who died each day at Auschwitz. We also toured the museum, model gas chambers (never used however still in place), special jail (where the Nazi party tortured inmates), and watched a documentary inside a building.  One miracle we learned was seven women gave birth throughout their time at Dachau.  No other concentration camp allowed women to give birth and raise their children.  Although the subject was sad I felt honored and lucky that I was able to visit the site and learn more about the history behind the camp. 

Later we went to the infamous Hofbrauhus and enjoyed roasted chicken, potatoes, HUGE pretzels, and HUGE BEERS (probably the best chicken I have had abroad!).  We each ordered a liter of beer which was the largest glass of alcohol I have ever seen! I got a Radler (which is a combo btw lemonade and beer). I absolutely hate beer so this was the only way I could survive consuming that much alcohol. We then went to sleep in preparation for Spring Fest the next morning. On Friday we woke up and immediately returned to the Hofbrauhus to pregame before the big event (not really needed but more of a social gathering).  We hung with friends for the afternoon while I consumed another Radler.  Later we made it to Spring Fest and we visited to the two main beer halls/tents. Spring Fest was a huge carnival that had games, rides, and tons of food.  The fest also had two main beer tents which was an entirely different world inside compared to the outside atmosphere of the carnival.  The minute you stepped into the beer tent, it was packed with people, beer, and pretzels.  Each tent had a different feel to it. You could eat, drink and socialize in the tent.  There was always music playing or performers to entertain. We hung at the fest until night and then returned all day on Saturday.  Tons of our friends came to Spring fest from other study abroad programs. It was fun to catch up with everyone and hang all together. Sunday we toured around Munich and took a hop on hop off bus in the morning.  In the afternoon we returned once again to the Hofbrauhus to enjoy one last meal! Later we traveled to the airport and returned to Florence late at night.

Ciao!