The Most Magical Place on Earth...

If you'd asked me my feelings about travel eight days ago, they would not have been positive. I spent last Thursday running between two classes, an English instruction session at an elementary school, a conference on African religion and a one-man-show in Montmartre. Throughout the week, I had been rushing to finish a massive final project for my media class (22 pages, 1.5 spacing), prepare a 10-minute oral expose on a Parisian monument, analyze a play for theater, read Charles de Gaulle's 900-page memoirs and write a four page paper on said memoirs. I had finished nearly everything, and was trying to e-mail the four-page paper to my professor, when I discovered that my Internet had stopped working for the first time all year. My computer was telling me that my connection was excellent, but no pages would load, and my host mother wasn't home to help out.

I considered being independent. And then I changed my mind, picked up my American "costs a bajillion dollars a minute to call home" phone and dialed my dad. In hindsight, I probably could have been kinder to his nerves, as a call from that phone generally signals one of two things: (1) Alanna is currently hanging off of the third floor of the Eiffel Tower by one hand or (2) Hello, this is the kidnapper who has taken your daughter. Don't worry, I'm going to kill her, but I figured I'd rack up her cell phone bill just for the hell of it."

After he realized that I was alive and in possession of all my limbs, my dad was able to talk me off the ledge until my Internet spontaneously started working again. After which I e-mailed off my paper, and got no sleep before leaving at 4:20 for the airport.

Needless to say, exhaustion rather than excitement was my primary emotion as I headed off to Munich. But it ended up being a really great weekend. My traveling buddy was Mary, a high school friend currently studying outside of Paris (formerly featured in the Krakow entry). The trip was planned to coincide with the Christmas markets that cover the city starting in late November. I hadn't really been feeling the Christmas spirit in Paris, so it was good to get a dose of it in Germany.

Friday

What's the first thing to do when you get to a new country? Yes, the correct answer is "nap." Judge if you want, but considering that I had gotten about 3 minutes of sleep in the previous week, it was all over once I hit the (exceedingly comfy) beds at our hotel room.

A short time (read: three hours) later, Mary and I were awake enough to head into central Munich and get our first glimpse of the Munich Christmas markets. And oh. my. gosh. It was like Christmas threw up all over that city. I couldn't even handle it. Much of the market was concentrated in Marienplatz, one of Munich's central squares, but every street had at least one stall. And they were selling everything: strings of ornaments, hot spiced gluhwein, candied apples, rows of cookware, piles of toys, lamps, candles, Nativity sets, chocolate. Everything was overlaid with the smell of cinnamon-roasted nuts (if you've ever walked by those vendors at Navy Pier, you know what I'm talking about. I don't even like nuts, and I think they're delicious). If you need more proof, let me give you two examples of how extreme these markets were:

1) The trash can lids were gingerbread houses.
2) This:


See what I mean? These people are not messing around.

Saturday

It's actually a law in Europe that one cannot leave the continent without visiting a minimum of 97 castles. Don't try to defy the Culture Police on this one. Sometimes you can get exemptions for every two hours spent in an art museum, but it's risky to try. I myself have seen many chateaux and palaces on my three trips to Europe, and it's true that many of them start to blend together. But if you are ever in Europe, make Neuschwanstein one of your 97. Seriously. Do it.

If you aren't convinced, here are several more reasons:

1) Walt Disney based the Sleeping Beauty Castle on it. So every time you watch a Disney movie, you are seeing an animated Neuschwanstein.
2) It was built by Ludwig II, aka the "Mad King of Bavaria," who was either crazy or eccentric depending on your interpretation. He was deposed by his administration and died under very mysterious circumstances. Spooky...
3) It has the most beautiful setting of any castle I've seen. It's set right in the middle of the Alps, which had gotten a fresh layer of snow the day we visited. As beautiful as man-made things can be (and I've seen a lot of them this year), for me nothing beats natural beauty. And as great as the castle itself is, it's the setting that's really stunning.



Sunday

Sunday, we were back in Munich for the day. Serendipitously, all of the state museums in the city were 1 euro. Anything costing 1 euro or less is obligatory for college students living in Europe, so we headed over to the modern art museum. I've always had a tortured relationship with modern art. It's a complaint I've heard from numerous people: Some of it I love; some of it looks like a moderately intelligent chimpanzee could have created it. But this museum had a lot of really beautiful paintings, as well as exhibits on architecture and technology.

After that, it was back to the markets for more Christmas cheer. I cannot stress to you how obsessed I was with these markets. Maybe after a few more days they would have gotten cliche or dull. But despite the tourists, there seemed to be a lot of regular people out enjoying themselves, eating, ice skating and generally getting into the Christmas spirit.



We also fit in a trip to the Hofbrauhaus, where we became the first patrons in its history not to order beer. The waiter literally laughed at us when we asked for water. But the food was pretty good.

Monday

Our flight back to Paris was scheduled to leave at 6:25 Monday morning, meaning a 4:00 wake-up call. Now I have flown with various carriers--namely the infamous Ryanair--that barely qualify as airlines. And considering that I had a massive media project to turn in that very evening (a project that my professor told us could not be turned in via proxy, e-mail, mailbox, etc.), I was relieved to be flying the reputable Lufthansa, paragon of German efficiency. So you can imagine my dismay when I went to one of the self-check-in stations and saw a message to the effect of: "Your flight has been canceled. Please see one of our agents for more agents." That's right. Our flight had been CANCELED, and no one could tell us why. After one rebooking, two gate changes and a 45-minute delay due to rioting in Athens we managed to make it back to Paris by noon, but it was a pretty exhausting morning. Germany efficiency my behind.

Despite that snafu--and my initial lack of enthusiasm--it really was the perfect weekend. Our schedule was pretty empty compared to some of my past trips. But I didn't need a rushed, busy weekend. I needed a relaxing, low-key weekend, and that was exactly what I got. We didn't see as many sights, but we did take the time to soak up some German culture, and I returned to Paris with a lot more Christmas spirit.