Monday May 18th, 2:13pm - On the train back to Freiburg
I made my arrangements to visit William Kabel in Vienna a good while ago. There was no class on Thursday May 14th due to a national religious holiday in Germany. I took the opportunity to go see more of Germany and Austria.
I left Freiburg on Wednesday the 13th. I had intended to go to class that day, but they do not keep track of attendance and that class focused mainly on a single historical figure. Easy enough to research on my own time rather than sit through a lecture I could hardly follow while being stressed about getting my things in order before leaving.
This trip was the first time I used Airbnb. It saved me a good amount of money and I had a really good experience. I booked a room in someone's in Munich. The guy just rents out his old room in his parents apartment, so he wasn't even there. I just stayed with his elderly mom and dad. The pair is originally from Ukraine. I believe Kiev more specifically. They only spoke German and Russia, which was perfect for me. It was easy enough getting there after I got a taxi. They showed me my room and offered me some bread and cheese along with some black tea. I drank my tea and chatted with the mother for a long while in their kitchen. It was a very small place (the kitchen at least), nothing fancy. But it was in a good location and had a nice homey feel to it. They also provided me with some chocolate pastries, an apple, a large bottle of still water and even let me use their U-bahnkarte.
The next morning, Thursday May 14th, I got up decently early and got ready to go into town. It was supposed to rain so my hosts let me borrow their umbrella before I headed out. The stores in town were closed and most of the natives had left on holiday, but it didnt really change my plan.
I headed directly to where I remembered finding the Hofbrauhof and sat down at a table in the first big room, making sure I was in a spot where I could enjoy the aesthetics of the building. After trying to ages to get a waiters attention I was able to order my Mass of traditional dark beer, a pair of Weiss wurst and a pretzel. The first drinking partner that sat down in front of me was an older Austrian man. He was a bit hard to understand, but we had a nice chat. He suggested I go to the Augustiner brewery near the large church and then headed out after only one beer. I ordered my 2nd, but only half a liter this time. An American woman took his place after a short period. She was from New Orleans but lives in Houston now and was visiting Europe by herself. We had a nice long conversation and, seeing as she couldn't speak any German, I helped her order. I talked with her and a little bit to a middle aged German couple from Duesseldorf that had sat down beside us. They were very friendly people as well. The American lady offered to split one of the large beers with me, which I gladly accepted. She had to leave before she could even finish her half, leaving me with the better part of the liter. I then moved on to chatting with a group of full Trachten and Lederhosen wearing Bavarian men. We talked and drank, they complemented my German ability and eventually headed out to their next stop. By this time I had also gotten a huge pretzel from one of the women selling them. I finished up my beer and headed out.
I walked through some of the gardens in Munich. Watched the young folks surf in the river like they always do. My beer started catching up with me and I became very tired. I think I could have just taken a nap on one of the wooden park benches. But I decided to go grab a coffee and some water at a little cafe instead.
My last stop for the day was at the Augustiner brewery that I mentioned earlier. I think the old man was right, the beer there was probably better than what I was drinking before. Along with the lighter beer, I had a Baumfaellerschnitzel topped with an egg and potatoes on the side. I didnt get to talk with anyone there and the smell of cigarettes was rather off putting, making it hard to really enjoy my meal. Nevertheless I made my way home satisfied.
I eventually found my way back to the apartment and relaxed for a while. My hosts seemed to be waiting for me to come out of my room so they could ask me if I wanted any more food and if I would spend some time with them, seeing as I am from a different continent. I had sort of tried to avoid them when I first got back to the apartment as I was still feeling the beer and wasn't sure I could hold a coherent conversation in German without a little time to recover. Since they had given me so much more than they needed to, and because I liked them so much, I decided to give them the small bottle of Texas style steak seasoning from Joes BBQ. I had originally brought it for William, but I think it was more appropriate that I shared it with some Ukrainians who had never been and might never go to the US. The father proudly showed me his large tub of fresh, non processed, straight from the farmer local honey. I humored them and put a little bit on some of the potato pancakes they had made. We talked about our families and my studies mostly. They offered me some of their night time tea to help me go to sleep since I had to catch my bus at 7am the next morning. We were discussing the best way for me to get to the bus station when the father decided it would just be easier if he drove me there since he had to wake up for work anyway. It was a very nice offer and I gladly accepted.
They prepared me some more bread, cheese and coffee bright and early the next morning. They even packed me a little snack of bananas and apples for my bus ride to Vienna. I really enjoyed my time in Munich and really look forward to more Airbnb experiences. Maybe I will even keep in contact with my former hosts. They kept telling me I should come back.
So it was not Friday May 15th and I was on the bus from Munich to Vienna. It was a pretty cloudy and rainy day, which is good bus riding weather. The landscape was looking more Austrian (which is awesome). William called me just before my bus pulled into the station and explained which U-bahn I needed to take to get to our meeting place in front of the Stephansdom. This was the first time I would be meeting William, but I still picked him out of the crowd very easily. It was very easy to tell right away that he has adopted the Austrian accent and dialect. We stopped by a little cafe and had a small lunch before walking through the city to get to his apartment. He pointed out many a curious thing throughout the city.
It was a very nice walk and his apartment was one of the quaintest I have ever seen. Much better than living in a modern student settlement. We hung out there for a short while then went to buy a rather large amount of beer to drink with his friend Alexander and some other members of his fraternity. Alex, who was incredibly tall and dressed in the same kind of traditional garb as William, was probably not too far off from what I expected from an Austrian Freiherr from a noble family. We rearranged the tables in the basement room of the building where their fraternity is stationed. Again, very quaint. Like the only like was from candles level of quaint. We ate the beef jerkey I brought and continued to pound down beer for several hours. There were only three of us there, so I felt I could keep up with them. And I think I did a pretty darn good job! The whole thing was really pretty perfect. Everyone was dressed nicely, the music was spot on and the conversations were fluid enough. If I was in Vienna rather than Freiburg, my German would have improved much more I think. Overall I am pretty jealous that the American fraternities are really not very much like the German ones. I would have joined in a heart beat.
Both William and I were pretty slow the next day. We got up and tried to force down some breakfast at a little place before heading to the (Schoenberg) palace. After that, we went inside Stephansdom and climbed up to the top of the huge south tower. The view of the city from such a high up and central vantage point was really impressive. Then we went to a really good restaurant for some German food. It was really great food, but my stomach still hadn't recovered from the previous night. I just wish I could have properly enjoyed my first Knoedel. We headed back to Williams place and relaxed for a good while before going to have dinner at a nearby Scottish pub.
We slept in a little longer on Sunday and started off with the same breakfast I had in Munich a few days previously. Next we visited the natural history museum. The exhibits were fine and dandy, but the building itself was probably my favorite part. It was really amazingly beautiful, as are most things in Vienna. After that we went to the Hapsburg Schatzkammer and saw a lot of crowns, crosses, robes, hats, statues and relics. Apparently it was national museum day, so we got a slight discount. Afterwards we stopped by and had coffee and pastries in a famous bakery that used to provide baked goods to the imperial family. Then we went to the traditional holy mass, which is always something worth doing. William showed me a few more buildings around the city and we decided to have some Italian food for dinner.
As of right now I have been on the train since 8:44am this morning and only have about an hour and a half left before I reach Freiburg (its now 4:47pm). It is rather nice having such a long period of time to get work done and do a little bit of writing.
