Sachrang, Germany & Kufstein, Austria

EPISODE III: OMA'S
On Monday evening, Joe's friend Drew came back to Munich to pick us up and we drove out of Munich about an hour to his grandmother (Oma's) house in a little town called Sachrang. There, we met Oma and she made us a drink of beer and lemonade (really more like Sprite). She said that it was a drink that Germans would enjoy after exercising since it was refreshing and well, it was beer. After that, we hit the hay.

The next morning, we woke up to this:


It snowed! Katie was pretty excited cause she hadn't seen snow for probably two years. It had snowed all night and then it didn't stop the entire day. After breakfast, Joe and Drew shoveled the entire driveway. We had a pretty relaxing Tuesday in Sachrang and Drew drove us around a bit to a neighboring town called Aschau. We got some really good gelato in Aschau. Leave it to the Americans to get ice cream when it's snowing outside. Drew also took us across the border into Kufstein, Austria (only about 10 minutes from Sachrang) and we bought train tickets to Florence that left at midnight.

We had a late lunch of different meat and cheese with bread. It was really good. The Germans know where it's at. Then Oma made us a really good dinner that night of meat and dumplings. It was delicious and filling. After dinner, it was snowing so much, that Drew drove us back to Kufstein to wait for the train there before the snow got too deep to drive. But before we could get out of the driveway, we had to shovel again. So much snow...

Meier kids outside Oma's house; Sachrang, Germany

EPISODE IV: THE BOLERO OF KUFSTEIN
So there we were. In Kufstein, Austria at some bar called The Bolero across the street from the bahnhof (train station) for a good three or four hours waiting for our night train to Florence. We had to endure a terrible jukebox of the same songs playing over and over included multiple songs from the musical Grease, "I've Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing, and "Scheisse, Scheisse, Baby" — a German version of Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice, Baby."

Me, having the time of my life in The Bolero; Kufstein, Austria

Joe enjoying those summer nights at The Bolero; Kufstein, Austria

Those few hours in Kufstein sure racked up quite a tab (around €30). Then we walked back to the bahnhof around 11:00pm I think to make sure we didn't miss the train to Florence. Killing some time, I walked down the road a bit to take pictures of the castle in Kufstein. It was pretty cool at night.

Kufstein Castle, Austria

And thus, we boarded the train for Florence. The train ride is its own story in itself, so we'll save that for the next installment of the Meier Sibling Axis of Evil Tour. Until then,

Dachau, Munich

Morning accidentally came too early and we fumbled out of my apartment and took a taxi up to the airport to fly out to Munich. I walk on the plane and it was rockin' like there was turbulence, except we were still at the gate. It wasn't a huge deal except that I didn't know it it was the plane or me that was wobbly. I fell asleep before we took off and didn't wake up until we landed in Munich. I'm pretty sure everyone on that flight was hungover. But it was good to finally be in Munich.

Matt Meier or Ted Kaczynski?

EPISODE I: EXTREME DORITOS
We took a train into the city and met Joe's friend Drew and he hung out with us that afternoon. The four of us decided to take the train to Dachau Concentration Camp. So, we're waiting in the Hauptbahnhof Central Station waiting for the next train to Dachau and Joe decides to find a bathroom. He leaves and we're waiting and waiting. And the train is coming. And he's still gone. And we're still waiting. And the train came. And just as it's about to pull away, Joe shows up. But it was too late. The train left us in Munich. Best part is — Joe never found a bathroom.

So, we had twenty minutes to kill before the next train showed up. We decided to make some sandwiches right there in the dirty subway stop. But there were no places to sit where we were, but there were plenty of seats across the tracks on the other side of the platform. Of course, there was no way to get to them. Unless you're Meiers. When the next train showed up we got on, walked through, and out on the other side. We sat down, made our lunch (complete with Extreme Doritos!) while all the German people standing on the other side looked at us like we were the stupidest Americans they'd ever seen.

As the Dachau train was approaching, Joe decides to take a picture of Katie, Drew and I. I was a little edgy that he'd make us miss that train too. (Hence my concern).
But we made it on the train and to Dachau. We explored the concentration camp for a few hours. It was really cool. I don't know what else to say about it, so I'll just post some photos to say it for me.

Front Entrance to Dachau

Hallway in the Barracks

Original Crematorium

After Dachau, we just went back to our hostel (The Wombat — Probably the best hostel in the world) and had dinner and our free "welcome" beer in the "WomBar." Katie and Joe played pool and hung out there all night and I was so exhausted that I went up to bed. Which leads to...

EPISODE II: THE AUSSIES
After I went to bed, Katie and Joe started playing pool with Ceara and Tiernan, another brother/sister duo from Australia who lived in London. They were there with their friend Nick and another guy from New Zealand that randomly joined up with them named Mark. (Or Spikey Mikey, or Sparky Marky, or any combination of the previous). The six of them hung out that night in the WomBar and made plans to meet for breakfast and hang out during the day (Monday).

After breakfast, all seven of us walked to Marienplatz to see the Rathaus-Glockenspiel go off. It's a huge clock in the platz that has little people that move around like a giant cuckoo clock, I suppose. It was pretty cool cause it was built in 1908.

We left Marienplatz to see the Jagd-und Fischereimuseum (Hunting & Fishing Taxidermy Museum) for some reason. It was completely random, but apparently this was all planned out the night before over Jäger shots.

After the museum, we wandered to the Viktualienmarkt. And man, oh man. Ceara bought some salami sticks that were so good. And Katie bought a brick of cheese and Tiernan cut it with a giant display knife that was outside the cheese shop. We walked around the outdoor market and we all bought food—bread, sliced meat, Turkish spread stuff; found a picnic table and had a little lunchtime snack with our Aussie friends. It was really cool to hang out and share everything.

We had our good German food and now it was time for good German beer. The Aussies took us to the Hofbräuhaus for one liter steins of beer. I had a giant pretzel with my stein and we invented a game of flipping coasters onto the tops of our steins. I got 18 on my stein. I won.

Tiernan, Ceara, Joe, Katie, Matt
Mark, Nick at the Hofbräuhaus, Munich

After one or two beers, we rushed out because Ceara, Tiernan and Nick had to catch their flight, but even still, Ceara was insistant on Jäger bombs for everyone. So we hurried back to the Wombat so they could get their luggage and over to the Hauptbahnhof (train station). We found a bar there, but they didn't have any Jäger. So Sparkey Marky bought us all a shot of Bailey's, Kahlua & Rum. We made Ceara play us a quick song on her guitar — and then they were off back to London and Mark was off wherever the wind blew him.

We were back to three.

St. Patrick's Festival!

Sorry for such a delay. A week with the Meier siblings is not an easy recovery.

Joe flew in on the 16th and us three got to bum around the city a little bit, hit a pub or two, but eventually the jet-lag got the best of Joe and we got an early night.

Meier kids at the Palace Bar; Dublin, Ireland

Good thing too. Saturday morning, we all woke up, made breakfast and headed into town for the parade. Despite giant green hats in my face, I got a pretty good view of the parade as I schooched my way to the front of the crowd. The parade was very colorful and theatrical. It was really fun to watch. A lot better than all the parades in Great Falls! (Sorry the pictures are so small. If you click them though, they'll get bigger. A lot bigger.)

Giant Puppet in the Parade

A flock of flying nuns!

Flags

Not sure what a fish has to do with St. Patrick, but I'll take it.

Giant, looming eyes...

No St. Patrick's Day is complete without a Drag Queen singing "I Need Hero!"
This colorful woman couldn't fit through a door.

Brother was in the back...

Boats and giant Dutch people?

Yes, the Irish are this white.

This puppet guy was really cool.Cool horse ... things.

After the parade, we wandered to a Burger King for lunch and then ended up in the middle of a céilí (Irish Street Dance). There was a live band and hundreds of young people in the street just dancin' up a storm. It was a lot of fun. We danced at the céilí until it was over and ended up walking back to UCD, pub-hopping the way home. We ended up at a pub called Kiely's in Donnybrook for most of the night. It was great craic as the Irish say.

Meier kids, St. Patrick's Day at Kiely's; Dublin, Ireland

That's about all for St. Patrick's Day. We got home pretty late and had a rather early morning leaving the country. But that's another blog for another day when I don't have an essay I should be writing.

Until then,
Matt